The Crucifixion is the richest source of the knowledge of God (00747)
Divinity breached through the surface of the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion as leviathan vomited up Jonah on the seashore (Jonah 2) (Job 41).

Jesus hid the Easter Egg (Wikipedia) in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698). Jesus deposited the knowledge of God (Hosea 4:6) into his answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. His answer became the reservoir that held the knowledge of God. His answer was the treasure chest. The knowledge of God was the treasure. Jesus deposited the treasure into the treasure chest in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. The deposition of the treasure into the treasure chest initiated the treasure hunt (00602) (00184). Christianity is a treasure map for treasure hunters engaged in a treasure hunt. The Crucifixion marks the spot of the treasure. An 'X' marks the spot (00707) (00184) (00188) (00630). The treasure arises out the treasure chest as meaning arises out of a word (Matthew 4:4) (John 1:1). Educate yourself! Open the treasure chest! Discover the treasure! Make yourself rich (Matthew 13:44-46) (00028)! "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2). (1 Chronicles 16:10-12) (Isaiah 55:6-7). The pursuit of God is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect (Matthew 6:33). Therefore, more of the pursuit of God; not less. Always. No exceptions.

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[¶ 00747 Updated: 11_06_2024]

Divinity splashed down on earth in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (00748)

In the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698), divinity in its highest and purest concentration coalesced on earth into a coherent form. Divininity touched down in hostile circumstances. Divinity landed in hell (00718). Ooops? Did divinity miss the landing zone? Did divinity touch down off target? Or did divinity know what it was doing? Was the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion a perfect place for a revelation - an ideal spot for Jesus' performative exegesis (00736) about God (John 15:13) (00733)? In a hell that consumed his flesh and blood, divinity assumed the form of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the apotheosis of God (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). Forgiveness is the proxy for the radical love of God. It is the incandescent instrument that illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7).

Note: Humanity splashed down on earth in the Incarnation filled with the potential of divinity.

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(00718)
[¶ 00748 Updated: 11_06_2024]

What is the miracle of the Crucifixion? (00745)

We had made the Crucifixion a singularity of hell only. Jesus transformed the singularity into a duality of heaven and hell. In answer to the evils that we had done to him during the Crucifixion, Jesus did the unexpected. He surprised us (Isaiah 55:8-9). Conventional biblical wisdom created the expectation of "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48). Jesus, however, rejected conventional biblical wisdom. He defied it. His answer was radically unconventional (Isaiah 55:8-9). Jesus substituted forgiveness for punishment. Heaven diluted hell (00024). Heaven embellished hell. Jesus adorned the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid and vibrant beauty of forgiveness. The transformation was the miracle that took place during the Crucifixion. The transformation revealed the radical love of God to us.

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[¶ 00745 Updated: 11_05_2024]

The infallibility of the Crucifixion (00736)

The Crucifixion is Jesus' performative exegesis of God - an exegesis not in words but in deeds. The Crucifixion is the model of the radical love of God that Jesus, the carpenter (Mark 6:3), built in the fiery furnace by embellishing the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid and vibrant beauty of forgiveness. If anything is infallible in Christianity, it is the Crucifixion. The Crucifixion is the stronghold of Christianity. Christians retreat to the Crucifixion to take solace in the radical love of God. The Crucifixion is the place where Christians go to recharge their Christian batteries. In the Crucifixion, Christians rest in the radical love of God (DILEXIT NOS).

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[¶ 00736 Updated: 10_26_2024]

Intimacy with the radical love of God makes our haloes glow (00483)

Intimacy with the radical love of God makes our haloes glow. Jesus' answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion is the treasure chest of Christianity. His answer holds the treasure. On his answer our salvation depends. Into the treasure chest, Jesus deposited the theology of the radical love of God in its highest and purest concentration. The evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion opened the treasure chest and revealed the treasure. What was his answer? Can you articulate it? Do you have the words? His answer enabled us to figure out this thing called God for ourselves. Do you understand and appreciate the Crucifixion?

"In God We Trust". why? Because we understand the Crucifixion and we appreciate the revelation of the radical love of God that it conveys to us. He did not fight fire with fire (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48). Instead, he brought heaven to hell. He substituted forgiveness for punishment. In the Crucifixion, We had made a singularity of hell only. Jesus transformed the singularity into a duality of heaven and hell. The transformation was the miracle that took place during the Crucifixion. It was Jesus' Magnum Opus. The transformation was the vehicle that Jesus used to reveal the radical love of God to us. The overwhelming weight of the radical love of God makes us bend our knees. It gobsmacks us. The Good News of Great Joy knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6) (00673).

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[¶ 00483 Updated: 11_06_2024]

The Crucifixion is the Christian Atlas (00742)

The Crucifixion is the Christian Atlas (Wikipedia) on whose shoulders rests the revelation of the radical love of God. Jesus deposited the fullness of truth about the radical love of God in the hell and heaven of the Crucifixion. Hell was the first stage of the revelation - its beginning. Heaven was the second and final stage of the revelation - the point and place at which the revelation reached its completion (00710) (00628). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507).

Revelation
------------------------------
Hell + Heaven

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[¶ 00742 Updated: 11_03_2024]

The best articulation of the truth about God is found in the Crucifixion (00692)

The best articulation of the truth about God is found in the Crucifixion. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). Jesus stashed it there. Are you privy to it? Can you articulate it? Do you have the words? “I have come to set the earth on fire [with the truth about God] and how I wish it were already blazing” (Luke 12:49)! The Crucifixion is the match that ignites the fire whose light illuminates the darkness of our understanding of God. Strike the match! Strike it! Stike it now and forever! The light from the bonfire fills the earth with the knowledge of God as water covers the seas (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14) (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

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[¶ 00692 Updated: 09_20_2024]

Heaven escaped from the jaws of hell during the Crucifixion. Are you privy to the details? (00707)
Heaven in the form of forgiveness erupted from Jesus as the jaws of hell chewed him up into bits and pieces. The greater were the evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion, the greater is our astonishment at the eruption. Wow!

The Crucifixion conveyed from heaven to earth an extraordinary revelation about God (00705) (00316) (00695). Jesus delivered the revelation at an exorbitant cost to himself in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698), Are you privy to the extraordinary content of the revelation and the extraordinary manner of its delivery? Can you articulate them? Do you have the words? If you do not, you do not understand Christianity (00306). The point of Christianity is its sizzle. Without its sizzle, Christianity is a dud. It is no big deal. No sizzle; no Christianity. Contrary to the Coloring Book version of Christianity (00184) (00188) (00630), Christianity is a treasure map for treasure hunters engaged in a treasure hunt (00598) (00449) (00483) (00199) (00599) (00600) (00133). Have you discovered the sizzle of Christianity? Have you found the jackpot? Have you located the pot of gold at the end of the Christian rainbow (00070) (00301)? Educate yourself! Open the treasure chest! Discover the treasure! Make yourself rich (Matthew 13:44-46) (00747) (00028)!

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[¶ 00707 Updated: 11_05_2024]

The Jaws of the Crucifixion (00683)

We do not celebrate Jesus' presence in the jaws of the Crucifixion. We celebrate what Jesus did in the jaws of the Crucifixion. While the jaws of the Crucifixion were chewing Jesus up into bits and pieces, Jesus forgave us for the evils that we did to him (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7). The celebration is known as a Mass. The celebration is a Victory Party not a presence party. Glorious victory emerged from ignominious defeat as the dawn emerges from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3).

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[¶ 00683 Updated: 09_12_2024]

Jesus rebuilt the infrastructure of our understanding of God on the framework of the Crucifixion. "Is he not the carpenter" (Mark 6:3)? The four (4) components of the Crucifixion perfected our knowledge of God (Hosea 4:6). The awkward (00712), anatopic (00603), asymmetric (00688) answer that Jesus gave to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion is the foundation on which the edifice of Christianity is built.

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[¶ 00714 Updated: 10_10_2024]

The Four Components of the Crucifixion (00741)
Hell + Heaven = Revelation. We made the Crucifixion into a singularity of hell only. Jesus changed the status quo. He transformed the Crucifixion into a duality of heaven and hell. The transformation revealed the radical love of God.

The Crucifixion is Jesus' exegesis of God. Jesus made it easy for us to follow his exegesis of God by compartmentalizing the Crucifixion into four (4) separate and distinct components (00389):

1) the enfeeblement of divinity in the Incarnation (00149) (00227) (00583) (00142) (00442) (00706),

2) the hanging of hell from the flagpole of Christianity (00721).

3) the hanging of heaven from the flagpole of Christianity (00721), and

4) the revelation of the radical love of God (00679).

Understand each of the four (4) components of the Crucifixion and you will have filled the Cross of Christ with meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17).

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[¶ 00741 Updated: 11_01_2024]

The Genius of the Crucifixion (00743)
The Crucifixion was the framework that Jesus designed and built, at an exorbitant cost to himself, to host the revelation of the radical love of God (Mark 6:3). It consisted of four (4) separate and distinct components. What were they? Can you articulate them? Do you have the words? Hint: the formula that defines the Crucifixion is Heaven + Hell = Revelation. Hell began the revelation. Heaven completed it (00323) (00693). (Note: the formula assumes that Jesus stepped down and out of the invincible armor of divinity and into our frail uniform of flesh and blood. His defortification took place during the Incarnation. On the brink of battle with the monster of the Crucifixion, Jesus disarmed (00365). Only against a depleted divinity does hell work. No depletion; no spending of the coin of flesh and blood (00691); no revelation. Spending authenticated the genuineness of the revelation (00452). Hell verified heaven (00673). Spending made the revelation unimpeachable.)

The anatopic combination of heaven and hell is the genius of the Crucifixion (00603). Heaven did not belong in hell (00603). Heaven was a stranger in the strange land of the Crucifixion (Exodus 2:22). Yet, despite the unexpected novelty of the radical combination (Isaiah 55:8-9) (Mark 10:9), Jesus brought heaven into hell. He hung heaven from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity. Rally 'round the Cross (00730)!

The wallop of the Crucifixion does not come from the hell that his enemies hung from the Cross of Christ. The wallop of the Crucifixion does not come from the heaven that Jesus hung from the Cross of Christ. The wallop of the Crucifixion comes from the radical asymmetry of the anatopic combinanation of heaven and hell. The radical asymmetry gobsmacks us. It creates a powerful energy gradient that gut punches anyone who comes in contact with it (00325). It knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6) (00673).

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[¶ 00743 Updated: 11_04_2024]

The evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion were the key that unlocked, opened and released the revelation of the radical love of God from the treasure chest into which Jesus had deposited it. The revelation was the treasure - the jackpot of Christianity. Jesus' asymmetric answer to the evils that we had done to him was the treasure chest. Jesus transported the treasure and treasure chest from heaven to earth via the Crucifixion. Jesus was the herald of the treasure. "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4) (John 1:1). The treasure chest was the word that proceeded from the mouth of God. The treasure was its meaning. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him” (Luke 9:35).

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[¶ 00746 Updated: 11_04_2024]

The greatest sin is to make Christianity dull (00697)

Hear the factory drone! Some clerics have reduced Christianity to an industrial factory of indoctrination that tries to mass produce mindless wooden soldiers. It tries to churn out cloned robots with CPUs that slavishly follow the algorithms of supposed orthodoxy - homogeneous, lobotomized, conforming, superficial, spiritless and perfunctory. Their automatons are only allowed to think for themselves if their thinking is in strict conformity with an inscrutable and procrustean straight jacket of rules, regulations, rituals, red tape and rigmarole. They are not permitted to think outside the box. They are forbidden to color outside the lines (00184). Christianity, however, is not an inflexible algorithm and the children of Adam and Eve are not docile, programmable machines. We read, write and think for ourselves. We refuse to surrender these sovereign God-given activities to our self-annointed betters.

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(The Wrong Way of Doing Christianity)

[¶ 00697 Updated: 09_22_2024]

Seeking the kingdom of God (00732)

"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21) (Matthew 6:33). Therefore, look inside yourself for God! Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you (1 Corinthians 3:16)? God is trying to embellish the canvas of your heart with heaven as he did with the canvas of the Crucifixion so you can embellish your circumstances. Stand not in his way! " But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33) (Luke 17:20-21). "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2). (1 Chronicles 16:10-12) (Isaiah 55:6-7). God declared, "... they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing" (Psalm 34:10) (Matthew 7:7-8).

The seed of God is in us.
Given an intelligent
and hardworking farmer,
it will thrive and grow
up into God, whose seed
it is; and accordingly its
fruits will be God-nature.
Pear seeds grow into
pear trees, nut seeds
into nut trees, and
God seeds into God.
(Meister Eckhart)

We are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) (00394). This is our potential (00727) (00729). In the Crucifixion, Jesus showed us the potential of creatures of flesh and blood by fufilling his. He gave us an example of what creatures of flesh and blood are capable of. He forgave us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Forgiveness was his example. Jesus paid an exorbitant price in the coin of his flesh and blood to remind the children of Adam and Eve of our potential (00643) (00615) (00469). Evils are the opportunities to fulfill our potential that present themselves to us as we pass through the Valley of Tears (00211) (Salve Regina). May we hang from our crosses with the same panache with which Jesus hung from his Cross (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00706) (00211) (00627) (00695). Yes, like Jesus, we, too, can perfect our strength in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (Luke 21:1-4) (Matthew 5:38-48). Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

How do frail creatures of flesh and blood perfect their strength? By dipping into their limited human resources to purchase a benefit for or relieve a burden from our neighbors - by defying our conservative instinct for self-preservation - by embellishing hell with heaven regardless of the cost (00277) (00638).

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[¶ 00732 Updated: 11_02_2024]

What was Jesus' answer to the evils that we did to him in the Crucifixion? (00734)
Foil + Jewel = Revelation. Leave out the foil or leave out the jewel and the revelation does not add up. Both foil and jewel are needed to make the equation work (00693). Moreover, in the case of the Crucifixion, the foil is hell and the jewel is heaven. And the revelation is ...?

Jesus was not merely a listless presence in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. He was present doing something there with the brio of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) (1 Kings 19:11-13). He had a purpose and his purpose was not merely to hang there and suffer. Suffering was a part of the Crucifixion but not the only part. Suffering conveyed only a part of the truth not the fullness of truth. The fullness of truth only became clear when Jesus answered the suffering into which we had baptized him (00693). Suffering was but a prelude - the hell that introduced heaven. Presence was necessary but secondary to performance. What Jesus did in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion - his performance - was a beautiful, multi-faceted, scintillating jewel that Jesus forged from the raw material of his flesh and blood as our hostility anatopically set heaven in the center of the fiery foil of hell (00603). The jewel was

* his Magnum Opus.

* the Good News of Great Joy.

* his glorious victory.

* strength made pertect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00509) (00706) (00211) (00627).

* God in his highest and purest concentration.

* the verification of the Love Note that he had sent us in the Incarnation.

* a meal of bread and wine that Jesus served to his enemies who still had his flesh in their mouths and his blood on their hands (00687) (00142) (00370).

* a nullification of the evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion. It wiped the slate clean.

* the foundation of Christianity.

The jewel shined in the fire. The scintillations of the jewel are the cynosure of Christianity. They captivate the children of Adam and Eve who gaze upon its wonder (Exodus 3:1-3)! “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Are you privy to what Jesus did in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion? Can you articulate it? Hint: He answered the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Jesus' answer to the evils that we had done to him during the Crucifixion was asymmetric to them - radically asymmetric to them. His answer nullified them. It wiped the slate clean. What was his answer?

Note #1: A lack of specificity in your description of his answer is the signal of a lack of understanding.

Note #2: The sacrifice of Jesus' flesh and blood in the fiery furnace was only one component of the Crucifixion. There are three more components for a total of four. The Crucifixion is Jesus' exegesis of God. Jesus made it easy for us to follow his exegesis of God in the Crucifixion by compartmentalizing the Crucifixion into four (4) separate and distinct components. Are you privy to all four components of the Crucifixion? Can you articulate them? Do you have the words (00729) (00389)? The challenge here is for you to understand the fullness of truth about God as Jesus, the Word of God (John 1:1) (Matthew 4:4), explained him in the Crucifixion. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6.) Jesus gave us the gift of the Crucifixion to supply us with the knowledge that ends our destruction. The Crucifixion is Jesus' explanation of God. The knowledge of God that the Crucifixion transmits to us is our salvation.

Note #3: The Crucifixion is a well designed, meticulously planned structure that Jesus, the carpenter (Mark 6:3), built, at an exorbitant cost to himself, to showcase the radical love of God (DILEXIT NOS). Jesus did not wing it. He had a purpose and his purpose was revealed in the Crucifixion.

Note #4: The Crucifixion and the radical love of God are inextricably intertwined (DILEXIT NOS). "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9).

Note #5: Do you need another clue? Jesus' answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion brought heaven to hell. Heaven intruded into hell. Jesus' answer transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity of hell only into a duality of both heaven and hell. By his answer, Jesus embellished the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid and vibrant beauty of heaven. What was his answer?

Note #6: Yes, our God sent us a Love Note in the Incarnation. The name of the Love Note was Jesus. The Love Note was verified in the Crucifixion. And the verification was Jesus' answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Again, what was his answer?

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(00268)
[¶ 00734 Updated: 10_31_2024]

Confidence in the Crucifixion (00690)
The Crucifixion is the rock (Matthew 7:24-27) on which the wise anchor their understanding of God (00650) (00270).

Christians are fortunate that the knowledge of God is not diffuse - scattered some here, some there - but is concentrated at and about the Crucifxion. Divinity in its highest and purest concentration coalesced into a coherent form during the Crucifixion. During the Crucifixion, divinity landed on earth. It touched down in hell. The Crucifixion was a knowledge transmission and acquistion device. It revealed God to us. When we focus on the Crucifixion, we get a bird's eye view of this thing that we call God. In the Crucifixion, we make God's acquaintance - we acquire the knowledge of God that brings an end to our destruction (Hosea 4:6). The theology of the Crucifixion is the gravamen of Christianity - superior to eveything else. Everything else is obiter dicta. To perfect our understanding of God, we study the theology of the Crucifixion.

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[¶ 00690 Updated: 11_04_2024]

What is the capacity of your tank? (00389)

To understand the mystery of God a tank with the capacity of four gallons is required.

1) One gallon of capacity is needed to hold the preparation for the anatopic combination of heaven and hell. Preparation consisted of the depetrification of divinity in the Incarnation. Jesus disarmed. Jesus doffed his invincible armor of divinity, donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood and, dressed like us, he put himself in harm's way in the scrum at the line of scrimmage, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies. Jesus became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. Jesus defortified himself in order to make participation in the Crucifixion possible. Weakness was necessary so that forgiveness, the perfection of strength could emerge from it (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Jesus wanted to show us the divine potential of creatures of flesh and blood. He paid us a visit to give us an example. It was a hard example indeed - an example crafted at an exorbitant cost to himself. Like him, we can deify ourselves by embellishing the canvas of our lives with love (00706) (00211) (00627) (00509).

2) One gallon of capacity is needed to hold hell. We tortured and killed Jesus. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. In short, we baptized Jesus in a gruesome dunghill of evils, The Crucifixion was Jesus' ignominious defeat. Hell was the foil in which Jesus set the jewel of heaven.

3) One gallon of capacity is needed to hold Heaven. Heaven is the Meal of bread and wine that Jesus announced and prepared for us at the Last Supper and served to us on Good Friday during his Crucifixion. The Meal is Jesus' glorious victory that emerged from his baptism in evils. It is his radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to him. The meal is the apotheosis of radical forgiveness. Heaven is the jewel that Jesus set in the foil of the Crucifixion.

4) One gallon of capacity is needed to hold the revelaton of the radical love of God that the juxtaposition of heaven and hell revealed to us. The first two gallons, hell and heaven, ignominious defeat and glorious victory, are the vehicle that carried the revelation. The revelation of the radical love of God was the payload that Jesus delivered to us at an exorbitant cost to himself. Delivering the payload cost Jesus his life. Ignominious defeat and glorious victory are the odd couple of epiphany. Their progeny is the apocalyptic revelation about the radical love of God. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). Ignominious defeat is the foil in which Jesus set the jewel of his glorious victory. The foil highlighted and emphasized and intensified and magnified and amplified and accentuated and underlined the jewel of glorious victory. glorious victory erupted from ignominious defeat as the dawn erupts from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). The combination of ignominious defeat and glorious victory illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of apocalyptic epiphany. At what conclusion do we arrive when we reverse engineer the fact that Jesus forgave us for the evils that we did to him (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45)? What does his radically asymmetric answer to the gauntlet of evils through which we dragged him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19) tell us about the mystery of God? Is not a tree known by its fruit (Luke 6:43-45) (Matthew 3:8)? Isn't forgiveness one of the sweet fruits of love? Can we not reverse engineer the process from forgiveness back to a heart filled to the brim with radical love for us?

So, pray tell, what is the capacity of your tank?

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[¶ 00389 Updated: 10_19_2024]

The Crucifixion is a conversation between heaven and hell (00693)

It is impossible to figure out the meaning of a conversation by only hearing half of it. The Crucifixion is a conversation between heaven and hell. We supplied the hell. Jesus supplied the heaven. In other words, the Crucifixion is a duality not a singularity (00678) (00684) (00688) (00671) (00659) (00628) (00652) (00612). Jesus made it so. Viewing the Crucifixion as a duality, not as a singularity, fills the Cross of Christ with meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17) (00628) (00612) (00617). Viewing it as a singularity, empties it.

Viewing the Crucifixion as a singularity of hell only stops short of reaching the fullness of truth about God. To reach the fullness of truth about God, we must proceed to the heaven that Jesus hung from the Cross because, in truth, the Cross of Christ is not a singularity of hell only but a duality of heaven and hell. Heaven followed hell as the day follows the night.

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[¶ 00693 Updated: 09_21_2024]

Singularity distorts our understanding of God (00612)

Delivering the revelation about the radical love of God was the purpose of the Crucifixion. The revelation does not get delivered when the hell of the Crucifixion is severed from the heaven - when glorious victory does not arise from ignominius defeat. Cut in twain, the revelation becomes crippled beyond repair. Without the revelation, the Crucifixion is emptied of its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). Christianity fails when it treats the Crucixion as a singularity and not as a duality - a hell without heaven.

Viewing the Crucifixion as a singularity, that is, as hell only, distorts our understanding of God. Singularity gives us an incomplete picture of God - an inaccurate depiction of God that misses the Crucifixion's point. Duality is the fullness of truth. We hung hell to the Cross; Jesus hung heaven. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9) (00568) (00561) (00557) (00536) (00532) (00512) (00511) (00530). When we fail to recognize the duality of the Crucifixion - that is, the heaven that Jesus hung from the Cross and the hell that we hung - we empty the Crucifixion of its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). Failing to recognize the duality of the Crucifixion destroys the energy gradient between heaven and hell and, thereby, saps the Crucifixion of its sizzle. It de-energizes the revelation of the radical love of God that the combination of forgiveness and the fire of the Crucifixion convey. Emptying the Cross of Christ of its meaning is a huge obstacle in the way of the pursuit of God (00538) (00208).

Christianity, done right, propagates the duality of the Crucifixion and the revelation about the radical love of God that it conveys from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. The duality of the Crucifixion and the revelation of the radical love of God do not propagate themselves. They do not have their own legs. They are not self-propelled. Jesus, therefore, established a Church to propagate them by means of the Mass (00530) (00400) (00549).

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[¶ 00612 Updated: 08_26_2024]

What is the location of the best theology? (00177)
Divinity coalesced into a coherent form in the incarnation of Jesus. Divinity concentrated itself and landed. It touched down. Moreover, by the great and wonderful works that Jesus accomplished in the fire of the Crucifixion, divinity revealed itself. God was made known to us in the fire of the Crucifixion. The fire of the Crucifixion perfected our knowledge of God.

Jesus poured more and better theology (00546) (00471) (00454) (00204) (00547) - divinity at its highest and purest concentration (00423) - into the gruesome experiment (Isaiah 48:10) that we cruelly administered to him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19) than he poured into the heads of every apologist, theologian, Doctor of the Church, monk, abbot, mystic, priest, monsignor, bishop, Cardinal, Patriarch, Pope, hermit and saint who has ever lived or will ever live. For the best theology, contemplate the fire of the Crucifixion and the great and wonderful prodigies that Jesus accomplished there. Serious contemplation of the prodigies and the hostile venue in which the prodigies arose gobsmacks us. It delivers a powerful wallop - so powerful that it knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). Brace yourself for impact! The theology of the gruesome experiment enables us to figure out - to discover for ourselves (00329) (00276) (00562) (00563) (00564) - this enigmatic thing (00545) that we call God (00504)

Jesus waged and won the war against evils in the fire of the Crucifixion. A Mass is a Victory Party at which we celebrate the hero of the Crucifixion and re-enact his victory (00204). Upon a meal of bread and wine - the tangible and comestible incarnation of the spirit of forgiveness, its apotheosis - the edifice of Christianity is built.

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[¶ 00177 Updated: 07_22_2024]

Presence is a low quality interpretation of the most Holy Eucharist. There is a better interpretation (00749)

Presence is a low quality interpretation of the most Holy Eucharist. There is a better interpretation - much better. We do not celebrate his mere presence in the most Holy Eucharist. Presence misses the point. At Mass, his performance in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion is celebrated - what he did rather than where he is. Presence is necessary but subsidiary to performance.

-----> More to come <-----

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[¶ 00749 Updated: 11_06_2024]

the Crucifixion made portable (00744)

A minister of the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass is also a minister of the Crucifixion because the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass is a facsimile of the Crucifixion - without the flesh and blood. The most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass is the Crucifixion made portable. The ministers of the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass can carry the Crucifixion with them from place to place and from time to time. The Crucifixion is their Vade Mecum.

A minister of the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass stands at the forfront of the wave that propagates the radical love of God from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. If they are elsewhere, they are not doing Christianity.

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[¶ 00744 Updated: 11_04_2024]

Stand-ins and Stars (00737)

The most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass is a facsimile of the Crucifixion - without the flesh and blood. Jesus announced the substitutions for his flesh and blood at the Last Supper. Bread was designated as the stand-in for Jesus' flesh and wine was designated as the stand-in for Jesus' blood. Flesh and blood were the stars of the Crucifixion. Bread and wine are the stand-ins for them in the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass.

The role of hell that we hung to the Cross of Christ during the Crucifixion is played at Mass by the taking of the bread and wine (00716). At Mass, we take from Jesus his bread and wine as we took from him his flesh and blood. We evict him from his shell of bread and wine at Mass as we had evicted him from his shell of flesh and blood. We consume Jesus at Mass as we consumed him during the Crucifixion.

The role of heaven that Jesus hung to the Cross of Christ during the Crucifixion is played at Mass by the giving of the bread and wine (00716). At Mass, Jesus satisfies the humger of his enemies with bread, quenches their thirst with wine and fills their bellies with the sweetest fruit of radical love, to wit, forgiveness. He gives his enemies a seat with him at the family table and he sups with them, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort and joy of the family tent (John 6:53). Who does this besides the God who loves us despite the evils that we did to him? "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9) (00730).

Why the substitutions? Logistics. The Crucifixion took place in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space. To remember it, it needed to be propagated from the point and place of its obscure origin, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. Jesus packaged the Crucifixion into the taking and giving of the most Holy Eucharist at Mass to make the Crucifixion portable. His Church, the ministers of the most Holy Eucharist, can carry the Crucifixion with them from place to place and from time to time. The Crucifixion is their Vade Mecum.

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[¶ 00737 Updated: 10_25_2024]

Suitcase Nukes (00738)
Portability and Propagation

Jesus' Magnum Opus - his glorious victory - took place in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space. Its origin was obscure, inconspicuous and anonymous - an insignificant blip in the course of history. To have an impact on the evolution of the children of Adam and Eve into children of God, Jesus's glorious victory needed to be propagated from the point and place of its obscure origin, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. The earth needed to be filled with the knowledge of God as water covers the seas (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14) (Jeremiah 31:31-34). To propagate Jesus's glorious victory, God introduced the idea of the Victory Party. Victory Parties would celebrate the Masterpiece of Love that Jesus created on the canvas of life in the midst of gruesome adversity. Embellishing the canvas of life with love in the midst of adversity was Jesus' magnum opus - his greatest achievement. [Rally 'round the Cross!] The hero of the glorious victory, Jesus, would be feted at the Victory Parties for spending the coin of his flesh and blood to purchase for us the blessing of forgiveness. However, an obstacle to propagation first needed to be overcome. The gruesome maelstrom of adversity in which we baptized Jesus is too gnarly to bring to the Victory Parties. So, God, needed to make the abstract concept of forgiveness concrete in a way that made the glorious victory portable without sacrificing any of its meaning. God did so at the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, God made his flesh and blood comestible. Jesus satisfied the hunger of his enemies with bread, quenched their thirst with wine and filled their bellies with fellowship. He invited his enemies to take a seat with him at the family table and to dine with him, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort of the family tent. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). At the Victory Parties, Jesus serves the bread and wine of forgiveness that was confected from the flesh and blood of sacrifice to us, his unworthy creatures (Luke 7:1-10), so we know that forgiveness defines the nature of God. Is not a tree known by its fruit (Luke 6:43-45) (Matthew 3:8)? Is there a better way to make the abstract concept of forgiveness concrete than by satisfying the hunger of his enemies - the executioners who tortured and killed him - with bread and by quenching their thirst with wine? Who does this? Who includes enemies in addition to family and friends under the scope of one's love (Matthew 5:38-50)? The apocalyptic revelation that forgiveness defines our God is the greatest force on earth and in heaven. It gives Christianity its magic, Jesus his charisma, us, our joy, and clerics, who exclusively devote themselves to it, the power to change the world. At the Last Supper, the greatest force on earth and in heaven was packed into 'suitcases' for the purpose of propagation. At Mass, it ignites in an apocalyptic revelation about the nature of God.

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[¶ 00738 Updated: 10_28_2024]

The Betrayal of Christianity (00739)
It is a betrayal of Christianity to sever the connections between the Crucifixion and the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at a Mass.

Jesus 'packaged' the Crucifixion into the taking and the giving of the most Holy Eucharist at Mass to make the Crucifixion portable. The ministers of the most Holy Eucharist can carry the 'package' of the Crucifixion with them from place to place and from time to time. The 'package' is their Vade Mecum. Many ministers of the most Holy Eucharist, however, have forsaken their ministry. They have severed the connection between the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass and the Crucifixion. They no longer understand the connection and, thus, do not appreciate its importance to our salvation. Instead of pursuing the gravamen of Christianity, they pursue its obiter dicta. They distort Christianity by emptying the Cross of Christ of meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). They have become Christian charlatans - mountbanks who claim to be Christians but who, in truth, are not. Unless and until they can show you their bloody wounds that they have earned from embellishing hell with heaven, treat them as counterfeits. Consider them impostors. Run from the frauds. Run fast and run far.

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[¶ 00739 Updated: 10_29_2024]

It is impossible to understand the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass without first understanding the four components of the Crucifixion (00735)

One misunderstanding leads to another misunderstanding. It is impossible to understand the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass without first understanding the four components of the Crucifixion. Why? Because the most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass is a facsimile of the Crucifixion --- but without the flesh and blood. The most Holy Eucharist taken and given at Mass is a reflection - a mirror image - of the hell that we hung from the Cross of Christ during the Crucifixion and the heaven that Jesus hung. The duality of the Cross - the double hangings - fill the Cross with its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). It is is the rock (Matthew 7:24-27) on which the wise anchor their understanding of God (00690) (00650) (00270). In short, the meaning of the most Holy Eucharist at Mass is derivative. It derives its meaning from the four components of the Crucifixion, not just some of its meaning but all of it.

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[¶ 00735 Updated: 10_26_2024]

Nullification (00740)

Forgiveness was Jesus' answer to the evils that we did to him in the Crucifixion. Forgiveness made them null and void. Forgiveness was the eraser that Jesus used to wipe the slate clean. Via the Crucifixion, Jesus gave us a second chance. The only open question is what will we do with our clean slate. How will we react to our do-over?

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[¶ 00740 Updated: 10_30_2024]

"Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests" (Matthew 22: 8-10) (Matthew 13:47).

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[¶ 00571 Updated: 07_27_2024]

Only in the Crucifixion did Jesus invest his flesh and blood (00723)
Is not the size of his investment a good indication of the importance of the Crucifixion?

Jesus lived his life at many venues on the earth, that is, in a variety of contexts. The Crucifixion, however, was the only venue of his life where he spent the coin of his flesh and blood. Nowhere else in Jesus' life - not in the Sermon on the Mount, not in the feeding of the five thousand, not in the Resurrection - did Jesus make a similar, consequential investment of his flesh and blood. Only in the Crucifixion. Is not the size of his investment a good indication of the importance of the Crucifixion (00717)?

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[¶ 00723 Updated: 10_24_2024]

On the summit of the mountain of the Crucifixion, after an arduous and costly climb, Jesus reached the apex of humanity's understanding of God (00729)
Jesus exploited the mountain of the Crucifixion to reveal the radical love of God. The mountain of the Crucifixion consists of a base and a summit. At the base of the mountain of the Crucifixion was hell. At its summit was heaven. Jesus built the identity of God by ascending the mountain of the Crucifixion from hell to heaven (1 Kings 19:11-13). On his way to heaven, Jesus passed through hell. It was an arduous and costly trip. To get to the top of the mountain, Jesus spent the coin of his flesh and blood. He spent all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13) (00733). On the summit of the mountain of the Crucifixion, Jesus completed his Magnum Opus. He announced the Good News of Great Joy (00673). How? By decorating the fiery furnace of hell (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698) with the vivid and vibrant beauty of forgiveness (00660). Jesus embellished hell with heaven. Forgiveness is the proxy for heaven - the stand-in for the radical love of God (00297). Forgiveness is the light that emerged from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Forgiveness transfigured the darkness of our understanding of God on the summit of the mountain of the Crucifixion (Matt 17:1-8). The summit of the mountain of the Crucifixion is the venue of our enlightenment - the place of our glorious epiphany - the locus of divine transfiguration (00729). Forgiveness is God on earth in his highest and purest concentration (00506) (00673) (00698) (00423).

The Crucifixion holds the truth about God (00670) (00708). Jesus deposited the truth about God in the Crucifixion. The Crucifixion is the vessel of revelation. It is the Rosetta Stone that translates God into terms that we understand. In the Crucifixion, Jesus reached the apex of humanity's earthly understanding of God (00572) (1 Corinthians 2:9). Humanity cannot achieve a better understanding of God than the understanding that Jesus revealed to us in the Crucifixion. At the base of humanity's understanding of God is hell. At the apex is forgiveness. Jesus passed through hell to get to heaven. Furthermore, the truth about God is the key that unlocks the potential of creatures of flesh and blood (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00727). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). Discover the truth about God. Discover your potential (Luke 17:20-21) (Matthew 6:33) (00028). Free yourself. The limits on your potential are artificial - self imposed (00708). Shake off the shackles (Mark 5:3-4). Contemplate the Crucifixion (John 14:6). Ravenously consume the details of the Crucifixion as the Apostles ravenously consumed the Last Supper.

Regardless of the size of the corner of the world in which you find yourself - be it big or small (Luke 21:1-4) (What is the “Little Way” of St. Thérèse of Lisieux? by Philip Kosloski, in Aleteia published on 10/03/21 - updated on 06/12/24 ), strive to fulfill your potential. Be godlike!

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(00727) (00728) (00726)
[¶ 00729 Updated: 10_23_2024]

The Crucifixion was the engine that Jesus designed, built and operated to generate the truth about God and to reveal the potential of creatures of flesh and blood (00726)
Contemplation of the Crucifixion entangles us in the revelation of the radical love of God (Matthew 11:28-30).

The truth about God arises from the Crucifixion. And it unlocks our potential as creatures of flesh and blood (00727) (00728). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). It arises from the anatopic combination of hell and heaven (00603) that Jesus created from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity. We hung hell from the flagpole of Christianity. Jesus hung heaven. Jesus embellished the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vibrant and vivid beauty of forgiveness. What truth does this reveal to us about our God? You have the pieces of the puzzle of God (00504). Put the pieces together for yourself! “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). The light arises from the Crucifixion and passes through us who grok it (Wikipedia) to illuminate the world (Matthew 5:14-16). The Crucifixion is God's gift of the truth (Hosea 4:6) and his invitation to make ourselves free. Let us liberate ourselves. Let us contemplate the Crucifixion day and night (Joshua 1:8).

The truth about God and the truth about the potential of creatures of flesh and blood are one and the same (00727) (00728).

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[¶ 00726 Updated: 10_18_2024]

The Potential of Creatures of Flesh and Blood (00727)

Why the Crucifixion? Why did our God consent to play the starring role in the Crucifixion? The children of Adam and Eve did not understand the potential of creatures of flesh and blood. We did not understand what we were capable of. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). The knowledge of God and the knowledge of our potential are the same thing. Equality with God can be achieved (Matthew 10:24-25). Deification is possible (00728). Jesus embedded himself in the Crucifixion to cure our ignorance. He participated in the Crucifixion to give us an example of what creatures of flesh and blood can achieve. By fulfilling his potential as a creature of flesh and blood, Jesus showed us our potential. Like Jesus, we, too, can embellish the canvas of our lives with the beauty of love. Like Jesus, we, too, can create our own Magnum Opera (00728). The kingdom of God is reserved for those who embellish the canvas of their lives with love (00001) (00493). As Jesus did in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion, Christians transform the singularities of their lives into dualities by embellishing hell with heaven. The truth about God arises from the Crucifixion. And it unlocks our potential as creatures of flesh and blood (00726) (00728). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507).

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[¶ 00727 Updated: 10_18_2024]

Jesus was Proof of Concept (00607)

Jesus was proof of concept. The concept is that we can adorn the canvas of life with the beauty of love no matter the circumstances, be they hostile or hospitable. Jesus proved the concept from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity. He adorned the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid and vibrant beauty of forgiveness. He humg from his Cross to teach us how to hang from our crosses. By fulfilling his potential, Jesus showed us the artistry of God and the divine potential of flesh and blood. This is the new calculus that Jesus brought from heaven to earth (00608) (00605) (00447) (00514).

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[¶ 00607 Updated: 10_18_2024]

The Crucifixion is the seed of the revelation of the radical love of God (00730)

How did Jesus make the seed of salvation (00728)? Jesus embedded the revelation of the radical love of God into the Crucifixion. Jesus planted the seed of the Crucifixion into the toxic soil of our stoney hearts to depetrify them (Ezekiel 36:26) (00709) (00004). He watered the seed with his blood and fertilized it with his flesh. It blooms into the revelation of the radical love of God. The radical love of God initiates the process of our conversion. While we were unrepentant (Matthew 22:10) sinners (Romans 5:8) (Matthew 7:6), Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19). Why? Only love begets love. And radical love begets love radically. "We love him because he loved us first" (1 John 4:19) (00684).

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[¶ 00730 Updated: 10_20_2024]

The sledgehammer of Christianity is the radical love of God that Jesus revealed to us in the Crucifixion (00721)

The radical love of God is the sledgehammer (00271) that knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). It packs a powerful wallop. A Christian is a child of Adam and Eve who has been whacked over the head and beaten about the body with the sledgehammer of the radical love of God. Hammer away with the sledgehammer then exit the stage so the radical love of God can do its work. Be mindful, however, of how you deliver the Good News of Great Joy. Let the process of understanding the revelation of the radical love of God unfold organically. Only subtle indoctrination captures us (Matthew 10:16). The iron fist of the radical love of God comes in the velvet glove of the Crucifixion. Introduce us to the Crucifixion then step away so we can figure out this thing called God for ourselves.

If you do not understand the parts of the Crucifixion, you are not yet a Christian (1 Corinthians 11:27-29) and cannot wield the sledgehammer of the radical love of God. If you are not wielding the sledgehammer, you are not doing Christianity.

The Crucifixion can be broken down into four (4) separate and distinct components (00729). They are:

The Beginning of the Crucifixion - Preparation for two hangings on the flagpole of Christianity - The Weakening of Divinity - the Incarnation
The Crucifixion began in the Incarnation where Jesus doffed his invulnerable armor of divinity, donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood and, dressed like us, put himself in harm's way in the scrum at the line of scrimmage, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies. Jesus became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. The Crucifixion began well before we hung hell from the tree of Christianity. The roots of the Crucifixion are buried in the Incarnation during which the weakening of divinity took place (00689). In the Incarnation, on the brink of mortal combat with the monster of the Crucifixion, Jesus did the unthinkable. He disarmed. He defortified himself. He divested himself of the full panoply of omnipotent divinity. Defortification on the brink of war is so contrary to human logic that it boggles the mind. What rational human general does this? Even a military novice would reject a strategy of disarmament. Only an insane combattant would rig himself for defeat, right? Why? Why the weakening of divinity? "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). Weakening was the condition precedent to perfecting his strength (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). He reinvented himself as a frail human being so we could water the earth with his blood and fertilize it with his flesh.

The Middle of the Crucifixion - the first hanging - We make the Crucifixion a singularity by hanging hell to the flagpole of Christianity - the Question
The middle of the Crucifixion is the fiery furnace (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698). In a hellhole filled to the brim with evils, we baptized Jesus. We tortured and killed Jesus, We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death (Wisdom 2: 17-20). With lash, thorns, nails and Cross, we interrogated Jesus (00481). "Who are you? Identify yourself! Friend or foe?"

The End of the Crucifixion - the second hanging - Jesus transforms the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality by hanging heaven to the flagpole of Christianity - the Answer
The Crucifixion came to its conclusion in Jesus' radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to him. In his answer, Jesus introduced heaven in the form of forgiveness into hell. The introduction of heaven into hell is the paradox of salvation - the perfect incongruity - the apotheosis of asymmetry - the odd couple of apocalyptic epiphany. Jesus embellished the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid and vibrant beauty of forgiveness. In the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion, Jesus announced the Good News of Great Joy. The announcement completed his Magnum Opus. "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7) (Luke 23:34).

The Revelation that arises from the Crucifixion - the Apocalyptic Epiphany of the Crucifixion - the Good News of Great Joy
The Crucifixion is the vehicle that Jesus created to carry the revelation of the radical love of God to the children of Adam and Eve. The revelation of the radical love of God is the sweet fruit of the Crucifixion, a treat that Jesus bought for the children of Adam and Eve at an exorbitant cost to himself. Jesus spared no expense to bring the revelation to us. He was all in. He bet the farm. "Taste and see" (Psalm 34:8) the sweetness of paradise!

To be precise, the sledgehammer of Christianity is the radical love of God that Jesus revealed to us in the Crucifixion. God's radical love for us is the most powerful force in heaven and on earth. The radical love of God gives Christianity its magic, Jesus his charisma, us, our joy, and evangelists, who exclusively devote themselves to it, the power to change the world. Christianity, done right, confronts us with the radical love of God. Christianity, done right, makes us squirm under the weight of the radical love of God. The radical love of God challenges us to come to grips with it - to reconcile ourselves to it. Always remember: we are disobedient not irrational.

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[¶ 00721 Updated: 10_18_2024]

The birth of Jesus' Magnum Opus took place during the Crucifixion (00660)
The stage was the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. The cue that signalled radical forgiveness to take the stage was the evils that we did to Jesus. Upon cue, heaven entered hell. The anatopic relocation of heaven into hell is the gavamen of Christianity - superior to everything else (00603).

The birth of Jesus' Magnum Opus (00306) took place during the Crucifixion (00340). Hidden behind a dark cloud of misinformation that confused our understanding of God (Hosea 4:6), demurely stood radical forgiveness - a proxy for the radical love of God - waiting for the evils that we did to Jesus to summon it into the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (00656) (1 Kings 19:11-13). Upon cue, radical forgiveness entered the fiery furnace - heaven entered hell (00603) - and Jesus' Magnum Opus was born (00629). Jesus' Magnum Opus revealed the truth about the radical love of God (00152). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). Our God suffered, died and forgave the very enemies who made him suffer and die (00645). He included them within the scope of forgiveness. They deserved exclusion not inclusion. By baptising Jesus in a foul cesspool of evils, they made themselves inelegible for forgiveness. Yet, Jesus disregarded their ineligibility. He included them within the scope of forgiveness despite their utter unworthiness. He did not wait for their conversion to forgive them. He forgave them to bring about their conversion. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). Can love get any more radical than a love that answers the hostility of enemies with prodigal hospitality (Matthew 5:38-48)?

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[¶ 00660 Updated: 09_05_2024]

The Fire of the Crucifixion is the fulcrum of Christianity on which the lever of forgiveness moved the World (00525)
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world" Archimedes.

We broke Jesus' most Sacred heart when we ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. We tortured and killed him. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him to the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. With forgiveness, Jesus glued the pieces back together again. He did what all the king's horses and all the king's men could not do. He put Humpty-Dumpty back together again (Wikipedia) (00294) (00293) (00559) (00560).

The fire of the Crucifixion is the fulcrum of Christianity on which Jesus and his followers move the world with the lever of forgiveness. The lever of forgiveness is the apotheosis of the radical love of God for the children of Adam and Eve. "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7). And we have done much to him - many, many shamefull things. The evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion can be summarized like this: We ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. The greater were the evils that we did to him, the more astonishing is his forgiveness. Forgiveness gobsmacks us. It delivers a powerful wallop - so powerful that it knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). We squirm under the overwhelming weight of the radical love of God (00508) (00316). The shock of forgiveness jump starts the process of our conversion. It pivots us, points and pushes us in the direction of the radical love of God. Forgiveness is the trigger of repentance. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise. We are disobedient not irrational. The discovery of the radical love of God energizes our pursuit of him. "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2). (1 Chronicles 16:10-12) (Isaiah 55:6-7). God declared, "... they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing" (Psalm 34:10) (Matthew 7:7-8).

The venue where Jesus released the fireworks of the revelation about the radical love of God was the fire of the Crucifixion. We brought hell to the party. Jesus brought heaven.

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[¶ 00525 Updated: 10_18_2024]

Jesus diluted the toxicity of the foil of the Crucifixion with the sweet syrup of forgiveness in the same way that sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee. Dilution is God's solution to the problem of evil. The toxicity of the Crucifixion was the foil that magnified the sweetness of the forgiveness. The greater was the toxicity of the Crucifixion, the sweeter is the forgiveness.

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[¶ 00024 Updated: 10_17_2024]

Beware the Saboteurs who Dilute the Radical Love of God with the Obiter Dicta of Christianity (00509)

The radical love of God is the gravamen of Christianity - superior to everything else. Everything else is obiter dicta. Beware the saboteurs of Christianity who dilute the radical love of God with obiter dicta (00152). Beware when "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water" (Isaiah 1:22).

Note: One type of saboteur of Christianity views the most Holy Eucharist as a presence party instead of as a victory party. There is more to the most Holy Eucharist than his mere presence - much more. With the most Holy Eucharist, we re-enact his victory. His victory is not his presence. Jesus won his victory in the fire of the Crucifixion when we forgave us for the evils that we did to him. (00606) (00558) (00556) (00516) (00517) (00552) (00515) (00500) (00035) (00377) (00060) (00370).

We receive the most Holy Eucharist unworthily (1 Corinthians 11:27-29) when we participate in the celebration without making an effort to understand the victory that we are celebrating at Mass. We are not celebrating his defeat. We are celebrating his glorious victory that emerged from ignominious defeat. Forgiveness emerged in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. Forgiveness is strength made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00706) (00211) (00627).

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[¶ 00509 Updated: 08_17_2024a]

The Church made a strategic mistake. In trying to maintain and promote the self-interest of its clergy, the Church stunted the growth of the children of Adam and Eve keeping them children dependent on the clergy instead of making independent Christian adults capable of carrying out the pursuit of God on their own. "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2). The pursuit of God is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect. Therefore, more of the pursuit of God; not less. Always. No exceptions.

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[¶ 00731 Updated: 10_20_2024]

Hell and heaven are the heartbeat of the Crucifixion (00725)

The heartbeat of the Crucifixion consists of two beats, hell and heaven. Hell and heaven are its core components. They do the heavy lifting in Christianity. When we hung hell to the flagpole of Christianity, we created an evil singularity - a hellhole filled to the brim with evils in which we baptized Jesus. Jesus transformed the singularity of the Crucifixion into a duality by hanging heaven to the flagpole of Christianity. Jesus hung heaven by forgiving us for the evils that we did to him. Jesus introduced heaven into hell. Hell magnified heaven. The radical asymmetry between hell and heaven made heaven stand out as a jewel stands out from its foil. The anatopic combination of hell and heaven conveyed the revelation of the radical love of God. Heaven was the light in the darkness. It illuminated the darkness of our understanding of the radical love of God in a glorious burst of apocalyptic epiphany. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3).

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[¶ 00725 Updated: 10_18_2024]

Sabotaging the power of Christianity (00724)

We dilute the power of Christianity when we abandon the Crucifixion - when we push the Crucifixion to the periphery - when we kick the Crucifixion out of the position of prominence in the showcase of Christianity and demote it to the margins. Beware when "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water" (Isaiah 1:22).

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[¶ 00724 Updated: 10_17_2024]

Evangelization starts at the Source of Christianity, that is, at the Crucifixion (00704)

The point and place at which evangelization begins is the Crucifixion (00402) (00039) (00670) (00669) (00598). The Crucifixion is the Source of the river of Christianity (Revelation 22:1-5). Start at the Source before you divert our contemplation downstream and along its distributaries (Wikipedia). Start at the gravamen. Don't get bogged down in the obiter dicta.

The Crucifixion is the mechanism that Jesus created to deliver the revelation of the radical love of God from heaven to the children of Adam and Eve here on earth. At its core, are two components, heaven and hell. They form the beating heart of the Crucifixion. We hung hell from the Cross of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:17) (00693). Jesus hung heaven. Heaven did not belong in hell (00603). Heaven was a stranger in the strange land of the Crucifixion (Exodus 2:22). Heaven's arrival in hell was utterly anatopic (00603). Yet, Jesus adorned the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vibrant and vivid beauty of forgiveness. The radical incongruity of the conjugation of heaven and hell packs the revelation of the radical love of God with a powerfully persuasive wallop. Incongruity energizes the revelation and radical incongruity energizes it radically (00325). When we hung hell from the Cross, we created an evil singularity - a toxic pit of evils in which we baptized Jesus. When Jesus hung heaven from the Cross, Jesus transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality (00693) (00678) (00628). Heaven diluted the toxicity of hell. Heaven put a smile on the face of hell. The transformation of the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality is the glorious victory that emerged from ignominious defeat. The transformation was Jesus' Magnum Opus. What other artist does his best work under such adverse conditions? The Word of God (John 1:1) (Matthew 4:4) narrates the story of our salvation, not with words, but by his journey from the beginning of the Crucifixion to its end. Therefore, always start at the Source (00329) (00597). At the Source is the radical love of God that Jesus revealed to us in the Crucifixion.

The Crucifixion is the beating heart of Christianity. A Christian cleric who distances himself from the Crucifixion is heading to failure. There is no such thing as a Christian cleric without the Crucifixion. A Christian cleric wraps himself in the Crucifixion. The Crucifixion cannot be detached from Christianity. Without the Crucifixion, Christianity is dead. it is a body without a heart.

Note: How are the Crucifixion and a Mass connected? A Mass is a facsimile of the Crucifixion without the flesh and blood. Jesus substituted bread and wine for flesh and blood. He announced the substitution at the Last Supper. Jesus is present for both the Crucifixion and a Mass. The only difference is that the defortified shell that he occupies has changed. In both the Crucifixion and at Mass, Jesus made himself weak (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00597) (00656) by doffing his invincible armor of divinity. In the Crucifixion, Jesus donned our defortified shell of flesh and blood while, at Mass, Jesus donned a defortified shell of bread and wine. One sacrifice of flesh and blood is enough! Jesus baited the trap of salvation with the cheese of weakness. And we did not resist the bait. Like wild animals, we pounced on our weakened God. Humanity attacked enfeebled divinity. We devoured Jesus while he occupied his defortified shells at both the Crucifixion and at a Mass. We consumed him. The story of salvation, however, did not end here. Jesus answered the evils that we did to him. His answer surprises us. Conventional biblical wisdom created the expectation of "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48). Jesus, however, rejected conventional biblical wisdom. He defied it. His answer was unconventional (Isaiah 55:8-9). At the Crucifixion and at Mass, his answer was radically asymmetric. The radical asymmetry of his answer is a reflection of the radical love of God. It is the Good News of Great Joy.

Parts of the Crucifixion / Mass: 1) Incarnation a/k/a defortification a/k/a Consecration 2) Our consumption of the shell of our weakened, defortified God 3) Radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to him during our consumption of him 4) revelation of the radical love of God a/k/a Good News of Great Joy.

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[¶ 00704 Updated: 10_17_2024]

Jesus built a Model of the Radical Love of God Here on Earth (00506)
The quantum mechanical notion of spooky action at a distance applies to the model of the radical love of God that Jesus built. Forgiveness on earth is entangled with the radical love of God in heaven and vice versa.

By forgiving us for the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion, Jesus showed us how to flip the radical love of God from his domain in heaven to our domain on earth.

We fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with his flesh and blood. Jesus doused the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness (John 7:37-38). We hung hell from the Cross; Jesus hung heaven. The bipolarity of the two hangings gives the model of the radical love of God its powerful kinetic energy. Its powerful kinetic energy gobsmacks us (Isaiah 55:8-9). It gut punches us. It delivers a powerful wallop. It knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6).

What was the mission that God gave to Jesus? The blueprint for a model of the radical love of God was conceived, designed and drafted in heaven. God gave Jesus the mission of turning the blueprint into reality - of building the model here on earth. The model, however, would not be conventional. It would not be drab. It would not be pedestrian. A divine twist would be added to jazz up the model and, consequently, it would sizzle. It would be packed with pizzazz. It would convey the very vitality and charisma of God himself. The divine twist to the model was that it would be a living, breathing, walking, talking, functioning model of the radical love of God - something having peerless verisimilitude to God (John 14:9) - something much more authentic than a static, dead, cardboard cutout, low fidelity representation of God. Jesus' model would give the children of Adam and Eve a taste of the veiled reality of the radical love of God. "Taste and see" (Psalm 34:8) the sweetness of paradise! Was Jesus capable of such an extraordinary creation? Could he do it? Could he bring God from heaven to earth? Of course he could! "Is he not the carpenter" (Mark 6:3)? Jesus completed his mission when he forgave us for the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Foregivenss put the last piece of the puzzle of the radical love of God into place (00504). We fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with his flesh and blood. Jesus doused the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness (John 7:37-38). We brought the ugliness. Jesus brought the beauty. In building a functioning model of the radical love of God, Jesus exploited the ugliness of the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. They became the foil that highlighted and emphasized and intensified and magnified and amplified and accentuated and underlined and energized the beauty of forgiveness that he hung from the Cross. The energy gradient between the hell that we hung from the Cross and the heaven that Jesus hung from the Cross powers the model of the radical love of God that Jesus built here on earth. The bipolarity of humanity's and divinity's contributions to the model's construction gives the revelation its sizzle. In short, Jesus decorated the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid color of forgiveness. It was his Magnum Opus. Forgiveness is a perfect reflection of the radical love of God here on earth. It is God on earth in the highest and purest concentration. Forgiveness is the incarnation of the radical love of God. (1 John 4:7-8). When we encounter forgiveness, we meet the best approximation of God - his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26) - face-to-face.

When we love, we establish a connection between heaven and earth through which God meets us and we meet God. When we love, we open a door between heaven and earth through which we step up into heaven and God steps down into earth. When we stop loving, we sever the connection between heaven and earth - we shut the door.

Christianity fails when its professionals allow its nitty gritty to dilute its pizzazz. Are you privy to the pizzazz of Christiany? We contributed to the pizzazz of Christiany by fueling the fire of the Crucifixion with the flesh and blood of Jesus. Jesus contributed to the pizzazz of Christiany by dousing the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness. The combination of the two events revealed the radical love of God to us.

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[¶ 00506 Updated: 06_27_2024c]

The Carpenter built the paradox of Salvation - the perfect incongruity - the apotheosis of asymmetry - that carried the revelation of the radical love of God when he introduced heaven into hell (00720)

The breakthrough of radical forgiveness into the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698) is the evidence that strongly suggests that the love of God is limitless. Heaven did not belong in hell (00603). Heaven was a stranger in the strange land of the Crucifixion (Exodus 2:22). The relocation of heaven into hell was utterly anatopic (00603). We discovered from the unexpected relocation of heaven into hell that the dial that controls God's love for us is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and locked in place. Not even the evils that we did to Jesus could budge it. Jesus constructed a paradox of heaven and hell. As Jesus built his paradox, he wants us to build paradoxes of our own. He wants us to inject heaven into hell. Paradox building is the essence of Christianity - its nucleus. Christians are the children of Adam and Eve who build paradoxes. "Is he not the carpenter" (Mark 6:3)? Like him, we are meant to be carpenters.

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[¶ 00720 Updated: 10_16_2024]

The Perfect Incongruity (00710)

Hell and heaven are the perfect incongruity. They are the odd couple of epiphany. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). Hell magnified heaven (00680) (00356) (00015) (00663). The perfect incongruity delivers a powerful wallop - so powerful that it knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). The radical asymmetry between heaven and hell - the perfect incongruity - was the high explosive that packed the revelation of the radical love of God with a powerful persuasive punch (00516) (00669) (00509) (00634). It energized the revelation. It gave the revelation oomph. Take the hell away from the revelation of the radical love of God and the cynosure goes dark (00680). The extraordinary becomes ordinary - blasé - uninteresting. Behold the perfect incongruity and brace yourself for impact! Incoming!

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[¶ 00710 Updated: 10_02_2024]

Jesus put himself in harm's way to detonate the bomb of revelation about the radical love of God in the fire of the Crucifixion (00569)

Jesus transported from heaven a bomb of revelation (Hosea 4:6) (00363) to wage and win the war against evils here on earth (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16). Jesus put himself in harm's way, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies, in the scrum at the line of scrimmage. In the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus detonated the bomb. He set it off. The explosion was bigger than the Big Bang and larger than CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The revelation that the bomb released was carried by sharp fragments of sweet forgivenes. The fragments of forgiveness slew the monster of the Crucifixion. Forgiveness killed the monster dead. The bomb that Jesus wielded on the battlefield of the Crucifixion won Jesus his glorious victory by revealing to us the radical love of our God. We discover from serious contemplation of the mortal combat between Jesus and the monster of the Crucifixion that his most Sacred Heart is filled to the brim with radical love for us (00394).

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[¶ 00569 Updated: 07_27_2024]

The Good News of Great Joy (00673)

In the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion, the Good News of Great Joy was announced. What, exactly, was the Good News of Great Joy that was announced In the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion? Jesus announced forgiveness (Acts 13:38). Jesus forgave us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7). in the Incarnation, the Son of God doffed his invulnerable armor of divinity, donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood and, dressed like us, put himself in harm's way smack dab in the middle of hell (00149) (00572) (00521). Jesus joined us in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the fire of the Crucifixion, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies, to make the announcement of the Good News of Great Joy. He made the trip not merely to be there but to do something there. Performance, not mere presence, was the reason for his visit to hell. Forgiveness was the gift from heaven that Jesus brought to hell (00404). It was a proxy for the radical love of God. Forgiveness was the personification of God himself - divinity in its highest and purest concentration (00423). In forgiveness, divinity coalesced into a coherent form. Divinity landed on earth. It touched down in hell. The announcement of the Good News of Great Joy was a major announcement - a blockbuster! Its importance was highlighted and emphasized and intensified and magnified and amplified and accentuated and underlined by the exalted status of the announcer (Luke 20:13) and the absurd venue where the announcement was made. The venue was absurd because the cost of admission to it was exorbitant; yet, we made the announcer pay the full price of admission in the coin of flesh and blood. No discount was given (Matthew 3:13-15). We did not give him a break (00400). He emptied his treasury. He spent all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny of them in the bank in reserve for himself. He has never spent more for anything else! Who was the genius who picked such a gruesome venue for the announcement? Come on, confess? What a perfect foil in which the Good News of Great Joy was set! The choice of venue was exquisite - ingenius! The juxtaposition of heaven and hell did the job! The greater were the evils that we did to him, the more astonishing is the Good News of Great Joy. The announcement was an earthquake that disturbed the status quo of our understanding of God and the reality in which we lived. The announcement rewrote our understanding - reconfigured it. It shifted the paradigm of life on earth by opening our eyes to the greater reality in which our lives are embedded. The announcement showed us that the apparent boundaries of our existence are artificial - fictitious. We live in an illusion (00319). The illusion is the smoke and mirrors anti-god propaganda of the serpent. The theology of the Crucifixion (00671) (00659), however, shattered the illusion (00664). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). The announcement of the Good News of Great Joy was more psychedelic - more mind-altering - more mystical (Wikipedia) - than magic mushrooms (Wikipedia). The announcement gobsmacked us. The Good News of Great Joy knocked us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). Still does.

God did not delegate the job of delivering the Good News of Great Joy to his subordinates. He did not send a flunky. God dispatched an equal to God, his dearly beloved Son. Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him (Luke 20:13). The Son of God did the job of delivery himself. And, to boot, the cost of delivery was exorbitant.

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[¶ 00673 Updated: 09_09_2024]

God entrusts his creatures with the canvas of his creation. "...[F]ill the earth and subdue it..." (Genesis 1:28). The embellishment of God's creation with the beauty of love is the activity of heaven. Through Jesus, God exported the activity to earth. Jesus gave us an example of how this is done. He embellished the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid and vibrant beauty of forgiveness. He introduced heaven to hell. The introduction was his Magnum Opus.

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[¶ 00719 Updated: 10_14_2024]

The Love Story (00718)
If an aspect of Christianity is not a part of the love story that Jesus told to us in the Crucifixion, it is obiter dicta - inferior to the gravamen of Christianity.

The Crucifixion is the absurd love story in which the hero expresses his undying love for the murderous villians who had taken from him his flesh and blood. The absurdity of the love story is that Jesus included his enemies within the scope of his love. Anyone else would have summarily excluded them (Isaiah 55:8-9). Jesus tells the love story not by narrating it in words but by performing it. He acted the love story out. Not only is Jesus the star of the show, he is also its producer. He paid the exorbitant cost to produce the love story out of his own pocket in the coin of his flesh and blood. He paid all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny of them in the bank in reserve for himself. Nowhere else in Jesus' life - not in the Sermon on the Mount, not in the feeding of the five thousand, not in the Resurrection - did Jesus make a similar, consequential investment of his flesh and blood. Only in the Crucifixion. The means by which Jesus expressed his radical love for the children of Adam and Eve was by forgiveness. Forgiveness was the proxy for the radical love of God that the Word of God (John 1:1) (Matthew 4:4) used as the means of its expression. He forgave us for the evils that we did to him in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. By forgiveness, Jesus hand-delivered heaven to hell. In so doing, He transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality. Heaven and hell became the odd couple of epiphany (00695). Jesus combined heaven and hell to form a single unit of apocalyptic revelation about the radical love of God. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). The transformation - the awkward, asymmetric, and anatopic combination of heaven and hell (00603) - was the glorious victory that emerged from ignominious defeat as the dawn emerges from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). In the love story, Jesus founded an outpost of heaven upon the earth by sinking its roots into a foundation of forgiveness. The foundation of forgiveness is the rock (Matthew 7:24-27) on which the wise anchor their understanding of God.

God sent us a Love Note in the Incarnation and verified its genuineness in the Crucifixion (00572) (00452) (00268) (00554) (00251) (00152) (00084) (00046) (00587) (00094) (00474)

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[¶ 00718 Updated: 10_13_2024]

Jesus was a pioneer (00717)
Jesus sunk the roots of the outpost of heaven that he established on the earth into a foundation of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the conclusion to the story about the radical love of God that Jesus told us in the Crucifixion. The story begins with his defortification in the Incarnation. A Mass is a retelling of the story from beginning to end. This is the sum and substance of Christianity. This is its gravamen - superior to everything else. Everything else is obiter dicta.

God dispatched Jesus to establish an outpost of heaven upon the earth. The natives, however, were hostile. They were restlesss (Augustine of Hippo) and resisted their God's attempt to upgrade their existence (Luke 4:12). They tried to thwart God's plan of colonization (Matthew 21:37-39). They tortured and killed Jesus. They made him suffer and die. They impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death (Wisdom 2: 19) (Malachi 3:10) (Luke 4:12) (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Wisdom 2: 17-20). Jesus answered the evils that we had done to him. However, he did not answer the evils that we did to him in kind. He did not give us a taste of our own medicine. He did not exact from us a pound of flesh as we had exacted from him (Shylock) (John 15:13) (John 12:24). (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48). He forgave us (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). By substituting forgiveness for punishment, Jesus had established heaven in hell. Jesus sunk the roots of heaven's outpost into a foundation of forgiveness (Matthew 13:31-32).

Jesus recruited a Church to replicate the outpost of heaven that he established on the earth and propagate it from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now.

A Christian is an outpost of heaven on the earth bringing heaven to hell. If we claim to be a Christian but do not bring heaven to hell, our claim is bogus. Christian thinking is worthless unless it is translated into Christian action. The only Christian action that has value is the embellishment of God's creation with beauty (Matthew 3:7-8) (Matthew 10:42).

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[¶ 00717 Updated: 10_12_2024]

Jesus decorated the tree of the Cross with the tinsel of forgiveness. God gave us the canvas of his creation to decorate it with beauty. Jesus gave us an example of how this is done - even in the worst of circumstances. The venue of the example that Jesus gave us was the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698), At an exorbitant cost to himself, Jesus embellished hell with heaven. It was his Magnum Opus. By adorning the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid and vibrant beauty of forgiveness, Jesus transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality (00693). Heaven and hell became the odd couple of epiphany (00695). Jesus combined heaven and hell to form a single unit of apocalyptic revelation about the radical love of God. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). The transformation - the awkward, anatopic combination of heaven and hell (00603) - was the glorious victory that emerged from ignominious defeat as the dawn emerges from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3).

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(Transforming the Crucifixion from a Singularity into a Duality)

[¶ 00712 Updated: 10_09_2024]

On judgment day, God will point to his Son's Magnum Opus and say, "Look at the beauty that my Son added to my creation when you crucified him." After pointing to his Son's embellishment, our God will ask us, "What beauty did you add to the canvas of my creation?" What artwork will you point to? How will you answer him (00493)?

Embellishing the canvas of God's creation with beauty is the activity that takes place in heaven. Through Jesus, God exported it from heaven to the earth (00310).

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(00643)
[¶ 00713 Updated: 10_09_2024]

Embracing, rather than Avoiding and Evading, our Crosses (00711)
A Christian decorates God's creation with the beautify of heaven. He is an artist. He does something; he does not merely think about something. There are many ways to embellish hell with heaven. Jesus, the Son of God himself, gave us an example of how this is done during the Crucifixion. During the Crucifixion, we hung hell to the Cross. Jesus hung heaven. Jesus adorned the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid and vibrant beauty of forgiveness. On the Cross, Jesus created his Magnum Opus.

Forgiveness is strength made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00706) (00211) (00627). In the Incarnation, on the brink of mortal combat with the monster of the Crucifixion, Jesus did the unthinkable. He disarmed. He defortified himself. He divested himself of the full panoply of omnipotent divinity. Defortification on the brink of war is so contrary to human logic that it boggles the mind "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). What rational human general does this? Even a military novice would reject a strategy of disarmament. Only an insane combattant would rig himself for defeat, right? Yet, Jesus doffed his invincible armor of divinity and donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood. Dressed like us in his divinity depleted state, Jesus put himself in harm's way. He entered the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the war against evils (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16), cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies. He made himself weak so we could make ourselves strong (00211). How do we make ourselves strong? How do we pack on the muscle? By following him. We are weak so our crosses challenge us. They exploit our weakness. Their sharp teeth confront us as we pass through life (00664). How ought we to deal with them? One option is to try to escape from them. The other option is to embrace them, pick them up and joyfully carry them across the finish line into the land of milk and honey (00211) (00522) (00218) (00661). Which option, according to God, is the better option? God dispatched Jesus from heaven to earth to deliver his recommendation. Jesus hung from his Cross to teach us how to hang from our crosses (00643). He led by example (00643) (00210). He demonstrated to us how to deal with our crosses by dealing with his. Jesus wants us to embrace our crosses as he did his in order to perfect our strength (00211). By the substitution of forgiveness for punishment in answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion, Jesus embellished hell with heaven. This was Jesus' Magnum Opus. In creating his Magnum Opus, Jesus revealed our superpower. We do not need unlimited divine resources to perform miracles of beautification. By drawing upon our limited human resources, we, too, like Jesus, can pay the cost of creating vivid and vibrant beauty on the canvas of life. We bring heaven to hell when we give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, companionship to the stranger, clothes to the naked, care for the ill and make visits to prisoners (Matthew 25:33-40) (00323). In these and other ways, we adorn hell with heaven. Beautification is how we embrace, pick up and carry our crosses. We cannot do this by running away from them. We cannot perfect our strength by fleeing from our crosses. Therefore, do not shrink from the challenge of a cross. Engage, confront, beautify! Bring heaven to hell (00211)! God gave us his creation to decorate it with beauty. His creation is our canvas. It is a blank slate. God dispatched his Son from heaven to earth to give us an example of how to do it. He did the demonstration during the Crucifixion at an exorbitant cost to himself.

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(00211) (00627)
[¶ 00711 Updated: 10_08_2024]

Jesus rejected conventional biblical wisdom (00712)

The conventional biblical wisdom was "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48). One would think that conventional biblical wisdom would shape his answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion (Matthew 5:17). The smart money would have bet on punishment for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Given the conventional biblical wisdom, it was the safe, orthodox bet. Jesus, however, rejected conventional biblical wisdom. He defied it. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). Jesus did not answer the evils that we did to him in kind. He did not give us a taste of our own medicine. He did not take from us the coin of our flesh and blood as we had taken from him. Instead of punishment, Jesus forgave us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7). When Jesus substituted forgiveness for punishment, the smart money - the orthodox - lost their safe bet. The substitution shifted the paradigm. It reorganized the infrastructure of understanding. It revolutionized our understanding of God and our place in God's creation.

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[¶ 00712 Updated: 10_08_2024]

Jesus upended conventional biblical wisdom whose truth is uncritically taken for granted (00733)

It was said in the Bible: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). Prima facie, this sounds right. However, it is not quite accurate. It is merely a restatement of the conventional wisdom. Jesus, however, upended the conventional wisdom (Isaiah 55:8-9). He turned conventional wisdom on its head (Luke 6:27-36). Despite what is said in the Bible, there is a greater love. Whoops! The Bible got it wrong. Jesus showed us a love that was more radical - more extreme - more profligate - than a love that only encompasses family and friends. Jesus included his enemies within the sope of his love. Jesus forgave his enemies for the evils that we did to him (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63). Now, that's radical love! That is love without limits (Matthew 5:38-48)! The greater were the evils that his enemies did to Jesus, the greater is our amazement at the intransigence of his love for them. His love for his enemies did not fade as they tortured him and did not die when they killed him. His love for his enemies survived the evils that they did to him. The evils that his enemies did to him did not extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for them in his most Sacred Heart or reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. Our God continued to love us nonetheless, Wow! What love!

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(00469) (00403)
[¶ 00733 Updated: 10_22_2024]

God gave us his creation to decorate it with beauty and his Son, in a demonstration done at an exorbitant cost to himself, gave us an example of how to do it (00643)
Jesus decorated the dark and hostile canvas of the Crucifixion with the vibrant and vivid color of forgiveness. He embellished hell with heaven. It was the Magnum Opus of the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave.

God gave us his creation to decorate it with beauty. His creation is our canvas. It is a blank slate. God dispatched his Son from heaven to earth to give us an example of how to do it. He did the demonstration during the Crucifixion at an exorbitant cost to himself. Therefore, at all times and in every circumstance, ask yourself, 'How can I embellish the world?'. Adding tinsel to the tree is the path of a Christian. Shall we not get to work?

The hotter burns the hell, the more glorious shines the beauty! Jesus set the jewel of forgiveness in and against the evils that we did to him in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. The hybrid, bipartite amalgamation of heaven and hell that Jesus created during the Crucifixion is the Master Jeweler's Magnum Opus. Behold its brilliance! Bend a knee to the nonpareil artistry of the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave!

When we are instructed to "fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28), God is instructing us to decorate the canvas of his creation with the beauty of love. Only the beauty of love fills and subdues the earth. Nothing else does.

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[¶ 00643 Updated: 10_08_2024]

The currency of love (00310)

The economy of paradise is based on the currency of love. With ordinary currency, the more we spend, the poorer we get. It is a paradox, but, by spending the currency of love, we grow rich. The more we spend, the richer we get. The most Holy Trinity dispatched the Son of God from heaven to earth to introduce us to the currency of love and to establish the economy of paradise here and now upon the earth.

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[¶ 00310 Updated: 06_10_2024]

Our Salvation depends on the Beauty of our Artwork (00493)
Life is a beauty contest (00535) (00323). Jesus set the standard of beauty. Jesus created the beauty of forgiveness in the hostile desert of the Crucifixion. His creation was his Magnum Opus. What other artist works so successfully in such adverse conditions? Our superpower is the ability to duplicate his artistry.

"In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved" (John of the Cross) (Luke 7:47). God put us on the earth to decorate the canvas of life with the sweet fruits of love. The sweet fruits of love are the seeds of the kingdom of God. We plant them; God cultivates them. Our purpose is the beautification of life with love. On the day of judgment, God will ask to see our artwork. We will be judged by the contents of our portfolio (00247).

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(00492) (00487) (00495) (00323)
[¶ 00493 Updatd: 07_05_2024]

The most Holy Eucharist is a chameleon (00716)

The most Holy Eucharist is a facsimile of the Crucifixion - without the flesh and blood. The parts of the most Holy Eucharist have a corresponding counterpart in the Crucifixion. Most importantly, the most Holy Eucharist is a chameleon. The nature of the most Holy Eucharist changes according to the perspective of the observer.

As we observe his enemies approach the altar, we see a sacrifice. We approach to take from him the frail shell that Jesus occupies. In the Crucifixion, the shell was flesh and blood and in the the most Holy Eucharist, the shell is bread and wine.

As we observe his enemies leave the altar, we see a banquet. Jesus did not give his enemies exactly what they came for. He satisfied their hunger with bread, quenched their thirst with wine and filled their bellies with forgiveness. He gave his enemies a seat with him at the family table and they supped with him, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort and joy of the family tent (John 6:53). Who does this besides the God who loves us despite the evils that we did to him?

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[¶ 00716 Updated: 10_10_2024]

Forgiveness gushes from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus as water gushes from a fire hydrant (00715)

The flow of forgiveness from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus is never shut off. It neither rises nor falls according to our merits and our demerits. It flows unrestrained. It gushes. "… Put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, And see if I do not open the floodgates of heaven for you, and pour down upon you blessing without measure!" (Malachi 3:10).

-----> More to come <------

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[¶ 00715 Updated: 10_09_2024]

Presence is not the gist (00531)

I have never heard a Christian professional try to relate the most Holy Eucharist to Jesus' glorious victory and his ignominious defeat. Not once. There is an appalling lack of thinking things through. They reach the presence of God in the most Holy Eucharist and stop there. They go no further. They come up short of the point of the most Holy Eucharist. They fail to reach its goal. Presence becomes an inescapable ideological cul-de-sac - a dead end. Presence traps them in Plato's cave (Platonic Cave). The presence of God in the most Holy Eucharist is not enough. Osmosis does not work (00377) (00060). Close proximity to the real presence of God in the most Holy Eucharist does not transfer the knowledge of the radical love of God to us. Osmosis does not work. Osmotic theology is a crock. The passage of the real presence of God from his shell of flesh and blood during the Crucifixion to shells of bread and wine during a Mass is incidental to the ignominious defeat and glorious victory that Jesus experienced during the Crucifixion. Presence is not the gist. Victory and defeat - the awkward, anatopic combination of heaven and hell (00603) - are the gist. Presence is mute. It does not communicate the story of the glorious victory that emerged from ignominious defeat during the Crucifixion. Presence seals the mouth of the Word of God (John 1:1) (Matthew 4:4). Presence shuts Jesus up. The gist is that the most Holy Eucharist is a facsimile of the Crucifixion - without the flesh and flood. Many Christian professionals, however, have not yet figured this out (Matthew 15:14) (00241).

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(00530)
[¶ 00531 Updated: 10_09_2024]

Symbolism (00476)
Is the most Holy Eucharist a symbol? No. The most Holy Eucharist is not a symbol for God. Jesus himself, the hero of the Crucifixion, does, indeed, occupy the bread and wine of the most Holy Eucharist. He relocated himself there after we took from him his integument of flesh and blood. However, Yes, the most Holy Eucharist is, in another way, a symbol. It is a symbol for the Crucifixion. In the most Holy Eucharist, God created a facsimile of the Crucifixion - without the flesh and blood. One fleshy and bloody sacrifice is enough. More than one would be superfluous. A facsimile was needed to propagate the Crucifixion from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now.

The most Holy Eucharist is not a symbol of God. It is God. It is the residences that Jesus occupies after the Crucifixion had evicted him from his shell of flesh and blood. So, when the Catholic headline writers orthodoxically proclaim that the most Holy Eucharist is not a symbol, they are, without doubt, right - - - in part. The most Holy Eucharist, however, is, in another sense, a symbol - the most important symbol in Christianty. It is the symbol of forgiveness. He forgave us for the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:6-7). Forgiveness is the knowledge of the nature of God that Jesus presented to the children of Adam and Eve from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity in the highest and purest concentration. Forgiveness epitomizes the nature of God. Flesh, blood, bread and wine are the symbols - the vehicles - that carry the apocalyptic revelation of the radical love of God that Jesus revealed to us in his answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Flesh, blood, bread and wine are the vocabulary of Jesus' revelation. Do you understand and appreciate the symbolism of the most Holy Eucharist?

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(See, 00035) (00458) (00463) (00450) (00371) (00425) (00377) (00060) (00451) (00427) (00433) (00478) (00443)
[¶ 00476 Updated: 10_09_2024]

God translated the Magnum Opus that Jesus created in the gruesome adversity of the Crucifixion into a meal for the purpose of propagation

God faced a problem in logistics. By forgiving his enemies for the evils that they did to him, Jesus created his Masterpiece of Love on the canvas of life in the gruesome adversity of the Crucifixion. This was God's son's greatest achievement - the pinnacle of divine art - his magnum opus - and our salvation. God wanted to propagate his Son's magnum opus from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. Jesus' magnum opus itself, however, was too unwieldy for propagation. Propagation was a logistical nightmare. So, how? How do we give Jesus' magnum opus wheels and wings? How do we free it from its captivity in the prison of time and space? Can we translate it into a worthy, high fidelity metaphor that makes it mobile yet conserves the meaning of the divine pantomine that took place in the crucible of the Crucifixion? God could have gone in many different directions. He had a variety of options. Yet, the metaphor that God settled upon was to prepare and serve his enemies a meal. From the flesh and blood of sacrifice, Jesus prepared a meal at which he served his enemies the bread and wine of forgiveness. Is there a better way to translate Jesus' magnum opus than by translating it into a meal for his enemies? Serving his enemies a meal of bread and wine makes the abstract concept of forgiveness concrete (Psalm 23:4-6). It becomes tangible - comestible. As bread and wine, we can touch forgiveness, drink it and eat it. It is no longer abstract. His enemies vilely took from Jesus his flesh and blood. Jesus, however, did not give them what they took. Between the taking and the giving, Jesus made a substitution. At the Last Supper, Jesus announced the substitution of bread and wine for flesh and blood. During his battle with the monster of the Crucifixion, Jesus did what he had announced he would do. In his radically asymmetric answer to the evils that his enemies did to him, Jesus surprised them - and us who witness what Jesus did - by treating them to prodigal hospitality. We were unworthy of any blessing from the God who loves us after the evils that we did to him; yet; he treated us with prodigal hospitality nonetheless. "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63). By sacrificing his flesh and blood, Jesus satisfied the hunger of his enemies with bread, quenched their thirst with wine and filled their bellies with fellowship. He invited his enemies to take a seat with him at the family table and to sup with him, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort of the family tent (John 6:53). Who does this besides the God who loves us despite the evils that we did to him? The translation of Jesus' magnum opus into a meal is high-fidelity. It is an apt facsimile of it. It captures it perfectly. Nothing is lost in the translation.

The flower of heaven grows from the seed of forgiveness that Jesus planted in the toxic soil of hell (00728)
To bring the Crucifixion to its conclusion and, thereby, perfect the revelation of the radical love of God, Jesus planted the seed of forgiveness in hell. This initiated the revolution in our understanding of our God and our place in his world. The Crucifixion began when our omnipotent God, on the brink of mortal combat with the monster of the Crucifixion, did the unthinkable in the Incarnation, and defortified himself. He made himself weak so his strength could be made perfect in weakness. The Crucifixion ended with the substitution of forgiveness for punishment as Jesus' answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Forgiveness was the perfection of his strength. Heaven anatopically manifested itself in hell with the substitution of forgiveness for punishment. Heaven did not belong in hell. Heaven was a stranger in the strange land of the Crucifixion. Bringing heaven to hell was Jesus' Magnum Opus. In creating his Magnum Opus, Jesus showed us our superpower as well. We, too, can bring heaven to hell.

The soil of hell is toxic. It is a sterile matrix - utterly barren - hostile in the extreme. We watered it with his blood. We fertilized it with his flesh. After we had prepared the toxic soil of hell with his flesh and his blood, Jesus planted the seed of forgiveness into it. When the flower of heaven germinated, sprouted and grew from the seed of forgiveness, we beheld a miracle (00028). The greater were the evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion, the more glorious is the miracle.

The Crucifixion is many things. It is a multifaceted jewel - a gift that God has given us at an exorbitant cost to himself. The Crucifixion is the seed that Jesus plants in us to grow the flowers of heaven (Luke 17:20-21). It is the agent of depetrification. It depetrifies our stoney hearts and feshifies them (Ezekiel 36:26) (00004). The Crucifixion is the venue where strength was made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00706) (00597) (00656). The Crucifixion is the incontrovertible verication of the genuineness of the Love Note that our God had sent to us in the Incarnation (00268) (00452). Only love begets love. And radical love begets love radically. "We love him because he loved us first" (1 John 4:19) (00684).

The seed of God is in us.
Given an intelligent
and hardworking farmer,
it will thrive and grow
up into God, whose seed
it is; and accordingly its
fruits will be God-nature.
Pear seeds grow into
pear trees, nut seeds
into nut trees, and
God seeds into God.
(Meister Eckhart)

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[¶ 00728 Updated: 10_19_2024]

Are you a Christian? (00685)
Go for the little wins! Try not to strike out. Make contact with the ball! Keep your batting average up. Play pepper! Hit singles! Rarely in life are we required to swing for the fences as Jesus did during the Crucifixion. Let us embellish hell with heaven in little ways but consistently. Practice! Practice! Practice!

Are you a Christian? What is the definition of a Christian (00633)? A Christian is a child of Adam and Eve who embellishes hell with heaven as Jesus did during the Crucifixion. Jesus decorated the bleak, black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vibrant beauty of forgiveness. We can too. That is our superpower (00642) (00211). Don't just claim to be a Christian. Show as your portfolio of artwork (00643) (00493) (00147). Start small (What is the “Little Way” of St. Thérèse of Lisieux? by Philip Kosloski, in Aleteia published on 10/03/21 - updated on 06/12/24 ). Gradually work your way up to bigger works of art as a weightlifter works his way up the ladder to heavier and heavier weights (00493)! In the end (00493), the goal is to duplicate the Magnum Opus that Jesus created in the fire of the Crucifixion (00568).

Introspection. Examination of Conscience. What do we bring to our circumstances? Heaven (Mark 4:20?) Hell? Nothing (Revelation 3:16?) (00323)

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(00411)
[¶ 00685 Updated: 10_04_2024]

The Womb (00708)
Are we living in a simulation?

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (John 3:3-4). The exit from the womb and the entrance into eternal life are one and the same (The transitus of St. Francis). Insiders call the exit from the womb death. Outsiders call it birth. Through it, we are born again (John 3:3) (Luke 15:32). It is all just a matter of perspective. When we look from the inside out, we see one thing. When we look from the outside in, we see a horse of quite a different color (Platonic Cave). The exit from the womb and the entrance into eternal life is narrow (Matthew 4:17) (00532). To squeeze through (think childbirth), we need to dump our baggage. We need to travel light. "And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:2-3) Unless we shrink, we will not fit through the exit. Jesus came from the outside of the womb to the inside, to teach us the best way to navigate our way through it (John 3:12-13). “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Unfortunately, some prefer the darkness of the womb rather than the light outside the womb (John 3:19-21). By their preference, they have condemned themselves (John 3:18). Yes, indeed, we live in a simulation. But, Jesus is our escape hatch. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). Follow the trail that Jesus blazed across the womb, through the exit and into eternal life (00618) (00537) (00131). There is more to reality than the reality of the womb - much more (Platonic Cave). "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

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[¶ 00708 Updated: 10_03_2024]

To save us, God enfeebled himself (00706)
God did not stuff his real presence, his shell of flesh and blood and his shell of bread and wine into a single casing to make a Holy baloney. The most Holy Eucharist is not a turducken. It is not a Russian Matryoshka nesting doll. To make a facsimile of the Crucifixion, i.e., a Mass, Jesus relocates his real presence from his shell of flesh and blood into shells of bread and wine. The sacrifice in the facsimile of the Crucifixion is now bloodless and fleshless but still conveys the same revelation as the Crucifixion conveyed in the same way. The relocation of God's real presence from its shell of flesh and blood to shells of bread and wine preserves both the extraordinary content of the revelation and the flamboyant manner of its conveyance. The most Holy Eucharist is the new Jerusalem - the city of God - waiting for Babylon to pounce on it and devour it so Jesus could demonstrate strength made perfect in weakness.

By making the issue presence versus absence, the Church has subverted the real issue, that is, what did Jesus do during the Crucifixion, what didn't Jesus do and why. The Church has shot itself in the foot. Its understanding of the Crucifixion is muddled. Its muddlement infects its understanding of the Mass - that a Mass is a facsimile of the Crucifixion without the flesh and blood. Figure out what Jesus did during the Crucifixion, what he didn't do and why and the issue of presence versus absence figures itself out on its own. The presence of divinity is necessary for the enfeeblement of divinity. Jesus baited the trap of salvation with the cheese of weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00597) (00656). Flesh and blood - bread and wine - are divinity enfeebled - the bait for the trap. Enfeeblement does not take place unless divinity doffs its invincible armor and dons an enfeebled shell. No enfeebled shell, humanity's attack on divinity fails, there is nothing to forgive and the revelation of the radical love of God does not get released. The Crucifixion fails. Our salvation depended on the success of the Crucifixion. The success of the Crucifixion is the Good News of Great Joy.

The convolution of the real presence of God embedded in a frail shell of flesh and blood embedded in a frail shell of bread and wine is redundant and unnecessary. One frail shell is enough; two together are superfluous. God did not pay us a visit to create Russian Matryoshka nesting dolls (00385). The most Holy Eucharist is not a turducken. Tha most Holy Eucharist is a frail temple for the real presence of God here on earth. It is the new Jerusalem on which Babylon is ready to pounce. Enfeeblement was the point of the frail shells, the point of the Crucifixion and the point of a Mass. A homunculous of flesh and blood embedded in a a shell of bread and wine is simply wierd. Our God is not wierd. All that is needed is the real presence of God in each of the shells.

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[¶ 00706 Updated: 09_30_2024]

The purpose of Christianity is to update our understanding of God (00705)

The purpose of Christianity is to illuminate the darkness of our understanding of God (00316). God lamented: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). The knowledge that Jesus brought from heaven to earth puts an end to our destruction. Jesus filled the earth with the knowledge of God as water covers the seas (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14) (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

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[¶ 00705 Updated: 09_27_2024]

In answer to the evils that we did to Jesus in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698), Jesus revealed the truth about God to us. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). The vehicle that transported the revelation to us was forgiveness. Jesus adorned the hell that we had hung from the Cross with the vivid beauty of forgiveness. Jesus brought heaven to hell. Heaven embellished hell. The manner in which Jesus revealed the truth about God to us was his Magnum Opus. Jesus revealed the truth about God to us at an exorbitant cost to himself. Jesus paid the cost of the revelation with the coin of his flesh and blood. He invested all of his limited resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself (John 15:13). It was a flamoyant demonstration of divinity. What other artist does his best work in such adverse conditions? Jesus introduced us to the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave. “I have come to set the earth on fire [with the truth about God] and how I wish it were already blazing” (Luke 12:49)! By his radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to Jesus in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699) (00698), Jesus filled the earth with the knowledge of the radical love of God as water covers the seas (Hosea 4:6). (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14) (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

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[¶ 00703 Updated: 09_27_2024]

Christianity, done right, points us to the evidence then lets us figure out this thing called God for ourselves (00698)
When Christianity tries to figure out this thing called God for us - when it tries to substitute its conclusions for our conclusions by fiat, it fails miserably. Figuring out this thing called God is one of the things that we must do for ourselves (00301) (00503).

Christianity was established to facilitate the experience of a close encounter with God in the Crucifixion. In the Crucifixion, Jesus showed weak creatures how strength is made perfect in weakness by doing so himself - by himself demonstrating the perfection of strength in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00597) (00656). He became weak so that we may become strong. A close encounter with the God in the Crucifixion is the catalyst of our conversion. Have you met him? Have you met the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave? Forgiveness is the treasure of Christianity that Jesus forged in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) (00695) (00699).

Don't tell us what you found; show us where to look for God. Don't direct the verdict. Restrain yourself to presenting the evidence. Let the jury review the evidence and come to its own conclusion. Do not interfere with the exercise of our God-given power of rationality. The Crucifixion is the best evidence of God. So, point us to the gruesome experiment that we administered to Jesus in the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) and tell us that there we will discover the nature of God - there and only there. Then, get out of the way and let us experience for ourselves a close encounter with God in the Crucifixion (Daniel 3:8-25). Cleric, if you are not pointing to the Crucifixion and inviting the children of Adam and Eve to contemplate it, you are not doing Christianity. Christianity is not an appeal to our obedience but an appeal to our rationality (00597). Pope Pius X got Christianity wrong. His assessment of it was profoundly incorrect (00657) (00343)!

The hallmark of a Christian education is specific. It is not diffuse. It is concentrated in the Crucifixion. In the Crucifixion, God is found in the highest and purest concentration. Jesus in the Crucifixion has an alpha and an omega - a beginning and an end. The Crucifixion begins with the Incarnation and ends with the revelation of the radical love of God. Jesus narrates the story of our salvation by his journey from the beginning of the Crucifixtion to its end. Let's tighten up the ship, batten down the hatches and focus on the gravamen of Christianity. Everything else is obiter dicta. Let us not get distracted. Let us not travel on the tributaries of Christianity and wander away from its main course. We dilute the power of Christianity when we abandon the Crucifixion - when we push the Crucifixion to the periphery - when we kick the Crucifixion out of the position of prominence in the showcase of Christianity and demote it to the margins. Point the children of Adam and Eve to the Crucifixion, invite them to contemplate its meaning, then get out of the way so God can go to work. The revelation of the radical love of God rests on the shoulders of the Crucifixion. In the Crucifixion, Jesus showed us, weak creatures, how to perfect our strength in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (00597) (00656). He hung from his Cross to teach us how to hang from our crosses (00411).

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[¶ 00698 Updated: 09_26_2024]

The Pursuit of God (00696)
Our God built an escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church, entrusted the map to the Church and gave the leadership of the Church a mission. The mission that Jesus entrusted to leadership is to facilitate our escape - not to frustrate it, not to filter it and not to foul it up (00620).

God is the treasure who is waiting for us to find him. He is the jackpot whom we can hit. The radical love of God is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The pursuit of the radical love of God is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect. So, be not tepid or perfunctory in your pursuit of him. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened (Matthew 7:7-8). An official religion is valuable to the extent that it promotes the pursuit of God. An official religion that promotes itself instead of the pursuit of God is corrupt - rotten to its core. Better to be unaffiliated with an official religion but pursuing God than not pursuing God at all. Each of us is the pilot of our own soul (00301) (00564) (00147). As we pursue God, we make our own findings about him - we draw our own conclusions. We who read, write and think for ourselves reserve to ourselves the sovereignty of the thinking process. We refuse to surrender our intellectual independence to others. A religion that respects the sovereignty of our thinking process understands that religion, done right, shows us where to look for God. It does not tell us what to think about him. It is about exploration not indoctrination or formation. Christianity is, at its core, a treasure map for treasure hunters engaged in a treasure hunt (00598) (00449) (00483) (00199) (00599) (00600) (00133). Christianity is an official religion that has discovered over its more than two thousand years of existence that the knowledge of God is not diffuse - scattered some here, some there - but is concentrated at and about the Crucifixion (00695) (00690) (00654) (00675) (00402) (00382) (00352). Where to look (00597) (00565)? Look at the Crucifixion to discover the God who, for us, disarmed, suffered, died and forgave. In the Crucifixion, the revelation of the radical love of God was released. Are you privy to it? Come and see. At the Crucifixion, let us explore for ourselves the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God.

The job of a cleric is to hand out shovels to the children of Adam and Eve, escort them to the place where Jesus buried the treasure of Christianity, that is, the Crucifixion, and exhort them to dig, dig, dig. Nothing more; nothing less. Clerics are the ushers who show us to our seats so Jesus can put on a show. Jesus is the star of the show. The venue of the show is the Crucifixion. The Christian religion goes off the rails when the ushers think that they are the stars of the show or they take the treasure hunt to a venue other than the Crucifixion.

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(The Pusuit of God)
(Christianity is ...)

[¶ 00696 Updated: 09_24_2024]

Forgiveness is divinity in its highest and purest concentration (00695)
The incongruity between heaven and hell that Jesus created during the Crucifixion was perfect. Its perfection made it flamboyant.

The creation of the incongruity between heaven and hell during the Crucifixion was Jesus' Magnum Opus. What other artist does his best work in such adversity?

The radical asymmetry between heaven and hell was the high explosive that packed the revelation of the radical love of God with a powerful persuasive punch.

Hell magnified heaven (00680) (00356) (00015) (00663). The perfect incongruity delivers a powerful wallop - so powerful that it knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). Behold the perfect incongruity and brace yourself for impact! Incoming!

Forgiveness is divinity in its highest and purest concentration. Forgiveness coalesced into a coherent form in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25). Forgivenes is the face of God (00446). During the Crucifixion, divinity landed on earth. It touched down in hell. Hell is a place where heaven did not belong (00603). Heaven was a stranger in the strange land of the Crucifixion (Exodus 2:22). Heaven's arrival in hell was utterly anatopic (00603). Glorious victory, however, arose out of ignominious defeat precisely because Jesus brought heaven to hell - because Jesus adorned the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid beauty of forgiveness. Heaven in hell - the perfect incongruity - was the glorious victory (00630) (00355). Hell magnified heaven (00680) (00356) (00015) (00663). “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Hell imbued flamboyance into heaven's demonstration of the radical love of God during the Crucifixion (00680). The absurd venue of Jesus' Magnum Opus (00684) (00682) (00308) (00656) (00671) (00659) (00660) (00651) (00271) captures the attention of the children of Adam and Eve (00308) (00316). We take notice. It fascinates us. Take the hell away from the revelation of the radical love of God and the cynosure goes dark (00680). The extraordinary becomes ordinary - blasé - uninteresting. The radical asymmetry between heaven and hell was the high explosive that packed the revelation of the radical love of God with a powerful persuasive punch (00516) (00669) (00509) (00634). It energized the revelation. It gave the revelation oomph. Heaven and hell are the odd couple of epiphany. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). When we hang from our crosses as Jesus hung from his Cross, pray that we hang with the same panache as Jesus did (00603) (00605) (00644) (00684) (00493) (00642)!

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior" (Magnificat).

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[¶ 00695 Updated: 09_23_2024]

The conundrum of the Crucifixion (00699)

The conundrum of the Crucifixion is how, exactly, did Jesus make his strength perfect in weakness. The almighty had made himself weak and, in weakness, his strength was made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). As we figure this out, we fill the Cross of Christ with meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17) (00628) (00612) (00617). The incentive to figuring out the conundrum of the Crucifixion is that it holds the answer to the question, 'Who is God?'. Jesus deposited the answer in the middle of the conundrum. The answer is the treasure of Christianity. Therefore, let us grab our shovels, make our way to the Crucifixion and dig up the treasure for ourselves. Let us make ourselves rich!

The beginning of the Crucifixion was the Incarnation. The end of the Crucifixion was the revelation of the radical love of God. Jesus tells the story of our salvation by proceeding from beginng to end. To make strength perfect in weakness, there first must be weakness. So Jesus disarmed. In the Incarnation, Jesus defortified himself. He doffed his invincible armor of divinity and donned our frail unimorm of flesh and blood. He made himself vulnerable. He became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. Weakness was the bait for the trap. Like wild animals, we pounced on our weakened God. We devoured Jesus while he occupied a shell of flesh and blood. We consumed him. Jesus answered the evils that we did to him. Conventional biblical wisdom informed our expectation of his answer. Conventional biblical wisdom suggested punishment, that is, "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48). Jesus, however, rejected conventional biblical wisdom. Instead of applying conventional biblical wisdom, Jesus forgave us. He did not fight fire with fire. Jesus substituted forgiveness for punishment (00498) (Isaiah 55:8-9). His answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion was radically asymmetric. Radical asymmetry perfected his strength in weakness. Forgiveness is strength made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Forgiveness is the face of God that emerged from the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25). We hung hell to the Cross of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:17). Jesus hung heaven. Jesus embellished the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid beauty of forgiveness. What other artist creates his Magnum Opus in such adverse conditions? Our God is the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave. The revelation of the radical love of God rests on the shoulders of the Crucifixion.

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[¶ 00699 Updated: 09_25_2024]

Why is Jesus the Alpha and the Omega? (00700)

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Revelation 22:13) Why? Why is Jesus the Alpha and the Omega? The beginning of the Crucifixion was the Incarnation. The end of the Crucifixion was the revelation of the radical love of God. The story of salvation unfolds in an orderly fashion from beginng to end (00699). Jesus is the teller of the story. The Word of God (John 1:1) (Matthew 4:4) expressed the story of salvation, not in words, but in what was done as he proceeded from beginning to end. In the story of salvation, we discover that our God is the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave. All of this was done for us. This is the knowledge of God that Jesus released in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25) to put an end to our destruction (Hosea 4:6) (00151) (00494). Forgiveness is strength made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Forgiveness is the face of God that emerged from the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Daniel 3:8-25). The light from the face of God (Numbers 6:25) illuminates the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of apocalyptic epiphany. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). We hung hell to the Cross of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:17). Jesus hung heaven. Jesus embellished the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid beauty of forgiveness. What other artist creates his Magnum Opus in such adverse conditions?

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[¶ 00700 Updated: 09_25_2024]

Blissful Union with God (00701)

We achieve blissful union with God by the conjugation of forgiveness and repentance (00686) (00702) (00041). "Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshipers, and all who love and practice deceit" (Revelation 22:14-15) (Matthew 22: 11-13) (Matthew 22:10) (00485).

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[¶ 00701 Updated: 09_25_2024]

In the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus revealed the kingdom of God (00615)
The fire of the Crucifixion is the place where Jesus gave birth to our Salvation. Our Salvation is the revelation of the radical love of God. The knowledge of God that Jesus released to us in the fire of the Crucifixion puts an end to our destruction (Hosea 4:6) (00151) (00494).

In the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus revealed the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God was within him (Luke 17:20-21). He revealed it when he adorned the canvas of the Crucifixion with the beauty of forgiveness, that is, when he introduced heaven into hell. May we hang from our crosses with the same panache as Jesus hung from his (00605)!

Our God is everywhere and everywhen. His victory, however, is not. His victory is only found in the fire of the Crucifiction and at Mass where we celebrate Jesus, the hero of the Crucifixion, and re-enact his Victory. Note: It was a costly victory - exorbitantly costly. Jesus paid for his victory with the coin of his flesh and blood. He paid all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. He won his victory by embellishing the canvas of the Crucifixion with the beauty of forgiveness. With heaven, Jesus adorned hell. The greater was his payment, the more astonishing is the miracle of forgiveness. The hotter burned the fire of hell, the sweeter is the heaven with which Jesus infused it (00603) (00156) (00358)!

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[¶ 00615 Updated: 08_17_2024]

The presence of God is everywhere; his victory, however, is not (00516).

The presence of God is commonplace. The presence of God is everywhere including in the most Holy Eucharist. Jesus's Masterpiece of Love that he created on the canvas of the Crucifixion in the midst of adversity (00487) (00495), however, is unique. It is not everywhere. Since its origin on the battlefield of the Crucifixion, Jesus' glorious victory is only really present in the most Holy Eucharist. Why do we go to Mass when we can worship God, whose presence is everywhere, anywhere? We go to Mass to put ourselves in intimate contact with the Masterpiece of Love that Jesus created on the canvas of the Crucifixion in the midst of adversity. The greater was the adversity, the more glorious is the Masterpiece. The closer we get to the Masterpiece, the better we can comtemplate it, the easier it is grapple with the truth of it and the surer we are to come to grips with it and reconcile ourselves to it.

God established a Church to propagate the Masterpiece of Love that Jesus created on the canvas of the Crucifixion in the midst of adversity from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. The means of propagation is the Mass. His Church thrives when it propagates the Masterpiece of Love that Jesus created on the canvas of the Crucifixion in the midst of adversity. It flails when it promotes obiter dicta. The success of his Church is inextricably tied to the Masterpiece of Love that Jesus created on the canvas of the Crucifixion in the midst of adversity (00669).

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(00487) (00513) (00515)
[¶ 00516 Updated: 07_03_2024a]

A Mass is a copy of the Incarnation and Crucifixion --- without the flesh and blood (00694)

Jesus made a copy of the Incarnation and Crucifixion. He made them portable so they can be passed from the point and place of their obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. We call the copy a Mass. The original Incarnation and Crucifixion and a Mass have the same elements albeit slightly tweaked.

Divestiture a/k/a Doffing a/k/a Defortification
1) Both the original and the copies have a doffing - a divestiture. Jesus disarms. He defortifies himself. He humbles himself. He makes himself weak. In both, Jesus doffs his invincible and invulnerable armor of divinity. The almighty had made himself weak and, in weakness, his strength was made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Originally, the doffing took place during the Incarnation. In the copies, the doffing takes place during the Consecration.

Donning a/k/a Investiture
2) They both have a donning - an investiture. Jesus relocated himself to a specific shell - he put himself into a new residence - he occupied a new container. In the Incarnation, Jesus donned our frail armor of flesh and blood. He became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. Here is the tweak. Jesus announced his relocation at the Last Supper (00376) (00374). In the Consecration at Mass, Jesus dons fragile shells of bread and wine. Like the Incarnation, Jesus takes up residency in a new abode (00427).

The Real Presence, in a weakened state, enters the scrum at the line of scrimmage, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against the enemy
3) Jesus, the radical love of God (1 John 4:8) (Luke 6:45) became really present in the shell of flesh and blood originally in the Incarnation and subsequently in the shells of bread and wine in the Consecration at Mass. In fact, Jesus took on an additional characteristic in the Consecration at Mass. He became comestible (00425).

Forcible Eviction from his Habitation - the Crucifixion begins - We bring hell to Jesus
4) After the setup is complete, the Crucifixion begins. We do evils to evict Jesus from his shells (00382). Originally, in the Crucifixion, we torture and kill him. In the copy at Mass, we consume his shell of bread and wine. In both the original and the copy, we bring hell to the Crucifixion

Jesus' asymmetric answer to his Forcible Eviction from his Habitation - the Crucifixion ends - Jesus releases heaven into hell
5) In both the original and the copy, Jesus answers the evils that we did to him. Jesus brings heaven to hell. In the original, Jesus forgives us our trespasses. In the copy, Jesus feeds his enemies a meal of bread and wine. He satisfies the hunger of his enemies with bread, slakes their thirst with wine and fills their bellies with forgiveness.

Summary
In summary, in the original, the revelation of the radical love of God was conveyed bt the taking of flesh and blood and the giving of forgivenes. In the copy, the revelation of the radical love of God is conveyed by the taking and giving of food. The substitution of bread and wine for flesh and blood makes the sacrifice of the Mass bloodless.

When you peremptorily say that 'Jesus is really present here' or 'Jesus is really present there', you are not saying much. There is more to say - much more. Only when our evils rip off the cover of the black box in which God is hidden (Isaiah 45:15) (Psalm 91:1) and the light from its revolving gears becomes visible is the darkness of our understanding of God illuminated. The revelation of the radical love of God is conveyed by a dynamic collection of moving parts not by a static peremptory assertion. Jesus' performance in hell, not his presence in hell, reveals God to us (00556) (00679) (00472).

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[¶ 00694 Updated: 09_21_2024]

Jesus' Greatest Investment (00691)

What is the only place where Jesus spent the coin of his flesh and blood? Into what did Jesus make his greatest investment? Did he spend the coin of his flesh and blood in delivering the sermon on the mount? No. Did he spend the coin of his flesh and blood to walk on water? No. Did he spend the coin to feed the five thousand? No. In only one unique, sui generis place did Jesus spend the coin of his flesh and blood. On the battlefield of the Crucifixion, Jesus spent all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. Never has Jesus spent more for anything else! Jesus made the exorbitant payment to purchase the gift of forgiveness for the enemies who, moments ago, had tortured and killed him - who had made him suffer and die. It is easy to give gifts when we can pay for them from our unlimited divine resources. We can afford to be generous when there is no cost to the giving of a gift (Luke 21:1-4). A GIFT DRAWN FROM OUR LIMITED HUMAN RESOURCES, HOWEVER, IS A HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR. The monster of the Crucifixion tried to kill God's love for us. It tried to poke a hole in Jesus’ most Sacred Heart to drain it of God’s prodigious love for us. It failed. Its failure was utter, abject and total. From the scabbard of his prodigious love for us, Jesus drew the sharp sword of sweet forgiveness to slay the monster of the Crucifixion. Forgiveness killed the monster dead (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35 (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). Jesus clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go. His most Sacred Heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. The monster of the Crucifixion tried to reduce Jesus from the level of our loving God to the level of the loveless beasts who scavenge for scraps in cutthroat competition with the other loveless beasts among the ruins of Eden. Jesus, however, refused the demotion. He declined to descend into catastrophe. The love of God survived the evil that we did to him. God's love for us emerged from the violent clash with the monster unscathed - undiminished - without the slightest scratch. The evil that we did to Jesus did not extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in his most Sacred Heart or reduce its intensity 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. Wow! Moreover, to pinpoint the location of his greatest investment, Jesus erected a landmark. The Cross of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:17) is the landmark that marks the location of his greatest investment. Rally ‘round the bipolar Cross (00656) (00584) (00512)!

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[¶ 00691 Updated: 09_18_2024]

What, if anything, emerged from the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion? (00684)
We ignited and fueled the fire of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) with Jesus' flesh and blood (00693). This started the wheels of the revelation turning. This, however, did not take us to the desination of the revelation. Once the evils that we did to Jesus were done, control over the revelation shifted from our hands into Jesus' hands. The first round of the revelation belonged to humanity. The second and final round - the last word of the Word of God (John 1:1) (Matthew 4:4) - belonged to Jesus. It was now Jesus' turn to answer the evils that we had done to him. In the second and final round of the revelation, Jesus gave us a surprising gift - an unexpected blessing. Conventional biblical wisdom suggested punishment, that is, "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48). Jesus, however, rejected conventional biblical wisdom. Instead of applying conventional biblical wisdom, Jesus forgave us. He did not fight fire with fire. Jesus substituted forgiveness for punishment (00498) (Isaiah 55:8-9). His answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion was radically asymmetric. Radical asymmetry was the proxy that Jesus used to make the abstract concept of the radical love of God tangible and concrete (00475). Forgiveness was the personification of God himself - divinity in its highest and purest concentration (00423). In forgiveness, divinity coalesced into a coherent form. Divinity landed on earth. It touched down in hell. When Jesus embellished hell with heaven by decorating hell with the beauty of forgiveness (00672), he brought the revelation to its conclusiion. Forgivenes marked the end of Jesus' flamboyant demonstration of the radical love of God (00679). The Good News of Great Joy was forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the herald who triumphantly emerged from the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) to announce the revelation of the radical love of God (Isaiah 52:7-10). By the infusion of heaven into hell, Jesus transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality (00678) (00671) (00659) (00628) (00271) (00452) (00612) (00147). Heaven passed through and emerged from hell (00672). The soil of hell is toxic to love. Ordinarily, the flower of love does not grow in the toxic soil of hell. It is a sterile matrix - utterly barren - hostile in the extreme. So when love in the form of forgiveness germinated, sprouted and grew, we beheld a miracle. The greater were the evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion, the more glorious is the miracle.

Forgiveness is the foundation of the Christian faith (00547). The edifice of Christianity is built on the foundation of forgiveness. Forgiveness evokes repentance (00393). Jesus did not wait for us to repent to forgive us. He forgave us to bring about our repentance (Isaiah 55:8-9). He took the first step of forgiveness in the hope that we would take the second step of repentance. The radical love of God initiated the process of our conversion. While we were unrepentant (Matthew 22:10) sinners (Romans 5:8) (Matthew 7:6), Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19). Why? Only love begets love. "We love him because he loved us first" (1 John 4:19). The kingdom of God is reserved for those who embellish the canvas of their lives with love (00001) (00493). As Jesus did in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion, Christians embellish hell with heaven.



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(00081) (00679) (00452)
[¶ 00684 Updated: 09_18_2024]

Only the gift of vulnerability makes the perfection of love possible (00689)

God endowed us with a frail uniform of flesh and blood - the gift of vulnerability - to put us in postion to perfect our love. A strong man cannot perfect love. Only a weak man can. Invulnerability is an obstacle in the way to the perfection of love. The almighty had made himself weak and, in weakness, his strength was made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). The only strength respected by God is love perfected. In the Incarnation, the Son of God made himself weak. He humbled himself. He disarmed. He defortified himself. He doffed the invulnerable armor of divinity, donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood, and, dressed like us, he entered the scrum at the line of scrimmage, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against the enemy. He became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. His purpose? His purpose was to hang from his Cross to teach us how to hang from our crosses. He sacrificed his frail uniform of flesh and blood to show us how to perfect our love through forgiveness. In weakness, Jesus demonstrated our potential for perfect love. Like Jesus, in our weakened state, we, too, can bring heaven to hell. This is the superpower of creatures of flesh and blood. Jesus demonstrated our superpower during the Crucifixion.

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(00211) (00627)
[¶ 00689 Updated: 09_17_2024]

Scope (00687)

Jesus forgave his enemies even though we still had his flesh in our mouths and his blood on our hands (00142) (00370). Jesus included his enemies within the scope of his love so we would recognize and appreciate the radicalness of his love (00558) (00103) for the children of Adam and Eve (Matthew 22: 8-10) (Matthew 13:47).

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[¶ 00687 Updated: 09_16_2024]

Size (00421)

Jesus is the highest concentration of the radical love of God. He is dense with it. He is packed to the gills with it. He is filled to the brim with it. In him, the radical love of God is unalloyed. Jesus was the tangible expression of God's radical love for us - its incarnate articulation (1 John 4:8) (Luke 6:45). Can we prove it? Take a look at its size. Jesus was dispatched from heaven to earth to pay for our salvation out of his own pockets with the coin of his flesh and blood. Jesus spared no expense. He spent all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. He has never spent more for anything else. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). The more of the coin of his flesh and blood that Jesus spent, the greater is our astonishment at the radical profligacy of his love for the children of Adam and Eve.

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[¶ 00421 Updated: 05_01_2024]

Intransigence (00248)

The dial that controls God's 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 evils that we did to the Son of God in the laboratory of the Crucifixion while he was human, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth could budge it. His radical love for us did not fade as we tortured him and did not die when we killed him. Steadfast is the radical love of God. Wow!

The gruesome ordeal that we put Jesus through during the Crucifixion did not extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in his most Sacred Heart or reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. It did not stop Jesus from continuing to love us nonetheless.

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(1) Index: The Dial (00222)
[¶ 00248 Updated: 09_16_2024]

The gist of Christianity is not the combination of Jesus' death and Resurrection but the combination of the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion and his asymmetric answer to them - the combination of death and forgiveness (00688)
Forgiveness was the first gift that Jesus gave us to answer the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion (00404). There were two gifts. Resurrection was the second gift.

It has been said that Jesus redeemed us by his death and resurrection. This formulation of our redemption is not quite right. It is important but our redemption is a byproduct of another combination. The gist of Christianity is Jesus' radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. His radically asymmetric answer is the proxy for the radical love of God. Jesus revealed the radical love of God to us by his radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Resurrection only revealed to us his power. His power made paradise for us. However, the radical love of God is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise. We are disobedient not irrational.

Resurrection is beyond our power. The power of resurrection belongs to God. The power of forgiveness, one of the sweet fruits of love, however, is a power shared by both humanity and divinity. It is a superpower (00001) (00182). Jesus hung from his Cross to show us how to hang from our crosses. He did not hang to show us a divine power. He hung to show us our potential. Like Jesus, we, too, can bring hell to heaven. We, too, can transform our crucifixions from a singularity into a duality (00659) (00628), We, too, can embellish the canvas of our crucifixions as Jesus embellished the canvas of his Crucifixion (00001) (00492) (00394) (00411)

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[¶ 00688 Updated: 09_16_2024]

Since Eden, we have dug a pit of sin in our relationship with our God - a dark and nasty abyss. To span the pit, Jesus erected the bridge of forgiveness (John 14:6). Paradise is found not at the bottom of the pit but at the far side of the bridge. Our job is to stop digging the pit and to start crossing the bridge. We can cross the bridge of forgiveness by means of the vehicle of repentance (Matthew 22: 11-13). All aboard!

In the Fire of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20), Jesus forged the key of forgiveness. He used the key to open the gate to the kingdom of God (Matthew 7:13-14) (00502). Repentance is the vehicle that takes us through the gate, across the threshold and into the kingdom of God. "... Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17) (00501) (00126).

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[¶ 00686 Updated: 09_15_2024]

The transmission of the Knowledge of God (00679)
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).

Presence did not transmit the knowledge of God (00308) (00060). Presence was silent - mute. Presence had no mouth with which to speak (Matthew 4:4). Jesus, however, was not voiceless in his dire predicament. He was active not passive, not merely being but doing (00637). Jesus was dispatched from heaven to earth to put on a flamboyant demonstration of the radical love of God. The demonstration took place in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion - heaven performed in hell. Performance transmitted the knowledge of God. Jesus took the stage in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. His purpose was not merely to put his presence on display as a Tchotchke is displayed on a shelf in a cabinet. His purpose on stage was to perform - to sing and dance. While on stage in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion, Jesus superimposed a layer of doing over and above the underlying layer of his being. It is the doing, singing and dancing that transmitted the knowledge of God (00035). In short, the source of the transmission of the knowledge of God was the layer of doing not the layer of being. What did Jesus do on the layer of doing (00287)? Jesus forgave us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Forgiveness informed our understanding of God. Forgiveness enriched it. Forgiveness upgraded it. Forgiveness perfected it. "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). Forgiveness is the word uttered by the Word of God (John 1:1) from the stage in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. With forgiveness, heaven embellished hell. Forgiveness was the herald who emerged from the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion to announce the presence of God. Forgiveness was the seal that was forged in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion at an exorbitant cost to Jesus and affixed to the Love Note that God had delivered to us in the Incarnation to verify its genuineness. The payment of the exorbitant cost of verification authenticated the reality of the radical love of God. Let us hang our faith on herald and seal! Forgiveness is the foundation of the Christian faith. The edifice of Christianity is built on the foundation of forgiveness.

“I have come to set the earth on fire [with the knowledge of God] and how I wish it were already blazing” (Luke 12:49)!

Jesus was not merely there in the fiery furnace of the Crucixion. While he was there, he did something. He embellished the Crucifixion with forgiveness. Heaven embellished hell. We brought the fire to the Crucifixion. Jesus brought the water. The water of forgiveness neutralized the fire of hell.

The most Holy Eucharist is, like light, both particle and wave. The Church's undue emphasis on presence in the most Holy Eucharist is an irrational overreaction to the Protestant's denial of presence. To perfect our understanding of the most Holy Eucharist, we must restore the balance between presence and performance.

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(The Most Holy Eucharist inside the context of a Mass)
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(The Transmission of the Knowledge of God)
[¶ 00679 Updated: 09_15_2024]

The Script of Salvation (00575)

Disarm (00149). Suffer and die (00382). Forgive them (00572).

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[¶ 00575 Updated: 07_29_2024]

The Pattern of Salvation is the heartbeat of christianity (00682)
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).
Christians are fortunate that the knowledge of God is not diffuse - scattered some here, some there - but is concentrted at and about the Crucifxion. Let us think through the path of Salvation from its beginning, through its middle, to its end to develop and perfect a coherent understanding of this thing that we call God. Let us meet the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave.

The life of Jesus unfolded into the pattern of Salvation. The pattern of Salvation repeats itself from its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now at each and every Mass. The pattern of Salvation is the heartbeat of Christianity. It beats in a regular rhythym. Can you feel its beat? Furthermore, there is correspondence - a one-to-one correspondence between the pattern of Salvation that presented itself in Jesus' life and the pattern of Salvation that presents itself at each and every Mass. The pattern of Salvation has a beginning, middle and end. It forms a perfect pattern. When we follow the pattern with Jesus from beginning, through its middle, to its end, we are seeking first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).

The pattern of Salvation begins with the Incarnation (00583) (00149), In the Incarnation, Jesus defortified himself. He disarmed. He doffed the invulnerable carapace of divinity, donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood, and, dressed like us, he entered the scrum at the line of scrimmage, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies. The Son of God became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. At Mass, defortification repeats itself during the Consecration. This time, the Son of God doffs his invulnerable carapace of divinity and dons a shell of bread and wine.

In the middle of the pattern of Salvation is the duality of the Crucifixion, the juxtaposition of heaven and hell. It is Jesus' Magnum Opus. Jesus brought forgiveness (00572) to the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (00382). He embellished hell with heaven. We evict the radical love of God from his shell, either of flesh and blood during his life or of bread and wine at Mass to release him. The Pattern of Salvation does not end here. It does not stop. After his release, Jesus does something. He performs a miracle. He shows us strength made perfect in weakness (00521). Released, Jesus blesses us with the gift of forgiveness during his life or with a meal of bread and wine during Mass. At Mass, we take from Jesus his flesh and blood when we consume the most Holy Eucharist. Jesus, however, does not give us exactly what we take. He serves us a meal of bread and wine. He had announced his relocation from a shell of flesh and blood to a shell of bread and wine at the Last Supper (00376).

The pattern of Salvation ends with the revelation of the radical love of God. The revelation of the radical love of God is the Good News of Great Joy.

In the Pattern of Salvation, Jesus deposited the knowledge of God. There, Jesus buried the treasure of Christianity. The Pattern of Salvation conveys from heaven the revelation of the radical love of God to the children of Adam and Eve here on earth. It is the epicenter of Christianity. Upon it, the edifice of Christianity is built.

Eviction (00382), via the Crucifixion in life and via Consumption of the most Holy Eucharist at Mass, dispossessed Jesus of his shell of flesh and blood. Released from his shell of flesh and blood, Jesus did something in answer to his evictions. He forgave us. He served us a meal of bread and wine. His answers were radically asymmetric to the evils that we did to him during the evictions. The radical asymmetry powers the revelation of the radical love of God.

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(The Transmission of the Knowledge of God)
[¶ 00682 Updated: 09_13_2024]

Without hell, would anyone take notice of heaven? (00680)

Without hell, would anyone take notice of heaven? Imagine if Jesus would have taken the easy way. Imagine if Jesus had not disarmed in the Incarnation (00149) - had not suffered and died in the Crucifixion (00382) - had not embellished hell with heaven by hanging forgiveness from the bipolar Cross (00572), where would the children of Adam and Eve be? Such was the world between the fall of Adam and Eve and the advent of Jesus. Did our receipt of the Good News of Great Joy that Jesus delivered to us during the Crucifixion make a difference? How so? In what way (00025) (00063)? Imagine if Jesus had delivered the revelation of the radical love of God in a different venue - in a venue outside of hell. Would anyone take notice?

Magnification. Hell magnified heaven. Hell - the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion - the venue where Jesus delivered the Good News of Great Joy - magnified the power of the revelation of the radical love of God by its radical asymmetry with heaven. Radical asymmetry was the engine that packed the revelation with a powerful persuasive punch. It energized the revelation. It gave the revelation oomph.

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(The Juxtaposition of Heaven and Hell)
[¶ 00680 Updated: 09_12_2024]

The renaissance in our understanding of God (00678)

Jesus brought about a renaissance in our understanding of God. He did so by virtue of his radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. By transforming the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality (00659) (00628), Jesus supplied us with the definitive answer to the question, 'Who is God?'. The transformation was accomplished when Jesus brought heaven into hell (00603). Heaven did not belong in hell. It was out of place - utterly anatopic. Heaven in hell was a chicken in a fox house. In hell, heaven was a stranger in a strange land (Exodus 2:22). Yet, Jesus brought heaven into hell anyway. He decorated hell with heaven. He embellished it. He did it. He is not waiting to do it. Doing it is not conditional on anything. The transformation was done. His radically asymmetric answer illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of apocalyptic epiphany. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3).

Jesus did not bring a conditional into hell. What he brought was not wishy-washy - vapid - a mirage - a pseudo gift. He brought an unconditional, completed reality there. Into hell, Jesus brought forgiveness - heaven unabashedly trespassed into hell (Isaiah 55:8-9). In fact, heaven was delighted to be caught in hell (Wisdom 2: 19) (Malachi 3:10) (Luke 4:12) (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Wisdom 2: 17-20) because hell magnified the revelation of the radical love of God (00509) that Jesus released there through the proxy of forgiveness (00325). Magnification enhanced the impact of the revelation. Jesus gladly paid the exorbitant price for an enhanced impact. By virtue of asymmetry, hell upgraded the power of heaven, thereby, making the revelation of the radical love of God irresistable. What a God is our God!

Jesus did not drive stock. He upgraded the engine of the vehicle that delivered the revelation of the radical love of God to us with the asymmetry of heaven and hell. The asymmetry of heaven and hell turned the delivery vehicle into a hotrod. It supercharged the revelation.

Imagine if Jesus had delivered the revelation of the radical love of God in a different venue - in a venue outside of hell. Would anyone take notice? Hell, the venue of delivery, magnified the power of the revelation by its radical asymmetry with heaven.

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[¶ 00678 Updated: 09_10_2024]

Sacrifice, suffering and forgiveness worked together in the same enterprise. But, sacrifice and suffering worked for forgiveness. Forgiveness did not work for them (00308)
Forgiveness, suffering and sacrifice were not equal partners in the enterprise entrusted to Jesus of revealing the radical love of God to the children of Adam and Eve (00316)

Jesus did his most important work during his Crucifixion in the hell of the evils that we did to him. Hell was an absurd venue for the production of his best work, yet Jesus created his Magnum Opus there. Yes, he suffered. Yes, he sacrificed his flesh and blood. But he also did something else. What else exactly did Jesus do? He forgave his enemies while they still had his flesh in their mouths and his blood on their hands. While we were unrepentant (Matthew 22:10) sinners (Romans 5:8) (Matthew 7:6), Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19). Why? Only love begets love. "We love him because he loved us first" (1 John 4:19). A life without love is salt without flavor (Matthew 5:13). Love is audacious. Jesus was audacious. The audacity of his radical love gobsmacks us. It knocks us off our horse (Acts 9:4-6). He did not wait for our conversion to love us; he loved us to bring about our conversion. He took the first step of forgiveness in the hope that we would take the second step of repentance. The radical love of God initiated the process of our conversion. It is the agent that has caused the conversion of humanity to go viral.

Those who have not adequately contemplated the relationships that connect suffering, sacrifice and forgiveness together into a coherent whole exaggerate the role that suffering and sacrifice play in the formula of salvation. They overweigh suffering and sacrifice and underweigh forgiveness. They develop a morbid obsession with suffering and sacrifice together with a pathological disdain and dismissal of forgiveness. The fail to understand how salvation works.

In the ghoulish ambience of the Crucifixion, forgiveness was the counterpoint that Jesus set against the foil of suffering and sacrifice. Suffering and sacrifice were the venue for the performance not the performance; forgiveness was the performance. Suffering and sacrifice were the servants of forgiveness. Forgiveness was their master. Forgiveness was the boss. Suffering and sacrifice were were his assistants. They worked for forgiveness. Forgiveness did not work for them. They bent their knees and saluted the banner of forgiveness that flew from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity. Like a pointer, they pointed, shouting, 'Look!' 'Look!', to show the children of Adam and Eve where to focus their attention. 'Behold the bush that burns but is not consumed' (Exodus 3:1-3)! They highlighted the glory of forgiveness and illuminated its beauty. In combination with forgiveness, they unboxed the enigma of God to expose the radical love that his most Sacred Heart holds for the children of Adam and Eve.

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[¶ 00308 Updated: 03_05_2024]

Discover the treasure; Make yourself rich (00656)

Surely, a Church with more than two thousand years of experience knows that the radical love of God is the treasure (00598) that Jesus buried in the gruesome experiment conducted in the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19) (Isaiah 48:10) (Malachi 3:10) (Luke 4:12) (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (00097) (00329) (00597) (00470). Right? Grab your shovel, follow Jesus to the bipolar Cross (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2) (1 Chronicles 16:10-12) (Isaiah 55:6-7), dig up the duality of the Crucifixion for yourself (00404) (00110), and make yourself rich (00110) (00579) (00580) (00313) (00097) (00581).

Hell was the atelier in which Jesus completed his Magnum Opus. What other artist does his best work in such dreadful conditions? Jesus decorated hell with the astonishing beauty of radical forgiveness. His forgiveness was radical because he included his enemies within its scope even though they deserved exclusion not inclusion (Matthew 5:45). In so doing, Jesus embellished hell with heaven. Heaven did not belong in hell but Jesus brought it there anyway. Heaven was his gift to his enemies - unconditional, no strings attached (Isaiah 55:8-9) (00540).

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[¶ 00656 Updated: 09_05_2024]

The Theology of the Crucifixion is the gravamen of Christianity - superior to everything else (00671)
Jesus himself released the theology of the Crucifixion into our reality when he anatopically relocated heaven into hell (00603) - when he transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality (00659) (00452) - when he answered asymmetrically the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion (00183) - when he decorated the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the beautiful and vivid color of forgiveness (00643) - when forgiveness, in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion, verified the genuineness of the Love Note that God had sent us in the Incarnation (00659) (00452).

The theology of the Crucifixion is the gravamen of Christianity - superior to everything else. Compared to the theology of the Crucifixion, everything else is obiter dicta. The theology of the Crucifixion is the dynamo of Christianity. It is the agent that does the heavy lifting in Christianity (00630). It is Christianity's best recruitment and retention tool. The theology of the Crucifixion was not mute. It had a mouth. It spoke to us. "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). Jesus, the Word of God (John 1:1), spoke to us from the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. From the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion, Jesus announced the Good News of Great Joy. The announcement was his Magnum Opus. He announced the radical love of God by the anatopic juxtaposition of heaven and hell (00603). (00659) (00452). Heaven did not belong in hell. It was out of place. Yet, Jesus brought heaven to hell anyway (00643). "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). When we explore the theology of the Crucifixion and discover for ourselves its revelation of the radical love of God, we are gobsmacked. The theology of the Crucifixion knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6).

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[¶ 00671 Updated: 09_08_2024]

By pushing the theology of the Crucifixion to the periphery of Christianity, we have decapitated the head from the body of Christ (00494)
Too many who claim to be Christian are detached from Jesus' radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Hence, they are not struggling to come to grips with the radical love of God.

What did we do with our God? Where did we put him? We have pushed our theology to the obscure periphery of Christianity and tried to replace it with morality. What a mistake! The head of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27) is Jesus' asymmetric answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion. By virtue of the answer, Jesus introduced us to our God. We made our God's acquaintance (00373). By pushing the theology of the Crucifixion to the obscure periphery of Christianity, we have decapitated the head from the body of Christ. Our conversation about God is the medium that transmits the knowledge of God to us. Without it (00151), the knowledge of God stays an enigma to us locked away in a mysterious black box. He remains a stranger to us. “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). Therefore, more theology, less morality. More revelation, less regulation. More prophet, less king. Always. No exceptions. Can we devote 50% of the conversation to God? Is 50% too much to ask?

Morality does not confront us with the radical love of God. Morality does not challenge us to come grips with the radical love of God. Morality is not theology. Only a close encounter with the radical love of God makes a Christian.

In America, the real problem is not a lack of morality. It is a lack of theology, in particular, a lack of a theology of the Crucifixion. The Cross of Christ has been emptied of meaning. Nature abhors a vacuum so into the void various woke ideologies have rushed. The head of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27) is Jesus' asymmetric answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion. By virtue of the answer, Jesus introduced us to our God. We made our God's acquaintance. Our God is no longer a stranger to us - theoretically (John 10:5) (Hosea 4:6). However, by pushing the theology of the Crucifixion to the obscure periphery of Christianity, we have decapitated the head from the body of Christ. In a decapitated Christianity, we have ceased to struggle with the radical love of God - to come to grips with it - to reconcile us with it. We are no longer challenged by the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave. Once again, our God has become a stranger to us. "And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers" (John 10:5) (Hosea 4:6).

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(00151) (00477) (00537)
[¶ 00494 Updated: 09_13_2024]

Decapitating the Head from the Body of Christ (00472)
Leadership's failed attempt to do headless Christianity.
A decapitated Christianity is a dead Christianity.

The leadership of Christianity has stopped promoting the theology of the radical love of God. They devote none of their resources to it. The theology of the radical love of God has become the unwanted orphan of Christianity pushed to the side and into the shadows. Leadership has demoted it to the farthest inaccesible recess of the periphery of Christianity. Yet, the theology of the radical love of God is the operating system of Christianity. It is the foundation upon which the edifice of Christianity is built. All Christian applications derive themselves from it. A Christian application detached from the Christian operating system tends to go rogue. It does not have the appropriate Christian guardrails to guide it and keep it on track. Leadership is trying to run the Christian applications without having a stable, functioning and well-understood operating system in place. Leadership has yet to realize that headless Christianity does not work. A decapitated Christianity is a dead Christianity. The head is needed for the other parts of the body of Christ to function (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Without its operating system, Christianity does not function. It crashes. Without its operating system, leadership bricks Christianity. "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2) (1 Chronicles 16:10-12) (Isaiah 55:6-7). Can we ground our Christianity in the theology of the radical love of God? The assumption of the Christian enterprise is that, if the sweetness of paradise becomes known, the children of Adam and Eve will pursue it. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise. We are disobedient not irrational. God's power made paradise for us. God's love for us, however, is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet. Power begets respect. But love begets love - only love begets love. God's radical love for us, prodigious in size, inclusive in scope, and forever in duration is the honey that draws the bees back home to their hive. God's radical love for us is the reason that the birds fly home to their nest. God's radical love for us is the inescapable, centripetal force that pulls us back to paradise. The theology of the radical love of God and this theology alone is the understanding whose gravity pulls us into an ever tightening orbit around God.

Headless Christianity does not work. It is a failure. Can we devote 50% of the conversation to God? Is 50% too much to ask?

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The Conversation about God is Dead! (00151)
The Failure of Christian Theology (00465)
The war against evils cannot be won without capturing, taking control of, and holding the high ground of Christianity (00312)
Crayon Christianity (00188)
(00177) (00153)
[¶ 00472 Updated: 06_21_2024]

The Conversation about God is Dead! (00151)
Are you guilty of killing God? Are you involved in his death? Have you put God on the shelf? Without a conversation about him, God is as good as dead. If we are not engaging in the conversation about God, we are complicit in his death!

What have we done to God? Where have we put him? 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 the Church know this. The Church does not. Allowing the conversation about God to go silent poses an existential threat to Christianity. Let us remember God's lament and warning. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). Because the conversation about God is dead, our God has become a stranger to us (John 10:5) (Psalm 69:8) (Exodus 2:22) (Isaiah 45:15) (Psalm 91:1). “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). Let us, therefore, do what we can to reanimate the conversation about God. Let us bring the conversation about God back from the dead (John 3:3) (Luke 15:32). When the light from Jesus' radically asymmetric answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion illuminates the darkness of our understanding of God, we are born again (John 3:3) (Luke 15:32).

By prioritizing regulation over revelation, morality over theology, politics over religion, progress over direction, applications over operating system, obiter dicta over gravamen, nitty-gritty over the pizzazz of Christianity, the Church has killed the conversation about the nature of God. It is guilty of its own tragic self-destruction. Can we devote 50% of the conversation to God? Is 50% too much to ask?

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 1:18). Let us discuss, debate and discover the nature of this thing called God. Let us scrutinize the evidence. And the best evidence is found in the scrum at the line of scrimmage on the battlefield of the Crucifixion where Jesus fed his enemies a meal of bread and wine even though they had taken his flesh in their mouths and had stained their hands with his blood. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).

The Cross was bipolar. Both hell and heaven hung from it. We hung the hell. Jesus hung the heaven. The energy gradient between heaven and hell powers the Cross's revelation of the radical love of God. It gives the revelation its sizzle. The hell that we hung is the foil that highlights and emphasizes and intensifies and magnifies and amplifies and accentuates and underlines the heaven that Jesus hung. The heaven that Jesus hung is the payload of the scrum at the line of scrimmage in Jesus' war against evils that took place on the battlefield of the Crucifixion. Without an understanding of the bipolarity of the Cross, we empty the Cross of its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17) (See, 00355) (00361) (00156) (00010) (00001). Christians rally 'round the Cross. They coalesce there.

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Decapitating the Head from the Body of Christ (00472) (00537)
The Failure of Christian Theology (00465)
[¶ 00151 Updated: 06_21_2024]

The Failure of Christian Theology (00465)
What revelations were released by the union between suffering and forgiveness that Jesus forged together in the gruesome experiment (Isaiah 48:10) that we cruelly administered to him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19)? The union is the foundation upon which the edifice of Christianity is built. Can you say something about it? Anything?

The public discussion of Christian theology is non-existent. There is no commitment to the discussion of this thing that we call God in the public square. We delight in talking about Christian applications, but with regard to Christianity itself, that is, the Christian operating system, we are silent. Hence, the significance of the union between suffering and forgiveness that Jesus forged together in the gruesome experiment (Isaiah 48:10) that we cruelly administered to him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19) is not understood even by our Christian clerics. The union is the foundation upon which the edifice of Christianity is built. Yet, it is poorly understood. We do not understand what the union tells us about this thing we call God. We do not understand what the union tells us about our potential as human beings. The light of the union has yet to illuminate the darkness of our understanding of God and our understanding of ourselves. By our silence, we are depriving ourselves of the blessings of Christianity. So, therefore, More of the radical love of God; not less. More theology; less morality. More revelation; less regulation. Always. No exceptions.

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The Conversation about God is Dead! (00151)
Decapitating the Head from the Body of Christ (00472)
[¶ 00465 Updated: 05_31_2024]

The Crucifixion revealed the revelation of the radical love of God - the truth that makes us free (00659)

The Crucifixion was not a singularity. We hung hell from the Cross; Jesus hung heaven. The Crucifixion was a duality. Two hangings took place not one. We tortured and killed Jesus. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death (Wisdom 2: 19) (Malachi 3:10) (Luke 4:12) (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Wisdom 2: 17-20). Jesus, however, turned the tables on the gruesome baptism that we gave him. He transformed ignominious defeat into glorious victory. How? He co-opted them. He co-opted the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. He made them serve his purpose of revealing the radical love of God. He bundled the evils together into a foil, and, by forgiving us for baptizing him in it (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45), he completed the revelation (00308) (00656) (00452). The evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion began the revelation. They did not complete it. Forgiveness is the fullness of truth that completed the revelation (00660). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). Hidden behind the veil (Isaiah 45:15) demurely stood radical forgiveness - a proxy for the radical love of God - waiting for the evils that we did to Jesus to summon it into the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. On cue, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom (Matthew 27:50-54) and heaven stepped out from behind it (Isaiah 45:15) into the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. In hell, Jesus unveiled heaven. In hell, Jesus distributed the blessed gift of forgiveness (00404) to the enemies who had chewed his flesh with their teeth and whose hands were stained with his blood (Isaiah 55:8-9) (00348) (00393) (00290). Jesus decorated the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid color and beauty of forgiveness. Heaven embellished hell. This is his Magnum Opus. This is the vehicle that conveyed the revelation of the radical love of God. In the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion, Jesus released the Good News of Great Joy into the world.
(00603) (00656) (00300)

The takeaway of the unveiling - the insight about God that the unveiling gives us - is the revelation of the radical love of God. The revelation of the radical love of God is the Good News of Great Joy that Jesus released into the world. God sent us a Love Note in the Incarnation and verified it in the Crucifixion (00572) (00452) (00268) (00554) (00251) (00152) (00084) (00046) (00587) (00094) (00474)

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[¶ 00659 Updated: 09_06_2024]

The duality of the Crucifixion fills the Cross of Christ with meaning (00628)

Contemplate what is meant when it is said: The duality of the Crucifixion fills the Cross of Christ with meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17) (00612) (00617). Focus on it. Meditate upon it day and night (Joshua 1:8). Why is it said that the Crucifixion was a duality not a singularity (00612) (00617)? Understand this truth to upgrade your understanding of the entity that we call God (00154). The duality of the Crucifixion was the bipartite vehicle - engine and caboose - that Jesus used to convey the revelation of the radical love of God. The two parts of the vehicle that conveyed the revelation are the odd couple of apocalyptic epiphany. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9).

We brought hell to the Crucifixion. Jesus brought heaven. Our contribution to the Crucifixion was the foil of evils in which we baptized Jesus. Jesus' contribution was the jewel of forgiveness that he set in and against the foil. The anatopic relocation of heaven to hell gobsmacks us (00603). It knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). Who does this? Who but our loving God has the strength to carry heaven into hell (00632)? Jesus had the audacity to take the war against evils (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16) to the enemy - literally (00063). Therefore, let us hang from our crosses with the same panache as Jesus hung from his. Like Jesus, let us mix things up! Like Jesus, let us take heaven to hell!

Note: Be careful when wielding the terminology of salvation. Preserve the distinctions. Be precise with your language. Revelation = the radical love of God. Vehicle that conveyed the revelation = the duality of the Crucifixion. The duality of the Crucifixion was not the revelation. The duality of the Crucifixion was the bipartite vehicle - the combination of heaven and hell - that conveyed the revelation. The duality of the Crucifixion was the 'word' of the Word of God (John 1:1). The revelation of the radical love of God was the 'meaning' of the 'word'. Jesus transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality by bringing heaven to hell. The transformation is our gurantee of salvation (00584) (00452). It was the verification of the Love Note that our God had sent us in the Incarnation (00149) (00142) (00521) (00177).

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[¶ 00628 Updated: 08_24_2024]

The Duality of the Crucifixion is the Sculptor who shapes our understanding of God (00654)

The duality of the Crucifixion is the Sculptor who shapes our understanding of God. The heaven and hell of the Crucifixion define it. We tortured and killed Jesus. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. In short, we baptized Jesus in a gruesome dunghill of evils (Matthew 3:13-15) (Matthew 20:22) (00603). In our evil baptism, Jesus experienced ignominious defeat. We knocked Jesus down for the count but he got up before he was counted out. The Word of God (John 1:1) had the last word. He co-opted the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. He transformed them into a foil that showcased his glorious victory. What did glorious victory look like (00655) (00364) (00647)? He forgave us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. We brought hell to the Crucifixion. Jesus brought heaven. Jesus embellished hell with heaven. Jesus decorated God's creation with the beauty of forgiveness (00643) (00493). This was Jesus' Magnum Opus. What other artist does his best work in such adverse conditions? The Crucifixion transcends religions as divinity transcends humanity (Isaiah 55:8-9).

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(00645) (00652) (00653) (00651) (00654)
[¶ 00654 Updated: 09_02_2024]

A dilly of a model of God (00651)

Rational creatures in the ambience of their understanding build for themselves a model to approximate their God. The goal of religion is to build a first class, high fidelity model that best approximates God. The duality of the Crucifixion supplies us with the blueprint for a highly accurate model of God - a dilly of a model. When we fail to take the duality of the Crucifixion into account, however, we get the model wrong. A first class, high fidelity model that best approximates God requires that both the hell that we brought to the Crucifixion and the heaven that Jesus brought be taken into account. Jesus decorated the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid color of forgiveness. He embellished hell with heaven. Doing so was his Magnum Opus. Leaving either hell or heaven out of the Crucifixion distorts our model of God. Omission of the duality makes God unrecognizable. It paints the wrong picture of God. It corrupts our theology.

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(00645) (00652) (00653) (00651)
[¶ 00651 Updated: 09_01_2024]

The punch of Jesus' Revelation about the radical love of God derives its power from the energy Gradient between heaven and hell (00325)
How do we pack the most power into the punch of Jesus' revelation about the radical love of God?

The hell of the evils into which we baptized Jesus during his Crucifixion and his forgiveness of us for baptising him in hell were asymmetric - radically asymmetric. The radical asymmetry is precisely what packs power into the punch of his revelation about the radical love of God. The energy gradient between hell and heaven gives the relevation its extraordinary energy. Its extraordinary energy gobsmacks us. It knocks us off our horse (Acts 9:4-6).

Jesus plugged into the potential difference between heaven and hell to power the revelation about the radical love of God that he released in the fire of the Crucifixion.

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(00532) (00530) (00512) (00544) (00528) (00511) (00506) (00355)
[¶ 00325 Updated: 07_14_2024]

Can you not hear the bugle of forgiveness? (00081)

Forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:6-7) is the bugle that Jesus blows from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity in the battlefield of the Crucifixion (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16) to summon the children of Adam and Eve to return home to their God. Forgiveness is the signal to retreat - to make our escape to the land of our loving God from the land of the loveless beasts who scavenge for scraps in cutthroat competition against one another in utter poverty at and about the ruins of Eden. Are you listening? Do you hear it (Matthew 13:9)? Hearken, now, unto his voice (Proverbs 4:20-22)!

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Ingratitude is the only sin (00127)
The Union of the Two Jesus' (00457)
The Bugle of Forgiveness (00223)
Forgiveness and Repentance (00082)
The Battlefield of the Crucifixion (00085)
The Escape (00086)
The Summons Home (00087)
Scavenging for Scraps (00088)
Paradise: the Land of Milk and Honey (00089)
(00443)
[¶ 00081 Updated: 06_07_2024]

Only Eucharistic Adoration in the context of a Mass preserves the Moving Parts - the Making, Giving and Taking - whose dynamics convey the Good News of Great Joy (00681)

The Crucifixion released the radical love of God from his shell of flesh and blood. Consumption of the most Holy Eucharist at Mass releases the radical love of God from his shell of bread and wine. The symmetry of our salvation is preserved in the Mass. This is a moving part that is present at Mass. Eucharistic Adoration outside the context of a Mass does not present this moving part to the children of Adam and Eve (00549) (00674). Outside the context of a Mass, there is no consumption (000376) and, hence, no correspondence to the Crucifixion. Eucharistic Adoration outside the context of a Mass is missing something - it is bereft of moving parts - there is no making, giving or taking, that is, no Incarnation, no Crucifixion and no Revelation. At Mass, Incarnation, Crucifixion and Revelation are present. That being said, there are lot of worse things that we can do in lieu of Eucharistic Adoration outside the context of a Mass (00549) (00674).

Note: Being that Jesus announced at the Last Supper that the most Holy Eucharist is both bread and wine and flesh and blood (000376), consumption not only captures and expresses the hellish aspect of the Crucifixion but also captures and expresses the heavenly aspect of the Crucifixion (000019) (000047)

We came for his flesh and blood; we left with his bread and wine.

The most Holy Eucharist is about 'I am who does' not merely about 'I am who am' (Exodus 3:14) - about what God did in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion not where God is.

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(The Most Holy Eucharist inside the context of a Mass)
(Eucharistic Adoration outside the context of a Mass)
[¶ 00681 Updated: 09_12_2024]

Like light, the most Holy Eucharist in the context of a Mass is a particle and a wave (00369)

Like light, is the most Holy Eucharist in the context of a Mass a particle, a wave or both? The answer is both. The most Holy Eucharist in the context of a Mass is both presence and performance. Indeed, it is a container that holds Jesus. However, it also portrays the performance of Jesus - what Jesus did during the Crucifixion. The most Holy Eucharist in the context of a Mass is dynamic not merely static. Jesus does something with the most Holy Eucharist in the context of a Mass. His being there is secondary to what he does there. Presence is incidental to performance. Unfortunately, the Church emphasizes Jesus' presence and says nothing about his performance. The Church prefers the static to the dynamic. In the Church's mind, the static eclipses the dynamic. All that is important is that the fish occupies the fish bowl not what the fish does while it occupies the fish bowl. It is only about the display.

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[¶ 00369 Updated: 09_11_2024]

How does Jesus anatopically relocate heaven into hell at Mass? (00672)

At Mass, his enemies approach the altar to take from Jesus his flesh and blood. They leave the altar with a meal of bread and wine. Jesus satisfies the hunger of his enemies with bread; he quenches their thirst with wine; and he fills their bellies with forgiveness. He answers their hostility with hospitality. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). Jesus made the abstract concept of forgiveness tangible, concrete and comestible (00425). Is there a better, more persuasive way to express forgiveness than by serving your enemies a meal (00558)?

The Mass and the Crucifixion are mirror images. They both have two components, heaven and hell. In both, Jesus anatopically relocates heaven into hell (00603).

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(The Most Holy Eucharist)
(00674) (00047)
[¶ 00672 Updated: 09_11_2024]

The venue of the revelation of the radical love of God that is the treasure of Christianity (00546)
What is the venue at which Jesus made his greatest investment?

The venue of the revelation of the radical love of God that is the treasure of Christianity is the gauntlet of evils through which we pushed Jesus while cruelly conducting a gruesome experiment on him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion. "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. " (Wisdom 2: 19). At this venue, Jesus made his greatest investment. Here, he spent the coin of his flesh and blood. Here, he spent them prodigally. He emptied the treasury of all of his limited human resources.

In only one unique, sui generis place did Jesus spend the coin of his flesh and blood. One. Jesus did not spend the coin of his flesh and blood to give the sermon on the Mount. He did not spend the coin of his flesh and blood to walk on water. He did not spend the coin of his flesh and blood to feed the five thousand. There is only one venue at which Jesus tapped into and drew from his limited human resources. Does not this suggest the importance of the venue and the superiority of the revelation that Jesus released there?

Moreover, to pinpoint the location of his greatest investment, Jesus erected a landmark. The Cross of Christ is the landmark that marks the location of his greatest investment (1 Corinthians 1:17). The evils that we did to Jesus affixed the revelation of the radical love of God to the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity. Let us salute the flag and rally ‘round the bipolar Cross!

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(00177)
[¶ 00546 Updated: 09_10_2024]

The Theology of the Crucifixion is the Hammer of Christianity (00271)
The theology of the Crucifixion is the hammer of Christianity. The Crucifixion was a duality not a singularity. Jesus made it so. It was a dual hanging. We hung hell to the Cross. Jesus hung heaven. The double hangings revealed to us the radical love of God.

Don't pull your punches. Don't go easy on the children of Adam and Eve. Make them squirm under the overwhelming weight of the radical love of God (Matthew 11:28-30). If you are not doing so, you are not doing Christianity - you are practicing some feeble, lightweight version of Christianity (00508) (00323) (00039) (00316) (00289) (00236) (00199) (00133) (00586) (00587) (00588) (00589) (00343). The hammer of heaven and hell was not hung from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity for mere display. It is not a trinket to exhibit on a shelf in your curio cabinet. It is the power of Christianity. It is the tool that God gave us to bludgeon the nails. With it, we confront the children of Adam and Eve with the radical love of God. We challenge them to come to grips with it - to reconcile themselves to it. The hammer is the agent that does the work in Christianity. It does the heavy lifting. Don't bury it with the other tools in your toolbox. Use the tool that God gave us. Get to work! Bludgeon the nails!

What is sin? Sin is anything at odds with the radical love of God that Jesus revealed to us in the duality of the Crucifixion. Sin occurs when we fail to embellish the canvas of life with the beauty of love or when we degrade it with evils. Sin comes in big and little varieties. War is a big sin. Abortion is a failure to embellish the life of a baby with the beauty of love - when we degrade the canvas of a baby's life with destruction and death. God calls us to become beauticians of love (00323). He hung from his Cross to show us how to hang from our crosses. From the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity, Jesus showed us our potential by fulfilling his. Like Jesus, God endowed us with the coin of flesh and blood. He did not honor the angels with such a precious endowment. Only to humanity did God give the coin of flesh and blood to spend. Like Jesus, we, too, can invest our endowment in beautifying the canvas of life. We, too, can dig deep into our pockets to embellish the canvas of life with love! Exercise your superpower (00182)! Start small (What is the “Little Way” of St. Thérèse of Lisieux? by Philip Kosloski, in Aleteia published on 10/03/21 - updated on 06/12/24 ). Gradually work your way up to bigger works of art as a weightlifter works his way up the ladder to heavier and heavier weights (00493)! In the end (00493), the goal is to duplicate the Magnum Opus that Jesus created in the fire of the Crucifixion (00568).

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[¶ 00271 Updated: 08_01_2024]

Cracking Open the Egg of Epiphany (00319)

Evils immured the important details about God behind a shell of pernicious illusions (John 8:44). "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour" (Isaiah 45:15) (Psalm 91:1). God became a one-dimensional, enigmatic, cardboard cut-out. After Adam and Eve, their children gradually stopped giving God a role in their lives and deprecated his importance. They rejected the notion that they existed in a symbiotic relationship with their God. We came to disregard God. Out of sight; out of mind. But God waited. God waited for the right moment - the fullness of time. At the right moment, God exploited evils to undo the damage that they had done to humanity's understanding of their God and their reality (00673). Evils pushed and Jesus pulled the nature of God out of the shell of pernicious illusion. Together they extracted the important details of God from the enigmatic black box. Jesus shattered the shell of pernicious illusion with a revelation of God as a blow of a sledgehammer shatters a pane of glass. “And ye shall know the truth [about the radical love of God], and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Evils and Jesus cracked it open. Our understanding of the nature of God escaped through the cracks in the shell. Our understanding of the nature of God hatched. Jesus answered the evils that we did to him. His answer was radically asymmetric. He forgave us. His answer revealed the radical love of God to us. His answer is the Good News of Great Joy.

His radically asymmetric answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion cracked open the enigmatic black box in which God was hiding (Isaiah 45:15). and spilled the knowledge of God all over the Valley of Tears for people to see. By his answer, Jesus filled the earth with the knowledge of God as water covers the seas (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14) (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

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[¶ 00319 Updated: 09_10_2024]

Unscrambling the egg (00294)

The catastrophe of Adam and Eve at Eden scrambled our understanding of God. Jesus unscrambled it. He put Humpty Dumpty back together again (Wikipedia) - a project that all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't do.

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[¶ 00294 Updated: 07_20_2024]

Radical forgiveness completed the Revelation of the Radical love of God that started when Jesus entered the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (00452)
The Verification of the Love Note that God had sent us in the Incarnation (00149) (00572) (00268) (00554) (00251) (00152) (00084) (00046) (00587) (00094) (00474) (00572) (00268) (00554) (00251) (00152) (00084) (00046) (00587) (00094) (00474) (00521) (00452) took place in two stages during the Crucifixion: 1) first stage: suffering and death, 2) second stage: forgiveness.

The genuineness of the Love Note that God had sent to us in the Incarnation was verified in two stages during the Crucifixion. The Crucifixion, therefore, was a duality not a singularity on account of the two factor verification. The fire of the Crucifixion was the first stage of the verification. We started the fire by the evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion. This was the beginning of the verification. It was not the end. There was more to come. The radical forgiveness that erupted in the fire of the Crucifixion completed the Verification. When the verification was completed, we became privy to the revelation of the radical love of God. We had discovered that our God was the God who suffered, died and forgave. The fire of the Crucifixion that we ignited and fueled with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood and his forgiveness of our incendiary treatment of him are the two stages of a single unit of verification. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9).

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[¶ 00452 Updated: 09_06_2024]

How do Christians Maximize their Return on Investment? (00676)

How do Christians maximize their Return on Investment (ROI)? What earns the greater return on investment?

1) an investment of resources into the gravamen of Christianity (00671) (00673) (00659) (00452) (00630)? or
2) an investment of resources into the obiter dicta of Christianity?

What did Jesus think? Jesus invested all of his limited human resources into the gravamen of Christianty. It was his greatest investment (00546) (00547) (00677) (00669). (00630) Isn't the size of his investment in the Crucificion a very good indicator of its importance within the Christian scheme of things, that is, within the framework of Christianity (00509) (00648) (00515)? Ought we not do the same?

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[¶ 00676 Updated: 09_08_2024]

What does the heavy lifting in Christianity? (00630)
The theology of the Crucifixion is the gravamen of Christianity - superior to everything else. Compared to the theology of the Crucifixion, everything else is obiter dicta. The theology of the Crucifixion does the heavy lifting in Christianity. It packs the most powerful Christian punch. It delivers a mighty wallop. The theology of the Crucifixion is Christianity's best recruitment and retention tool.

Christian resources are spread thin - a little here, a little there - across the full spectrum of subordinate Christian feaures. This weakens Christianity and shortchanges the gravamen of Christianity. The gravamen of Christianity does not propagate itself. It does not have its own legs. It is not self-propelled. The scattershot approach of Christian leadership in allocating resources a little here and a lttle there causes havoc to the logistics of propagating the gravamen of Christianity. The gravamen of Christianity is left without sufficient resources to relocate it from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. Scattershot Christianity is a failure - as big a failure as is Coloring Book Christianity (00184). Christianity needs to stop squandering its resources on the obiter dicta of Christianity. We need to refill the Cross of Christ with its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). Christian resources need to be concentrated and redeployed to the job of propagating the gravamen of Christianity in order to achieve a more powerful, more consequential impact on the children of Adam and Eve. Concentration and redeployment, however, is stymied on account of an underlying problem. Christians no longer understand and appreciate the gravamen of Christianity. They just don't know what it is. So to begin the process of Christian rejuvenation so concentration and redeployment of resources can commence, let us put our finger on the gravamen of Christianity. Jesus, the carpenter (Mark 6:3), built the revelation of the radical love of God in the fiery framework of the Crucifixion from two components, heaven and hell. We hung hell from the Cross. Jesus hung heaven. He transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality by answering the evils that we did to him with forgiveness. Introducing heaven to hell was Jesus' Magnum Opus. Preach his Magnum Opus then get out of the way so God can go to work. A successful Christianity is content to tee the ball up so God can swing the club. The revelation of the radical love of God that Jesus released in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion is the agent that does the work in Christianity. It does the heavy lifting (00271) (00503).

Scattershot Christianity is a failure - as big a failure as is Coloring Book Christianity (00184). We need to concentrate Christian resources on the theology of the Crucifixion like a laser beam. Diffuse lighting is effete.

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[¶ 00630 Updated: 09_07_2024]

Heroic Love (00675)

Jesus' love for us was heroic (Matthew 5:38-48). He loved us not just when it was easy to do so. He loved us when it was hard to do so. He loved us when the cost of love was exorbitant. We tortured and killed him. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. In this context, Jesus brought forth "[o]ut of the good treasure of [his] heart" one of the sweet fruits of love, to wit, forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). Evils tend to beget evils. The soil of adversity is toxic to love. Love does not grow in a toxic soil of evils. It is a sterile matrix - utterly barren - hostile in the extreme. So when love in the form of forgiveness germinated, sprouted and grew, we beheld a miracle. Its flourishing was completely unexpected. The greater were the evils that we did to Jesus, the more glorious is the miracle. Jesus' answer to the evils that we did to him is asymmetric - radically asymmetric to the evils that we did to him (Isaiah 55:8-9). Heroic love tells us that the dial that controls God's 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 evils that we did to the Son of God could budge it. The heroism of God once again defeated the serpent's attempt to poke a hole in the most Sacred Heart of our loving God to drain it of his love for us. God's love for us is irreducible. It is inelastic. It neither bends nor breaks. It is intransigent. It has no end. There is nothing that we can do to extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in his most Sacred Heart or to reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. God's love for us is heroic (Matthew 5:38-48). Heroic love is a love without limits.

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[¶ 00675 Updated: 09_08_2024]

An indictment of Christian leadership (00669)
Jesus himself released the theology of the Crucifixion into our reality when he anatopically relocated heaven into hell (00603) - when he transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality (00659) (00452). The job of Christianity is to propagate the theology of the Crucifixion. Leadership is not doing its job. In fact, leadership does not even understand the theology of the Crucifixion that Jesus entrusted to them. Clueless is the word that comes to mind. Progress is not being made because leadership has fallen into a ditch and has taken the rank and file with them (Matthew 15:14) (00516).

It is a mistake of the worst kind for Christianity to throw resources at the subordinate features of Christianity until the gravamen of Christianity is solidified and our understanding of the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave is perfected (00312). Perfect our understanding of the God who disarmed, suffered, died and forgave before proceeding to anything else (00452) (00659) (00645). Otherwise, we are liable to worship the wrong God - an impostor (00652). In Christianity, there is a right way to proceed and a wrong way to proceed. There is a point and place of beginning (00067) (00051) (00670) (00312) (00163) (00598). The point and place of beginning for Christianity is the theology of the Crucifixion that Jesus himself released when he anatopically relocated heaven into hell (00603) - when he transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality (00659) (00452).

Christianity is shrinking (00517) because its leadership has stopped propagating the gravamen of Christianity (00452) (00659) (00150) (00236). Their malpractice is not resulting in a smaller, purer Church but in a shrivelled Church with a shrivelled understanding of this thing called God. They have emptied the Crucifixion of its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). The subordinate features of Christianity do not gain any traction unless and until the Cross of Christ is filled with meaning. Beware the saboteurs of Christianity who dilute the radical love of God with obiter dicta (00152). Beware when "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water" (Isaiah 1:22).

Whoever claims that an application of Christianity is its preeminent priority signals that they do not understand the gravamen of Christianity. No application of Christianity is superior to the gravamen of Christianity. Nothing.

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[¶ 00669 Updated: 09_23_2024]

Evils were co-opted to cue the entry of heaven into hell (00663)

Jesus co-opted the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion, bundled them together into a foil, and, by forgiving us for baptizing him in it, exploited the foil to showcase the radical love of God (00308). In hell, Jesus unveiled heaven. Hidden behind the curtain demurely stood radical forgiveness - a proxy for the radical love of God - waiting for the evils that we did to Jesus to summon it into the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2). (1 Chronicles 16:10-12) (Isaiah 55:6-7). The radical love of God is the understanding that drives us to seek him. We are disobedient not irrational.

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[¶ 00663 Updated: 09_05_2024]

The location of the treasure of Christianity is not a mystery (00565)

The location of the treasure of Christianity is not a mystery. Our God gave us a clue that unambiguously points to the precise whereabouts of the treasure. A clear indicator from God made the location of the Christian treasure well known. The bipolar Cross of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:17) is the monument that Jesus built to pinpoint for us the exact location of the treasure. The bipolar Cross of Christ marks the spot of the treasure (Matthew 13:44). An "X" marks the spot. So, rally 'round the bipolar Cross (1 Corinthians 1:17). Gird up thy loins. Put on thy boots. Grab thy shovel. Hasten to the battlefield where Jesus and the monster of the Crucifixion waged mortal combat against each other - where Jesus slew the monster with the sharp sword of sweet forgiveness - where forgiveness killed the monster dead. There, the treasure of Christianity is buried. Dig up the treasure for yourself. Upgrade your understanding of God. Make yourself rich!

P.S. The monument is not the only clue (00276). The treasure of Christianity is found at the spot where Jesus invested all of his limited human resources. In the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus spent all of the coin of his flesh and blood. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself.

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[¶ 00565 Updated: 07_22_2024]

The Wheels of the Bus (00613)

Heaven and hell are the wheels of the bus of the Crucifixion that conveys the revelation of the radical love of God. They work together as a team. Each member of the team is needed to convey the revelation. Take away either of the two wheels and the bus crashes. It does not deliver the revelation. The love note that our God had sent us in the Incarnation does not get verified (00572) (00142) (00452) (00253). Christianity fails. Christianity breaks down.

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[¶ 00613 Updated: 08_15_2024]

Are they Christians? (00411)
Our answer to the evils done to us and to our neighbors reveals the 'size' of our Christianity.

Are they Christians? Are their answers to the evils done to them and to their neighbors the same or different than Jesus'? It is a simple test. Imitating Jesus' answers, however, is difficult. The difficulty is proportional to the adversity. The greater is the adversity, the harder it is for their answers to resemble Jesus'. Who said being a Christian is easy?

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[¶ 00411 Updated: 04_28_2024]

Stewing like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine (00627)

God lets us stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine (00623) (00621). Why? Having put our fingers into the flames, we have learned for ourselves that the fire is hot. The prodigal son will never return to the pig sty (Luke 15:11-32). Neither will we. When the gift of paradise is given to us - and its delivery is ineluctable - we will not fumble the ball as did Lucifer, the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer, Eve and Adam.

God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise because a taste of godlessness makes us appreciate paradise. Moreover, paradise is not a prison, God is not our warden and we are not his prisoners. God understands that a cage is still a cage no matter how gilded. Our brief experience in godlessness (00623) dramtically decreases the chances that we would wander off once we have received the gift of paradise.

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[¶ 00627 Updated: 08_19_2024]

Rescue (00211)
We want God to decorate his creation with the beauty of love. God, however, wants us to do it (00643). Why? Because in the process of decorating his creation with the beauty of love, we become godlike. We discover our superpower (00182). Beautification deifies us (00001).

There is a misunderstanding. Our understanding of rescue is different than God's understanding of rescue. God is not interested in making godlessness a better, more hospitable place for godless people to live. God wants to transform godless people into People of God. To God, rescue does not mean taking away our crosses. It means teaching us to pick them up and carry them (00212) (00214) (00216) (00210) (00213). We want God to rescue us. God wants us to rescue ourselves. The process of learning how to pick up and carry our crosses transforms us. It dignifies us. It deifies us.

"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).

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[¶ 00211 Updated: 01_30_2024]

The Best Expression of the Radical Love of God (00003)

Is there a better, more persuasive way for the Word of God (John 1:1) to express the radical love of God than by forgiving us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45)? Can the radical love of God be expressed any better than this?

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[¶ 00003 Updated: 06_25_2024]

Is God's methodology our Methodology? (00667)

In the Incarnation (00149) (00575) (00365) (00668), God sent us a Love Note not a stultifying codex of rules, regulations, red tape and rigmarole. Jesus was the Love Note - the Love Note from God to us. Jesus was dispatched from heaven to earth to express (00003), in the most tangible, least abstract fashion, God's radical love for us. Jesus was the tangible expression of God's love for us - its incarnate articulation (1 John 4:8) (Luke 6:45). God knew that we did not deserve the Love Note. Yet, our God sent it to us anyway. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). A natural principle of cause and effect governs our world: only love begets love (00508). The world ignores it but God does not. So God loved us first. "We love him because he loved us first" (1 John 4:19). God's war against evil is unconventional (00363) (00364) (00668). His methodology is to confront the children of Adam and Eve with the radical love of God. He challenges us to come to grips with it.

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[¶ 00667 Updated: 09_05_2024]

Neutralizing the serpent's virulent anti-god propaganda (00664)
The evils through which we pass as we make our escape through the Valley of Tears from godlessness to God (00208) convey to us virulent anti-God propaganda. The evils that Jesus passed through in the fire of the Crucifixion reveal the revelation of the radical love of God. We are the jury (00665). It is up to us to pick either the propaganda or the revelation. What evidence is more persuasive?

The serpent marches the children of Adam and Eve through a gauntlet of crosses in the Valley of Tears. The sharp teeth of our crosses chew us up into bits and pieces. Their tongues are as sharp as their teeth. Our crosses are virulent anti-god propaganda that the serpent uses to alienate us from our God - to undermine our faith in the existence and benevolonce of God. Evils sabotage faith. Evils are powerful forces that shape our faith - if we let them. Jesus commandeered a Cross, the instrument of our woes, and repurposed it to neutralize the anti-god propaganda. Jesus' answer to the evils that we did to him is the sledgehammer that shatters the serpent's anti-god propaganda as the blow of a hammer shatters a pane of glass. Evils exist. Their teeth and tongue are sharp. Yet, God exists and God loves us. Both are true.

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[¶ 00664 Updated: 09_05_2024]

Our God is not neutral (00666)

Our God is not neutral. He has taken a side. He is a partisan of the children of Adam and Eve. He is our friend not our enemy. Moreover, our God is a hands-on God. He did not absent himself from the fray. He got involved on our behalf for our benefit. Our God engaged in mortal combat with the monster of the Crucifixion (00363). From the scabbard of his love for us, Jesus drew the sharp sword of sweet forgiveness. With it, he slayed the monster (Isaiah 27:1) (Revelation 19:11-21). Forgiveness killed the monster of the Crucifixion dead (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). Our God is not an aloof spectator coddled in the safety of the sidelines from where he lobs wordy homilies at us as a priest does from the safety of an ambo. Jesus became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. He is an active philanthropist not an indifferent misanthrope. God plans to deliver the gift of paradise to us just as he delivered the gift of paradise to Adam and Eve. God will not be less generous with us than he 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.

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[¶ 00666 Updated: 09_05_2024]

Did God embed any clues into our reality to help us figure out this thing called God for ourselves? (00276)
Not all clues are equal. Some clues are bigger, better and richer in revelation than other clues.

Did God embed any clues into our reality to help us figure out for ourselves this thing called God? Yes, he did. And God left the biggest clue in the care and custody of Christianity. The biggest clue is the duality of the Crucifixion. We hung hell from the Cross. Jesus hung heaven. He embellished hell with heaven. Jesus decorated the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid color of forgiveness. Hell is the dark cloud of aggresive hostility that confuses our understanding of God (Hosea 4:6). Radical forgiveness - a proxy for the radical love of God - demurely stood outside of hell waiting for the evils that we did to Jesus to summon it into the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (00656) (1 Kings 19:11-13). Upon cue, radical forgiveness entered the fiery furnace - heaven entered hell (00603) - and Jesus' Magnum Opus was born (00629). Jesus' Magnum Opus revealed the truth about the radical love of God (00152). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) (1 Timothy 2:4) (00626) (00055) (00396) (00440) (00507). We discovered from his Magnum Opus that our God was the God who suffered, died and forgave. Jesus illuminated the darkness of hell with the light of forgiveness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Our God let us put his dearly beloved Son to the test (Wisdom 2: 19) (Malachi 3:10) (Luke 4:12) (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Wisdom 2: 17-20) in a gruesome experiment that we cruelly administered to him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion. "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance " (Wisdom 2: 19). The test and its result help us to figure out for ourselves this thing called God. They are rich in revelation - far richer than any other clue that our God left us. From them, we can extrapolate to a high fidelity understanding of the radical love of God. The knowledge that the test and its result released into the world upgraded our understanding of God. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth [about the radical love of God]" (John 18:37). The radical love of God is the testimony of Jesus. Our God loves us with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength. He loves us as he loves himself (Mark 12:30-31). There is no double standard, one for humanity and a different one for divinity. God is not a hypocrite.

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[¶ 00276 Updated: 09_04_2024]

TURNING THE SPARK INTO A CONFLAGRATION (00661)

Jesus lit the spark that illuminates the darkness of our understanding of God. “I have come to set the earth on fire [with the understanding of God] and how I wish it were already blazing” (Luke 12:49)! However, the spark was initially released into the boondocks of time and space in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) to a limited audience. The spark does not propagate itself. It does not have its own legs. It is not self-propelled. “The light of the world” (Matthew 5: 14 - 16) needs to be propagated from the point and place of its obscure origin, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now (Matthew 24:14). Who will pick up “the light of the world” (Matthew 5: 14 - 16) and carry it to the top of the hill (Isaiah 6:8)? Who will take the spark that Jesus kindled and turn it into a conflagration?

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[¶ 00661 Updated: 09_04_2024]

To achieve ignition, Jesus rubbed two sticks together - one stick was heaven, the other, hell (00288)

One Stick = heaven, that is, forgiveness that the radical love of God encapsulated in a shell of flesh and blood released into hell

The other stick = hell, that is, the evils that we did to Jesus that stripped him of his shell of flesh and blood

Ignition = the answer to the question, 'Who is God?', that is, the revelation of the radical love of God.


Jesus pitched his tent with us in the ruins of Eden to ignite the light of forgiveness in the darkness of evils. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Isaiah 9:2) (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). To achieve ignition, Jesus rubbed two sticks together. The friction between the evils that we did to Jesus and the radical love of God encapsulated in a shell of flesh and blood ignited the blaze. “I have come to set the earth on fire [with the radical love of God], and how I wish it were already blazing” (Luke 12:49)! Ignition illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of apocalyptic epiphany.

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[¶ 00288 Updated: 03_17_2024]

The Christian God suffered, died and forgave (00645)

Our understanding of God is irreparably corrupted when our description of him omits the truth that he forgave us for the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Our God suffered, died and forgave. Is your understanding of God corrupt? Is it low fidelity, incomplete? "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7). (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45)? We empty the Crucifixion of its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17) when we subtract forgiveness from our model of God. Forgiveness is the soupçon of heaven - but a wee taste (1 Corinthians 2:9) - that Jesus brought to the hell of the bipolar Cross. So, get the theology right and every other aspect of Christianity falls in line. Get the theology wrong and every other aspect falls apart.

The Christian God suffered, died and forgave. What follows is his introduction. We deserved punishment, not forgiveness, for our evil baptism of him (00557). Yet, he forgave us despite our utter unworthiness. He included us within the scope of his love when our aggressive hostility toward him made exclusion his high probability option (1 John 4:19). He was audacious (00041). He did not wait for our conversion to forgive us. He forgave us to bring about our conversion. No god in history can hold a candle to the Christian God who suffered, died and forgave! He demonstrated his superiority in a very real, powerful and dramatic way. From the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity, he forgave us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Rally 'round the bipolar Cross (00512)! Rally 'round the fusion of heaven and hell (00606)! We brought hell to the Crucifixion. Jesus brought heaven. Jesus embellished the black and white canvas of the Crucifixion with the vivid color of forgiveness (00643). Jesus set the jewel of forgiveness in and against the foil of evils that we did to him in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. In short, Jesus decorated God's creation with the beauty of forgiveness. Let us follow the glorious path cast by the light of radical forgiveness back home to its source (00503). “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3).

'Tis better and more effective to be prophets of the revelation of the radical love of God than kings trying to regulate our behavior. Can we devote at least 50% of our time to being prophets? Is 50% too much to ask (00311)? Let us give the prophets a chance (00402) (00494) (00151) (00131) (00542) (00543) (00544)! More theology, less morality. More revelation, less regulation. More prophet, less king. Always. No exceptions.

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[¶ 00645 Updated: 09_03_2024]

Worshipping the Wrong God (00652)

The god who suffered and died is different than the Christian God who suffered, died and forgave - much different. If you are worshiping the god who suffered and died and not the Christian God who suffered, died and forgave, you are worshipping a false God, an impostor (00406) (00612) (00636) (00504) (00287) (00360) (00009) (00053) (00646) (00647). When we leave out the forgiveness from the suffering and dying, we turn the Crucifixion into a singularity - into a hell only abomination - and, thereby, distort the phenotype of God. The Crucifixion was a duality. It was the odd couple of epiphany. It was the marriage of heaven and hell. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). Jesus co-opted the dark foil of evils in which we baptized him and exploited it to showcase the radical love of God. Let the duality of the Crucifixion illuminate the darkness of your understanding of God. Only by recognizing the duality of the Crucifixion do we stop ourselves from worshipping a false god - an impostor. Let's get the theology right!

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[¶ 00652 Updated: 09_01_2024]

Jesus' astonishing anatopic relocation of heaven into hell during the Crucifixion (00603)

Jesus made his unholy baptism (Matthew 3:13-15) (Matthew 20:22) in the fire of the Crucifixion holy by bringing heaven into hell. Heaven sanctified hell. He brought the radical love of God into the fire of the Crucixion by bringing its proxy, radical forgiveness, there. Hell is a place where heaven does not belong. Heaven was a stranger in the strange land of the Crucifixion (Exodus 2:22). Heaven in hell was an astonishing anatopism (Wikipedia). The hotter burned the fire of the Crucifixion, the greater is our astonishment at the anatopism.

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[¶ 00603 Updated: 08_20_2024]

What was the beautiful gift that Jesus brought to the Crucifixion? (00404)
Jesus brought a gift from heaven to hell. The gift was a proxy for God. He gave it to his enemies at an exorbitant cost to himself. This was done to reintroduce God to us (00635) (00151) (00440).

Jesus did not come to the Cross empty handed. He brought a gift with him. What was the gift? The gift that Jesus brought to the Cross was the gift of radical forgiveness. He forgave his enemies for the evils that they did to him during the Crucifixion. He included his enemies within the scope of his love. Conventional biblical wisdom suggested a different answer to the evils that we did to him. It suggested that he answer them in kind - that he give them a taste of their own medicine. Perhaps, "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48), Paradocically, Jesus, the God who inspired the conventional biblical wisdom in the first place, rejected it and forgave his enemies who had chewed his flesh with their teeth and whose hands were stained with his blood (Isaiah 55:8-9) (00348) (00393) (00290). The cynosure of Christianity is the beautiful gift of radical forgiveness that Jesus brought to the Cross. Jesus embellished the canvas of the Crucifixion with the beauty of forgiveness. He adorned hell with heaven. Wow! What a gift!

How do we build a Christian from scratch? Jesus used a gift to introduce God to us. Therefore, to introduce the children of Adam and Eve to God, introduce the gift to them. The gift of radical forgiveness is the gift that builds a Christian from scratch - nothing else does. Christians are the children of Adam and Eve who have become fascinated by the gift. We express our gratitude for the gift by repentance. Repentance is how we say thank you for the gift.

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[¶ 00404 Updated: 09_03_2024]

We baptized Jesus in hell. Jesus, in turn, embellished hell with heaven in the form of forgiveness, a sweet fruit of the radical love of God (00641)
The duality of the Crucifixion is the apotheosis of irony and the quintessence of Christianity. Hell and heaven, the two components of the Crucifixion, are the odd couple of epiphany (00287). "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9).

In the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19), Jesus synthesized heaven and hell to build the hybrid, bipartite vehicle that conveys the revelation of the radical love of God to the children of Adam and Eve (00612) (00628) (00606) (00605) (00455). He announced the prototype of the vehicle on Holy Thursday at the Last Supper. The vehicle was built on Good Friday in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion. Jesus paid the cost to build the vehicle out of his own pockets (Luke 20:13). It cost Jesus dearly. He paid the exorbitant cost of its construction in the coin of his flesh and blood. He spared no expense. He cut no corners. He spent all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. He has never spent more on anything else.

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[¶ 00641 Updated: 08_28_2024]

Can we duplicate the radical love of God as Jesus did when he fused heaven and hell together during the Crucifixion? (00644)

Adding a panache of beauty to embellish the evils in which we are baptized as we pass through the Valley of Tears is the measure of success in life. Our salvation depends on the beauty of the artwork that we create during the course of our lives (00493). We are born to be beauticians (00323). The beautification of creation is our calling and God's challenge to us. Jesus confroned the children of Adam and Eve with the radical love of God. He challenges us to come to grips with it - to reconcile ourselves to it - to duplicate it. We can create beauty in little hells and big hells - even in our small, obscure corner of life - but we must always engage in the creative process - the beautification of the world. Jesus embellished the hell in which we baptized him by diluting it with the sweet syrup of forgiveness, a fruit of the radical love of God (00277). The hotter burned the hell, the sweeter the forgiveness tastes. Therefore, let us hang from our crosses with the same panache as Jesus hung from his. Like Jesus, let us mix things up! Like Jesus, let us take heaven to hell (00412).

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[¶ 00644 Updated: 08_28_2024]

Jesus' Magnum Opus (00306)
Jesus is the artist/martyr who created beauty in horrible circumstances, that is, during his Crucifixion in the hell of the evils that we did to him. The purpose of his creation was to unbox the enigma of God for us. His creation holds the answer to the question, 'Who is God?'.

Are you privy to Jesus' Magnum Opus? Can you articulate it? Do you have the words? If you cannot, you do not yet understand Christianity. You are not there yet.

Jesus' Magnum Opus is the Masterpiece of Love that he created by applying the brush of forgiveness to the canvas of life in the foil of the evils that we did to him. His creation holds the answer to the question, 'Who is God?' Love can take many forms - manifest itself in many ways. Its fruits convey its beauty. The sweet fruit of God's love for us was forgiveness. He embellished the canvas of life with love in the form of forgiveness. Jesus was many things, but, above all else, he was a beautician of love. With love as his medium, Jesus made beauty. Furthermore, Jesus was not just an ordinary artist. He was a heroic artist - a martyr. His heroism arose from the grisly circumstances in which his artwork was done. Jesus made beauty with love even in the hell of the evils that we did to him during his Crucifixion. Hell was an absurd venue for the production of his artwork, yet Jesus did his best work there. Jesus paid the cost of creating his Magnum Opus out of his own pocket. He paid in the coin of his flesh and blood. He emptied his treasury. He spent all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny of them in the bank in reserve for himself. Isn't the size of his payment a good proxy for the size of his love for us (John 15:13) (John 12:24)? His Magnum Opus revealed to us the radical love of God. It unboxed the enigma of God to disclose the Good News of Great Joy within, to wit, a heart filled to the brim with love for us.

Our God loves us with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength. He loves us as he loves himself (Mark 12:30-31). There is no double standard, one for humanity and a different one for divinity. God is not a hypocrite.

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[¶ 00306 Updated: 06_08_2024]

God in the Background (00636)

"Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour" (Isaiah 45:15) (Psalm 91:1). Our God is a background God. He typically does his work off camera, behind the scenes. He wants us rational creatures to figure out this thing that we call God for ourselves using the clues that he has left us. He wants us to conduct our own independent investigations (00184). For better or worse, each of us is the pilot of our own soul (00301) (00564) (00147).

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[¶ 00636 Updated: 08_22_2024]

Each of us is the pilot of our own soul (00301)
All Christianity is, in a sense, freelance

Each of us is the pilot of our own soul.  We cannot subcontract the job to another. We cannot delegate it. No one else can do it for us not even our Church. It cannot be done vicariously. Seeking God is a unique, idiosyncratic, personal experience. There is no substitute for going through it. Why?  In the process of seeking God, God transforms us. Unless we do it ourselves, we cannot be transformed. 

"As opposed to what happens in the technical or financial fields, where today's advances can be added to those of the past, no similar accumulation is possible in the area of people's formation and moral growth, because the person's freedom is ever new. As a result, each person and each generation must make his own decision anew, alone. Not even the greatest values of the past can be simply inherited; they must be claimed by us and renewed through an often anguishing personal option"
Pope Benedict 2008 LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO THE FAITHFUL OF THE DIOCESE AND CITY OF ROME ON THE URGENT TASK OF EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE (Website).

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[¶ 00301 Updated: 06_13_2024]

Have you ever tried to validate the hypothesis that God's love for us is radical? (00097)

Have you ever tried to validate the hypothesis that God's love for us is radical by testing it against the gruesome experiment that we administered to Jesus in the laboratory of the Crucifixion? "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is and make trial of his forbearance" (Wisdom 2: 17-20). Use your brain! Figure it out for yourself! Come to your own conclusions! We who read, write and think for ourselves reserve to ourselves the sovereignty of the thinking process. We refuse to surrender our intellectual independence to others.

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(1) Index: Validating the Radical Love of God (00098)
(2) Index: Respecting the Sovereignty of the Thinking Process (00099)
(3) Index: Putting Jesus to the test (00100)
(4) Index: The Gruesome Experiment (00101)
(5) Index: The Laboratory of the Crucifixion (00102)
[¶ 00097 Updated: 09_02_2024]

Probably the worst summary of Christianity ever given was given by Pope Pius X who arrogantly pontificated "...the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors" (1906 “Vehementer Nos“) (00184). It demonstrated supreme and utter disrespect for anyone who can read, write and think for themselves. It was the grossest error of clericalism and a brazen affront to our rationality. We who read, write and think for ourselves jealously reserve to ourselves the sovereignty of the thinking process. Our God endowed us with the power to think for ourselves and encouraged us to do so so we adamantly refuse to surrender our intellectual independence to others.

Show us where to look. Don't tell us what you found. Then get out of the way so we can explore this thing called God for ourselves (00597). You are the ushers who show us to our seats. Jesus is the star of the show. And the venue of his show - the stage of his bravura performance - is the duality of the Crucifixion. Opening night was more than two thousand years ago. The show is replayed whenever a Mass is said.

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[¶ 00657 Updated: 09_02_2024]

co-equals in the pursuit of God (00658)

Clergy and the children of Adam and Eve are co-equals in the pursuit of God (1 Corinthians 12). Clericalism is the thinking that the role of the clergy in the pursuit of God is superior to the role of the laity (Matthew 23:11-15). The roles are different not superior or inferior. Either we are in this thing together or we are not. Either we pursue God together or we do not. Either we worship our God together or we don't. Either it is all for one and one for all or it is every man for himself.

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[¶ 00658 Updated: 09_02_2024]

Jesus opened a school where the knowledge of God is taught (00329)
The legacy that Jesus left behind was a mnemonic - a thinking aid - a cognitive assistant - to help us figure out this thing called God for ourselves. The purpose of the Church is to distribute the thinking aid from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14) - not to govern us as a king but to continue our education about God as a teacher. Good teachers do not form us by rote memorization but by inspiring us to to figure out this thing called God for ourselves. The appeal of a good teacher is to our faculty of rationality not to our faculty of obedience. Our faculty of obedience is broken and has been broken since the age of Adam and Eve. Hence, evangelization, done right, is a rational endeavor. We are disobedient not irrational.

Jesus opened a school (00343) (00327) where the knowledge of God is taught. Its core curriculum is his demonstration of forgiveness that was the result of the gruesome experiment that we cruelly administered to him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19). The core curriculum is the foundation of a Christian education. It enables the children of Adam and Eve to figure out for themselves this thing called God. It is a public school not a private, religious or parochial school. Jesus open sourced its core curriculum. Jesus hung the core curriculum of his school from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity in the middle of the public square. Rally 'round the bipolar Cross (1 Corinthians 1:17)! Jesus gave no Church a monopoly over it. He gave no Church exclusive ownership of it. It is independent of religion. It transcends their artificial boundaries. The gruesome experiment belongs to all of the children of Adam and Eve - not just some - not to just some religious elites. It belongs to anyone and all who can read, write and think for themselves. Keeping the gruesome experiment out of private hands and in the public domain safeguards it from distortion. Are you privy to its core curriculum? Can you articulate its significance? For example, what does its core curriculum tell us about the radical love of God?

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[¶ 00329 Updated: 08_04_2024]

Christianity done right is about exploration not indoctrination (00597)
Don't tell us what you found. Show us where to look.

Christianity, when done right, is about exploration not indoctrination. Christianity, when done right, confronts us with the gruesome experiment that we cruelly administered to Jesus in the laboratory of the Crucifixion. Christianity, when done right, challenges us to come to grips with it. Therefore, don't tell us what you found. Show us where to look. Point us to the gruesome experiment and tell us that here we will discover the nature of God - only here. We want to figure out this thing called God for ourselves. We don't want you to figure God out for us. We want to come to our own conclusions. We want to experience the joy of the discovery of the radical love of God for ourselves. Surely, a Church with more than two thousand years of experience knows that the radical love of God is the treasure buried in the gruesome experiment. Right?

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 for ourselves the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God.

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[¶ 00597 Updated: 08_04_2024]

In the fiery furnance of the Crucifixion, Jesus created God's self-portrait. He wrote God's autobiography (00653)

Coming Soon! Stay tuned!

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[¶ 00653 Updated: 09_01_2024]

The pillow of the Crucifixion (00650)

Let us lay our heads on the pillow of the Crucifixion to sleep the sleep of the angels. Certainly, the Crucifixion was no pillow for the Son of God. But it is a pillow for us.

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 about the nature of God, the most Holy Trinity desired to set the record straight once and forever. At the Crucifixion, they cleared the air. The Crucifixion was disclosure. It was apocalyptic. The Crucifixion was publication. At the Crucifixion, God published their nature to us (and our potential - we have the potential to become godlike).

A veil separated the Holy of Holies from the children of Adam and Eve. At the Crucifixion, “[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 the Crucifixion as God was showing us His nature.

The Crucifixion was a self portrait of the nature of God. The most Holy Trinity painted it for us in their own hand. Because it is a self-portrait done by God themselves, it is reliable.

In the ten commandments, God did not want us to make images of Him because such images would not be as accurate as the image that God themselves would make for us during the Crucifixion. They would be lesser representations of God. Reject all lesser representations of God as counterfeits. Cling to the self portrait that the brush of truth painted for us on the canvas of the Crucifixion in the pigments of heaven and hell, that is, pain, suffering, death and forgiveness. Let it become your touchstone. Do not let yourself be deceived by those who tout a different picture of God. Measure everything against the self portrait. Reconcile everything against the self portrait. The Crucifixion is the truth that will set you free.

Both He and His love for us survived the boiling cauldron of pain and suffering into which we baptized Him. His survival is the proof that He put in our hands to convince us that God is omnipotent. The survival of His love for us, however, is the proof that He put into our hands of something much more significant than omnipotence. The survival of His love for us is the proof that He put into our hands that the nature of God is indestructible love for us. We committed the sin of sins against the Son of God. We tortured and killed Him while He was human. alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest. Yet, He continued to love us nonetheless. As we impaled Him on the Cross, He clung to His love for us, held tight and did not let go. He clung to His love for us with the iron grip that a drowning man clings to a life preserver in the middle of a raging storm.

Whenever we become confused about the nature of God - whenever we become disoriented - whenever we get lost, we must always return to the Crucifixion to get our thinking about God straight. The Crucifixion is the rock on which to build all of your thinking about the nature of God.

Rest your head on the pillow of the Crucifixion to sleep the sleep of the angels.

The angels know God and, thanks to the Crucifixion, we do too.

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[¶ 00650 Updated: 09_01_2024]

The Crucifixion is the treasure chest that holds the revelation of the radical love of God. Christianity is a treasure map for treasure hunters engaged in a treasure hunt. Our God built an escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church, entrusted the map to the Church and gave the leadership of the Church a mission. The mission that Jesus entrusted to leadership is to facilitate our escape - not to frustrate it, not to filter it and not to foul it up (00620).

P.S. The Mass presents the treasure chest to the children of Adam and Eve. The sacrifice of flesh and blood is the key that opened the treasure chest. The meal of bread and wine is the treasure that Jesus serves to his enemies - bread to satsfy their hunger, wine to quench their thirst and forgiveness to fill their bellies (00637). At Mass, Jesus entertains his enemies at the family table, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort and joy of the family tent. Who does this (00469)?

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(00565) (00598) (00602)(00483) (00620) (00177) (00184)
[¶ 00649 Updated: 08_31_2024]

How do we rejuvenate Christianity? (00648)
Rejuvenation will happen when we start handing out the treasure of Christianity like candy on Halloween. The problem is that we have misplaced the treasure. We have removed the revelation of the radical love of God from the treasure chest and substituted junk for it. We have substituted obiter dicta for the gravamen of Christianity (00624) (00509). Christianity is currently handing out everything but the treasure. The nitty-gritty of Christianity has diluted its pizzazz (00520). "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water" (Isaiah 1:22).

How do we rejuvenate Christianity (00402) (00538)? The Cross of Christ is empty of meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17) (00628) (00612) (00617). The only way to rejuvenate Christianity is to refill it. The rise and fall of Christianity depends on the meaningfulness of the Crucifixion. Its bipolarity is Christianity's best recruitment and retention tool. "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2). (1 Chronicles 16:10-12) (Isaiah 55:6-7). The meaning of the Cross of Christ is the understanding that drives us to seek God. Yet, instead of propagating the meaning of the Cross of Christ, red herrings have seduced Christianity onto sidetracks and down dead ends. The pursuit of God has ground to a halt (00517) because the children of Adam and Eve are not being made aware of the revelation of the radical love of God that Jesus released by fusing heaven and hell in the fiery furnace of the Crucifixion (00537). We baptized Jesus in hell. Jesus, in answer, embellished hell with heaven by releasing radical forgiveness into it. In this way, the phenotype of God was made known to us. God was revealed to us. We learned that the Christian God is the God who suffered, died and forgave (00645).

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[¶ 00648 Updated: 08_31_2024]

How do we unite our suffering with Jesus' suffering? (00642)

There is no glory in suffering. Experiencing hell is not glorious. Suffering, however, can become glorious (Colossians 1:24). It becomes glorious when we bring heaven to it. Bringing heaven to hell is the only way to unite our suffering with his suffering (00406). Bringing heaven to hell is our superpower. Jesus demonstrated our superpower to us from the Cross (00182) (00271) (00001) (00323) (00492). Embellishing hell with heaven using our limited human resources is the only miracle that matters (00001) (00493) (00638)

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[¶ 00642 Updated: 08_28_2024]

The Mass is advanced, alien technology that captures, preserves, and propagates the duality of the Crucifixion (00637)
Jesus, the carpenter (Mark 6:3), built the revelation of the radical love of God in the fiery framework of the Crucifixion using two components, heaven and hell (00287). The Crucifixion was a duality not a singularity (00612). It was the synthesis of heaven and hell. The Mass captures, preserves, and propagates the duality of the Crucifixion from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. It is the duality of the Crucifixion that conveys the revelation of the radical love of God (00287).

To understand how the technology of the Mass works, we must first understand that the Crucifixion was a duality not a singularity (00612). Jesus did not merely hang passively from the Cross while we tortured and killed him in the fiery framework of the Crucifixion. Jesus was not inert in his dire predicament. He was active not passive, not merely being but doing. In the fiery framework of the Crucifixion, Jesus was more than merely present - much more. He did something - something marvelous. He took affirmative action. He performed. He embellished hell with heaven. Duality refers to the two components of the Crucifixion, heaven and hell. Jesus transformed the Crucifixion from a singularity into a duality by embellishing hell with heaven. We brought hell to the Crucifixion. Jesus brought heaven. Forgiveness is the blessing of heaven that Jesus brought to hell. He forgave us for the evils that we did to him. He forgave his enemies even though they were undeserving of forgiveness. He loved them first. Love begets love. Only love begets love. So, Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19). We love him because he loved us first (00393). The duality of the Crucifixion is the foundation of the Mass. The Mass is a high fidelity echo of the duality of the Crucifixion - a high fidelity reflection. The anatopic relocation of heaven into hell is Jesus' Magnum Opus (00603). It is the apotheosis of irony and the quintessence of Christianity (00287).

Note: A Mass is a Victory party at which we celebrate the hero of the Crucifixion and re-enact Jesus' success at embellishing hell with heaven. He forgave us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. At Mass, we approach the altar as enemies to take from Jesus his flesh and blood. Jesus disagrees. You are mistaken. Don't be foolish. You are not my enemies. Let me disabuse you of such an odd notion. You are my friends - now and forever. Jesus verifies his friendship when he satisfies the hunger of his enemies with bread, quenches their thirst with wine and fills their bellies with forgiveness (00371) (00423). The meal of bread and wine is the verification of friendship - the verification of the new covenant (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7) (00434). The meal of bread and wine is his invitation to us to pursue and deepen our friendship with him (00290) (00348) (00041). The pursuit of friendship with God is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect (00538) (00070) (00131). At Mass, Jesus' Magnum Opus of embellishing hell with heaven is repeated. He entertains his enemies at the family table, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort and joy of the family tent. Who does this (00469)? Hell cannot get any more embellished with heaven than this (00628) (00615) (00606) (00591) (00574) (00177) (00561) (00552) (00558) (00556) (00549) (00529) (00516) (00036) (00523) (00515) (00517) (00513) (00155) (00531) (00499) (00479) (00478) (00473) (00460) (00435) (00431) (00500) (00425)!

Jesus was not merely present in the fire of the Crucifixion. He was not just there. He did something - something marvelous. He took affirmative action. He embellished hell with heaven.

The bread, wine, flesh and blood of the most Holy Eucharist are the vocabulary of the Word of God (John 1:1). It is how the Word of God expresses himself - how he communicates with us here on earth (00264) (00539) (00476) (00451) (00396) (00275) (00276).

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[¶ 00637 Updated: 08_28_2024]

If it is conceded that Jesus did something while hanging from the Cross in the fiery framework of the Crucifixion in addition to merely being present there taking it on the chin (00637) [He built the revelation of the radical love of God by synthesizing heaven and hell], then it must be conceded that he is also doing something at Mass during the most Holy Eucharist because the Crucifixion and the Mass are the same thing - the difference being that the Crucifixion was bloody and the Mass is bloodless. Jesus does not suffer and die again at Mass. Once was enough. In the fiery framework of the Crucifixion, Jesus built the revelation about the radical love of God from the synthesis of heaven and hell. At Mass, he does the same. We fall into a pit of errors when we disconnect the Crucifixion and the Mass (00552) (00536) (00463) (00490) (00055) (00385) (00308) (00612). Both are Jesus' glorious victories that arose from ignominious defeat, heaven emerging from hell as the dawn emerges from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Radical forgiveness is the light that illuminates the darkness that obscured the truth about the radical love of God. Jesus' real presence is not the emerging light. The radical forgiveness that Jesus released in the fiery framework of the Crucifixion is the emerging light. The light cast by radical forgiveness illuminates the path that takes us to Jesus and the kingdom of God.

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[¶ 00640 Updated: 08_27_2024]

Who is a Christian? (00633)
A Christian brings heaven to hell.

Who is a Christian? A Christian brings heaven to hell (00001). Plain and simple. If you are not bringing heaven to hell, you are not doing Christianity. Jesus brought the water of forgiveness to the fire of the Crucifixion. Heaven diluted hell. Heaven mitigated it. The hotter did the fire of the Crucifixion burn, the greater was the cost that Jesus paid out of his own pocket from his limited human resources and the more astonishing is the forgiveness. Jesus was the meek and lowly lamb who, anatopically (00628), lied down with the lion (Matthew 11:29). Jesus is the little child that leads them (Isaiah 11:6). The little child led by example. Jesus did not merely tell us how to hang from our crosses as a priest does from the safety of an ambo; he showed us. He himself demonstrated it in deeds. He did not merely describe it in words. Jesus put himself in harm's way, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies, in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the fire of the Crucifixion. He donned the jet pack of love and flew to show us that we, too, can fly. What a crazy daredevil this Jesus was!

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[¶ 00633 Updated: 08_22_2024]

The Birth of Christianity (00629)

Christianity was born in the fire of the Crucifixion (00268). It was born at the moment that Jesus published the revelation about the radical love of God from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity by releasing its proxy, radical forgiveness, into the fire of the Crucifixion. Follow the path cast by the light of radical forgiveness back home to its source (00503). “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Radical forgiveness is the light that illuminates the darkness that obscured the truth about the radical love of God. Radical forgiveness is the Holy Spirit tugging at our souls. The curious follow the tug back to its source. Along the way, the curious are exploring the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God. In the process of exploration, God transforms us. Unless we explore the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God, we cannot be transformed (00133) (00303).

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[¶ 00629 Updated: 08_21_2024]

The Devil's Swirl (00635)

A swirl of misinformation obscured the truth about the radical love of God. Jesus was dispatched from heaven to earth to bring a clarification (00316) (00151). "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). The clarification was given to end our destruction. “I have come to set the earth on fire [with the knowledge of the radical love of God], and how I wish it were already blazing” (Luke 12:49)! How did Jesus give us the clarification? Did he tell us about the radical love of God? Or did he himself give us a demonstration of it? God done not just God said? He gave us the clarification by creating, with his own two hands, the duality of the Crucifixion (00584) (00568). He brought heaven to hell (00628). Jesus, the carpenter (Mark 6:3), built the revelation of the radical love of God in the fiery framework of the Crucifixion (00630) (00572). The construction project was his Magnum Opus. It filled the Cross of Christ with meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). Rally 'round the bipolar Cross!

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[¶ 00635 Updated: 08_22_2024]

Beware the stolen halo and the frauds who wear it (00639)
Only by adding a panache of beauty to embellish a sacrifice do we make a claim to a halo legitimate. Jesus embellished the hell in which we baptized him by diluting it with the sweet syrup of forgiveness. The hotter burned the hell, the sweeter the forgiveness tastes.

Beware the stolen halo and the frauds who wear it! The validity of a claim that a person is a proxy for God or a successor to the apostles can be tested. Don't be naive! Ordination does not make the man (Luke 3:8)! Ordination is no guarantee against a stolen halo (e.g. Capuchin). We do not have to take their word for for it. Put the claimants to the halo of divine superiority to the proof! The credibility of such a claim rises or falls according to the bloody wounds that it cost the claimant to embellish hell with heaven. The greater the cost, the greater is the credibility of the claim. No cost; no credibility.

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(00314) (00582) (00505) (00277) (00066)
[¶ 00639 Updated: 08_28_2024]

The persuasive wallop is in the doing not the saying (00634)

In your homilies and sermons, do you preach that, like Jesus, our job is to embellish hell with heaven? Beside speaking about it, can your congregations and parishoners see you doing it as we saw Jesus doing it in the fire of the Crucifixion? In the course of your lives, do you yourselves embellish hell with heaven. In fact, doing it is more persuasive than speaking about it - much more persuasive. Doing heaven while burning in hell packs a powerful persuasive wallop (00271). Talking about it out of the fray from the safety of an ambo is bereft of persuasion. Jesus understood how persuasion works. That is why he set the jewel of forgiveness in the foil of the Crucifixion. The exorbitant cost of doing heaven in hell flabbergasts us. It knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6).

Beware the stolen halo (00314)!

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[¶ 00634 Updated: 08_21_2024]

The mechanism of salvation (00631)

Forgiveness is the lock. Repentance is the key. Use the key to open the lock to the kingdom of God. The mechanism of salvation couldn't be easier.

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[¶ 00631 Updated: 08_21_2024]

Interrogation (00481)

'Who are you, God? Identify yourself! Friend or foe?' With lash, thorns, nails and cross, we interrogated Jesus. We gave him the third degree. We put him to the test (Wisdom 2: 19). The question that we put to Jesus by the evils that we did to him and Jesus' radically asymmetric answer to it fills the Cross of Christ with its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). Together they are the odd couple of apocalyptic epiphany. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). To understand the nature of God, we must situate our imagination in the Interrogation and contemplate our question, his answer and their revelation. Like pack animals, the odd couple carried an apocalyptic revelation about the nature of God upon their shoulders. Question (Q) + Answer (A) = Revelation (R). What does the odd couple of apocalyptic epiphany (Q+A) tell us about the nature of God (R)?

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[¶ 00481 Updated: 06_08_2024]

Mitigating our dire predicament (00618)

An army of ferocious monsters of every size, shape and kind ominously prowls the jungle in which we live that has grown up among the ruins of Eden (Revelation 22:14-15). They pursue us with foul purpose. They want to chew us up and spit us out in bits and pieces. The last and worst of the monsters is death (1 Corinthians 15:26). How shall we deal with the monsters? What is the best way to make our escape through a fallen world filled with evils? Shall we blaze our own trail through the jungle or follow the trail that Jesus blazed for us (John 14:6)? To mitigate our dire predicament, God dispatched his dearly beloved Son, Jesus, from heaven to earth to show us the best way to wage and win the war against the monsters (John 14:6).

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[¶ 00618 Updated: 08_18_2024]

The High Art of Dilution (00358)

Jesus is the artist who perfected the high art of dilution (Matthew 5:48). He embellished the canvas of hell by pouring the sweet syrup of forgiveness into the toxic foil of the evils that we did to him. The sweet syrup of forgiveness diluted the toxicity of the evils that we did to him in the same way that sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee. Dilution is God's solution to the problem of evils. Jesus hung from his Cross in order to teach us how to hang from our crosses. His methodology was not to eliminate evils. His methodology was to dilute them. God wants us to perfect for ourselves the high art of dilution. He wants us to rise to our potential. He wants us to ascend to the sublime level of our loving God (Matthew 5:43-48). "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48)

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[¶ 00358 Updated: 04_02_2024]

The battering ram that Jesus used against the gates of hell (00004)

Jesus tapped into the energy gradient between heaven and hell to power the punch of the revelation that he released in the fire of the Crucifixion. In the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus released the revelation of the radical love of God. He set the jewel of forgiveness in the foil of the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. In this way, Jesus brought heaven to hell. The revelation about the radical love of God that Jesus released in the fire of the Crucifixion is the battering ram that Jesus uses to knock down the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18) that protect stony hearts (Ezekiel 36:26) from the process of depetrification. The revelation is the agent of fleshification.

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[¶ 00004 Updated: 08_18_2024]

Jesus was the warrior who brought an unconventional weapon to the battlefield of the Crucifixion in the war against evils (00363)

How did Jesus deal with the monster of the Crucifixion? Jesus was the warrior who brought an unconventional weapon (Isaiah 55:8) to the battlefield of the Crucifixion in the war against evils (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16). From the scabbard of his love for us, Jesus drew the sharp sword of sweet forgiveness. With it, he slayed the monster (Isaiah 27:1) (Revelation 19:11-21). Forgiveness killed the monster of the Crucifixion dead (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45).

On the battlefield of the Crucifixion, we unleashed a monster of evils against Jesus. In answer, Jesus did not release the gruesome three-headed monster of revenge, retaliation and retribution from the dungeon of his broken heart against his enemies. Instead, he released the sweet angel of forgiveness. The sweet angel of forgiveness poured into the Valley of Tears through his bloody wounds to dilute its toxicity in the same way that sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee. Dilution is God's solution to the problem of evil. The bipolar battle between monster and angel resulted in a bifurcated outcome, that is, in both ignominious defeat and glorious victory - in the taking of his flesh and blood and in the serving of a meal of bread and wine to the enemies who brought about his ignominious defeat on a Cross. We brought hell to the Crucifixion; Jesus brought heaven. In the Crucifixion, we broke Jesus' most Sacred Heart with the evils that we did to him. With forgiveness, Jesus glued the pieces back together again. Forgiveness is the glue that fixed Jesus' broken heart.

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[¶ 00363 Updated: 07_20_2024]

The revelation of the radical love of God was delivered to the children of Adam and Eve by the fusion of the elemental energies of heaven and hell in the fire of the Crucifixion (00606)

In the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus fused the elemental energies of heaven and hell into a single unit of apocalyptic revelation about the radical love of God. The most consequential aspect of our Creator's visit to his creatures took place in the fire of the Crucifixion. As monuments to the significance of the fusion of heaven and hell, the Cross of Christ was erected and Holy Masses are said. We empty the Crucifixion of its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17) when we fail to recognize the duality of the Crucifixion or fail to appreciate its relevance to our salvation.

A Mass is a victory party not a presence party. At a Mass we celebrate the hero of the Crucifixion with the hero of the Crucifixion by re-enacting the duality of the Crucifixion. At Mass, Jesus once again brings about the intersection of heaven and hell to showcase the power of its revelation.

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[¶ 00606 Updated: 08_14_2024]

Jesus engineered the release of transformative energy from the fusion of heaven and hell during the Crucifixion (00605)
The energy that Jesus released from the fusion of heaven and hell on the Cross gobsmacks us. The wallop from the release of energy is so powerful that it knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). If you plan to seriously contemplate the duality of the Crucifixion (00355), brace yourself for impact!

From the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity, Jesus harnessed together a tandem of antagonistic energies - the energy of heaven and the energy of hell - into a single unit that powers the revelation of the radical love of God. We hung hell from the Cross. Jesus hung heaven. Jesus adorned the canvas of the Crucifixion with the beauty of forgiveness. The Crucifixion was not a singularity. It was a duality. The Cross was bipolar. Both heaven and hell were hung from it. The double hangings exploded the status quo and introduced a new calculus into the world. The new calculus upended the traditional method of measuring success in life. It recalibrated our reality. It makes us rethink our existence. Jesus ripped up the old scorecard and replaced it with a new way of keeping score (00447) (00608) (00514) (00493) (00323).

What exactly is the new calculus that Jesus introduced into the world by engineering the fusion of heaven and hell on the Cross? What does the new calculus tell us about our God and about humanity's potential?

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[¶ 00605 Updated: 08_10_2024]

Forgiveness is the rabbit that Jesus pulled out of his hat in the fire of the Crucifixion (00570)

Forgiveness is the rabbit that Jesus pulled out of his hat in the fire of the Crucifixion (Daniel 3:16-28). It was a neat trick. Totally unexpected (00477). Astonishing. Its epiphany gives us a sudden flash of understanding about the benign nature of God. The wallop of the insight is so powerful that it knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). If you plan to seriously contemplate the duality of the Crucifixion (00355), brace yourself for impact!

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[¶ 00570 Updated: 08_27_2024]

Two keys, not one, are needed to access the meaning of the Cross of Christ (00614)

Two keys, not one, are needed to access the meaning of the Cross of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:17). We cannot put meaning into the Cross of Christ or take meaning out without both of the keys. One of the keys is heaven and the other key is hell. From the position of prminence on the Cross of Christ, Jesus embellished hell with heaven. He adorned the canvas of the Crucifixion with the beauty of forgiveness. Hence, hell and heaven are the two keys. Only with both keys can we access and understand the radical love of God.

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[¶ 00614 Updated: 08_16_2024]

Christianity's Best Recruitment and Retention Tool (00496)
Jesus' answer to the Crucifixion was a cliffhanger. Would it be punishment or forgiveness (Matthew 21:37-40)? Punishment is what we deserved for taking from him his flesh and blood. Because conventional biblical wisdom created the expectation of "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48), the smart money bet on punishment. Thankfully for us, our God willingly defied the conventional biblical wisdom (Isaiah 55:8-9) and forgave us. He did not give us the punishment that we deserved. He did not answer the evils that we did to him in kind. He did not give us a taste of our own medicine. He did not take from us the coin of our flesh and blood as we took from him. The smart money lost their bet.

The heroic revelation of the radical love of God that Jesus dramatically revealed to us in his radically asymmetric answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion is Christianity's best recruitment and retention tool. The breathtaking revelation is the bait that catches fish hook, line and sinker. It is the bait that Jesus used. Why fish with any other bait?

Jesus' radically asymmetric answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion was the vehicle that he used to convey the radical love of God in its highest and purest concentration to the children of Adam and Eve. Are you privy to it? He served his enemies a meal of bread and wine while they were still chewing his flesh in their mouths and his blood was still staining their hands (Isaiah 55:8-9). He satisfied their hunger with bread. He quenched their thirst with wine. In so doing, he filled their bellies with the sweetest of the sweet fruits of love, namely, with forgiveness (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Isaiah 55:6-7). Is not a tree known by its fruit (Luke 6:43-45) (Matthew 3:8)? When we reverse engineer forgiveness, are we not taken back to a heart filled to the brim with love?

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(00419) (00502) (00444)
[¶ 00496 Updated: 06_21_2024]

MITIGATION NOT AGGRAVATION (00621)

Our God neither created our dire predicament nor has done anything to aggravate it. In fact, he has taken multiple measures to mitigate it (00623). “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

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[¶ 00621 Updated: 08_18_2024]

Facilitating our escape on the Christian escape Route - not frustrating it, not filtering it and not fouling it up (00620)

To mitigate our dire predicament in the Valley of Tears where we scavenge for scraps in cutthroat competition with the other loveless beasts among the ruins of Eden, God built an escape route (Isaiah 35:8). Our God built an escape route from godlessness to paradise, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church, entrusted the map to the Church and gave the leadership of the Church a mission. The mission that Jesus entrusted to leadership is to facilitate our escape - not to frustrate it, not to filter it and not to foul it up. Leadership does not fulfill its mission by trying to turn sinners into saints. Leadership fulfills its mission by trying to turn settlers into pilgrims. Participation in the escape is the mission of leadership. Transforming sinners into saints is God's job. God does his job as we are making our escape. The escape goes off the rails when leadership exceeds its mandate and tries to do God's job. God reserved the job of transforming sinners into saints to himself.

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[¶ 00620 Updated: 08_18_2024]

Do not demean the radical love of God! (00624)

To say that Jesus loves us demeans his love for us. It debases it. It makes the extraordinary ordinary - the humongous, tiny. It makes the Love Note that our God sent us in the Incarnation a banal, trite message. No. Jesus does not just love us. He loves us even though we tortured and killed him. Wow! That's love! Jesus made a statement by spending all of the coin of his flesh and blood. He did a cannonball and made a flamboyant splash! He spent all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. He has never spent more for anything else (John 15:13) (John 12:24). The greater was his payment, the greater is our astonishment at the extraordinary size of his love for us (Matthew 10:31). By spending all of the coin of his flesh and blood to purchase for us the blessing of forgiveness, Jesus gave us a declaration of his love for us not in words but in deeds - God done not God said. By spending all of the coin of his flesh and blood, Jesus gave us an incontrovertible verification of his love for us. 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. His love for us survived the evils that we did to him. Its intransigence authenticated it. Survival is the verification. We discovered from his profligate spending that the dial that controls God's 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 evils that we did to the Son of God could budge it. The verification of the Love Note is the gravamen of Christianity - superior to everything else. Everything else is obiter dicta - beside the point. Can you not read the writing on the wall (Daniel 5:6-8)? Such love of our Creator for his creatures gobsmacks us. It kicks like a mule. It takes our breath away. It knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). Who can weather the intensity of the love of God when it is focused on us? His love for us is the most powerful force in heaven and on earth. The love of God gives Christianity its magic, Jesus his charisma, us, our joy, and evangelists, who exclusively devote themselves to it, the power to change the world. Christianity, done right, confronts us with the love of God. Christianity, done right, makes us squirm under the weight of the love of God. The love of God challenges us to come to grips with it - to reconcile ourselves to it. We are disobedient not irrational.

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[¶ 00624 Updated: 08_18_2024]

We want God to mitigate our dire predicament in the Valley of Tears. God, however, wants us to do the mitigating. There is a difference of opinions. God's prevails.

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[¶ 00619 Updated: 08_19_2024]

OUR BAPTISM IN THE DUNGHILL OF EVILs IS THE CURE FOR ORIGINAL SIN - IT IS THE MEDICINE (00622)
PLAN B - Yes, our God has a backup plan!

Lucifer, the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer, Eve and Adam fumbled the gift of paradise that God had given them upon their creation. They let the gift of paradise slip through their fingers. They dropped the prize. Ooops! Butterfingers was the problem. Is there a solution to the problem? Or are we doomed to repeat the original sin of our parents? God gave them the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. Between them, he inserted no delay. For the children of Adam and Eve, God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise. A delay was the solution. During the delay, we stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine. Our baptism in the dunghill of evils is harsh but effective medicine. It puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us, and its delivery is ineluctable, we will keep it. We will not let it slip through our fingers. We will not fumble the ball. Having put our fingers into the flames, we have learned for ourselves that the fire is hot. The prodigal son will never return to the pig sty (Luke 15:11-32). Neither will we. We are disobedient not irrational.

Note: God respects our free wills. When God delivers to us the gift of paradise, God wants us to keep it. He wants us to keep it without having to turn paradise into a prison, himself into our warden and us into prisoners. A cage is still a cage no matter how gilded. God wants children who love him and want to live their lives with him not obedient pets.

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[¶ 00622 Updated: 08_18_2024]

Plan 'B' (00625)
Why does our loving, omnipotent God allow evil to exist in the world?

The delivery of the gift of paradise is delayed not denied. During the interregnum between the gift of life and the gift of paradise, our baptism in the dunghill of evils takes place. Our baptism in the dunghill of evils is the glue that binds us to the gift of paradise. It puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us - and its delivery is ineluctable - we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer did, as Adam did and as Eve did. Our baptism in the dunghill of evils is harsh but effective medicine. So, despite its harshness and because of its effectiveness, God prescribes it. Having put our fingers into the flames, we have discovered for ourselves that the fire is hot. Once burned; twice shy. The greater are the evils of the dunghill, the lower is the risk that we will opt out of paradise. We are disobedient not irrational. The prodigal son is never going back to the pig sty (Luke 15:11-32). Neither are we. Our time served in the pig sty opens our eyes to the value of the gift of paradise.

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[¶ 00625 Updated: 08_18_2024]

The Current of Salvation (00626)

“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). To save all men and to bring them to the knowledge of the truth, our God unleashed two inexorable forces to drive the current of salvation. The current of salvation sweeps us off our feet and carries us to our salvation. Few swim against the tide. For the sake of our salvation, our God uses both belt and suspenders.

The first inexorable force is the radigal love of God. A bonfire of love burns for us in the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Furthermore, the dial that controls it is in his hands not ours. Not even the evils that we did to him could extinguish it or reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. The dial is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. God dares us to put our fingers into the flames of the love of God to discover for ourselves that the fire is hot. “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing” (Luke 12:49)!

The second inexorable force are the evils that chew us up into bits and pieces as we pass through the Valley of Tears. We stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine. Our baptism in a dunghill of evils - the sour truth - is harsh but effective medicine. It puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us, and its delivery is ineluctable, we will keep it. We will not let it slip through our fingers. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who followed Lucifer did, as Adam did and as Eve did. Having put our fingers into the flames of evils, we have learned for ourselves that the fire is hot. The prodigal son will never return to the pig sty (Luke 15:11-32). Neither will we. We are disobedient not irrational. Both the belt and suspenders save us and bring us to the knowledge of the truth.

Note: In case you failed to notice, the second inexorable force is the solution to the problem of evil. It explains why a loving God allows evils to exist. Evils are harsh but effective medicine. Furthermore, our God is not a malicious misanthrope but a benevolent philanthropist. Is the second inexorable force needed, if we submit ourselves to the first? Doesn't it become superflous?

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[¶ 00626 Updated: 08_18_2024]

The Keys to the kingdom of God (00616)
"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19)

In the Cross of Christ is the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:17). The kingdom of God is the treasure of Christianity. Two keys are needed to lock and unlock the treasure chest to reveal the treasure - the keys that bind and loose. One of the keys is heaven; the other key is hell. Jesus entrusted the two keys to Peter. They are a responsibility not a power. The keys work in two ways. Peter can use them to open or to close the Cross of Christ - to empty it of meaning or to fill it and propagate it from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. Peter is the guardian of the meaning of the Cross of Christ. He is its steward. Into his care, Jesus entrusted the combination of heaven and hell that Jesus fused together in the fire of the Crucifixion to reveal the kingdom of God to us. In the kingdom of the God who loves us radically, all strive to embellish the canvas of life with love.

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[¶ 00616 Updated: 08_16_2024]

Suffering is only redemptive if heaven is added to hell (00617)

When the Crucifixion is viewed as a singularity, that is, as hell only, instead of as a duality, that is, as both heaven and hell, we reach the wrong conclusion about suffering. To explain and justify the suffering and death of Jesus in the fire of the Crucifixion, subscribers to singularity conclude that his suffering and, hence, all suffering, is redemptive. Crucifixion dualists, however, disagree. They disagree because they view the Crucifixion differently than the subscribers to singularity. To Crucifixion dualists, Jesus adorned the canvas of the Crucifixion with the beauty of forgiveness. Jesus brought heaven into hell. To Crucifixion dualists, the hell of the Crucifixion was merely a foil for heaven. Jesus set the jewel of forgiveness - the sweetest of the sweet fruits of love - in the foil of hell because the energy gradient between the foil and its payload supplies the power to the revelation of the radical love of God. Jesus exploited hell to power the revelation. That is all. The hell of the Crucifixion was not, in and of itself, redemptive. Suffering for suffering sake is an evil monstrosity. Jesus did not suffer for suffering's sake. Jesus added the panache of forgiveness to his suffering. He added heaven to hell. Suffering becomes redemptive only when we attach heaven to it - only when we embellish the canvas of suffering with the beauty of heaven as Jesus did. Then and only then does suffering become redemptive.

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[¶ 00617 Updated: 08_19_2024]

Forgiveness is the Signature of God (00486)
Let us hang from our crosses with the same panache as Jesus hung from his. On the Cross, Jesus embellished hell with heaven. He adorned the canvas of the Crucifixion with the beauty of forgiveness.

Forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:6-7) is the signature of God. It is the sweetest of the sweet fruits of love. Jesus revealed the radical love of God to us in his asymmetric answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Jesus embellished the canvas of the Crucifixion with God's signature. The embellishment was his Magnum Opus. Our job is to forge his signature on the canvases of our lives. Plagiarism is our passport into the kingdom of God. Our job is to duplicate the artistry of Jesus. The embellishment that Jesus did in his hell, let us do the same in our hells. Let us hang from our crosses with the same panache as Jesus hung from his.

Love does not grow in the toxic soil of the Crucifixion. It is a sterile matrix - utterly barren - hostile in the extreme. So when love in the form of forgiveness germinated, sprouted and bloomed, we beheld a miracle. It was completely unexpected - an utter surprise. The greater were the evils that we did to Jesus, the more glorious is the miracle.

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[¶ 00486 Updated: 08_16_2024]

The Poetry of Salvation (00406)
The point of the Cross was not the suffering. The point of the Cross was the radical forgiveness that followed the suffering - the heaven not the hell. Suffering is the foil. The payload is radical forgiveness. Radical suffering + radical forgiveness = the radical love of God. The purpose of a foil is to highlight and emphasize and intensify and magnify and amplify and accentuate and underline its payload. A foil serves its payload not vice versa. Our thinking becomes flawed when we confuse the master and the servant. Jesus suffering was the foil. Jesus forgiving is the payload.

The point of the Cross was not the suffering. The point of the Cross was the radical forgiveness that followed the suffering. Jesus forgave us while we still had his flesh in our mouths and his blood on our hands (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63). Many who claim to be Christians get the point of the Cross wrong. Their understanding of the Message of God that Jesus conveyed from heaven to earth at an exorbitant cost to himself is deeply flawed. Their thinking stops at the suffering and goes no further. They stop short of the finish line. They do not complete the race (Hebrews 12:1-3) (2 Timothy 4:7). They are trapped in the foil and do not reach the payload. A correct understanding of Christianity requires that we escape the foil and reach the payload. Suffering is the ignominious defeat from which the glorious victory emerged as the dawn arises from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Suffering is the mother that gave birth to radical forgiveness. Pay attention to the progeny of the suffering - the child as well as the mother. Let the mellifluous flow of the poetry of salvation from suffering to radical forgiveness sink in. It enables us to figure out this thing called God for ourselves. It optimizes our understanding of God. The poetry of salvation is invigorating. It vivifies us. It brings the dead to life (Luke 15:32) (John 3:3). There is no poetry as powerful as the poetry of salvation. The poetry of salvation reveals to us the intoxicating influence of the radical love of God. The radical love of God gives Christianity its magic, Jesus his charisma, us, our joy, and evangelists, who exclusively devote themselves to propagating it, the power to change the world.

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(00530)
[¶ 00406 Updated: 08_15_2024]

Have you discovered the pot of gold at the end of the Christian rainbow? (00598)

If you do not know where the treasure of Christianity is buried (00601) (00565), the odds are slim to none that you will accidentally stumble upon it on your own. Its origin was obscure - off the beaten path. Its location was in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space at the intersection of heaven and hell. Have you ever been there? Have you been to the place where heaven met hell? If your religious leaders do not know where the treasure of Christianity is buried, it is foolish to expect them to show it to you. But, ask them! Put them on the spot! Challenge them for a specic answer! What is the treasure of Christianity and where can we find it (00177) (00536)?

Have you discovered the sizzle of Christianity? Have you found the jackpot? Have you located the pot of gold at the end of the Christian rainbow (00070) (00301)? The point of Christianity is its sizzle. Without its sizzle, Christianity is a dud. It is no big deal. No sizzle; no Christianity. Contrary to the Coloring Book version of Christianity (00184), Christianity is, at its core, a treasure map for treasure hunters engaged in a treasure hunt (00449) (00483) (00199) (00599) (00600) (00133). But, don't worry. If you have not yet found the treasure, I know exactly where it is (00565) (00546). I won't tell you what I found but I will show you where Jesus told me to look. I think it is important that you dig it up for yourself (00597). Jesus pinpointed its precise location for us by marking it with a monument - the bipolar Cross of Christ (00565). Come, rally 'round the bipolar Cross to satisfy your curiosity (00578) (00228) (00067) (00585) about this enigmatic entity that we call God. Grab your shovel, follow Jesus to the bipolar Cross, dig up the treasure for yourself, and make yourself rich (00110) (00579) (00580) (00313) (00097) (00581). Start your investigation at the duality of the Crucifixion (00327). The duality of the Crucifixion is the point and place of beginning (00402) (00373) (00067) (00138) (00051) (00579) (00592) (00544) (00593) (00594) (00595) (00581) (00596). Start exploring the mystery, majesty and magnifence of God there (00449) (00149) (00582). In the duality of the Crucifixion the treasure is buried (00572)! In the duality of the Crucifixion, you will discover the intersection of heaven and hell (00568). The intersection of heaven and hell is the unique place where two lynchings took place. We hung hell to the Cross and Jesus hung heaven (00327). The intersection of heaven and hell is the epicenter of Christianity. It is where the status quo exploded. On the treasure map, an 'X' marks the spot of the treasure (00133) (00067) (00392).

The radical love of God is the magic that turns settlers into pilgrims and sinners into saints (00544) (00609) (00303) (00037) (00446). The radical love of God gives Christianity its magic, Jesus his charisma, us, our joy, and evangelists, who exclusively devote themselves to propagating it, the power to change the world. Embrace the magic!

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[¶ 00598 Updated: 08_11_2024]

Fight or Flight? (00603)

The options were to flee the danger of the Crucifixion or to fight it. Jesus chose to fight it. However, he did not fight hell with hell. He fought hell with heaven. His methodology was radically asymmetric - bipolar in the extreme. The Crucifixion was a duality not a singularity. It was not just hell. It was the combination of heaven and hell. Heaven and hell were the odd couple of epiphany. The energy gradient between heaven and hell powered the revelation of the radical love of God. The energy gradient made the revelation sizzle (00325) (00544).

Jesus is the head of the spear who leads the invasion of heaven into hell. Heaven is the battering ram that knocks down the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18) that protect stony hearts (Ezekiel 36:26) from the process of depetrification.

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[¶ 00604 Updated: 08_07_2024]

The Miracle of Forgiveness erupted from the fire of the Crucifixion (00573)
The Miracle of Forgiveness erupted out of the fire of the Crucifixion as the dawn arises from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3).

Love does not grow in the fire of the Crucifixion. Hell is a sterile matrix - utterly barren - hostile in the extreme. So when love in the form of forgiveness germinated, sprouted and blossomed, we beheld a miracle (00217). It was completely unexpected - an utter surprise. Jesus had embellished hell with heaven. He added the beauty of forgiveness to the fiery canvas of the Crucifixion. What other artist works so successfully under such adverse conditions? The hotter burned the fire, the more astonishing is the miracle of forgiveness. "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7). And, in the fire of the Crucifixion, we did much to him - many, many shamefull things. We ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. Yet, Jesus loved us first despite our wretchedness (1 John 4:19). He did not wait for our conversion to forgive us. He forgave us to bring about our conversion. He was audacious (00041). The atrocities that we did to him did not deter him from performing the miracle of forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63). They did not slow him down. They did not make him change his plan (00575). He had no second thoughts. There was no hesitation. He had no regrets. He forgave his enemies even though we still had his flesh in our mouths and his blood on our hands (00142) (00370). He included his enemies within the scope of his love so we would recognize and appreciate the radicalness of his love (00558) (00103) for the children of Adam and Eve (Matthew 22: 8-10) (Matthew 13:47). Intransigent is the radical love of God. The dial that controls God's 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 evils that we did to him could budge it.

“Be firm in your resolutions. Stay in the boat the Lord has placed you in, and when the storm comes, you will not perish. It may seem to you that Jesus is sleeping, but it only seems that way.” — Padre Pio, letter to an unknown addressee, December 27, 1917

Jesus exploited the heat from the fire of the Crucifixion to detonate the bombshell of revelation about the radical love of God. He let us baptize his flesh and blood in the fire of the Crucifixion because doing the miracle of forgiveness in an evil baptism is much more persuasive than telling us about his love for us out of the scrum from the safety of the sidelines. Jesus was a player in the war against evils (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16) not merely an aloof spectator. Jesus put himself in harm's way, cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies, in the scrum at the line of scrimmage. Jesus' love for us was heroic (Matthew 5:38-48). He loved us not just when it was easy to do so. He loved us when it was hard to do so. He loved us when the cost of love was exorbitant (00505) (00468) (00277) (00066). The exorbitant cost for the delivery of the message of The Word of God (John 1:1) is the guarantee that the message is not counterfeit. Counterfeiters are unwilling to reach into their own pockets to pay with the coin of their flesh and blood. What profit is there for them in that? There was no profit in the Crucifixion for Jesus either. Only cost. Yet, he participated in the endeavor despite the lack of profit for himself and despite the exorbitant cost. His motive was altruistic - service over self. He participated in the endeavor solely to benefit the children of Adam and Eve. The benefit was the knowledge of God (Hosea 4:6).

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[¶ 00573 Updated: 08_05_2024]

The Song of the Crucifixion (00590)

A duet between hell and heaven was sung during the Crucifixion. The duet revealed our God to us. Have you heard its song? Jesus composed the song of the Crucifixion for us to sing. Do you know the words? Can you sing along?

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[¶ 00590 Updated: 08_02_2024]

Jesus broke the mold for kingship (00343)

God dispatched Jesus from heaven to earth not to form a government to rule us but to open a school to teach us (00329) (00327). Jesus is not a tyrant but a teacher. His appeal is not to our faculty of obedience but to our faculty of rationality - to our self-interest. Indeed, Jesus is our king (Matthew 21:5). However, Jesus did not come to rule us as a typical king rules us (Matthew 20:25-28) (John 18:37). Jesus is not the typical king and his kingdom is not the typical kingdom. Jesus broke the mold for kingship. He is the king who loves us. In place of a constabulary to enforce the Christian rules of the road, the means by which Jesus governs us is love - radical love. When we become privy to the revelation that Jesus released into the world in the gruesome experiment that we cruelly administered to him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion and, thereby, discover the radicalness of the love of God, Christians become self-regulating. In the kingdom of the king who loves us even though we tortured and killed him, the citizens govern themselves. We desire to please him. We trip all over ourselves in our eagerness to please him (John 18:36).

The multitude rejects the leadership's claim of a hotline between it and God and looks upon claims of governmental legitimacy by virtue of the "divine right of kings" as an anachronism meant to frighten the multitude into submission. These religious fictions no longer work. They no longer instill docility into the multitude (1906 “Vehementer Nos“). The threat that, if we do not obey, God will get us, in modern times, is a toothless threat, risible to the multitude. To succeed in the modern world of a literate and skeptical multitude who have access to a variety of sources of information, leadership must learn to do what it has disdained to do, that is, compete in the marketplace of ideas. Its ideas are being challenged - their legitimacy cast into doubt. The question yet unanswered is, without a culture of dialogue and discussion, can the Church successfully compete in the marketplace of ideas?

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[¶ 00343 Updated: 08_04_2024]

After Jesus won his glorious victory in the battle of the Crucifixion, did he retire? (00591)

Jesus waged and won the war against evils in the fire of the Crucifixion (00548) (00558) (00537). After his victory, did Jesus retire - did he stop working? No. "... and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Matthew 28:20) (00316). What is Jesus doing post victory? He continues the mission that his Father entrusted to him. He propagates the knowledge of the radical love of God from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. How? He re-enacts his glorious victory and the ignominious defeat from which it erupted during a Mass at which Jesus, the hero of the Crucifixion is celebrated (00574). A Mass is the primary vehicle that conveys the knowledge of the radical love of God and preserves it from generation to generation (00558).

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[¶ 00591 Updated: 08_03_2024]

How do we access the love of God? (00028)
" But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33) (Luke 17:20-21).

How do we access the love of God (Matthew 2:1-2)? How do we tap into the treasure chest that holds it (Matthew 13:44-46)? The Only way to access the love of God is to love. Yes. When we love, we experience for ourselves the love of God (1 John 4:7-8).

"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21) (Matthew 6:33). Love is the kingdom of God. Upon our creation, God implants embryonic love into us - the seed of divinity. [Because we carry the seed of divinity in us from our creation, we are worthy of respect from greatest to least and from beginning to end.]

The seed of God is in us.
Given an intelligent
and hardworking farmer,
it will thrive and grow
up into God, whose seed
it is; and accordingly its
fruits will be God-nature.
Pear seeds grow into
pear trees, nut seeds
into nut trees, and
God seeds into God.
(Meister Eckhart)

When we love, we cultivate the embryonic seed of divinity causing it grow and flourish. By loving, we find God's love (1 John 4: 7-12). God's love abides in our love (John 15:4) (ON CONTEMPLATING GOD, William of Saint Thierry, Preface #2). By loving, we gain access to the love of God here and now. When we love, we meet God - we ascend to the sublime level of our loving God from the squalid level of the loveless beasts who scavenge for scraps in cutthroat competition with one another in the rubble of the ruins of Eden! When we love, we establish a connection between heaven and earth through which God meets us and we meet God. When we love, we open a door between heaven and earth through which we step up into heaven and God steps down into earth. When we stop loving, we sever the connection between heaven and earth - we shut the door. Jesus showed us the way. Jesus gave us the directions to our destination. To find the kingdom of God, the map points within us. Jesus is the map (John 14:6). We know how to get there.

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(1) Jesus' Magnum Opus
(2) Discovering the Love of God by loving


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[¶ 00028 Updated: 08_03_2024]

How do we find joy? (00063)
When we love, we are communicating with God. Jesus' miracle of forgiveness in the fire of the Crucifixion was his communication with his Father. Jesus hung from his Cross to teach us how to communicate with God. Love is the only form of prayer.

How do we find joy? We find joy by participating in the creativity of Jesus - by doing what Jesus did ourselves. The artist, Jesus, created a Masterpiece of Love on the canvas of life in the midst of adversity - in the gruesome adversity of the Crucifixion. Embellishing the canvas of life with love in the midst of adversity was Jesus' magnum opus - his greatest achievement. To find joy, go, and do likewise. Embellishing the canvas of life with love is how a Christian plays offense - how a Christian becomes the aggressor. It is how we take the war against evils to the enemy (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16). Let us hang from our crosses as Jesus hung from his (Matthew 5:38-48). Jesus did not merely tell us how to hang from our crosses; he showed us how. He showed us our potential. Jesus led by example. He donned the jet pack of love and flew to show us that we, too, can fly. What a crazy daredevil this Jesus was! We, too, can show our brothers and sisters how to fly (Colossians 1:24)! When we hang as Jesus hung, cling as Jesus clung, hold tight and refuse to let go of love. To love is in our self-interest. Love is our defense against evils. Incoming! Shields up! The gauntlet of life has many sharp edges. Love is the grease that lubricates the sharp edges of the gauntlet of life and makes our passage through less unpleasant. Love mitigates our dire predicament passing through the Valley of Tears (Salve Regina). Jesus is the unfathomable reservoir that holds love without limits. The love of God, however, does not propagate itself. It does not have its own legs. It is not self-propelled. To get the love of God from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now, an acqueduct is needed. Jesus established his Church to serve as the acqueduct of the radical love of God. Jesus is offering the children of Adam and Eve a job building, maintaining and operating the acqueduct. In this work, we find joy.

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[¶ 00063:12_28_2023]

Jesus hung from his Cross to show us how to hang from our crosses (00025)

Let us hang from our crosses as Jesus hung from his (Matthew 5:38-48). Jesus did not merely tell us how to hang from our crosses; he showed us how. He showed us our potential. Jesus led by example. He donned the jet pack of love and flew to show us that we, too, can fly. What a crazy daredevil this Jesus was! We, too, can show our brothers and sisters how to fly (Colossians 1:24)! When we hang as Jesus hung, cling as Jesus clung, hold tight and refuse to let go of love. To love is in our self-interest. Love is our defense against evils. Incoming! Shields up!

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Jesus' Magnum Opus
[¶ 00025 Updated: 09_12_2024]

(00001)

Jesus created a Masterpiece of love on the canvas of life in the gruesome adversity of the Crucifixion. He was a heroic artist of love. Evils did not deter him from making his art. Embellishing the canvas of life with love in the midst of adversity was Jesus' magnum opus - his greatest achievement. The Son of God fulfilled his potential as a human being and, thereby, showed us that we could too. He showed us our capability. We, too, can create Masterpieces of Love on the canvas of life (Colossians 1:24). Like him, we, too, can become heroic artists of love! Such is our destiny. It is why God created us. He calls us to be heroes of love. For this purpose, God made us in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). He endowed us with the capacity to love (Luke 17:20-21). Our hearts are vessels that can be filled to the brim with love. Love is our superpower. The greater is the love that we hold in our hearts, the greater is our resemblance to God. A saint is a child of Adam and Eve who bears an uncanny resemblance to God. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another“ (John 13:35) (Matthew 22:36-40) (1 John 4: 7-12). Deification is the process of increasing our resemblance to God. Only love makes us holy. Only love deifies us.

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(00633) (00394)
(1) The Treasure Hunt
(2)To love is in our self-interest

[¶ 00001 Updated: 08_21_2024]

The Radical Love of God is the bait that Jesus used to fish for the children of Adam and Eve (00227)
The radical love of God catches fish hook, line and sinker. Why fish with any other bait?

The love of God is radical in all of its dimensions. In size, it is prodigious. In scope, it is inclusive, and in durability, intransigent. Radicalness is the sweetner. It raises the love of God to a higher, more sublime level of sweetness. Jesus cast the sweet bait into the hostile desert of godlessness to fish for the children of Adam and Eve. When you fish for the children of Adam and Eve, bait your hook as Jesus baited his. Bait your hook with the radical love of God. The radical love of God catches fish hook, line and sinker. Why fish with any other bait?

"As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:18-19).

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(1) Index: The Bait (00228)
(2) Index: The Pursuit of the Radical Love of God (00132)
(3) Index: The Radical Love of God (00167)
(4) Index: The Dimensions of the Love of God (00234)
(5) Index: The Size of the Love of God (00230)
(6) Index: The Scope of the Love of God (00231)
(7) Index: The Durability of the Love of God (00232)
(8) Index: The Sweetness of God (00233)
(9) Index: Fishing for the Children of Adam and Eve (00235)
[¶ 00227 Updated: 02_08_2024b]

The Suffering and Dying God of the Christians (00583)

The paradoxical oxymoron of a suffering and dying God, conceived in the Incarnation, was born in the fire of the Crucifixion (00521). The almighty had made himself weak and, in weakness, his strength was made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). In weakness - with only his limited human resources - Jesus entered the fire of the Crucifixion. Jesus' strength was not his magical divine powers. Jesus' strength was his love. Forgiveness perfected his strength. Forgivenes is perfect love - love under circumstances where love ought not exist.

God's power made paradise for us. God's love for us, however, is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet. Power begets respect. But love begets love - only love begets love.

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[¶ 00583 Updated: 07_31_2024]

Singularity versus Duality (00584)

If the Crucifixion was a singularity and not a duality - if the Cross was monopolar and not bipolar - if we only hung hell to the Cross and Jesus did not hang heaven - if there was only punishment for the evils that we had done to Jesus and no forgiveness, then humanity is doomed. The evidence, however, points to the duality of the Crucifixion, the bipolarity of the Cross, the double hanging of hell and heaven to the Cross, and forgiveness not punishment. The evidence points to our salvation. Fear not! Jesus saved us!

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[¶ 00584 Updated: 08_01_2024]

Like Moses, let us turn aside to see the great sight (00578)
Listen to the sizzle of Christianity as the bush burns but is not consumed.

We burned the bush but the conflagration did not consume his love for us. His love for us survived the conflagration. Jesus is the burning bush. The gruesome ordeal that we put Jesus through did not extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in his most Sacred Heart or reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. It did not stop Jesus from continuing to love us nonetheless. It still burns but is not consumed. Infinite is the love of God. It is a love without limits, radical in size, scope and intransigence. The dial that controls God's 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 evils that we did to the Son of God could budge it. The burning bush is the only thing that makes us turn aside, like Moses, to see the great sight (Exodus 3:1-3). It excites our curiosity in God. It is the engine that energizes the pursuit of God.

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[¶ 00578 Updated: 07_30_2024]

A Modest Proposal (00576)

A lacuna existed in the Creeds of Christianity (Apostles' Creed) (Nicene Creed). The gap is so big that a truck can be driven through it. Missing after the part where Jesus "was crucified, died and was buried;" is language that says, "He forgave us for the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion." Such language would make clear the bipolarity of the Cross - the duality of the Crucifixion. It would highlight the intersection of heaven and hell upon the earth. No change in doctrine. Just a change in emphasis. A tweak - nothing more.

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[¶ 00576 Updated: 07_29_2024]

Come, meet your God! Where? At the intersection of heaven and hell (00577)

The Crucifixion was the venue that hosted the intersection of heaven and hell upon the earth (00382). In the Crucifixion, the duality of heaven and hell took place. In the Crucifixion, Jesus brought the heaven. We brought the hell. The collision of 'matter' and 'anti-matter' changed our world by upgrading our understanding of God (00289). In the dichotomy of the Crucifixion, Jesus revealed the truth about our God. The revelation is the Good News of Great Joy. Jesus forgave his enemies for the evils that we had done to him. Forgiveness is our God. Forgiveness is the apotheosis of the radical love of God. Jesus was the tangible expression of God's radical love for us - its incarnate articulation (00142) (1 John 4:8) (Luke 6:45). Jesus was the Love that God had sent us in the Incarnation to answer the question, 'Who is God?' (00268) (00530).

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[¶ 00577 Updated: 07_30_2024]

Jesus created his Magnum Opus in brave defiance of the fire of the Crucifixion (00568)

When you look at the Crucifixion, what do you see (00536)? Do you see a cripple hopping about on one leg or an athlete running swiftly on two? The Crucifixion is a two legged creature of God. One leg is heaven, the other, hell. The Crucifixion was bipolar - a duality. God joined heaven and hell together during the Crucifixion. Jesus brought the heaven; we brought the hell. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9) (00561) (00557) (00536) (00532) (00512) (00511) (00530). When we fail to recognize the duality of the Crucifixion - that is, the heaven that Jesus hung from the Cross and the hell that we hung - we empty the Crucifixion of its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). Failing to recognize the duality of the Crucifixion destroys the energy gradient between heaven and hell and, thereby, saps the Crucifixion of its sizzle. It de-energizes the revelation of the radical love of God that the combination of forgiveness and the fire of the Crucifixion convey. Emptying the Cross of Christ of its meaning is a huge obstacle in the way of the pursuit of God.

Jesus, the artist, created his Masterpiece of Love with the gentle brush of forgiveness on the fiery canvas of the Crucifixion (00351). Jesus also paid the cost of its creation out of his own pocket with the coin of his flesh and blood. The cost was exorbitant. We made Jesus pay all of his limited human resources in the fire of the Crucifixion. We did not let him keep a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. What other artist does his best work in such adverse circumstances? What other artist creates the beauty of heaven in the ugliness of hell? The fire of the Crucifixion was the hostile foil (00156) (00406) in which Jesus set the jewel of his Magnum Opus (00358). The fire of the Crucifixion was the showcase in which Jesus put the beauty of forgiveness on public display for the children of Adam and Eve regardless of religion to behold. In the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus gave birth to forgiveness (Luke 2:7) - the first-born, most gentle and sweetest progeny of the radical love of God. Such artwork is a prodigy without peer. It has no equal. Moreover, Jesus showed us our artistic potential by fulfilling his (00492) (00227). He set the standard for beauty. Love is the gold standard against which Christianity measures all things (00493) (00567).

'Who are you, Jesus? Identify yourself! Friend or foe?' We interrogated Jesus with lash, thorns, nails and Cross. We gave him the third degree. In answer, he forgave us. Forgiveness identifies him as our friend not our foe - a dear, dear friend. Forgiveness was his unequivocal declaration of friendship that he published from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity. Rally 'round the bipolar cross! Its duality illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of apocalyptic epiphany. It is the rock (Matthew 7:24-27) on which the wise anchor their understanding of God.

We broke Jesus' most Sacred heart when we ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. With forgiveness, Jesus glued the pieces back together again. Love fixed it.

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[¶ 00568 Updated: 07_28_2024]

Peak Verification (00572)
The purpose of the fire of the Crucifixion was to be part of the verification of the Love Note that God had written to us in the Incarnation to answer the question, 'Who is God?' (00474). In the Incarnation, Divinity disarmed (00149) (00521). Divinity defortified himself. On the brink of mortal combat with the monster of the Crucifixion, Jesus doffed his invincible armor of divinity and donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood so Jesus could also be part of the verification. In the fire of the Crucifixion, the oxymoron of the suffering and dying God was born (00228). Jesus suffered and died so he could forgive us. Forgiveness demonstrated the radical love of God for us. Forgiveness was the key that unlocked the enigmatic black box in which our God was hiding from us (Isaiah 45:15) (Psalm 91:1) (00319).

Verification of the radical love of God reached its climax when Jesus forgave us for the evils that we did to him in the fire of the Crucifixion. At peak verification, the radical love of God for the children of Adam and Eve was revealed. It was published. Jesus deposited the revelation into the public domain (00329) (00564). Forgiveness and the fire of the Crucifixion are inextricably intertwined in the process of the verification of the genuineness of the Love Note. Leave the fire of the Crucifixion out and there is no verification. Leave forgiveness out and there is no verification. Both are essential elements of a single unit of apocalyptic revelation. We brought hell to the Crucifixion. Jesus brought heaven. Duality is the hallmark of the Crucifixion. Omit the duality of the Crucifixion and we empty the Crucifixion of its meaning (1 Corinthians 1:17). Duality is the ingredient that gives the Crucifixion its sizzle. The duality of the Crucifixion is the gravamen of Christianity - superior to everything else. Everything else is obiter dicta (00459).

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[¶ 00572 Updated: 07_29_2024]

In the Incarnation, God sent us a Love Note. Jesus was the tangible expression of God's radical love for us - its incarnate articulation (1 John 4:8) (Luke 6:45). In the Crucifixion, God wrote the verification of the Love Note in the indelible ink of radical forgiveness. Radical forgiveness is the reflection of the radical love of God. Radical forgiveness is the intrusion of divinity into our godless world.

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The Verification of the Love Note that God had sent us in the Incarnation (00452)
[¶ 00142 Updated: 05_20_2024]

Why is the most Holy Eucharist, in the context of the Mass, important? (00574)

Why is the most Holy Eucharist, in the context of the Mass, important? The most Holy Eucharist, in the context of the Mass, is important because it is a Victory Party (00558) (00556) at which the duality of the Crucifixion (00572) (00568) is re-enacted and Jesus, the hero of the Crucifixion, is celebrated. He is celebrated for bringing heaven to hell - for hanging sweet forgivenes to the Cross in bold defiance of the fact that, during the Crucifixion, we incinerated his flesh and blood in the fire of hell - we used his flesh and blood as flammable kindling to ignite and fuel the fire of the Crucifixion. In the laboratory of the Crucifixion, we subjected Jesus to a gruesome experiment. "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. " (Wisdom 2: 19). We tortured and killed Jesus. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. Do not the circumstances make it highly unlikely - extremely improbable - that Jesus would continue to love us? Yet, his radical love for us did not fade as we tortured him and did not die when we killed him. The bonfire of love that burns for us in his most Sacred Heart was neither extinguished by the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion nor was its intensity reduced by even the slightest degree. He continued to love us nonetheless. His love for us survived the evils that we did to him in the fire of the Crucifixion. Although we celebrate Jesus, the hero of the Crucifixion, during Eucharistic Adoration, there is no re-enacrment of the duality of the Crucifixion during it. Hence, the most Holy Eucharist in the context of the Mass is a superior form of liturgy (00549). The re-enactment of the duality of the Crucifixion is important because it is the vehicle that conveys the revelation about the radical love of God to the children of Adam and Eve (00558). At Mass, Jesus, the hero of the Crucifixion, makes and serves a meal of bread and wine to his enemies who had kindled and fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. He makes and serves his enemies a meal of bread and wine while they are still chewing his flesh in their mouths and his blood is still staining their hands (00573). He included his enemies within the scope of his love so we would recognize and appreciate the radicalness of his love (00558) (00103) for the children of Adam and Eve (Matthew 22: 8-10) (Matthew 13:47). If his love for the children of Adam and Eve were ordinary instead of radical, would Jesus have included his enemies within the scope of his love? In the context of a Mass, Jesus' enemies approach the altar to take from him his flesh and blood. They leave the altar with bread and wine. They experience for themselves the duality of the Crucifixion - the bipolarity of heaven and hell. Who but our radically philanthropic God satisfies the hunger of his enemies with bread, quenches their thirst with wine and fills their bellies with forgiveness (00370) (00561) (00539)? The meal of bread and wine that Jesus makes and serves in the context of a Mass is the apotheosis of radical forgiveness. The meal of bread and wine is the irrefutable proof that his love for us survived the evils that we did to him. His love for us is radically intransigent. Jesus won his victory in mortal combat with the monster of the Crucifixion when he boldly defied the fire of the Crucifixion to perform the miracle of forgiveness (00573) (00570) in its midst. The bush burned but the radical love of God was not consumed (00578)! Making and serving a meal of bread and wine in the context of a Mass re-enacts his victory. Eat! Drink! For our Lord has revealed and verified the Love Note that God had sent us in the Incarnation in a glorious victory on the battlefield of the Crucifixion. Rally 'round the bipolar Cross and remember the duality of the Crucifixion!

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[¶ 00574 Updated: 07_31_2024]

The most Holy Eucharist is the comestible confirmation of the radical love of God (00370)
The Word of God (John 1:1) was the master of the art of non-verbal communication (1 Kings 19:11-13). He makes and serves us a meal of bread and wine. He satisfies our hunger with bread. He quenches our thirst with wine. He fills our bellies with the food and drink of forgiveness. He gives us a seat at the family table, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort and joy of the family tent. He includes his enemies in the scope of his generosity even though they ignited and fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. He included his enemies so we would recognize and appreciate the radicalness of his love for the children of Adam and Eve (Matthew 22: 8-10) (Matthew 13:47).

The most Holy Eucharist is the comestible confirmation of the radical love of God. It is perfection in the non-verbal expression of forgiveness. There is no better or more persuasive way to express forgiveness non-verbally than by satisfying the hunger and quenching the thirst of the enemies who still have your flesh in their mouths and your blood on their hands. The Word of God (John 1:1) was the master of the art of non-verbal communication.

Our God reduces himself to a lower level of complexity to communicate with us (Isaiah 55:8-9).

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[¶ 00370 Updated: 04_06_2024]

"Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests" (Matthew 22: 8-10) (Matthew 13:47).

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[¶ 00571 Updated: 07_27_2024]

The miracle of God's continued love for us verified its genuineness (00253)
The survival of Jesus' love for us is the verification of its genuineness. It is the proof. The Love Note that God sent us in the Incarnation is real.

Jesus continued his love for us in circumstances that made it extraordinarily difficult for him to love us. The circumstances in which Jesus set his love for us made us ineligible for his love. They disqualified us. In the laboratory of the Crucifixion, we subjected Jesus to a gruesome experiment. "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. " (Wisdom 2: 19). We tortured and killed Jesus. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. Don't the circumstances make it highly unlikely that Jesus would continue to love us? Wouldn't any love for us have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him? Love does not grow in the toxic soil of evils. It is a sterile matrix - utterly barren - hostile in the extreme. So when love in the form of forgiveness germinated, sprouted and grew, we beheld a miracle. It was completely unexpected - an utter surprise. The greater were the evils that we did to Jesus in the fire of the Crucifixion, the more glorious is the miracle.

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[¶ 00253 Updated: 07_27_2024]

The origin of Christianity (00268)
God blessed us with a Love Note and its Verification -two gifts not one

'Who are you, God? Identify yourself. Friend or foe?' God could have answered the question, 'Who is God?', in many different ways. He had a variety of options. Yet, the answer that God settled upon was not a threat, a warning or some other type of ominous communication. God thought that the best way to answer the question, 'Who is God?', was to send us a Love Note. Jesus was the Love Note that God sent us. Jesus, the Word of God (John 1:1), was the tangible expression of the radical love of God - its incarnate articulation (1 John 4:8) (Luke 6:45). Wow! Christianity is the religion that began with a Love Note - a Love Note from God to us. What an auspicious origin! We didn't deserve the Love Note. Yet, our God sent it to us anyway. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). Moreover, God did not stop his gift giving at the Love Note. The Love Note was not the end of the story. God also blessed us with a Verification of the Love Note. The verification is the cherry that God put on top of the Love Note. It is the icing on the cake. Jesus verified the genuineness of the Love Note. The Love Note was verified in the gruesome experiment that we cruelly administered to Jesus in the laboratory of the Crucifixion. Are you privy to the gruesome experiment? Instead of giving his enemies the punishment that they justly deserved for taking from him his flesh and blood, Jesus blessed them with the priceless gift of forgiveness. His enemies did not deserve it, but Jesus gave the gift of forgiveness to them anyway. Jesus forgave his enemies for the evils that we did to him (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63). He forgave his enemies even though we still had his flesh in our mouths and his blood on our hands. Who does this? What does this tell us about our God? God wrote the verification of the Love Note in the indelible ink of radical forgiveness. Radical forgiveness reflected and confirmed God's radical love for the children of Adam and Eve. A Love Note and a Verification of its genuineness - two great gifts not one - were provided by God to us. By sending them to us, God jump started the process of our conversion. He did not wait for our conversion to forgive us; he forgave us to bring about our conversion. Love begets love. Only love begets love. So, Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19). We love him because he loved us first.

Isn't God's explanation of himself surprising? He defines himself by expressing his radical love for us. Our God is the God who loves us. He explains himself much differently than we try to explain him, no?

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[¶ 00268 Updated: 06_12_2024]

Jesus completed his Magnum Opus when he brought heaven to hell (00323)
Hell was the fire of the Crucifixion; heaven was forgiveness.
Jesus is the artist who embellished the canvas of the Crucifixion with the beauty of forgiveness. In the hell of the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion, Jesus completed his Magnum Opus. What other artist works so successfully in such adverse conditions? Jesus showed us our potential. Embellishment is our superpower. Life is a beauty contest (00535) (00493). We are beauticians. Jesus set the standard of beauty on the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion. Like Jesus, our job is to embellish the canvas of life with heaven. If we are not embellishing the canvas of life with heaven as Jesus did, we are not doing Christianity - we are not following Jesus.

Jesus is the vehicle that transported heaven to hell to reveal God to us. In the hell that we made for Jesus by the evils that we did to him during his Crucifixion, Jesus delivered to us the perfect expression of the answer to the question, 'Who is God?'. Jesus forgave us. Jesus testified to the fact that forgiveness is God. He gave his testimony in hell. Hell was an absurd venue for his testimony. Yet, the asymmetry of the venue and the testimony is precisely the punch that gobsmacks us. It knocks us off our horse (Acts 9:4-6). Furthermore, Jesus launched a fleet of vehicles that carry the same load and whose purpose is to deliver heaven to the children of Adam and Eve incarcerated in hell. Are you part of Jesus' fleet? Are you delivering heaven to hell? Doing so brings about the golden age of Christianity upon the earth.

We bring heaven to hell when we give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, companionship to the stranger, clothes to the naked, care for the ill and make visits to prisoners (Matthew 25:33-40). Jesus did not say to throw the codex of rules, regulations, red tape and rigmarole at the heads of those not in compliance with it. Being out of compliance is not one of the 'hells' of human existence that Jesus had in mind nor was turning the rulebook into a weapon a solution that he embraced. [Contrast this with Coloring Book Christianity by clicking here (00184)] (00508) (00247).

"Do something beautiful for God" Mother Teresa (Amazon).

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[¶ 00323 Updated: 07_13b_2024]

Preach the duality of the Crucifixion then get out of the way to let God go to work (00355)
Do you see what I see? Do you see the duality of the Crucifixion?
The Crucifixion was a duality. The Cross was bipolar. Both hell and heaven hung from it. We hung the hell. Jesus hung the heaven. The energy gradient between heaven and hell powers the revelation of the radical love of God. It gives the revelation its sizzle. The hell that we hung is the foil that highlights and emphasizes and intensifies and magnifies and amplifies and accentuates and underlines and energizes the heaven that Jesus hung.

What was hung from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity? What we hung on the Cross was different than what Jesus hung - radically different. We hung a tortured and dying corpse of flesh and blood. Jesus hung the radical love of God. We hung hell; Jesus hung heaven. We took from him his flesh and blood. He, however, did not give us what we took. Instead of flesh and blood, he gave us bread and wine. We deserved punishment for what we did to Jesus. In lieu of punishment, Jesus substituted forgiveness. The Cross was bipolar. Both hell and heaven hung from it. The energy gradient between heaven and hell powers the revelation of the radical love of God. It gives the revelation its sizzle. Most, however, only see what we hung. Few see what Jesus hung. The hell of the Cross blinds them to its heaven. Jesus hung the radical love of God from the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). Salute the flag (Romans 14:11)! Rally 'round the Cross (1 Corinthians 1:17)!

When our blindness ends and we are able to see that there were two hangings from the Cross not just one, we will have become fully fledged Christians.

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[¶ 00355 Updated: 07_27_2024]

Preach the wonderous deeds that Jesus did in the fire of the Crucifixion to build our understanding of the radical love of God (00530)
The Crucifixion was a duality - a combination of heaven and hell. Without an understanding of the duality of the Crucifixion, any claim of being a Christian is bogus. So, Christian, articulate the duality of the Crucifixion. Put it into words. Show us your bona fides! Verify your claim of being a Christian by demonstrating your understanding of the duality of the Crucifixion.

Belief in the radical love of God is not a luxury. It is a necessity. The radical love of God (00152) is the knowledge that saves us from destruction (00151) (00494). We only acquire it, however, by serious contemplation of the Fire and Water of the Crucifixion, that is, its bipolarity. So, cleric, do your job! Propagate the Fire and Water of the Crucifixion - the Crucifixion's bipolarity - from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. But, please, before you begin, try to understand them yourself first! All Christian professionals - in order to do their job - must acquaint themselves with and become privy to the Fire and Water of the Crucifixion. An understanding of the bipolarity of the Crucifixion is a must - a sine qua non - for the Christian professional.

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[¶ 00530 Updated: 07_27_2024]

What is God's desire for us? (00535)

God wants us to live a life refined by love (00493). He wants us to garnish the canvas of life with the beauty of love, that is, with heaven (00323) (00516) (00522) (00487) (00492) (00493) (00491) (00486) (00316) (00482). He wants the nobility of love to enter and abide in our hearts. Love supercharges life. A life without love is a tabula rasa. It is salt without flavor (Matthew 5:13) (00495). Love is life in abundance (John 10:10). Love embellishes life. Love is the treasure of Christianity.

Love is the grease that lubricates the wheels of our passage through the hostile desert of godlessness. Love reduces the friction and enables us to slip through life.

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(00323)
[¶ 00535 Updated: 07_24_2024]

The Purpose of Life (00492)

What is the purpose of life? Our purpose is to embellish the canvas of life with the various pigments of love. Jesus did this in his Magnum Opus. In answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion, Jesus revealed our purpose and demonstrated our potential. He forgave us for the evils that we did to him (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:6-7). Forgivenes is the sweetest of the sweet fruits of love. The deposit of forgiveness into the foil of evils made a masterpiece of incomparable beauty. Our job is to make our own masterpieces as Jesus made his. Our job is to add beauty to the canvas of life as Jesus did. We are capable. We are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) (00394). This is our superpower (00493). What is stopping us from pulling the trigger?

Would that our clerical teachers do their jobs and start to explain to us with confidence our purpose in life. We cannot exercise a superpower we do not know that we have. A word to the wise is sufficient!

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[¶ 00492 Updated: 07_06_2024]

Christians follow Jesus from godlessness through the Fire of the Crucifixion to the Revelation of the Radical Love of God (00521)
In the Fire of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) Jesus forged the key of forgiveness. The key of forgiveness opened the gate to the kingdom of God (Matthew 7:13-14) (00502). Repentance is the vehicle that takes us through the gate, across the threshold and into the kingdom of God. "... Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17) (00501) (00126).

Between godlessness and the revelation of the radical love of God burned the Fire of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20). A hero was needed to take the children of Adam and Eve through the fire of the Crucifixion from godlessness to the revelation. Jesus was the hero who made the epic journey. The manner in which he made the journey to the revelation was heroic because, in the Incarnation, he had disarmed. He had defortified himself. He had divested himself of the full panoply of divinity. Defortification on the brink of war is so contrary to human logic that it boggles the mind. What rational human general does this? Even a military novice would reject a strategy of disarmament. Only an insane combattant would rig himself for defeat, right? Yet, Jesus doffed his invincible armor of divinity in the Incarnation and donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood. Dressed like us in his divinity depleted state, Jesus put himself in harm's way. He entered the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the war against evils (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16), cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies. The almighty had made himself weak and, in weakness, his strength was made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). In weakness - with only his limited human resources - Jesus entered the fire of the Crucifixion. In the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus revealed our salvation. We ignited and fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the kindling of his flesh and blood. Jesus extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness (John 7:37-38). Glorious victory immersed ignominious defeat (00514) (00293). It overwhelmed it. Moreover, by extinguishing the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness, Jesus showed us our superpower (00492) (00182). Like Jesus, we, too, can extinguish the fire.

In what direction was Jesus headed during his time with us on earth? He was headed in the direction of the revelation of the radical love of God. Between Jesus and the Revelation was the fire of the Crucifixion. The fire of the Crucifixion was a daunting obstacle in his way, indeed (Matthew 20:22). Yet, Jesus had the courage to immolate himself in the fire of the Crucifixion (Daniel 3:16-28) even though, in the Incarnation, he had doffed his invincible armor of divinity and donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood. In the Incarnation, He became one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. He proceeded because getting to the the revelation of the radical love of God was crucial for our salvation. Jesus put himself in harm's way for us. Wow! Who could have predicted such a courageous sacrifice by our Creator for creatures so unworthy that they were still chewing his flesh in their mouths with their teeth and their hands were still stained red with the blood from his wounds? Only radical love pushed him through the fire of the Crucifixion to forge the key of forgiveness for them. Radical love was his motivation. No radical love; no passage through the fire of the Crucifixion; no forging of the key of forgiveness; no opening of the gate to paradise; no salvation (00297).

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[¶ 00521 Updated: 07_08_2024e]

In the fire of the Crucifixion - an inferno that we had ignited and fueled with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood -, Jesus released the spirit of forgiveness. In doing so, Jesus revealed the radical love of God to us. Who would have guessed that our God would have answered the atrocities that we did to him in such a gentle manner (00561) (00512) (00496) (00499) (00466) (00460) (00450) (00434)? We did not deserve such gentleness; yet, he blessed us with it anyway. What a God is our God! What a delight!

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[¶ 00566 Updated: 07_22_2024]

How radical is the love of God? (00557)
The bipolarity of the Crucifixion is the irrefutable proof of the radicalness of the love of God. On the Cross, we hung hell; Jesus hung heaven. The Crucifixion could not get any more antipodal than this, could it? It could not be any more radically asymmetric, right?

How radical is the love of God? Jesus continued to love his enemies who had ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. Jesus did not exclude them from the scope of his love. They deserved exclusion as punishment for their crimes against him. They were guilty. Yet, he included them. "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7). While we were unrepentant (Matthew 22:10) sinners (Romans 5:8) (Matthew 7:6), Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19). The Word of God (John 1:1) expressed his love to them by releasing the spirit of forgiveness into the fire of the Crucifixion. The spirit of forgiveness extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion. We started the fire. Forgiveness put the fire out (00529) (00425) (00248) (00554) (00536) (00037). Forgiveness gobsmacks us. It delivers a powerful wallop - so powerful that it knocks us off our horses (Acts 9:4-6). We squirm under the overwhelming weight of the radical love of God (00508) (00316). Only the overwhelming weight of the radical love of God squeezes the sin out of us (00518). The radical love of God is the magic that turns settlers into pilgrims and sinners into saints (00303) (00037) (00446). The radical love of God gives Christianity its magic, Jesus his charisma, us, our joy, and evangelists, who exclusively devote themselves to propagating it, the power to change the world. Embrace the magic! The radical love of God is the Good News of Great Joy.

If his love for the children of Adam and Eve were ordinary instead of radical, would Jesus have included his enemies within the scope of his love?

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[¶ 00557 Updated: 07_18_2024]

The Fire of the Crucifixion is the football of Christianity (00548)
Rally 'round the bipolar Cross (00323)!

The fire of the Crucifixion is the football that Christians carry into the end zone. Without the football, the great game of Christianity cannot be played. The job of a football coach is to give his players the ball.

Note: Jesus waged and won the war against evils in the fire of the Crucifixion. Jesus won and became the hero of the Crucifixion when he released the spirit of forgiveness onto the battlefield of the Crucifixion while we were igniting and fueling the fire of the Crucifixion with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. The spirit of forgiveness - the sweetest of the sweet fruits of love - has accomplished many great and wonderous prodigies including but not limited to extinguishing the fire of the Crucifixion. We started the fire. Forgiveness put the fire out. Forgiveness neutralized it.

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[¶ 00548 Updated: 07_17_2024]

The Bipolarity of the most Holy Eucharist is a reflection of the bipolarity of the Crucifixion (00561)
When you look at the most Holy Eucharist, what do you see? Do you see a cripple hopping about on one leg or an athlete swiftly running on two? The most Holy Eucharist is a two legged creature of God. One leg is heaven, the other, hell. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9).

The Crucifixion was bipolar. We brought hell to it. Jesus brought heaven. We tortured and killed him. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him to the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. Jesus, however, did not hang mute. His tongue was not nailed to the Cross. He did not take the fifth. Jesus answered the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Conventional biblical wisdom created the expectation of "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48), Thankfully for us, Jesus defied the conventional biblical wisdom (Isaiah 55:8-9) and forgave us (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:6-7). He did not give us the punishment that we deserved. He did not answer the evils that we did to him in kind. He did not give us a taste of our own medicine. He did not take from us the coin of our flesh and blood as we took them from him. His answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion was radically asymmetric, that is, bipolar. The bipolarity of the Crucifixion was the vehicle that conveyed the apocalyptic revelation of the radical love of God to the children of Adam and Eve.

Our God designed the most Holy Eucharist to be a reflection of the bipolarity of the Crucifixion. At Mass, glorious victory erupts from ignominious defeat by virtue of the most Holy Eucharist. To achieve the bipolarity of the most Holy Eucharist, Jesus amalgamated bread, wine, flesh and blood into the most Holy Eucharist - a single unit of apocalyptic revelation. In so doing, Jesus made the abstract concepts of ignominious defeat and glorious victory concrete. Jesus announced the amalgamation at the Last Supper. We take from Jesus and consume his flesh and blood. This is the hell that we brought to the Crucifixion. We ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. The answer that Jesus brings to the Crucifixion is heaven. He serves us a meal of bread and wine. He satisfies our hunger with bread. He quenches our thirst with wine. He fills our bellies with the food and drink of forgiveness. He gives us a seat at the family table, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort and joy of the family tent.

Bipolar was the Crucifixion - a combination of heaven and hell. Bipolar is the most Holy Eucharist, the same combination of heaven and hell. The combination of heaven and hell reveals the radicalness of God's love for the children of Adam and Eve. We gave him hell. Still, God gives us heaven (00356) (00325) (00506) (00355). In the fire of the Crucifixion, we discovered that that the dial that controls God's 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 evils that we did to him could budge it.

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[¶ 00561 Updated: 07_21_2024]

What is the worst enemy of Christianity? (00552)
Jesus waged and won the war against evils in the fire of the Crucifixion. Do you understand how he accomplished his victory - what he did to achieve it? Are you privy to his glorious victory and the ignominious defeat that gave rise to it? Can you articulate it? If you do not have the words to articulate Jesus' victory, you do not understand Christianity no matter how much you claim to be a Christian.

Hint: The taking of the most Holy Eucharist by the congregation at Mass corresponds to Jesus' ignominious defeat. We took from him his flesh and blood even though his flesh and blood was his to keep not ours to take. The giving of the most Holy Eucharist by a priest in persona Christi corresponds to Jesus' glorious victory. He gave to us bread and wine even though we deserved punishment not forgiveness. Jesus gave the most Holy Eucharist a dual identity at the Last Supper. It is two sides of the same coin. In the taking of the most Holy Eucharist the side of the coin that matters is flesh and blood. The flesh and blood side of the coin is the hell that we brought to the Crucifixion. In the giving of the most Holy Eucharist the side of the coin that matters is bread and wine. The bread and wine side of the coin is the heaven that Jesus brought to the Crucifixion. The Crucifixion was bipolar. Hence, the most Holy Eucharist is bipolar. The Last Supper introduced the bipolarity of the most Holy Eucharist to correspond to the hell that we brought to the table and the heaven that Jesus brought. Flesh and blood for hell. Bread and wine for heaven. (00549) (00379) (00539).

The worst enemy of Christianity is not the hostile, secular culture. It is not the external enemy. The worst enemy of Christianity is the Christian who dilutes the radical love of God (00551) (00509) (00423) (00555) (00152). The radical love of God is divinity concentrated. The radical love of God in its highest and purest concentration, undiluted by time and space, unalloyed by evil, is Jesus “…God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). There was no room for evil to enter the inn of his most Sacred Heart (Luke 2:7). Love had reserved all of the space for itself. The worst enemy of Christianity is the Christian who shrinks the size of the radical love of God, narrows its scope and undermines its durability (00555) (00152). The worst enemy is the Christian zealot who claims to be a Christian but who does not have a clue about the revelation of the radical love of God that Jesus released in the fire of the Crucifixion. The ignorant Christian zealot rots Christianity from within. Beware of the cancer of ignorant Christian zealots who consume the body of Christ from within (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)! They reveal themselves by overweighting morality and underweighting theology in the Christian scheme of things. Their portfolio is out of balance (00311) (00131) - their Christianity is out of whack.

The problem is that the Church has invested so much in the doctrine of the real presence that it is nigh near impossible to pry its iron grip from it (Matthew 19:26). This is so given its allegiance to the procedural doctrines of infallibility and the hermeneutic of continuance. They restrict its room to maneuver dramatically. Once the course is set it is hard to change. Course corrections mid stream are frowned upon - to put it mildly. The Church would rather be consistent than right. However, upon closer scrutiny of the lens of presence to view the most Holy Eucharist compared to the lens of glorious victory, the superiority of the lens of glorious victory is quickly apprehended, and the iron grip weakens. Remember, the doctrine of the real presence is not wrong. The Church has not made an error. It is just not quite right. Jesus designed the Mass to express his ignominious defeat and glorious victory by means of re-enactment. The taking and giving of the most Holy Eucharist are the re-enactment. Presence does not rise to the task. Presence does not re-enact. Presence obfuscates the re-enactment. Glorious victory illuminates. Our thinking about the most Holy Eucharist at Mass must evolve - it needs updating - it needs to reach, not merely approach, the fullness of truth.

"No man will give his life for a question mark; he will for an exclamation point" (Timothy Cardinal Dolan, New York Times, July 10, 2024, America’s New Catholic Priests: Young, Confident and Conservative by Ruth Graham ). The apocalyptic revelation about the radical love of God that erupted from the theology of the fire of the Crucifixion is the exclamation point!

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(00551) (00509) (00423). (00152) (00549).
[¶ 00552 Updated: 07_20_2024]

Do you appreciate God's radical philanthropy? (00554)

Our God is a gift-giver - a radical philanthropist. In the Incarnation, He sent us a Love Note (00452) (00142) (00268) (00084) (00094) (00251) (00046) (00474) (00152). Moreover, God did not stop his gift giving at the Love Note. The Love Note was not the end of the story. God also blessed us with a Verification of the Love Note. The verification is the cherry that God put on top of the Love Note. It is the icing on the cake. Jesus verified the genuineness of the Love Note. The Love Note was verified in the demonstration of forgiveness that unfolded in the gruesome experiment that we cruelly administered to Jesus in the laboratory of the Crucifixion. "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is and make trial of his forbearance" (Wisdom 2: 17-20). If the Love Note were counterfeit, God's love for us would have faded as we tortured Jesus and died when we killed him. But it did not. God's love for us survived the evils that we did to Jesus. Its survival is the verification. The evils that we did to Jesus did not extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in God's most Sacred Heart or reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. The dial that controls the radical love of God is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. Not even the evils that we did to the flesh and blood of the Son of God could budge it. The burning bush burns but it is not consumed (Exodus 3:1-3)! We set it on fire. Are you privy to the gruesome experiment? Do you appreciate God's philanthropy?

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[¶ 00554 Updated: 07_30_2024]

Who is the hero of Christianity, what exactly was his victory, how do we celebrate him and his victory today? (00558)

The hero of Christianity is the hero of the Crucifixion. In the fire of the Crucifixion, the hero of Christianity invested all of his limited human resources. He spent them all. He kept not a penny of the coin of his flesh and blood in the bank in reserve for himself. He has never spent more for anything else. The size of his investment in the Crucificion is a very good indicator of its importance within the Christian scheme of things, that is, the framework of Christianity. Moreover, the size of his investment also is a high fidelity reflection of the humongous size of his radical love for us.

Let us begin the story of the Crucifixion with its villain. We ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. By the evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion, we waged war against our God. We tortured and killed him. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him to the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. We made ourselves God's enemies. The evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion served as the foil that highlighted and emphasized and intensified and magnified and amplified and accentuated and underlined and energized the glorious victory that Jesus engineered in the fire of the Crucifixion.

What exactly is the glorious victory that erupted from the ignominious defeat that befell Jesus in the fire of the Crucifixion? Victory was won the moment that Jesus released the spirit of forgiveness in the fire of the Crucifixion. The spirit of forgiveness accomplished many great and wonderous prodigies. It extinguished the the fire of the Crucifixion. We lit the fire. Forgiveness snuffed it out. It opened the narrow gate into the kingdom of God. Now we can cross the theshold into Paradise on the vehicle of repentance. It confronts us with the radical love of God. It challenges us to grips with it - to reconcile ourselves to it. It showed us our artistic potential. We, too, can beautify the canvas of life with the gentle brush of love even in the most hostile circumstances. Am I leaving any of the great and wondrous prodigies that arose from the outpouring of the spirit of forgiveness out? Have I named them all?

Today, we celebrate his glorious victory at the Mass. The Mass is a memorial, celebration and re-enactment of his victory. The Mass is a victory party not a presence party (00556). It celebrates the apotheosis of forgiveness that Jesus achieved when he serves a meal of bread and wine to his enemies who had ignited and fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. At Mass, we approach the altar of sacrifice to take from Jesus his flesh and blood. The flames of candles flicker around the altar to remind us that the fire of the Crucifixion consumed his flesh and blood. Jesus, however, does not give us exactly what we take. At the Last Supper, Jesus substituted bread and wine for his flesh and blood. He incarnated forgiveness into shells of bread and wine. He made the abstract concept of forgiveness tangible, concrete and comestible (00425). Is there a better, more persuasive way to express forgiveness than by serving your enemies a meal? At the Last Supper, Jesus turned the altar of sacrifice into a table of forgiveness - ignominious defeat into glorious victory via the magic of forgiveness. We approached the altar for his flesh and blood. We leave the altar with the apotheosis of forgiveness, that is, with a meal of bread and wine. As the Crucifixion released Jesus from his shell of flesh and blood, our consumption of the meal releases him from his shell of bread and wine so he can build the kingdom of God within us (00425). After the Mass is complete the flames of the candles around the altar are extinguished to remind us that forgiveness extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion. The Mass propagates Jesus' glorious victory from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now.

Viewing the Mass as a victory party instead of a presence party is a better interpretation of the Mass. In this way of looking at the Mass, there is a stronger correspondence between the Mass and the Crucifixion. Presence is colorless. Presence is odorless. It is neutral in flavor. It is drab. There are no fireworks in presence. Presence is an enigmatic black box. Viewing the Mass as a presence party robs it of its pizzazz. Victory is the ingredient that makes the Mass sizzle (00506)

For the stubborn among us who obstinately persist in viewing the Mass as a presence party instead of as a victory party, ask yourselves, 'What Christian liturgy celebrates Jesus' glorious victory?'. By thinking of the Mass as a presence party and not as a victory party, have we not swept his victory under the rug? Doesn't presence obscure victory?

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[¶ 00558 Updated: 07_19_2024]

The Mass is a Victory Party not a Presence Party (00556)

The Mass is not a presence party. It is a Victory Party. We started the fire of the Crucifixion. Jesus put it out. The Mass propagates Jesus' glorious victory from the point and place of its obscure origin in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of time and space, across history and geography, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now.

In 'Organizers hope for spiritual revival with US bishops' National Eucharistic Congress' by Brian Fraga on July 17, 20024, he quotes Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican Ambassador to the United States, saying "We have set out on this Eucharistic Revival because we want our people to come to a renewed and deeper appreciation of Christ's presence in te Eucharist" (NCR Article). This is the goal but it is a bad goal. It misses the point of the most Holy Eucharist. The statement of Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican Ambassador to the United States, is not quite right. Indeed, we celebrate Jesus, the hero of the Crucifixion, at a Mass. The most Holy Eucharist, however, is a re-enactment of his Victory during the Crucifixion. Presence is not enough. The Mass is not a celebration of his presence. The Mass is a reminder and celebration of the hero of the Crucixion and the victory that he won there. It is not a presence party. It is a victory party. Jesus turned ignominious defeat into glorious by pouring the spirit of forgiveness on the fire of the Crucifixion. We had ignited the fire of the Crucifixion with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. We started the fire; Jesus put it out. It is important for our religious elite to upgrade their understanding of the most Holy Eucharist and bring it in better correspondence with the Crucifixion (00549)

Upon a meal of bread and wine - the tangible and comestible incarnation of the spirit of forgiveness, the edifice of Christianity is built.

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(The Most Holy Eucharist)
[¶ 00556 Updated: 09_11_2024]

Which is the superior form of Liturgy and why: the Mass or Eucharistic Adoration? (00549)
Upon a meal of bread and wine - the tangible and comestible incarnation of the spirit of forgiveness, the edifice of Christianity is built.

At Mass and during Eucharistic Adoration, we celebrate Jesus, the hero of the Crucifixion, for the victory againt evils that he won in the fire of the Crucifixion. The difference in the two celebrations is that during Mass, Jesus' victory is re-enacted. At Eucharistic Adoration, it is not. At Mass, we take from Jesus his flesh and blood. However, Jesus does not give us precisely what we take. He makes a substitution (00020) (00055) (00450). He serves us a meal of bread and wine during the Mass. We came for flesh and blood; we left with bread and wine. His flesh and blood were not ours to take but his to keep, We deserved punishment not forgiveness. Yet, he did not punish us; he forgave us (00539). A chef makes a meal for consumption not merely for display. Our hunger needs to be satisfied. Our thirst needs to be slaked. Our bellies need to be filled. There is no satisfying, slaking or filling during Eucharistic Adoration. Hence, the Mass is a superior form of liturgy compared to Eucharistic Adoration. Eucharistic Adoration plays second fiddle to the Mass. That being said, there are lot of worse things that we can do in lieu of Eucharistic Adoration.

Note: Jesus waged and won the war against evils in the fire of the Crucifixion. Jesus won and became the hero of the Crucifixion when he released the spirit of forgiveness into the world while we were fueling the fire of the Crucifixion with the kindling of his flesh and blood. A Mass is a Victory Party at which we celebrate the hero of the Crucifixion and re-enact his victory (00204).

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(00552) (00377) (00500) (00035) (00550) (00416) (00556)
(US bishops' Eucharistic Revival misses how synodality makes for better Eucharist, National Catholic Reporter, July 12, 2024, by Thomas Reese)
[¶ 00549 Updated: 07_31_2024]

Getting to know the hero of the Crucifixion and his Victory (00537)
Jesus is the hero of the Crucifixion and his victory - the moment he turned ignominious defeat into glorious victory - was the moment he released the spirit of forgiveness onto the battlefield. The spirit of forgiveness extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion that we had ignited and fueled with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. Forgiveness put the fire out.

Between godlessness and the revelation of the radical love of God burned the Fire of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20). A hero was needed to take the children of Adam and Eve through the fire of the Crucifixion from godlessness to the revelation. Jesus was the hero who made the epic journey (00521). Jesus blazed the trail (John 14:6) across the hostile desert of godlessness from the starting line to the finish line of the gruesome experiment (Wisdom 2: 19) (Malachi 3:10) (Luke 4:12) (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Wisdom 2: 17-20) that we cruelly administered to him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion so we could follow him (00521) to the revelation about the radical love of God (00488). "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance " (Wisdom 2: 19). The test and its result are rich in revelation - far richer than any other clue that our God left us (00276). The test and its result help us to figure out for ourselves this thing called God. 'Tis better and more effective to be prophets of the revelation of the radical love of God than kings trying to regulate our behavior. Can we devote at least 50% of our time to being prophets? Is 50% too much to ask (00311)? Let us give the prophets a chance (00402) (00494) (00151) (00131) (00542) (00543) (00544)! More theology, less morality. More revelation, less regulation. More prophet, less king. Always. No exceptions.

Theology is the force that shapes morality. Theology molds the contours, profile, limits and, in short, the overall topography of morality. The followeres of Ares and Bacchus observe a different morality than the followers of Christ. Their morality is a reflection of their theology. Therefore, it is important that we get our theology of God right. It is important that our theology of God is high fidelity - that our theology of God matches the reality of God. The greater is the verisimilitude between our theology of God and the reality of God, the better is our morality. so, let us close the gap (00471). How? By serious contemplation of the theology of the fire of the Crucifixion and the revelation of the radical love of God that erupted from the flames.

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[¶ 00537 Updated: 07_16_2024b]

What energizes the pursuit of God? (00538)
A high fidelity theology energizes the pursuit of God. In the case of the Christian God, it is the theology surrounding the fire of the Crucifixion. The fire of the Crucifixion is the inspiration for the pursuit of the Christian God. Nothing else. Why? The fire of the Crucifixion revealed the radical love of God for the children of Adam and Eve. The assumption of the Christian enterprise is that, if the sweetness of paradise becomes known, the children of Adam and Eve will pursue it. Rational creatures seek the sweetness of paradise and flee the sourness of godlessness. It is contrary to our self-interest to do otherwise. It is crazy to do otherwise. We are disobedient not irrational. God's power made paradise for us. God's love for us, however, is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet. Power begets respect. But love begets love - only love begets love. God's radical love for us, prodigious in size, inclusive in scope, and forever in duration is the honey that draws the bees back home to their hive. God's radical love for us is the reason that the birds fly home to their nest. God's radical love for us is the inescapable, centripetal force that pulls us back to paradise. The theology of the radical love of God and this theology alone is the understanding whose gravity pulls us into an ever tightening orbit around God.


What energizes the pursuit of God? The discovery of the radical love of God energizes our pursuit of him. "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God" (Psalm 14:2) (Psalm 53:2). (1 Chronicles 16:10-12) (Isaiah 55:6-7). God declared, "... they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing" (Psalm 34:10) (Matthew 7:7-8). Only participation in the process of seeking God produces results. Thus, the pursuit of the radical love of God is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect.

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[¶ 00538 Updated: 07_16_2024]

What was hung from the Cross during the Crucifixion? (00536)
We hung hell from the Cross in the Crucifixion. Jesus hung heaven. The Crucifixion was a double hanging.

What was brought to the table of the Crucifixion, that is, to the venue where Jesus released the revelation about the radical love of God? We brought hell. Jesus brought heaven. We brought the fire; Jesus brought the water. We ignited and fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood. He extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness. The bipolarity between our contribution to the Crucifixion and the Son of God's contribution was the vehicle that Jesus used to convey the revelation about the radical love of God. Bipolarity was the rocket that carried the payload (00477). Radical asymmetry revealed God to us. The revelation is the Good News of Great Joy. God is not like us - way different (Isaiah 55:8-9).

The #1 source of error in understanding the meaning of the Crucifixion (1 Corinthians 1:17) (See, 00355) (00361) (00156) (00010) (00001) is the failure to recognize the bipolarity of the Crucifixion. Two things, not one, were hung from the Cross. We hung hell; Jesus hung heaven. The Crucifixion was a double hanging. Without recognizing the bipolarity of the Cross, we empty the Cross of its meaning and, thereby, distort our understanding of the radical love of God. Christians rally 'round the bipolar Cross. They coalesce there. The bipolarity of the Crucifixion is the safe harbor of Christianity. It gives us our hope that we shall survive the storms that besiege us as we make our escape in the new Exodus through the Valley of Tears from godlessness to God.

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[¶ 00536 Updated: 07_25_2024]

Deconstructing the Hodgepodge of Flesh, Blood, Bread and Wine (00539)

In the new Incarnation, Jesus deposits the spirit of forgiveness into the bread and wine of the most Holy Eucharist. To remember and celebrate his glorious victory with his friends and his enemies, He feeds them a meal of bread and wine (00036). Keep in mind that his enemies had quite recently ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the kindle of his flesh and blood. Yet, he included them. He welcomed them to a seat at the family table, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort and joy of the family tent. He satisfied their hunger with bread. He quenched their thirst with wine. He filled their bellies with the spirit of forgiveness. Forgiveness cannot get any more concrete and comestible than this, can it? Radical is the scope of the love of God (Isaiah 55:8-9) (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7)! By depositing the spirit of forgiveness into a meal of bread and wine, Jesus gave it a local habitation and a name (00423) (00475) (00540).

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[¶ 00539 Updated: 07_14_2024]

From the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity in the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus sent a message to his enemies. The vehicle that carried his message was a meal of bread and wine. He invited them to take a seat with him at the family table, out of the sun and the rain, under the comfort and joy of the family tent. Even though his enemies ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the flammable kindling of his flesh and blood, Jesus welcomes them to satisfy their hunger with bread, to slake their thirst with wine, and to fill their bellies with the spirit of forgiveness. Radical is the scope of the love of God (Matthew 22: 8-10).

Note: Participation in the treasure hunt is open to all of the children of Adam and Eve regardless of their compliance with any byzantine codex of rules, regulations, red tape and rigmarole. Nobody is excluded not even snners. The treasure hunt is not reserved for saints. The participation of both the good and the bad is encouraged and welcome (Matthew 22: 8-10). Why? Close encounters with the radical love of God are the catalyst of conversion. Only love begets love. So, Jesus loved us first. "We love him because he loved us first" (1 John 4:19). Only close encounters with the radical love of God depetrify our stony hearts and fleshify them (Ezekiel 36:26). Close encounters with a byzantine codex of rules, regulations, red tape and rigmarole do not produce the same result. By loving us first (1 John 4:19), Jesus jump-started our transformation into children of God (1 John 3:1). No participation in the treasure hunt; no transformation.

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[¶ 00541 Updated: 07_16_2024]

[Under Construction]

Jesus did his best work on the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion. He did more - much more - than merely suffer and die. On the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus was active not passive - at the apotheosis of the radical love of God (00534)
Forgiveness is the common motif of the great and wondrous deeds that Jesus did on the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion (00323). On the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion, forgiveness assumed many forms.

Forgiveness was the weapon that Jesus used on the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion to wage and win the war against evils (00363) (00364) (00365) (00521). Jesus put himself in harm's way. He entered the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the war against evils (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16), cheek to jowl with us, toe to hoof against his enemies.

Jesus did not hang passively on the Cross as a worm hangs on a hook. He was busy. On the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus went to work. He did not merely suffer and die. He did great deeds while suffering and dying. In fact, the venue for his best, most impacrful work was on the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion. The great deeds that he did while sacrificing his flesh and blood were the vehicle on which he conveyed the revelation of the radical love of God to the children of Adam and Eve. On the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus performed the roles of blacksmith, artist, firefighter, hero, magician and savior. [Contrast this with Coloring Book Christianity by clicking here (00184)] (00508)

We ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the kindling of Jesus' flesh and blood. We tortured and killed him. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him to the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. The evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion fashioned the foil that highlighted and emphasized and intensified and magnified and amplified and accentuated and underlined and energized the work that Jesus did on the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion.

While burning in the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus, the blacksmith, forged the key of forgiveness. Forgiveness opened the narrow gate to the kingdom of God. We cross the threshold of the kingdom of God on the vehicle of repentance "... Repent: for [the narrow gate is opened so] the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17) (00501) (00502) (00126) (00511) (00228) (00521) (00485) (00039) (00533).

While burning in the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus, the artist, created his Magnum Opus. Jesus created a Masterpiece of Love in the form of forgiveness on the canvas of the Crucifixion at an exorbitant cost to himself. What other artist works so successfully in such adverse conditions? The size, scope and durability of his love proved extraordinary. Size is a function of cost. The cost to him for the creation of his Magnum Opus was exorbitantly expensive. Jesus paid the cost in the coin of his flesh and blood. He emptied his pockets of all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. Does not the size of his payment inform us of the radical size of his love for us? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13) (John 12:24). This statement, however, is not quite true despite it being biblical wisdom. Jesus lay down his life for his enemies. Who does this but the God who loves us? Scope is a function of who is included or excluded. The beneficiaries of his love in the form of forgiveness included the enemies who chewed his flesh with their teeth and whose hands were stained red with his blood. Radical, too, is the scope of his love! Durability is a function of its stability over time and under pressure. We discovered from our test of him in the fire of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19) (Malachi 3:10) (Luke 4:12) (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Wisdom 2: 17-20) that the dial that controls God's 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 evils that we did to the Son of God in the laboratory of the Crucifixion while he was human, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth could budge it. The gruesome ordeal that we put Jesus through during the Crucifixion did not extinguish the bonfire of love that burns for us in his most Sacred Heart or reduce its intensity by even the slightest degree. It did not stop Jesus from continuing to love us nonetheless. His radical love for us did not fade as we tortured him and did not die when we killed him. Steadfast is the radical love of God. Wow!

After the fire of the Crucifixion had served its purpose, Jesus, the firefighter, extinguished it with the water of forgiveness. (John 7:37-38). He put the fire out. We deserved punishment not forgiveness for taking from him his flesh and blood. They were his to keep not ours to take. Yet, Jesus did not give us what we deserved. In fact, he did not wait for our conversion to forgive us, he forgave us to bring about our conversion (00348) (00393).

After the fire of the Crucifixion had served its purpose, Jesus, the hero, turned ignominious defeat into glorious victory.

After the fire of the Crucifixion had consumed his flesh, his blood and his life, Jesus, the magician, conjured up new life via the magic of forgiveness. Love does not grow in the toxic soil of the Crucifixion. It is a sterile matrix - utterly barren - hostile in the extreme. So when love in the form of forgiveness germinated, sprouted and bloomed, we beheld a miracle. It was completely unexpected - an utter surprise. The greater were the evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion, the more glorious is the miracle.

Jesus is the hero who turned igmonious defeat on the Cross in the fire of the Crucifixion into glorious victory through the magic of forgiveness. We remember and celebrate the magic of forgiveness with the magician at a Mass. At a Mass, we rejoice at his glorious victory. What a victory party is a Mass! To share this blurb, copy and share this link:
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[¶ 00534 Updated: 07_13_2024 under construction]

The Fire and Water of the Crucifixion (a/k/a its Bipolarity) build our understanding of the radical love of God (00532)
We ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the kindling of Jesus' flesh and blood. Like a geyser, the Water of Forgiveness erupted from the Fire of the Crucifixion. The eruption opened the enigmatic black box in which our God was hiding from us (Isaiah 45:15) (Psalm 91:1) to reveal the radical love of our God.

What is the the Fire and Water of the Crucifixion - the Crucifixion's bipolarity?

We ignited the fire of the Crucifixion and fueled it with the kindling of Jesus' flesh and blood. We tortured and killed him. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him to the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death.

While burning in the fire of the Crucifixion, Jesus forged the key of forgiveness. Forgiveness opened the narrow gate to the kingdom of God. We cross the threshold of the kingdom of God on the vehicle of repentance "... Repent: for [the narrow gate is opened so] the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17) (00501) (00502) (00126) (00511) (00228) (00521) (00485) (00039) (00533).

After the key was forged, Jesus extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness (John 7:37-38). He put the fire out. Compared to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion, Jesus's answer to them was radically asymmetric, that is, bipolar. Jesus created a Masterpiece of Love in the form of forgiveness on the canvas of the Crucifixion at an exorbitant cost to himself for the benefit of the enemies who chewed his flesh with their teeth and whose hands were stained red with his blood. His creation was his Magnum Opus. What other artist works so successfully in such adverse conditions? In short, we hung hell from the Cross; Jesus hung heaven. At public liturgies, we remember and celebrate in astonishment the radical love of God that erupted from the dark foil of the Crucifixion as the dawn emerges from the darkness. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). The light from the Fire of the Crucifixion illuminated the forgiveness that erupted from it and, in so doing, illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of apocalyptic epiphany. We were guilty; yet, our God forgave us. He did not visit upon us the punishment that we deserved. "For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:7).

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[¶ 00532 Updated: 07_11_2024d]

The Simplicity of Christianity (00529)
We came for a homicide; we left with a meal (Isaiah 55:8-9).
The water of forgiveness extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion and ignited the fire of love. The fire of love is the energy of life. Jesus fought fire with fire. Love is the water that extinguishes and ignites.

Jesus is the hero of the Crucifixion (00521) (00523) (00500) (00261) (00001). At an exorbitant cost to himself (00065) (00468) (00406) (00451) (00453) (00439) (00396), he passed through the fire of the Crucifixion (00524) (00521) to reach the revelation of the radical love of God (00512). His purpose was to depetrify our hearts of stone and fleshify them with the revelation (00128) (00425) (00348). “I have come to set the earth on fire [with the revelation of the radical love of God], and how I wish it were already blazing” (Luke 12:49)! We fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the kindling of his flesh and blood. Jesus extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness (John 7:37-38). Jesus put the fire out. He extinguished one fire by starting another (Luke 12:49)! The water of forgiveness ignited the fire of love. "We love him because he loved us first" (1 John 4:19). Love begot love. And radical love begets love radically. What a glorious paradox! What a sublime mystery! Water that extinguishes and ignites (John 7:37-39)! The water of forgiveness extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion and ignited the fire of love. The fire of love is the energy of life. Jesus fought fire with fire. Love is the water that extinguishes and ignites. The Mass is a Victory Party (00513) (00515) (00155). We celebrate his heroic victory with him at Mass. Forgiveness is the cause of our celebration. Our God forgave us even though we were still chewing his flesh in our mouths with our teeth and our hands were still stained red with the blood from his wounds (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:6-7). We were guilty; yet, still, he forgave us (Isaiah 55:8-9). The greater were the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion, the sweeter is the forgiveness.

The components of the core of Christianity are the fire of the Crucifixion, the hero of the Crucifixion and the Victory of the Crucifixion. Understand Fire, Hero and Victory and you will have a pretty good understanding of Christianity - better than most. Fire, Hero and Victory point us in the direction of the revelation of the radical love of God - the cynosure of Christianity.

The Fire of the Crucifixion cannot be circumnavigated. It cannot be gone around. To get to its other side, the only way is through (Matthew 7:13-14) (00502). The cost to go through the Fire of the Crucifixion was not cneap. In fact, it was exorbitantly expensive. Jesus paid the cost in the coin of his flesh and blood. He emptied his pockets of all of his limited human resources. He kept not a penny in the bank in reserve for himself. We have a decision to make. Shall we not join Jesus on the other side? Is the cost of getting to the other side worth it? How much are we willing to pay (Mark 10:17-31)? How much are we willing to bid for the prize (Matthew 13:44-46) (00483) (00459) (00440) (00055) (00449) (00450) (00435) (00431) (00265) (00392) (00028) (00300)?

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[¶ 00529 Updated: 07_10_2024f]

The Fire of the Crucifixion (00524)
The Fire of the Crucifixion is the gravamen of Christianity - superior to everything else. Everything else is obiter dicta. Why? The water of forgiveness arose from the Fire of the Crucifixion like a fountain (Jeremiah 2:13) (James 3:11) (Proverbs 16:22) (Zechariah 13:1) (Revelation 21:6) to extinguish it. The resurrection of the Water of Forgiveness from the fire of the Crucifixion is the only resurrection that matters. It revealed the radical love of God to us. It opened the enigmatic black box in which our God was hiding (Isaiah 45:15) (Psalm 91:1) to let the cat out of the bag. The uprising of the Water of Forgiveness to extinguish the Fire of the Crucifixion filled the earth with the knowledge of God as water covers the seas (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14) (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

The Fire of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 17-20) (Isaiah 43:2) is the key to an understanding of Christian theology (00177). The light from the Fire of the Crucifixion illumunated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of apocalyptic epiphany. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3). Jesus put himself in harm's way after he had defortified himself in the Incarnation (00365) (00526). [Who disarms on the brink of war?] Jesus passed through the Fire of the Crucifixion to lead the children of Adam and Eve to the revelation of the radical love of God. Only by following Jesus through the Fire of his Crucifixion do we discover the radical love of God. The revelation of the radical love of God was the purpose of Jesus' visit to the children of Adam and Eve. The manner in which he released the revelation was most extraordinary and unexpected. He paid for the release of the revelation with the coin of his flesh and blood. Moreover, He paid the exorbitant cost of the revelation even though we were still chewing his flesh in our mouths and the blood from his wounds was still staining our hands. He kept not a penny of his limited human resources in the bank in reserve for himself. He was all in. He bet the farm on the revelation of the radical love of God. We have a relationship with the Fire of the Crucifixion and our God also has a relationship with it. During the Crucifixion, we hung hell to the Cross. Jesus hung heaven. We fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the kindling of Jesus' flesh and blood. Jesus extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness (John 7:37-38). By extinguishing the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness, Jesus revealed the radical love of God to us. Wow! Is there a better theology of God than the theology of God that Jesus himself showed us by passing through the fire of the Crucifixion? If we grok the Fire of the Crucifixion, we will have perfected our understanding of God. The wise anchor their understanding of God to the fire of the Crucifixion (Matthew 7:24-27).

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[¶ 00524 Updated: 07_08_2024]

Who are Christians? (00522)

In a narrow sense, Christians are firefighters who extinguish the fires of the crucifixions through which they pass with the water of forgiveness. In a broader sense, Christians are artists who add the beauty of love to the canvas of life even during the most adverse circumstances (00495). Being a Christian is about what we do (00147) (00412) (00410) (00411). Are you a Christian? Whether we do Christianity or not depends on whether we have experienced a close encounter with the radical love of God, that is, whether we have been confronted with the radical love of God, challenged to come to grips with it, and have reconciled ourselves to it (00525). Christianity is the religion that makes sinners squirm under the overwhelming weight of the radical love of God (00184). Only a close encounter with the radical love of God squeezes the sin out of us (00518). The radical love of God is the magic that turns settlers into pilgrims and sinners into saints (00303) (00037) (00446). The radical love of God supplies the energy to us as we make our escape in the company of the new Exodus (Exodus 13: 17-18), through our dire predicament in the hostile desert of godlessness between Scylla & Charybdis, across the Red Sea of death (1 Corinthians 15:26), over the finish line (2 Timothy 4:7), and into the promised land flowing with milk and honey (Numbers 13:27) hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, together as one family to the rhythmic beat of the loving heart of our living God (00527).

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[¶ 00522 Updated: 07_06_2024c]

How do we Rejuvenate Christianity? (00517)

The pursuit of God is sputtering and stalling. It is flagging. Fewer and fewer of the children of Adam and Eve are going to Mass. Of those who go, fewer still understand that the Mass is a Victory Party not a Presence Party (00515). Nobody goes to Confession. Vocations are drying up. Marriages are crumbling. Churches are withering and dying. The only sacrament holding its own is the sacrament of extreme unction and this is so only because the dying do not have much of a choice. The trend is downward and accelerating. The thermometer that gauges the temperature of the body of Christ is the practice of Christianity. By this measure, the patient is moribund - a few breaths away from death. But, do not lose hope. There is a solution. Moreover, the solution does not entail a change in doctrine - just a change in emphasis - a tweak, nothing more. We need to shift our focus (00519) (00520) (00138). We need to focus more on the operating system of Christianity (00493) (00491) and less on Christianity's applications (00312). At the level of the operating system of Christianity is found its pizzazz. The nitty gritty of Christianity - the obiter dicta (00459) (00509) - is found at the level of the Christian applications. At the operating system level is the radical love of God (00152) - the knowledge of God that saves us from destruction (00151) (00494). The radical love of God is Christianity's best recruitment and retention tool (00496). It is irrational to expect a child of Adam and Eve to behave as a Christian behaves and to believe as a Christian believes before they become a Christian (00518). So, how is a Christian made? The radical love of God is captivating. The centripetal force of its gravity pulls us into an ever tightening orbit around God. The radical love of God gives Christianity its magic, Jesus his charisma, us, our joy, and evangelists, who exclusively devote themselves to propagating it, the power to change the world. Only a close encounter with the operating system of Christianity transforms a child of Adam and Eve into a Christian. Only exposure to the radical love of God shifts the paradigm. Therefore, more theology, less morality. More revelation, less regulation. More prophet, less king. Always. No exceptions. Can we devote 50% of the conversation to God? Is 50% too much to ask?

Let us meditate on the radical love of God day and night (Joshua 1:8). Let the radical love of God percolate through us. Let us figure out for ourselves this thing that we call God. Let us immerse ourselves in it. Why? If we do not meditate on it day and night we are robbing ourselves of the insights - the epiphanies - the breakthroughs in understanding - that continuous, focused meditation on a single topic can bring us.

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[¶ 00517 Updated: 07_14_2024]

The bipolarity of the Crucifixion was the vehicle that conveyed the apocalyptic revelation of the radical love of God (00512)
The Cross was bipolar. Revelation hitched a ride on its bipolarity.

How many hangings took place during the Crucifixion? Our salvation depends on getting it through our thick skulls that two hangings took place during the Crucifixion - not one. We hung hell; Jesus hung heaven. We fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the kindling of his flesh and blood. Jesus extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness (John 7:37-38). The fuse was lit. We tortured and killed him. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him to the position of prominence on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. The bomb, however, was a dud. It did not detonate. Conventional biblical wisdom created the expectation of "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) (Matthew 5: 38-48), Thankfully for us, Jesus defied the conventional biblical wisdom (Isaiah 55:8-9) and forgave us (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Wisdom 12:19) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35) (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) (Ezekiel 16:62-63) (Isaiah 55:6-7). He did not give us the punishment that we deserved. He did not answer the evils that we did to him in kind. He did not give us a taste of our own medicine. He did not take from us the coin of our flesh and blood as we took from him. His answer to the atrocities that we did to him during the Crucifixion was radically asymmetric, that is, bipolar. The bipolarity of the Crucifixion was the vehicle that conveyed the apocalyptic revelation of the radical love of God to the children of Adam and Eve. Jesus accepted conventional defeat to show the children of Adam and Eve unconventional divinity (Isaiah 55:8-9). Divinity and humanity are as different as the night is different from the day. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19) (Luke 1:78-79) (1 John 1:5) (Isaiah 60:1-3).

Jesus created the beauty of forgiveness in the hostile desert of the Crucifixion. His creation was his Magnum Opus. What other artist works so successfully in such adverse conditions?

The radical love of God is the rock (Matthew 7:24-27) on which the wise build their lives. As a foundation for living, it is robust. Meditate on the radical love of God day and night (Joshua 1:8). Figure out for yourself how this thing that we call God works. Immerse yourself in it. Why? If we do not meditate on it day and night we are robbing ourselves of the insights - the epiphanies - the breakthroughs in understanding - that continuous, focused meditation on a single topic brings us.

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[¶ 00512 Updated: 07_06_2024a]

The Superpower that makes us Godlike (00182)
What is our Superpower?

Into the foil of the evils that we did to him in the laboratory of the Crucifixion (Wisdom 2: 19), Jesus poured the sweet syrup of forgiveness through his bloody wounds. The greater were the evils that we did to Jesus during the Crucifixion, the sweeter is the forgiveness. The sweet syrup of forgiveness diluted the toxicity of the foil of the Crucifixion in the same way that sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee. Dilution is God's solution to the problem of evils. Our superpower is that we, too, can dilute our evils as Jesus diluted his. Our superpower makes us godlike.

Evils are the pollution that fouls our souls.

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(1) Index: Juxtaposition (00159)
[¶ 00182 Updated: 07_06_2024a]

Two Visual Aids are available to help Christian Clerics to explain to the children of Adam and Eve (and to themselves) the Bipolarity of the Crucifixion (00528)

We fueled the fire of the Crucifixion with the kindling of his flesh and blood. Jesus extinguished the fire of the Crucifixion with the water of forgiveness (John 7:37-38). We hung hell; Jesus hung heaven.

On one side of the equation is flesh and blood. We inflicted atrocities to Jesus' flesh and blood during the Crucifixion. "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. " (Wisdom 2: 19). We tortured and killed Jesus. We made him suffer and die. We impaled him on the flagpole of Christianity as a fisherman insouciantly impales a live worm on a sharp hook where he hung until death. The visual aid that represents this is the Crucifix.

On the other side of the equation is bread and wine. Jesus served his enemies a meal of bread and wine while they were still chewing his flesh in their mouths and the blood from his wounds was still staining their hands. Bread and wine were Jesus' bipolar - radically asymmetric - answer to the evils that we did to him during the Crucifixion. Bread and wine were how Jesus 'incarnated' the abstract concept of forgiveness - how he made forgiveness coalesce into a tangible, comestible form. We can sink our teeth into forgiveness. Bread satisfies our hunger. Wine quenches our thirst. Forgiveness fills our bellies. Bread and Wine are the second visual aid.

Jesus used flesh, blood, bread and wine to convey the radical love of God. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9).

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[¶ 00528 Updated: 07_07_2024]