The Toxic Soil of the Crucifixion
In the toxic soil of the Crucifixion, nothing grows. Nothing. It is a barren and inhospitable matrix - arid and unfruitful. So, when something does grow, we behold a miracle. We plowed him into the toxic soil of the Crucifixion with the same insouciance as the farmer who plows manure into a furrow. In the toxic soil of the Crucifixion, we tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, from the toxic soil of the Crucifixion, he sprouted and blossomed into the beautiful flower of the Resurrection. How? The right irrigation remediates the toxicity of the soil. His secret is that he irrigated himself with love.
How do you make the desert bloom? How do you remediate the toxicity of the wasteland? How do you sanctify the world? By planting the seed of the Resurrection in the toxic soil of the Crucifixion and watering it with love. Ordinarily, the toxic soil of the Crucifixion derails the process of germination. It stops it dead in its tracks. However, when the seed of the Resurrection is watered with love, it blossoms into a flower. Love remediates the toxicity of the soil. Therefore, water the inhospitable desert with love to transform it into a beautiful garden - into a veritable paradise. The trail through the valley of tears that takes us back to our home with God and his holy family in paradise is blazed with love. Follow the blazes. Love is the way, the truth and the life .
He came not to die but to emerge from the dead - there is a difference - a significant difference
Into the toxic soil of the Crucifixion, the most Holy Trinity planted the seed of the Resurrection. The purpose of the planting was to remediate the toxicity of the soil
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The yeast of divinity would leaven the mud of humanity.
As our propinquity to the age of Adam and Eve grows ever more distant in space and time, we develop amnesia and the sweetness of paradise fades from our memory. Our long exile in the valley of tears raises an illusion that obscures from us the sweetness of paradise. God becomes an outcast to his kindred, a stranger to his mother’s children
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The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud to reacquaint the mud with the sweetness of paradise. The children of Adam and Eve had forgotten their God. The most Holy Trinity wanted to remind them of him. They wanted to shatter the illusion that hides the sweetness of paradise from us. Jesus was the sledgehammer of truth that shatters the illusion as the blow of a hammer shatters glass.
As the fair flower of the Resurrection uprose from the foul soil of the Crucifixion, the truth about God started to radiate to the children of Adam and Eve like the dawn of a new day .
Beauty emerged from ugliness.
In a glorious burst of epiphany, the flower of the Resurrection illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God . Jesus revealed his identity to us unambiguously during the greatest and most important conversation that ever took place between God and humanity - the conversation between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the Son of God stepped out from behind it to show himself to us. We notice that when he stepped out from behind the veil, he was not empty-handed. He did not emerge from the dead alone.
Important truths emerged with him when he arose from the dead. What truths? Jesus emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us. He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he emerged from the dead still alive is the proof of the power of Jesus. No one 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 more than power. Divinity is also love. Both power and love survived the evil we did to him.
Ask yourself these questions.
Which truth that emerged with him from the evil baptism into which we immersed him is more surprising? Which is more important? Which is the greater miracle?
The exercise of his power over death or the instransigence of his love for us? All "gods" are powerful. His stubborn love for us, however, makes our God different than the other "gods". Perhaps the hallmark of a "god" is love not power? Jesus was endowed with both. Hallelujah!
The sweetness of paradise dilutes the sourness of godlessness in the same manner that the sweetness of sugar cubes dilutes the sourness of a cup of coffee.