By Bishop Paul Peter Jesep

Jesus brought the holy fire of unconditional love to humankind. His crucifixion and resurrection demonstrated how to be true to one’s Creation as Created in the image of the Creator. Christ’s selfless act showed human beings how to love.  Unfortunately, humankind has been conditioned to focus on sin instead of love.

The life and death of Jesus is often and incorrectly understood in the context of sin. Focus on it can cause the individual to be self-obsessed. That person worries more about personal salvation than about salvation of sisters and brothers in the community. It takes away time and focus from the challenges of loving one’s neighbor. 

In the 2,000 years since Christ’s resurrection, humanity has learned little. War, genocide, social judgment, religious persecution, denominational vanity, and the pettiness of parish politics and the maliciousness of church gossip still distances people from God.  Part of the problem is an unwillingness to understand the world around us. It’s easier to call something sin that is harmful, confusing, and an affront to personal sensibilities rather than understand it from a social, medical, or scientific perspective.

Sin must be redefined. Gluttony, for example, is still considered a sin. Why? Individuals overeat because of anxiety, depression, or metabolism problems. Jesus did not free us from the sin of gluttony. Science has revealed that alcoholism is a disease with tragic consequences. It is not a sin. Women may kill a child due to postpartum depression, not because of demon possession. Of course action must be taken toward persons who harm themselves and for the benefit of others who may be at risk.    

In addition, the casual use of the word sin encourages the demonization of innocent people.  Sin is used as a cruel weapon to persecute individuals and lessen their humanity. Insecure souls project personal short-comings onto others because of the inability to deal with their own emotional problems. Or they criticize sisters and brothers as sinners to further a personal agenda.  An individual who uses sin as a tool against others is not true to his or her Creation.

An absence of love, the casual use of the word sin, and the refusal to allow Holy Sophia to nurture intuitive logic and common sense rationalizes treating those made differently by the Maker of All Good as unloved or unwanted.  Because we don’t like or understand something doesn’t mean God hasn’t Created it.  What God Creates is perfect.

Women at one point were burned at the stake as witches by insecure men. Male doctors were threatened by mid-wives and female herbalists. Exorcisms were once performed on those with mental illness. Today, no one burns female medical professionals. Hopefully, the day will come when women are ordained into the priesthood.  Medicine and science now provide an enlightened society better options.

What is a person’s greatest spiritual and emotional need? The need to be loved and the opportunity to offer it.  There are different kinds of love. Love is romantic. Love is platonic. Love is fraternal.  Love is acceptance.

Love must be universal. No one should be without love. Consciously withholding love from another is an affront to God. Yet individuals do it everyday. A person we deprive of love is one we make spiritually homeless. To love someone who annoys us, offends our sensibilities, or makes us uncomfortable because they challenge us in our comfort zones, requires for us to remember that we are all loved equally by the same God.

An absence of love killed Jesus, not the Jewish people.  Humanity’s inability to be true to its Creation crucified Our Lord. If Jesus had been born and evangelized outside the Middle East his crucifixion would still have occurred.  Jesus was different. Christ was a nonconformist.  That which is unconventional can be perceived as a threat by those wanting to keep power within the status-quo.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, priest, theologian and paleontologist reflected that after humankind masters the winds, waves, and gravity, it might “harness the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.” Put another way, the Second Coming of Jesus is available now if only the children of God love one another as brothers and sisters.

Jesus freed us from something larger than sin.  His resurrection defeated fear, ignorance, and personal insecurities by teaching us how to love.  Christ showed us how to fully participate in the family of God. He revealed through holy fire a powerful truth in being human.  Jesus demonstrated that we are each an instrument of God.  We are born to love.

This Easter reflect on the selfless sacrifice of Jesus, not in terms of personal sin and salvation, but as a way to show, teach, and demonstrate love. Think of Christ’s selfless act as an example of how to be true to one's individual Creation. The Second Coming of Jesus will be fulfilled when brothers and sisters throughout the world focus less on sin and more on sharing the holy fire of universal love.  Love transcends all.