hrist which we can experience first-hand inasmuch as he represents the concept and actualization (in the Hegelian sense) of our true self. He is our *formal cause* or essence (in the Aristotelian sense), as well as our *final cause* or ultimate goal. He is our freedom and our destiny. Because our essence is the essence of a "for itself," and not merely an "in itself," we may approach that essence as a *Thou*, rather than an *it*--the term of our transcendence; the Self toward which we are transcending; an incarnation of God. Our essential self stands in an absolute relation to the absolute--that is, our relationship to the power that grounds us (God) is mediated absolutely and exclusively by our essential self (Christ in us). As such, a right relationship to our essential self implies a right relationship to the power that grounds it and vise versa; and, insofar as human beings share a common essence, a right relation to our Self and God implies a right relation to our neighbor, as well.{15} Suffering and death are intrinsic to life and must be affirmed (insofar as they are necessary)--Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Despairing in the face of that which this seemingly harsh truth demands (the garden of Gethsemane, Golgotha, the tomb), we flee our essential self and, as such, are automatically in a disrelation to the power that grounds us--cut off from the possibility of an abundant life. To the extent, however, that we come to know and love ourself as we are *essentially*, the disrelation we experience is rectified and we are able to realize our highest potential (Christ in us, our hope of glory). We begin at once to realize this potential when in the depths of our despair, we make the movement of infinite resignation, and choose to bear our cross, like Christ, freely and innocently and without the spirit of revenge (Father forgive them, for they know not what they do).{16} When this movement is made-- complet...
