Babel

“The only universal language that survived the great tongue-twisting of Babel was the language of suffering. It is our native tongue. All creatures who suffer understand it. ”

Nobody signs up to dive headfirst or, for that matter, even dip his toe into the boiling cauldron of suffering unless they are insane or something important outweighs the high cost of suffering. All creatures who suffer understand this. Suffering is our native tongue. We understand that suffering is a price we only willingly pay for something that is extremely dear to us. Jesus paid the price because we are extremely dear to Him. Moreover, he paid the price not from his limitless divine resources but from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else. From the exorbitant price he paid for us we can deduce our value to him.

“Because suffering has the power to destroy that which passes through it, anything that survives the passage through suffering is extraordinary and attracts our attention. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us.
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“The infliction of suffering tends to piss its recipient off. It tends to trigger the reflex to revenge, retaliation and retribution. It tends to extinguish the fire of love that burns in the heart. Therefore, when it does not, we bear witness to abnormality. We bear witness to the strange. We bear witness to the paranormal.”

Pregnant by the Word of God

“We have been made pregnant by the knowledge of God.

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)”

Like foolish children, Adam and Eve had run away from their home with God in paradise and took us with them into godlessness. Godlessness sucks. We needed help. So the Son of God dove into godlessness after us to rescue us. He did not dispatch his subordinates. He did not send his flunkies. He came to our rescue himself. 

To rescue us from godlessness, God decided to put us in possession of an important piece of the truth so its light could illuminate the darkness to make the escape route from godlessness to paradise visible. The job was revelation. The job was apocalypse.

The yeast of divinity was introduced to the mud of humanity to leaven the mud with the knowledge of God.  God paid us a visit to impregnate us with the knowledge of God. 

How was this accomplished? How were we "knocked up" by the knowledge of God? The job was given to the Word of God, the second person of the most Holy Trinity (John 1:1-5). 

The process of insemination consisted of three steps (Matthew 13:31-32) (Mark 4:1-32). 

1. The message was composed
2. It was delivered to us and
3. A guarantee of its genuineness was created to verify the truth of the message

STEP 1: THE MESSAGE IS COMPOSED

God composed a simple message: Jesus is the God who loves us dearly. Yet, it is a message that transformed the world.

STEP 2: THE MESSAGE IS DELIVERED

At Bethlehem, the Son of God, the king of the universe, exchanged the penthouse of heaven for the basement of humanity. He did not send his subordinates to do the job. He did not send his flunkies. The job was so important that He did it himself. 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. The yeast of divinity came to leaven the mud of humanity. How? With a love note. At Bethlehem, the Son of God delivered a love note to us. Imagine - a love note from God to us! It was not an ordinary love note. It was unique. It was not words written on dead paper. It was the very Word of God written on life itself. The love note lived and breathed. It was alive. It came in the form of a baby born in the humblest of circumstances.

Step 3: A Guarantee of the Genuineness of the Message is Given to us

To determine whether the love note was genuine or counterfeit, God let us put the love note to the test. We tortured and killed the love note. He suffered and died.  This was the test. This was the evil baptism into which we immersed him. What was the result of the test? He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is the proof that Jesus is God. That he did not stop loving us is the proof that divinity is love. The test revealed that the love note is indestructible.

The Son of God has planted the seed of the knowledge of God within us. We are pregnant with the knowledge of God. Jesus is the God who loves us. He is the sweetness of paradise. Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise. It would be crazy to do otherwise. 

Bringing the Confusion to an End

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. They decided to clear the air. They decided to give us the gift of the definitive picture of the nature of God.  Their representation of the nature of God can be thought of as a self-portrait or an autobiography. The fidelity of their representation to God is unmatched by any representation made by human hands. They gave us the definitive representation of the nature of God by combining the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is the proof that Jesus is God. That he did not stop loving us is the proof that divinity is love.

The Sign of the Cross

“A genuinely made Sign of the Cross “makes all hell tremble.””

— St. John Vianney

Let us begin our exploration of the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God with a short but powerful prayer, 'the Sign of the Cross'.

The gestures of the Sign of the Cross do not just point at the bloody wounds we opened in the body of Christ. They point through them. The bloody wounds are a telescope through which we catch a glimpse of heaven from here on earth. They pierce the veil.

If we stop short and only look at the bloody wounds, we only see the guarantee of the genuineness of the message - the verification of its veracity - its certificate of authenticity. We see that we tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. We do not see the message itself.

The revelation that the Son of God made during his visit consists of two components: 1) the message itself and 2) the guarantee of the message. 

In order to see the message itself, we must look through the bloody wounds not just at them. 

If we look through the bloody wounds, we see more - much more.  We see what God intended us to see. We see divinity in all of its glorious splendor. We see the engine that generates the sweet force that pulls us to the entrance of paradise. '

What do we see when we look through the bloody wounds?

We see that he did not stay dead and that he did not stop loving us. We see indestructibility. We see the indestructibility of the Son of God and the indestructibility of His love for us. Both the Son of God and His love for us survived the brutal baptism into which we immersed him. Life and love emerged intact and undiminished from the gauntlet of evil through which we ran the Son of God while he was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth. We put the Son of God to the test. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. From the fact that he did not stay dead we discovered that Jesus is God. From the fact that he did not stop loving us we discovered the divinity is love. His survival revealed His omnipotence. Death itself has no power over Him and, by virtue of Him, over us.  The survival of His love for us, however, revealed so much more - something greater and more powerful than omnipotence. The survival of His love for us revealed the very essence of divinity itself. God is love - a love that we are powerless to extinguish or reduce by even the slightest degree.

Therefore, let us re-learn this simple but powerful prayer --- that is all too often only perfunctorily said.  Make the Sign of the Cross often. Prepare places of honor for it in your daily lives.

The Bloody Wounds in His Head

Name the Father. Point to the bloody wounds we opened in the head of Jesus. Look through them as you would look through a telescope. See that the Son of God not only survived the evil into which we baptized Him but He also clung to His love for us, held tight and did not let go. He continues to love us nonetheless. God is love - a love that we are powerless to extinguish or reduce by even the slightest degree. 

Meditation:  Jesus wears the crown because He is the King of Kings. Rank in the kingdom of God is determined by love. He holds the highest rank because He has the greatest love. He loved us before He entered the gauntlet of gruesome suffering, He loved us while passing through it, and loved us no less when He emerged.

The Bloody Wounds in His Feet

Name the Son. Point to the bloody wounds we opened in the feet of Jesus. Look through them as you would look through a telescope. See that the Son of God not only survived the evil into which we baptized Him but He also clung to His love for us, held tight and did not let go. He continues to love us nonetheless. God is love - a love that we are powerless to extinguish or reduce by even the slightest degree.  

Meditation: The feet of God trod the earth, not above us as God, but on the same level as us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. He communicated His love for us in the unambiguous language of suffering - our native tongue. Nobody signs up to dive headfirst or, for that matter, even dip his toe into the boiling cauldron of suffering unless they are insane or something important outweighs the high cost of suffering.  All creatures who suffer understand this. Suffering is a price we only willingly pay for something that is extremely dear to us. Jesus paid the price because we are extremely dear to Him. 

THE BLOODY WOUNDS IN HIS Hands

Name the Holy Spirit. Point to the bloody wounds we opened in the hands of Jesus. Look through them as you would look through a telescope. See that the Son of God not only survived the evil into which we baptized Him but He also clung to His love for us, held tight and did not let go. He continues to love us nonetheless. God is love - a love that we are powerless to extinguish or reduce by even the slightest degree.

Meditation:  Despite all of the evil we did to Him, the arms of God still remain wide open and ready to embrace us in a great bear hug of overwhelming love if we would repent, turn ourselves around and start our climb out of the inhospitable cesspool of godlessness.

THE BLOODY WOUND IN HIS Side

Say Amen. Fold your hands together to form the point of the spear that pierced the side of Jesus.  Look through the bloody wound we opened in His side as you would look through a telescope. See that the Son of God not only survived the evil into which we baptized Him but He also clung to His love for us, held tight and did not let go. He continues to love us nonetheless. God is love - a love that we are powerless to extinguish or reduce by even the slightest degree. 

Meditation:  At Calvary, buckets of blood and His very life itself spilled from the wounds we opened in His body with lash, thorns, nails and spear. However, not a drop - not a drop - of His love for us spilled. His most sacred heart continued to be filled to the brim with love for us. He and His love for us had survived. This is the good news of great joy.  At Bethlehem, the most Holy Trinity hand delivered to us a love note. At Calvary, they gave us a guarantee of its veracity.

You may be too busy to go to Mass or to Confession. You may not have enough time to say the Rosary. But what is your excuse for not making a meaningful Sign of the Cross?

The Bigger Bang

“The yeast of divinity came to leaven the mud of humanity by putting into the hands of the mud a love note. The love note changes everything. It changes the trajectory of the mud. 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 His love for them. His love for them is the sweetness of paradise. The rationality of the mud instructs the mud to seek the sweetness of paradise. It would be crazy to do otherwise.”

God had something to tell us. God had something to say. God wanted us to know that God loves us dearly. Therefore, God sent us a love note. At Bethlehem, Jesus brought the love note to us.  Jesus was the love note. He was the message - the word of God. He was the messenger as well. He delivered the message to us. Furthermore, Jesus was the guarantor of the genuineness of the message as well.

Jesus was the certificate of authenticity for the message.

Jesus was the guarantee of the genuineness of the message.

Jesus verified the veracity of the message. 

Furthermore, the guarantee was given to us in a manner that was both dramatic and apocalyptic.

A collision was arranged.

At and about Calvary outside the city of Jerusalem in a region of our planet called the Middle East more than two thousand years ago, a collision known as the Crucifixion took place between Good and evil. It was bigger than the Big Bang. it was larger than the Large Hadron Collider.

What survived the collision?

The answer is important because the byproducts of the collision unambiguously reveal the identity of Jesus. The fallout from the collision verified the veracity of the treasure. Jesus did not stay dead. This byproduct proved that Jesus is God. Jesus did not stop loving us. This byproduct proved something more important than the divinity of Jesus. It proved that the nature of divinity is love itself.

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us.

The evil we did to him could have produced different results. We could have pissed him off. We could have triggered his reflex for revenge, retaliation and retribution. He could have ripped up the love note. He could have cancelled the invitation to follow him back to our home in paradise. He could have confiscated the knowledge of God that he shared with us. But He did not. Instead, he continued to love us nonetheless. His atypical reaction to the evil we did to him gave us proof - irrefutable proof - that his love for us is radical in scope, magnitude and intransigence.

Transporting the Knowledge of God from Heaven to Earth

“The yeast of divinity came to leaven the mud of humanity with the knowledge of God”

The knowledge of God, it was decided, would be transported from heaven to earth and into the hands of the children of Adam and Eve.

The knowledge of God is the treasure in the treasure chest of Christianity.

Arising from this decision was the question, ‘what package would be appropriate to hold and carry the knowledge of God during its journey?’. Ordinarily, to hold and carry knowledge, knowledge is put into a book or into some other traditional repository of knowledge. However, not in this case. The knowledge of God was so valuable that no ordinary, conventional, no-frills, humdrum repository would have been suitable. A package equal in dignity to its cargo was desired.

Indeed, in this case, a treasure chest was needed because the knowledge of God is the most precious of treasures.

Therefore, into an extraordinary treasure chest, the knowledge of God was poured. The treasure chest was unique. It lived and breathed and had its own exalted being. Into Jesus, the knowledge of God was poured. During His Visit to us, the Son of God shared the treasure with us. He made us rich. 

“When the Church shares the knowledge of God with us, the Church makes us rich. The knowledge of God is the most precious of treasures.”

The Relationship of Suffering to the Message

God had something to tell us. God had something to say. God had an important message for us. The message was so important that God personally involved themselves in 1) the message 2) its delivery and 3) the guarantee of its genuineness.

What is the message? 

The message is that God loves us dearly. 

How was the message delivered to us? The message was so important that God did not delegate its delivery to a subordinate. God did not put the message into the hands of a flunky. God delivered the message themselves. The most Holy Trinity sent the Son of God to deliver their message to us. He was the messenger and the message. Furthermore, He was the guarantor of its genuineness. 

He was their love note to us.

How did God guarantee the genuineness of the message?  

Suffering.

God allowed us to baptize the love note in the boiling cauldron of suffering.

God allowed us to impale the love note on the sharp hook of salvation while He was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth..

Like silver, God allowed us to test the love note in the furnace.

God allowed us to torture and kill the Son of God. 

If the love note were counterfeit, His love for us would have faded as we tortured Him and died when we killed Him. But it did not. His love for us survived.

The survival of His love for us is the guarantee that God gave us that the love note was genuine. The survival of His love for us despite the suffering and death we inflicted upon Him verified the veracity of the love note. Suffering authenticated it. Suffering proved that God's love for us is indestructible. 

Can you even imagine a better, more reliable guarantee? 

God wrote the guarantee of the genuineness of their message of love in the ink of suffering. Why? Because the guarantee was addressed to creatures who suffer. Creatures who suffer understand what it means to survive suffering.

On the canvas of Calvary in the pigments of pain and suffering, God painted a self portrait of the nature of God  Why? Before Calvary and since Calvary, many representation have been created of the nature of God. All of them without exception and regardless of their author are inferior to the self-portrait that God painted with their own hand at Calvary. All of them must yield to the self-portrait.

In the Ten Commandments, God admonished us not to make any representations of them. Why? God knew that any representations of them would be inferior to the representation God would give us at Calvary.

Suffering was not the message.

Suffering was not the messenger.Suffering did not deliver the message.

Suffering guaranteed the message.

Suffering is the seal that God placed on the message of love to guarantee that the message is genuine.

“The only universal language to survive the confounding of languages that took place at Babel was the language of suffering. All creatures who suffer understand it. It is our native tongue. God became a creature who suffers so He could communicate with us in our native tongue”

Why did the Son of God become flesh?

God wanted to tell us something. God had something important to tell the children of Adam and Eve. 

"We want to tell the children of Adam and Eve that God loves them dearly", God announced to the heavenly host. What language shall we use? Shall we communicate with them in Russian? in English? in Mandarin Chinese? in Spanish? in Greek? in Aramaic?

What is the best way to communicate the message? How can we convey the message so that none of its meaning gets lost.

Since the confounding of languages that took place at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), no universal language exists that they all understand.

Or is there?

Did one universal language survive the confounding of languages that took place at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)?

Indeed, one did.

The universal language that survived the confounding of languages that took place at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is our native tongue. All of the children of Adam and Eve understand it without exception. Its meaning is unmistakable. It is the language of pain and suffering. The language of pain and suffering conveys unambiguous meaning.

The Son of God took flesh so God could communicate with us unambiguously in our native tongue. He did not use the language of angels; he used the language of the mud. 

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. The yeast of divinity came to leaven the mud of humanity with the knowledge of God. 

God let us pass him through the gauntlet of pain and suffering so we would see what emerged on the other side. God let us baptize him in evil so we would see what emerged. God let us put him through the test so we would see the results.

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. This was the gauntlet. This was the baptism. This was the test.

Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. These are the facts that emerged on the other side. These are the results.

Therefore, to fairly and accurately  represent  the message that God conveyed to us requires two components not one. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. This is the first component. This is why the Son of God became flesh. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. 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 first component of the message was necessary in order to give us the proof.  No pain and suffering; no proof. 

On the canvas of Calvary in the pigments of pain and suffering, the Son of God painted a self-portrait of the nature of God. No other representation made by human hands matches the fidelity of the self-portrait. 

The Church has left the Jelly out of the Doughnut

“What is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet?”

Read the Nicene Creed and you will not find the jelly for the doughnut. Pass from Good Friday to Easter Sunday and you will not find the jelly for the doughnut.

Why? Why does the Church leave out the jelly from the doughnut? 

The Church is in a rush to get from his death to his resurrection. It makes haste. That he died is proof that he is human. That he did not stay dead is proof that he is God. Yet, this is only half of the story. It is an important half of the story. But, it is not the jelly. It is not the ingredient that makes paradise sweet.

What is the other half of the story? What is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet? What is the jelly for the doughnut?

That he did not stop loving us is the jelly for the doughnut. That he did not stop loving us is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet. That he did not stop loving us is the other half of the story.

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died.  These facts would ordinarily extinguish any love he has for us. Ordinarily, when we tortured him, his love for us would have faded. Ordinarily, when we killed him, his love for us would have died. However, this did not happen. Love survived. We baptized him in evil. Yet, our evil baptism had no effect. He continued to love us nonetheless. Wow!  

How do I sign up? Where do I enlist? How do I join the kingdom of this omnipotent God whose love for me is intransigent?

“We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us.”

“Jesus did not pay us a visit just to prove to us that he is God. Jesus paid us a visit to prove that He loves us. Therefore, to give us the proof, Jesus let us torture and kill him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is the proof that Jesus is God. That he did not stop loving us is the proof that divinity is love. (Note: in the rush to get from his death to his resurrection - from Good Friday to Easter Sunday - do not overlook the fact that he did not stop loving us. It is a most important fact.)”

THE MEDIEVALISTS VERSUS THE MODERNISTS

The Church has tried to jam doctrine down our throats by dint of omnipotence. This is a medieval not a modern tactic and it arises from a time when authority and hierarchy were rigid. Before we learned to read, write and think for ourselves,  we docilely swallowed whatever they jammed down our throats. Times have changed. In modernity, we have learned to read, write and think for ourselves. Now, the Church's tactic triggers our gag reflex. We regurgitate it.  The command - obedience paradigm no longer works. A new approach, therefore, is needed. The appeal must be to our rationality. We must be persuaded.  This dismays the medievalists. It discombobulates them. It makes them apoplectic. The modernists, however, are up for the challenge. In fact, they think an appeal to our rationality is the best way to go.

It echoed a tactic that Khomeini himself deployed in 1979, in his revolution’s earliest months, when he first faced pushback against his new theocracy.

Four days after Khomeini returned to Iran from years of exile, he declared any opposition to be blasphemy.

“I will decide the government, a government for the people,” he intoned. “Revolt against God’s government is revolt against God.”

NY Post February 1, 2020, How Iran’s women are using their hijabs to fight the regime (Click Here)

Exaggerating 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.

The Guarantee of the Genuineness of the Love Note

“We tortured and killed the God who loves us. The God who loves us suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us.”

Why did the Son of God pay the exorbitant cost of our salvation?

The theory that the Son of God took the bullet meant for us besmirches the reputation of God the father. It can't be valid. God the Father is not a monster. He did not shoot his Son. He loves his son.

At Bethlehem, God delivered to us a love note. Imagine that. A love note from God to us. It was a most unusual love note. The love note was different. It was not just the word of God written on dead paper. It was the word of God written on life itself. It lived and breathed. The love note was alive! It was written in the form of a baby born in the most humble of circumstances in the boondocks of time and space. It was inconspicuous, anonymous and remote. By all measures, it ought to have been overlooked but it was not.

Why was it not?

Because it came with a guarantee.

God did not just put the love note into our hands. God put a guarantee of its genuineness into our hands as well.

On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, His love for us was put to the test. Contrary to normal expectations, we baptized him (Matthew 3:13-17). If the love note were counterfeit, his love for us would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. It survived. The evil we did to him did not extinguish his love for us nor reduce it by even the slightest degree. 

The dial that controls his love for us is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. Not even the evil that we did to him could budge it.

That his love for us survived intact and undiminished the evil that we did to him is the guarantee that the love note is genuine. 

“The God who fashioned us out of the dust with his hands put himself into the hands of the dust to leaven the dust with the yeast of divinity. The yeast of divinity is love. ”

The Job of the Church

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

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

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

Why does a Loving God let Bad Things happen to Good People (The Problem of Evil)

Lucifer opted out. A gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer opted out. Adam opted out. Eve opted out. Paradise was hemorrhaging the handiwork of God.  They opted out of paradise after the gift of paradise had been delivered to them. The allure of a life lived with God in paradise (a/k/a the beatific vision) was insufficient to keep them there. The evidence of the inadequacy of the allure of paradise is indisputable.  

Lucifer, in the guise of a serpent, presented to Adam and Eve the promise of deification in godlessness (Genesis 3:5).  He put on the table the possibility of a superior alternative existence to paradise. He conjured up two illusions: 1) an illusion that camouflaged the sweetness of paradise and 2) an illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness. The illusions hid from Adam and Eve the natural inclination of reality. Reality was contrary to the illusions. Reality was the polar opposite of the illusions. Lucifer was a liar (John 8:44) and his promise was empty.  Yet, his promise of a life lived as God in godlessness induced Adam and Eve to abdicate paradise for godlessness. It induced them to run away from their home in paradise with God like foolish children. Unfortunately for us, they took us with them on their escapade into godlessness. God had given Adam and Eve many gifts including the gift of life, the gift of paradise and the gift of a spouse with whom to enjoy it. Lucifer gave them nothing. Yet, inexplicably, Adam and Eve preferred Lucifer to the gift-giver. 

Opting out of paradise was contrary to their self-interest. It is a type of suicide - self destruction - insanity.  The God who loves his handiwork had an opt out problem. The problem needed a solution. God does not want the children of Adam and Eve to repeat the mistake (original sin) of their parents. Moreover, any solution to the problem needed to fit into certain parameters. God did not want to turn paradise into a prison, themselves into our warden and us into prisoners. God wanted the solution to respect our free will. Moreover, God understood from the debacle of Lucifer, his gaggle of angels, Adam and Eve that our faculty of obedience was broken. It malfunctioned. Therefore, the solution could not be based on our faculty of obedience. The solution needed to bypass it. Stupidity is not a characteristic of God. The solution, therefore, needed to be based upon our faculty of rationality.

To solve the problem of post delivery paradise opt out, God decided to give the children of Adam and Eve what Adam and Eve wanted. God decided to give them a taste of the sourness of godlessness. The taste of the sourness of godlessness would persuade them that Lucifer was a liar who made promises but never delivers. The taste of the sourness of godlessness would shatter the illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness. 

Therefore, 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. It causes us to doubt the existence of a loving God. 

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. The taste proves that the serpent is a liar.

Adam and Eve lived in paradise. They had no experience in godlessness. Their lack of experience in godlessness made them vulnerable to the sales pitch of the serpent. The children of Adam and Eve, however, experience the sourness of godlessness for themselves. The experience makes them invulnerable to the serpent's sales pitch. To save us from godlessness, God switched our starting point. Instead of starting in paradise as Adam and Eve did, we start in 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 taste of the sourness of godlessness stops us from fumbling the ball.

The delay is harsh but effective medicine.  A loving God lets bad things happen to good people (the problem of evil) to reduce the likelihood of post delivery paradise opt out to near zero. The effectiveness of the medicine 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. 

Freed from the illusion that sugarcoats the sourness of godlessness, rational people flee the sourness of godlessness. It would be insane to do otherwise.

The sourness of godlessness was the first engine that drives the children of Adam and Eve along the escape route from godlessness to paradise. However, it is not the only engine. 

Paradise is foreign to us. We are strangers to paradise. The memory of the life that Adam and Eve lived with God in paradise has faded. Therefore, to shatter the illusion that camouflages the sweetness of paradise from us, a revelation was needed. More than two thousand years ago at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of our planet known as the Middle East, God revealed to us the sweetness of paradise. In fact, the sweetness of paradise himself paid us a visit. 

Freed from the illusion that camouflages the sweetness of paradise, rational people seek the sweetness of paradise.  It would be insane to do otherwise.

The sweetness of paradise became the second engine that drives the children of Adam and Eve along the escape route from godlessness to paradise. 

The sourness of godlessness and the sweetness of paradise 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. God wants us to hit the jackpot. Our return to our home in paradise with God and his holy family is the jackpot.

It is said that the truth sets us free. The above is the reason for such an assertion. Much is true. However, much truth is irrelevant. The truth that matters is the truth that shatters the illusions conjured up by the serpent. This subset of truth shatters the illusions as the blow of a sledgehammer shatters glass.

“Godlessness is a sinking ship. The job of the Church is not to save the ship. The job of the Church is to save the passengers - not just a subset of passengers - but all of the passengers - saints, sinners, believers and non-believers. “To the lifeboats!” “To the lifeboats!” “Abandon Ship!” “Abandon Ship!” If the exigency is not felt, the Church is not doing its job.”

“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. ”

“Beware those who underestimate the generosity of God. ”

“Love has a face by which it can be identified. The face of love is generosity.”

“The generosity of God is perfect. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. Glory be to God.”

How do you recognize a Christian?

A Christian is anyone who carries God's love to his neighbor (John 13:34-35). The conveyance of God's love to neighbor identifies a Christian (Revelation 3:15-17). Nothing else.

In fact, it is the only way to identify a servant of God of any religion (Mark 10:21).

You can be baptized and confirmed. You can hold in your head the most orthodox of Christian doctrine. You can go to Mass daily. You can confess your sins regularly. You can pray all day long. However, if you are not carrying God's love to your neighbor, you are a fraud. You are masquerading as a Christian but you are not (Matthew 19:21). You are a pretender. You are neither hot nor cold but lukewarm so, at the end, God will spew you out of his mouth (Revelation 3:15-17).

The holy pipeline that carries God's love for us starts at the heart of God the Father. From there, it proceeds to God the Son. Through 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, God's love for us flows.  The bloody wounds are conduits through which the river of God's love flows from heaven to earth. By torturing and killing him, we could have, to say the least, pissed God off.  The sin of sins that we committed against the very person of the Son of God ought to have triggered God's revenge reflex bringing the brunt of his furious wrath down upon our fragile heads. But God's thoughts are not our thoughts; God's ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). Unexpectedly, God continued to love us nonetheless. We tortured and killed him, yet, he continued to love us nonetheless. That His love for us survived the gruesome baptism into which we immersed him (Matthew 3:13-17) communicates to us the message that divinity is love - pure love unadulterated by any of the impurities and defects that adulterate human love.  The survival of his love for us puts into our hands a guaranty that his love for us is genuine. If his love for us were counterfeit, it would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. The evil we did to the Son of God did not extinguish his love for us or reduce it by even the slightest degree. The next segment of the holy pipeline presented to God, what seems to us, an impossible, insurmountable construction problem. Between then and there and here and now is impassable gap - a gap in time of more than two thousand years and a gap in space of half way around the world. We opened the bloody wounds in the boondocks of time and space. The event was inconspicuous, anonymous and remote.  The question was how to perpetuate and propagate its memory through time and space. God decided that a memorial was needed to keep the attention of the children of Adam and Eve focused on the bloody wounds. God did not want to establish an ordinary, conventional, run-of-the-mill memorial. God did not want a firefly. God wanted a fire - a blazing, raging, engaging bonfire to match the bonfire of love that we see when we look through the bloody wounds we opened in the body of the Son of God to his most sacred heart. Any inferior memorial just would not do. God reviewed the candidates for a memorial - words, a reenactment, a work of art, and other types of representations depicting our opening of the bloody wounds. 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 God's review of the candidates for a memorial, God realized that the any representations made by human hands of the bloody wounds would be inferior to the bloody wounds themselves. Therefore, God decided that the memorial had to be nothing less than the bloody wounds themselves. So God did the impossible. God created a time machine. God uprooted the bloody wounds from their foundation in time and space, made them portable and created a vehicle to carry them to us in the present. The vehicle that carries the bloody wounds of the Son of God to us is the Mass. At Mass, the physics of time and space are suspended so that God's love for us can pass through the hands of a priest and into the body and the blood of the most Holy Eucharist during Mass. Thence, God's love passes to us.

The end.

Wait.

Not so fast.

Many think that this is the end of the journey of God's love. This, however, is not the end of journey. There is one more leg of the journey. And, it is the last leg of the journey that matters. All else is geared to make the last leg of the journey possible. The last leg of the journey occurs when we pass God's love of us to our neighbor. 

God's love for us passes to us

not for us to keep for ourselves

but for us to give away, as he gave it away, to our neighbors. 

We cross the boundary that separates potential Christians from full fledged Christians only by delivering God's love to our neighbors. 

The Sweetness of Paradise

To shatter the illusion conjured up by the serpent that camouflages the sweetness of paradise from us, revelation was necessary. Paradise is foreign to us. We are strangers to it. Paradise is outside of our experience. We are denizens of godlessness. The memory of Adam and Eve in Eden has faded.

Moreover, what better way to reveal the sweetness of paradise than by delegating the task of revelation to the sweetness of paradise himself? To reveal the sweetness of paradise to us, 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. At Bethlehem, heaven delivered a love note to earth. Imagine that! A love note from God to us. The love note was unique. It came as a baby born in humble circumstances who lived and breathed. The love note was also a treasure chest that carried the knowledge of God to us. The love note was also an invitation to us to come back to our home with God and his holy family in paradise. The love note was also the escape route from godlessness to paradise. The love note was the hope of rescue for us who are stranded in the hostile desert of godlessness.

Furthermore, the revelation of the sweetness of paradise was delivered to us in a manner that was both dramatic and apocalyptic. 

A collision was arranged. At and about Calvary, a collision known as the Crucifixion took place between Good and evil. It was bigger than the Big Bang. it was larger than the Large Hadron Collider. What survived the collision? The answer is important because the byproducts of the collision unambiguously revealed the identity and nature of Jesus. 

Furthermore, at Calvary, God let us erect the greatest engineering project the world has ever seen. It is greater than the tower of Babel. It is greater than the pyramids. It is greater than the discovery of the curvature of space-time. It is greater than all of the black holes combined. It is greater than any project imagined by the most fanciful of science fiction writers and the most gifted of scientists. 

God let us build a telescope.

The telescope we built is his bloody wounds. 

God let us open bloody wounds in his body so we could see through the opaque illusion conjured up by the serpent that camouflages the sweetness of paradise from us.

The bloody wounds pierce the veil between heaven and earth.

Through his bloody wounds, we catch a glimpse of heaven from here on earth.

When we look through the bloody wounds, we see the glorious victory. What we see when we look through the bloody wounds shatters the illusion that camouflages the sweetness of paradise from us. We learn the answer to the question, 'What is the nature of God?'. The purpose of the bloody wounds was apocalypse - revelation. God shows us his nature through the bloody wounds. 

But be careful. When you look through the bloody wounds at the apocalypse, don tinted safety goggles. The light from heaven (Acts 9:3) that shines through the bloody wounds is blinding. It will knock you off your feet.

When we look through the bloody wounds, we see the following facts:

1)   we launched a freight train of evil at the Son of God. It charged at him as an angry bull charges the matador who waves a red cape. Remarkably, He stood in its path. He did not flinch. He did not cower. He did not jump out of the way. He took it on the chin. He stood firm and, by standing firm, stopped evil's progress dead in its tracks - short of its goal. Evil hit a wall. The wall that evil hit was Jesus. 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. That He met the freight train of evil head on is proof that Jesus is courageous - exceptionally courageous.

2)  To rescue us, the Son of God could have dispatched his subordinates. He could have sent His flunkies. But He did not. He did the job Himself.  The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself in the hands of the mud - proof of the humility of God and his willingness to get his hands dirty. Proof that he is the antithesis of aloof. Proof that he is hands-on, intimate with us.

3)  He paid an exorbitant price for our salvation. Moreover, he did not pay it from His limitless divine resources. He paid it from His limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for Himself. He has never paid more for anything or anyone else. The exorbitant price He paid to rescue us is the best evidence of our value to Him. It is an understatement to say that we are dear to Him. If you have doubts of our dearness to God, just look at the price he paid for us (John 15:13)! The magnitude of God's love for us is measured by the price that he paid for our salvation (Luke 12:6-7).

4)  We killed him but He did not stay dead - proof that Jesus is God,

5)  We tortured him but he did not stop loving us - proof that Divinity is love,

6)  We committed the sin of sins against him by torturing and killing him but he did not turn off the spigot of generosity. He did not cancel the invitation to follow him back to paradise and he did not confiscate the knowledge of God that he shared with us during his visit - proof that love is generous - radical and revolutionary in his generosity. Love has a face by which we can recognize it. The face of love is generosity. Oh! How recognizable is the face of Jesus!

Furthermore, 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 conduits. Through them God's love to us flows. 

The dial that controls his love for us is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. How do we know? The bloody wounds tell us so.

He volunteered to suffer and die for sinners. Imagine what he is willing to do for saints!

That he volunteered to suffer and die for sinners tells us in no uncertain terms that there is nothing - nothing - that he won't do for us.

Where do I sign up? How do I enlist? How do I join the kingdom of this Jesus, the God who does not not stop loving me despite my wickedness? 

Rush

“Slow down, you movin’ too fast
You gotta make the moment last”

— Simon and Garfunkle, 59th Bridge Song

Slow down. In our rush to get from his death, Good Friday, to his Resurrection, Easter Sunday, we skip over one of the most important aspects of the revelation. Indeed, the fact that we killed him but he did not stay dead is important. However, equally important is the fact that we tortured him but he did not stop loving us. 

We could have pissed him off. We could have triggered his revenge reflex. Yet, we did not.

“We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and did not stop loving us.”

“Why do our creeds omit the fact that he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is only half of the story.”

The Message is best expressed as a Sequence of Historical Events

“Often, it seems that someone took the pieces of Christianity, jumbled them up, tossed them in the air and let them fall where they may. So many odd and strange combinations are made this way.”

The best way - no, the only way - to accurately convey the message is as a sequence of historical events (i.e. contextualized). The message, therefore, consists of three components.

1. The first component of the message is its prefix: The prefix of the message is 'We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died'. The prefix of the message is the fact that we baptized him in the boiling cauldron of suffering (Matthew 3:13-17).
2. The second component of the message is its suffix. The suffix of the message is 'Yet, he neither stayed dead and he did not stop loving us'.  
3. The third component of the message is the connection between the two components. The connection conveys cause and effect. The cause and effect connection between the prefix of the message and the suffix of the message is the critical part of the message. The prefix is the cause; the suffix is the effect or, in this case, the no-effect. Break the connection and the message evaporates. Poof! 

Jesus is a compound of the most extraordinary combination of components.  The combination is so rare that it is quite possibly unique. Like a unicorn, the combination is not found in nature.  It is a supernatural combination - alien to humanity - foreign to us. It is akin to finding, in the same compound, fire and water, matter and anti-matter, hot and cold, fat and skinny, left and right, inside and outside, or up and down.  It is extraordinary because, in nature, the first component extinguishes the second component - annihilates it completely - obliterates it - wipes it out.

In nature, there is a normal pattern of cause and effect that ought to have held true in Jesus. Yet, in Jesus, it did not (Isaiah 55:8-9).

By baptizing him in the boiling cauldron of suffering (Matthew 3:13-17), we ought to, at the very least, have pissed him off. Our evil baptism of him ought to have triggered his reflex for revenge, retaliation and retribution. Our wickedness toward him ought to have produced a God who hates us. Pressing the detonator ought to have exploded the bomb. However, it did not. The bomb was a dud. Thanks be to God (Isaiah 55:8-9).

We killed him but He did not stay dead. We tortured him but He did not stop loving us. In addition, He did not revoke the invitation to follow him back to our home in paradise. Furthermore, He did not confiscate the knowledge of God that he had distributed to us during his life. He let us keep it.

Is there anything worse we could have done to him than torture and kill him? Baptizing him in the boiling cauldron of suffering was the sin of sins. He suffered and died. Yet, He emerged from the evil baptism alive and still in love with us. Wow!

Never sever the connection between the components of the message. Much misunderstanding is generated and much mischief is done when the connection between the two components is severed.

“We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is proof that he is God. That he did not stop loving us is proof that divinity is intransigent love.”

“We did everything in our power to extinguish his love for us. Yet, we failed. The dial that controls his love for us is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place.”