The Symbiotic Dance between our Question and Jesus’ Answer is the Treasure of Christianity

CHRISTIANITY IS A TREASURE MAP FOR TREASURE HUNTERS ENGAGED IN A TREASURE HUNT. THE CROSS OF CHRIST (1 Corinthians 1:17) MARKS THE SPOT OF THE TREASURE (Matthew 13:44). AN "X" MARKS THE SPOT. Rally 'round the Cross (1 Corinthians 1:17).

The connection that joins the evil that we did to him and his answer to it into a single unit of apocalyptic revelation about God is the symbiotic dance of question and answer. We interrogated Jesus with lash, thorns, nails and cross. 'Who are you, Jesus? Identify yourself! Friend or foe?' Jesus answered us. He did not take the Fifth. He did not hang mute. His tongue was not nailed to the cross. He answered the evil that we did to him. Are you privy to the conversation? Can you articulate it? Do you have the words? It is the most important conversation between humanity and divinity since God and Moses spoke at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-3). God poured more and better theology into the 'conversation' than He poured into the heads 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 conversation has two sides but one revelation.

Here is one way to look at each side of the conversation.

Nothing grows in the toxic soil of the Crucifixion. Nothing. It is a sterile matrix - hostile in the extreme. So when the beautiful flower of sweet forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34 ) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35 (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45) germinated, sprouted and grew, we beheld a miracle.

The miracle is the knockout punch. It gobsmacks us. It knocks us off our horse (Acts 9:4). It rattles our cage. It hits us like a ton of bricks. It takes our breath away. It is the strongest force on earth. The miracle gives Christianity its magic, Jesus his charisma, us, our joy and clerics, who exclusively devote themselves to it, the power to change the world.

The sterile matrix is the darkness. The beautiful flower of sweet forgiveness is the light. “[T]he people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen” (Matthew 4:16) (2 Peter 1:19).

"... for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

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. Can we devote 50% of the conversation to God? Is 50% too much to ask? ALLOWING THE CONVERSATION ABOUT GOD TO GO SILENT POSES AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO CHRISTIANITY. An ongoing, continuing conversation about God is the lifeblood of Christianity. Without an ongoing, continuing conversation about God, Christianity is dead. Fetch a priest to give it the Last Rites (or, perhaps, if miracles do happen, to revive it?)