Forgiveness, Redemption and Dignity

To conclude this Easter offering I would like to take a minute to look beyond the more obvious theme of the Crucifixion metaphor-that of forgiveness and redemption-to the underlying message regarding dignity, or rather-the importance of the loss thereof.

Issues of dignity run deep in us and can be a confusing concept. Most of us, if polled, will say that dignified action is the manifestation of one’s morals, and that if one possesses good morals, honesty, integrity and the like, they will behave in dignified ways. But in truth, dignity’s foundation isn’t morality. Dignity is all about our egos aka human self esteem which is all hooked into how much shame we carry. It’s a faulty platform on a good day and generally ready for collapse at any moment in the minds of the over weight. Undignified actions such as stuffing an entire angel food cake in your mouth-over the kitchen sink-at two in the morning for example, has nothing to do with whether or not you are a moral person and everything to do with ego. Those and other kinds of private acts of self-betrayal chip away at dignity. It sounds like a bad thing, too loose one’s dignity, but our Easter theme is all about how loss can be transformed into gain, into something very powerful, something important enough to be biblical.

The way in which Christ was crucified, the preamble to the actual deed-parading him through the streets wearing a crown of thorns and lugging the cross that he would soon hang from-was designed to strip him of his dignity through public humiliation and to demonstrate to his followers what happens to people who won’t tow the consensus reality line. But unbeknownst to the not-very-self-reflective Romans, rather than serve to shame him and demoralize his followers, Christ’s journey to the cross purified him and strengthened his believers. By deconstructing the final remnants of his human ego-shattering the last of any worldliness he may have had-however little there was-he was being made ready, cleansed, for his return to divine energy.

There is a humbling that comes from a gross loss of dignity in a public forum, a sweetening that bubbles up through the bitterness of a well publicized scandal. Un-witnessed acts don’t seem to carry sufficient weight. One must be busted for something unsavory, in a big enough way, for a devastating ego-deconstruction project to begin. It is in the aftermath of the melt-down, providing one can resurrect oneself from the ashes of self-loathing, where true dignity can begin to be crafted. On our knees, stripped naked, with nothing left to loose, nothing on earth to hold on to, we look to the divine for salvation. In humility we define our dignity, in forgiveness we create trustworthiness, and in gratitude for all that had been lost we may at last, be redeemed.

So….May your ego be stripped naked, in public, may you find the grace to forgive, and the dignity to rise above it all into your everlasting divine self.

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