there is a stubborn realism, fleshliness, physicality, unsophisticatedness, foolishness at the core of Christianity that tethers me down to the ordinary hum-drum boring life stuff. It keeps me from ascending to the fullness of the mystical stratosphere. But when I am forced by life to deal with so much ordinary stuff, people, problems etc., I am delighted to find that Christ has—for my sake, for our sake come down from heaven, come down from the stratosphere—to me, to us, in the trenches—and has brought Himself—through which the stratosphere and everything else was made and has spoken to us by offering his flesh and blood to eat and drink.
just look at the cross, but there is joy mingled in because there is Christ mingled in–literally chunks of his flesh and liters of His blood were ripped out in real-time in real world history–from which we have the sacraments–from this word of silence, this dead man on a tree. He has revealed Reality. His incarnation has ruptured ordinary life with the transcendence and the divine…and at the bottom of hell is heaven. I have tasted this. I am living this.
I was able to steal away a couple of minutes to pray part of the rosary this afternoon.
It begins with the Apostles Creed and as background I have been interviewing for jobs coming out of a wilderness period in my life and I’ve been interviewing for several jobs that would be a great fit for me and the first things from the Apostles Creed or the first thing the Apostles Creed says is I believe in God our Father Almighty.
I believe in God my Father Almighty.
That’s how I say it.
It’s not I believe in God the Father Almighty.
That’s like saying I believe in the Golden Gate Bridge or I believe in the Mount Everest.
Those are magnificent things but what relationship do they have to me?
Rather I say I believe in God our Father Almighty, our Father the Church’s Father, the world’s Father, the human race’s Father.
If he’s not made it clear enough that he’s in the trenches with us by his incarnation and death—by us—well if that’s not clear that’s an important thing to get clear on and I’ve written about it a lot and there’s a lot of distortion out there about what the meaning of Christ’s death is and there’s a lot of bullshit.
I would say most of the popular Christianity is superficial bullshit as it relates especially to the meaning of the crucifixion and how it encapsulates demonstrates there’s no real analogy for it there’s no real word for it.
The word of the cross the cross itself Jesus on the cross is a word that speaks to us the love of God and that’s the entire meditation.
But I wanted to say particularly an observation that I made I used to think that the Apostles Creed kind of skipped over most of Jesus’ life.
It says I believe in God my Father Almighty creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate so it seemed to go right from his birth to right before he died where he is encountering Pontius Pilate in the passion narrative.
But it occurred to me that actually his whole life was suffering under Pontius Pilate.
I’ve made a meditation before about how suffered under Pontius Pilate can be seen as an aspect of the human condition.
We’re all suffering under those lost souls who think that power and riches and money and other related things can make them whole and happy but they can’t.
So in some sense Jesus was suffering under Pontius Pilate his entire life and so as he went about his ministry he was suffering under Pontius Pilate and that ultimately culminated in where it says was crucified, died and was buried and descended into hell.
And then there’s some part about the resurrection but I don’t like to jump to the resurrection because I’m not being resurrected right now I’m being crucified right now and I guess I could come up with some kind of clever turn of phrase to say I’m also being resurrected right now and that’s arguable but I’m being crucified right now.
You’re being crucified right now.
We all are being crucified right now.
We’re all suffering under Pontius Pilate right now.
Pontius Pilate is a symbol but given the incarnational nature of Christianity Pontius Pilate was an actual human.
He represents/is an actual person, a historical figure doing actual things to an actual savior.
Christianity is not an abstract concept.
It is a series of flesh and blood historical events.
I’m not talking about proof texting and trying to make every verse line up with every other verse that’s a fool’s errand.
The point is that Christ entered the human condition and drank the bitter cup to the very dregs and that is a suffering under Pontius Pilate.
But that involves worldly concerns.
The first thing that I thought about or rather the first thing that I encountered when I started praying the rosary today and I just got the apostles creed when I said I believe in God my Father Almighty, our Father Almighty, it immediately put me back into perspective because I had been in the weeds preparing for a job, getting excited about a job or a potential job and that’s great because I’ve been unemployed.
But just like another meditation this morning, Jesus has to be first and not because Jesus is an egomaniac dick but because Jesus is medicine, He’s truth, He’s healing.
He came to heal us and if we don’t heal us we’re going to suffer under Pontius Pilate with no joy comingled and we’re going to die under Pontius Pilate.
Well I think you get the idea, I have to go do some stuff with the kids but I believe in God and my Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.
That puts things in perspective.
That helps us focus on what really matters.
That helps us focus on the long game and we can talk about suffering under Pontius Pilate and not being surprised by that and seeing Jesus’ passion as a way to co-crucify with Christ, to attach our sufferings to Christ and to be co-crucified and co-resurrected with Him.
Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche (an organization for people with disabilities), engaged in abusive practices related to the doctrines of his spiritual mentor, Thomas Philippe. An investigation concluded in February 2020 revealed Vanier’s adherence to Philippe’s teachings and related abusive behaviors, including psychological control and sexual abuse. This led L’Arche to establish a Study Commission in November 2020 to examine Vanier’s life, the organization’s founding history, and institutional dynamics. The Commission’s 900+ page report, published in January 2023, confirmed these findings.
https://www.larche.org/about-larche/news/study-commission-2023
“For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Matthew 7:14 RSV
Boyd Camak 