Transcript The Paschal Mystery - Kino Catechetical Institute

Luke 23:26-49
It was now about noon,
and darkness came over
the whole land until about
three in the afternoon,
while the sun’s light failed;
and the curtain of the
temple was torn in two.
Then Jesus, crying with
a loud voice, said,
“Father, into your hands I
commend my spirit.”
Having said this, he
breathed his last.
© The Saint John’s Bible, Used with Permission.
The Paschal Mystery
Christology
Larry Fraher
Christian Worldviews

Influence of Nominalism on Christianity
Today
– William of Ockham – Ockham’s Razor
 If there are a variety of explanations for
something, the most simple is to be preferred.
– Leads to Nominalism (Naming)
 Something is not necessarily good, right or true
unless and until I experience it as such and named
it.
 Faith is not faith until one has experienced it and
named it as their own.
Christian Worldview

Catholicism Stands in Stark Contrast to
Nominalism
– An Objective Reality of Grace that is
Communicated in the Sacraments
 Regardless of How it is Experienced.
– Challenges the View that Grace is not active
until I experience and name it
 Grace is objective, true and universal.
 Just because an individual has not ‘named’ it, does
not invalidate the Grace.

Especially Important Relative to the
Paschal Mystery
Christian Worldview

The Question of Death…
“I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from
Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made…
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.”
Christian Worldview

The Question of Death
– Incarnation: God meets us in OUR HUMANITY
 Death is a human reality, not a Divine one.
 The death of the person Jesus Christ, human and
divine
– NOT modern philosophy’s “Death of God”
 An attempt to render God as non-existent
 God submits to death
– A HUMAN Reality
– Divine Reality is Retained…
Review of Parables and Miracles

Parables
– Stories that turn the current structure and
understanding ‘upside down’
– Revealing the Reality of the Reign of God
– Reality effected in the Telling

Miracles
– Not just ‘nice for the person involved’
– Present to all the universal in-breaking of God’s reign.
 All Humanity is Lazarus, the Man Born Blind, etc.
– Miracles provide a Release for Discipleship.
For Discussion

Did Jesus have to Die?

Did he have to die on the Cross?

How is Death, particularly a violent death
that is ‘capital punishment’, salvific?

Explain.
Why did Jesus Die?

3 Interpretations
– Prophetic Fidelity & Eschatalogical Rejection
– The Upright Must Always Suffer
– Expiation for Sin
Ritual Sacrifice

God is Life
– The Effect of Sin
– Understanding Blood Sacrifice

Jesus is the Ultimate Sacrifice
– Essential to Eucharistic Understanding
– Incarnation

Scriptural Typology
– Bearer and Bringer of Sin
 The nature of “Original” Sin
– The Consequence of Sin
– Bearer and Bringer of Salvation
– Re-Capitulation
“God became human, that humans might become divine!”
-St. Irenaeus
Re-Capitualition

If Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, would we still have
needed Christ?

Humanity is “headed” by Adam/Eve
– Always Creature
– “Hatred of Boundaries”
– Original Sin = To be God

Christ Re-heads or Re-Capitulates Humanity
– Now Faithful
– Even if we never sinned, Christ would have come to give us the
share of the Life of God that God desired for us.
– Humanity is Re-Created in and through Jesus Christ.
“The

th
8
Day of Creation”
Analogy of Creation
– Six days of Activity
– One day of Rest (Sabbath)

Christ as Re-creating…
– Six days of Activity refer to the life and ministry
Christ, culminating in his death.
– Christ is in tomb on “day of rest”
– Resurrection is 8th day – the Eternal Day – of Creation
– Humanity, in fact, all creation, is re-created on this
day!
Roman Jewish Relationship and the
Execution of Jesus of Nazareth

Zero Tolerance Policy
– Barney Fife…

Jerusalem as Religious and Political Center
– Cleansing of the Temple
– Arrival in Jerusalem

Discipleship Challenges the Very Heart of
the Political & Religious World View of the
Time
Roman Jewish Relationship and the
Execution of Jesus of Nazareth

The attack of the “Temple Structure”
– If you go into your parish gift shop and clear
everything out in the name of fidelity to Christ
and the Gospel, what will happen to you?

Perception is Everything
– Nationalism (Zealot)
– Kingly Proclamation
– Large Following (Political Revolution)
Death

In our Human Frame death is the ultimate
uncertainty
– Vulnerability
– No Control

In this Manner, we become Adam and Eve
– You Certainly will not Die…
– Lazarus will die again…
– In the totality of Human Sin, we are all Responsible
(CCC 598)

The Challenge and Confrontation of Death is
Fidelity
Jesus’ Death

Expiation/Intervention

Obedience and Fidelity

Service
Jesus’ Death as Expiation and
Intervention

Parable in Mk 12:1-12
– The vineyard owner is forced to send his son
on his behalf.
– The lack of faithfulness among the tenants of
the vineyard evokes the “paternal
Intervention.”

The Father sends his son as his
representative to the tenants
Jesus’ Death as Obedience

Feast of the Triumph of the Cross
– “He humbled himself and became obedient to
the point of death, death on a Cross!”
(Philippians 2:8)
– He is obedient to his humanity
– Incarnation Necessitates death
 Proclamation necessitates the cross
– Jesus is obedient to both
Jesus’ Death as Service

The Last Supper Stories Portray Jesus’
Loving Service
– Identification of the Bread and Wine with His
Body and Blood is Service
– The Washing of the feet is the implication of
the Eucharist

Jesus goes to the cross in loving service to
all humanity
Christ, Offering Praise to the End
Chapel of Santa Sabina, 6th c.
One of the earliest depictions of the Crucifixion
Notice that Christ is in the “orans” pose.
The Emptiness of Jesus

Jesus “Empties” Himself (kenosis)
– In this emptiness, Jesus becomes the loving, serving and
giving vessel of the Father.
– Our knowledge of the Father
 In this way, it is possible to speak of the Kenosis of God

The Emptiness is and
– Soteriological (saving):
 The Love of God, incarnated in Jesus Christ, brings salvation
– Eschatalogical (bringing the fullness of the end times):
 The old age ends, the new age dawns
The Burial of Christ

Upon his Death, Christ is Buried
– As every human, this constitutes a time when
the soul and body are separated

Descent into Hell
– Christ’s Descent into death allows for the
union of all who have gone prior
 Allows also for the union with all who will die…
 Death becomes the universal meeting point
between God and Humanity.
 All who had died and will die, are able to be saved
Understanding the Resurrection
Stories
“If they found an unopened tomb marked
‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’, and
there were a corpse inside, how would our
faith be affected?”
Understanding the Resurrection
Stories
Mark: Persecuted Church = The Messianic
Secret
 Matthew: Jewish Christian Church = Jesus is
the fullness of God’s Promise
 Luke: Gentile Christian Church = While we are
Gentiles, we understand that Authority is from
the Jews
 John: Apocalyptic Church, Response to
Gnosticism = Jesus Fully Divine, Fully Human

The Resurrection

God Raised or Jesus Rose?
– The Action is God’s Initiative
– Mortal, puts on Immortality

Healing of all that is not Whole (Shalom)
– What are we bound to?
– What makes us not free?
The Resurrection

The Question of ‘Opthe’
– Passive: He was seen – Actor = Disciples
– Passive: He was shown – Actor = God
– Active: He showed himself – Actor = Jesus

Christology must pursue and embrace all
three
– God Reveals in Doxa or Through Doxa =
Glory
– Christology CANNOT accept only #1 and
remain Christian
Perceptions of the Resurrection
1.
Objective and physical reality
2.
Graced knowing: likened to ‘Real
Presence’
3.
A Push through the ‘Wall of Faith’
The Resurrection

Primary Axiom: “Faith does not establish the
Resurrection. The Resurrection establishes
faith.”
– This necessitates a real and physical encounter with
the Risen Christ as other!
– The Risen Christ establishes the Kerygma

The ongoing reality of the Kerygma
present through the Church mediates the
ongoing reality of the Resurrected Christ
in history.
The Resurrection:
Some Conclusions

The Necessity of the Resurrection
– Resurrection IS NOT a simple Psychological
Phenomenon
– Remember the reality that metanoia is the result of
the encounter with the Risen Christ

The Historical Reality of the Paschal
Mystery is Essential to Christian Faith
– The Gospels express this reality in variety, yet a
consistent faith runs through the varied expression.
– The Resurrection of Jesus is Historical Reality!
– We proclaim the Mystery of Faith!
The Transforming Death = New
Life

God’s Action in the Paschal Mystery
– Total and Complete Union of Human and
Divine
 Death of Christ is God’s Unity with Humanity
 Resurrection of Christ is God’s Sharing of Divine
Life with Humanity
– Transformation of the World
 Recreated
 Made Whole (shalom)
 Ushering in of the Messianic Age
The Transforming Death = New
Life
“That does not mean that suffering and
dying lose their actuality for a Christian.
But it does mean that anyone whose life is
in Christ is no longer basically directed
toward what perishes in death.”
-Cardinal Walter Kasper
We Have Seen the Lord!
The Resurrection is the
Establishment of the
Christian Faith.
It becomes the ‘hinge’
upon which the faith and
all Salvation History rest.
©The Saint John’s Bible. “Do Not Hold On to Me”