At Bethlehem, the Son of God became, like us, a creature who suffers. Suffering is our native tongue. Suffering is the only universal language that survived the confounding of languages that took place at Babel . All creatures who suffer understand it. God became a creature who suffers to speak to us in our native tongue at Calvary. Speaking to us in our native tongue makes sure there is no misunderstanding.
What type of literature is the word of God ? The word of God is a love note. The love note was delivered to us at Bethlehem. At Calvary, the proof that the love note is genuine was put into our hands. If the love note were counterfeit, his love for us would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. God's love for us survived the evil we did to him. Calvary is the proof that not even the evil we do to him can destroy his love for us. His love for us is the sweetness of paradise. It is the honey that lures the bees back home to the hive.
They sent a love note from heaven to earth so we could test it for genuineness. It passed the test. We tried but could not extinguish his love for us or reduce it by even the slightest degree. His love for us ought to have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. Instead, it survived the evil baptism into which we immersed him. Wow! We failed to empty his most sacred heart of his love for us. He refused to let the sharp edge of our wickedness poke a hole in his heart and drain it of his love for us. Not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us spilled through his bloody wounds. His most sacred heart stayed full to the brim with love for us.
The mouth of the word of God is his bloody wounds. They spoke to us. A "sentence" was uttered. The "sentence" consisted of just two "words". Yet, with its utterance, the illusion conjured up by the serpent that hid the sweetness of paradise from us was shattered. With the shattering of the illusion, the truth exited the darkness and entered the light. It became visible to us. When we scrutinize it, we behold the sweetness of paradise. Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. The truth sets us free. It induces us to pick up the roots we have sunk deeply into the hostile desert of godlessness, to end our unholy sessility and to begin the journey from godlessness to paradise. When the illusions are shattered, settlers are transformed into pilgrims. Pilgrims make their escape by travelling from holy place to holy place that define the escape route that God built for the new exodus. The new exodus is making its escape from slavery under the yoke of Pharaoh, through the hostile desert of godlessness, to freedom with God and his holy family in the promised land. The new exodus is marching hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, together as a family, to the beat of loving heart of the Son of God .
A Sentence Uttered by The Word of God Shattered the Illusion that Hid the Sweetness of Paradise from Us
God endowed us with the gift of rationality (Genesis 1:26). The truth is the fuel for the engine of rationality. Our rationality, when exposed to the truth, steers us in the right direction. The destination to which our rationality steers us is paradise. Why? Paradise is sweet. Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise.
The serpent, however, conjured up an illusion that hid the sweetness of paradise from us (Godlessness). The illusion gummed up the engine of rationality. It caused the engine of rationality to sputter and fail. As we moved farther and farther away in both space and time from the life Adam and Eve had in Eden, the weaker our memory of the sweetness of paradise became until it finally dissolved completely away into ignorance. By neutralizing the sweetness of paradise, the illusion suppressed its power to pull rational people out of godlessness and to the entrance of paradise. The illusion marooned us in godlessness. Godlessness sucks but we didn't know any better. We did not know that we could escape from it.
To rescue us from godlessness , therefore, the illusion first must be shattered. The sledgehammer of truth must shatter it as the blow of a hammer shatters glass.
To shatter the illusion, the sweetness of paradise revealed itself. It made itself manifest. The veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom and the sweetness of paradise stepped out from behind it (Matthew 27:51). With the illusion shattered, the sweetness of paradise became visible to us. Like iron to magnet, the power of the sweetness of paradise to pull us to the entrance of paradise was now felt. Its sweet fingers tug on our soul and the curious follow the tug to its source. God does not play 'fair" with our salvation. He rigs "the game" in our favor. The weight of the sweetness of paradise bends the "playing field" so that it tilts downward from godlessness to paradise. The gravity of salvation, thus, creates a current that carries all, but those swimming against it, back home to paradise with God and his holy family. Shattering the illusion makes us curious about the sweetness of paradise.
How exactly did he shatter the illusion?
The mouth of the word of God is his bloody wounds. They spoke to us. A sentence was uttered. The sentence consisted of just two words. Yet, with its utterance, the illusion conjured up by the serpent that hid the sweetness of paradise from us was shattered. With the shattering of the illusion, the truth became visible to us. We beheld the sweetness of paradise. Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise.
One of the words of the sentence is reserved for the story that unfolded on the near side of the bloody wounds. The other word of the sentence is reserved for the story that unfolded on the far side of the bloody wounds. Unless you understand both words, it is impossible for you to understand Christianity.
When we look at the near side of his bloody wounds, we only see the evil we did to him and his ignominious defeat. Unlike the mighty God of the Jews who freed his people from the Egyptians, this puny God of the Christians who suffers and dies on a Cross fails to free his people from the Romans. The Romans crushed him in the most horrible way imaginable. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Through his wounds, buckets of blood spilled from his body. His very life itself was carried out of his body on this cataract of blood. The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud. Instead of welcoming him, the mud tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Deicide. Ungrateful is the mud. This is the first word of the vocabulary of the bloody wounds. There is another.
A different story unfolded on the far side of the bloody wounds. As we pierced his body with bloody wounds, the bloody wounds pierced the veil between heaven and earth to open a portal between the two worlds. Only when we look through the bloody wounds as though they were a telescope to their far side do we catch a glimpse of heaven from here on earth. On the far side of his bloody wounds, the story that unfolded is the story of his goodness and his glorious victory. Through the telescope of his bloody wounds, we see into his most sacred heart. We see that not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us spilled through his bloody wounds. He refused to let the sharp edge of our evil poke a hole in his most sacred heart and drain it of his love for us. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. He clung to his love for us, held tight, and refused to let go. This is the second word of the vocabulary of the bloody wounds
Our evil drew blood but did not draw love. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. That he emerged from the dead still alive is the proof that Jesus is God. Nothing emerges from the black hole of death. He did. That he emerged from the dead still in love with us, however, is the proof of so much more than "mere" divinity. This added detail reveals to us that our simple conception of divinity as omnipotence is not quite accurate. Divinity has another aspect besides omnipotence. That love survived the evil we did to him is the proof that divinity is love.
The bloody wounds speak to us. Listen to what they have to say (Matthew 11:15). The bloody wounds speak to us using a sentence of only two words. We all can understand two words. The intransigence of his love for us in the face of our wickedness reveals to us unambiguously the strength of his love for us (Romans 5:7-9). Wow! Who is this strange and wonderful God who continues to love the mud nonetheless even though the mud tortured and killed him?
P.S.
God tied together our wickedness and his love for us in the Crucifixion as tightly as beans and cornbread (Click Here) are tied together. He turned our wickedness into an amplifier. Our wickedness amplifies his love for us. Our wickedness is a witness to the strength of God's love for us - it testifies to its strength. Leave out the amplifier and you cannot understand Christianity. Leave out the love and you cannot understand Christianity. An understanding of both words of the vocabulary of the bloody wounds is necessary to understand Christianity in its fullness.
The Son of God came to rescue us while we were still mud, that is, while we were still unworthy. It is ludicrous for some mud to supercilliously look down upon other mud. We are all unworthy. We are all deserving of scorn. Some mud is not better than other mud. We are all mud.
The sledgehammer of truth that shatters the illusion conjured up by the serpent that camouflages the sweetness of paradise from us is the bloody wounds that we opened in the body of the Son of God during the Crucifixion. It shatters the illusion as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. The truth sets us free because rational people seek the sweetness of paradise (and flee the sourness of godlessness). It is contrary to our self interest to do otherwise.
In the Crucifixion, the Son of God demonstrated that love transforms us into superman enabling us to deny ourselves, pick up the cross of suffering and carry it so we can continue our journey through the hostile desert of godlessness to paradise.
The sweetness of paradise is an engine that pulls us to its entrance. It is one of two engines that drive the current of salvation. The other engine is the sourness of godlessness.
The Crucifixion shattered the illusion conjured up by the serpent that camouflaged the sweetness of paradise. It shattered the illusion as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud to reveal to the mud the sweetness of paradise. Revelation was the purpose of the Crucifixion. In the Crucifixion, God revealed the size and the duration of his love for us. The size of his love for us was revealed by the cost he paid out of his own pocket to underwrite the revelation. He paid the cost not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the cost 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. His willingness to pay everything he owned for us tells us that there is nothing he would not do for our salvation. The duration of his love for us was revealed by the failure of the evil that we did to him to poke a hole in his most sacred heart and drain it of his love for sinners. Not a drop of his love for sinners spilled through the bloody wounds we opened in his body. Buckets of blood spilled but not a drop - not a drop - of his love for sinners spilled. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for sinners. He emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. Why did God want to reveal the size and duration of his love to us? God endowed the mud with the faculty of rationality. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise (and flee the sourness of godlessness). It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. The truth sets us free. The sweetness of paradise is the honey that induces the bees to return home to the hive. Jesus impaled on the Cross like a worm on the hook is the bait. The Son of God allowed us to impale him on the sharp hook of salvation so he could be cast into the cesspools of sin as bait to catch the children of Adam and Eve.
The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands did not put himself into the hands of the mud to reveal to the mud that Jesus is God. He put himself into the hands of the mud to reveal an important detail about divinity. The imporant detail about divinity that the Son of God came to reveal was that divinity is love. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. That he emerged from the dead still alive is the proof the Jesus is God. Nobody emerges alive from the blackhole of death. He did. Yet, this fact is incidental to the revelation. That he emerged from the dead still in love with us is the proof of so much more than "mere" divinity. It is the proof that divinity is love. At Bethlehem, God sent us a love note. At Calvary, God put into our hands the proof that the love note is genuine. If the love note were counterfeit, it would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. It survived. Its survival is the proof that the love note is genuine. Love is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet. It is the honey that induces the bees to return home to the hive.
Why did the Son of God pay us a visit?
What was the purpose of his visit? The purpose of his visit was as unique as God is unique. Most still do not understand the purpose of his visit. He did not pay us a visit to eradicate wickedness with rules, regulations, rigmarole and red tape. His purpose was to eradicate wickedness with love. Until we understand the purpose of his visit, we will not be able to help our savior achieve it. In fact, we will take actions that thwart it. Only love transforms sinners into saints. Rules, regulations, rigmarole and red tape do not.
The Basis of the Christian Religion
Christianity is a religion based on a love note and a demonstration of its genuineness - a proposition and its proof. At Bethlehem, the most Holy Trinity put their love note into our hands. It was a most unusual love note. It was not lifeless words written on dead paper. It was the living word of God (John 1:1) written large on the parchment of life itself. What genre of literature was the word of God (John 1:1)? It was a love note. The demonstration of its genuineness took place at Calvary. If the love note were counterfeit, His love for sinners would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. It survived. Its survival is the proof that the love note is genuine. A collision between good and evil took place at Calvary. The collision was bigger than the big bang and larger than the Large Hadron collider. The collision revealed the identity of Jesus by producing two byproducts: 1) He did not stay dead and 2) He did not stop loving us (Luke 23:34). That he did not stay dead is the proof that Jesus is God. By conquering death, he demonstrated his divinity. No mortal emerges alive from the black hole of death. He did. That he did not stop loving sinners, however, is the proof of so much more than "mere" divinity. It is the proof that divinity is love. Divinity is the cake. God's immeasurably large and indestructible love for sinners is the icing on the cake of divinity. That he did not stop loving sinners is the salt that imbues divinity with its flavor (Matthew 5:13). Divinity without love is insipid (Matthew 5:13) (1 Corinthians 13). Divinity is black and white television. Divinity that loves sinners is color television. Divinity alone is flat. Divinity that loves sinners is multi-dimensional. Jesus with just divinity is no different than any other god - and we have worshiped many other gods (Exodus 20: 1-3). Jesus who loves sinners is the God who is unique (Isaiah 6:1-5) (Revelation 4:1-9). Our God is unique because he loves sinners as much as he love saints (Isaiah 6:1-5) (Revelation 4:1-9).
What do the Bloody Wounds Teach Us?
A one gallon tank cannot handle two gallons of information. The bloody wounds that we opened in the body of Christ are two gallons of information - one gallon of information occupies the near side of his bloody wounds and one gallon of information occupies their far side. You cannot understand the meaning of the bloody wounds unless the capacity of your understanding matches the quantity of the information.
When we look at the skin of reality, that is, at near side of his bloody wounds, we only see the evil we did to him and his failure. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. The story that unfolded on the near side of his bloody wounds is the story of our wickedness and his ignominious defeat. Unlike the mighty God of the Jews who freed his people from the Egyptians, this puny God of the Christians who suffers and dies on a Cross did not free his people from the Romans. The Romans crushed him in the most horrible way imaginable. Our wickedness and his failure occupy the layer of reality on the near side of the bloody wounds.
A different story, however, unfolded on the far side of the bloody wounds - on a subcutaneous layer of reality. As we pierced his body with bloody wounds, the bloody wounds pierced the veil between heaven and earth to open a portal between the two worlds. Only when we look through the bloody wounds as though they were a telescope to their far side do we catch a glimpse of heaven from here on earth. On the far side of his bloody wounds, the story that unfolded is the story of his glorious victory. Indeed, the collision between good and evil that took place at Calvary resulted in his death. Ordinarily, nothing emerges from the black hole of death. Yet, in the case of Jesus, two glorious phenomena, not one, miraculously emerged! 1) He did not stay dead and 2) He did not stop loving sinners. That he did not stay dead is the proof that Jesus is God. That he did not stop loving sinners is the proof, however, of so much more than his Divinity. It is irrefutable proof that Divinity is love. Note: only his love for sinners extinguishes our wickedness. It extinguishes our wickedness like a wet blanket extinguishes a fire - like the gushing water from a fire hose extinguishes a conflagration. Our wickedness is no match to his gushing love for sinners. The flame of wickedness does not extinguish the water of love. The water of love extinguishes the flame of wickedness. It is important to take notice of the direction in which wickedness and love flow. Rock beats scissors; scissors beats paper; paper beats rock. And love beats wickedness (See, 'How to Pick Up One's Cross and Carry it (Matthew 16:24) like Superman?' below).
The bloody wounds are a telescope. Look through them not just at them. When you look through them, you can catch a glimpse of heaven from here on earth.
Reality is not thin. It is thick. It is thick because it does not consist of a single layer. Multiple layers give realtity its thickness. They form a stack. Furthermore, different stories unfold on the different layers of reality. Each layer of reality is a substrate for a story. In the Crucifixion are two layers of reality. There is a skin of reality and a subcutaneous layer of reality. To see the story that unfolded on the subcutaneous layer of reality, one must look through the bloody wounds as one would look though a telescope. By just looking at the bloody wounds we only see the story that unfolded on the skin of reality. To understand the Crucifixion in its fullness, one must look at the stories that unfolded on both layers of reality. Doing otherwise, distorts the meaning of the Crucifixion.
Our Guest Brought us a Gift
When he paid us a visit more than two thousand years ago at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of our planet called the Middle East, he did not come empty handed. He was not that type of guest. He brought a gift for his hosts. The gift was not a useless tchotchke. It was useful - oh, so very, very useful. It was a practical gift appropriate for those who are passing through the sourness of godlessness. As we pass through the sourness of godlessness, crosses of suffering nail themselves to us. They plant us, like a tree, in the ground, stopping our progress short of our destination which is paradise. Taking pity on us, the Son of God wanted to reveal to us the secret of denying ourselves, of picking up our crosses of suffering and of carrying them so our progress from godlessness to paradise could continue. He did not want to just tell us the secret. Secrets told tend to get distorted or lost in their transmission. The Son of God wanted to demonstrate the secret to us himself. Showing us rather than telling us the secret would brand it indelibly on our understanding like a tattoo to flesh. So he mounted the cross of suffering to put on the demonstration. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and did not stop loving us. He arose from the dead still alive and still in love with us. He clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go. The Son of God refused to let the sharp edge of suffering poke a hole in his most sacred heart and drain it of his love for us. Buckets of blood spilled though the wounds we opened in his body but not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us spilled. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us.
Clinging to love, holding tight and refusing to let go is the secret hanging in plain sight from the Cross. Love transforms us into superman. It enables us to pick up and carry our crosses of suffering. Clinging to love, holding tight and not letting go allows us to continue our escape through the hostile desert of godlessness from slavery under the yoke of Pharaoh to freedom with God and his holy family in the promised land. Love lightens the load. It makes our crossess of suffering portable. It gives us the strength to pull up the roots we have sunk deep into the hostile desert of godlessness. Love enables settlers to become pilgrims.
Love beats Wickedness
Rock beats scissors; scissors beats paper; paper beats rock. And love beats wickedness.
The Son of God did not pay us a visit to ease the passage through godlessness of those at the top of this world. He came to ease the passage through godlessness of those at the bottom . He brought those at the bottom a gift, to wit, the means to blunt the sharp edge of godlessness as they pass through it. The Son of God brought those at the bottom the means to pick up and carry the crosses of suffering to which we are nailed during our temporary exile in the sourness of godlessness. . Success in this world is not marked by the climb from the bottom to the top. Success in this world is marked by coming to grips with the secret that is hanging in plain sight from the Cross and applying to your lives.
The sourness of godlessness drives the children of Adam and Eve to seek the means to blunt its sharpness. We run before it as a herd of antelope runs before a wildfire in the savannah. We turn to the vices. We turn to drugs, alchohol, sex etc. but they do not work. We climb from the bottom of this world to the top upon the backs of our neighbors. The closer we get to the top the blunter the sharp edge seems. No matter what we do, however, we remain unhappy. Our unhappiness in godlessness evokes pity in the heart of our God. It is decided that the Son of God would pay us a visit, bring with him and deliver to us the solution to the problem of the sharp edge of godlessness.The Son of God would come himself. He would not send a subordinate. He would not dispatch a flunky. Moreover, He would not just tell us the solution. He would demonstrate the solution for us himself. He himself would show us how to blunt the sharp edge of godlessness despite the exorbitant cost to him of doing so. Thus, the God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud. He allowed us to nail him to the Cross and plant the cross in the ground. He then denied himself, picked up the Cross and carried it. How? He clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go. By act of will, he refused to allow the sharp edge of godlessness to poke a hole in his heart and drain it of his love for us. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. To blunt the sharp edge of godlessness, he invites us to do likewise. He invites us to cling to love, hold tight and not let go. Love is the yeast of divinity. It leavens us. Keeping love in our hearts makes us godlike. It creates an oasis of paradise in the hostile desert of godlessness. The Son of God showed us the constructive power of love and suggests that we use it to mitigate the destructive power of the crosses of suffering that plague us during our temporary exile in godlessness. Love is the grease for the wheels that smooths Our passage through the sourness of godlessness.
The war we must win does not take place on the face of the earth. The war we must win takes place within us. It is the war between suffering and love.
How to Win the War between Suffering and Love
Boy, do we misunderstand the purpose of turning the other cheek! The purpose of turning the other cheek is not to benefit the evildoer. It is to benefit ourselves. We turn the other cheek for our own sake. We don't owe the evildoer the duty of turning the other cheek. We owe it to ourselves. In Matthew 16:24, we are not told to let ourselves be crushed under the cross of suffering. Oh, no! We are told to pick up the cross of suffering and carry it as he picked it up and carried it. The "denial of self" advice that Jesus reveals to us in Matthew 16:24 is the secret that enables us, like superman, to pick up our crosses of suffering and carry them. We deny ourselves because, when burdened with the cross of suffering, our "selves" steer us in the wrong direction - in a direction that is more destructive to ourselves than the crosses of suffering that plague us.
Suffering and love are at war and we are their battlefield. The war is being waged within us. Which is more destructive to you: 1) carrying the cross of suffering or 2) letting go of love? More destructive to you than the cross of suffering to which you are nailed is the loss of love. The loss of love transforms you into the most miserable and hideous of the beasts. The loss of love diminishes you far more than the cross of suffering diminishes you. Suffering tends to extinguish love. Suffering tends to snuff love out as a wet blanket snuffs out a fire. The tendency is powerful. When the cross of suffering is upon you, your intuition tells you to release your grip on love - your instinct tells you to let it go. Do not trust your intuition. Do not heed it. Ignore your instinct. Deny yourself (Matthew 16:24). Deny this powerful tendency. Fight against it. With the help of God, refuse its urgings. Like the serpent, it is trying to steer you in the wrong direction. It is giving you instructions that contradict your self-interest. Your natural inclination is lying to you. It is trying to deceive you. You are worse off, not better off, when you yield to it. Keep the fire of love burning at all times. Do not let suffering extinguish it. Do not let suffering poke a hole in your heart and drain it of love. Maintain a buffering firewall between your love and your suffering. The dial that controls our love is in our hands. Do not surrender it to suffering. Your welfare depends on clinging to love and refusing to let go.
As we baptized him in the boiling cauldron of suffering, He clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go. He clung with the iron grip of the drowning man who clings to a life preserver in the stormy sea after his ship has sunk. Love is the life preserver. Love is our sanctuary in the midst of suffering. Love is our strength. When we cling to love, the Cross does not crush us. It does not bury us. We can pick it up. We can carry it. Love makes the weight of the Cross light. Love gives our crosses wings (Pope Benedict XVI "If a person bears great love in himself, this love gives him wings, as it were, and he can face all life’s troubles more easily ...."). Love is our strength. Love turns us into supermen and superwomen. Therefore, cling as Jesus clung. Hold tight and refuse to let go.
The secret is hanging in plain sight from the Cross. From the Cross, Jesus let us in on the secret. What is more amazing is that he did not just tell us the secret. He demonstrated it. He showed us how to tie our own shoelaces by tying his own - and suggesting to us that our self-interest is best served by imitating him. When the boulder of suffering rolls on top of us to try to crush us beneath its unbearable weight, we are not powerless. We can resist. We can fight back. We can push against the crush. Like superman, we can pick it up and carry it.
The secret of clinging to love, holding tight and not letting go is a secret helpful to all regardless of religion. It is helpful to Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist etc.
Is it surprising that the Son of God would reveal to us the sanctuary in which we can take refuge in times of suffering? Is it surprising that he revealed the secret of how we can pick up our crosses and carry them? Is it surprising that he would reveal the secret of winning the war between suffering and love?
When Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan steps out of St. Patrick's Cathedral onto its front steps and gazes across Fifth Avenue to Rockefeller Center, he sees the 45 feet tall, bronze statue of Atlas. In the mythology of the Greeks, Atlas was a Titan who waged war against the Olympian gods and lost. Zeus punished the defeated Atlas by making him bear the weight of the world on his shoulders forever. What a cross Atlas had to bear! Yet, Atlas picked up his cross and carried it. Atlas had the strength of a Titan. We do not. Do we need the strength of a mythological Titan to pick up our crosses and carry them? No. Only love. We need only love. Jesus taught us that love is a substitute for physical strength. In his Crucifixion, Jesus taught us that the frailest of us can transform ourselves into supermen and superwomen - that we can find the strength to pick up and carry our crosses - simply by clinging to love, holding tight and not letting go. Love lightens our load. Love makes our Crosses buoyant. This is the secret hanging in plain sight from the Cross (Matthew 11:30).
Why Body and Blood?
Why body and blood? Why not elbow and knee? Why not neck and nose? Why two items? Why not one or more than two? Jesus's choice of body and blood was not accidental. There is a connection between his body and his blood. What is the connection? His body and his blood point to the wounds we opened through which a cataract of blood poured from his body. Around his bloody wounds human history pivots. As we pierced his body with bloody wounds, we pierced the veil between heaven and earth. The bloody wounds are a telescope through which we catch a glimpse of heaven from here on earth. On their near side is godlessness, our place of exile. On their far side is paradise, our destination. We make our escape through them. The bloody wounds are the gateway through which the new exodus marches on the escape route from slavery under the yoke of Pharaoh to freedom with God and his holy family in the promised land. He is the way because his bloody wounds are the bridge between godlessness and paradise (John 14:6). He is the truth because his bloody wounds reveal the truth that the nature of God is immeasurable and indestructible love for sinners (John 14:6). He is the life because we must pass through his bloody wounds to get it (John 14:6). Therefore, do not just say, when you behold the most Holy Eucharist, 'Look, there is the Son of God'. This misses the point by a mile. When you behold the most Holy Eucharist, joyously exclaim, 'Look, there is the Son of God and he carries his bloody wounds with him.' In the bloody wounds is the meaning of everything. A Jesus without his bloody wounds is just the Son of God - neutral - stripped of his character - salt without its savour (Matthew 5:13). A Jesus with his bloody wounds is so much more. A Jesus with his bloody wounds is the sweetness of paradise. The bloody wounds are the visible tokens of God's immeasurable and indestructible love for sinners. His immeasurable and indestructible love for sinners is the sweetness of paradise - the honey that draws the bees back home to the hive.
P.S. God instituted the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist and not Eucharistic Adoration because he wanted the children of Adam and Eve to focus on the meaning of his bloody wounds and not merely on his real presence. In Eucharistic Adoration there is a risk of focusing on the real presence at the expense of focusing on his bloody wounds. The risk has been realized because the conversation ignores the bloody wounds.
Taking Hold of the Hand of God
The journey through life can be made alone or hand-in-hand with God (Isaiah 41:13). The choice is ours. Adam and Eve were the first. They disengaged their hand from God's to go it alone without him (Godlessness). As we make the journey through life, the issue we must resolve before we reach the journey's end is whether or not to take hold of the hand of God or to go it alone without him. This is what life is all about.
Although Adam and Eve withdrew their hand from God's, God did not withdraw his hand from them. God's hand remains extended ready to engage with all who reach out to him (Luke 15:11-32). Our welfare depends on re-engagement with God. We were not designed to go it alone without him. On our own in the hostile desert of godlessness, our welfare is in jeopardy. Out of concern for our well-being, the Son of God himself dove in after us to rescue us from our impetuous, ill-conceived, madcap, self-destructive escapade into godlessness (Luke 15: 1-7). The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud to persuade the mud to come back home to paradise. His plan is to show the mud the sweetness of paradise. God had endowed the mud with the faculty of rationality. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise (and flee the sourness of godlessness). It is against our interest to do otherwise. God, however, will not drag us back home to paradise against our wills kicking and screaming like recalcitrant children. Our return must be voluntary. We must choose to return home and to stay home.
Take God's hand. Never let go. Walk with him on your journey through life. Let him show you the way. Furthermore, you are not alone. Others are doing the same. Seek them out. Walk with them as well. For your sake, take his hand. Life is about taking hold of the hand of God. Nothing more. Nothing less.
The Delay
To increase the likelihood that the children of Adam and Eve would keep the gift of paradise after the gift of paradise was delivered to them, God introduced a delay between the delivery of the gift of life and the delivery of the gift of paradise. God tweaked the timing of the delivery of his gifts. During the delay, God lets us stew in the sourness of godlessness. The delay is harsh but effective medicine. It is effective because it prevents post delivery paradise opt out. It is harsh because godlessness sucks. The delay is the source of all of the complaints about God.
Persuasion
Experience is the most powerful of persuaders. The lessons we learn first hand through experience are more persuasive than the lessons we learn second hand through hearsay. The pig sty was the prodigal son's most persuasive teacher and the sourness of godlessness is ours. Having experienced the sourness of godlessness for ourselves, we shall not repeat the "original sin" of our parents, Adam and Eve. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us, we shall keep it. The prodigal son is never going back to the pig sty and neither are we.
The Two Byproducts of the Collision between Good and Evil at Calvary Revealed the Identity of Jesus
A collision between good and evil took place at Calvary. The collision was bigger than the big bang and larger than . We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us . The byproducts of the collision revealed the identity of Jesus. That he did not stay dead is the proof that Jesus is God. By conquering death, he demonstrated his divinity. No mortal emerges alive from the black hole of death. He did. That he did not stop loving sinners, however, is the proof of so much more than "mere" divinity. It is the proof that divinity is love. Divinity is the cake. God's immense and indestructible love for sinners is the icing on the cake of divinity. That he did not stop loving sinners is the salt that imbues divinity with its flavor (Matthew 5:13). Divinity without love is insipid (Matthew 5:13) (1 Corinthians 13). Divinity is black and white television. Divinity that loves sinners is color television. Divinity alone is flat. Divinity that loves sinners is multi-dimensional. Jesus with just divinity is no different than any other god - and we have worshiped many other gods (Exodus 20: 1-3). Jesus who loves sinners is the God who is unique (Isaiah 6:1-5) (Revelation 4:1-9). Our God is unique because he loves sinners as much as he love saints (Isaiah 6:1-5) (Revelation 4:1-9).
The Love Note and its Guarantee
God sent us a love note at Bethlehem. At Calvary, God gave us a guarantee that the love note is genuine. If the love note were counterfeit, God's love for us would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. Its survival is the guarantee that the love note is genuine.
The Payment of the Exorbitant Cost of the Guarantee
He paid the cost of the guarantee of his love for us not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the cost 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. His willingness to pay everything he owned for us tells us that there is nothing he would not do for our salvation.
The Size and Duration of His Love for Sinners
At Calvary, the Son of God gave us a revelation. He did not make a purchase. He made the exorbitant payment to demonstrate to sinners the size and the duration of his love for them. The demonstration was made ipso facto by the paying. In the paying was the demonstration. He revealed to us the size and the duration of his love for us so we would know the sweetness of paradise. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise (and flee the sourness of godlessness). It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. The truth sets us free.
Evil Failed to Drain his Most Sacred Heart of His Love for Us
The evil we did to him did not poke a hole in his most sacred heart and drain it of his love for us. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. Buckets of blood spilled through the wounds we opened in his body but not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us spilled.
An Impregnable Firewall Separates our Evil and His Love for us
The Crucifixion revealed the existence of a firewall between his love for sinner and our wickedness. A buffer zone - an abyss - a great gulf (Luke 16:26) is situated between our wickedness and his love for sinners. The firewall keeps his love for sinners disconnected from our wickedness. His love for sinners is independent of our wickedness. It does not rise or fall as our wickedness rises and falls. God loves sinners despite our wickedness. The Crucifixion demonstrated the impregnability of the firewall.
We tested God's love for sinners in the worst of circumstances and it proved genuine.
We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. These are the worst of circumstances. Even in the worst of circumstances, he continued to love us nonetheless. He clung to his love for sinners, held tight and did not let go. The worst of circumstances tested his love for sinners and it passed the test . Love that has been tested for genuineness is different than love that is untested . Love that has been tested is trustworthy. It is reliable. We can depend on it.
It's the bait, stupid!
(Click here for the Origin of the Expression)
"With what do you bait the hook?" This is the first question that every evangelist must answer. Until an evangelist discovers the answer to this question, he will catch no fish. God wants us to be fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). However, when it is time to bait the hook, we haven't a clue. We get flummoxed. We slap whatever is handy onto the hook willy nilly without any forethought whatsoever. Our self-defeating tendency is to bait the hook with what appeals to us and not with what appeals to the fish. The bait we use most often is the nitty-gritty of Christianity. Seldom do we bait the hook with Christianity's pizzazz. When the fish don't take the bait, we blame everyone and everything else but ourselves. 'It is the fault of the fish not us', we cry in defense of our failure to catch any fish. Smugly we proclaim that a smaller, purer Church (See, Komonchak) is our goal thereby transforming, through the power of words to dissemble, our failure into a success (See, The Emperor's New Clothes). We are losing the war but our euphemisms are convincing us that we are winning it. We are fooling ourselves. A slap in the face is needed to wake us up from our false dreams and to bring us back to reality. The moment, therefore, is ripe to ask and answer the question: What bait catches fish (Matthew 4:19)? The only bait that catches fish is God's love for sinners. If your purpose is to catch fish, bait the hook with God's love for sinners as revealed to us in the Crucifixion. The fish take this bait hook, line and sinker. God's love for sinners has two salient characteristics: 1) size and 2) duration. The size of God's love for sinners is immense. How do we know the size of God's love for sinners? He showed us its size at Calvary. There he put on a demonstration. The demonstration he produced for us at Calvary was not free. Its production came at a cost. Moreover, for the demonstration to work, the Son of God needed to pay its cost out of his own pocket. No payment; no demonstration. Therefore, he paid the cost of the demonstration not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the cost 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. The size of the payment he made demonstrated the size of his love for sinners. Both are exorbitant (John 15:13). The duration of God's love for sinners is forever. How do we know the duration of God's love for sinners? We know the duration of God's love for sinners from the aftermath of Calvary. A collision between good and evil took place at Calvary. The collision was bigger than the big bang and larger than the Large Hadron collider. The collision produced two byproducts. The two byproducts helped to reveal the identity of Jesus. What are the two byproducts of the collision? 1) He did not stay dead and 2) He did not stop loving us (Luke 23:34). That he did not stay dead is the proof that Jesus is God. By conquering death, he demonstrated his divinity. No mortal emerges alive from the black hole of death. He did. That he did not stop loving sinners, however, is the proof of so much more than divinity. It is the proof that divinity is love. Divinity is the cake. God's immense and indestructible love for sinners is the icing on the cake of divinity. That he did not stop loving sinners is the salt that imbues divinity with its flavor (Matthew 5:13). Divinity without love is insipid (Matthew 5:13) (1 Corinthians 13). Divinity is black and white television. Divinity that loves sinners is color television. Divinity alone is flat. Divinity that loves sinners is multi-dimensional. Jesus with just divinity is no different than any other god - and we have worshiped many other gods (Exodus 20: 1-3). Jesus who loves sinners is the God who is unique (Isaiah 6:1-5) (Revelation 4:1-9). TThe Crucifixion demonstrated that his love for us is genuine. 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. It survived. Its survival is the guarantee of authenticity of his love for us. The Crucifixion revealed the existence of a firewall between his love for sinner and our wickedness. A buffer zone - an abyss - a great gulf (Luke 16:26) is situated between our wickedness and his love for sinners. The firewall keeps his love for sinners disconnected from our wickedness. His love for sinners is independent of our wickedness. It does not rise or fall as our wickedness rises and falls. God loves sinners despite our wickedness. The Crucifixion demonstrated the impregnability of the firewall. During the Crucifixion, our wickedness did not reach his love for sinners. The Son of God refused to allow our wickedness to go farther than his bloody wounds - to go farther than the skin of reality. The Son of God refused to let it reach his most sacred heart to extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us therein or to reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. The dial that controls his love for sinners is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. How do we know? The Crucifixion tells us so. However, in the other direction, no firewall exists. God smothers sinners with his love. His love for sinners extinguishes our wickedness as a wet blanket extinguishes a fire - as the gushing water from a fire hose extinguishes a conflagration. Our wickedness is no match for his gushing love for sinners. The flame of wickedness does not extinguish the water of love. The water of love extinguishes the flame of wickedness. It is important to take notice of the direction in which wickedness and love flow. Rock beats scissors; scissors beats paper; paper beats rock. And love beats wickedness. At Bethlehem, the most Holy Trinity put their love note into our hands. It was a most unusual love note. It was not lifeless words written on dead paper. It was the living word of God (John 1:1) written large on the parchment of life itself. The love note lived and breath and initially took the form of a baby born in obscurity in the boondocks of time and space. Before he paid us a visit more than two thousand years ago, God's love for sinners was inconspicuous, anonymous and remote - known only to a small, nomadic tribe called the Jews. By all measures, the love note ought to have disappeared unnoticed, as most facts do, into the bottomless well of history. Why didn't it? Because God did not deliver the love note to us alone. He provided an escort for it. He delivered it to us with a demonstration of its genuineness - indisputable proof of its veracity - that guaranteed its authenticity (Romans 5: 6-10). At Calvary, His love for sinners was put to the test (Matthew 4:7). We impaled the love note on the sharp hook of salvation to demonstrate that the love note is genuine. We impaled Him with the same insouciance as the fisherman who impales a worm on a hook. If the love note were counterfeit, His love for sinners would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. It survived. Its survival is the proof that the love note is genuine. Furthermore, God instituted a perpetual advertisement to promulgate the love note and its demonstration of genuineness and established a sales force to distribute the perpetual advertisement to the ends of the earth. The perpetual advertisement instituted by God is the Mass and the sales force that God established is the Church. The Church via the Mass has distributed the love note and its demonstration of genuineness through time and space from then and there to us here and now (Isaiah 11:9). Knowledge of the love note and its demonstration of genuineness comes to us only because God established a Church and instituted the Mass. No Church, no Mass, no knowledge of the love note and the guarantee (Isaiah 11:9). Therefore, fish not with a naked hook. Fish not with the nitty gritty of Christianity. Only fish with Christianity's pizzazz. Only fish with Jesus impaled like a worm on a hook. Jesus impaled like a worm on the hook is the bait. Cast Jesus impaled on the sharp hook of salvation into the cesspools of sin to fish for the children of Adam and Eve (Matthew 4:19). So, tell us. With what do you bait your hook to fish for the children of Adam and Eve (Matthew 4:19)? Have you ever thought about it? Can you articulate it? Are you an amateur fishermen - a dilettante with a degree in divinity who pretends to know how to fish? Or are you a professional fisherman who is not squeamish about baiting the hook of salvation with the body and blood of Christ A professional fisherman pays, at the least, a modicum of attention to the bait he is using. Do you?
"Begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate [for] he comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case." Martin Luther King Junior (Click Here)