Dr. Margaret Turek, professor of dogmatics at St. Patrick’s Seminary, and Msgr. John Talesfore, pastor of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in San Mateo, CA, discuss the unity of God the Father’s love and the incarnate Son’s atonement for sin through the cross event. The Father goes first in love, and his offer of forgiveness engenders repentance. The filial act of atonement is thus relational, because it is a response to the Father’s forgiving love and a mirroring of that love in the mode of bearing sin away. Imaging the divine Father, a good spiritual father keeps his heart open in order to suffer through a wrong done, and he does so without any diminishment of love. The Father's love bears all things without failing. When one sees this, such that his vision of the Father is healed, he goes out to help others heal.

Resources

Turek, Margaret. Atonement: Soundings in Biblical, Trinitarian, and Spiritual Theology. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2022.

Turek, Margaret. “Diagnosing the Modern Aversion to a Biblical Theology of Atonement.” Church Life Journal. July 15, 2022.

Turek, Margaret. “Atonement: The Transforming Power of Suffering Love.” Catholic San Francisco. February 13, 2024.