Reality is reliable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us. His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their lives. Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever disappoint?
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Armageddon is here and now. We are not fighting for something in the hereafter. The battle is now. Now is the time to join Jesus in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the Valley of Tears facing off against Evil toe to toe, cheek to jowl. Christianity is not a sport for spectators. Christians partake in the fray.
On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, creatures were compared to Creator. We contributed torture, suffering, killing and death to the boiling pot of his baptism. He contributed forgiveness. What a contrast between creatures and Creator! Our wickedness highlighted his goodness. It shone the spotlight on it. It helps us to better understand it.
The intransigence of God’s love for us despite the brutality of the Crucifixion is the good news of great joy. However, it does not propagate itself. God gave us the Mass to serve as the vehicle that propagates the good news of great joy from then and there across space and time to us here and now. Propagation of the good news of great joy is the purpose of the Mass. God did not invent the Mass to propagate his real presence. The real presence is not the good news of great joy. His real presence is incidental to the good news of great joy - necessary but not sufficient. God established the institution of the Mass to remind us through his bloody wounds that our God is the God who forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Wow! What a God is our God!
The bombshell of revelation exploded when Jesus and the evil that we did to him met in violent collision on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The incandescence of the explosion illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany. We saw our God take part in a demonstration of divinity. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, our God forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Wow! We thought our God was like us. “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,” (Exodus 21:24) was our expectation for the evil that we did to him. We expected that his answer to the evil that we did to him would be revenge, retaliation and retribution. However, his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8). There is a difference between creatures and creator - a radical difference. The asymmetry between us and our God is breathtaking. The brutality of the Crucifixion makes the intransigence of his love for us extraordinarily amazing. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him (Psalm 8:4-4)?
Christianity is not monolithic. Different factions of Christianity emphasize different aspects of Christianity. Which aspect of Christianity is, in actuality, its most important aspect? To answer this question, we need to look at what aspect of Christianity Jesus himself put in the position of prominence in the showcase of Christianity. The showcase of Christianity is the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. We made a contribution to the showcase and so did Jesus. We put torture, suffering, killing and death into the showcase. Thankfully, he did not answer the evil that we did to him in kind. He did not give us a taste of our own medicine. His answer to the evil that we did to him was asymmetric - radically asymmetric. Into the position of prominence in the showcase of Christianity, Jesus put forgiveness. Forgiveness is the vehicle that Jesus used to convey to us the nature of God. To know forgiveness is to know God. Do you know your God? The wise anchor their understanding of God to the bombshell of revelation that exploded when Jesus and the evil that we did to him met in violent collision on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. To what do you anchor your understanding of God?
The Church often treats us like children. Pay, pray and obey. Better for the children of Adam and Eve to be seen but not heard. The Church gives us crayons and a coloring book whose drawings are divided into parts and numbered. It admonishes us to follow the numbers, to color within the lines or go to hell. Real Christianity, however, is much richer than coloring book Christianity.
What route are you taking to make your escape through the Valley of Tears, across the Red Sea of death and into the kingdom of God? Are you trying to blaze your own trail through the wilderness? Or are you following the trail that Jesus blazed? Are you going the easy way or the hard way? “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Divorcing themselves from God was the original sin of Adam and Eve. The children of Adam and Eve tend to repeat it. They want their inheritance now (Luke 15: 12) to enjoy it themselves without God. They do not understand that their inheritance is not what makes life sweet. God’s power built paradise for us. Power begets respect. God’s love for us, however, makes paradise sweet. Love begets love. Love, not the inheritance, is the treasure (Luke 15:29-32). The prodigal son picked the wrong treasure. His elder brother picked wisely though he did not understand the wisdom of his choice (Matthew 6:33).
"Who are you, God? Identify yourself! Friend or foe? Are you for us or against us? Are you a philanthropist or a misanthrope?" To answer the question, ‘Who is God?’, God sent us a Love Note. What a comforting answer to creatures who are being chewed up into bits and pieces by a multitude of crosses in the Valley of Tears! "What a paradise it is for a soul when the heart knows itself to be so loved by God." . Jesus is the expression of God's love for us. He is the vehicle that conveyed love from heaven and deposited into the Valley of Tears. Does the fact that the Word of God was a Love Note instead of a threat or some other message bear any significance? The Love Note was published in the Valley of Tears on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, we baptized Jesus in a boiling pot of torture, suffering, killing and death . Jesus deposited forgiveness into the pot - not revenge, retaliation or retribution. The ingredient that Jesus deposited into the boiling pot of his baptism tells us all we need to know about God. Have you read the Love Note? Are you privy to the conversation between God and humanity that took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection? We shouted our sharp question at him with lash, thorns, nails and spear. Our sharp question punctuated his body with bloody wounds. The punctuation marks were question marks. What would be his response to the evil we did to him. At the time, we did not know. We had no idea. God was a stranger to us. Thankfully, he did not respond to the evil that we did to him in kind. Thankfully, he did not give us a taste of his own medicine. Thankfully,he changed the tone of the conversation. He whispered his gentle answer back to us. His answer was asymmetric - radically asymmetric to the evil that we did to him. By forgiving us, Jesus declared that he is our friend not our foe. Our God is no longer a stranger to us. Our God is no longer a faceless God. On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, Jesus showed us the face of God. And the face of God is forgiveness.
God appeals not to our faculty of obedience. Our faculty of obedience is broken. It has been broken since the era of Adam and Eve. God, therefore, appeals to our faculty of rationality. Our faculty of rationality works. It functions properly. Our faculty of rationality steers the ship. When fueled by the truth, our faculty of rationality steers us in the right direction. When the fuel of truth is contaminated with illusion, our faculty of rationality steers us in the wrong direction. God, therefore, wields the sledgehammer of truth to shatter the illusions. God puts us into intimate contact with both the sour truth and the sweet truth. The sour truth is the engine that pushes us to the exit of the Valley of Tears. The sweet truth is the engine that pulls us to the entrance of paradise. The two engines of truth generate the current of salvation. The current of salvation sweeps us off our feet and carries us from the Valley of Tears to Paradise. Only the recalcitrant few swim against the tide.
God sent us a Love Note to dilute the toxicity of the Valley of Tears. Jesus was the first drop. Our job is to turn the drop into a flood. God wants us to become Love Notes like Jesus. He wants us to irrigate the Valley of Tears with love to turn it into the gardens of the new Eden here on earth. Our job is done here and now not hereafter and elsewhere. Our job is to pour the sweet syrup of love into the toxic brew held in the Valley of Tears.
