Safari

Christianity is not reading about a safari. Christianity is going on safari.

Christianity is not about indoctrination. Christianity is about exploration. We explore the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God at the holy places that define the escape route 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 [The genius of the living God himself produced this living and breathing allegory!]. The Church is the tour guide.

Thus, we do not become Christians head first. We become Christians feet first. The head follows the feet. 

To rescue us, God built an escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church, entrusted the map to the Church and gave the bosses of the Church the mission of facilitating the escape - not frustrating it, not filtering it and not fouling it up. The map is the corpus of the divine trust. The bosses of the Church are the trustees of the map and we, the peasantry of the Church, are the beneficiaries of the trust. As trustees, the bosses of the Church owe the peasantry fiduciary duties. They perform them in accordance with the articles of the trust. The bosses were put in charge of the logistics of the escape. They are supposed to be the grease for the wheels of the escape and not an obstacle in its way. If the bosses of the Church gets in the way of the escape, the peasantry of the Church goes around it, over it, under it and through it. Only by passing from holy place to holy place that define the escape route can we be sure that we are heading in the right direction. The escape is the needle of the compass that always points in the direction of paradise. 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).

Jesus is the escape route. He is the bridge between the world of godlessness and the world of paradise. He is the way, etc. He is the conductor through which runs the current of salvation that arises from the potential difference between the sourness of godlessness and the sweetness of paradise.  On the near side of his bloody wounds is the sourness of godlessness.  The sourness of godlessness is the engine that pushes us to its exit. On the far side of his bloody wounds is the sweetness of paradise. The sweetness of paradise is the engine that pulls us to its entrance. But there is a gap between the exit of godlessness and the entrance of paradise - an abyss.  At the gap, "a great leap must be made from time to eternity". We make the great leap through his bloody wounds. Through his bloody wounds goes the escape. The escape starts in godlessness, passes through his bloody wounds, and finishes in paradise. 

At a holy place that helps to define the escape route a close encounter with the living God takes place. During a close encounter with the living God, a connection is made between earth and heaven. Through the connection, the light of paradise illuminates the darkness of godlessness. No one walks away from a close encounter with the living God unchanged. No one walks away from a close encounter with the living God empty handed. 

Examples of the holy places upon the earth at which close encounters with the living God take place are the Mass, Confession, the other sacraments, works of charity, acts of kindness, prayer especially the rosary, Eucharistic adoration, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, fasting, the gathering of two or more together in God's name, bible study, suffering, the hour of death, etc.

Godlessness

During the creation of the world, God erected a door between paradise and godlessness, locked it with his prohibition against using it, and gave Adam and Eve the key of disobedience.

God established Adam and Eve on the paradise side of the door. The world on the other side of the door was a mystery to them. Adam and Eve had no experience with it. They were strangers to godlessness. 

The source of their knowledge about the mystery on the other side of the door was hearsay. Furthermore, there was a conflict in the testimony. God testified that death awaited Adam and Eve in godlessness (Genesis 2:17) (Genesis 3:3). The serpent testified to the contrary (Genesis 3:4).  In fact, the serpent promised Adam and Eve deification in godlessness (Genesis 3:4-5). 

The non-hearsay evidence corroborated the testimony of the serpent (Genesis 3:6). 

Which testimony was the truth? Which testimony was the lie? Adam and Eve asked themselves. How does newly minted humanity resolve the conflict in the testimony? How do they break the tie? 

Obedience does not break the tie - it does not resolve the conflict in the testimony. Obedience sidesteps the question. It does not answer it.

Furthermore, the stakes were high. Adam and Eve faced the threat of death and the promise of deification. Resolving the conflict in the testimony was not a child's game without consequences. Both the risk and the reward were high.

The status quo was the safe bet. Yet, the status quo does not unmask the liar. It does not reveal who possessed the truth and who possessed the lie. The status quo revealed nothing about God and nothing about the serpent. There was only one way to learn - to get an education. There was only one definitive way to resolve the conflict in the testimony. There was only one way to break the tie. Only a taste of godlessness would resolve the conflict in the testimony. It would, as the serpent testified (Genesis 3:5), open our eyes and show us who is good and who is evil (Genesis 3:5). 

Eve decided to discover the truth for herself (Genesis 3:6). Adam concurred with Eve's decision (Genesis 3:6).  They decided to gather the evidence themselves that would resolve the conflict in the testimony. They would find out the truth for themselves. They would take a look at the evidence with their own eyes. They and their children would know the difference between God and the serpent even if the price they would pay for their education would be death. 

They put the key in the lock, opened the door, and passed through it. 

Why did God let the catastrophe happen?  This was the first time that Adam and Eve found themselves in a situation where their choice was either to ignore the conflict in testimony or to resolve it. They decided to resolve it. The knowledge gained from resolving the conflict in the testimony was worth the potential high price of their education. Furthermore, newly minted humanity had never encountered a predator. The serpent was their first.  They had not yet developed a defense mechanism against one.  They were defenseless. The good shepherd whose job was to defend the sheep from the wolves was AWOL. Newly minted humanity versus a fallen angel - no contest.  Why did God not post armed guards at the door? Why was the good shepherd AWOL during the crisis?  Why erect a door from paradise to godlessness in the first place? Why such a flimsy lock? Why did God give them the key? All of the evidence points to the fact that Adam and Eve were doomed to fail - that God wanted Adam and Eve to discover the truth about godlessness for themselves.

And they did.

They found out that godlessness sucks, that the serpent was a liar and that the promise of deification in godlessness was a lie. Adam and Eve discovered that death was the king of godlessness and that they now lived in his kingdom. God was the truth teller.

Rescue us, Oh! God!

By investigating godlessness for themselves, Adam and Eve discovered the truth about godlessness. Godlessness is autodidactic. The taste of godlessness taught them that God is our benefactor and that the serpent is a misanthrope. It taught them and us that God had credibility and the serpent had none.

To what shall I compare you, godlessness? God himself gave us the comparison. Godlessness is the hostile desert through which the Jews made their escape from slavery under the yoke of Pharaoh to freedom with God and his holy family in the promised land. The exodus of the Jews is the allegory God gave us to explain our predicament in life. 

To rescue the children of Adam and Eve from godlessness, God built an escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church, entrusted the map to the Church and burdened the Church with the mission of facilitating the escape - not frustrating it, not filtering it and not fouling it up. God did not give the Church the mission of judging the escapees. The only mission God gave the Church is to get the escapees from here to there - from godlessness to paradise. Any judgment of the escapees, God reserved to himself. The Church is the new Moses. The Church is the servant / leader of the escape. The Church is the escape. The escape from godlessness to paradise is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect.

In the hostile desert of godlessness, the children of Adam and Eve play the role of either pilgrim or settler. Settlers have put down roots deep into the hostile desert of godlessness. They are stationary. They neither flee the sourness of godlessness nor seek the sweetness of paradise. They do not see themselves in need of rescue from godlessness. When God comes to rescue them, they tell God to bugger off. Pilgrims, however, are not stationary. They have pulled up the roots from the hostile desert of godlessness. They seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. They are making their escape. They pray that God will rescue them from the hostile desert of godlessness. They wait for their savior. Their hope is the Lord. 

The job of the Church is to transform settlers into pilgrims?

How?

Shatter the illusion conjured up by the serpent that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness. Shatter the illusion with the sledgehammer of truth as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. What truth? Much is true but much truth is irrelevant. The truth that matters is the truth that shatters the illusion. 

Godlessness is autodidactic. The sourness of godlessness shatters the illusion that sugarcoats it. Death, illness, oppression, inequity, etc. are the sledgehammer of truth.

Fill the earth with the knowledge of God. Paradise is different than godlessness. We are strangers to paradise. Paradise is foreign to us. The memory of Eden has faded. To fill the earth with the knowledge of God, revelation was needed. The revelation was made when the Son of God paid us a visit.

The Job of the Church

God built the escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined the escape route with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church, entrusted the map to the Church and gave the Church the mission of facilitating our escape - not filtering it, not frustrating it and not fouling it up. The job of the Church is to be grease for the wheels of the escape not an obstacle in its way. When the Church becomes a bottleneck to the escape, the children of Adam and Eve go over it, under it, around it and through it. 

“When the Holy Spirit is tugging at our souls and the curious are following the tug back to its source, it is time for the Church to get out of the way. Its job is over. Its work is done.”

“The Church is the new Moses - the servant / leader of the escape”