The Dial that Controls His Love for Sinners

The dial that controls his love for sinners is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and his locked in place.

The temperature of his love for us does not vacillate. It does not rise or fall in accordance with our saintliness and sinfullness. The bloody wounds we opened in the body of Christ proved to us that there is nothing - nothing - we can do to extinguish his love for us or reduce it by even the slightest degree. That the evil baptism into which we immersed him while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth did not drain his heart of his love for us tells us in no uncertain terms that nothing can. His love for us is immune to our wickedness. His love for us is intransigent. It is independent.

Calvary was God's Declaration of Indepence. At Calvary, the Son of God proved that His love for us is independent of the evil we do to him.

The Sledgehammer of Truth Shatters the Illusion

The sledgehammer of truth shatters the illusion conjured up by the serpent as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. All truth? No. Just the subset of truth that reveals the sourness of godlessness. 

The sourness of godlessness is an engine that pushes us to its exit.

The sourness of godlessness proves that the serpent was a liar and that God was telling the truth. 

The Illusion

The serpent conjured up an illusion that sugarcoated the sourness of godlessness. 

God is a Philanthropist (Not a Sadist)

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.

Fumbling the Ball

The gift of paradise is already in the pipeline. Its delivery to us is ineluctable. Putting the gift of paradise into our hands is not the challenge that God faces. Getting us to keep the gift of paradise without having to turn paradise into a prison, God into our warden and us into prisoners is the challenge. God's creatures tend to "fumble the ball" after the gift of paradise has been delivered to them. Butterfingers. The gift of paradise too often slips through their hands. Lucifer fumbled the ball. So did the gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer. Eve fumbled the ball. Adam fumbled the ball as well. When God gives his creatures the gift of paradise, God wants us to keep it. This is God's goal. God devised his "plan" to rescue us from godlessness around this goal. 

The Purpose of the Visit

'Shall we send them another book of rules like the ten commandments?' 'No', the most Holy Trinity decided. 'Instead of a rule book, let us send them a love note to reveal our love for them. Furthermore, let us put into their hands incontrovertible proof that the love note is genuine.'  

'Shall we free them from the Romans as we freed them from the Egyptians?' 'No', the most Holy Trinity decided. 'Let us free them from their worst oppressor. Let us pour love into their hearts to drive out the miserable and hideous beast of lovelessness within.'

The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud for the purpose of revelation. He revealed to us the sweetness of paradise.

Indestructibility

Jesus was sent to prove the indestructibility of himself and of his love for us. From the black hole of death, he emerged still alive and still in love for us. Why? Why did God feel the need to communicate this to us and to communicate this himself?

God wanted to communicate this and communicate this himself to take away our fear. 

Julian of Norwich (Click Here)

The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.” ― Julian of Norwich

The Escape Route

God built an escape route through the valley of tears from godlessness to paradise, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church and entrusted the map to the Church. The job of the Church is to facilitate the escape not to frustrate it, filter it or foul it up. The escape from godlessness to paradise is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect (Matthew 23:13)  (Matthew 23:24)  (Matthew 6:33).

Speaking in Our Native Tongue

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 (Genesis 11:1-9) 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.

The Mouth of the Word of God is his Bloody Wounds.

The mouth of the word of God is his bloody wounds. They spoke to us. A "sentence" was uttered. The "sentence" consisted not of one "word" but two "words".  The two "words" describe the different stories that unfolded on each side of his bloody wounds.

The first "word" of the sentence that the Son of God uttered to us through his bloody wounds describes the story that unfolded on their near side. When we look at the near side of his bloody wounds, we see the baptism of torture and death into which we immersed him. We see his ignominious defeat.

However, his bloody wounds have two sides not just one. They have a near side and a far side. Different stories unfolded on each of the sides of his bloody wounds.

The second "word" that the Son of God uttered to us through his bloody wounds describes the story that unfolded on their far side. When we look through the bloody wounds as though we are looking through a telescope, we catch a glimpse of paradise from here on earth. We see his glorious victory. We see that he emerged from the black hole of death still alive and still in love with us.

That he emerged from the black hole of death still alive is the proof that Jesus is God. Nobody emerges alive from the black hole of death. He did.

That he emerged from the black hole of death still in love with us, however, proves 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 a sentence of two "words" to us not one. Two "words" make up the vocabulary of his bloody wounds not one. Leave out one of the "words" and Christianity is distorted.

Typically, part of the second "word" of the sentence is omitted. His emergence from the black hole of death alive (the Resurrection) is typically mentioned. The emergence from the black hole of death still in love with us is typically unsaid.

The goal of the serpent was to drain his most sacred heart of his love for us. But the serpent failed. Buckets of blood spilled from the bloody wounds that we opened in his body. But not a drop of his love for us spilled. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. Salvation history is the story of the many failed attempts of the serpent to persuade God to stop loving us. The Crucifixion is the pinnacle of the serpent's failure. Despite the evil we did to him, God refused to stop loving us. Wow! His love for us is crazy! God is head over heels in love with us! His refusal to stop loving us despite the evil we did to him is the glorious victory we celebrate whenever a priest says a Mass. It is the most Holy Eucharist that nourishes our souls.

His love for us is indedescructible. It was tested at Calvary. The evil baptism into which we immersed him failed to extinguish his love for us or reduce it by even the slightest degree. There is nothing to fear because His love for us is indestructible.

What did Jesus Prove?

He emerged from the black hole of death still alive and still in love with us.

That he emerged from the black hole of death still alive is the proof that Jesus is God. Nobody emerges alive from the black hole of death. He did.

That he emerged from the black hole of death still in love with us, however, proves 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. 
  
 

God Thought it so Important to Persuade us that God Loves us that God made a Great Investment in the Proof

How do we show them - not just tell them - that the strength of our love for them is not small, not feeble, and not capricious? How do we prove to them that our love for them is immense in size, indestructible in duration and radical in scope?

1. We send them a love note.
2. We let them torture and kill him.
3. We continue to love them nonetheless.

If this does not convince them, nothing will.  

The love note was hand delivered to us at Bethlehem. Its genuineness was proved for us at Calvary.

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. It survived. He emerged from the evil baptism into which we immersed him still alive and still in love with us.  The survival of his love for us is the seal of genuineness. We can trust love that has earned the seal of genuineness. Such love is reliable. It never lets us down. Genuine love is the honey that draws the bees back home to the hive. Wow!  

What is the water? What is the flame?

The flame of suffering does not extinguish the water of love. The water of love extinguishes the flame of suffering.

Why Does Evil Exist in the Valley of Tears?

Do not blame God for the monsters of adversity that haunt the valley of tears. Blame the serpent.  The serpent conjured up the illusion that sugarcoated the sourness of godlessness and induced us to abdicate paradise for the valley of tears. The serpent, not God, caused us to fumble the ball of paradise. Godlessness sucks. The serpent promised us deification in godlessness. The serpent is a liar. He cannot deliver. The extent of God's "fault" is that he does not rescue us more quickly. Instead, God let's us stew for a bit in the sourness of godlessness. Inserting a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise accomplishes multiple purposes:

1. To prove that the serpent was a liar and that God was telling us the truth - the serpent cannot deify us in godlessness, hence, our experience in godlessness increases God's credibility and reduces the credibility of the serpent,
2. Suffering is an engine that pushes us to the exit of godlessness.
3. to discover that love provides a buffer between us and suffering
4. to stop of from repeating the original sin of Adam and Eve. The prodigal son will never go back to the pig sty and neither will we.

Letting us stew in the sourness of godlessness is harsh but effective medicine. This is why God prescribes it. After taking the medicine, the likelihood that we will repeat the original sin of Adam and Eve is reduced to near zero. When God delivers to us the gift of paradise, we will keep it. We know better.

Life is an infinitesimally thin slice of time when we compare it to the thickness of eternity. Therefore, the brevity of life proves the mercy of God.

The Tour Guide

The Holy Spirit is tugging at our souls. The curious are following the tug back to its source. Along the way, we explore the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God. As we explore, we discover oases of paradise in the hostile desert of godlessness. The oases of paradise are the holy places that define the escape route at which close encounters with the living God take place. The Church is the tour guide with more than two thousand years of experience. Surely a Church with more than two milennia of experience knows a thing or two about the sights to see along the way?

With what do you bait the hook to fish for the children of Adam and Eve?

With what do you bait the hook to fish for the children of Adam and Eve? Do you bait your hook with the nitty-gritty of Christianity? Or do you bait your hook with its pizzazz?

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. 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 by the bloody wounds of the Crucifixion. The fish take this bait hook, line and sinker. At Bethlehem, God sent us a love note. At Calvary, God put into our hands the proof that the love note 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 seal placed on the love note that guarantees the authenticity of his love for us.  Therefore, 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). 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?

Jesus impaled on the Cross like a worm on the hook is the bait.

Bait the sharp hook of salvation with the pizzazz of Christianity not with its nitty-gritty - assuming you want to catch fish.

Is the best way to win a person over to the Catholic life to exclude him or her from it or include him or her in it? Is it better to pray for them or to pray with them? Is it better to keep them out or invite them in? Why, then, do we push sinners to the margins of Catholic life? Why do we post signs at the holy places that define the escape route from godlessness to paradise that say, "Keep Out", "No Trespassing", and "Dogs and sinners not welcome"?

Is your opinion of God so small that you fabricate the fantasy that he needs a bodyguard of the sanctimonious to keep sinners from following him? Isn't God big enough to protect himself?

Clerics are the ushers who show us to our seats. It is God, however, who puts on the show. Clericalism is a species of hubris in which a cleric fancies himself to be the star of the show.

The Church is barking up the wrong tree. It has lost its way. It is so concerned with defending and promoting the Catholic identity that it is ignoring the identity of Jesus. It has become a cheerleader for itself instead of a cheerleader for Jesus.

God gave us the ten commandments to govern us. They occupied a page. The Church gave us the Catechism. It occupies 864 pages Catechism of the Catholic Church. Who is complicating things?

The Treasure of Christianity in Twenty-Three (23) Words

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he emerged from the dead still alive and still in love with us.

This is the treasure of Christianity articulated in just twenty-three (23) words. 

1 Corinthians 13

The Sweetness of Paradise

The Ban on Women in the Workplace

The argument is that Jesus discriminated against women in his work force, therefore, the Church discriminates against women in its workforce. When the premise of an argument is false, the conclusion is specious. (But see, ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS by clicking here "I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful..")

Are we persuaded?

The vestigial arrogance of the bosses of the medieval, monarchical, and masculine Church is summed up in the 1906 encyclical of Pope Pius X titled “Vehementer Nos“, in which he denounced France for its passage of a law establishing the separation of church and state

"The Scripture teaches us, and the tradition of the Fathers confirms the teaching, that the Church is the mystical body of Christ, ruled by the Pastors and Doctors — a society of men containing within its own fold chiefs who have full and perfect powers for ruling, teaching and judging. It follows that the Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society comprising two categories of persons, the Pastors and the flock, those who occupy a rank in the different degrees of the hierarchy and the multitude of the faithful. So distinct are these categories that with the pastoral body only rests the necessary right and authority for promoting the end of the society and directing all its members towards that end; the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors.”

In medieval times, when the Church tried to ram doctrine down our throats, we docilely swallowed it. But the Church has taught us to read, write and think for ourselves. In modern times, when the Church tries to ram doctrine down our throats, our reaction is different.  The act of ramming doctrine down our throats triggers our gag reflex. We tend to regurgitate it. 

The ability to read, write and think for ourselves - to reason for ourselves - is crucial to our salvation. When we are in possession of the truth, our rationality steers our free wills in the right direction. Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. The job of the Church is to show us the truth. The job of the Church is not to overpower our rationality and free wills by dint of its claimed omnipotence.

Jesus chose to be a male. Therefore, only males can be Christians. Stupid logic, no?

Shifting the Paradigm from the Ptolemy to Copernicus

    As Galileo Galilei let it be known, let it be known that sin is not the center of the Christian solar system. Christianity does not revolve around sin. Sin is not the hub and everything does not have to be defined in reference to it. Like Pluto, sin is a minor, dwarf planet that revolves around something else. It has its place in the solar system but it is not the star. The God who loves sinners is the star. The Church, however, thinks sin is the star. 
    
    The Church starts at sin and works outward. From sin, the spokes of the Church radiate as horns radiate from the head of the devil. The Church is in desperate need of a change in focus. Geocentrism, once again, must yield to heliocentrism. The paradigm of Christianity needs to shift its focus from sin to love - to God's love for sinners. Sin needs to move to the wings and God's love for sinners needs to move to center stage. No change in doctrine. Just a tweak in emphasis. Nothing more. Beware, however. The same inquisition that persecuted Galileo Galilei will persecute you if you try to dethrone sin from the center of the Church's solar system. 
 

More and Better Theology

God poured more and better theology into the bloody wounds that we opened in his body 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  

He coped with his Cross to demonstrate to us how to cope with ours.

He applied the salve of love to suffering as he passed through the valley of tears.

Grease the wheels of your passage through the valley of tears likewise.