One And Done or Work In Progress?

The Resurrection is often seen and interpreted as a ‘one and done’ event. We have all been redeemed by Christ on Calvary. But I think that Redemption is better seen as a ‘work in progress’. That is why we also view our faith story as Salvation History. Yes, God is the god of the perfect, the immutable and the eternal. He is also the God in Process.

His work of creation is not a one and done event. It is still on-going. So Christ’s work of redemption is also not a one and done event. It is still unfolding today. We have been redeemed by Christ’s passion death and resurrection. But also not yet. We have yet to complete the redemption event in the process of our life. God is not omnipotent in the sense of being coercive. The divine power is one of persuasion rather than force.

It seems to me that the first the Resurrection proclaimed in the Gospels is more like a gradual realization of Christ’s continuing presence among them. But did the apostles actually see a Risen Lord? Yes, they did! But they first time they experienced him, they did not recognize him. Over the breaking of the bread they shared, they eventually opened their eyes ( and minds and hearts) to the Risen Lord. Many of his apparitions were over shared meals: dinner in the room where Thomas was absent and again when Thomas was there, then at breakfast by the shores of Lake Tiberias.

We live in an instant and disposable society. We want things to be readily and instantly available to us. So, most of these are in disposable packagings – one and done, like disposable tissues or instant coffee pods. So, we ask that of God. We want our salvation a one and done event. And we want it instantly demanding that God shows us signs and wonders (miracles) to prove it to us. We want our God to do it our way.

Let us instead let God be God. And God works in process. It took the universe billions of years to prepare a place hospitable to human life. And another millions of years for a single cell organism became a human being. That is the great miracle – the gift of life. And life is not a one and done thing. It is a process, an unfolding. It entails all the joys and sorrows, the laughter and the tears, the defeats and the victories and even the humdrum events of  daily life. Then, all of these come together and we see the hand of God in that unfolding.

The more sensitive we are to this Divine unfolding, the more we are enfolded in God’s blessed presence and in his loving embrace.