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What seemed to be self-evident in the Jewish tradition and in the New Testament creates a difficulty in these days of strong individualism. Contrary to the feeling of “each for himself”, every human being was considered as representative of humanity, humanity envisaged as a unity, not abstractly but as a reality of a spiritual order. This is difficult for us to imagine today. We do, however, have experiences of close human solidarity, of profound communion, in which we feel that all humanity is one and that every human being can offer a figure of this humanity. Think of how it affects us interiorly to learn that someone offers to die in the place of another. Think of so many men and women who do not hesitate to risk their lives for the sake of someone else, or even more simply who give their lives in service, as if that life belonged to others. Or think of examples when one person suffered and this suffering affected us as if it were our own. In such situations, one suspects that humanity is not restricted to just a random juxtaposition of individuals, but that it tends towards a unity of which each human person is a representative. It was in this sense that Brother Roger liked to talk about the “human family”. In this perspective, Jesus himself, in a unique and absolute manner, is to be confessed as the Man par excellence, as Pilate expressed better than he knew when he said; “Behold the Man” (John 19:5). Such an expression must inevitably be understood on two levels: “Here is your man, the individual you have brought to me”, and “Here is the image of Man such as the Creator planned him from all Eternity, the true representative of every human being in the eyes of God.” Indeed, in the manner in which God chooses to enter into relationship with humanity in the closest way possible, one cannot understand the reason for the Incarnation and the Passion of Christ unless we recognize in him the Son of God becoming the brother of each of us. Our brother and, even more, our representative before God—even better; the way I am almost personally present to God. We can say that Christ takes our place to live before God a human existence which responds perfectly to the love of his Father and that he faces in place of us the curse of death. But paradoxically, he takes our place without taking it from us but rather, by giving us our true place. By his human birth, it is my life that he takes into himself in order to give me a share in his—in his earthly existence, lived in freedom and obedience; in his sorrowful and victorious Cross; in his eternal life. So great in him is the gift of his life, in the face of the curse of his death, that he turns it back into a blessing for himself and for us. Brother Pierre-Yves
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Ono što se u židovskoj tradiciji i u Novom zavjetu činilo samorazumljivim, u ovo doba snažnog individualizma stvara teškoće. Nasuprot osjećaju kako je “svatko za sebe”, svaki se čovjek smatra predstavnikom čovječanstva, čovječanstva predstavljenog kao jedinstvo, ne apstraktno, nego kao duhovna stvarnost. Nama je to danas teško zamisliti. Mi, međutim, imamo iskustva bliske ljudske solidarnosti, dubokog zajedništva u kojem osjećamo kako je cijelo čovječanstvo jedno i kako svaki čovjek može biti primjer tog čovječanstva. Pomislite kako na našu nutrinu djeluje saznanje da je netko ponudio umrijeti umjesto drugoga. Pomislite na tolike ljude koji ne oklijevaju riskirati svoje živote za nekoga drugog, ili još jednostavnije, koji daju svoje živote u službi, kao da ti životi pripadaju drugima. Ili pomislite na primjere kada je jedna osoba patila, a ta nas je patnja pogodila kao naša vlastita. U takvim situacijama, sumnjamo da čovječanstvo nije samo slučajan raspored pojedinaca, nego da ono teži jedinstvu čiji je predstavnik svaki čovjek. U tom je smislu brat Roger volio govoriti o “ljudskoj obitelji”. S ovog gledišta, na jedinstven i apsolutan način, samog Isusa treba priznati kao Čovjeka par excellence, što je Pilat izrazio bolje no što je mislio rekavši: «Evo čovjeka» (Ivan 19,5). Takav izraz mora se neizbježno shvatiti na dvije razine. «Evo vašeg čovjeka, pojedinca kojega ste mi doveli», i «Ovdje je slika Čovjeka kakvog je Stvoritelj planirao cijelu Vječnost, pravoga predstavnika svakog ljudskog bića u Božjim očima.» Doista, u načinu na koji Bog izabire ući u odnos s čovječanstvom na najbliži mogući način, ne možemo shvatiti razloge za Utjelovljenje i Muku Kristovu, osim da u njemu prepoznamo Sina Božjeg koji je postao brat svakome od nas. Naš brat i, štoviše, naš predstavnik pred Bogom. Još bolje – način na koji sam ja gotovo osobno prisutan pred Bogom. Možemo reći kako Krist zauzima naše mjesto da bi pred Bogom proživio ljudsko postojanje koje savršeno odgovara ljubavi njegova Oca i da bi se umjesto nas suočio s kletvom smrti. No, paradoksalno, on staje na naše mjesto, a da nam ga nije uzeo. Naprotiv, on nas postavlja na naše pravo mjesto. Svojim ljudskim rođenjem, on na sebe uzima moj život kako bi mi dao udio u svojemu – u svojem zemaljskom postojanju, proživljenom u slobodi i poslušnosti, na svojem tužnom i pobjedonosnom Križu, u svojem vječnom životu. Dar njegova života toliko je velik, u suočavanju s kletvom vlastite smrti, da je preobražava u blagoslov za sebe i za nas. Brat Pierre-Yves