Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. The appeal, therefore, is to our rationality. When exposed to the truth, our rationality steers us in the right direction.
Our faculty of obedience is broken. Adam and Eve demonstrated its brokenness . We call this defect original sin. It is a genetic defect that is passed down from generation to generation. It is unreliable. Therefore, God bypassed it. God did not stop to fix it. His plan to rescue us from godlessness hinges on our faculty of rationality not on our faculty of obedience.
Progress from godlessness to paradise has stopped because we are bogged down in the nitty-gritty of Christianity. Traffic on the escape route from godlessness to paradise has dried up from a torrent to a trickle.
There are two varieties of Christians. Those who build a fence around the escape route from godlessness to paradise, who ration access to it and who post signs such as "Members Only", "Keep out","Beware of Dog" and "No Trespassing" on it. The other kind of Christian erects no fence, does not limit access, and posts "Welcome" and "Open to the Public" signs. They hold the opinion that the escape route is a public highway, catholic in scope, open to all including sinners - especially sinners. Which type of Christian are you?
We have the medicine that heals you. But you cannot have it. Go, heal yourself elsewhere and, when you are healed, return to us and we will give you the medicine. We have food to feed you. But you cannot have it. Go, satisfy your hunger elsewhere and, when you are fed, return to us and we will give you food. We have drink to quench your thirst. But you cannot have it. Go, quench your thirst elsewhere and, when your thirst is quenched, return to us and we will give you drink. We have clothes to hide your nakedness. But you cannot have them. Go, clothe yourself elsewhere and, when you are clothed, return to us and we will give you clothes. Your needs means nothing to us because you are an unworthy sinner undeserving of our charity. How perverse is a Church that withholds medicine from the sick, food from the hungry, drink from the thirsty, clothes from the naked and the most Holy Eucharist from sinners? How sanctimonious is a Church for whom worthiness is more important than need? Beggars for Jesus in the most holy Eucharist are knocking on the door of the Church. When will the Church stop turning its back to them = giving them the sanctimonious cold shoulder?
The escape route runs through the bloody wounds we opened in the body of Christ.
The Escape Route is a public highway.
The Escape Route from Godlessness to Paradise is a Public Highway
God built an 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 job of facilitating our escape - not the job of frustrating it, filtering it or fouling it up. The escape from godlessness to paradise is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect. The holy places that define the escape route are oases of paradise set in the hostile desert of godlessness. They are the jewels in the necklace of God. The escape is the needle of the compass that always points in the direction of paradise. 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 new exodus, served by the new Moses, the Church, is making its escape on the escape route 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 are marching hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, together as a family, to the beat of loving heart of the Son of God. At the holy places of the escape route, close encounters with the living God take place. During a close encounter, a connection is made between heaven and earth through which the light of paradise illuminates the darkness of godlessness. No one leaves a close encounter with the living God unchanged. No one leaves a close encounter with the living God empty-handed. Close encounters with our living and loving God transform us. During the close encounters, God transforms sinners into saints.
The escape is the needle of the compass that always points in the direction of paradise.
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 Holy Places that Define the Escape Route
Coming soon
To keep us in paradise after the gift of paradise is delivered to us does not require that paradise be transformed into a prison, God into a warden and us into prisoners because the illusions conjured up by the serpent have been shattered by the sledgehammer of truth. Our eyes have been opened and we see the sweetness of paradise and the sourness of godlessness. Moreover, God gave us the gift of rationality. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is against our self-interest to do otherwise. We stay in paradise volutarily because we know better. The truth has set us free.
Christianity is not reading about a safari. Christianity is about going on safari. We become Christians feet first not head first. Christianity is not about indoctrination. Christianity is about exploration. The Holy Spirit is tugging at our souls and the curious are following the tug back to its source. Along the way, we explore the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God. We explore the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God at the holy places that define the escape route of the 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 genius of the living God himself produced this living and breathing allegory!]. The Church is the tour guide. The Church points out the signts to see as we make our escape from godlessness to paradise. At the holy places, we have a close encounter with the living God. No one leaves a close encounter with the living God unchanged. No one leaves a close encounter with the living God empty-handed. Close encounters with our living and loving God transform us.
Conversion is a change of direction. Instead of proceeding from paradise to godlessness, after conversion, we proceed from godlessness to paradise. The point at which we change direction is the point and place of repentance.
"The mind's direction is more important than its progress." Joseph Joubert
The test of a Catholic is movement not belief. A Catholic moves from the sourness of godlessness to the sweetness of paradise on the Catholic escape route. We are Catholic first with our feet and then with our heads. God built an 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 job of facilitating our escape - not the job of frustrating it, filtering it or fouling it up. The escape from godlessness to paradise is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect.
Saints
A saint is a person who has been converted - who is seeking God and fleeing godlessness on the escape route 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. A saint is a person who has taken the hand of God in this life. A saint is a person who is capable of learning morality. Sainthood precedes morality and not vice versa.
To make a person a moral creature a sequence of events need to take place: 1) shatter the illusions. Turn a settler into a pilgrim 2) show them the escape route from godlessness to paradise when they exit the darkness, enter the light and start to ask, 'how do I get there from here - from goldessness to paradise'. 3) then and only then is a person capable of morality.
There is a Confllct in the Church
After Adam and Eve, like foolish children, ran away from home with God in paradise and took us with them into godlessness, God left the door open, the porch light on and the welcome mat out so they could return home after their self-imposed exile in godlessness was over . Free re-admission is the policy of God. The siblings of the prodigal son, however, want to charge a price for re-admission. They want to put a screen on the door to keep the flys and sinners out. They place in the way of the entrance to paradise hoops to jump through and barriers to jump over. The siblings want to charge the prodigals a high price to return. But the gatekeeper says to the siblings, "It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."
"As for paradise, God has placed no doors there. Whoever wishes to enter, does so. All-merciful God stands there with His arms open, waiting to receive us into His glory." St. Catherine of Genoa, Purgation and purgatory; The spiritual dialogue, translated by Serge Hughes, Classics of Western Spirituality, (New York: Paulist Press, 1979)
Flys and Sinners are not Welcome Here
After Adam and Eve passed through the door between paradise and godlessness , some hold the opinion that God shouted after them, "goodbye and good riddance", slammed the door shut and locked it, thereby, barring our return. As we were drowning in godlessness, God contemptuously laughed at us saying, "you are getting what you deserve". Others hold the opinion that after we passed through the door, God put up a screen to keep the flys and sinners out. Still others hold the opinion that God left the door open, lit the porch light and put the welcome mat out for all of the children of Adam and Eve without exception - saints and sinners alike. Which God is your God? Is yours the God of no reonciliation, limited reconciliation or full reconciliation? Who is your God?
Reengagement
How do we reengage with God? How do we grab the hand that God has extended to us?
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.
UNITY
The unity that the Church seeks will not be achieved until the Church realizes that the escape route from godlessness to paradise is a public highway, catholic in scope, open to all including sinners. God built the escape route from godlessness to paradise for everybody so everybody could experience close encounters with him as we passed 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 gates to the escape route must be torn down and access given to all before all will march home to paradise, hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, together as a family, to the beat of loving heart of the Son of God. If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain (Origin of the Phrase). In less opaque words, the Church must go to the people when the people do not go to the Church.
We Broke God's Heart
On the way out, we tore open bloody wounds in the body of the Son of God. On the way back, we heal them. Calvary is the earthly manifestation of the hurt we do to God when we stop loving him and disengage from him. The bloody wounds are the exit to godlessness. 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 are the gateway between the world of godlessness and the world of paradise (Godlessness). The new exodus led / served by the new Moses, the Church, passes through the bloody wounds as we make our escape 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. He is the way, etc. (John 14:3-6). The bloody wounds are the entrance to paradise. He is the bridge between the world of godlessness and the world of paradise. The Son of God will keep his bloody wounds open for our return until the last of us has come home. Salvation passes through the bloody wounds.
Why does the Dervish Whirl?
Why does the dervish whirl? What inspires him? Why do Catholic's whirl from the Mass, to Confession and to the other holy places that the define the escape route of the new exodus that runs 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? What inspires them? What turns a settler into a pilgrim? Is the Church's exclusion of women from its priesthood the inspiration? Is it the Church's efforts to hold the lid of sexual morality on the boiling cauldron of sexuality that inspires them? Is it clericalism? The Church has a problem. Fewer and fewer Christians are whirling these days (Only 25% of Us Go to Mass - Cardinal Dolan 3/10/2016). Why? The Church has become more interested in the nitty-gritty of Christianity than in the pizzazz of Christianity. The pizzazz of Christianity inspires Christian's to whirl. The nitty gritty of Christianity - not so much. We are bogged down in the nitty-gritty of Christianity. We cannot climb out of it and ascend the holy mountain (Isaiah 2:2-4) to explore the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God. The Church is failing us. It has become a cheerleader for itself and for pettiness instead of a cheerleader for God and the sublime. It is more interested in its so-called "Catholic identity" than in the identity of Jesus. It has allowed the nitty gritty of Christianity to dilute its pizzazz. The glass of Christianity has become all water and no wine - only a dash of wine is added to the glass to give the water color - it has the color of wine but with none of wine's oomph (Matthew 5:13-16). The whirl is the byproduct of the inspiration. There is no inspiration in the nitty-gritty of Christianity. No inspiration; no whirl.
Beware the clerics who preach the gospel of irrationality! Beware them who tell you to embrace suffering as you would embrace a lover. Beware them who preach that suffering is sweet. They are sadistic idiots who have it backwards. Suffering is never sweet. Suffering sucks. What an awful recommendation that they attribute to God! Their perverse logic is that 'Jesus suffered, therefore, you must suffer' Not so. Not so. 'Jeus loved, therefore, you must love' is the recommendation of the loving God. Run away from clerics who preach the gospel of irrationality. Run away from them - fast and far. Use the brain that God gave you. A recommendation of suffering is inconsistent with a philanthropic God. It is all about the love not the suffering.
Prayer
Prayer is one of the holy places that define the escape route that is not under the thumb of the Church. There are others. During prayer, a close encounter with the living God takes place.
The Inexorable Escape
When the custodians of the escape route become a bottleneck to the escape, the children of Adam and Eve go around them, over them, under them and through them. After the illusions are shattered, the truth becomes visible and settlers have made the decision to become pilgrims, the new exodus marches from godlessness to paradise with or without the help of the Church.
Bizarre Logic
Follow the bizarre logic of the custodians of the escape route from godlessness to paradise. At the holy places that define the escape route, close encounters with our loving God take place. During a close encounter, a connection is made between heaven and earth and through the connection the light of paradise illuminates the darkness of godlessness. The experience transforms sinners into saints. Yet, the custodians bar unworthy sinners from the holy places thereby preventing them from a close encounter. Only God transforms us from sinner into saint. The custodians cannot. We cannot transform ourselves. Yet, the custodians deny sinners the opportunity for transformation.
Something Worse than Suffering - the Loss of Love
Christianity is a religion whose foundation is the fact that there is something worse than the crosses of suffering to which we are nailed during our exile in godlessness. Worse is letting the sharp edge of suffering poke a hole in our hearts and drain them of love. The chief recommendation of Christianity, therefore, is that we keep our hearts filled to the brim with love. We can do this because the dial that controls our love is in our own hands not in the hands of suffering. Buckets of blood spilled through the wounds we opened in the body of Christ at Calvary but not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us spilled. Likewise, we must cling to love, hold tight and not let go. This is the secret hanging in plain sight from the Cross. This is the secret that the Son of God himself demonstrated for us. Clinging to love is the only sanctuary in which we can take refuge when we are nailed to the cross of suffering and planted, like a tree, in the ground. Love enables us to pick the cross of suffering up and carry it. Love transforms us into superman. We cling to love not for the sake of those who crucify us but for our own sake. If we don't cling, the sharp edge of suffering will transform us into the most miserable and hideous of beasts. Only love prevents the transformation. Love is the yeast of divinity. It leavens us. Keeping love in our hearts makes us godlike. Our self-interest is best served when we cling to love, hold tight and refuse to let go.
To turn a sinner into a saint, first turn a settler into a pilgrim. Amongst pilgrims, morality tends to take care of itself. Amongst settlers, the wolves in each of us are off the leash.
He is the way, the truth and the life . He is the narrow gate . He is the bridge between the world of godlessness and the world of paradise. The exit of godlessness and the entrance to paradise meet at the bloody wounds we opened in the body of Christ.Through his bloody wounds, the current of salvation flows.
How Do You Tell God that You Want In?
How do you tell God that you want in - that you want to participate in paradise - that you want to join his kingdom? Do you ignore him? Do you show no interest in the gift of paradise? Or do you apply? Do you need to fill out an application and submit it? You make your desire known to God by participating in the new exodus that is making its escape by passing from holy place to holy place 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. You declare your interest now by having close encounters with God now at the holy places where you will learn how to comport yourself when the gift of paradise is delivered to you.
School is Hard. Lord, When is My Education Complete?
God desires knowing and doing, knowing begets doing::
1) (Knowing) As we pass through godlessness, crosses of suffering nail themselves to us. Based on horrible experience, we come to the conclusion that godlessness sucks (Knowledge through experience).
2) (Knowing) Based on revelation, we come to the conclusion that paradise is sweet (Knowledge by revelation).
3) (Doing) Rational people flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. The sourness of godlessness is an engine that pushes us to its exit. It kicks us out.
4) (Doing) Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. The sweetness of paradise is an engine that pulls us to its entrance. It pulls us in
5) (Doing) We do not let the sourness of godlessness plant us, like a tree, in the ground thereby stopping our progress from godlessness to paradise. Love enables us to deny ourselves, to pick up our crosses of suffering and to carry them thereby allowing our progress from godlessness to paradise to continue.
6) (Doing) We make our escape from godlessness to paradise by passing from holy place to holy place 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.
When these things happen, our education is complete. God will deliver the gift of paradise to us and we will keep it.