The (Real) Christ We (Really) Cannot Ignore

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, March 6, 2011, the Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Deut. 11:18, 26-28, 32
• Psa. 31:2-3, 3-4, 17, 25
• Rom. 3:21-25, 28
• Matt. 7:21-27

A few years ago I reviewed one of the most hilarious and upsetting books about Jesus I’ve read in some time: The Third Jesus (Harmony Books, 2008), by Deepak Chopra. Subtitled, “The Christ We Cannot Ignore,” it is hilarious because it is bursting with New Age nonsense, illogical claims, and bombastic rhetoric. It is upsetting because, first, it is an insult to the real Jesus and, secondly, because it is the sort of intellectual and spiritual poison that far too many people are willing to embrace and imbibe.

Chopra teaches that the Jesus of history (the “first Jesus”) is unknowable and the Jesus of the Church (the “second Jesus”) is a theological lie, while the “third Jesus” is the only Jesus we can know or learn from. This “third Jesus”, or Chopra’s Christ, was not interested in saving mankind from sin or introducing man into the Trinitarian life, but came to “save the world by showing others the path to God-consciousness.”

This means, Chopra writes, that “the experience of God turns into a constant for one reason alone: ‘I’ and ‘God” become one and the same.” This is pantheism, the belief that everything, including you and I, constitutes a perfect “oneness”, if only we will be “enlightened” and recognize it. In this belief system the material realm is an illusion and sin, suffering, and sacrifice are meaningless terms, impediments to spiritual “awakening.”

Today’s readings provide a healthy antidote to this perverse and poisonous explanation of reality. Each is rooted in the knowledge that the material realm is a good thing, created by God, but now infested with the disease wrought from rebellion against God. Man has sinned and is in need of God’s mercy and help, and he has the free will necessary to choose to accept or reject that divine healing and assistance.

The great prophet Moses, in delivering the Law and explaining the covenant to the people, outlined the two available choices: to either obey or disobey the commandments of God. Not only is man not God, he cannot know the commandments of God without divine revelation, which in turn indicates the personal and loving nature of the Lord.

But the Law was not an end in itself, nor was the Mosaic covenant the conclusion of God’s plan of salvation. “The principal purpose to which the plan of the old covenant was directed,” stated Dei Verbum, Vatican II’s dogmatic constitution on divine revelation, “was to prepare for the coming of Christ, the redeemer of all and of the messianic kingdom…” The books of the Old Testament “reveal to all men the knowledge of God and of man and the ways in which God, just and merciful, deals with men” (par 15). As today’s epistle explains, God’s righteousness was foretold by the Law and the prophets, but has been made known apart from the Law. And that revelation is not just words, but the Word—the Incarnate Son of God.

Why did the Word become man? Because, Paul writes, “all have sinned and are deprived”—or fall short—“of the glory of God.” Man does not achieve “God-consciousness” through his own effort. Rather, he is convinced of his desperate need for God, available only through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. And this is due to the gift of faith: “Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 162).

According to Chopra and other New Age “teachers,” Jesus offers a way to God, but it is just one of many possible “paths.” This directly contradicts the words of Jesus himself, who claimed he was God and who, as the new Moses, taught clearly the two choices available to man: either listen to his words and obey them, or build a house on the shifting sands of spiritual folly and be ruined. He stated: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Those are the words of the real Jesus, the Christ we cannot ignore.

(This "Opening the Word" column appeared in a slightly different form in the June 1, 2008, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

Related Ignatius Insight Articles and Excerpts:

• Chopra's Christ: The Mythical Creation of a New Age Panthevangelist | Carl E. Olson | A review of Deepak Chopra's The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore
• The Three Pillars of Christology: Scripture-Tradition-Experience | Christoph Cardinal Schönborn | From God Sent His Son: A Contemporary Christology
• Jesus In the Gospel of Luke | Excerpt from Jesus, The Divine Physician: Encountering Christ in the Gospel of Luke | Christoph Cardinal Schönborn
• A Shepherd Like No Other | Excerpt from Behold, God's Son! Encountering Christ in the Gospel of Mark | Christoph Cardinal Schönborn
• Encountering Christ in the Gospel | Excerpt from My Jesus | Christoph Cardinal Schönborn
• Seeing Jesus in the Gospel of John | Excerpts from On The Way to Jesus Christ | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• The Challenge of Jesus of Nazareth | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• The Divinity of Christ | Peter Kreeft
• Jesus Is Catholic | Hans Urs von Balthasar
• The Religion of Jesus | Blessed Columba Marmion | From Christ, The Ideal of the Priest

Comments

[Ed Peters]

If the first was unknowable (which makes me wonder how we know about it, but let that pass) and the second was a lie, why ON EARTH would anyone want to try a third version? Talk about 3 strikes, man. All Hail Mighty Ra!

[Carl E. Olson]

Ed: If you read my overly long review of Chopra's book, you'll see that basic logic is not a strong suit. In fact, I suspect that he dislikes any sort of logic.

[Charles E Flynn]

Isn't the Third Jesus the one who said, "I came that you might write silly books, and write them in ever-greater numbers."?

[Brad]

Gnosticism par excellence!

[Teo Matteo]

Can't wait for Chopra's next book:
"The Real Mohammad; and how he came to love Hindu mysticism."