We shall now deal with the question of faith in the resurrection as something contaminating the purity of a historical fact. As we have mentioned in the previous Posts, "pure facts" are the products of our imagination since all facts are already interpreted ones in some way or other. The reason behind this assertion is that no one can escape from one's own self-understanding that stands as the bulwark for understanding anything else whereby everything is tacitly interpreted under the tutelage of one's self-understanding! Since this well-known and general hermeneutic principle applies to all sciences, there is nothing wrong in interpreting certain historical facts with the aid of the light of faith as it brings out the significance of such facts for the benefit of the general public. Faith is not something that springs out of Reason or historical facts, but is a gift of God freely given to anyone He chooses to. Faith is thus enmeshed into one's self-understanding on the basis of which facts may be legitimately reported as anyone else does with one's own self-understanding without the fear of corrupting the fact reported. God cannot be partial in His gifts and yet there are certain basic dispositions like our attitudes to life that might help or prevent our acceptance of the free gift of God. For example, the guards at the tomb of Jesus were not suitable candidates for accepting any free gift from God as their minds were totally blocked by the power of greed for money. This is in consonance with the advice in the Bhagavad-Gita that the secret gospel of the Gita should never be imparted to someone who lacks penance, nor to the one wanting in devotion, nor even to the one who lends not a willing ear. In addition, in no case should it be imparted to someone who finds fault with the Lord Himself. Besides, the Gita advises that the means not to be contaminated by our actions is not to crave for the fruit of those actions (Bhagavad-Gita, 4-14).
It is clear that there were ways accessible to the human spirit to remain independent and original even under tremendous pressure arising out of intimate experiences like those seen in the resurrection appearances. We have ample references in the Bible about hardening one's heart against the word of God, about the need to keep the jewels and pearls from the swine that might trample upon them and turn against us to tear us apart. On the contrary, the centurion at the cross of Jesus, who was in charge of the execution of crucifixion, declared the crucified to be the Son of God on seeing the manner in which Jesus died on the cross. Similarly, we have the case of the two thieves crucified along with Jesus, where the one on the right had the right attitude to receive God's gifts and the one on the left could not open himself up to anything beyond himself. About the right attitude or disposition, although we don't know anything about the centurion, we have an inkling from the conversations of the two thieves on their crosses. When the one on the left challenged Jesus to do something to save them, the one on the right rebuked him saying that as they had committed crimes they deserved their punishment whereas Jesus was innocent. This shows that even in great suffering he had the habit of distinguishing between the right and the wrong and a sense of justice did not allow him to blame Jesus for their miserable condition!
Does faith add anything to the historical facts of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as a result of which the facts themselves are distorted? There is no distortion, but only sublimation of those facts by the light of faith giving us their significance that is called their theology. Sublimation of a fact cannot do away with or distort the fact concerned as the sublimation tacitly refers to the fact for its own survival. If someone insists that man is a mere animal without any potentiality for spirituality leading him or her to God and one's own destiny that is bound by and within the confines of this material world, we must admit that we are talking a strange language when we mention 'theology' to such a person! All others will readily admit that being human necessarily entails the assistance of the divine in our lives and for them faith in God is something that elevates us to our true potentiality gradually to be realized. Here the question of what it is to be human comes to the fore and the attempts of Philosophy and Sciences in segregating the human from animals by the capacity to think, speak, laugh, make tools, observe rituals, create cultures and arts aesthetically etc. are weakened step by step as some animals too are taught to imitate such pursuits. What then is the distinguishing characteristic of the human that sets him or her apart from the animals? We firmly hold that the openness of the human to the divine, expressed as the image of God in the Holy Books of religions, is the indelible mark impressed on every human at the very moment of conception that stands as the distinguishing characteristic of the human from the animals. Faith in the resurrection of Jesus is a very special manifestation of our faith in the living God Who raised Jesus from the dead and is most suitable to build up the image of God latent in every human being. This faith effectively resists the temptation to create a god in our own image that cannot save us from our crooked and devious ways. Like Incarnation, the Resurrection is a threshold reality that is neither purely historical nor purely transcendental and may be termed as historical as well as trans-historical.
It is clear that there were ways accessible to the human spirit to remain independent and original even under tremendous pressure arising out of intimate experiences like those seen in the resurrection appearances. We have ample references in the Bible about hardening one's heart against the word of God, about the need to keep the jewels and pearls from the swine that might trample upon them and turn against us to tear us apart. On the contrary, the centurion at the cross of Jesus, who was in charge of the execution of crucifixion, declared the crucified to be the Son of God on seeing the manner in which Jesus died on the cross. Similarly, we have the case of the two thieves crucified along with Jesus, where the one on the right had the right attitude to receive God's gifts and the one on the left could not open himself up to anything beyond himself. About the right attitude or disposition, although we don't know anything about the centurion, we have an inkling from the conversations of the two thieves on their crosses. When the one on the left challenged Jesus to do something to save them, the one on the right rebuked him saying that as they had committed crimes they deserved their punishment whereas Jesus was innocent. This shows that even in great suffering he had the habit of distinguishing between the right and the wrong and a sense of justice did not allow him to blame Jesus for their miserable condition!
Does faith add anything to the historical facts of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as a result of which the facts themselves are distorted? There is no distortion, but only sublimation of those facts by the light of faith giving us their significance that is called their theology. Sublimation of a fact cannot do away with or distort the fact concerned as the sublimation tacitly refers to the fact for its own survival. If someone insists that man is a mere animal without any potentiality for spirituality leading him or her to God and one's own destiny that is bound by and within the confines of this material world, we must admit that we are talking a strange language when we mention 'theology' to such a person! All others will readily admit that being human necessarily entails the assistance of the divine in our lives and for them faith in God is something that elevates us to our true potentiality gradually to be realized. Here the question of what it is to be human comes to the fore and the attempts of Philosophy and Sciences in segregating the human from animals by the capacity to think, speak, laugh, make tools, observe rituals, create cultures and arts aesthetically etc. are weakened step by step as some animals too are taught to imitate such pursuits. What then is the distinguishing characteristic of the human that sets him or her apart from the animals? We firmly hold that the openness of the human to the divine, expressed as the image of God in the Holy Books of religions, is the indelible mark impressed on every human at the very moment of conception that stands as the distinguishing characteristic of the human from the animals. Faith in the resurrection of Jesus is a very special manifestation of our faith in the living God Who raised Jesus from the dead and is most suitable to build up the image of God latent in every human being. This faith effectively resists the temptation to create a god in our own image that cannot save us from our crooked and devious ways. Like Incarnation, the Resurrection is a threshold reality that is neither purely historical nor purely transcendental and may be termed as historical as well as trans-historical.
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