I just returned from the Easter Vigil at the St Thomas Moore church in Chelsea. During the celebrations of the Resurrection, thinking about the sacrifice made on humankind’s behalf, I was reminded of a discussion I had with Doc last Thursday. We talked of relationships and how one doesn’t count when family and loved ones are involved. We also talked of measurement and how inadequate it is when it comes to capturing things we hold most dear.
Doc then talked of morality as accounting, where good and bad deeds must at least balance or else. A sort of big P&L account in the sky… Sadly, this approach binds us to always look for ‘compensation’ in good and bad and we often discount the effects of generosity, of mercy and forgiveness, which are not about accounting or accountability.
From this it is only a short step to understanding Christ’s death as a deed of such enormity that it outweighs all bad deeds, past and future. It makes any balancing act irrelevant. And that perhaps is the nature of atonement that we are reminded every year at Easter.
