The Society of the Hook, Line and Sinker

The Self-Portrait of God was Painted in the Pigments of Blood and Love

On the canvas of his wounds, the brush of truth painted a self-portrait in the pigments of blood and love - a love for us that is mysteriously intransigent, inexplicably persistent and radically stubborn. In a glorious burst of epiphany, the self-portait illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God. At the Last Supper, he used body and blood for a purpose. Their use was not accidental or random. They point to his wounds. Witness the truth by watching the traffic through his bloody wounds. Keep your eyes on his bloody wounds and the pigments of blood and love.

The Autobiography of God is the Treasure Chest that Holds the Greatest, Most Important Conversation That Ever Took Place between Humanity and God in the History of Salvation!

"FOR CHRIST DID NOT SEND ME TO BAPTIZE BUT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL, AND NOT WITH THE WISDOM OF HUMAN ELOQUENCE, SO THAT THE CROSS OF CHRIST MIGHT NOT BE EMPTIED OF ITS MEANING"  1 Corinthians 1:17 (NABRE)

Where do we find the knowledge of God? Where is it located? Can you take us there? Much of the most valuable knowledge of God was stored in his Autobiography. God poured more and better theology into his Autobiography than into the heads of every apologist, theologian, Doctor of the Church, apostle, monk, abbot, mystic, priest, monsignor, bishop, Cardinal, Pope, hermit and saint who has ever lived or will ever live.  Get the truth straight from the horse's mouth. Listen first to what the Son of God said about himself in his Autobiography before you listen to what others have said about him elsewhere.

The Autobiography of God is the treasure chest that holds the most valuable knowledge of God Matthew 13:44 (NABRE) [Buried Treasure] . It is the segment of the narrative of salvation that passed from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection. It is the crux of Chrisitianity. Everything else is obiter dictum. The Autobiography of God consists of just three (3) chapters:

Chapter 1) the Crucifixion (our harsh question),

Chapter 2) the Resurrection (his gentle answer) and

Chapter 3) the Relationship that weaves its way through his bloody wounds to tie the Crucifixion and the Resurrection together.

In the middle of the autobiography of God stands the Cross of Christ 1 Corinthians 1:17 (NABRE) .  It is surrounded by meaning 1 Corinthians 1:17 (NABRE) . Meaning is found in the Crucifixion on its near side, in the Resurrection on its far side and in the relationship that weaves its way through his bloody wounds to tie the Crucifixion and the Resurrection together. The Relationship that serves has the hinge that ties the Crucifixion and the Resurrection together is the relationhip of harsh question (the Crucifixion) and gentle answer (the Resurrection). The Crucifixion was the harsh question that humanity asked their God. In the Resurrection, the gentle answer to our harsh question was published for us. The gentle answer to the harsh question is the good news of great joy. Given the harshness of the question, the gentle answer is very good news for us indeed. The Crucifixion (our harsh question) and the Resurrection (his gentle answer) are the two sides of the greatest conversation that ever took place between God and humanity in the history of salvation! The conversation was a breakthrough in our understanding of God - an earthquake of epiphany - a riot of revelation. What is surprising about the conversation was not the harshness of our question but the gentleness of his answer. Given the harshness of the question, his gentle answer is breathtaking. We tried to set the tone of the conversation by asking him a harsh question. Our attempt failed. It did not work. He set the tone of the conversation with his gentle answer. The very juxtaposition of our harsh question and his gentle answer conveyed meaning. The juxtaposition conveyed the identity of God himself. Our harsh question amplifies his gentle answer - it highlights it. In the conversation, we are presented with a high fidelity representation of God. The conversation is the latest, most up-to-date version of our understanding of God. Are you privy to the conversation?

When we look upon the Crucifixion that unfolded on the near side of the Cross, we see his ignominious defeat. Into a wicked baptism we immersed him (Matthew 3:13-17)! What vile hospitality did we show our God! We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. What worse evil could we have done to the Son of God than torture and kill him while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth? We committed the sin of sins against him. Surely, the evil we did to him irrefutably proved that we are unworthy of his love! Surely, his love for us faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him (Isaiah 55:8-9) (1 Corinthians 3:19). Furthermore, unlike the mighty God of the Old Testament who freed his people from the Egyptians, this puny God of the New Testament failed to free his people from the Romans. The Romans defeated him by impaling him on a cross bloody and alive like a worm on a hook. His bloody wounds are the badges of his failure - memorials to his defeat. In short, the story was over. Jesus failed.

Or did he?

The most Holy Trinity do not want us to limit our scrutiny of the narrative of salvation to only the Crucifixion. This is too narrow of a focus. The full meaning of the narrative of salvation cannot be acquired by isolating the Crucifixion from the Ressurection from their Connection. The most Holy Trinity want us to scrutinize all three chapters of the autobiography of God together in order to fully understand the narrative of salvation. They want us not to just look at his bloody wounds but also to look through them.   When we opened bloody wounds in the body of Christ, we built a telescope. When we look through the telescope of his bloody wounds, we catch a glimpse of heaven from here on earth. Only when we look through his bloody wounds to the Resurrection on their far side, do we see his glorious victory. His bloody wounds are the rainbow of the new covenant - memorials to his victory not to his defeat. His bloody wounds are the badges of the serpent's defeat not his. His bloody wounds are the narrow gate through which we squeeze our contemplation of God to acquire knowledge about him. Enter an understanding of God through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14) of his bloody wounds.

When we look through the telescope of his bloody wounds, we see the Resurrection on their far side. He did not emerge from the blackhole of death empty-handed. In a glorious burst of epiphany, important truths emerged with him that illuminate our understanding of life and of God. These truths radiate from the blackhole of death like the dawn of a new day Luke 1:78-79 . We see that he emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. Both he and his love for us survived the evil we did to him. That he did not stay dead is the proof of the power of Jesus. Nobody emerges alive from the dead. He did. That he did not stop loving us, however, is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is more than power. Divinity is also love.

In fact, Divinity is head over heels in love with us.

We get a sense of the magnitude of his love for us by the magnitude of the price he paid out of his own pocket to produce the Crucifixion. He paid the price not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the price from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else!

We get a sense of the duration of his love for us from its indestructibility. His love for us ought to have faded as we tortured him and ought to have died when we killed him (Isaiah 55:8-9). But it did not. It survived. Its survival is the proof that the duration of his love for us is forever.

Buckets of blood spilled from his body through the wounds we opened in it. But not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us followed his blood through his wounds. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us.

Wow!

The decoupling of the question and the answer - the Crucifixion and the Ressurection - indecipherably garbles the meaning of this segment of the narrative of salvation generated, ipso facto, by the very juxtaposition of the hard question and gentle answer.

A Weakness in the Catholic Religion

The 18 & 1/2 Minute Gap Rose Mary Woods

The narrative of salvation has weaved its way through the history of humanity since Adam and Eve. The narrative of salvation is God's ineluctable effort to influence and inflect our history turning it in the direction of salvation both individually and collectively. Jesus impaled bloody and alive on the Cross like a worm on the hook is the bait that the most Holy Trinity cast into the valley of tears to fish for the children of Adam and Eve. The bait is offered to everyone, saint and sinner alike. However, not all fish take the bait. Only a few take the bait hook, line and sinker. The narrative of salvation can be divided into segments. Its most important segment passed from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of our planet called the Middle East during a period of just few days more than two thousand years ago. This segment is the crux of Christianity. Everything else is obiter dictum. Furthermore, this segment is so important that the Catholic religion represents it whenever a priest celebrates a Mass. His body and his blood point us to his bloody wounds. On the near side of his bloody wounds is the Crucifixion and on the far side is the Resurrection. The Mass is all about the segment of salvation history that passed from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection. Furthermore, this segment of salvation history is highlighted by the Catholic religion during Holy Week. God does not want the multitude of humanity to forget it so he has his Church highlight it. However, there is a technical problem in the representations that the Catholic religion produces. There is a gap. In its representations, the Catholic religion omits the connection that ties the Crucifixion and the Resurrection together. Assume that the passage of the narrative of salvation from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection is the Autobiography of God. Assume further that the Autobiography of God consists of three chapters. The subject of Chapter1 is the Crucifixion. The subject of Chapter 3 is the Resurrection. Chapter 2 deals with the connection that ties the Crucifixion and the Resurrection together. It is a most important chapter. Yet, the Catholic religion leaves out Chapter 2. Who ripped out Chapter 2 from the Autobiography of God? Who desecrated the Autobiography of God? The ommission is a glaring weakness of the Catholic religion. Why does the Catholic religion not articulate and highlight the details of the connection between the Crucifixion and the Ressurection?

The segment of the narrative of salvation that passed from the Crucifixion, through his bloody wounds, to the Resurrection is an integral, coherent whole. Yet, the Catholic religions treats the Crucifixion and the Resurrection as though the two events are independent of each other without any connection whatsoever. Only connected together do they convey the message that God desired to communicate to us during his visit to us. When the connection between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is severed, the message that God is trying to convey to us gets garbled - indecipherably garbled.

Am I correct? You can verify for yourself whether my allegation about a weakness in the Catholic religion is true or false by trying to articulate the details of the connection between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. If you can, I am mistaken. If you cannot, I am correct.

Crucifixion < - > Question and Answer < - > Resurection