The greatest mistake that the leadership of the Church is making during this time of pandemic is that they have dispensed with their congregations as insouciantly as they discard used toilet tissue.
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What is lacking in the afflictions of Christ?
Jesus poured the sweet syrup of forgiveness from the reservoir of love that he held in his most Sacred Heart, through his bloody wounds, and into the Valley of Tears to diute 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 toxicity of the Valley of Tears.
What is the Magic of Christianity?
Religious Practices Keep Truth Alive
Stupidity
The Show Must Go On! The Congregation is Optional!
Our Journey Through Life - it is a Slog through Hostile Territory
Celibacy is a diabolical plot to stop our clergy from reproducing
The Cost of Salvation
Look at the cost that Jesus paid out of his own pocket to stop the evil that we did to him from propagating. He emptied his pockets of his flesh and blood. The cost was exorbitant. He paid the exorbitant cost not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the exorbitant cost from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else . Some say that the Son of God overpaid - that he was ripped off. We were not worth the cost. He, on the other hand, was willing to pay the cost. He thought that we were worth it. Rejoice and be glad! We are worth much to our God! He would not have paid the exorbitant cost of our salvation if we were not worth it .
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Why Does God Let Us Stew in the Valley of Tears Like Pickles in a Barrel of Toxic Brine?
Stewing in the toxic truth of the Valley of Tears is medicine. It is harsh but effective medicine. God prescribes the medicine because the medicine works. God lets us put our fingers in the flames to learn for ourselves that the fire is hot. Once burned; twice shy.
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The Crucifix
A Tree is known by its fruit
A tree is known by its fruit . Forgiveness is the fruit . Love is the tree . He is the first tree to bear fruit in the garden of the new Eden . On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, he forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Ground zero of a proper understanding of God is the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. He planted the seeds of forgiveness into the hearts of the children of Adam and Eve . The seeds of forgiveness turn into trees of love so that, in the garden of the new Eden, many can enjoy the fruits of love . From him, the garden is encroaching into the Valley of Tears. And the Church is cultivating it.
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Why is the Sacrament of Reconciliation Failing?
Enter with your sins; exit with his forgiveness.
The balance between sin and forgiveness has tilted - or seems to have tilted - to sin instead of to forgiveness. The overemphasis on sin and the underemphasis on forgiveness is the cause of the decline in the sacrament of reconciliation.
A story is told of a priest waiting to her confessions and no-one showing up. He exclaimed, “Doesn’t anyone believe in sin anymore?” This attitude encapsulates all that is wrong with the administration of the sacrament of reconciliation. If he would have exclaimed, “Doesn’t anyone want God’s forgiveness anymore?”, we could safely conclude that he understood the sacrament.
The sacrament of reconciliation is supposed to be all about forgiveness. It is supposed to remind us that Jesus forgave us for the evil that we did to him on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. That is the whole purpose of the sacrament of reconciliation. Now, however, the sacrament of reconciliation is all about sin. Instead of looking up at God, the confessional has become the place where we look down at us. We need to look in an upward not a downward direction.
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 evil that we did to him 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.
More focus on the forgiveness; less focus on the sin. The only job of the priest in the confessional is to plant the seed of forgiveness in the soil of our hearts. Nothing else. Forgiveness is the agent of our transformation - the catalyst of our conversion. The seed of forgiveness remediates the toxicity of the soil.
He gave to us that which we did not deserve, the blessing of forgiveness, even though we robbed from him that which did not belong to us, his life. The greater was the robbery, the more amazing is the forgiveness.
Hell is calculating our sins in kind and number, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, forever.
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The Sacred Stage where the Curtain Rose to Reveal God to Us
Which of the following items does not belong to the group?
The Church's portfolio is out of balance
Some contexts are better than others in contributing to our understanding of God
Download a high fidelity representation of the reality of God from the proper context. The only context that gives us a a high fidelity representation of the reality of God is the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. There we bear witness to the story of our salvation. The story of our salvation goes like this: We tortured and killed the God who loves us. He forgave us. Wow!
The Transmission of Information from Heaven to Earth
Information does not ordinarily pass across the abyss that seperates heaven and earth especially the knowledge of God. It hides behind an event horizon . To transmit it, it needs to be downloaded. The data needs to be dropped. Jesus was a data drop . The Word of God was the download of the data from the far side of the event horizon to the near side.
What information passed from the far side of the event horizon to the near side? What knowledge passed from up there to down here? What knowledge did Jesus download?
We tortured and killed the God who loves us . What a mistake! What were we thinking? How big of an idiot were we? Where in this gruesome, bad news story is the good news of great joy? Wait! Have patience! The story is not over. The good news of great joy comes next . Our God forgave us . No way ! Yes way! Wow! Our almighty lover forgave us for the evil that we did to him. The story is now complete. Behold the epicenter of Christianity! Behold the foundation of our understanding of God! Catch a glimpse of our God from here on earth! Take a peek at divinity! The greater is the offense, the more amazing is the forgiveness ! The offense does not get any greater than torturing and killing our God.
The forgiveness that Jesus released into the Valley of Tears on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection illuminated the darkness of our understanding of God in a glorious burst of epiphany.
Jesus showed God to us as the God who forgives . He forgave his companion on the Cross . He forgave us . He asks us to forgive our neighbors seventy times seven times .
"... as we forgive those who trespass against us, he forgives us." .
To know forgiveness is to know God. Jesus leveraged our understanding of forgiveness into an understanding of God.
In fact, when Jesus downloaded the knowledge of God and deposited it into the revelation that erupted from the violent collision that took place between himself and the evil that we did to him, he started the revolution that is Christianity. The knowledge of God is changing the world. It is resetting the world on a new foundation - a foundation of love.
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The current of salvation flows from godlessness to paradise through the bloody wounds we opened in the body of Christ. We can surf it to our salvation.