What is Atonement?

How do you as a Christian understand atonement? 

A popular dictionary designed specifically for juveniles defines Atonement as The act of healing the broken relationship between God and human beings.  Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we have been made one with God.

According to ‘A Course in Miracles’ The idea of Atonement rests on the notion that there has been a rupture between us and God. We see the evidence of this all around us. We live in the world of the rupture, where every creature walks alone, feeling split off from the Whole, cut off from holiness and goodness, severed from the Source of life and power. Every creature has to scratch out a living with tooth and claw and brain, rather than merely rest in the boundless lap of its Creator. We may not know when this rupture happened, but our entire experience of life tells us that we are living in its after effects; we are riding its shock waves. Where is God? How do we reunite with Him? Every religion, spiritual path, healing modality, and self-help system is trying to answer this question in one form or another. Even every product hawked on TV is trying to answer it. Don't they all promise us that we will feel whole and loved, and that we will belong? In other words, don't they all promise us "Atonement"?

Some adult Christians, today have adopted the more conventional or traditional definition which suggests that Atonement is achieved by paying for our sins; by Jesus paying on the cross for the sin of our break with God.

We may no longer believe, or may have never believed, that Jesus died for our sins. But we probably still retain, at least unconsciously, the underlying belief that reconciling with God means paying for our sinfulness. This hidden belief causes us to view the spiritual life as a series of sacrifices through which we try to make it up to God. In this light, all of our spiritual study, our lengthy meditations, our daily good thoughts and good deeds, add up to a single, massive attempt to atone. Through it all, something deep within us is trying to say to God, "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me." On an even deeper level, this is why we dream into our lives disasters, disease, aging, and death. We hope that if we punish ourselves enough. God will take us back.

This is why the Franciscan definition of Atonement should be such a profound relief. Yes, there did seem to be some kind of rift between you and God. And yes, the cause of that rift needs to be wiped away in order for reconciliation to occur. But—and here is the relief—the wiping away occurs through realizing that your split with God was never real in the first place. Nothing ever happened to your relationship with God. The only split that occurred was between your image of yourself and your image of God. This means that the split occurred only in your mind, not in God's. The real you and the real God have remained completely at peace and at one since the very beginning. What amazing news! The rupture never occurred. The world of the rupture is no more than a bad dream. There is nothing to pay for, no need for sacrifice. And therefore, all of your study, practice, meditation, prayer, good thoughts, and good deeds can be aimed, not at making it up to God, but at undoing your deep-seated delusion that there is something to make up for.

This is how l understand the Franciscan way of atonement. It strongly suggests that we need to take personal responsibility, towards all others and ourselves for our deeds, actions and words? As Anthony de Mello, S.J. would say 'God won't do for you, what you can do for yourself'.  In this way we may finally come to understand the true meaning of At-Onement! 

Update: February 05/2014

 Fr. Richard Rohr recently (January 21, 2014) posted the following wonderful reflection on the  of subject Oneing on his Daily Meditation e-mails as follows:

 The divisions, dichotomies, and dualisms of the world can only be overcome by a unitive consciousness at every level: personal, relational, social, political, cultural, in interreligious dialogue, and spirituality in general. This is the unique and central job of healthy religion (re-ligio = to re-ligament!). A transformed person unites all within himself or herself, so they can then do the same in the outer world. My favorite Christian mystic, Lady Julian of Norwich (1342-1416), used the Old English term “oneing” to describe what happens between God and the soul. As Julian put it, “By myself I am nothing at all, but in general, I am in the oneing of love. For it is in this oneing that the life of all people exists” (Showings, 9). She also says, “The love of God creates in us such a oneing that when it is truly seen, no person can separate themselves from another person” (65), and “In the sight of God all humans are oned, and one person is all people and all people are one person” (51).  This is the perennial tradition. Our job is not to discover it, but only to retrieve what has been discovered—and enjoyed—again and again, in the mystics and saints of all religions. As Jesus put it in his great final prayer: “I pray that all may be one” (John 17:21).

If you wish to receive your Daily Meditations fromFr. Richard Rohr you can do so here.

On Repairing the World

In yesterday’s blog I spoke about the overwhelming influence of the Ego in our everyday life and how its negative effects bring so much pain and suffering into the world. That being so, I recall asking a therapist once “why can’t we then just kill the ego?” His immediate response was simply this “would you kill your own brother?” Thankfully there is a more compassionate solution to the problem. In Christian circles it is better known as Atonement and for our Hebrew brothers and sisters it is called Tikkun (meaning: to repair the world).

It is interesting to note that both of these religious terms basically mean the same thing. For example, each time we surrender to our reactive behaviour and fail to take responsibility for our negative behaviour we need to make a correction. When we are prepared to make a correction, with the Creator’s input, we are accessing ‘atonement’ or ‘tikkun’. Since our predilection for negative behaviour will probably remain with us until we die; this healing option (thank God) will be always be available to us throughout our lifetime.

But now here is more good news. Our negative behaviour or garbage can actually become a stepping stone for discovering our True Self. It is the True Self that will set us free from our addictions, pain and suffering and allow us to live a life lived to the full and thereby learning to repair the world! All it requires is for us to become more aware of the role the Ego plays in our lives. To overcome the Ego we simply need to learn to control our selfish tendencies and share our blessings whatever they are. All it takes is 'awareness, awareness, and more awareness' as my favourite mystic Fr. Anthony de Mello, used to say.

It may surprise some readers that another name for the Ego is Satan, the Adversary or whatever other name you may have for the devil. Don’t be afraid of that awful rascal but rather learn how to deal with him/her and unmask it. In addition to the book I recommended yesterday ‘The Monster Is Real’ you might want to order ‘Satan: An Autobiography’ again by the same author- Yehuda Berg. It is readily available on line and will complete surprise you regarding Satan’s role in your life. Here’s a little hint based on the description on the back dust cover:

Do you know me? I am the adversary, and this is my story. I am that little voice within you that makes you doubt, including my existence. I am depression, anger, jealousy, worry, fear, false pride, and selfish behaviour. I thrive on neediness and disappointment, negativity and cynicism. But here’s a secret I’m revealing for the very first time: No matter how low I have caused you to go, you have the power to turn it around.


Other wonderful examples of atonement or Tikkun, are 'the Secrets' (2008) film by Ari Nesher, a Jewish perspective, and 'Groundhog Day' (1993) starring Bill Murray from the Christian point of view.

Still some religions today teach that to combat sin punishment is the best form of ‘correction’. This cannot be from God. In fact any religion that promotes punishment is a religion that has failed! In the words of a wise teacher “God does not punish, command, reward or make demands – God is only love!”

Credits: the incredible image shown above was created by Rabbi Billy Dreskin in honour of his son Jonah, becoming a Bar Mitzvah. You can visit his website at http://www.dreskin.us/html/jewish_resources.html