God is the indissoluble marriage of power and love - absolute and perfect. God's power made paradise for us. God's love for us makes paradise sweet. Power begets respect but love begets love. God is a generous philanthropist. Never underestimate the generosity of God. God plans to deliver the gift of paradise to us just as he delivered the gift of paradise to Adam and Eve. God will not be less generous with us than he was with them. Adam and Eve were the first beneficiaries of God’s love for us. They were not the last. God’s philanthropy did not end with Adam and Eve; God’s philanthropy began with them. This is good news of great joy - very good news for us indeed.

God does not just want to deliver the gift of paradise to us. God also wants us to keep it. The 'keeping of the gift' aspect of the gift giving process is often overshadowed by the "getting of the gift' aspect. God wants us to keep the gift of paradise without having to turn paradise into a prison, us into prisoners and God into our warden. A cage is still a cage no matter how gilded. God wants us to keep the gift of paradise without having to subjugate our free wills to his. He respects the sovereignty of our free wills. It is assumed that once we get the gift of paradise, we will keep it. The evidence, however, contradicts the assumption. The gift of paradise was delivered to Lucifer, yet, he fumbled the ball. So did the gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer. So did Eve. So did Adam. So did the prodigal son. God gave them the gift of life, the gift of rationality and the gift of paradise simultaneously yet, they all opted out of paradise. 

God, therefore, has taken steps to make sure we keep the gift of paradise after it is delivered to us. The cause of the problem of post-delivery paradise opt-out is that the fuel of truth has been fouled by illusion. The serpent distorts our perception of reality (Isaiah 5:20).. The absence of the truth leads us to fumble the gift of paradise. Therefore, to accomplish his purpose, God  fuels our rationality with the truth.  When fueled by the truth, our rationality steers us in the right direction. When the fuel of truth is fouled by illusion, our rationality leads us astray. God is the artist who paints with the pigments of truth on the canvas of our rationality. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). All truth? No, not all truth. Some truth is irrelevant. How many pigments of truth does the palette of the divine artist hold? Does it hold an infinite number of pigments of truth? No. Does it hold fifty? No. It holds only two (2). The pigments of truth are 1) the sweetness of paradise and 2) the sourness of godlessness. God paints on the canvas of our rationality with only two pigments of truth. That is all God needs to shatter the illusions that the serpent conjured up to distort our perception of reality (Isaiah 5:20). The two pigments of truth shatter the illusions as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. God wants us to taste the sweetness of paradise and the sourness of godlessness. The sourness of godlessness is the stick that pushes us to the exit of godlessness. The sweetness of paradise is the carrot that pulls us to the entrance of paradise. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to their self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise.  Standing like a colossus at the nexus between the entrance of paradise and the exit of godlessness is Jesus. Through his bloody wounds the great leap is made from time to eternity (Our Lady of Good Success). He is the way (John 14:6). "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me."  (John 14:6).

After God created Adam and Eve, we became embroiled in a struggle between the serpent and God. We are the collateral damage - the civilian casualties. God and the serpent are fighting over God's love for us. Jealous of God's love for us, the serpent is trying to extinguish it. God is resisting the serpent's efforts. God refuses to let the serpent poke a hole in his heart and drain it of his love for us.

The same struggle in microcosm takes place within us. The serpent attempts to poke a hole in our hearts and empty them of love.  The less we love, the lesser is our resemblance to God. Victory is in resisting. Victory is in clinging to love, holding tight and refusing to let go. The more we love, the greater is our resemblance to God.

To achieve his foul purpose, the serpent uses us as his proxy. We are his pawns. He wants to narrow the scope of God's love. He tempts us to sin, thinking that the scope of God's love does not include sinners.  Fortunately for us, it does. The serpent's thinking is flawed. The scope of God's love is broad. The dial that controls God's love for us is in God's hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. Our sin is powerless to move it. Yet, the serpent relentlessly tries and repeatedly fails.

God does not squash the serpent and end the struggle because the struggle is apocalyptic. The struggle serves God's purpose. In the struggle, the nature of God is revealed to us. Inextinguishable is the bonfire of love that burns for us in his most sacred heart.  His love for us is mysteriously intransigent, inexplicably persistent and radically stubborn (Isaiah 55:8-9) (Psalm 8:4-8). More importantly, God wants us to know it. He wants us to know that he is head over heals in love with us.

Why? Why does God want us to know the intransigence of his love?

Knowing that God loves us makes a difference - it makes all of the difference in the world. "What a paradise it is for a soul when the heart knows itself to be so loved by God."  (St. Faustina - Notebook VI, 1756). Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid (Psalm 27)? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever disappoint? His love for us is real. Reality is reliable. Illusion is not. We can depend on the reality of his love for us. His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their house. His love for us is the lifeline that God throws to us who are tossed overboard in the stormy sea after our ship is sunk. We have a lifeline onto which we can grab hold (Matthew 14:30-31). This is the good news of great joy.

The serpent, however, did not waste any time in trying to achieve his foul purpose. He launched his attack on God's love for us by employing newly-minted humanity to do his dirty work for him. Surely, the serpent reasoned, if he could induce Adam and Eve to opt out of paradise, their ingratitude would extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for them in the most sacred heart of God. Surely, the scope of God's love does not include ingrates.

So the serpent fouled the fuel of truth with an illusion. He conjured up an illusion that distorted our perception of reality (Isaiah 5:20).  The serpent's illusion sugarcoated the sourness of godlessness (Isaiah 5:20). The sugarcoating was the false testimony that we would become gods without God in the valley of tears (Genesis 3:5). God, however, testified that, without him, we would die (Genesis 3:3).

Hence, the conflicting testimony created an unwelcome controversy that was thrust into the laps of Adam and Eve. Newly minted humanity had never encountered testimonial conflict. This was their first time. They were confused. As rational creatures, they knew that the testimony of both God and the serpent could not be true. Yet, their only experience was with reality. They were neophytes with regard to illusion. This was their first encounter with illusion. Until the serpent, nobody had ever lied to them. 

So, to resolve the controversy, Adam and Eve decided to conduct an investigation. Into the valley of tears, they embarked on a fact finding mission. 

How did God view their attempt to resolve the conflict in the testimony?  Did Adam and Eve's fact finding mission offend God?

Supremely confident in the liberating power of the truth, God let them conduct their own investigation. He did not stand in the way. He did not stop them. Passing through the valley of tears without God is not a pleasant experience. Many and merciless are the crosses that nail themselves to us as we pass through the valley of tears including the worst of crosses, death. The valley of tears sucks. God knew that in the course of their investigation they would learn the truth and the truth would make them free (John 8:32). They would learn the truth the hard way. Instead of accepting God's word, they would would figure out the truth for themselves. Spare the rod and the child is spoiled (Proverbs 13:24). In the valley of tears, little is the chance that we will be spoiled.

God wants to fuel our rationality with the truth.  He wants to free us of the serpent's illusion. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).  Therefore, God changed the timetable of his gift giving for the children of Adam and Eve. Instead of simultaneous delivery as was the case with Adam and Eve, he instituted sequential delivery of his gifts for their children. He inserted a delay. During the delay, we pass through the valley of tears. God gives us the gifts of life and rationality but delays the delivery of the gift of paradise. During the delay, we experience the sourness of godlessness for ourselves.  What better way to persuade us that the fire is hot than by letting us put our fingers in the flames? God's pedagogy is severe. The delay he prescribes is harsh medicine. He prescribes the medicine because the medicine is effective. God lets us stew in the valley of tears as pickles stew in a barrel of brine. Letting us stew in the valley of tears defangs the serpent. It drains the serpent's lie of its power to deceive. We do not become gods without God in the valley of tears (Genesis 3:5). The serpent bullshitted us. Surprise! God told us the truth. By stewing, we learn that we were fooled. Moreover, by stewing we decrease to near zero the likelihood that we will opt out of paradise after the gift of paradise is delivered to us.  When the gift of paradise is delivered to us, we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer did, as Eve did, as Adam did and as the prodigal son did. The prodigal son will never go back to the pig sty. And neither will we. Learning the truth by stewing in it like pickles in a barrel of brine makes us know better. It smartens us up. It educates us. It strengthens our grip on the gift of paradise. It stops us from fumbling the ball.

Unfortunately, the medicine that God prescribes to shatter the illusion that sugarcoats the valley of tears has a significant adverse side effect. It has a downside - a drawback. The many and merciless crosses that nail themselves to us as we pass through the valley of tears preoccupy us. They monopolize our focus. Our focus is upon our dire predicament.  Our focus is upon our problems instead of on their solution. In our travail, we forget the sweetness of paradise. God becomes a stranger to us. A secondary illusion arise that hides the sweetness of paradise from us.

The sourness of godlessness is autodidactic. The illusion that sugarcoats its sourness crumbles before our eyes as the many and merciless crosses nail themselves to us as we pass through the valley of tears. In the valley of tears, the rod is not spared so the children aren't spoiled.. But, how does God shatter the secondary illusion that hides the sweetness of paradise from us? Again God uses the struggle between himself and the serpent to shatter the illusion and to reveal the sweetness of paradise to us.  Surely, the serpent reasoned, if he could induce the children of Adam and Eve to torture and kill the Son of God when he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and their guest upon the earth, this gross insult to the person of their creator would extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for them in the most sacred heart of God. Surely, the scope of God's love does not include ingrates who also torture and kill their God ?

So God sent us a love note. That is right, a love note. God did not send us a rule book. He had already done that (Exodus 19-20).  He did not send us instructions on how to unite our suffering with his. He sent us instructions on how to unite our love with his. He preached sense not nonsense. He preached the gospel of rationality not the gospel of irrationality.  He preached the gospel of love not the gospel of suffering - an intransigent love that persist in defiance of suffering. His appeal is to our rationality. He fuels our rationality with the truth.

The love note proceeded straight from the most sacred heart of God. What genre of literature is the Word of God? The Word of God is a love note! Have you read it?  The love note that God sent us was not the typical love note that is exchanged on St. Valentine's day. It was not a trite cliché written in cold ink on dead paper. It was most unusual. The love note lived and breathed and entered our world more than two thousand years ago in the form of a baby at Bethlehem. Christmas is about the love note. Christmas is all about the love note. The love note is waiting for you. The Church holds the love note in trust for you for delivery to you when you desire to know the identity of God. Sooner or later you will want an answer to the question, "Who is God?". The answer is the love note. The love note is the rock upon which the wise build their understanding of God. It is the foundation of Christianity. The love note is written into the very fabric of life itself. It is hardwired into the machine.

To accurately represent the hierarchy of the relationship between creator and creature, the Son of God ought to have entered the world at Christmas on a level high above us - much higher. However, He did not. He entered the world on the same level as us. He did not claim superiority to us but equality with us. He became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. God rubbed elbows with us. They say God pitched His tent with us. His entrance into our world was inauspicious. The Son of God came not in power. The Son of God came not in wealth. The Son of God came not in glory. The Son of God came in poverty and weakness. Love took flesh in a manger inconspicuously in the boondocks of time and space. The love note entered the valley of tears (Psalm 23:4) as humbly as the mustard seed - the least of all seeds (Matthew 13:31-32). 

It is important, therefore, to know whether the love note is genuine or counterfeit - real or fake? Are you sure or unsure of its authenticity? Is there any way to transform your uncertainty into certainty - your doubt into faith? 

To eliminate his doubts about Jesus resurrected, the apostle Thomas demanded tangible evidence of the wounds of Jesus  (John 20:24-31). He was a rational creature who wanted to rest his belief on evidence not speculation. He was hard to persuade. Like Thomas, we are hard to persuade as well. We scoff at the idea that the almighty God would send us, his creatures, a love note. It sounds preposterous. What manner of macho divinity sends out love notes? Is our God a sissy? Surely, the God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands did not put himself into the hands of the mud to profess his love to us? Having experienced the many crosses that nail themselves to us as we make our way through the valley of tears, we ridicule the notion that our God is a tender God who loves us dearly. Wouldn't a tender God who loves us dearly eliminate our crosses instead of letting them torment us? Isn't love and divinity an oxymoron? Surely the sourness of our passage through the valley of tears tells us that our God more resembles a sadistic misanthrope than a  beneficient philanthropist! We laugh contemptuously at the naive simpletons who present such a far-fetched notion to us. Since the serpent sugarcoated the sourness of godlessness with the false testimony that we would become gods without God in the valley of tears  (Genesis 3:5), we have developed the defense mechanism of skepticism. We wont play the fool again. 

God is well aware of our defense mechanism. He knows that our shields are up. God understands that, like Thomas, we are rational creatures who prefer to rest our beliefs on evidence rather than speculation. The appeal, therefore, is to our rationality and the only fuel fit for our rationality is the truth (John 8:32). When fueled by the truth, our rationality steers us in the right direction. When the fuel of truth is fouled by illusion, our rationality leads us astray. 

Therefore, to convince us that the love note is genuine, God attached to it a certificate of authenticity to verify its genuineness..  God guaranteed the love note. God set his seal upon it. The certificate of authenticity is the pillow of truth that God slipped under our heads on which we comfortably rest our belief in the love note.

What does the seal of God look like?  How did God guarantee the love note? What is its certificate of authenticity?

Death marks the dividing line between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The Crucifixion occupies the space before death. The Resurrection occupies the space after death. The narrative of salvation weaves its way through his bloody wounds to tie the Crucifixion and the Resurrection together into a conversation. The conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is the greatest conversation that ever took place between the children of Adam and Eve and their God. Yet, it was a simple conversation. In the conversation, we asked our God a question and our God gave us his answer. Is there anything simpler than the beautiful, symbiotic dance between question and answer? The Crucifixion was the harsh question that we shouted at Jesus with lash, thorns, nails and spear. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. "Who are you?" We asked him "Identify yourself!" We asked him. The Resurrection was the gentle answer that Jesus whispered to us in response to our harsh question. He did not answer us in kind. He changed the tone of the conversation. He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. He emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. "I am your almighty lover" was his answer.

In the conversation between the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the identity of God was revealed to us. We learn the answer to the question, "Who is God?".  In the conversation between the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the autobiography of God was written. Jesus painted God's self-portrait. He gave us a high fidelity representation of the reality of God. In a glorious burst of epiphany, the truths that emerged from the conversation between the Crucifixion and Resurrection illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God. Listen first to what the Son of God said about himself in the conversation before you listen to what others have said about him elsewhere. God poured more and better theology into the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection 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. The conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is the Magna Carta that God gave the children of Adam and Eve to safeguard the peasantry of the Church from the tyranny of the aristocracy of the Church. When the aristocracy of the Church deviate from the truths that emerged from the conversation, the peasantry stand up, point to the conversation and cry foul.

To convince us of the genuineness of the love note, the Son of God let us impale him on a cross like a worm on a hook. If the love note were counterfeit, his love for us would have faded as we tortured him and would have died when we killed him. But it did not. His love for us survived the evil we did to him. The evil we did to him did not extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in his most sacred heart or reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. That Jesus emerged from the dead still alive is the proof that the love note came from God. Nobody emerges from dead. He did. That Jesus emerged from the dead still in love with us is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is also love - a mysteriously intransigent, inexplicably persistent and radically stubborn love (Isaiah 55:8-9 ) (Psalm 8:4-8)

The seal that God imposed on the love note was the Sign of the Cross. The Sign of the Cross is the love note's certificate of authenticity. When we make the sign of the Cross, each of our gestures points to his bloody wounds. First, we point to the bloody wounds on his head, then to the bloody wounds on his feet, then to each of his hands and last we steeple our hands to form the tip of the spear that pierced his side. Witness the truth by watching the traffic through his bloody wounds. Buckets of blood poured from the wounds that our evil opened in his body. Yet, not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us followed his blood through the wounds out of his body. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. His bloody wounds pierce his body and pierce the veil between heaven and earth. They are the telescope through which we catch a glimpse of heaven from here on earth. When we look through the telescope of his bloody wounds from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, we see that our God is the indissoluble marriage of power and love for us - absolute and perfect.

Amongst the many and merciless crosses that crucify us as we pass through the valley of tears, the seed of divinity was planted. We planted him into the toxic soil of the Crucifixion with the same insouciance as the farmer who plows manure into the soil. The toxic soil of crucifixion is a sterile matrix - hostile in the extreme. In it, nothing grows. Nothing. So when the flower of the Resurrection sprouted and grew from the toxic soil of the Crucifixion, we beheld a miracle. God, in his mercy, had begun to remediate the toxicity of the soil. The catalyst that made the miracle possible was love. The seed of divinity irrigated itself with love. Divinity began to grow in the valley of tears. The love note had begun to change the world - to sanctify it - to restore that which was lost. When grown, the seed of divinity will become "the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." (Matthew 13:31-32). The children of Adam and Eve are the birds of the air. God is our nest.

Again, the serpent's foul attempt to extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in the most sacred heart of Jesus failed. What sin is worse than torturing and killing our God? Yet, not even this moved the dial that controls his love for us. The dial didn't even budge.

God shatters the illusions by fueling our rationality with the truth.  God paints on the canvas of our rationality with the pigments of truth. Beautiful is the pigment of truth that is the sweetness of paradise. Ugly is the pigment of truth that is the sourness of godlessness.  Indeed, the sweetness of paradise dilutes the sourness of godlessness as the sweetness of sugar cubes dilutes the sourness of  a cup of coffee. But did God only bring us the truth? Is the truth the extent of God's gifts? Did he bring anything more tangible for us than the truth?  Did he bring us anything practical? Did he bring just clothes and no toys? Did he bring with him a gift that would mitigate the harshness of our passage through the valley of tears?

He did.

As was said, our predicament in the valley of tears is dire. We are in trouble. We need help. Our brutal encounters with the crosses that nail themselves to us as we pass through the valley of tears tend to transmogrify us into the most miserable and hideous of loveless beasts. They strip us of the resemblance we bear to God. As stricken beasts, we howl painfully uttering a wild cacophony of sighs, mourning and weeping from the valley of tears (Salve Regina). The din of our suffering, however, did not go unnoticed. It left our lips and reached God's ear. It did not reach the ear of a heartless sadist. It reached the ear of a sympathetic philanthropist. The din broke God's heart. Our suffering (not our sin) moved God with compassion. 

To shatter the secondary illusion that arose to hide the sweetness of paradise from us, God sent us a love note and its certificate of authenticity. God, however, wanted to kill two birds with one stone. He wanted to shatter the illusion that hides the sweetness of paradise and he wanted to address the problem of suffering as well.

God the Father proposed that heaven mount a philanthropic mission of mercy to earth. God the Son agreed to execute it. The Father gave the Son two assignments:

1. transport from heaven to earth the solution to the problem of suffering, and 
2. demonstrate that the solution works by using it himself.

The transportation of the solution from heaven to earth was easy. Demonstrating that the solution works - not as easy.  One of the requirements for the demonstration to succeed was that the Son of God take flesh, suffer and die. No taking flesh, no suffering and no dying then no demonstration and the solution to the problem of suffering would stay unproven - a mere suggestion - like God's suggestion to eat not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden.

The love note was not sent to make our life on earth harder but to make it easier. The love note transported the "grease" that lubricates the wheels of our passage through the valley of tears. The "grease" that the love note transported was the solution to the problem of suffering. So confident in the solution to the problem of suffering was the Son of God that he took flesh and let us impale him on the Cross like a worm on a hook to demonstrate to us that the solution works. He donned the jetpack and flew to show us that we too can fly. What a crazy daredevil this Jesus was! 

God's solution to the problem of suffering, however, is different than our solution. God measures victory and defeat differently than we measure it.  God keeps score on a scoreboard that is different than our scoreboard. We pray to God to eliminate the crosses that nail themselves to us as we pass through the valley of tears. We do not want to be the grist that goes through the mill - the meat that goes through the grinder. We want to dodge our crosses. We want God to transform the valley of tears into a kinder, gentler, more hospitable place for godless people to live. God, however, has other ideas (Isaiah 55: 8-9).  The ship of godlessness is sinking. God does not want to save the ship. God wants to save the passengers. God wants to transform godless people into people of God. God wants us to fight the fight, run the course and finish the race (2 Timothy 4:7). God does not want to eliminate our crosses for us. God wants us to pick them up and carry them (Matthew 16:24).  There is a difference of opinions. God's prevails.

How is it possible to pick up and carry our crosses? 

Jesus hung from his Cross to teach us how to hang from our crosses. When you hang as Jesus hung, cling as Jesus clung, love as Jesus loved. Hold tight and refuse to let go of love, suffering's invincible foe. 

Love kicks suffering's ass.

Love turns us into superman. Love enables us to pick up and carry our crosses. By loving we maintain the resemblance we bear to God. The greater the love, the greater is our resemblance to God. Love deifies us.  

God wants us to grab hold of the life preserver of love, cling to it, hold tight and refuse to let go - to cling to it with the iron grip of a drowning man tossed overboard into the stormy sea after his ship is sunk. However, beasts are ruled by instinct. Our instinct instructs us to let love slip through our fingers when crosses nail themselves to us. We struggle mightily against grabbing hold of the life preserver of love. We rebel against our own salvation. We would rather drown than rescue ourselves.

Survival, however, requires that we deny ourselves. Survival requires that we disregard the instructions that our animal instinct is sending to us. Survival requires that we act contrary to our animal instinct. When we let our crosses strip us of love, they strip us of any resemblance that we bear to God. This is defeat. The victory is in denying ourselves. The victory is in resistance. The victory is in defiance. The victory is in refusing. The victory is in telling our crosses to go f#@% themselves. The victory is in grabbing the life preserver of love, clinging to it, holding tight and refusing to let go.

The struggle between the serpent and God reached its apogee in the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. That torturing and killing the Son of God while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth did not pierce a hole in God's most sacred heart and drain it of his love for us tells us  that nothing can or will. 

If his survival and the survival of his love for us are not sufficient proof of the genuineness of the love note, putting your fingers in his wounds and your hand in his side as Thomas did will not be proof enough! 

The love note and its certificate of authenticity ought to be read and re-read again and again. They ought to be kept in your pocket and referred to often. They are the source of our hope. They are the good news of great joy.

The Knowledge of God Vanished from the Earth

After the age of Adam and Eve, the answer to the question, "Who is God?", vanished from the earth (Isaiah 54:7-8). He hid his face from us (Deuteronomy 32:20) (Deuteronomy 31:17) (but see, John 10:4-5) and, thereby, became a stranger to us (John 10:5) (Psalm 69:8) (Exodus 2:22). Into myth, God faded. His identity blurred as our distance from him grew. Moreover, the adversity that shits upon us as we pass through the valley of tears erased any vestige of God that lingered in the minds of the children of Adam and Eve. Being squeezed in the grip of adversity tends to occupy one's mind to the exclusion of all else including God. In short, we were left to fend for ourselves. "He said, I will hide my face from them, and see what becomes of them" (Deuteronomy 32:20). 

What becomes of us as we pass through the valley of tears without God? 

We do not belong in the valley of tears. The valley of tears is hostile territory. Crosses nail themselves to us as we pass through the valley of tears in a variety of painful ways including the worst of crosses, death. In the valley of tears, our predicament is dire. We are in trouble (Psalm 69:17) (Psalm 27:9).

Our trouble, however, is misunderstood (John 1:5) (Matthew 10:28) .

Our real trouble is the loss of the knowledge of God and the opportunity to expand and deepen it - to build a friendship with the divine. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell"  (Matthew 10:28) (Matthew 5:29-30). The loss of the knowledge of God kills the soul. Indeed, the body dies. But, the worst kind of death is the death of the soul - a soul without God.

God Stashed the Knowledge of God on Earth with the Jews

In his mercy, however, God stashed heaven's most precious treasure, the knowledge of God, with a tiny, itinerant, desert dwelling tribe known as the Jews (Ezekiel 39:29). They were the pilot light. In the fullness of time, the pilot light would ignite the light of the world (John 8:12). The light of the world (John 8:12) would restore the knowledge of God to the face of the earth.  

The Cure for Our Confusion

Into the vacuum made by the absence of God, many false, inaccurate and conflicting representations of God arose and circulated through the minds of the children of Adam and Eve. The multiplicity of representations created confusion.  “This is God” some said as they pointed to their favorite representation of God.  Others pointed to a different representation and said, “No, this is God.” The controversy went on ad infinitum. Because of the confusion about the identity of God, the most Holy Trinity desired to set the record straight once and forever. They decided to clear the air. God thought that the answer to the question "Who is God? was so important that he dispatched his dearly beloved Son from heaven to earth to answer the question himself (Mark 12:1-11). The most Holy Trinity did not delegate the task of delivering the answer to a subordinate. They did not give the job to a flunky. They did it themselves. God the Father asked God the Son to deliver the answer to the question "Who is God?. The Father sent his Son from heaven to publish the autobiography of God here on earth. Jesus would paint for us God's self-portrait. in this way, we get the truth straight from the horse's mouth. We can listen first to what the Son of God said about himself in answer to the question, "Who is God?,  before we listen to what others have said about him elsewhere. 

The Spectacular Collision between Question and Answer and the Insights about God that Emerged and Radiated to us from the Collision

God the Father dispatched God the Son from heaven and earth to answer our question,  "Who is God?. The Father sent his Son from heaven to publish the autobiography of God here on earth. Jesus painted for us God's self-portrait. Therefore, 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. Please take note of the manner in which we asked the question and he answered it. The manner is not insignificant. Our question and his answer were exchanged without the usual banality of a typical, low-key question and answer session. He did not do a press conference. He did a collision. Our question and his answer collided explosively. The collision between question and answer was bigger than the Big Bang and larger than the Large Hadron Collider! It was the most spectacular collision between question and answer in the history of humanity. It would not be improper to describe the collision as flamboyant. We dressed our question in malignant evil. God dressed his answer in goodness and life and light and beauty and truth. The contrast between our question and his answer was antipodal. Our question carried the destructive force of the collision. His answer carried the constructive force of the collision. Our question was the freight train of evil that we launched toward him. He saw it coming. Remarkably, He stood in its path. He did not flinch. He did not cower. He did not jump out of the way. He took it on the chin. He stood firm and, by standing firm, stopped evil's progress dead in its tracks. The serpent's plan failed. Evil hit a wall. The wall that evil hit was Jesus. His bloody wounds mark the line that the Son of God drew in the sand. At his bloody wounds, evil was stopped short of its objective. Its objective was to extinguish God's love for us. It was not allowed to reach its destination. Jesus allowed it to progress so far and no farther. Jesus did not allow evil to reach his most sacred heart. He did not let evil empty his most sacred heart of his love for us or let evil drain it of a single drop. The megatonnage of the collision was stratospheric - high-energy, powerful and violently explosive. In the explosion of the collision between question and answer, insights about God emerged and radiated to us. The insights illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God.  The insights about God were apocalyptic.  In the collision, God made himself known to us.  God bared his soul to us.

The Distribution Grid To Restore The Knowledge of God to The Four Corners of the Earth.

The knowledge of God is heaven's most precious treasure. Without it, we live in poverty. Having it makes us rich. Our God does not want us to live our lives as paupers in poverty. He wants us to enjoy abundant wealth (John 10:10) - true wealth not as we judge wealth but as he judge's wealth (Isaiah 55:8-9). So God established a grid through which heaven's most precious treasure is distributed from heaven to earth. The distribution grid runs from heaven to Jesus, to the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, to the Mass, to us and, thence, to our neighbors (Matthew 13:31-32). 

The Word of God Conveyed the Knowledge of God From Heaven to Earth

‘What package would be most appropriate to hold and carry the knowledge of God during its journey from heaven to earth?’ Ordinarily, to hold and carry knowledge, knowledge is put into a book or into some other traditional repository of knowledge. However, not in this case. The knowledge of God is heaven's most precious treasure. It is so valuable that no ordinary, conventional, no-frills, humdrum repository would have been suitable. A package equal in dignity to its cargo was desired. So the Son of God became the package. He became the word of God (John 1:1). The word of God conveyed the knowledge of God from heaven to earth.

Jesus Built a Bank to Hold the Knowledge of God Here on Earth

His visit would be short. For the knowledge of God to flow through the distribution grid a repository was needed here on earth into which Jesus could dump the knowledge of God. It didn't exist. It needed to be built. Of course, God had an ingenious solution to this problem. Jesus built a bank. His bank is most unusual. It was not a traditional brick and mortar bank. It was different. The bank that Jesus built was a conversation. Yes, that is right, a conversation. He deposited the knowledge of God into the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The Crucifixion and the Resurrection are not independent, unrelated events. They are two sides of a single conversation. The Crucifixion was our question to him. The Resurrection was his answer to us. The relationship of question and answer weaves its way through his bloody wounds to tie the Crucifixion and Resurrection together into a conversation. The strange thing about the bank is that only God made a deposit into it. Yet, anybody can make a withdrawal from it (Revelation 22:17). The sign posted on its door says, "All are welcome. The vault is unlocked and open. The wealth is free. Take as much as you want." The bank's only account holder is overjoyed when we make withdrawals from it. He wants to share his wealth with us (Matthew 6:19-21). What a bank!

Jesus Staffed His Bank with the Church

To facilitate withdrawals of the knowledge of God from his bank, Jesus staffed it with his Church. The Church is the teller who serves us helpings of the knowledge of God. In other words, the Church is the usher who show us to our seats so God can put on the show. God, not the Church,is the star of the show. The train of salvation goes off the tracks when the ushers think they are the stars of the show.

In addition to a Central Office, Jesus established Branches of His Bank to Continue the Distribution of the Knowledge of God to the ends of the Earth

To continue the distribution of the knowledge of God from the bank that he built to us and, hence, to our neighbors, the Son of God instituted the Mass (Luke 22:8-20).  First, Jesus deposited the knowledge of God into the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is the bank. Then, to facilitate the distribution of the knowledge of God to us, Jesus transfers it to each Mass. Each Mass is a branch of the Bank that Jesus built.  Jesus, his bank (the conversation) and its branches (the Mass) ignite the insights that illuminate the darkness of our understanding of God. They are engines that power the transmission of the insights about God through the distribution grid. No engines; no transmission.  Please take notice of the pivot around which the Mass revolves. The pivot of the Mass is his body and his blood. His body and his blood point us to his wounds. Through the bloody wounds that our evil opened in his body, he communicated his gentle answer to the questions that we put to him in our harsh interrogation of him. His bloody wounds were the mouth of God.  "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). "By his wounds you have been healed."  (1 Peter 2:24) (Isaiah 53:5) The good news of great joy was preached to us through his bloody wounds. Witness the truth by watching the traffic through his bloody wounds. Through the wounds that our evil opened in his body, his life was carried out of his body on a cataract of blood. Buckets of blood poured through his wounds.  Yet, not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us followed his blood through his wounds out of his body. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. The proxy for his body and blood are the bread and wine of the most Holy Eucharist. God was not subtle in his meaning when he included bread and wine in the Mass. Bread and wine satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst. By including the bread and wine at Mass, God is telling us to consume the truths that Jesus published about God in the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Only when we consume the truths that Jesus published about God in the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection do we satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst.  The truths that emerge from the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are as important to us as eating and drinking - absolutely essential for living. The insights about God that arise from he conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are our food and drink. We cannot long survive without consuming them. The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud to inseminate the mud with this knowledge about God.  Like the mustard seed, the knowledge of God grows into an intimate friendship with the living God (Matthew 13:31-32) (Luke 17:20-21) for those who cherish and cultivate it. 

The Son of God Made the Knowledge of God Community Property

The knowledge of God - heaven's most precious treasure - is the private property of none and the community property of all. Into the public domain, the Son of God released the knowledge of God. He set the knowledge of God free as open source software is free. 

Jesus Deposited A High Fidelity Representation of the Reality of God into a Conversation. All Lesser Representation Made by Human Hands Must Yield

Into the conversation between the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus deposited a high fidelity representation of the reality of God - an authentic, first-class representation of God. Its high fidelity is unmatched by the low fidelity representations of God made by human hands. In fact, the low fidelity of human made representations is the reason God banned us from making them in the first place (Exodus 20:4-6). Better no representation than an inaccurate representation. All lesser representations of God, therefore, must yield to the representation God gave us in the conversation between the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

The Truths Distilled from the Conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection

Truths emerged from the conversation between the Crucifixion and Resurrection whose light illuminates the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany (John 1:5). To understand God, behold him in the light of the truths that emerged from the conversation between the Crucifixion and Resurrection. 

What is the answer to the question, "Who is God?"

Here is the answer that Jesus revealed to us in the conversation between the Crucifixion and Resurrection. 

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. He emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. That he did not stay dead is the proof of the power of Jesus. Nobody emerges from the dead. He did. That he did not stop loving us is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is also love. 

Wow!

The Crucifixion was our harsh interrogation of him. In the Crucifixion, we shouted our harsh questions at him with lash, thorns, nails and spear.  "Identify yourself!" we demanded of him in the Crucifixion. "Who are you?" we asked.  "Friend or foe?" (Judges 12:4-6)

"Friend," he responded. 

His Bloody Wounds are Witnesses

His bloody wounds are the witnesses who testify to the steep price he paid to put heaven's most precious treasure, the knowledge of God, into our hands. He paid the exorbitant price not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the exorbitant 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  (John 15:13).  

Jesus Broke the Vicious Cycle of Evil

In the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, we contributed the question. Our question to him is the 'evil we did to him' side of the conversation.  We contributed the worst of circumstances to the conversation. He contributed the answer. His answer to us is the 'he emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us'  side of the conversation. It was the best of answers in the worst of circumstances. Our question highlighted  and emphasized and intensified and magnified and amplified and accentuated his answer.  Evil follows a pattern. Evil begets evil. A crucifixion tends to piss its recipient off. It tends to trigger the reflex to revenge, retaliation and retribution. It tends to extinguish the fire of love that burns in the heart. The cycle of evil follows a repetitively destructive pattern. In his answer to the question, "Who is God?", Jesus broke the vicious cycle of evil. This is his singular achievement. Jesus is the destroyer. He brought the sword to the earth (Matthew 10:34-36). He destroyed evil's destructive pattern (Isaiah 55:8-9). His love for us did not fade as we tortured him and did not die when we killed him. The evil we did to him did not extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in his most sacred heart or reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. His love for us survived the evil we did to him.  Our God is the God whose love survives despite the evil we do to him. Nothing blooms in the toxic soil of Crucifixion. Yet, in the case of Jesus, the beautiful flower of the Resurrection bloomed (Isaiah 35:2).  Jesus showed us that we can make the desert bloom.  He showed us what was possible. He showed us that we could reinvent ourselves. He showed us that we could remake ourselves in his image (Genesis 1:27). He showed us how to become sons and daughters of God (John 1:12). He broke the vicious cycle of evil. Shall we go and do likewise?

Jesus Delivered to Us Advanced Alien Technology that Mitigates the Harshness of our Passage through the Valley of Tears

He clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let it go even though we tortured and killed him. He clung to his love for us with the iron grip of the drowning man who clings to a life preserver in the stormy sea after his ship is sunk. God is trying to teach us self-defense. We have an opportunity to learn how to protect ourselves from the crosses that nail themselves to us as we pass through the valley of tears. Our passage through the valley of tears is not easy. At times, it can be extremely severe. Our sighs, mourning and weeping (Salve Regina) left our lips, reach God's ear and touched God's heart. God took pity on us. In his mercy, God dispatched his dearly beloved Son to transport technology from heaven to earth that mitigates our dire predicament in the valley of tears. The "grease" that lubricates the wheels of our passage through the valley of tears is the technology of applying love to suffering. Love is the tool that blunts the sharp edge of our passage through the valley of tears. Suffering tends to transmogrify us into the most miserable and hideous of loveless beasts. It robs us of the resemblance we bear to God (Genesis 1:27). However, we can deny this natural tendency. By holding onto love, we deny ourselves. Love turns us into superman. Love enables us to pick up and carry our crosses (Matthew 16:24). Jesus hung from his Cross to teach us how to hang from our crosses.  The Son of God was so confident in the technology of applying love to suffering that he let us impale him on the Cross to demonstrate to us that the technology works. He donned the jetpack and flew to show us that we too can fly. What a crazy daredevil this Jesus was!  When you hang as Jesus hung, cling as Jesus clung, love as Jesus loved. Hold tight and refuse to let go of love, suffering's invincible foe. Only love kicks suffering's ass. Love is our act of defiance. By loving, we point the middle finger at the crosses that nail themselves to us.  When we defy them, we become God - divinization takes place. The power of love transforms us into daughters and sons of God (John 1:12)

The Truth Appeals to our Rationality

His power made paradise for us. His love for us makes paradise sweet. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to their self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise. Power demands respect. But love demands love.

We Gave Jesus the Third Degree and He Confessed

We put him to the test (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Psalm 95:8-9). We demanded proof from him that his love for us is real. He supplied the proof. That his love for us survived the evil we did to him is the proof that his love for us is real. Reality is reliable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us (Matthew 7:9-11). His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their house  (Matthew 7:24-27) (Psalm 18:2). Hope and have confidence in the God whose love for us survived the evil we did to him. Our God is our almighty lover. Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid  (Psalm 27:1)? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever  disappoint? Rest in his love. Rest your head on the pillow of his love for us to sleep the sleep of the angels. 

The Big Picture of Christianity

Our God sacrificed himself for us (John 15:13). We, his creatures, ought to sacrifice ourselves for him, our creator (John 18:36). But our God sacrificed himself for us. This is backwards. The roles of creator and creature are reversed (Matthew 3:13-15). The Son of God did something for his creatures that no "god" in his right mind would ever do (Isaiah 55:8-9).  The Son of God became one of us - an equal for us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. He took flesh so

1. we could torture and kill him in the fiery furnace of his passion and death and
2. he could emerged therefrom still alive and still in love with us. 

Why?

Why did God insert the passion, death and resurrection into human history? What truths emerged from it? What insights? What details about God arose from his sacrifice? What did God teach us with his passion, death and resurrection? What did we learn?

We tortured and killed Jesus. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. He emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. That he emerged from the dead still alive revealed the power of Jesus. Nobody emerges from the dead. He did. That he emerged from the dead still in love with us is the proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is also love. The revelation that emerged from his passion, death and resurrection is that our God is the combination of power and love for us - perfect and absolute. His power built paradise for us. His love for us makes paradise sweet.

Our God took flesh to reveal his identity to us unambiguously in the only universal language that survived the great tongue-twisting of Babel - the language of suffering. The language of suffering is our native tongue. All creatures who suffer understand it. He used the harsh language of suffering so there would be no misunderstanding. The language of suffering is a simple language. It works like this. Nobody signs up to dive headfirst or, for that matter, even dip his toe into the boiling cauldron of suffering unless they are insane or something important outweighs the high cost of suffering.  We understand that suffering is an exorbitant price we only willingly pay for something that is extremely dear to us. Jesus paid the exorbitant price because we are extremely dear to Him (Matthew 10:29-31).

In his passion, death and resurrection, Jesus revealed his identity to us. Superman took off his mask. God manifested himself in human history in the most spectacular, apocalyptic, surprising and unexpected of ways. His passion, death and resurrection were the grand unveiling of God. His passion, death and resurrection were his coming out party. The "debutante" was formally introduced to humanity.  Via his passion, death and resurrection, the autobiography of God was published here on earth for us.  He painted his self-portrait on the canvas of Calvary in the pigments of torture, death and resurrection. Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (Matthew 27:51) and the Son of God stepped out from behind it to show himself to us. From his passion, death and resurrection, truths emerged to illuminate the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany. Where do we find the answer to the question, "Who is God?' We find the definitive answer to the question, "Who is God?' in his passion, death and resurrection.

But why? We know what he did. The identity of God was disclosed to us in his passion, death and resurrection. But what did the disclosure accomplish? Why was the disclosure important? 

To understand the importance of the revelation, we must take a look at God's plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears. God's rescue plan is the context that gives meaning to the revelation. The revelation plays an important role in God's plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears. Only when we understand God's rescue plan does the importance of the revelation become clear.

God began the human experiment by giving Adam and Eve the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. He had exercised his generosity in the same way with Lucifer and the gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer. The gift of life and the gift of paradise were delivered to them together in one package. However, Adam and Eve threw a monkey wrench into utopia. Like foolish children, Adam and Eve exercised their free will, ran away from their home with God in paradise and took us with them into the valley of tears. Lucifer abdicated paradise for godlessness. So did the gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer. Now Eve and Adam did the same. They all fumbled the ball. All were given the gift of paradise but failed to keep it. Adam and Eve shot themselves, and us, in the foot because the valley of tears, contrary to the promise of the Serpent (Genesis 3:5), is hostile territory. As we pass through the valley of tears, crosses of suffering nail themselves to us including the most horrible of crosses, death. Without God in the valley of tears, our predicament is dire.

God was well aware of our dire predicament in the valley of tears. In his mercy, he did not shout after Adam and Eve, "goodbye and good riddance. Don't let the door hit you on your ass on your way out."  He said, "au revoir - goodbye until we meet again". He did not lock the door back home to paradise after our exit to foil our return. He kept the door unlocked and a light burning in the window. God had a plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears. As soon as Adam and Eve stepped out of Eden and into the valley of tears, God set his rescue plan into motion. God did not wait. He did not delay.

God's plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears consists of three stages.

The first stage of God's plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears was the insertion of a delay. God had delivered the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously to Lucifer, to the gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer, to Eve and to Adam. God's gift giving policy changed with the children of Adam and Eve. God instituted a policy of sequential gift-giving. God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise.

Why did God insert a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise?

During the delay, the children of Adam and Eve taste for themselves the sourness of the valley of tears. During the delay, we pass through the valley of tears and, like the prodigal son, experience for ourselves a life in the pigsty. Is there any better way to convince us that fire is hot than by letting us put our fingers in the flame (Matthew 5: 29-30)? Personal experience with the truth is more persuasive than a plethora of words about it - even when the source of the words is God  (Genesis 3:3). So God lets us put our fingers into the flame. The flame is extremely persuasive about the hotness of the fire. So, too, life in the valley of tears without God is extremely persuasive about its sourness.

The valley of tears is autodidactic. 

The first stage of God's pedagogy is severe. Our passage through the valley of tears is harsh but effective medicine. God prescribes the harsh medicine because of its effectiveness. Life in God's school of hard knocks accomplishes much:

1. When the gift of paradise is given to us, we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer did, as Eve did and as Adam did. The prodigal son is never going back to the pig sty and neither are we.  We now know better. God does not need to drag us back to paradise by dint of omnipotence against our wills kicking and screaming like recalcitrant children and build a wall around paradise to immure us there. There is no need to turn paradise into a prison, us into prisoners and God into a warden. There is no need to turn us into birds in a cage. A cage is still a cage no matter how gilded. We will keep the gift of paradise voluntarily of our own free will having spent time in the valley of tears.
2. The serpent is defanged. The delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise drains the power to deceive from the serpent.  The serpent testified that we would become gods without God in the valley of tears (Genesis 3:5). His testimony was the sugarcoating that embellished the harshness of our passage through the valley of tears. We have a sweet tooth and the sugarcoating led us astray. God testified that, in the valley of tears, we would die  (Genesis 3:3). No embellishment here. Having passed through the valley of tears, we learn for ourselves that, without God, the valley of tears is hostile territory. Our personal experience in the valley of tears shatters the illusion that sugarcoats it. Our personal experience shatters the illusion as the blow of a hammer shatters glass.
3. While passing through the valley of tears, we have an opportunity to learn self-defense. We have the opportunity to learn how to protect ourselves from the crosses that nail themselves to us as we pass through the valley of tears. We have the opportunity to adopt the technology that Jesus transported from heaven to earth and demonstrated for us. The technology is a mitigation technique that takes the edge off the severity of our passage through the valley of tears. To manage adversity, Jesus brought from heaven to earth "grease" for the wheels of our passage through the valley of tears. The "grease" is the technology of applying love to suffering. Love is the tool that mitigates the harshness of our passage through the valley of tears. Suffering tends to transmogrify us into the most miserable and hideous of loveless beasts. It robs us of the resemblance we bear to God (Genesis 1:27). However, we can deny this natural tendency. By holding onto love, we deny ourselves. Love enables us to pick up and carry our crosses (Matthew 16:24). Love turns us into superman. Jesus hung from his Cross to teach us how to hang from our crosses.  The Son of God was so confident in the technology of applying love to suffering that he let us impale him on the Cross to demonstrate to us that the technology works. He donned the jetpack and flew to show us that we too can fly. What a crazy daredevil this Jesus was!  When you hang as Jesus hung, cling as Jesus clung, love as Jesus loved. Hold tight and refuse to let go of love, suffering's invincible foe. Only love kicks suffering's ass. Love is our act of defiance. By loving, we point the middle finger at the crosses that nail themselves to us.  When we defy them, we become God - divinization takes place.

Indeed, the first stage of God's pedagogy is severe. Our passage through the valley of tears is not easy. However, God mitigates its severity in a number of ways. The delay in his gift-giving is brief. God limits it to a lifetime. A lifetime no matter how long is an infinitesimally thin slice of time compared to the thickness of eternity.  Limiting the delay to just a lifetime is one of the ways God mitigates the severity of his pedagogy.

The first stage of God's plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears is severe pedagogy.  The second stage of God's rescue plan, however, is as sweet as the first stage is severe. Our experience in the valley of tears is sufficient to get us keep the gift of paradise when God delivers it to us. It is sufficient to drain the serpent of his power to deceive. It is sufficient to induce us to adopt the technology of love.  But God, in his mercy, decided to hold up the pants of his rescue plan with both belt and suspenders. Both belt and suspenders, however, are not necessary. One is enough. In his mercy, our God provided us with a sweet alternative to the severity of the first stage of his rescue plan.

A complication arose from our exile in the valley of tears.  The start of the second stage of God's rescue plan required a solution to the complication. What was the complication?  As our proximity to Adam and Eve's life with God in Eden receded in time and space, the memory of God's love for us faded from our memories. We forgot.  Moreover, the adversity that shits on us as we pass through the valley of tears also functions as an eraser. Adversity also wipes out the knowledge of God's love for us from the face of the earth (John 10:5) (Psalm 69:8) (Exodus 2:22).  While in the valley of tears, our focus is on our dire predicament.  Our dire predicament monopolizes our attention. We are mesmerized by it. In our exigency in the valley of tears, it is difficult to get us to focus on anything else but our dire predicament. In the second stage of God's rescue plan, God wields the sledgehammer of truth to shatter our preoccupation with our dire predicament in the valley of tears.  The second stage shatters our obsession with adversity as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. The second stage shifts our focus from our problems in the valley of tears to their solution.  God's love for us is the solution to our problems in the valley of tears. So, in the second stage, God restores to the earth the knowledge of God's love for us. God restores the knowledge of God's love for us in the most unconventional, surprising, unexpected and apocalyptic of ways. 

How? 

To restore the knowledge of God's love for us upon the earth, the Son of God volunteered to participate in the passion, death and resurrection. In the passion, death and resurrection, we were reacquainted with God's love for us. The passion, death and resurrection of the Son of God shattered the illusion conjured up by the serpent that hides the sweetness of paradise from us. The passion, death and resurrection shatters the illusion as the blow of a hammer shatters glass.  From his passion, death and resurrection, the essence of God is distilled. When we distill the essence of God from his passion, death and resurrection, we capture the reality of God as power and love - perfect and absolute.

A self-portrait was painted on the canvas of Calvary in the pigments of torture, death and resurrection.

What do you see when you look at the self-portrait?

What truths does the self-portrait disclose to us? 

We get a sense of the magnitude of his love for sinners by the magnitude of the price he paid out of his own pocket to produce the proof of his love for us. The price was exorbitant. He paid the exorbitant price not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the exorbitant 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  (John 15:13).  Some say that the Son of God ovepaid - that he was ripped off. We were not worth the payment. He, on the other hand, was willing to pay the price. He thought we were worth it.

We get a sense of the duration of his love for sinners 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. His love for us is mysteriously intransigent, inexplicably persistent and radically stubborn (Isaiah 55:8-9)  (Psalm 8:4-8).

We get a sense of the uniqueness of his love for sinners from the matrix out of which the flower of the Resurrection emerged. Nothing grows in the toxic soil of the Crucifixion. Nothing. So, when something does grow, we behold a miracle. His love for sinners emerged from the toxic soil of the Crucifixion. 

Our God is unique. Despite the evil we did to him, he continues to love us nonetheless. What other "god" would tolerate such insolence from his creatures - from the mud he fashioned into life with the fingers of his hands? 

Out of his own pocket, he voluntarily paid an exorbitant price to publish here on earth the magnitude, duration and uniqueness of his love for us. From the exorbitant price he paid, we can deduce our value to him (Matthew 10:29-31). Rejoice and be glad! We are worth much to our God! He would not have paid an exorbitant price if we were not worth it.  Moreover, he payed the exorbitant price while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8) - while we were still unworthy of his love - while we did not deserve it. The payment was not an expense but an investment. He invested not in our status as sinners but in our potential to become saints. Our potential to become saints is hidden under our status as sinners. He looked beyond our status as sinners. Our God, who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands, put himself into the hands of the mud to demonstrate to the mud its potential to become sons and daughters of God. The heart of the Son of God is filled to the brim with love for us. We tried our hardest to empty it. Yet, we failed. Oh, blessed failure!  Through the wounds we opened in his body, buckets of blood spilled. His very life itself was carried from him on cataracts of blood. Yet, not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us followed his blood through his wounds out of his body. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us despite the evil we did to him. We, too, have this capacity - the capacity to cling to love, hold tight and to refuse to let go.  Booker T. Washington recognized our capacity to fill our hearts to the brim with love when he said, “I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” Transformation from sinner to saint takes place as we fill our hearts with love. Filling our hearts with love is the only path to sainthood, deification, holiness. In this sense, we can be transformed into children of God.

Without sacrifice, it is impossible to tell with any certainty whether love is real or counterfeit. Love that survives sacrifice is real. Love that does not is counterfeit. Our God's love for us survived the evil we did to him. This verified his love for us.  If his love for us were counterfeit, it would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. His love for us survived the evil we did to him. Survival proves his love for us is real. Reality is dependable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us (Matthew 7:9-11). His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their understanding of God (Matthew 7:24-27)  (Psalm 18:2). Whom shall we fear?  Of whom shall we be afraid? Our almighty lover will never disappoint us. He will never let us down.  Trust in him. Trust in the reality of his love for us.

The first stage of God's plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears is the sourness of the valley of tears itself. The valley of tears is autodidactic. It pushes the children of Adam and Eve to its exit. Having experienced the pig sty for himself, the prodigal son will never return there. Neither will we.

The second stage is the sweetness of paradise. The sweetness of paradise is not autodidactic. It needed to be revealed to us. The sweetness of paradise shifts our attention from our problems in the valley of tears to their solution. God's love for us is the solution. It pulls us toward the entrance of paradise. God's love for us is the honey that lures the bees back home to the hive.

Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise.

At the crossroads where the entrance to paradise and the exit from the valley of tears meet stands Jesus, our Savior. He straddles the two worlds like a colossus. The great leap from time to eternity is made through his bloody wounds (Our Lady of Quito). He is the way (John 14:6).

Stage 3 of God's plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears is the final stage. God plans to deliver the gift of paradise to us just as God delivered the gift of paradise to Adam and Eve. God will not be less generous with us than God was with them. Adam and Eve were the first beneficiaries of God’s love for us. They were not the last. God’s philanthropy did not end with Adam and Eve; God’s philanthropy began with them. This is good news of great joy - very good news for us indeed. In stage 3 God presents us with the gift of paradise. The only thing problematic in stage 3 is whether or not we will accept it. Our free will allows us to reject the gift of paradise. The sourness of the valley of tears and the sweetness of paradise are the two engines that generate the current of salvation. God caused the current of salvation to flow in order to sweep us off of our feet and carry us from the valley of tears back to our home with him and his holy family in paradise. However, some of us are pathologically recalcitrant. Some will swim against the current instead of drifting with it. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20). God does the bulk of the work in executing his plan to rescue us from our dire predicament in the valley of tears. But we have a role to play as well albeit small. We must respond to the knock and open the door.

  "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me," 
  (Isaiah 46:9)