The Return from Exile

We are involved in a love affair with our God. We are characters in his love story. In the course of our love affair, God sent us not one but two gifts: 1) a Love Note and 2) a guarantee of the Love Note's genuineness. The guarantee was written in the ink of suffering.

Jesus was the vehicle that God used to convey his love from heaven to us here in the Valley of Tears. He was the Love Note that God sent us. How often do you get a love note? How often do you get a love note from God? Jesus is the expression of God's love for us - the apotheosis of love. God sent us the Love Note to answer our question, "Who are you, God?, Identify yourself! Friend or foe?". Sending us a Love Note was a measure that God took to mitigate the direness of our predicament in the Valley of Tears. God poured the sweet syrup of love into the Valley of Tears to dilute its toxicity. Have you read the Love Note?

God, however, did not think that the Love Note was enough. He did not want us to have the least doubt of his love for us. So God verified the genuineness of the love note by putting it to the test . The test took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. There, the Love Note and the evil that we did to him met in a violent collision. The violence of the collision was bigger than the Big Bang and larger than CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The byproduct of the violent collision verified the genuineness of the Love Note. We tortured and killed the God who loves us. He suffered and died. Yet, He forgave us. We showed him our worst. He showed us his best. We spurned God's advances. With brutal violence, we tried to terminate the love affair between us and our God. We tried to end the Love Story. But, our God refused. So the Love Story continues. His love for us is relentless. Wow ! Forgiveness was the sweet byproduct of the violent collision. Forgiveness is the blessed fruit of love. A tree is known by its fruit . The fruit of the tree tells us that God is love .

The Church, however, is scandalized about the love affair between the children of Adam and Eve and God. The Church no longer marvels at the significance of receiving a Love Note from God. Instead, the Church has become idolatrous. It worships the false gods of rules, regulations, red tape and rigmarole. It wants the children of Adam and Eve to worship them as well. The Church is so preoccupied with the Catholic identity that it has stopped talking about the identity of God. The Church is allowing God to become a stranger to us. Nobody follows a stranger . “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” . Christianity is the home of God in the Valley of Tears. However, we have exiled God from his home. God is now homeless and Christianity is now godless. We have turned God’s home over to other, lesser aspects of Christianity. Our focus has been hijacked by little things. Minutiae has sidetracked us. The Church no longer pays much attention to the God who forgave us for the evil that we did to him .

And the Church wonders why the children of Adam and Eve are stampeding out of the exits! When the Church empties the Cross of Christ of its meaning, it empties the children of Adam and Eve from the Church .

God is not dead. Indeed, God is very much alive. However, the conversation about God is dead. Killing the conversation about God is tantamount to killing God. The enemies of the Church know this. The Church does not. Can we devote at least 50% of the conversation to God? Is 50% too much to ask?

Come, let us rebuild his Church that has fallen down . Let us stage a homecoming for Jesus. Let us shine the spotlight on who he is and what he did. Let us restore him to the position of prominence in the showcase of Christianity. Let us invite him back from exile and put him once again on his throne. Let us read the Love Note that our Creator sent to his creaures and be astonished. Astonishment causes us to bend the knee and worship him.

 

The Big Picture of Christianity

The Big Picture of Christianity is the Love Affair between God and us. The Love Affair began in earnest with a Love Note that God sent to us. Jesus is the Love Note. Furthermore, the Love Story does not have an ending. Even the evil that we did to Jesus did not bring the Love Story to an end (Jeremiah 31:3). Note: God’s love for us is often unrequited.

 

 CHRISTIANITY IS THE LOVE STORY THAT BEGAN WITH A LOVE NOTE FROM GOD TO US

A LOVE NOTE IS THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY 

God did not keep his love for us to himself. He did not bottle it up. He did not lock it away in the dungeon of his heart. He was not reticent about it. He expressed his love to us. How? GOD EXPRESSED HIS LOVE FOR US BY SENDING US A LOVE NOTEJESUS IS THE EXPRESSION OF GOD'S LOVE FOR US. What genre of literature is the Word of God (John 1:1)? The Word of God is a LOVE NOTE - a LOVE NOTE from God to us.

God composed a LOVE NOTE to us in the Incarnation, delivered it to us in the form of a baby at Bethlehem, verified its genuineness in the violent collision between Jesus, our Savior, and the evil we did to him at and about Calvary, and celebrates its triumph over the serpent who waged war against it whenever a priest says a Mass. 

THE LOVE NOTE IS THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. The edifice of Christianity is built upon the LOVE NOTE

Have you read the LOVE NOTE

Has the knowledge that God loves you sunk in? Have you absorbed it.? Has it permeated your understanding?

 

The Love Story Does Not Have an Ending

Indeed, Christianity is the love story that began with a love note from God to us. God has always loved us (Jeremiah 31:3). However, God’s courtship of humanity began in earnest with the love note. The beginning of the love story, however, isn’t as interesting as its end - or rather, isn’t as interesting as the fact that the love story does not have an end. The ending of the love story is missing. It is not where it is expected to be.

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. The End. The love story ought to have ended here. Yet, it did not. The love story continued past “The End”. Jesus did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. He arose from the dead still alive and still in love with us. His love for us did not fade as we tortured him and did not die when we killed him. He and his love for us survived the evil we did to him.

That he emerged from the dead still alive is the indisputable proof of his power. Nobody emerges from the dead. He did.

That he emerged from the dead still in love with us, however, revealed to us something more significant about divinity than power. 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). 

His radically asymmetric answer to the evil we did to him is the most apocalyptic revelation about God that Jesus gave to us. The love story has no end! We did our best to bring it to an end. We tried to terminate the love story. But, we failed. God refused to end the love story. Wow! [ Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, a love story without end, Amen. Note: the world without end is a love story.]