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.
Jesus entered the Valley of Tears to hold a conversation with us. “Who are you, God? Identify yourself. Friend or foe?” We shouted our question at him. He whispered his answer to us. The conversation took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The conversation was an interrogation. We gave Jesus the third degree.
The brutality of the Crucifixion makes the intransigence of his love for us extraordinarily amazing. Wow!
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 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.
The recommendation that Jesus makes to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48) is made for our benefit not just for the benefit of our enemies. Love is in our self-interest. Love makes sense. Rational creatures refuse to detonate when the fuse to the bomb of revenge, retaliation and retribution is lit. We reject the temptation to explode. Christians are duds. We are duds because we do not want to self-destruct. We know that we occupy a place within the radius of the blast.
Why is it more difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24)? The direness of our predicament in the Valley of Tears is one of the two engines of salvation. The other engine is the sweetness of paradise. The sweetness of paradise pulls us to the entrance of paradise. The direness of our predicament in the Valley of Tears pushes us to its exit. However, the serpent cast an illusion that sugarcoats the direness of our predicament in the Valley of Tears (Genesis 3:5). The sugarcoating induced Adam and Eve to run away, like foolish children, from their home with God in paradise and take us with them into the Valley of Tears. The sugarcoating is thicker for the rich man than for the poor man. The thickness of the sugarcoating makes it harder to shatter. The thicker the sugarcoating, the harder the sledgehammer of truth needs to work. A rich man thinks that he can exploit his riches to fend off the crosses that besiege us as we pass through the Valley of Tears (Luke 12:13-21). His riches can hold the crosses at bay. The poor man, not having the cushion of riches between himself and his crosses, is more aware than the rich man of the direness of his predicament. Riches conjure up the dangerous illusion of safety and of independence from God (Luke 12:16-21). Riches give the rich man a false sense of security. A poor man with no resources is much more likely to turn to God than a rich man with resources. God is the resource of the poor man. God is all that the poor man has.
God delivers to us the gift of our creation and the gift of paradise. Both gifts were delivered to Adam and Eve simultaneously. God inserted a delay between the delivery of the gift of creation and the gift of paradise with regard to the children of Adam and Eve. Why?
The sourness of godlessness vaccinates us against the illusion conjured up by the serpent that a life lived as gods in godlessness is better than a life lived with God in paradise. It is harsh but effective medicine. God mitigates its harshness by making our lives in godlessness brief. The brevity of life is proof of a merciful God.
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.
The serpent is a dynamic but malign force who propels himself through human history repeatedly trying to extinguish God's love for us. The serpent tries time and time again to persuade God that God has made a mistake in loving us. History, therefore, consists of a series of failed attempts by the serpent to extinguish God’s love for us. Furthermore, God exploits these episodes to demonstrate to us the indestructibility of His love for us.
Having experienced the pig sty for himself, the prodigal son will never go back there. Neither will we. Having put our fingers into the flames, we know that the fire is hot. Our faculty of obedience is broken but not our faculty of rationality. The truth is the fuel of our rationality. When fueled by the truth, our rationality steers is in the right direction. When the fuel is contaminated by illusions, our rationality leads us astray. Our intimate contact with the sour truth of the Valley of Tears educates us about many things including our need for God. In the Valley of Tears, we undergo a baptism by fire. Our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine transforms us. The experience puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us - and delivery is ineluctable - we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer did, as Eve did, as Adam did and as the prodigal son did. All of them were given the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. Simultaneous delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise does not work. Therefore, God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise. The delay is harsh but effective medicine.
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 we did to him could budge it. The more brutal the evil that we did to him, the more wonderful is the intransigence of his love. On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, we discovered that his love for us is indestructible.
From his heart, our hearts receive a transfusion of love. The transfusion of love is invigorating. It vivifies us. It brings the dead to life (Luke 15:32) (John 3:3).
Always look at life from the outside in