The Universal Christ

anymore; we begin to chew on it. Jesus did not say, “Think about this” or “Stare at this” or even “Worship this.” Instead he sai ...

Eucharist is the Incarnation of Christ taken to its final shape and end—the very elements of the earth itself. It is all one con ...

12 Why Did Jesus Die? Our predestination to glory is prior by nature to any notion of sin. —John Duns Scotus, OFM Thirty-five ye ...

as long-standing dogma. The early church never heard of this; at best they had some idea of “ransom” from the many biblical meta ...

most ancient religions. Instead of having God “eat” humans, animals, or crops, which are sacrificed on an altar, Christianity ma ...

The History of a Theory It only makes sense that early Christians would look for a logical and deeply meaningful explanation for ...

a full “law and order” culture, which most have till very recently, it made perfect sense. The Franciscans, however, led by John ...

ending up required primarily of Jesus and later the underclass, is just not glorious enough for, hopeful enough for, or even bef ...

A Collision of Cross-Purposes With that for context, let me now offer you what I think is the first and most helpful meaning of ...

The Divine Mind transforms all human suffering by identifying completely with the human predicament and standing in full solidar ...

As some of our saints have said in different ways, Jesus is not loyal to groups, to countries, to battles, to teams. Jesus is lo ...

Scapegoating, and the “Sin of the World” For me, the Hebrew Scripture that most lays the foundation for understanding the death ...

“pro-life.” People on the Right accuse the Left of being “pro-abortion” and “pro- choice,” and thus not “pro-life” at all. By co ...

should create healthy suspicion about how wrong even the highest powers can be. Maybe power still does not want us to see this, ...

We Carry and Love What God Carries and Loves What, then, does it mean to follow Jesus? I believe that we are invited to gaze upo ...

mustard seed that God uses to transform the world. The cross, then, is a very dramatic image of what it takes to be usable for G ...

the “new creation” (Galatians 6:15), and their transformed state is still seeping into history and ever so slowly transforming i ...

A Dialogue with the Crucified God Many years ago, I wrote a meditation that I called “A Dialogue with the Crucified God,” to hel ...

JESUS SPEAKS TO YOU FROM THE CROSS I am what you are most afraid of: your deepest, most wounded, and naked self. I am what you d ...

YOU SPEAK BACK TO THE CRUCIFIED ONE Brother Jesus, you are my life, which I deny. You are my death, which I fear. I embrace them ...