What Died on the Cross

 Bernadette Roberts

You have to understand: there is no such thing as ‘you’ when there is no-self. What died on the cross was the self, the self of Jesus. Beyond self, there is no such thing as ‘now he realizes something’; ‘now he knows that…’, because he is gone. So it is not correct to say that the human Jesus, without any self, suddenly realizes that he was something or other. That is not the way it works. That which is actually there is revealed. It reveals itself, and not to yourself or his self. Beyond self, there is no ‘you’ or ‘he’ to know.

©Bernadette Roberts 2009

 [In joy, I am moved to paraphrase a saint: Righteous you are, O Lord, and your judgments upright! You gave us Bernadette! Now you have taken her away! And if we mourn because she was taken, we forget not that she was given.]