Rohr & Gibran
Maybe because to me he seems less dogmatically absolute than observably realistic, engaging Reason, human intellect, discussion and back & forth instead of obediently Fall In and Forward March to the tune and beat of a bunch of contentious old men, much of what Fr Rohr says appeals to my own Christian theology. The writings, meditations, of Richard Rohr, Franciscan. Judging by him, if Roman Catholic, I might have been a Franciscan but only that. Entitled "Christ is Risen", here's his piece from yesterday:
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I am making the whole of creation new. . . . It will come true. . . . It is already done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. —Revelation 21:5-6
Who is speaking here at the very end of the Bible? Is this Jesus of Nazareth or Someone Else? Whoever is talking is offering an entire and optimistic arc to all of history. This is much more than a mere “religious” message; it is also a historical and cosmic one. It declares a definite trajectory where there is a coherence between the beginning and the ending of all things. It offers humanity hope and vision. History appears to have a direction and a purpose; it is not just a series of isolated events.
This is the Universal Christ speaking. Jesus of Nazareth, the humble carpenter, did not talk this way. It was Christ who “rose from the dead.” Resurrection is hardly a leap of faith once you realize that the Christ never died—or can die—because the Christ is the eternal mystery of matter and Spirit as one. Jesus willingly died—and Christ arose—yes, still Jesus, but now including and revealing everything else in its full purpose and glory. (Read Colossians 1:15-20 so you know this is not just my idea.)
When these verses in Revelation were written, sixty to seventy years had passed since Jesus’ human body “ascended into heaven.” The author is describing a fully available presence that defines, liberates, and sets a goal and direction for life. Largely following Paul, who wrote in the 50s CE, Revelation calls this seemingly new and available presence a mystery, “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36) more than just “Jesus.”
The Risen Jesus is the divine presence beyond any confines of space and time. The Eternal Christ appeared in a personal form that humans came to know and love as “Jesus.” The Resurrection is not so much a miracle as it is an apparition of what has always been true and will always be true.
Such divine presence had always been there, as we know from the experiences of “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Luke 20:37-38). But through Jesus, this eternal presence had a precise, concrete, and personal referent. In Jesus Christ, vague belief and spiritual intuition became specific—with a “face” that we could “see, hear, and touch” (1 John 1:1).
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Why? because dead is dead and I've never been quite where my seminary New Testament professor was when I heard him admit in class that day, responding to a student's question about Jesus' miracles in the gospels, that, regarding miracles, specifically the Resurrection, that he, the professor, was "the ultimate skeptic", but that he had decided that he could accept that God had This One Time Only made an exception to everything about creation and had raised Jesus from the dead.
A "leap of faith notwithstanding", what he said has been with me all these years, from, without elaborating, first hearing him from one side of faith, to - - as I've aged but not necessarily matured in so many ways over my years since Sunday School as a child, through my long sophomore years as a wise fool, back mentally into children's Sunday School, to my seminary years and parish ministry and years studying and mentoring EfM, to my years in retirement and renewed and ongoing study and contemplation - - evolved to remembering and hearing him, that kind and gentle NT professor, from another side of faith altogether.
As I say, without elaborating, because I do not wish to do. And now Richard Rohr makes sense to me with an essay that offers faith possibilities for discussion, at least within myself. Buying into Word, the Logos of John's gospel, even though I've looked out at observable reality through a telescope, and from almost lifelong fascination with what's out there that neither the JE-writer and P-writer nor Arius, Athanasius and the Nicene Fathers ever imagined - - I can, perhaps with my NT professor, visualize the Logos become flesh in Jesus, crucified and "We remember his death" but as Rohr has it, although along with the Gospel of Peter* he may have one foot in heresy when he separates The Two Natures of the Second Person and says "the Christ never died", that the One he calls the Universal Christ can/could/did in faith Rise ("We proclaim his resurrection") and Return reportedly appearing as the same Jesus of Nazareth, in faith because "Jesus loves me, this I know" as my seminary theology professor would have it; though I "know" almost nothing save what through the telescope I observe. Rohr and his Franciscan theology as he expresses it help me be better friends with the Nicene Creed. Schleiermacher, who said the Nicene Creed makes assertions that are beyond human knowing, notwithstanding. This muse is for myself alone, and now I'll have to go back and read it and see if it makes sense to me, or if words have to be changed and commas moved around. Often doubting myownself, I do recall a bishop's Canon to the Ordinary once saying, "There are two priests in the diocese whom I do not understand: Jack Wilhite and Tom Weller." Fr Jack, who helped me so lovingly that evening in 1993 when my father slipped away from life into death.
But I will share the Poem-a-Day for yesterday. It's by Kahill Gibran, whom one or two couples' weddings I've officiated over the years have chosen to be read in place of one of the usual Scripture. As I liked Fr Richard's meditation, I like this poem; which, again as other things do, reminds me of Father John Claypool writing after his daughter's death, of a friend's helpfully suggesting to Fr John that for every loss there is a gain, and sometimes in order to bear life itself, we need to be open to that
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* http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gospelpeter.html
and http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/gospelpeter-brown.html