Autor: Walsh, David

Buch: The Third Millenium

Titel: The Third Millenium

Stichwort: Christus - Ende des Mythos; Partizipation des Menschen am göttlichen Sein

Kurzinhalt: The meaning of the opening of transcendent Being is identical with the action of Christ; Our participation in divine Being is, at the same time, the participation of the divine in human being

Textausschnitt: 136a In Christ, the transparence of this world for its constitution from Beyond is actualized. In him we behold the movement we apprehend within. As a result, we not only have the limiting differentiation of the movement toward order as immediately experienced, but we also receive the definitive symbolization of the mystery of the whole within which the drama unfolds. Previously, the philosopher's and other forms of myth were required to extrapolate the order of the whole; now it is encountered in the immediacy of a personal narrative. Moments that are distended in the other symbolizations of order are here brought into conjunction. Instead of distinguishing between the immediate disclosure of the Beyond within the soul and the mediated experience of order within the cosmos from the Beginning, we now have them joined together in the personal encounter with Jesus, who is the redemptive word.1 The uniqueness of the revelation of Christ is not only the limiting manifestation of transcendent Being; he is also the particular vehicle through which the transcendent can become manifest. Transcendent reality can disclose no more than its fullness manifesting itself, the variability of mythic possibilities has also shrunk to the unrepeatable particularity of the man who is God. Just as no more revelation is possible, so no more extrapolative elaborations are possible. In the incarnate divine fullness, revelation and myth converge. The meaning of the opening of transcendent Being is identical with the action of Christ. (Fs) (notabene)

137a The relationship is reciprocal. We understand the experienced gift of transcendent Being through the encounter with Christ and vice versa. For this reason, the experience is interpreted in the same terms as the process of the whole. Just as we are redeemed through the touch of divine Being, so the action and passion of Christ is the redemption of the cosmos. Our participation in divine Being is, at the same time, the participation of the divine in human being. All of the movement of human openness to the divine pull throughout history culminates in this unique epiphany of the fullness of divine reality in human nature. In the unrepeatable uniqueness of Christ, the meaning of the mystery of the whole is disclosed. Our responsive opening toward the revelatory pull of the Beyond is always recognized as our participation in the wider drama of the divine redemption of order from disorder. Now it is recognized as the unique event of God's participation in the human drama by which that redemption is effected. Christ illuminates not only the drama of grace and freedom, but the ultimate victory over evil within the cosmos itself. Through Christ, we enter into the redemptive movement, and it is in him that redemption takes effect. Man's participation in the divine suffering of evil in existence is recognized for what it ultimately is: God's participation in the human suffering of evil by which the redemption is achieved. (Fs) (notabene)

137b The experience of the transcendent formation of order is irresistible. God's knowledge and his will are one. It is enough to be brushed by the divine spirit of creation to know the force of that inexorable reality. Nothing is more certain, yet nothing is more invisible from our perspective. The conflict between the two harrowed the Hebrew prophets and, in a parallel sense, tortured the classic philosophers. How was the truth of transcendent Being to become incarnate in a mundane reality that seemed incapable of its reception? How could the people of Israel become the people of God, or the people of Athens fulfill the nature of the polis? Neither side could be denied. The conflict was inexorable and irresolvable, without abolishing the conditions of existence as we know them. Only the advent of Christ effects the reconciliation. Finite reality becomes wholly subordinate to the divine will in the man provided by God himself because he is identical with God. As such, his actions carry representative significance. The answer to the struggle of millennia is disclosed. Both prophets and philosophers grope toward its outlines, but it is only in Christ that its radiance can be apprehended. Not only is he the illuminative center of divine order within history, he is also its effective point of redemption. The mystery of redemptive suffering stands revealed as the central truth of the whole in which we participate. Transfiguration in the image of the revelation of Being is no longer an aspiration or a frustration. It is the mystery of the transfigurative process already underway within history. (Fs) (notabene)

138a The extrapolation of the theophanic experience is complete. Atonement for the fall into evil has been made when it is accomplished by the self-abnegation of God himself. Only in this way can the sin of revolt against infinite goodness be recompensed. The experiential confrontation with the abyss of sin would make this realization clear, but it is only in the revelation of Christ that it can emerge in its full stature. He is the culmination of the interior movement and the exterior narrative of revelation and myth. They converge in the recognition of Christ as the one from whom both the experiential grace of redemption and its eschatological victory emanates. The mystery of redemption stands revealed. It is nothing less than the revelatory gift of transcendent Being that surrenders itself to finite consciousness utterly without the merit or ability to reach it. In Christ we behold the actualization of this inner drama. He is the divine Being poured out for us as the only adequate means of reconciling our sinful nature with his divine goodness. Why there is a world and a fall and the need for redemption and restoration remain questions beyond the range of penetration. But the most central illumination has been assured to us. We know the presence of transcendent Love as the abiding reality because we behold what we glimpse inwardly. God so loved the world that he gave up his own Son so that we might be saved. From this radiant center, a transcendent order of love is created within history. (Fs) (notabene)

139b We cannot cling to the risen Lord, as Mary Magdalene sought to do in the garden (John 20:11-18). Even if we attempted to do so, we would find ourselves holding only to the wrappings, a consolation about as reassuring as the endless quest for scientific confirmation of the historical Jesus. Transcendent Being cannot be drawn into immanent reality without abolishing the latter. Even after the resurrection of Christ, our only access remains the inner opening of faith. Only with the eyes of faith can we recognize who it is that stands before us or hear the voice by which we are addressed. Even after the resurrection, it is still the opening of transcendent illumination within us that enables us to recognize what we behold; it is not a rival source of luminosity emergent within immanent being. The resurrection of Jesus is the radiance of transcendent Being. The eschatological glimpse it affords is no more than the definitive extrapolation from the strand of revelatory experiences reaching back in human history. Transfiguration is not accomplished for us yet, but we can catch an unmistakable glance of its realization. A limiting clarity is attained as we see the resurrection of the body as the fruit of its total transfiguration by the fullness of transcendent Being. Eschatological completion does not signify the abolition of immanent being. Rather, the resurrected Christ points toward the transfiguration of all finite reality as the vessel of transcendent presence. Just as the unrepeatable presence of Being in Christ augurs the uniqueness of his personal physical presence, so the openness of all beings to the same transcendent reality makes them irreplaceable recipients of the one divine Love. None are dispensable; all are destined for unique transfiguration. (Fs)

140a The luminosity of Christ's resurrection casts its light not only on our movement beyond this world, but also on the significance of earthly existence. Emphasis falls not merely on the liberation from this life; it also raises the value of the material substratum that is moving toward the moment of its subsumption into transcendent glory. Imagery of the world as a tomb or a prison from which escape is regarded as joyful was widespread in the ancient world. However, it generally prevailed in circles dominated by Platonism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and Stoicism. Rarely do we find a Christian hint of denigration of mere earthly existence. On the contrary, this life is more highly valued both as the prelude and preparation for what is to come and as the material whose transformation is assured. No higher value can be attached to finite existence than to regard each individual as a unique irreplaceable vehicle for the radiance of transcendent presence. Nothing can be lost of what the Father has given Jesus because each has been called to enter fully into the divine Love. Each is an unrepeatable refraction of the infinite depth of transcendent Being in finite being. The attachment of that spark of infinity within each one forms a unique being whose whole existence is radiated with the light of the One. Each human being is the whole or the presence of the whole in this finite medium. Everything about him or her is irradiated by the light from the Beyond. Just as it is impossible to conceive of a revelation beyond the fullness of God, so it is equally impossible to move beyond the sanctification of earthly life by this same relationship. (Fs)