Reality is reliable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us. His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their lives. Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever disappoint?
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Armageddon is here and now. We are not fighting for something in the hereafter. The battle is now. Now is the time to join Jesus in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the Valley of Tears facing off against Evil toe to toe, cheek to jowl. Christianity is not a sport for spectators. Christians partake in the fray.
The intransigence of God’s love for us despite the brutality of the Crucifixion is the good news of great joy. However, it does not propagate itself. God gave us the Mass to serve as the vehicle that propagates the good news of great joy from then and there across space and time to us here and now. Propagation of the good news of great joy is the purpose of the Mass. God did not invent the Mass to propagate his real presence. The real presence is not the good news of great joy. His real presence is incidental to the good news of great joy - necessary but not sufficient. God established the institution of the Mass to remind us through his bloody wounds that our God is the God who forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Wow! What a God is our God!
The bombshell of revelation exploded when Jesus and the evil that we did to him met in violent collision on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The incandescence of the explosion illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany. We saw our God take part in a demonstration of divinity. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, our God forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Wow! We thought our God was like us. “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,” (Exodus 21:24) was our expectation for the evil that we did to him. We expected that his answer to the evil that we did to him would be revenge, retaliation and retribution. However, his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8). There is a difference between creatures and creator - a radical difference. The asymmetry between us and our God is breathtaking. The brutality of the Crucifixion makes the intransigence of his love for us extraordinarily amazing. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him (Psalm 8:4-4)?
Jesus gave a faceless God a face on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, Jesus showed us the face of forgiveness. Our God is the God who forgave us for the evil that we did to him. The brutality of the Crucifixion makes the intransigence of his love extraordinary.
"Who are you, Jesus? Identify yourself! Friend or foe?" Jesus answered our question (Luke 23:34) on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. Our God is the God who forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Wow! The brutality of the Crucifixion makes the intransigence of his love for us extraordinary.
More and better theology is discovered on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 1:17) than in the head of every apologist, theologian, Doctor of the Church, monk, abbot, mystic, priest, monsignor, bishop, Cardinal, Pope, hermit and saint who has ever lived or will ever live.
The bombshell of revelation exploded when Jesus and the evil we did to him met in violent collision on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The payload of the revelation was a high fidelity representation of the reality of God. The incandescence of the violent collision illuminated darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany.
