Points To Ponder
The Exaggeration of One's Role in The Production
The Church is the usher who shows us to our seats. It is God, however, who puts on the show.
Understanding Christianity
If you cannot talk about Christianity without reference to sin, you do not understand it.
The Big Picture of Christianity
There are many aspects to the jewel of Christianity. However, not all aspects are of equal importance. The escape from godlessness to paradise is the Big Picture of Christianity. The escape is the forest. Never let the trees obscure your view of the forest. Often the tree of sin is the culprit. It belongs to a niche of Christianity known as as morality. It ought never to be allowed to escape its niche. It has nothing to do with the escape. Harm not sin - actual harm - is the characteristic of godlessness. Harm and sin often overlap. However, sin is a conclusion; harm is a premise. Sin is a conclusion often, but not always, based on harm. Too many too often get the two confused.
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.
A Pathological Obsession with Sex
The Church devotes its time, energy and effort in a futile attempt to hold the lid of sexual morality on the boiling cauldron of sexuality. The Church has a pathological obsession with sex. Meanwhile, the Church has neglected to teach the children of Adam and Eve about God. And the Church pats itself on the back telling itself that it is going a good job.
What the Children of Adam and Eve Want
The children of Adam and Eve are not seeking another layer of government inserted into the stack of governments that are trying to regulate their behavior here on earth. They are not banging down the doors of their Churches seeking more official rules, regulations, rigmarole and red tape. What they want from their Churches is an introduction to God. So give it to them. Introduce them to God and God to them. Make the introductions before attempting to put the bit into their mouths and the saddle onto their backs of morality. First God. Then morality.
The Conversation
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 God know this. The Church does not. Without a conversation about God, God stays a stranger to us. And nobody follows a stranger. Fewer and fewer go to Mass. None go to confession. Churches wither and die. Therefore, to reverse the trend, it is time for the Church to change its tune. It is a time for a change in emphasis (not a change in doctrine). It is time to adjust the ratio between God and the lesser aspects of Christianity in the conversation. It is time for a tweak in the topics of holy conversation. Less sin, more God. Morality later, God now. In lieu of its official rules, regulations, rigmarole and red tape, God. Tell us about God. I have a strong suspicion that a more than two thousand years old Church knows a thing or two about God. Is it possible for the Church to devote some portion of the conversation to God?
The Starting Point
What is the starting point? Where do we start? The starting point is the crucial question. The success of evangelization depends on discovering the right starting point. Start at the wrong point and you doom yourself to failure. Is morality the starting point? No. Is the practice of religion the starting point? No. All of this comes later. They are down the line in the sequence. The starting point is the illusions conjured up by the serpent that induced Adam and Eve, like foolish children, to run away from their home with God in paradise and to take us with them into godlessness. Shatter the illusions with the sledgehammer of truth as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. Expose the natural inclination of reality. Show them the sweetness of paradise. Show them the sourness of godlessness. Open their eyes. Let their rationality steer them in the right direction.
The Sequence of Evangelization
There is a sequence to evangelization. It must be done in sequence if it is to succeed. First, shatter the illusions. Expose the natural inclination of reality so that rationality can steer the children of Adam and Eve in the right direction. Once they have picked up the roots they have sunk deep into the hostile desert of godlessness and have transformed themselves from settlers into pilgrims, show them the escape route from godlessness to paradise. Once they have joined the new exodus that is making its escape, encourage the pilgrims to put the bit into their mouths and the saddle onto their backs of morality.
Match the Message to the Audience
You make a total cock-up of evangelization when you assume that your audience is at the same stage of development. Sometimes your audience are settlers whose roots are sunk deep into the hostile desert of godlessness. Sometimes the illusions of the serpent still hide the natural inclination of reality from your audience. Sometimes the illusions are freshly shattered and the children of Adam and Eve are looking for the escape route from godlessness to paradise. Sometimes your audience have recently become pilgrim. Sometimes they are seeking paradise and fleeing godlessness for a long time. Sometimes they have put the bit into their mouths and the saddle onto their backs of morality. Sometimes not. The Church must adjust the message to the different audiences for the message to make any sense. Therefore, it is always safe to start at the beginning with the shattering of illusions.
The Serpent is a Liar and his Promise of Deification in godlessness is a Lie
The serpent promised Adam and Eve that a life lived as God in godlessness would be superior to a life lived with God in paradise. The promise induced Adam and Eve to run away, like foolish children, from their home with God in paradise and take us with them into godlessness. Godlessness, however, sucks, and the promise of deification was a lie. The serpent is a liar. (Genesis 3:5)
The Two (2) Illusions Conjured Up By The Serpent
The serpent conjured up two illusions. One illusion camouflages the sweetness of paradise and the other illusion sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness.
They Ran Away from Home
Like foolish children, Adam and Eve ran away from their home with God in paradise and took us with them into godlessness. Godlessness sucks.
On the Table, a superior alternative to a life with God in Paradise
The serpent induced Adam and Eve to opt out of paradise by putting on the table the option of a superior alternative to a life with God in paradise. It was a lie. Yet, they fell for the lie. They opted out of paradise after the gift of paradise had already been delivered to them.
Shattering the Illusions
Therefore, the first step is to shatter the illusions with the sledgehammer of truth as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. The truth sets us free. The first step is to show us that the serpent was a liar, he closed our eyes instead of opening them, and his promise of deification (Genesis 3:5) that induced Adam and Eve to opt out of paradise and take us with them into godlessness was a lie. When the illusions are shattered, the natural inclination of reality becomes visible. We see the sweetness of paradise and the sourness of godlessness. Our rationality does the rest. Our rationality steers us in the right direction.
The Delay Shatters The Illusion that Sugarcoats the Sourness of Godlessness
The delay that God inserted between the delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise shatters the illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness. During the delay we get to taste the sourness of godlessness for ourselves.
Harsh but Effective Medicine
The delay is harsh but effective medicine. ts effectiveness in reducing the likelihood of post delivery paradise opt out to near zero justifies its harshness in the eyes of God. The medicine works. For the critics of "the delay", however, the cure of godlessness is as bad as the disease of godlessness. In answer to this criticism, God made life short. Life is an infinitesimally thin slice of time when we compare it to the thickness of eternity. The brevity of life proves the mercy of God.
“The revelation made when the Son of God paid us a visit at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of our planet called the Middle East more than two thousand years ago shatters the illusion that camouflages the sweetness of paradise.”
“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.”
“Eternal life in paradise ruled by the omnipotent God whose love for us is intransigent. How sweet it is! Wow! What a gift! It is a gift like no other. Moreover, the gift is already in the pipeline on its way to you. It is yours after the delay is over - after the likelihood that you would opt out of paradise after the gift of paradise is delivered to you is reduced to near zero. All you need to do is accept it, and, perhaps, say thank you. Don’t underestimate the value of the gift. Prepare yourself to accept it.”
“He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us even though we tortured and killed him. Wow! That he did not stay dead is proof that he is God. That he did not stop loving us is proof that the nature of divinity is intransigent love. Jesus is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet. When the illusions conjured up by the serpent are shattered and the natural inclination of reality becomes visible to us, our rationality instructs us to seek the sweetness of paradise (and flee the sourness of godlessness). It is irrational to do otherwise. ”
“God created an escape route, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established the Church and entrusted the map to the Church. We practice our religion on the escape route. ”
“The sweetness of paradise pulls us to its entrance. The sourness of godlessness pushes us to its exit. They are the twin engines that generate the current of salvation. They create the potential difference between paradise and godlessness. The only thing needed to get the current of salvation to flow was a conductor inserted between the world of godlessness and the world of paradise. Jesus volunteered for the job of conductor. He is the bridge between the two worlds. He is the way, etc. Through his bloody wounds, the new exodus is marching from perdition to salvation.”
“Before the revelation of the sweetness of paradise, the only engine that drove the new exodus along the escape route from godlessness to paradise was the sourness of godlessness. Sane people flee the sourness of godlessness. (Note: godlessness = hell; hell is a life without God.) The sourness of godlessness pushes the children of Adam and Eve to its exit. After the revelation of the sweetness of paradise, a second engine was put in place, its cord was pulled, ignition took place and it started to operate. The sweetness of paradise pulls us to its entrance. The sweetness of paradise and the sourness of godlessness are the two engines that generate the current of salvation. The playing surface is not level. It tilts. God rigs the game in our favor. The two engines curve space so it inclines downward from godlessness to paradise. ”
“If Adam and Eve taught us any lesson, the lesson that they taught us is that our faculty of obedience is broken. It is unreliable. Do you think that God designed his rescue plan around our broken and unreliable faculty of obedience? Stupidity is not a characteristic of God. He designed his rescue plan around our faculty of rationality. When the sledgehammer of truth shatters the illusions conjured up by the serpent and the natural inclination of reality becomes visible to us, our faculty of rationality will instruct us to seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. That is why it is said that the truth shall set us free.”
“The job of the Church is not to try to fix our broken faculty of obedience. The job of the Church is to shatter the illusions conjured up by the serpent with the sledgehammer of truth. The sledgehammer of truth shatters the illusions as the blow of a sledgehammer shatters glass. When the illusions are shattered and the natural inclination of reality is visible, the job of the Church is to tell the children of Adam and Eve that it knows the way from the sourness of godlessness to the sweetness of paradise. God created an escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined the escape route with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church and entrusted the map to the Church. The Church knows the way. Only then - after they have transformed themselves from settlers into pilgrims - it the time ripe to try to to put the bit into their mouths and the saddle onto their backs of morality. Until they have matured as Christians, they will always view morality as a straight jacket that restricts them rather than as the key that frees them from the torture chamber of self-inflicted destruction.”
“Christians go on safari. They do not just read about safari. They go from holy place to holy place that define the escape route from godlessness to paradise. At a holy place, a close encounter with the living God takes place. No other achievement matches a close encounter with the living God. A close encounter with the living God is the jackpot. Nobody leaves a close encounter with the living God empty-handed. Nobody leaves a close encounter with the living God unchanged. This is why our priests push the beatitudes and the sacraments. In the beatitudes and the sacraments, close encounters with the living God take place.”
“At Bethlehem, a love note was delivered to us. It was not an ordinary love note. It lived and breathed. It came in the form of a baby. It was from God to us. In the love note was an invitation to come home to paradise from godlessness. Furthermore, to put a guarantee into our hands that the love note and invitation were genuine, God let us put them to the test. If they were counterfeit, his love for us would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. The invitation would have been rescinded. But love survived the test. The invitation was not rescinded. In our hands is a love note, an invitation and a guarantee of genuineness. What more do we want from God?”
“You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.
”
The Crucifixion is a failed Assassination Attempt against the Son of God
The bloody wounds we opened in the body of the Son of God while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest here upon the earth are proof of failure (John 20:24-29) - not proof of his failure but proof of the serpent's failure. The Son of God carries them with him wherever he goes. They are witnesses that testify about the failure of the assassination attempt. They give powerful testimony. The testimony of the bloody wounds is this: the children of Adam and Eve tortured him but the Son of God did not stop loving them; they killed him but he did not stay dead. He continued to love us and continued to live despite the bloody wounds. I have heard the testimony and believe. That he did not stay dead is proof that Jesus is God. That he did not stop loving us is proof that divinity is love.
The target of the assassination attempt was more than just his life. The target was his love. Jealous of God's love for us since our creation, the serpent plotted to extinguish it. The serpent desired to drain the most sacred heart of the Son of God of his love for the children of Adam and Eve. He wanted to pull the plug. At Calvary, the serpent reasoned, surely, if he could induce the children of Adam and Eve to torture and kill the Son of God, this grievous insult to the very person of the Son of God would extinguish God's love for them. God exploited the serpent's foul plot for his own purposes. Jesus refused to stay dead - revealing to us that he is God and refused to stop loving us - revealing to us that divinity is love.
The bloody wounds remind us of the failed assassination attempt. He did not stay dead. He did not stop loving us.
“We must be Christians in both theory and practice. If we are Christians solely in theory, we are impostors masquerading as Christians.”
“What we carry in our heads is less important than what we carry in our hearts. ”
“We optimize our happiness by delivering God’s love to our neighbor.”
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
1) The illusions conjured up by the serpent that distort the natural inclination of reality must be shattered as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. The illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness is shattered by giving us a taste of the sourness of godlessness itself. The illusion that camouflages the sweetness of paradise is shattered by the revelation that Jesus Christ gave to us during his visit. When the illusions are shattered, we see the natural inclination of reality. We see that paradise is sweet and godlessness is sour 2) Raise the Question. How do we get there from here - from godlessness to paradise. When the truth has set us free from the illusions, it is time to raise the question. 3) Answer the question. The Church knows the way. God created an escape route, defined the escape route with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church, and entrusted the map to the Church. 4) Let our sanity do the rest. Sane people seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. Like the prodigal son, we are not going back to the pig sty. When the gift of paradise is given to us, we will stay in our Father's house.The Good News of Great Joy
God plans to deliver the gift of paradise to us just as God delivered the gift of paradise to Adam and Eve. God will not be less generous with us than God 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.
We Have Hit the Jackpot
All of the setbacks, losses, defeats and difficulties in life on this earth are temporary. Life is brief. In the end, we hit the jackpot. The jackpot is ours and we have eternity in which to spend it. Nothing is more hopeful than knowing that the jackpot is ours in the end
The Gift of Paradise
The generosity of God is perfect. The gift of paradise is a gift. It is unconditional. There is no quid pro quo. There is no good and valuable consideration. We do nothing to earn it. It is not a Pavlovian treat that God uses to train the human beast. It pleases God to give it to us. God has already put the gift of paradise in the pipeline. It is already on its way to us. Its delivery is ineluctable. It is coming our way whether we are worthy of it or not. It is coming to saints and to sinners.
Our Role in the Gift-Giving Process is Limited
Our role in the the gift giving process is limited. We can either accept or reject the gift. To accept it, when we hear the knock of the delivery man at the door, open it (Revelations 3:20). To reject it, keep the door closed. We register our acceptance by seeking paradise and fleeing godlessness now while we are here on earth. We register our rejection by putting down roots into the hostile desert of godlessness and staying still. Mobility is the sign of acceptance. Sessility is the sign of rejection.
“We are waiting for Santa Claus.”
“The question is what do we do - how do we behave - while we are waiting for Santa Claus?”
The Rule of Survival
Our survival is governed solely by a simple but fundamental principle. Humanity in every place and in every age and of every religion is subject to its command. No exceptions. Only by including God in our lives do we live and only by excluding God from our lives do we die. To include God in our lives in the hereafter, we must include God in our lives now! By excluding God from our lives now, we exclude God from our lives in the hereafter. Take an interest in God and God will take an interest in you. Include God in your life and God will include you in theirs. Ignore your God and your God will ignore you.
But First, Solving the Problem of Post Delivery Paradise Opt Out
But before the gift of paradise is delivered to us, however, God needs to solve the problem of post delivery paradise opt out. God does not want us to repeat the mistake of our parents, Adam and Eve. We call their mistake original sin. They had paradise in hand yet they abdicated it for godlessness. The theory that the beauty of God - i.e. the beatific vision - is so strong that it keeps in heaven those who gaze upon it is bunk. Adam opted out. Eve opted out. Lucifer opted out. A gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer opted out. The evidence contradicts the theory. They all opted out. When a superior alternative to paradise is a viable option on the table, the risk of post delivery paradise opt out exists. The better is the enemy of the good. Therefore, when God delivers the gift of paradise to us, God wants us to keep it. God wants us to keep the gift of paradise without having to turn paradise into a prison, themselves into our warden and us into prisoners. During our life here on earth, God attempts to reduce the likelihood of post delivery paradise opt out to near zero. God shatters the illusion that godlessness is a superior alternative to paradise by giving it to us. A taste of godlessness convinces us that the serpent was a liar.
The Big Picture of Christianity
Few grasp the Big Picture of Christianity. They do not see its overarching framework. They understand the tree - the particular aspect of Christianity that interests them. However, they do not understand the forest of Christianity. Their favorite tree is blocking it from them. Therefore, let us take a new look with fresh eyes at the Big Picture of Christianity.
The transformation from Settlers into Pilgrims
The first stage of Christianity is the transformation of the children of Adam and Eve from settlers into pilgrims. Get them moving. Get them to pull up the roots that they have sunk deep into the hostile desert of godlessness and be on their way. Mobility, not sessility, is the hallmark of a Christian.
How?
The appeal is to their sanity.
If the story of Adam and Eve teaches any lessons, the lesson it teaches is that our faculty of obedience is broken. It malfunctions. God, therefore, did not design his rescue plan around our unreliable faculty of obedience. Stupidity is not a characteristic of God. He designed it around our reliable faculty of rationality.
Sane people, when fed the truth, steer themselves in the right direction. Their sanity instructs them to act in accordance with their self-interest.
The truth sets them free (John 8:32).
Therefore, feed them the truth. Feed them the subset of truth that matters. Much is true. Much truth, however, is irrelevant. The truth that matters is the truth that shatters the illusions conjured up by the serpent. Shatter the illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness. Shatter the illusion that camouflages the sweetness of paradise. Shatter them with the sledgehammer of truth as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. Expose the natural inclination of reality so it becomes visible and they can see it. Let their sanity do the rest. Set free from the illusions, sane people naturally seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. The natural inclination of reality persuades them - so you don't have to persuade them - to make their escape from godlessness to paradise.
How is the illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness shattered?
To shatter the illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness, God inserted a delay. The delay is the most controversial aspect of God's rescue plan. It generates the most bad press. It monopolizes the attention of the complaint department. From the delay arises all of the backlash against God and God's rescue plan. God tweaked the timing of the delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise. Adam and Eve received the two gifts simultaneously. The children of Adam and Eve do not. Between the delivery of the gift of life and the delivery of the gift of paradise, God inserted a delay. During the delay, we taste for ourselves the sourness of godlessness. The taste shatters the illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness. Having experienced for himself the pigsty, the prodigal son will not return there and neither will we. We will not commit the original sin of our parents, Adam and Eve. We will not abdicate paradise for godlessness as Adam did, as Eve did, as Lucifer did and as the gaggle of angels that followed Lucifer did. We will not opt out. When the gift of paradise is given to us, we will keep it. The delay is harsh but effective medicine. Its effectiveness in reducing the likelihood of post delivery paradise opt out to near zero justifies its harshness in the eyes of God. The medicine works. For the critics of "the delay", however, the cure of godlessness is as bad as the disease of godlessness. In answer to this criticism, God made life short. Life is an infinitesimally thin slice of time when we compare it to the thickness of eternity. The brevity of life proves the mercy of God.
How is the illusion that camouflages the sweetness of paradise shattered?
To shatter the illusion the camouflages the sweetness of paradise required revelation. Paradise is foreign to us us. We are strangers to paradise. Revelation is the only way to make the sweetness of paradise known to us. Revelation shatters the illusion that camouflages the sweetness of paradise from us.
the Escape Route
With the shattering of the illusions, the children of Adam and Eve enter a period of disorientation. They will struggle to get their bearings. They will try to figure out how to get there from here. They will ask themselves, 'Who knows the way?'. When the question arises, answer it. Offer them a helping hand. Offer them directions. Tell them the Church knows the way. Joe down the block does not know the way. Jane across the street does not know the way. The local gas station does not have a map to sell them. Yet, there is no need for them to start from scratch. There is no need for them to blaze their own escape route through the hostile desert of godlessness - an attempt that runs the risk of failure - an attempt with no guarantee of success. An escape route has already been prepared and is waiting for them. They are welcome to make their escape on it.
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. "This way. This way." points the Church. "Keep moving. Keep moving." is its mantra. The mission 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. The Holy Spirit is tugging at their souls. The children of Adam and Eve are following the tug to its source. The job of the Church is done when this is happening. When this is happening it is time for the Church to get out of the way. Only by making our escape from holy place to holy place that define the escape route can we be sure that we are heading in the right direction. The movement of the escape forms the needle of the compass that always points to God. The escape from godlessness to paradise is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect.
Moreover, make it known to the children of Adam and Eve that Jesus is the way (John 14:6). He is the escape route. He is the bridge between the world of godlessness and the world of paradise. He is the conductor that carries the the current of salvation through the potential difference between the sourness of godlessness and the sweetness of paradise.
Morality
Thereafter - and only after they have transformed themselves from settlers into pilgrims - try to to put the bit into their mouths and the saddle onto their backs of morality. Until they become Christians, they will always view morality as a straight jacket that restricts them rather than as the key that frees them from the torture chamber of self-inflicted destruction.
Summary of the Big Picture of Christianity
- Transform them from settlers into pilgrims; Shatter the illusions; Expose the natural inclination exposed; Get them moving.
- Show them the escape route from godlessness to paradise;
- Put the bit into their mouth and the saddle onto their backs of morality.
This is the framework of Christianity. The details reside within the framework.
P.S. Having close encounters with the living God at the holy places that define the escape route transforms us into moral creatures. The escape is the cause and morality is the effect. Many, however, get this backwards. Scientists know that to manipulate an effect, it is necessary to tinker with its cause. It is impossible to manipulate an effect directly. Not all Churchmen understand this.
“Godlessness is a thorn bush and the the thorn with the most horrible sting is death. But have hope. There is a lily among the thorns. The lily is God’s love for us.”
“The Church is the new Moses serving the new exodus now in progress on the highway of holiness 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.”
“We are making our escape, hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, enthused by the Holy Spirit, together as one Church on the escape route from godlessness to paradise marching to the joyful beat of the loving heart of Jesus. ”
“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. In fact, he let the mud participate in the revelation. He let the mud draw the curtain aside that hid from them the sweetness of paradise (Mark 15:38). He hoped that the sweetness of paradise would appeal to the rationality of the mud. So he let us torture him. But he refused to stop loving us. So he let us kill him. But He refused to stay dead. Wow! Our God lives and loves us and there is nothing we can do to change this. It doesn’t get any sweeter than this! He is the honey that draws the bees back home to the hive. Sane people seek the sweetness of paradise (and flee the sourness of godlessness). Where do I sign up? How do I enlist? How do I join the kingdom of the Son of God who continues to love me even though we tortured and killed him while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest here upon the earth. It doesn’t make any sense that He did not stay dead - unless he is God. It doesn’t make any sense that he continues to love me - unless the nature of God is love. It’s crazy. It’s radical. It’s revolutionary. There is a disconnect. His love for me is bulletproof. It is invulnerable to my wickedness. No matter how hard I try, I cannot make him love me less. His love for me is inextinguishable. I cannot even reduce its ardor by the slightest degree. The dial that controls God’s love for me is in his hand not mine. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. Wow! What a God is my God!”
“Christians are dynamic not static. They are moving. They have picked up the roots they had sunk deep into the hostile desert of godlessness and are making their escape. They are not settlers but pilgrims. They are nomads wandering through this world waiting for their destination to reach them and for them to reach their destination. Here on earth, Christians are people of hope who are on the way but who have not yet arrived.”
“The difference between reading about safari and going on safari is, as Mark Twain said, as large as the difference between a lightning bug and lightning. Christians do not just read about safari. Christians go on safari. The Church is the tour guide. The Church takes the children of Adam and Eve on expeditions to the holy places that define the escape route from godlessness to paradise during which we explore the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God. The Church makes the introductions. The Church introduces us to God and God to us. The encounter, however, is ours not the Church’s. It is between us and God. The Church is the usher who shows us to our seats. It is God who puts on the show.”
“More than two thousand years ago at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of our planet called the Middle East, the Son of God paid us a visit. He paid us a visit not on a level above us as befits a god but humbly on the same level as us - as one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. They say he pitched his tent amongst us. Viva Emmanuel!”
“At baptism, the Church formally introduces us to God and God to us. It is the first formal close encounter with the living God. Hopefully, it is not the last.”
Less Discussion about us; More Discussion about God
Listen.
Listen to the conversation.
It is all about us.
Nothing is being said about God. Silence. Nada. God is no longer a topic of discussion.
The conversation is all about telling us what we must do and refrain from doing. It is all about how we must govern ourselves.
The conversation is unbalanced. It is out of whack. The ratio of attention is all on us and nothing on God.
God demands equal time - or at least some time.
First explain what does an item tell us about God before extrapolating from the item to a rule of conduct governing us.
You must first show me who is God before you can expect me to follow him.
The Line of Credit
What does God want from you?
He wants a loan - a line of credit. God wants to borrow from you.
God does not want the line of credit for himself, however. He is taking out the loan for your neighbors. Your neighbors are the third party beneficiaries of the loan. God wants you to make advances to your neighbors on God's behalf.
What is God's collateral? There is no collateral. It is an unsecured loan. God only gives his word. In return for the loan, God only gives us a promise to deliver to us the gift of paradise at some time in the future.
What is the term of the loan? God only ask for a short term loan. It lasts a mere lifetime.
The loan matures on judgment day. On judgment day, God will ask us to render an account of the advances we have made to our neighbors during our lives. How embarrassing would it be if we have advanced nothing to our neighbors? How embarrassing if we have advanced little? He will say to the stingy, "Did you not trust in my promise? Did you not trust that I would pay you back in spades?"
The magnitude of the loans we make during our lifetime to our neighbors demonstrates the magnitude of our faith. No loans; no faith.
“All of the setbacks, losses, defeats and difficulties in life on this earth are temporary. Life is brief. In the end, we hit the jackpot. The jackpot is ours and we have eternity in which to spend it. Nothing is more hopeful than knowing that the jackpot is ours in the end.”
Is our God a puny God whom the Romans defeated compared to the mighty God who defeated the Egyptians?
The Messiah failed to liberate his people from the Romans. The Romans tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. It was an ignominious defeat. Compared to the mighty God who defeated the Egyptians, our Messiah whom the Romans defeated was a puny God indeed. He was a loser with a capital, 'L'.
The mighty God who defeated the Egyptians was impressive. The puny God whom the Romans defeated was not. Why did God win in the original match against the Egyptians but lose in the rematch against the Romans?
God communicates with us through historical events. What did God want to say to us by his encounter with the Egyptians? What did God want to say to us by his encounter with the Romans? What were the messages? Obviously, the messages were different.
God's encounter with the Egyptians showed us God's power - brute, overwhelming, omnipotence. To liberate the Jews, God obliterated the Egyptian Army. God did not watch from the sidelines. God took sides. God intervened. God showed the Jews, the Egyptians and, hence, the world that He was a mighty God.
God, however, wanted to convey a different message to us in his encounter with the Romans. But we expected the same message. In the rematch with the Romans, we expected a repeat - a reiteration - of the same message that he had already uttered in the original match with the Egyptians. We did not expect that God had a new message for us - that he wanted to tell us something new - something original.
Vis-a-vis the Romans and the Jews, God did not take sides. He did not exercise his omnipotence to defeat the Romans on behalf of the Jews as he did with the Egyptians. He was the God who could but didn't.
God had a bigger fish to fry than the Romans.
In the rematch, the Romans were merely a beard for the real opponent, the serpent.
How stupid is humanity! How blind! We cannot identify the real threat and our real enemy! An enemy far worse than the Romans threatened us. The Romans were Lilliputian - small potatoes - in comparison to our real enemy. The Romans only threatened our bodies. The real enemy threatened our bodies and our souls (Matthew 10:28). We needed liberation but the liberation we needed was not from the Romans. Our real enemy was not the Romans but the serpent. The Messiah came to defeat the serpent not the Romans.
God wanted to show us details about himself other than omnipotence - a detail he had already showed us in his encounter with the Egyptians. He wanted to reveal to us something new. It was time.
In the confrontation with the Egyptians, God showed us the strength of his hand. In the confrontation with the Romans, God showed us the content of his heart.
Jealous of God's love for us since our creation, the serpent plotted to extinguish it. Surely, the serpent reasoned at Eden, if he could induce us to abdicate paradise for godlessness, our ingratitude would extinguish God's love for us. However, the serpent's foul plot failed. It did not extinguish God's love for us or even reduce it by the slightest degree. However, the serpent did not give up. He knew that the Son of God would pay us a visit. He knew the prophecies. He would again execute his foul plot during the visit. Evil went as far as his bloody wounds but no farther. It did not reach his heart. He refused to let evil reach his heart. However, the serpent's foul plot again failed. It did not extinguish God's love for us or even reduce it by the slightest degree.
Buckets of blood spilled through the wounds we opened in his body. However, not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us spilled through them. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us.
In God's encounter with the Romans, God did not fail. The serpent failed. The serpent failed to transubstantiate love into hate. We did our worst. By torturing and killing the Son of God when he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest here upon the earth, we gave God ample reason to transform his love for us into hate. Yet, God refused. Our omnipotent God showed us at Calvary that He is a loving God as well. He showed us the content of his heart.
Stopping Us from Repeating the Original Sin of Our Parents
Lucifer did it. The gaggle of angels led by Lucifer did it. Eve did it. Adam did it. They abdicated paradise after the gift of paradise had already been delivered to them. They fumbled the ball. They opted out. Like foolish children, Adam and Eve ran away from home and took us with them into godlessness. Godlessness sucks. God, therefore, doesn't want us to repeat their mistake. When God delivers to us the gift of paradise, God wants us to keep it.
Many theologians credit the theory that once the gift of paradise is delivered to us, the beatific vision is so strong an attraction that we cannot opt out. The evidence, however, contradicts this theory. As was said above, Adam, Eve, Lucifer and a gaggle of angels that followed Lucifer opted out after the gift of paradise had been delivered. As long as the option of a superior, alternative reality to paradise is alive and on the table, the possibility of opting out exists. The possibility of a superior, alternative reality is the illusion conjured up by the serpent that induced Adam and Eve to opt out. God tries to shatter this illusion with a taste of godlessness.
Is it possible? Can God do this without turning paradise into a prison, themselves into a warden and us into prisoners?
Indeed, God can. In fact, God is in the process of executing his rescue plan whose goal is to reduce to near zero the likelihood that we will opt out of paradise after the gift of paradise is delivered to us.
The steps in God's rescue plan are simple: 1) Shatter the illusions, 2) Raise and answer the question of how to get there from here, 3) let our sanity do the rest.
A Monopoly over the Escape Route
God has given no religion a monopoly over the escape route (Mark 9:38-41). We are all brothers and sisters in the escape. Each religion, however, thinks its own escape route is the best and tends to denigrate the escape routes of its rivals. But remember. God created an escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined it with landmarks, made a map of them, established a Church, entrusted the map to the Church and gave the Church the mission of facilitating the escape - not filtering, not frustrating it and not fouling it up. When the Church becomes a bottleneck in the escape - when it becomes a logjam - the children of Adam and Eve go over it, under it, around it and through it. The Holy Spirit is tugging at our souls and the children of Adam and Eve are following the tug to its source. Once this process has started, the Church has done its job and its time for the Church to get out of the way. As long as we are heading in the right direction - from godlessness to paradise - all religions are one. Many shepherds; one route.
“The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.”
The Exit has Become the Entrance
The Place of Departure has Become the Place of Return.
We have an intuitive understanding of the relationship between our blood and our body. We understand that the blood needs the body and the body needs the blood. They need each other to survive. They are inseparable. They constitute a single organism. Therefore, we arrive at the summit of insanity when the blood declares its independence from the body and forms a desire to escape from it. In doing so, the blood signs its own death warrant and the death warrant of the body.
Our relationship to God is the same as the relationship of the blood to the body. It is as close. It is as intimate. It is as interdependent.
In the beginning at Eden, Adam and Eve arrived at the summit of insanity. They declared their independence and formed a desire to escape. But there is only one way out. The only way that the blood can escape from the body is by opening wounds in it. They did so. Through the bloody wounds in the body of Christ, Adam and Eve made their escape from paradise and took us with them into godlessness. Godlessness is not a nice place.
Our escape wounded God deeply (Luke 22:44). Our escape broke God's heart. God loved us so much that his inconsolable grief at our escape though the bloody wounds killed him. God's death is a warning to us of our fate unless we return to him.
Thankfully, God did not stay dead. Since Adam and Eve's escape, God has worked non-stop to reunite the blood and the body. God invites the blood to return to the body through the bloody wounds we opened. Just as we left, we must return. The exit has become the entrance. The source of God's inconsolable grief has become the source of God's immeasurable joy. The path of salvation passes through the bloody wounds we opened in the body of Christ. Only by passing through the bloody wounds do we heal them - do we undo the damage we did to God. Only by passing through them do we make God happy - do we restore joy to the heart of God.
P.S. Behold the sacred symmetry of our departure and our return.
Why the Body and the Blood?
Did the Son of God know what he was doing? Was the Son of God's choice of presenting to his disciples at the Last Supper his body and his blood random and meaningless? Would either body or blood have sufficed? Was the presentation of both body and blood adscititious? Why did he present two objects? Why not one? Why not three? Why not just his body? Why not just his blood? Moreover, why body and blood? Why not his hand and finger? Why not his toes and his ears?
It was not a random, meaningless choice.
His body and his blood point our attention to the wounds we opened in his body.
The bloody wounds that we opened in the body of the Son of God are the crux of Christianity. Christianity pivots around the bloody wounds. How so? They reveal the nature of God which revelation is the sweetness of paradise.
That his presentation of both his body and his blood was not a random, meaningless choice has consequences. The real presence of Jesus Christ at Mass is not detailed enough. It is the real presence plus his bloody wounds. The Son of God wants us to contemplate his bloody wounds. His bloody wounds are the details that matter. Moreover, to the extent that Eucharistic adoration detours us from contemplating his bloody wounds because only his body is presented, there is a problem. The significance is found in the bloody wounds not just in his real presence.
How to Facilitate the Escape of Saints, Sinners, Believers and Non-Believers?
How does the Church facilitate the escape from godlessness to paradise of sinners? How does the Church filter, frustrate and foul up their escape? The mission God gave the Church is to the world not to an elite subset of it. The scope of the Church's mission is not limited to the saints - to the so-called smaller, purer Church. The scope of the Church's mission is to saints, sinners, believers and non-believers. The mission of the Church is not to make them members of the Church but to help them escape. The mission of the Church is to get them from here to there - from godlessness to paradise. The ship of godlessness is sinking. The mission of the Church is not to save the ship. The mission of the Church is to save the passengers - all of the passengers not just some of them. The cry of the Church is to abandon ship. To the life boats, to the life boats, the Church shouts. All are welcome - saint, sinner, believer and non-believer. The escape from godlessness to paradise is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect. The movement of the new exodus forms the needle of the compass that always points to God. Only by making our escape from holy place to holy place that define the escape route can we be sure that we are heading in the right direction.
The Children of Adam and Eve can now Read, Write and Think for Themselves
The reality is that the children of Adam and Eve can now read, write and think for themselves. They have grown up and turned into adults. They expect to be treated as adults not as children. Their respect must be earned. To earn their respect, they must be treated with respect. In the past, when the Church attempted to jam doctrine down their throats by dint of omnipotence, the children of Adam and Eve docilely swallowed it. Not so today. Attempts to jam doctrine down the throats of the children of Adam and Eve now only triggers their gag reflex. They regurgitate it. A successful Church accommodates to reality. A failing Church refuses to adapt to a changing reality and, like the dinosaurs, travels down the road to extinction. What is ironic is that it was the Church itself that initiated the movement to teach us to read, write and think for ourselves.
The Love Note, the Invitation, Knowledge of God and Proof of Genuineness
At Bethlehem, the Son of God personally delivered to us a love note. The love note was unique. It lived and breathed. Jesus was the love note. In the love note was an invitation to come back to our home in paradise with God and his holy family. Moreover, the Son of God brought with him knowledge of God the Father to share with us. God, however, was not content to just put the love note, invitation and knowledge into our hands. God knew our tendency to doubt. God wanted to remove room for doubt. So God also delivered to us proof of genuineness.
At Calvary, the Son of God personally delivered to us proof of genuineness.
If the love note were counterfeit, God's love for us would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. However, it did not. Furthermore, torturing and killing the Son of God did not result in the cancelling of the invitation or the confiscation of the knowledge of God. They too survived the test of genuineness. The survival of his love for us, the survival of the invitation and the survival of the knowledge of God give us proof of their genuineness.
What more do you want from God?
“Love was introduced into a petri dish filled with torturers and killers. No one expected that love would survive in such a hostile environment. But it did. Its survival is the good news of great joy.”
Harm vs. Sin
Sin is a characterization of reality. Something is sinful because we call it so. Sin is a conclusion that we draw from premises. Harm, on the other hands, is a reality. Harm is the premise. The basis of sin is harm. Something is sinful because it is harmful. Harm is the bottom layer. Sin is the layer above harm. Scholars say something is intrinsically sinful when its fruits are not harmful. Scholars say that something is consequentially sinful when its fruits are harmful. Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit (Luke 6:43-45). Why is this distinction important? We can talk about the sourness of godlessness by talking about harm. There is no necessity of talking about sin.
Healing the Bloody Wounds We Opened in the Body of Christ
The crux of Christianity are the bloody wounds we opened in the body of the Son of God while He was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth. They are the cynosure of Christianity.
At Eden, like foolish children, our parents, Adam and Eve ran away from their home with God in paradise. They took us with them into godlessness. They did so by opening bloody wounds in the body of Christ. Their foolish escapade into godlessness wounded God deeply. They broke God's heart. They were his lifeblood, precious to Him. How preposterous it is for the blood to run away from the body! The blood needs the body and the body needs the blood. They cannot survive without each other.
At Calvary, we tortured and killed him by nailing him to a Cross. Through the wounds we opened in his body, on a cataract of blood, his life exited his body.
At Mass, in the most Holy Eucharist, the body and the blood point to the wounds we opened in the body of the Son of God. Between the body and the blood stand his wounds. Why did he present two objects at the last supper? Why not one? Why not just his body? Why not three? Why his body and his blood? Why not his hand and finger? It was not a random, meaningless choice. His body and his blood point our attention to his wounds.
At Salvation, we heal the bloody wounds when we return through them from godlessness to paradise. Our return makes God happy. When the blood returns to the body, all becomes well. We heal God.
Conflict of Images
Many false, inaccurate and conflicting pictures of the nature of God circulate through the minds of the children of Adam and Eve. The multiplicity of pictures creates confusion. “This is God” some say as they point to their favorite picture of God. Others point to a different picture and say, “No, this is God.” The controversy goes on ad infinitum. Because of the confusion, the most Holy Trinity desired to set the record straight once and forever. In the Crucifixion, they cleared the air. In the Crucifixion, the Son of God gave us the gift of the definitive picture of the nature of God.
The Importance of the Fragment of Historical Facts known as the Crucifixion
If we lost the entire Bible - if we lost the entire Church - but we still had this fragment of historical facts known as the Crucifixion, it would be enough. "From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other (Arthur Conan Doyle)." From the Crucifixion, we can infer the true nature of God and come to worship Him.
The Prohibition against making Images of God
In the Ten Commandments, God prohibited us from making images of Him (Exodus 20:4). Why? Such images would never be as accurate as the image that God themselves would make for us in the Crucifixion. They would be lesser representations of God. Therefore, leave the image making to God. Deal with real thing and not images of the real thing. [Note: The original sin of Adam and Eve happened because they dealt with the image of godlessness conjured up by the serpent and not the reality of godlessness. The serpent embellished godlessness to delude Adam and Eve out of paradise. Had they dealt with the reality they would have realized that the serpent was a liar, that godlessness sucks and that paradise was home sweet home.]
Real Wealth
A goal is scored when we experience a close encounter with the living God here on earth. It doesn't get any better than that. It is the real prize - the greatest gift. Close encounters with the living God here on earth take place at the holy places that define the escape route from godlessness to paradise. Nobody leaves a close encounter with the living God empty-handed. Nobody leaves a close encounter with the living God unchanged.
The Highway of Holiness
“8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
The fools and the unclean of Isaiah 35:8 are those to whom the natural inclination of reality is visible - who see that paradise is sweet and godlessness is sour - yet who do not become pilgrims but stay settlers, immobile with their roots firmly planted in the hostile desert of godlessness. The redeemed and the ransomed of Isaiah 35:9 and 35:10 are those who act when the illusion that hides the sweetness of paradise and the illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness are shattered. The wayfaring men of Isaiah 35: 8 are those who are making their escape - who have joined the new exodus - marching 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.
We can read, write and think for ourselves. Our sanity, when exposed to the truth, instructs us to flee the sourness of godlessness and seek the sweetness of paradise. Only fools do otherwise. Sane people are dynamic. Fools are static. The stasis of fools brings them to perdition. The dynamism of sane people freed from illusions saves them.
Our safety in this world is found on the highway of holiness. The lion and the ravenous beast of Isaiah 35:9 are not there.
Pass through. Do not stop. Pass through.
He is the way, etc (John 14:6). He is the highway of holiness.
The Solution to the Propagation Problem
By successfully executing His part of God's plan, the Son of God revealed to us the sweetness of paradise. In an apocalypse - in the biggest collision between good and evil since the happening of the Big Bang - in a supernova of revelation - the honey that draws the bees back to their home in the hive displayed itself before our eyes. A veil separated the Holy of Holies from the children of Adam and Eve. At Calvary, “[t]he veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom”. God stepped out from behind the veil to reveal the glorious splendor of divinity itself. “Behold the nature of God” were the words the angels sang at Calvary as God was showing us His nature.
The problem that God faced was how to propagate the good news of the triumph of the Son of God from then and there to us here and now.
The triumph of the Son of God paid us took place in the boondocks of time and space. It was inconspicuous, anonymous and remote. God, therefore, concluded that, to propagate the good news of great joy, some sort of a perpetual memorial commemorating the thirty-three year Visit was urgently needed (and a Church to tend it).
God did not want to establish an ordinary, conventional, run-of-the-mill memorial. God did not want a firefly; they wanted a fire - a blazing, raging, engaging bonfire to match the bonfire of love for us that burns in their most sacred heart. They wanted to establish a memorial as real, as extraordinary, and as abundantly alive as the hero of Calvary Himself. Any inferior memorial of the thirty-three Visit just would not do.
The most Holy Trinity reviewed the candidates for a memorial - words, a reenactment, a work of art, and other types of representations.
It would be too cruel to ask the Son of God to let us impale Him on the Cross - to repeat His sacrifice at Calvary anew - for each successive generation and, within a generation, from place to place (Luke 16:19-31). One Calvary - one guarantee of His love for us - was enough. Duplicate guarantees would be superfluous.
From their review of the candidates for a memorial, God realized that the any representations made by human hands of the triumph of the Son of God would be inferior to the triumph of the Son of God itself.
Therefore, God decided that the memorial had to be nothing less than the triumph of the Son of God itself.
So God did the impossible - they created a time machine. They uprooted the triumph of the Son of God from its foundation in time and space, made it portable and created a vehicle to carry it to us in the present. The vehicle that carries the triumph of the Son of God to us is the Mass. At Mass, the physics of time and space are suspended to publish and make known to us here and now the fact that the Son of God paid us a visit as one of us, let us torture and kill Him, rose from the dead and continued to love us nonetheless. The Mass republishes the triumph of the Son of God. Each Mass is a reiteration of the triumph of the Son of God.
The Potential Difference
A potential difference exists between the sourness of godlessness and the sweetness of paradise. The sourness of godlessness pushes the children of Adam and Eve to its exit. The sweetness of paradise pulls them to its entrance. All that was needed to get the current of salvation to flow was the introduction of a conductor between the two worlds. The Son of God became the conductor. He is the bridge between the sourness of godlesness and the sweetness of paradise. He is the way, etc.
Rebalancing the Church
“The Church does not devote enough attention to the sweetness of paradise. Why is paradise sweet? What makes paradise sweet? Seldom does the Church tell us. The Church devotes too much attention to promulgating rules and regulations to govern us here on earth. Father, forgive the Church for it knows not what it is doing. If the Church would only concentrate on getting the children of Adam and Eve to join the escape, they would naturally do a pretty good job of self government without the need for the heavy hand of an external government.”
As in mathematics and in architecture, a golden ratio has a place in the art of evangelization. Christianity is not a faceless monolith. It has many aspects. Not all aspects, however, are equal. Some aspects of Christianity are more important than others. The golden ratio of evangelization deals with the allocation of emphasis to the various aspects of Christianity. It holds that the emphasis to be allocated to an aspect of Christianity must be in accordance with its importance. More important aspects get more emphasis than less important aspects.
Tension exists in the Church today because various blocs in the Church have different opinions about which aspects of Christianity deserve the most emphasis.
Traditionalists focus on sin. To them, sin is the only aspect of Christianity that matters. Upon the foundation of sin, Christianity arises. They are morbidly obsessed with sin. Sin, sin and more sin is the only song they sing. They sing this dirge incessantly. However, as a consequence of their overbearing emphasis on sin, the children of Adam and Eve are tuning out. They are looking for a frequency that plays a more inspiring and comforting song. As the children of Adam and Eve are running away from the arms of the Church, the traditionalists make a virtue out of a necessity by saying that a smaller, purer Church is a good thing not a bad thing. 'Good bye and good riddance' they shout after those exiting the Church. [Note: Praise our merciful God that he did not say the same - as do our merciless traditionalists - to Adam and Eve as they were exiting paradise!]
A world viewed through the tinted lenses of sin is a dark, macabre world. Looking through the tinted lenses of sin distorts all other aspects of Christianity as the mirrors in a "fun" house twist the images they reflect.
The modernists, one of which is Pope Francis, do not deny that sin is an aspect of Christianity. However, they hold the opinion that other aspects of Christianity are more important than sin. Thus, they de-emphasize sin. They knock it down a notch. They reduce it a peg. Here is what Pope Francis said
““We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.”
Modernists recognize that the morbid obsession of the traditionalists with sin has driven the children of Adam and Eve away from the Church not towards it. The modernists want to reverse the trend. The modernists, however, understand that Christianity is not about the Church but about the world. God's love for us was revealed to us in Christianity so that the Church can release it into the world to conquer the entire world - not to conquer just a small subset of it. Modernists understand that the charisma of Christianity is not found in sin but in other, more important aspects of Christianity. The modernists, therefore, focus not on sin but on the escape from godlessness to paradise. The escape is the aspect of Christianity that matters. The escape is the Big Picture of Christianity.
Modernizing the Medieval Church
It is a tale of two Churches: a medieval Church and a modern Church. The modern Church laments the incompetency of the medieval Church as Christ lamented from the Cross our incompetency saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
In the middle ages, the serfs could neither read, nor write nor think for themselves. The place of the serfs was fixed in an inflexible hierarchy of master and serf. They wore the heavy yoke of the Masters. The Masters respected the serfs as much as they respected turds they tread underneath their feet.
The medieval Church belonged to the Masters not the serfs. Toward the serfs, the medieval Church practiced the Cappa Magna of haughty paternalism. The shepherds separated themselves from the serfs. The shepherds did not smell like the serfs. The shepherds perfumed themselves and their perfume distinguished themselves from the serfs. The medieval Church always substituted its thinking for the thinking of the serfs. The medieval Church jammed doctrine down the throats of the serfs against their wills by dint of omnipotence. In medieval times, the serfs swallowed it.
Times, however, changed.
The serfs learned to read, write and think for themselves. They grew up. They transformed themselves from children into adults. They refused to play the role of serf in an anachronistic master - serf relationship. In modernity, the serfs demand respect from their erstwhile masters. In modernity, the serfs no longer swallow. Attempts to jam doctrine down the throats of the serfs only triggers their gag reflex. They regurgitate it. Feudalism does not appeal to serfs who can now read, right and think for themselves. In modernity, the serfs have no respect for a Church that does not respect them. The modern children of Adam and Eve, no matter their age, are detaching themselves from the medieval Church. It is happening now in America and in Europe. Eventually the rest of the world will follow. The opinions of the medieval Church have become irrelevant to the modern serf. The opinions of the medieval Church have no influence in their lives. A Church without influence with the serfs is a Church that is inconsequential.
The ability of the serfs to read, write and think for themselves cannot be put back in the box. It cannot be undone. The toothpaste cannot be put back into the tube. Serfs who can read, write and think for themselves are the new reality. A medieval Church that refuses to accept the new reality of serfs who can read, write and think for themselves is the source of all of all of the problems of the Church today.
The modern Church is different.
The modern Church recognizes that reality has changed. The modern Church does not pretend that serfs who can read, write and think for themselves do not exist. The modern Church accommodates itself to the new reality. The modern Church becomes the tour guide that takes us on expeditions to explore the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God. It is a Church of discovery. It is the Church of wonder. It is a Church of surprise. It is a Church whose members are in a state of blessed anticipation. The modern Church respects the serfs. In turn, the serfs respect the modern Church.
The difference between the modern Church and the medieval Church is the target of its appeal. The medieval Church directs its appeal to the serfs' faculty of obedience. However, if Adam and Eve taught us any lesson, the lesson that they taught us is that our faculty of obedience is broken. It malfunctions. The modern Church understands this and, therefore, bypasses it. Instead, the modern Church appeals to the faculty of rationality of free people.
The modern Church understands God's rescue plan while the medieval Church does not. The serpent conjured up two illusions to hide the natural inclination of reality from Adam and Eve and from us. One illusion camouflages the sweetness of paradise. The other illusion sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness. The illusions induced Adam and Eve to form the opinion that a life lived as gods in godlessness would be superior to a life lived with God in paradise. The opinion, however, was not in accord with reality. Deceived by the illusions, Adam and Eve abdicated paradise for godlessness. They had the gift of paradise in hand but fumbled it. God does not want the children of Adam and Eve to repeat the original sin of their parents. When God delivers the gift of paradise to the children of Adam and Eve, God wants them to keep it. Adam opted out of paradise after the gift of paradise had been delivered to him. So did Eve. So did Lucifer. So did a gaggle of angels led by Lucifer. To reduce the likelihood of post delivery paradise opt out to near zero, God first shatters the illusions. The sledgehammer of truth is wielded against the illusions to shatter them as the blow of a hammer shatters glass. When the illusions are shattered, the truth sets us free. The natural inclination of reality becomes visible to us. We see that paradise is sweet and that godlessness is sour. Sane people seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. Freed from the illusions, the question that arises is how to get there from here - how do we get from godlessness to paradise? The modern Church knows the way. God created an escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church and entrusted the map to the Church. God gave the Church the mission of facilitating the escape from godlessness to paradise. The modern Church is the new Moses. The job of the new Moses is to lead the children of Adam and Eve on a new exodus 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 modern Church knows the way.