Then a crisis comes into my life. I find I am not the person I thought I was. The world is not quite what I thought it was. Those rules and dogmas begin to be seen with a different light of my own experience in the crisis. Peter had this. The first pope knew who Jesus was, the Christ, the Son of God. Peter would go anywhere and give his life for Jesus. Then came the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Peter proved to be a coward, a liar and a betrayer. The crisis is in finding out who you really are in a most difficult time. Peter fell apart, along with his plans for how Jesus was going to do things.
The second coming for Peter was the Resurrection. Jesus brought forgiveness and a new trust in Peter. Now Peter will be in a much deeper love with Christ, transforming union, and he will give his time, effort and life for Jesus in ways he never would have before the crisis.
Most of us never experience resurrection as anything more than a dogma. Dogma from a catechism does not change ones life in any deep transforming fashion. When crisis comes, loss of loved one, betrayal, unemployment, moving to a new place because we have to, not fitting in, loss of community, addiction, and the list goes on, we most often just give up the God relationship. God the good parent did not fix things for us.
But some of us will struggle and recover from the crisis. We will be scarred, maybe deeply, but wiser about ourselves and maybe even come to see God as Love. Now the dogma will take on a whole new meaning, as we discover the deepening meaning of who we are. We are a new creation.
No comments:
Post a Comment