Today, the Holy Father celebrated Sunday Mass at World Youth Day. The first reading of the Mass was the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles when Jesus tells the apostles, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” (Acts 1:8). This passage is the springboard for Pope Benedict XVI’s wonderful homily. In the second paragraph, he said:
“In these days I too have come, as the Successor of Saint Peter, to this magnificent land of Australia. I have come to confirm you, my young brothers and sisters, in your faith and to encourage you to open your hearts to the power of Christ’s Spirit and the richness of his gifts. I pray that this great assembly, which unites young people “from every nation under heaven” (cf. Acts 2:5), will be a new Upper Room. May the fire of God’s love descend to fill your hearts, unite you ever more fully to the Lord and his Church, and send you forth, a new generation of apostles, to bring the world to Christ!”
The Holy Spirit, the fire of God’s love, wants to come to fill our hearts and unite us to one another in His Church and unite us to Christ Himself. Our hearts are made for the Holy Spirit because our hearts are made for love, and the Holy Spirit is the mutual love of the Father and the Son.
The Holy Father continues:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”. These words of the Risen Lord have a special meaning for those young people who will be confirmed, sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, at today’s Mass. But they are also addressed to each of us – to all those who have received the Spirit’s gift of reconciliation and new life at Baptism, who have welcomed him into their hearts as their helper and guide at Confirmation, and who daily grow in his gifts of grace through the Holy Eucharist. At each Mass, in fact, the Holy Spirit descends anew, invoked by the solemn prayer of the Church, not only to transform our gifts of bread and wine into the Lord’s body and blood, but also to transform our lives, to make us, in his power, “one body, one spirit in Christ”.
Notice that the pope again mentions the heart and the Spirit’s filling the hearts of those who welcome Him through the sacrament of Confirmation. At Mass, not only are the bread and wine transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, but each of us is made into another Christ, insofar as we give ourselves to Him to be made new.
In the next paragraph, the Holy Father explains the power of the Holy Spirit:
But what is this “power” of the Holy Spirit? It is the power of God’s life! It is the power of the same Spirit who hovered over the waters at the dawn of creation and who, in the fullness of time, raised Jesus from the dead. It is the power which points us, and our world, towards the coming of the Kingdom of God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims that a new age has begun, in which the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all humanity (cf. Lk 4:21). He himself, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin May, came among us to bring us that Spirit. As the source of our new life in Christ, the Holy Spirit is also, in a very real way, the soul of the Church, the love which binds us to the Lord and one another, and the light which opens our eyes to see all around us the wonders of God’s grace.
The Spirit hovered over the waters in the beginning and raised Jesus from the dead. The Holy Spirit is poured out over all humanity and is the soul of the Church and the light of the world.
Two paragraphs later, he continues the connection of the Spirit with water:
The power of the Spirit never ceases to fill the Church with life! Through the grace of the Church’s sacraments, that power also flows deep within us, like an underground river which nourishes our spirit and draws us ever nearer to the source of our true life, which is Christ. Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who died a martyr in Rome at the beginning of the second century, has left us a splendid description of the Spirit’s power dwelling within us. He spoke of the Spirit as a fountain of living water springing up within his heart and whispering: “Come, come to the Father” (cf. Ad Rom., 6:1-9).
The Holy Spirit is like an underground river drawing us always closer to the source of true life. And then he quotes the first Saint Ignatius who said that the Spirit is a fountain of living water flowing out of our hearts quietly, drawing us to the Father. Saint Ignatius was making a reference to John 7:38 when Jesus says, “Out of your heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
The Holy Father mentions heart three more times in the next paragraph:
Yet this power, the grace of the Spirit, is not something we can merit or achieve, but only receive as pure gift. God’s love can only unleash its power when it is allowed to change us from within. We have to let it break through the hard crust of our indifference, our spiritual weariness, our blind conformity to the spirit of this age. Only then can we let it ignite our imagination and shape our deepest desires. That is why prayer is so important: daily prayer, private prayer in the quiet of our hearts and before the Blessed Sacrament, and liturgical prayer in the heart of the Church. Prayer is pure receptivity to God’s grace, love in action, communion with the Spirit who dwells within us, leading us, through Jesus, in the Church, to our heavenly Father. In the power of his Spirit, Jesus is always present in our hearts, quietly waiting for us to be still with him, to hear his voice, to abide in his love, and to receive “power from on high”, enabling us to be salt and light for our world.
For God’s love to transform us, we have to be open and receive His gift, and so we must pray. We pray in the heart of the Church through the liturgy, and we pray in the quiet of our hearts where Jesus is always present and waiting for us to spend time with Him.
After asking the young people what they are going to do and what difference they are going to make, the pope said:
Empowered by the Spirit, and drawing upon faith’s rich vision, a new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished – not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed. A new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty. A new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships. Dear young friends, the Lord is asking you to be prophets of this new age, messengers of his love, drawing people to the Father and building a future of hope for all humanity.
The world needs this renewal! In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair. How many of our contemporaries have built broken and empty cisterns (cf. Jer 2:13) in a desperate search for meaning – the ultimate meaning that only love can give? This is the great and liberating gift which the Gospel brings: it reveals our dignity as men and women created in the image and likeness of God. It reveals humanity’s sublime calling, which is to find fulfilment [sic] in love. It discloses the truth about man and the truth about life.
Again, the Holy Father uses the imagery of water with the empty cisterns. Those who have cut God our of their lives are empty deep inside; those filled with the Holy Spirit have streams of living water welling up within them. We are made for life and love, and only in them, in God, do we find fulfillment.
He continues:
The Church also needs this renewal! She needs your faith, your idealism and your generosity, so that she can always be young in the Spirit (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4)! In today’s second reading, the Apostle Paul reminds us that each and every Christian has received a gift meant for building up the Body of Christ. The Church especially needs the gifts of young people, all young people. She needs to grow in the power of the Spirit who even now gives joy to your youth and inspires you to serve the Lord with gladness. Open your hearts to that power! I address this plea in a special way to those of you whom the Lord is calling to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Do not be afraid to say “yes” to Jesus, to find your joy in doing his will, giving yourself completely to the pursuit of holiness, and using all your talents in the service of others!
Again he mentions the heart and giving oneself completely to Christ. In the next paragraph, he continues the analogy of water and refreshment:
In a few moments, we will celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation. The Holy Spirit will descend upon the confirmands; they will be “sealed” with the gift of the Spirit and sent forth to be Christ’s witnesses. What does it mean to receive the “seal” of the Holy Spirit? It means being indelibly marked, inalterably changed, a new creation. For those who have received this gift, nothing can ever be the same! Being “baptized” in the one Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 12:13) means being set on fire with the love of God. Being “given to drink” of the Spirit means being refreshed by the beauty of the Lord’s plan for us and for the world, and becoming in turn a source of spiritual refreshment for others. Being “sealed with the Spirit” means not being afraid to stand up for Christ, letting the truth of the Gospel permeate the way we see, think and act, as we work for the triumph of the civilization of love.
The Holy Father ended his homily with one last call for every heart to open its doors to Christ:
Through the loving intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, may this Twenty-third World Youth Day be experienced as a new Upper Room, from which all of us, burning with the fire and love of the Holy Spirit, go forth to proclaim the Risen Christ and to draw every heart to him! Amen.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label baptism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baptism. Show all posts
3.22.2008
Good Friday Office of Readings
From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop (click on this entry's title to go to the entire office of readings)
The power of Christ's blood
If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish”, commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors”. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.
“There flowed from his side water and blood”. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.
That is the end of this passage from Saint John Chrysostom taken from the Liturgy of the Hours for Good Friday.
Jesus is the Passover Lamb who gives birth to the Church from the blood and water which flowed from His side and Sacred Heart after He died on the cross. The water symbolizes baptism and the blood symbolizes the Holy Eucharist, and these two sacraments give birth to the Catholic Church. Eve, the bride of Adam, was formed from our first father's side as he lay asleep; in like manner, the Catholic Church, the Bride of Christ, was formed from Jesus' side when He was in the sleep of death. As a mother feeds her baby with her own blood before birth and her milk after birth, so Jesus feeds His Church with the shedding of His own blood before her birth and His blood and water at her birth and daily after in Holy Communion. The Church is Christ's child, and it is also His bride; so we are made Children of God in the Church and we are called to complete union with Him in mystical marriage. As a husband provides for his bride and fills her with life so that she gives birth, so Jesus provides for you and me and fills us with His body and blood so that we have life and give birth to faith, hope and love in our hearts and deeds.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
The power of Christ's blood
If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish”, commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors”. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.
“There flowed from his side water and blood”. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.
That is the end of this passage from Saint John Chrysostom taken from the Liturgy of the Hours for Good Friday.
Jesus is the Passover Lamb who gives birth to the Church from the blood and water which flowed from His side and Sacred Heart after He died on the cross. The water symbolizes baptism and the blood symbolizes the Holy Eucharist, and these two sacraments give birth to the Catholic Church. Eve, the bride of Adam, was formed from our first father's side as he lay asleep; in like manner, the Catholic Church, the Bride of Christ, was formed from Jesus' side when He was in the sleep of death. As a mother feeds her baby with her own blood before birth and her milk after birth, so Jesus feeds His Church with the shedding of His own blood before her birth and His blood and water at her birth and daily after in Holy Communion. The Church is Christ's child, and it is also His bride; so we are made Children of God in the Church and we are called to complete union with Him in mystical marriage. As a husband provides for his bride and fills her with life so that she gives birth, so Jesus provides for you and me and fills us with His body and blood so that we have life and give birth to faith, hope and love in our hearts and deeds.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
3.19.2008
The Three Passovers and the Meaning of Life
Tomorrow is Holy Thursday and the celebration of the Lord's Supper when He perfects and completes and fulfills the Passover by Himself becoming the Lamb of God to give us His Flesh and Blood to drink to save us from the angel of death and nourish us with His heavenly food on our journey to the Promised Land, heaven. Almost three months ago I wrote about the Last Supper in two entries. Here is the first one published on December 24, 2007 and entitled "The Three Passovers":
Most everyone is familiar with the Passover which is explained in Exodus 12; it was the last and most powerful plague that was the impetus for the Egyptians freeing their Israelite slaves. The plague attacked all the Egyptian firstborn; for the Israelite firstborn to be passed over, they had to slaughter an unblemished year-old male lamb, put its blood on their doorpost using a hyssop branch, and eat the lamb.
The Last Supper is a re-presentation of the Passover; Jesus is re-making and fulfilling this ancient and liberating sacrifice and meal. A very important difference in the Last Supper is that Jesus did not finish the Passover as usual; there were four cups of wine in the Passover, but Jesus stopped after the third. He finished the Passover as He was crucified on the cross and drank the vinegar (cheap wine) from the sponge on the hyssop branch: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:28-30). What Jesus finished is the re-making of the Passover.
The Last Supper and the Crucifixion are of one piece “For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor.5:7). Jesus takes on the role that the lamb plays in the Passover. He is sacrificed, and we are passed over. As the Israelites had to sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the doorpost and eat the lamb to be passed over, so we need to be baptized and receive Holy Communion. Baptism is the lamb’s blood on the doorpost because the “doorway” into our “house” is our eyes and face; therefore, the doorpost is our forehead. The water of baptism is the blood of Christ since we are baptized into Jesus’ death. Through these two essential sacraments, we are given the grace to be passed over by the angel of death.
The one Passover that is usually forgotten is Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac back in Genesis 22. I talked about this momentous event a few days ago on 12/19/07, and it is this event and the faithfulness of both Abraham and Isaac that brings about God’s saving actions with his ancestors, the Israelites. The foundation for the Passover is Isaac’s self offering for it is the only time God explicitly swears an oath. The Crucifixion is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of Isaac’s sacrifice, and the Last Supper is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of the Passover. Thus, there is a parallel structure of events that forms one piece, one reality:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One of the common themes here in these three Passovers is the first-born son. In the Passover, not only were the first born Egyptians killed and the first-born Israelites passed over, all of Israel was passed over for they are God’s first-born son: “And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son’” (Exodus 4:22-23).
The other common theme in all of these is the symbolism of baptism and the Eucharist. Even after the Passover, the Israelites had not completed their escape from their enemies. The Egyptians pursued Israel and had them trapped up against the Red Sea with no where to escape. God opened up a way of escape through the water which gave new life to Israel and destroyed their enemies in the process. Once they were out in the wilderness, they grew hungry, and God provided food from heaven. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites again were saved through the water and fed by the heavenly bread. A further structure could look like this:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
C Through the Red Sea (symbolic of Baptism)
C' Manna in the Wilderness (symbolic of the Eucharist)
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One thing we can learn from all this is the immense importance of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. If we receive baptism and Holy Communion, we are given the grace to pick up our cross and follow Jesus; we are given the new heart, the new tree of life, so that we can lay down our life in our everyday activity, so that we can be a person for others, so that we can love God with all our heart, mind and soul; we are given the grace to lay down our life for our friends and to be crucified alongside our Savior Jesus.
We, the baptized, are making our journey through the desert of this life on our way to the Promised Land, heaven. To make our way well, we need our daily bread which is daily prayer and Holy Communion. Many of the Israelites who ate the manna died along the way and did not make it to the Promised Land because of their faithless hearts. Likewise, just receiving the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist does not guarantee anything. We still have to step out in faith and follow our Lord wherever He leads and do whatever He asks. We still need to give ourselves entirely to Him. Thankfully, He provides even the grace to do that.
What I would like to examine next is the significance of the first-born in these key events and how it might possibly relate to the Fall of Adam and Eve.
This is where the first post ends.
The second post on the Passovers was published in the early morning of Christmas Eve, 2007, and it is entitled, "The Meaning of Life." Here it is:
I left off on Tuesday in my post on The Three Passovers introducing the idea of the importance of the first-born. The three Passovers, Isaac’s sacrifice, the Passover, and Jesus’ sacrifice all deal with the first-born. Isaac is the first-born, and he offers himself up as a sacrifice; he was passed over with a ram taking his place. Israel is God’s first-born, and they were passed over by the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and by eating the lamb. Jesus is the Father’s only-begotten Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus, as pre-eminent first-born, sacrifices Himself in order for you and me to be passed over. We are united to Him in baptism and Holy Communion wherein we put His blood on our doorpost and eat the Lamb, respectively.
In the first two Passovers, the first-born was passed over; in the final one, the first-born is the sacrifice. Is there another first-born that was passed over in Jesus’ saving actions? -Perhaps it is you and me: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16). Paul speaks of the Church as the Israel of God; therefore, since Israel is God’s first-born, and we are now the New Israel, we and all members of the Church are God’s first-born. So we are first-born who are passed over by the angel of death, and our Passover Lamb is Jesus at the Last Supper and on the Cross.
The question that arises in my mind is why is the first-born so important, and why does it hold such a pivotal place in these highly important events in Salvation History? As usual, I think the answer lies in the events at the beginning. The course the man and the woman set the human race upon is the answer to much of human history and to the questions we have today. According to my theory, the direct result of the Fall was the conception of Cain. They wanted him and were trying to get him; hence, his name means gotten. He was the first-born of the human race. He was a murderer and a son of the evil one. The first-born son of man belonged, in a certain respect, to satan, and Cain gave himself over to his ways and so slaughtered his righteous brother.
Cain imitated his fathers in killing his brother: humanity is like a brother to the angels, and satan wants to destroy us and has destroyed many of us; Adam’s fall resulted in the spiritual death of the human race. Both satan and Adam murdered their brothers so to speak, and Cain only imitated what they did. In one sense it is amazing just how bad the very first person born of man was, yet in another sense, Cain was merely a chip off the old block. Either way you look at it, humanity’s fruitfulness started off with a horrible beginning. And his name was Cain for he was gotten. He was gotten.
So why did the first-born need to be sacrificed or passed over? A clue resides in the three main sacrifices of the Old Testament: bulls, sheep and goats. Bulls needed to be sacrificed because people were worshipping bulls and the bull-god, Apis. The Golden Calf was part of this worship where people were seeking fertility and prosperity and so the men and women would imitate what bulls would do to female cattle. Seeking life, they had an orgy. The result, they hoped, would be a conception: thus, the golden calf. Here, too, they were seeking a child, and they sought this child in a way contrary to their dignity, to God’s plan, and to trusting in God. After the golden calf, bulls needed to be sacrificed as a financial penance and so that the people would no longer worship them.
After the Golden Calf, the people went after another false god symbolized by goats. It was another fertility cult, and the people were again seeking life and a child in their own way and by their own terms. “So they shall no more slay their sacrifices for satyrs, after whom they play the harlot” (Leviticus 17:7). The satyrs are the goat gods who are obsessed with continually having sex, and those who worship these false gods would imitate them. Since the people were involved with this evil practice, God had them sacrifice goats. Again, it was a financial difficulty to sacrifice one’s livestock, and one’s gods did not look kindly on being killed. It was a God-given help to avoid this near occasion of sin.
Sacrificing bulls and goats was mandated because they were worshipped. Sheep were never worshipped, so why would God have us sacrifice them? A sheep is the sacrifice of the Passover, and Jesus is the Lamb of God. They are the most important animal sacrifice, but why does God mandate this sacrifice? Was their any sin associated with sheep or lambs? I think there was. Sheep symbolize humanity. We are like sheep; we are incredibly stupid. So sheep need to be sacrificed because they symbolize us; we worshipped ourselves. When did we do this? We do it every time we sin, but we do it especially when we seek humans over God.
The man and the woman sought a child over and against God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted them to have a child, but He wanted to give it to them virginally as He did with Mary. They sought a child, and they got him, and they named him gotten (Cain). So here the theme of the first-born and sheep come together. The Passovers all have to do with sheep and with first-borns because our first parents worshiped, as it were, their first-born son and even disobeyed God to get him. Their souls were sold to satan in order to get Gotten; that is why he and all of the human family needs to be bought back or redeemed from the prince of this world.
We all deserve death and are in bondage to sin and satan, and we are like lambs, so the solution is for a lamb to take our place that we may be passed over and live. That is why sheep were sacrificed in the Old Testament, but those “sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9). These Old Testament laws were good, but they were the symbol, not the reality. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). Those sacrifices do not make perfect; however, Jesus’ sacrifice is capable of such a feat.
“For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book” (Hebrews 10:4-7). We are given a body in order to have something to sacrifice, and with our bodily sacrifices we are praying with the body. We are given a will in order that we can sacrifice that, too, and by saying “Thy will be done,” we are praying the most important prayer. Prayer and sacrifice, the prayer of the heart and of prayer of the body, when they are combined are the most powerful. When we completely trust God and seek to do whatever He asks of us, especially what He asks us to do with our bodies, then we are far along the path to unity with Him. It is in this full faithfulness that we have abundant life and belong to Him, and that is the meaning of life.
That is the end of the second entry.
May you and yours be fully blessed by your losing yourself in the celebration of this most Holy Triduum of our Dear Savior's awesome saving deeds. Remember His words: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you" and ask Him that you, too, may earnestly desire to eat this Passover which is Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Most everyone is familiar with the Passover which is explained in Exodus 12; it was the last and most powerful plague that was the impetus for the Egyptians freeing their Israelite slaves. The plague attacked all the Egyptian firstborn; for the Israelite firstborn to be passed over, they had to slaughter an unblemished year-old male lamb, put its blood on their doorpost using a hyssop branch, and eat the lamb.
The Last Supper is a re-presentation of the Passover; Jesus is re-making and fulfilling this ancient and liberating sacrifice and meal. A very important difference in the Last Supper is that Jesus did not finish the Passover as usual; there were four cups of wine in the Passover, but Jesus stopped after the third. He finished the Passover as He was crucified on the cross and drank the vinegar (cheap wine) from the sponge on the hyssop branch: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:28-30). What Jesus finished is the re-making of the Passover.
The Last Supper and the Crucifixion are of one piece “For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor.5:7). Jesus takes on the role that the lamb plays in the Passover. He is sacrificed, and we are passed over. As the Israelites had to sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the doorpost and eat the lamb to be passed over, so we need to be baptized and receive Holy Communion. Baptism is the lamb’s blood on the doorpost because the “doorway” into our “house” is our eyes and face; therefore, the doorpost is our forehead. The water of baptism is the blood of Christ since we are baptized into Jesus’ death. Through these two essential sacraments, we are given the grace to be passed over by the angel of death.
The one Passover that is usually forgotten is Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac back in Genesis 22. I talked about this momentous event a few days ago on 12/19/07, and it is this event and the faithfulness of both Abraham and Isaac that brings about God’s saving actions with his ancestors, the Israelites. The foundation for the Passover is Isaac’s self offering for it is the only time God explicitly swears an oath. The Crucifixion is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of Isaac’s sacrifice, and the Last Supper is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of the Passover. Thus, there is a parallel structure of events that forms one piece, one reality:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One of the common themes here in these three Passovers is the first-born son. In the Passover, not only were the first born Egyptians killed and the first-born Israelites passed over, all of Israel was passed over for they are God’s first-born son: “And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son’” (Exodus 4:22-23).
The other common theme in all of these is the symbolism of baptism and the Eucharist. Even after the Passover, the Israelites had not completed their escape from their enemies. The Egyptians pursued Israel and had them trapped up against the Red Sea with no where to escape. God opened up a way of escape through the water which gave new life to Israel and destroyed their enemies in the process. Once they were out in the wilderness, they grew hungry, and God provided food from heaven. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites again were saved through the water and fed by the heavenly bread. A further structure could look like this:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
C Through the Red Sea (symbolic of Baptism)
C' Manna in the Wilderness (symbolic of the Eucharist)
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One thing we can learn from all this is the immense importance of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. If we receive baptism and Holy Communion, we are given the grace to pick up our cross and follow Jesus; we are given the new heart, the new tree of life, so that we can lay down our life in our everyday activity, so that we can be a person for others, so that we can love God with all our heart, mind and soul; we are given the grace to lay down our life for our friends and to be crucified alongside our Savior Jesus.
We, the baptized, are making our journey through the desert of this life on our way to the Promised Land, heaven. To make our way well, we need our daily bread which is daily prayer and Holy Communion. Many of the Israelites who ate the manna died along the way and did not make it to the Promised Land because of their faithless hearts. Likewise, just receiving the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist does not guarantee anything. We still have to step out in faith and follow our Lord wherever He leads and do whatever He asks. We still need to give ourselves entirely to Him. Thankfully, He provides even the grace to do that.
What I would like to examine next is the significance of the first-born in these key events and how it might possibly relate to the Fall of Adam and Eve.
This is where the first post ends.
The second post on the Passovers was published in the early morning of Christmas Eve, 2007, and it is entitled, "The Meaning of Life." Here it is:
I left off on Tuesday in my post on The Three Passovers introducing the idea of the importance of the first-born. The three Passovers, Isaac’s sacrifice, the Passover, and Jesus’ sacrifice all deal with the first-born. Isaac is the first-born, and he offers himself up as a sacrifice; he was passed over with a ram taking his place. Israel is God’s first-born, and they were passed over by the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and by eating the lamb. Jesus is the Father’s only-begotten Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus, as pre-eminent first-born, sacrifices Himself in order for you and me to be passed over. We are united to Him in baptism and Holy Communion wherein we put His blood on our doorpost and eat the Lamb, respectively.
In the first two Passovers, the first-born was passed over; in the final one, the first-born is the sacrifice. Is there another first-born that was passed over in Jesus’ saving actions? -Perhaps it is you and me: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16). Paul speaks of the Church as the Israel of God; therefore, since Israel is God’s first-born, and we are now the New Israel, we and all members of the Church are God’s first-born. So we are first-born who are passed over by the angel of death, and our Passover Lamb is Jesus at the Last Supper and on the Cross.
The question that arises in my mind is why is the first-born so important, and why does it hold such a pivotal place in these highly important events in Salvation History? As usual, I think the answer lies in the events at the beginning. The course the man and the woman set the human race upon is the answer to much of human history and to the questions we have today. According to my theory, the direct result of the Fall was the conception of Cain. They wanted him and were trying to get him; hence, his name means gotten. He was the first-born of the human race. He was a murderer and a son of the evil one. The first-born son of man belonged, in a certain respect, to satan, and Cain gave himself over to his ways and so slaughtered his righteous brother.
Cain imitated his fathers in killing his brother: humanity is like a brother to the angels, and satan wants to destroy us and has destroyed many of us; Adam’s fall resulted in the spiritual death of the human race. Both satan and Adam murdered their brothers so to speak, and Cain only imitated what they did. In one sense it is amazing just how bad the very first person born of man was, yet in another sense, Cain was merely a chip off the old block. Either way you look at it, humanity’s fruitfulness started off with a horrible beginning. And his name was Cain for he was gotten. He was gotten.
So why did the first-born need to be sacrificed or passed over? A clue resides in the three main sacrifices of the Old Testament: bulls, sheep and goats. Bulls needed to be sacrificed because people were worshipping bulls and the bull-god, Apis. The Golden Calf was part of this worship where people were seeking fertility and prosperity and so the men and women would imitate what bulls would do to female cattle. Seeking life, they had an orgy. The result, they hoped, would be a conception: thus, the golden calf. Here, too, they were seeking a child, and they sought this child in a way contrary to their dignity, to God’s plan, and to trusting in God. After the golden calf, bulls needed to be sacrificed as a financial penance and so that the people would no longer worship them.
After the Golden Calf, the people went after another false god symbolized by goats. It was another fertility cult, and the people were again seeking life and a child in their own way and by their own terms. “So they shall no more slay their sacrifices for satyrs, after whom they play the harlot” (Leviticus 17:7). The satyrs are the goat gods who are obsessed with continually having sex, and those who worship these false gods would imitate them. Since the people were involved with this evil practice, God had them sacrifice goats. Again, it was a financial difficulty to sacrifice one’s livestock, and one’s gods did not look kindly on being killed. It was a God-given help to avoid this near occasion of sin.
Sacrificing bulls and goats was mandated because they were worshipped. Sheep were never worshipped, so why would God have us sacrifice them? A sheep is the sacrifice of the Passover, and Jesus is the Lamb of God. They are the most important animal sacrifice, but why does God mandate this sacrifice? Was their any sin associated with sheep or lambs? I think there was. Sheep symbolize humanity. We are like sheep; we are incredibly stupid. So sheep need to be sacrificed because they symbolize us; we worshipped ourselves. When did we do this? We do it every time we sin, but we do it especially when we seek humans over God.
The man and the woman sought a child over and against God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted them to have a child, but He wanted to give it to them virginally as He did with Mary. They sought a child, and they got him, and they named him gotten (Cain). So here the theme of the first-born and sheep come together. The Passovers all have to do with sheep and with first-borns because our first parents worshiped, as it were, their first-born son and even disobeyed God to get him. Their souls were sold to satan in order to get Gotten; that is why he and all of the human family needs to be bought back or redeemed from the prince of this world.
We all deserve death and are in bondage to sin and satan, and we are like lambs, so the solution is for a lamb to take our place that we may be passed over and live. That is why sheep were sacrificed in the Old Testament, but those “sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9). These Old Testament laws were good, but they were the symbol, not the reality. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). Those sacrifices do not make perfect; however, Jesus’ sacrifice is capable of such a feat.
“For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book” (Hebrews 10:4-7). We are given a body in order to have something to sacrifice, and with our bodily sacrifices we are praying with the body. We are given a will in order that we can sacrifice that, too, and by saying “Thy will be done,” we are praying the most important prayer. Prayer and sacrifice, the prayer of the heart and of prayer of the body, when they are combined are the most powerful. When we completely trust God and seek to do whatever He asks of us, especially what He asks us to do with our bodies, then we are far along the path to unity with Him. It is in this full faithfulness that we have abundant life and belong to Him, and that is the meaning of life.
That is the end of the second entry.
May you and yours be fully blessed by your losing yourself in the celebration of this most Holy Triduum of our Dear Savior's awesome saving deeds. Remember His words: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you" and ask Him that you, too, may earnestly desire to eat this Passover which is Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
3.12.2008
"When You Lift Up the Son of Man"
In the first reading today from Numbers 21:4-9 there is the story of the Israelites complaining in the desert about their lack of food and water and accusing God that He brought them into the desert to kill them. God was taking care of them but not in the way that they wanted; their patience was worn out, and they called God a murderer, essentially. They accused God of being Satan. God responds by sending them seraph serpents to bite and kill them.
Since they called God Satan, He showed them what Satan would do to them. In the Garden of Eden, Satan came as a serpent and as the murderer of the human race; God sends images of the evil one to do what he does, and so they are bit and many die. The antidote to these venomous snakes is to look on a bronze serpent mounted on a pole. When they look at an image of what they called God and so repent of what they had done, they are healed.
In the gospel from John 8:21-30, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and says to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always to what is pleasing to him” (8:28-29). The communion antiphon comes from John 12:32: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself, says the Lord.”
Jesus is the fulfillment of the bronze serpent mounted on a pole that brought healing. Jesus’ skin was most likely bronze in color, and He was mounted on a tree for the healing of the nations. How does the bronze serpent help us to understand what Jesus did? The Israelites were hungry, thirsty, tired, bored and fed-up with all the ceaseless wandering in the desert. They accused God of seeking their destruction, and in so doing, they were essentially calling Him Satan.
In John 8:25 when the Pharisees asked Jesus who He was, He responded saying, “What I told you from the beginning.” The words “serpent” and “beginning” bring us back to the beginning of the Bible to Genesis 1-3. According to my theory, the man and the woman were hungry and thirsty for a child, the child God implicitly promised when He said to be fruitful and multiply. Since He commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. not have sexual relations, they were in a metaphorical lifeless desert. They got fed up waiting for the promised child, much like Abraham and Sarah did with Isaac, and they listened and obeyed the voice of the serpent who promised them life. He promised them that they would be like God; they primarily knew God to be the Creator and giver of life, and so they, too, wanted to be like Him and give life by making a man.
By looking at the bronze serpent the Israelites could see what they had called God. What can you and I see when we look upon our crucified Lord? On the one hand, we can see that the man and the woman and you and I rely upon our own strength for our life instead of trusting in God. The man and the woman were tested to trust in God for their life and fruitfulness, but they chose to utilize the strength of their bodies, contrary to God’s singular command, in order to give life and have a baby. They were saying that it was by their bodies that they would have and give life. Looking at Jesus on the crucifix, we know that they who loose their life are given life, and they who let their bodies die who will rise again.
The man and the woman did not trust God’s command and did not believe that He would take care of them in their desert. They did not believe that He had their best interest at heart. It made no sense to them that they should be fruitful and multiply and yet not have sexual relations, so God must be playing a cruel trick on them and He was not to be trusted. The serpent was trustworthy, they thought, and by clinging to life and utilizing the generative powers of their bodies they would have life.
Jesus’ crucified body on the tree signals that it is in trusting God to the point of death that one has life. He gave birth to the Church when His heart was pierced and blood and water flowed out just like at a birth, and so He shows that life and birth come primarily through a circumcised and trusting heart. The heart, i.e. the tree of life, is that through which we trust in God and so have life.
In the passage quoted above Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man.” He does not say the Son of God but the Son of Man. Jesus is the Son of Man, i.e. the Son of Adam. Because of the man’s faithless, uncircumcised heart of stone, all humanity fell, and the actual result of the act which was the Fall was Cain. We are all sons of man, but we are made to be sons of God; that is why the Son of God became a Son of Man. On the crucifix we also see the Son of Man; we see the humanity that was the result of Adam’s sin (not that Jesus had original sin).
Gazing on the crucifix and meditating on the Passion of Our Lord, we learn to what extent God goes to redeem us. We see His boundless love. We learn that it is not by our strength that we have life but by obedience to every word which comes from God. We learn that it is the loving, trusting and obedient heart that is the tree of life. We learn that we need to get rid of our old faithless heart given to us by Adam, and that we need the new heart of Jesus which we receive when we are baptized into Jesus’ death and every time we receive Him in Holy Communion. We learn that God provides to the one who puts his trust in Him as we wander throughout this desert. The crucifix and the Passion are the antidote to everything, to every sin which ails us; the crucified and risen heart of Jesus which we receive in the Eucharist is the tree of life, our new trusting heart, and the healing for the nations from the bite of the serpent. With Jesus' heart within us, we can say with Him: "I always do what is pleasing to Him."
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Since they called God Satan, He showed them what Satan would do to them. In the Garden of Eden, Satan came as a serpent and as the murderer of the human race; God sends images of the evil one to do what he does, and so they are bit and many die. The antidote to these venomous snakes is to look on a bronze serpent mounted on a pole. When they look at an image of what they called God and so repent of what they had done, they are healed.
In the gospel from John 8:21-30, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and says to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always to what is pleasing to him” (8:28-29). The communion antiphon comes from John 12:32: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself, says the Lord.”
Jesus is the fulfillment of the bronze serpent mounted on a pole that brought healing. Jesus’ skin was most likely bronze in color, and He was mounted on a tree for the healing of the nations. How does the bronze serpent help us to understand what Jesus did? The Israelites were hungry, thirsty, tired, bored and fed-up with all the ceaseless wandering in the desert. They accused God of seeking their destruction, and in so doing, they were essentially calling Him Satan.
In John 8:25 when the Pharisees asked Jesus who He was, He responded saying, “What I told you from the beginning.” The words “serpent” and “beginning” bring us back to the beginning of the Bible to Genesis 1-3. According to my theory, the man and the woman were hungry and thirsty for a child, the child God implicitly promised when He said to be fruitful and multiply. Since He commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. not have sexual relations, they were in a metaphorical lifeless desert. They got fed up waiting for the promised child, much like Abraham and Sarah did with Isaac, and they listened and obeyed the voice of the serpent who promised them life. He promised them that they would be like God; they primarily knew God to be the Creator and giver of life, and so they, too, wanted to be like Him and give life by making a man.
By looking at the bronze serpent the Israelites could see what they had called God. What can you and I see when we look upon our crucified Lord? On the one hand, we can see that the man and the woman and you and I rely upon our own strength for our life instead of trusting in God. The man and the woman were tested to trust in God for their life and fruitfulness, but they chose to utilize the strength of their bodies, contrary to God’s singular command, in order to give life and have a baby. They were saying that it was by their bodies that they would have and give life. Looking at Jesus on the crucifix, we know that they who loose their life are given life, and they who let their bodies die who will rise again.
The man and the woman did not trust God’s command and did not believe that He would take care of them in their desert. They did not believe that He had their best interest at heart. It made no sense to them that they should be fruitful and multiply and yet not have sexual relations, so God must be playing a cruel trick on them and He was not to be trusted. The serpent was trustworthy, they thought, and by clinging to life and utilizing the generative powers of their bodies they would have life.
Jesus’ crucified body on the tree signals that it is in trusting God to the point of death that one has life. He gave birth to the Church when His heart was pierced and blood and water flowed out just like at a birth, and so He shows that life and birth come primarily through a circumcised and trusting heart. The heart, i.e. the tree of life, is that through which we trust in God and so have life.
In the passage quoted above Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man.” He does not say the Son of God but the Son of Man. Jesus is the Son of Man, i.e. the Son of Adam. Because of the man’s faithless, uncircumcised heart of stone, all humanity fell, and the actual result of the act which was the Fall was Cain. We are all sons of man, but we are made to be sons of God; that is why the Son of God became a Son of Man. On the crucifix we also see the Son of Man; we see the humanity that was the result of Adam’s sin (not that Jesus had original sin).
Gazing on the crucifix and meditating on the Passion of Our Lord, we learn to what extent God goes to redeem us. We see His boundless love. We learn that it is not by our strength that we have life but by obedience to every word which comes from God. We learn that it is the loving, trusting and obedient heart that is the tree of life. We learn that we need to get rid of our old faithless heart given to us by Adam, and that we need the new heart of Jesus which we receive when we are baptized into Jesus’ death and every time we receive Him in Holy Communion. We learn that God provides to the one who puts his trust in Him as we wander throughout this desert. The crucifix and the Passion are the antidote to everything, to every sin which ails us; the crucified and risen heart of Jesus which we receive in the Eucharist is the tree of life, our new trusting heart, and the healing for the nations from the bite of the serpent. With Jesus' heart within us, we can say with Him: "I always do what is pleasing to Him."
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
3.03.2008
Why The Trees Aren't Reversed
I received a comment containing a question from 2.29.08. Here is the question: "I am not familiar with your theory (although I'd like to be) but I'm curious to know why the trees' representations aren't reversed -- The tree of life being our power and ability to conceive children and the tree of knowledge being the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God."
God put us on this earth, but He made us for heaven. We spend a very short time here on earth; it is but a brief stop on the journey to our true and everlasting homeland. We have eternal life only through our love, trust and obedience of God; we begin our eternal life here on earth by our union with Him; if we don't, then there is no eternal life in heaven for us when we die. Life, in the fullest sense of the word, is only given to us insofar as we are united to God, and our unity with God only happens via a heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. The heart is the channel through which we receive God's life. God's life is the life of our soul, and we have nothing, we are nothing, we have no life if we don't have God dwelling within us.
Having children is a wonderful reality and a marvelous gift from God. Raising children is one of the best God-given ways that He shows us and provides the arena for us to learn how to love, to learn how to be a self-sacrificing lover. One of the best adult educations is raising children; I remember Scott Hahn having a plaque in his office saying: "The best adult education--children." As much a blessing as having children is, it is not what gives us supernatural or everlasting life. The children we do have need to be born again in baptism for they are born spiritually dead without sanctifying grace. What really matters in the end is God's life in our soul, and that life only comes from the tree of life: the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. Marriage and children are a God-given calling to lead us and help us on our way to heaven, but there is no help in them if our heart is separated from God.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our ability to have children because this is what served as the test of faith that God established for our first parents. Why it is given this name I haven't fully digested yet. I think there are a number of viable possibilities for why it has this name. For now, I am not going to get into this question.
Mary fulfilled the test of faith that the woman (after the Fall named Eve, mother) failed. Mary ate fully of her tree of life and trusted in God when it did not make sense. I have discussed Mary's test in a few other places. Because she ate of her tree of life, God provided her with a Son. He is no ordinary son, and God also gives all humanity to Mary as her children. Mary trusted God to provide her with children virginally, and God made her the greatest mother of all time. So Mary did have children through her tree of life, but only after she passed her crucifixion of her greatest earthly desire. Mary does not rely on her own abilities to provide life; rather, she trusts wholly in God, and He satisfies her greatest desires and infinitely more so. God is such a good God who wants us to be fully alive and our deepest desires abundantly fulfilled to overflowing. If we place ourselves entirely in His hands, we will be blessed beyond measure.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
God put us on this earth, but He made us for heaven. We spend a very short time here on earth; it is but a brief stop on the journey to our true and everlasting homeland. We have eternal life only through our love, trust and obedience of God; we begin our eternal life here on earth by our union with Him; if we don't, then there is no eternal life in heaven for us when we die. Life, in the fullest sense of the word, is only given to us insofar as we are united to God, and our unity with God only happens via a heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. The heart is the channel through which we receive God's life. God's life is the life of our soul, and we have nothing, we are nothing, we have no life if we don't have God dwelling within us.
Having children is a wonderful reality and a marvelous gift from God. Raising children is one of the best God-given ways that He shows us and provides the arena for us to learn how to love, to learn how to be a self-sacrificing lover. One of the best adult educations is raising children; I remember Scott Hahn having a plaque in his office saying: "The best adult education--children." As much a blessing as having children is, it is not what gives us supernatural or everlasting life. The children we do have need to be born again in baptism for they are born spiritually dead without sanctifying grace. What really matters in the end is God's life in our soul, and that life only comes from the tree of life: the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. Marriage and children are a God-given calling to lead us and help us on our way to heaven, but there is no help in them if our heart is separated from God.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our ability to have children because this is what served as the test of faith that God established for our first parents. Why it is given this name I haven't fully digested yet. I think there are a number of viable possibilities for why it has this name. For now, I am not going to get into this question.
Mary fulfilled the test of faith that the woman (after the Fall named Eve, mother) failed. Mary ate fully of her tree of life and trusted in God when it did not make sense. I have discussed Mary's test in a few other places. Because she ate of her tree of life, God provided her with a Son. He is no ordinary son, and God also gives all humanity to Mary as her children. Mary trusted God to provide her with children virginally, and God made her the greatest mother of all time. So Mary did have children through her tree of life, but only after she passed her crucifixion of her greatest earthly desire. Mary does not rely on her own abilities to provide life; rather, she trusts wholly in God, and He satisfies her greatest desires and infinitely more so. God is such a good God who wants us to be fully alive and our deepest desires abundantly fulfilled to overflowing. If we place ourselves entirely in His hands, we will be blessed beyond measure.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.26.2008
Jesus of Nazareth
I plan to work my way through Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Joseph Ratzinger, published by Doubleday in 2007. Tonight I want to start by focusing on the last sentences of his introduction on page eight:
“The disciple who walks with Jesus is thus caught up with him into communion with God. And that is what redemption means: this stepping beyond the limits of human nature, which had been there as a possibility and an expectation in man, God’s image and likeness, since the moment of creation.”
Putting what the Pope says in my own words, I would say: Jesus is the Way by which we are united to God and have a relationship with Him. This union and friendship with God is what redemption is, for heaven itself is nothing other than being with God. Jesus enables us to go beyond the merely natural and be transported into the supernatural reality for which God created us. Being made in God’s image and likeness bespeaks the reality that God made us to be in relationship with Him.
What I find most interesting in this quote from our Holy Father is that he connects our communion with God to our being created in the image and likeness of God. That makes sense. It relates to what I say which is that being created in the image and likeness of God means that we are created to be God’s spouse and to have the deepest union with Him. Our two statements are not mutually exclusive; my statement is more specific and strongly stated.
The first chapter of the book is a reflection on the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. John is shocked that Jesus wants to be baptized by him, but Jesus replies to John saying, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The Pope reflects on Jesus’ words on page seventeen of his book:
“The key to interpreting Jesus’ answer is how we understand the word righteousness: The whole of righteousness must be fulfilled. In Jesus’ world, righteousness is man’s answer to the Torah, acceptance of the whole of God’s will, the bearing of the “yoke of God’s kingdom,” as one formulation had it. There is no provision for John’s baptism in the Torah, but this reply of Jesus is his way of acknowledging it as an expression of an unrestricted Yes to God’s will, as an obedient acceptance of his yoke.”
One is baptized then, in Jesus’ understanding, as an expression of an unrestricted Yes to the whole of God’s will and an obedient fulfillment of God’s commands. Pope Benedict says that the Eastern Church sees Jesus’ response here to John’s bewilderment as an anticipation of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father…not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Jesus is wholly given over to the will of His Heavenly Father, even unto death.
Today, when one is baptized, he enters into the death of Jesus, and he is given the very heart of Jesus which led Him to His faithful-unto-death self-offering. With Jesus’ heart within us, we are able to take on the impossible task of following and loving God and obeying His commands. We too are given the courage and spirit of sacrifice to say together with Jesus: “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” The Eucharist is an extension and celebration of our baptism, and as such, the Eucharist is the new heart we need to be wholly given over to the will of God. Jesus frees us from our slavery to our own wills and makes it possible for us to follow and please God perfectly.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“The disciple who walks with Jesus is thus caught up with him into communion with God. And that is what redemption means: this stepping beyond the limits of human nature, which had been there as a possibility and an expectation in man, God’s image and likeness, since the moment of creation.”
Putting what the Pope says in my own words, I would say: Jesus is the Way by which we are united to God and have a relationship with Him. This union and friendship with God is what redemption is, for heaven itself is nothing other than being with God. Jesus enables us to go beyond the merely natural and be transported into the supernatural reality for which God created us. Being made in God’s image and likeness bespeaks the reality that God made us to be in relationship with Him.
What I find most interesting in this quote from our Holy Father is that he connects our communion with God to our being created in the image and likeness of God. That makes sense. It relates to what I say which is that being created in the image and likeness of God means that we are created to be God’s spouse and to have the deepest union with Him. Our two statements are not mutually exclusive; my statement is more specific and strongly stated.
The first chapter of the book is a reflection on the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. John is shocked that Jesus wants to be baptized by him, but Jesus replies to John saying, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The Pope reflects on Jesus’ words on page seventeen of his book:
“The key to interpreting Jesus’ answer is how we understand the word righteousness: The whole of righteousness must be fulfilled. In Jesus’ world, righteousness is man’s answer to the Torah, acceptance of the whole of God’s will, the bearing of the “yoke of God’s kingdom,” as one formulation had it. There is no provision for John’s baptism in the Torah, but this reply of Jesus is his way of acknowledging it as an expression of an unrestricted Yes to God’s will, as an obedient acceptance of his yoke.”
One is baptized then, in Jesus’ understanding, as an expression of an unrestricted Yes to the whole of God’s will and an obedient fulfillment of God’s commands. Pope Benedict says that the Eastern Church sees Jesus’ response here to John’s bewilderment as an anticipation of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father…not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Jesus is wholly given over to the will of His Heavenly Father, even unto death.
Today, when one is baptized, he enters into the death of Jesus, and he is given the very heart of Jesus which led Him to His faithful-unto-death self-offering. With Jesus’ heart within us, we are able to take on the impossible task of following and loving God and obeying His commands. We too are given the courage and spirit of sacrifice to say together with Jesus: “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” The Eucharist is an extension and celebration of our baptism, and as such, the Eucharist is the new heart we need to be wholly given over to the will of God. Jesus frees us from our slavery to our own wills and makes it possible for us to follow and please God perfectly.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.18.2008
Ratzinger: the Cross and Eucharist=the Tree of Life
This weekend I went on my yearly silent retreat with Opus Dei, and that is why I haven’t written anything these past several days. While on the retreat, I read a short book that consists of four homilies during lent that Pope Benedict XVI gave back before he was pope or even the prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith. He gave the lectures during lent in 1981, right before he was the prefect (at least I don’t think he was just yet). Ratzinger didn’t publish them for five years; the edition I read was from 1995 and is titled: ‘In the Beginning…’ A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall.
One of the overriding themes of these homilies is that the belief that God created the world is extremely important to properly understanding not only ourselves, but reality and the Faith itself. I am not going to summarize the reasons for this, at least not tonight. I assume this point in everything I write, and it was encouraging to know that, hopefully, I can do a small part to lead others to re-examine the creation account. In the beginning of the preface of the book, Ratzinger laments how “…the creation account is noticeably and nearly completely absent from catechesis, preaching, and even theology.” That was true when he preached these homilies in 1981. “Since then, from the perspective of my new work [as prefect], the critical state of the creation theme in the present-day kerygma has become so much more evident that I now feel pressed to bring out the old manuscripts again and prepare them for printing.” That is why he published them five years later and created the book I read this weekend.
I want to quote at length his conclusion to his forth homily:
“Thus Christ is the new Adam, with whom humankind begins anew….The cross, the place of obedience, is the true tree of life. Christ is the antitype of the serpent, as is indicated in John 3:14. From this tree there comes not the word of temptation but that of redeeming love, the word of obedience, which an obedient God himself used, thus offering us his obedience as a context for freedom. The cross is the tree of life, now become approachable….Therefore the Eucharist, as the presence of the cross, is the abiding tree of life, which is ever in our midst and ever invites us to take the fruit of true life….To receive it, to eat of the tree of life, thus means to receive the crucified Lord and consequently to accept the parameters of his life, his obedience, his ‘yes,’ the standard of our creatureliness. It means to accept the love of God, which is our truth—that dependence on God which is no more an imposition from without than is the Son’s sonship. It is precisely this dependence that is freedom, because it is truth and love.”
Of course, I love this quote; I do because it resonates so well with much of what I have been saying. For someone who only desires to write within the context of Catholicism, in the strict sense of the word, having the Pope say some of the very same things is sweet music to my ears. I am glad that I found this quote this weekend; I plan to work my way through the Pope’s most recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, so I can see what else he says that may resonate with what I am saying. Isn’t his next book coming out soon, too?
At the same time, what I am saying is only in part what the Pope is saying. I say that the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God is the tree of life, and that that is the way it was from the beginning with the man and the woman in the garden. Their hearts trusted in Satan and his wisdom, and so they brought death into the world for themselves and all their descendants. The problem with us then, is that we have hard hearts, hearts that trust in themselves, rely upon their own power, turn away from God, are disobedient and in love with self and the good things of this world. We need hearts of flesh that love, trust and obey God in all things, at all times, and against all difficulties even unto death. We receive that loving and self-sacrificing heart of flesh at Baptism when we are united to Christ in His death and resurrections; being united to Jesus, we receive His very heart which was crucified and pierced; every Eucharist is a celebration of our Baptism wherein we receive that Heart of Christ, crucified and risen. With such a heart, we are able to fully and truly love, trust and obey God. That is the awesome gift we receive at every Eucharist, but it is up to us to open the present and use it. Nothing less than sanctity awaits us when we take the heart of Jesus given to us and make it our own.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
One of the overriding themes of these homilies is that the belief that God created the world is extremely important to properly understanding not only ourselves, but reality and the Faith itself. I am not going to summarize the reasons for this, at least not tonight. I assume this point in everything I write, and it was encouraging to know that, hopefully, I can do a small part to lead others to re-examine the creation account. In the beginning of the preface of the book, Ratzinger laments how “…the creation account is noticeably and nearly completely absent from catechesis, preaching, and even theology.” That was true when he preached these homilies in 1981. “Since then, from the perspective of my new work [as prefect], the critical state of the creation theme in the present-day kerygma has become so much more evident that I now feel pressed to bring out the old manuscripts again and prepare them for printing.” That is why he published them five years later and created the book I read this weekend.
I want to quote at length his conclusion to his forth homily:
“Thus Christ is the new Adam, with whom humankind begins anew….The cross, the place of obedience, is the true tree of life. Christ is the antitype of the serpent, as is indicated in John 3:14. From this tree there comes not the word of temptation but that of redeeming love, the word of obedience, which an obedient God himself used, thus offering us his obedience as a context for freedom. The cross is the tree of life, now become approachable….Therefore the Eucharist, as the presence of the cross, is the abiding tree of life, which is ever in our midst and ever invites us to take the fruit of true life….To receive it, to eat of the tree of life, thus means to receive the crucified Lord and consequently to accept the parameters of his life, his obedience, his ‘yes,’ the standard of our creatureliness. It means to accept the love of God, which is our truth—that dependence on God which is no more an imposition from without than is the Son’s sonship. It is precisely this dependence that is freedom, because it is truth and love.”
Of course, I love this quote; I do because it resonates so well with much of what I have been saying. For someone who only desires to write within the context of Catholicism, in the strict sense of the word, having the Pope say some of the very same things is sweet music to my ears. I am glad that I found this quote this weekend; I plan to work my way through the Pope’s most recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, so I can see what else he says that may resonate with what I am saying. Isn’t his next book coming out soon, too?
At the same time, what I am saying is only in part what the Pope is saying. I say that the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God is the tree of life, and that that is the way it was from the beginning with the man and the woman in the garden. Their hearts trusted in Satan and his wisdom, and so they brought death into the world for themselves and all their descendants. The problem with us then, is that we have hard hearts, hearts that trust in themselves, rely upon their own power, turn away from God, are disobedient and in love with self and the good things of this world. We need hearts of flesh that love, trust and obey God in all things, at all times, and against all difficulties even unto death. We receive that loving and self-sacrificing heart of flesh at Baptism when we are united to Christ in His death and resurrections; being united to Jesus, we receive His very heart which was crucified and pierced; every Eucharist is a celebration of our Baptism wherein we receive that Heart of Christ, crucified and risen. With such a heart, we are able to fully and truly love, trust and obey God. That is the awesome gift we receive at every Eucharist, but it is up to us to open the present and use it. Nothing less than sanctity awaits us when we take the heart of Jesus given to us and make it our own.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.14.2008
My First Poem: Offered Back
(Other poems)
Offered Back
Love began the flame within the fragile cells.
Love, too, completed the Love began, in nourishing womb.
Husband and wife, united, made into the perfect body of one,
An image of the Perfect Triune Body of One
Presented with the new creation--the new born babe.
In this Love, I AM embraces this chalice
Freshly fashioned, radiating being.
The molded golden handle bulb--its heart
Living to be held...by Him.
The reflecting receiving concave belly--its mind, its soul
Living to be filled...with HIm.
Like an eagle fledgling floundering in cliff-hung nest
Pushed out to fly, to live
Tumbling, follows not its guardinas in flight
Looking away, follows the pull
Insatiably darkly driven insensible.
Thirsting chalice, numb, leaves home, prostitutes itself
Corrupt hands unable to hold, to draw near
Dry tasteless drink unable to fill, to satisfy and sustain
Clang! Happening hard upon frozen stone, violated and broken.
Shattering into its world the Shepherd finds this chalice,
Holding it close to the Loving Pierced Heart,
Reality penetrating eyes know its every construction.
Deep, dirty, disjointed dings destroy the dance
Gouges and scrapes scathingly show sustaining
Deathly emptiness, stark cold lonely nakedness
Once poured over, twice poured over, thrice poured over
Washed in pure water, cleansed by the bath.
Grime regrasps its gauche grip, holding to fester
Particles hiding, hibernating in the caves.
Mercy Infinite, Love Exploding, hands of light drudge deep
Polishing till perfection, holy and without blemish.
Rest is given, new wine poured in.
Both united--Him holding its heart with Pierrced Palms
Living within each other--it holding the Bleeding Wine
Chalice breathing Blood, Blood breathing Life.
This lost chalice is now His chalice.
Through Him, With Him, In Him, offered back to I AM.
I began this poem while in pain on my bed as a freshman at the Franciscan University of Steubenville after a serious ankle sprain playing basketball. I worked on it for some time and turned it in for my poetry class. The next year, I took it out again and worked on it some more. I revised it and published it in the university's literary magazine, which, for that year, was entitled "Offered Back" after this poem.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Offered Back
Love began the flame within the fragile cells.
Love, too, completed the Love began, in nourishing womb.
Husband and wife, united, made into the perfect body of one,
An image of the Perfect Triune Body of One
Presented with the new creation--the new born babe.
In this Love, I AM embraces this chalice
Freshly fashioned, radiating being.
The molded golden handle bulb--its heart
Living to be held...by Him.
The reflecting receiving concave belly--its mind, its soul
Living to be filled...with HIm.
Like an eagle fledgling floundering in cliff-hung nest
Pushed out to fly, to live
Tumbling, follows not its guardinas in flight
Looking away, follows the pull
Insatiably darkly driven insensible.
Thirsting chalice, numb, leaves home, prostitutes itself
Corrupt hands unable to hold, to draw near
Dry tasteless drink unable to fill, to satisfy and sustain
Clang! Happening hard upon frozen stone, violated and broken.
Shattering into its world the Shepherd finds this chalice,
Holding it close to the Loving Pierced Heart,
Reality penetrating eyes know its every construction.
Deep, dirty, disjointed dings destroy the dance
Gouges and scrapes scathingly show sustaining
Deathly emptiness, stark cold lonely nakedness
Once poured over, twice poured over, thrice poured over
Washed in pure water, cleansed by the bath.
Grime regrasps its gauche grip, holding to fester
Particles hiding, hibernating in the caves.
Mercy Infinite, Love Exploding, hands of light drudge deep
Polishing till perfection, holy and without blemish.
Rest is given, new wine poured in.
Both united--Him holding its heart with Pierrced Palms
Living within each other--it holding the Bleeding Wine
Chalice breathing Blood, Blood breathing Life.
This lost chalice is now His chalice.
Through Him, With Him, In Him, offered back to I AM.
I began this poem while in pain on my bed as a freshman at the Franciscan University of Steubenville after a serious ankle sprain playing basketball. I worked on it for some time and turned it in for my poetry class. The next year, I took it out again and worked on it some more. I revised it and published it in the university's literary magazine, which, for that year, was entitled "Offered Back" after this poem.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.10.2008
The Temptation of Christ was the Temptation of Adam
Tonight is the three month anniversary of my blog’s launch; technically, I started it late at night on the ninth, but I did not really put anything in my first post other than that I was going to start writing. I started writing on the tenth. This is my 83rd post in these past 90 days or so, and it has been much fun for me. One of the main reasons I had not written before was that I was simply too busy with life; that hasn’t changed. In order to write, I just get less sleep. Most of my writing takes place late at night; I try to finish before midnight, but it is usually sometime after when I can actually hit the hay. Since I love it, even though I wish I were doing a much better job of it, it is not difficult to keep going. Thanks to all the people who keep me and my writing in your prayers.
What better readings could there be today for this first Sunday in Lent for my three month anniversary! The first reading talks about the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Fall itself. I will reprint the whole thing here. I usually use the RSCVE Bible, but of course the Mass readings are using the NAB; it will be interesting to compare the two. It comes from Genesis 2:7-9 & 3:1-7:
The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
One thing I like about this translation is that the various trees God plants in the garden are delightful to look at and good for food. The word Eden means delight, and the trees planted there are delightful. That makes sense. Part of my theory is that the Garden of Eden is not so much a place as it is the man and woman themselves; the garden refers to them and to their bodies. The trees refer to all of their abilities and powers as humans. God created us good, and how we are created is beautiful. Our bodies are beautiful, and our abilities are beautiful; in an unfallen state, we were perfectly harmonious and in order; we would not die or get sick; our will and intellect and body worked together toward one good common goal; all was well, and all was beautiful. We are still created good and beautiful, yet we are disordered and tend toward the evil; it is a battle to choose the good. It is a battle not to be selfish and not to forget about God. It is a battle not say, My will be done.
The two most important delightful trees, which are in the middle of the garden, are the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. My theory is that the tree of life is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our ability to have marital relations and conceive children. Since God had put us on earth but made us for heaven, and since He gave the man and the woman to each other as spouses but made us to be married to Him forever in heaven, He told the man and the woman not to have relations.
He asked them to forgo the greatest of this world’s blessings as a sacrificial test and trial of faith in order be given a child by God directly, virginally, and so also be given the greatest supernatural blessing: complete beatitude and union with God Himself forever in Heaven. We are first and foremost created for heaven, which is to be married to God forever; we are not made for earth or earthly marriage, ultimately; earth and earthly marriage are the pathway we take to prepare us for heaven, where there is no earthly marriage. God still requires this same sort of test for all those who live the priestly or religious life; it is the test of celibacy. And it still takes great trust and love of God to pass this test, but the fruit of a well-passed test is bountiful.
The responsorial psalm is the great penitential psalm David wrote after he acknowledged his sin with Bathsheba; there are a number of parallels between his sin and the Fall, as I see it. Perhaps the most important element of this psalm is David’s request to God to create a clean heart in him. David asks God for a clean heart. Repentance is a matter of the heart. Turning back to God is a matter of the heart. Being faithful and loving God is also a matter of the heart. Life comes through union with God, and in that respect, the faithful heart is the source or conduit of life. The heart is the tree of life.
I will include all of the second reading today from Paul’s Letter to the Romans 5:12-19:
“Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come. But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many. And the gift is not like the result of the one who sinned. For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation; but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal. For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.”
I think Paul’s argument here is relatively simple. He is saying that through one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world. He was disobedient, sinned, and brought death upon his family, the human race. The implication is that all his children and their children, the sons of Adam or the sons of man, are born dead to God, born without sanctifying grace. In Adam, all sinned, all were condemned, and all died. The one man brought disobedience and death upon everyone. Adam is a type, as in typology or image, of Christ, yet Christ undoes what Adam destroyed. The one man, Jesus Christ, was obedient, and so He brings grace, acquittal, justification, righteousness and life to the many. The one man, the Son of Man, enables us, sinners, to have life again and have our relationship with God renewed.
How is original sin passed on? It passes on through human generation; each child born is born in the state of original sin. This is no personal sin on the part of the baby; it is a state of being not born with sanctifying grace in our souls. Without sanctifying grace, which is the very life of God, we are born dead to God. We need to be born again. That is the state of things Adam left us in by his one act of disobedience.
How do we go from being sons of men to being sons of God? How do we become children of God and born alive to Him? We need to be born again, born from above, born of God in the sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is being really, spiritually united to Jesus, specifically His passion, death and resurrection so that we can die, be set free from our old master, sin, and be born again to be married to our new spouse, Jesus (see Romans 7:1ff). As Adam gives birth to spiritually dead babies through natural generation, so Jesus gives birth to children alive in God through His death and resurrection, which we truly share in through the sacrament of Baptism.
One of my main points here is that both Adam and Jesus beget children; the first through disobedience because of the fear of death and trying to save his own life, begets dead children, and the other through obedience and going through the worst possible death, makes the dead into a new creation and alive to God. Each of these singular men, through their one act, beget children: the first begets children who are dead, and the second begets those dead children to new life in Him.
Lastly, we have the gospel which today comes from Matthew 4:1-11, and it depicts the temptation of Christ by Satan after Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert. Jesus was hungry; I think we can assume that He was most hungry; physically, I do not know how much longer one could possibly fast and still live. It would be difficult to be hungrier than Jesus was when Satan approached Jesus and told Him to turn stones into bread. Then Satan told Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple because, as the Bible says, God gives His angels to watch us to keep us from getting hurt. Lastly, Satan tempts Jesus by saying that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would simply lay flat on the ground and worship him.
As the New Adam, I would assume that Jesus’ temptation would have some similarities to the temptation Adam underwent. My theory is that God commanded Adam not to have relations with his wife. Barrenness was death for the Jews, and wanting to be like God who creates, the man and the woman, fearing the death of not having children, disobeyed God to obey God’s other command to be fruitful and multiply. Abraham and Sarah, after God promised them a son, waited twenty-five years, from the time he was 75 until he was 100, before God actually sent that promised son, Isaac. They were hungry for a son; they were so hungry that Abraham had a son through Sarah’s maid in an attempt to fulfill God’s promise.
How long did the man and the woman wait to have a child? It could have been a very long time. It could have been very short, or it could have been decades or even centuries. We don’t know. I speculate that it was a long time and that they were extremely hungry for a child, to be creative like God and fulfill God’s command to be fruitful. And Satan hit them were they were most weak. Jesus was hungry for bread, so Satan proposes that He make bread from stones. The man and the woman were hungry for a baby, so Satan proposes that they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to have one. And they do, and they name him “gotten,” which is Cain.
When you purposely throw yourself down from a great height to test God and make Him protect you against your own stupidity, you of course sin, and obviously you will get critically hurt. You will probably die. This is similar to what Adam did. Adam was created without sin and unaffected by death and sickness; he had a great dignity and was the very first human created. He took all that dignity, all that height, and threw it down by his sin. He disobeyed God’s singular prohibition; that is as smart as jumping off a cliff, and it has the same consequence—death. He, the father of the human family, becomes the father of death by his stupid sin. One other thing, Adam was made as a temple of God, and by his sin he threw himself down from such a dignity as temple of God; he was made from dirt, but he was made to be God's temple; he forsook being God's temple and choose to be dirt.
Lastly, Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world if He prostrated Himself before Satan. This, too, has parallels to what Adam did, according to my theory. If the Fall was having relations with his wife, the woman, then they both would have been prostrate on the ground, as it were. They did it through the wisdom of the serpent, and by trusting in him, they were choosing to worship him instead of God. That, then, covers the falling prostrate and worshipping Satan. What about the having the kingdoms of the world? What are kingdoms made up of? People. If there are no people, there certainly are no kingdoms. There wouldn’t even be a state, city, town, village or hamlet. Adam, hungry for a child, could have also been promised as part of his temptation to be the father of all the people of the earth. By his trust of and obedience to the wisdom of the serpent, if my theory is correct, Adam did become the father of all the earth and in that manner possess all the kingdoms of the earth. Everyone on the earth is a son of Adam, a son of man. So the Son of Man came to undo what Adam had done, making the sons of men into sons of God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.rom
What better readings could there be today for this first Sunday in Lent for my three month anniversary! The first reading talks about the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Fall itself. I will reprint the whole thing here. I usually use the RSCVE Bible, but of course the Mass readings are using the NAB; it will be interesting to compare the two. It comes from Genesis 2:7-9 & 3:1-7:
The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
One thing I like about this translation is that the various trees God plants in the garden are delightful to look at and good for food. The word Eden means delight, and the trees planted there are delightful. That makes sense. Part of my theory is that the Garden of Eden is not so much a place as it is the man and woman themselves; the garden refers to them and to their bodies. The trees refer to all of their abilities and powers as humans. God created us good, and how we are created is beautiful. Our bodies are beautiful, and our abilities are beautiful; in an unfallen state, we were perfectly harmonious and in order; we would not die or get sick; our will and intellect and body worked together toward one good common goal; all was well, and all was beautiful. We are still created good and beautiful, yet we are disordered and tend toward the evil; it is a battle to choose the good. It is a battle not to be selfish and not to forget about God. It is a battle not say, My will be done.
The two most important delightful trees, which are in the middle of the garden, are the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. My theory is that the tree of life is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our ability to have marital relations and conceive children. Since God had put us on earth but made us for heaven, and since He gave the man and the woman to each other as spouses but made us to be married to Him forever in heaven, He told the man and the woman not to have relations.
He asked them to forgo the greatest of this world’s blessings as a sacrificial test and trial of faith in order be given a child by God directly, virginally, and so also be given the greatest supernatural blessing: complete beatitude and union with God Himself forever in Heaven. We are first and foremost created for heaven, which is to be married to God forever; we are not made for earth or earthly marriage, ultimately; earth and earthly marriage are the pathway we take to prepare us for heaven, where there is no earthly marriage. God still requires this same sort of test for all those who live the priestly or religious life; it is the test of celibacy. And it still takes great trust and love of God to pass this test, but the fruit of a well-passed test is bountiful.
The responsorial psalm is the great penitential psalm David wrote after he acknowledged his sin with Bathsheba; there are a number of parallels between his sin and the Fall, as I see it. Perhaps the most important element of this psalm is David’s request to God to create a clean heart in him. David asks God for a clean heart. Repentance is a matter of the heart. Turning back to God is a matter of the heart. Being faithful and loving God is also a matter of the heart. Life comes through union with God, and in that respect, the faithful heart is the source or conduit of life. The heart is the tree of life.
I will include all of the second reading today from Paul’s Letter to the Romans 5:12-19:
“Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come. But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many. And the gift is not like the result of the one who sinned. For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation; but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal. For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.”
I think Paul’s argument here is relatively simple. He is saying that through one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world. He was disobedient, sinned, and brought death upon his family, the human race. The implication is that all his children and their children, the sons of Adam or the sons of man, are born dead to God, born without sanctifying grace. In Adam, all sinned, all were condemned, and all died. The one man brought disobedience and death upon everyone. Adam is a type, as in typology or image, of Christ, yet Christ undoes what Adam destroyed. The one man, Jesus Christ, was obedient, and so He brings grace, acquittal, justification, righteousness and life to the many. The one man, the Son of Man, enables us, sinners, to have life again and have our relationship with God renewed.
How is original sin passed on? It passes on through human generation; each child born is born in the state of original sin. This is no personal sin on the part of the baby; it is a state of being not born with sanctifying grace in our souls. Without sanctifying grace, which is the very life of God, we are born dead to God. We need to be born again. That is the state of things Adam left us in by his one act of disobedience.
How do we go from being sons of men to being sons of God? How do we become children of God and born alive to Him? We need to be born again, born from above, born of God in the sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is being really, spiritually united to Jesus, specifically His passion, death and resurrection so that we can die, be set free from our old master, sin, and be born again to be married to our new spouse, Jesus (see Romans 7:1ff). As Adam gives birth to spiritually dead babies through natural generation, so Jesus gives birth to children alive in God through His death and resurrection, which we truly share in through the sacrament of Baptism.
One of my main points here is that both Adam and Jesus beget children; the first through disobedience because of the fear of death and trying to save his own life, begets dead children, and the other through obedience and going through the worst possible death, makes the dead into a new creation and alive to God. Each of these singular men, through their one act, beget children: the first begets children who are dead, and the second begets those dead children to new life in Him.
Lastly, we have the gospel which today comes from Matthew 4:1-11, and it depicts the temptation of Christ by Satan after Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert. Jesus was hungry; I think we can assume that He was most hungry; physically, I do not know how much longer one could possibly fast and still live. It would be difficult to be hungrier than Jesus was when Satan approached Jesus and told Him to turn stones into bread. Then Satan told Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple because, as the Bible says, God gives His angels to watch us to keep us from getting hurt. Lastly, Satan tempts Jesus by saying that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would simply lay flat on the ground and worship him.
As the New Adam, I would assume that Jesus’ temptation would have some similarities to the temptation Adam underwent. My theory is that God commanded Adam not to have relations with his wife. Barrenness was death for the Jews, and wanting to be like God who creates, the man and the woman, fearing the death of not having children, disobeyed God to obey God’s other command to be fruitful and multiply. Abraham and Sarah, after God promised them a son, waited twenty-five years, from the time he was 75 until he was 100, before God actually sent that promised son, Isaac. They were hungry for a son; they were so hungry that Abraham had a son through Sarah’s maid in an attempt to fulfill God’s promise.
How long did the man and the woman wait to have a child? It could have been a very long time. It could have been very short, or it could have been decades or even centuries. We don’t know. I speculate that it was a long time and that they were extremely hungry for a child, to be creative like God and fulfill God’s command to be fruitful. And Satan hit them were they were most weak. Jesus was hungry for bread, so Satan proposes that He make bread from stones. The man and the woman were hungry for a baby, so Satan proposes that they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to have one. And they do, and they name him “gotten,” which is Cain.
When you purposely throw yourself down from a great height to test God and make Him protect you against your own stupidity, you of course sin, and obviously you will get critically hurt. You will probably die. This is similar to what Adam did. Adam was created without sin and unaffected by death and sickness; he had a great dignity and was the very first human created. He took all that dignity, all that height, and threw it down by his sin. He disobeyed God’s singular prohibition; that is as smart as jumping off a cliff, and it has the same consequence—death. He, the father of the human family, becomes the father of death by his stupid sin. One other thing, Adam was made as a temple of God, and by his sin he threw himself down from such a dignity as temple of God; he was made from dirt, but he was made to be God's temple; he forsook being God's temple and choose to be dirt.
Lastly, Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world if He prostrated Himself before Satan. This, too, has parallels to what Adam did, according to my theory. If the Fall was having relations with his wife, the woman, then they both would have been prostrate on the ground, as it were. They did it through the wisdom of the serpent, and by trusting in him, they were choosing to worship him instead of God. That, then, covers the falling prostrate and worshipping Satan. What about the having the kingdoms of the world? What are kingdoms made up of? People. If there are no people, there certainly are no kingdoms. There wouldn’t even be a state, city, town, village or hamlet. Adam, hungry for a child, could have also been promised as part of his temptation to be the father of all the people of the earth. By his trust of and obedience to the wisdom of the serpent, if my theory is correct, Adam did become the father of all the earth and in that manner possess all the kingdoms of the earth. Everyone on the earth is a son of Adam, a son of man. So the Son of Man came to undo what Adam had done, making the sons of men into sons of God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.rom
1.27.2008
Jesus Binds The Strong Man and Makes Us His Bride
In tomorrow’s gospel passage for Mass, the scribes say of Jesus that, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons” (Mark 3:22). Jesus indicates that, by saying this, they have committed the sin against the Holy Spirit. The classic understanding of the unforgivable sin is final impenitence, dying without repenting of a serious sin. Repentance requires truth to know one’s sins. The Holy Spirit enlightens our minds and hearts to know our sin. The Holy Spirit is integral in both knowing the truth and repenting of sin. One sins against the Holy Spirit when, at one’s death, one either refuses to acknowledge the truth of one’s sins or fails to turn away from those sins or both.
The scribes in this passage call the All-Good God the evil one; they ascribe as completely evil what is the epitome of good. By exercising such extremely bad judgment in such important matters, the scribes have become “blind guides.” They can no longer tell what is good and what is bad, even if it is purely good or purely bad. They are utterly blind in what matters most. Having thus depraved themselves to such an extent, calling what is good evil and what is evil good, as long as they continue on this path, they have no hope for salvation. To be forgiven, one needs to repent; to repent, one needs to see the truth of one’s sins; to see the truth about one’s sins, one needs the Holy Spirit; refusing to see the most obvious and easily recognizable good, evicts the Holy Spirit from one’s soul. The scribes are on the path to hell, and only by their humble crying out for light from the Holy Spirit to see their sins and then their humble admission of their faults, will they have hope for salvation.
Jesus goes on to make a very interesting explanation to the scribes’ accusation; he says that, “No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house” (Mark 3:27). Satan is the prince of this world, and he has a certain domination over mankind enslaved to sin. He desires to lead as many people to hell as possible; he desires our destruction and the utter diminution of our lofty dignity. Satan’s work is spreading despair and death and stealing the spouse of God away from Him.
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The devil is the strong man whom Jesus comes and binds so that He can plunder his house. In the state of original sin into which everyone is born, Satan has an ownership of us; we are part of the belongings of his house. Jesus came to bind this strong tyrannical ruler and to set us free; the Old Testament image and prefigurement is God freeing the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt to pharaoh.
In Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, He has bound the strong man and plundered his house. In baptism, we are set free from sin and Satan so that we can belong to Jesus; every Eucharist is a celebration of our baptism for we were baptized into Jesus’ death, and the Eucharist is Jesus’ crucified and risen flesh, particularly His heart flesh. “Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). Jesus has bound the strong man, the tyrant who was our cruel slave master, and set us free to be united to Him. Jesus has plundered Satan’s house so that He can be our Spouse and unite us to Himself, making us fruitful for God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
The scribes in this passage call the All-Good God the evil one; they ascribe as completely evil what is the epitome of good. By exercising such extremely bad judgment in such important matters, the scribes have become “blind guides.” They can no longer tell what is good and what is bad, even if it is purely good or purely bad. They are utterly blind in what matters most. Having thus depraved themselves to such an extent, calling what is good evil and what is evil good, as long as they continue on this path, they have no hope for salvation. To be forgiven, one needs to repent; to repent, one needs to see the truth of one’s sins; to see the truth about one’s sins, one needs the Holy Spirit; refusing to see the most obvious and easily recognizable good, evicts the Holy Spirit from one’s soul. The scribes are on the path to hell, and only by their humble crying out for light from the Holy Spirit to see their sins and then their humble admission of their faults, will they have hope for salvation.
Jesus goes on to make a very interesting explanation to the scribes’ accusation; he says that, “No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house” (Mark 3:27). Satan is the prince of this world, and he has a certain domination over mankind enslaved to sin. He desires to lead as many people to hell as possible; he desires our destruction and the utter diminution of our lofty dignity. Satan’s work is spreading despair and death and stealing the spouse of God away from Him.
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The devil is the strong man whom Jesus comes and binds so that He can plunder his house. In the state of original sin into which everyone is born, Satan has an ownership of us; we are part of the belongings of his house. Jesus came to bind this strong tyrannical ruler and to set us free; the Old Testament image and prefigurement is God freeing the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt to pharaoh.
In Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, He has bound the strong man and plundered his house. In baptism, we are set free from sin and Satan so that we can belong to Jesus; every Eucharist is a celebration of our baptism for we were baptized into Jesus’ death, and the Eucharist is Jesus’ crucified and risen flesh, particularly His heart flesh. “Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). Jesus has bound the strong man, the tyrant who was our cruel slave master, and set us free to be united to Him. Jesus has plundered Satan’s house so that He can be our Spouse and unite us to Himself, making us fruitful for God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
1.14.2008
I Got a Comment!
Since this comment is buried in an old post, and since I am so long-winded in my answer, I thought it best to use it as my post tonight so others could read it and in case others had a similar question. Let me know what you think.
Mary Anne asked: "Who creates one's soul, then? Is is a mere natural entity? or one that springs from Satan?"
I responded:
Hello Mary Anne,
God is the Creator, and He still is the one to create us, both body and soul. Satan has no part in creation, nor is he capable of creating anything, other than a mess. He is a powerful and potent creature, but he is still only a creature and a twisted and, in the true sense, impotent one, too.
What I am saying is that God creates the soul, and the soul is meant to be a home for Him. The original plan was virginal conception wherein God would provide the fruit; thus, the children would be born His true children and endowed with sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is not made to be passed on through physical generation, so once Adam and Eve chose the route of having children through physical generation, children were born without grace. Because they trusted in the wisdom of the serpent to achieve this new life of a son in direct disobedience to the one command, they somehow covenanted themselves to satan. Satan, thus, steals God's spouse and takes us to himself, in some sense. Humanity, then, is stuck in a deed-end relationship with an evil master bent on destroying us without any human hope for escape; this is symbolized when the Israelites were trapped up against the Red Sea with the Egyptian army bearing down upon them to slaughter them...and God saved them through the water of the Red Sea. The passage to a new life, the destruction of the enemy, is what happens in baptism wherein we are born again, born from above, and made God's actual children.
Baptism frees us from our bondage from sin and satan so that we can belong to our new spouse, Jesus. Then we spend the rest of our time in the desert on our way to the Promised Land being fed by the bread from heaven, the Eucharist.
I am not sure I have answered your question.
What I am saying is that the soul is created by God, but it is empty. It is made to house God's life, but we are born without that sanctifying grace. Satan doesn't do any creating; all he does is steal God's spouse, and as such, he has some claim against us so we are not free to go to heaven. Since in baptism we are born again, our old self dies thus breaking the bond we had with the serpent. Baptism frees us to be united to our One True Spouse.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Mary Anne asked: "Who creates one's soul, then? Is is a mere natural entity? or one that springs from Satan?"
I responded:
Hello Mary Anne,
God is the Creator, and He still is the one to create us, both body and soul. Satan has no part in creation, nor is he capable of creating anything, other than a mess. He is a powerful and potent creature, but he is still only a creature and a twisted and, in the true sense, impotent one, too.
What I am saying is that God creates the soul, and the soul is meant to be a home for Him. The original plan was virginal conception wherein God would provide the fruit; thus, the children would be born His true children and endowed with sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is not made to be passed on through physical generation, so once Adam and Eve chose the route of having children through physical generation, children were born without grace. Because they trusted in the wisdom of the serpent to achieve this new life of a son in direct disobedience to the one command, they somehow covenanted themselves to satan. Satan, thus, steals God's spouse and takes us to himself, in some sense. Humanity, then, is stuck in a deed-end relationship with an evil master bent on destroying us without any human hope for escape; this is symbolized when the Israelites were trapped up against the Red Sea with the Egyptian army bearing down upon them to slaughter them...and God saved them through the water of the Red Sea. The passage to a new life, the destruction of the enemy, is what happens in baptism wherein we are born again, born from above, and made God's actual children.
Baptism frees us from our bondage from sin and satan so that we can belong to our new spouse, Jesus. Then we spend the rest of our time in the desert on our way to the Promised Land being fed by the bread from heaven, the Eucharist.
I am not sure I have answered your question.
What I am saying is that the soul is created by God, but it is empty. It is made to house God's life, but we are born without that sanctifying grace. Satan doesn't do any creating; all he does is steal God's spouse, and as such, he has some claim against us so we are not free to go to heaven. Since in baptism we are born again, our old self dies thus breaking the bond we had with the serpent. Baptism frees us to be united to our One True Spouse.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
1.12.2008
The Bridegroom Has the Bride
Today I want to take a look at the readings of the Mass. I’ll start with the responsorial psalm, Psalm 149, which is the one that was the inspiration for the poem I posted on January 4. The response is, “The Lord takes delight in his people.” God loves His people, and his people sing, praise, rejoice, and dance for Him. The love is mutual and deep. Remember that Eden means delight and often has a spousal connotation. Here, again, God delights in his people and seeks us as His spouse.
The first reading is the conclusion of Saint John’s first letter. A few sentences before the end, he says, “We know that anyone begotten by God does not sin; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the Evil One cannot touch him. We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the Evil One” (1 John 5:18-19). The Evil One has power over the entire world and can touch anyone within his power. The children of God are under the authority of God and are not subject to the Evil One. One is either a child of God and belongs to Him or a child of the Devil who belongs to him.
The children of God belong to God and so do not sin (at least not with mortal sin which he just finished explaining). He is not saying that God’s children never commit a mortal sin; the point is that belonging to God and sinning mortally are mutually exclusive. When a child of God sins mortally, he gets himself quickly to confession and makes everything right once again, or else he ceases to be a child of God (at least as long as he stays away from confession).
Once one is made a child of God in baptism, God protects us. He protects our heart so that we can know, love and serve Him, so that we can be faithful and obedient to His will. The woman in the garden was made from the rib, and as such, was made to protect the man’s heart and lead him to heaven. She did the exact opposite and betrayed her love with a kiss in the garden. Then God sent the angel to guard the way to the tree of life. This guarding by the angel is not to keep man from eating the tree of life; the guarding is the giving of our guardian angel who protects our heart, our tree of life, so that it stays faithful and true. His mission is to help us get to heaven, and there is no way there except via a trusting and obedient heart.
To protect us, we also have the New Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the New Rib, Our Rib, who only leads us to her Divine Son and shows us how to love, trust and obey Jesus. There is no greater human protector of our heart than Mary; she is the true port in the storms of life. Her heart was sorely tested on numerous occasions, and it was spiritually crucified during at least two trials of faith. She knows what it takes to have a healthy and fruit-bearing tree of life, and she longs to protect our trees of life so that they can be a true and holy home for God and give birth to Christ in our life.
John’s gospel today has a very powerful sentence: “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice” (John 3:29). John the Baptist is saying that he is the best man and Jesus is the groom. The groom is the one who ends up with the bride, and together they start a family and have children. Jesus’ bride is the Church; He will always remain faithful to her, even when she is not faithful to Him. He will never, nor has He ever, divorced her; He gave up His life for her, and He will remain with her to the end.
As each of us is one of her members, in that manner Jesus takes us on as a bride, too. All followers of Christ, all members of the Church, are thereby also His brides; we are brides in the one bride, the Church. This is the way it was from the very beginning. As God says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image.” Being made in God’s image means that God made us to be His spouse. Jesus comes to fulfill, above all else, this reality that was from the very beginning, from the very first words of the very first sentence that has anything to do with man in the Bible. We are made to be God’s spouse, and so now the Divine Bridegroom has come to take us to Himself. All we have to do is give ourselves to Him in return, as a bride gives herself to her bridegroom. If we do and only if we do, will we bear good fruit.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
The first reading is the conclusion of Saint John’s first letter. A few sentences before the end, he says, “We know that anyone begotten by God does not sin; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the Evil One cannot touch him. We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the Evil One” (1 John 5:18-19). The Evil One has power over the entire world and can touch anyone within his power. The children of God are under the authority of God and are not subject to the Evil One. One is either a child of God and belongs to Him or a child of the Devil who belongs to him.
The children of God belong to God and so do not sin (at least not with mortal sin which he just finished explaining). He is not saying that God’s children never commit a mortal sin; the point is that belonging to God and sinning mortally are mutually exclusive. When a child of God sins mortally, he gets himself quickly to confession and makes everything right once again, or else he ceases to be a child of God (at least as long as he stays away from confession).
Once one is made a child of God in baptism, God protects us. He protects our heart so that we can know, love and serve Him, so that we can be faithful and obedient to His will. The woman in the garden was made from the rib, and as such, was made to protect the man’s heart and lead him to heaven. She did the exact opposite and betrayed her love with a kiss in the garden. Then God sent the angel to guard the way to the tree of life. This guarding by the angel is not to keep man from eating the tree of life; the guarding is the giving of our guardian angel who protects our heart, our tree of life, so that it stays faithful and true. His mission is to help us get to heaven, and there is no way there except via a trusting and obedient heart.
To protect us, we also have the New Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the New Rib, Our Rib, who only leads us to her Divine Son and shows us how to love, trust and obey Jesus. There is no greater human protector of our heart than Mary; she is the true port in the storms of life. Her heart was sorely tested on numerous occasions, and it was spiritually crucified during at least two trials of faith. She knows what it takes to have a healthy and fruit-bearing tree of life, and she longs to protect our trees of life so that they can be a true and holy home for God and give birth to Christ in our life.
John’s gospel today has a very powerful sentence: “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice” (John 3:29). John the Baptist is saying that he is the best man and Jesus is the groom. The groom is the one who ends up with the bride, and together they start a family and have children. Jesus’ bride is the Church; He will always remain faithful to her, even when she is not faithful to Him. He will never, nor has He ever, divorced her; He gave up His life for her, and He will remain with her to the end.
As each of us is one of her members, in that manner Jesus takes us on as a bride, too. All followers of Christ, all members of the Church, are thereby also His brides; we are brides in the one bride, the Church. This is the way it was from the very beginning. As God says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image.” Being made in God’s image means that God made us to be His spouse. Jesus comes to fulfill, above all else, this reality that was from the very beginning, from the very first words of the very first sentence that has anything to do with man in the Bible. We are made to be God’s spouse, and so now the Divine Bridegroom has come to take us to Himself. All we have to do is give ourselves to Him in return, as a bride gives herself to her bridegroom. If we do and only if we do, will we bear good fruit.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
1.06.2008
Virginity = Fruitfulness = Marriage (to God)
I plan to spend more time in future entries looking at Early Church Fathers and Church documents. Tonight I spent some time reading Saint Augustine’s work called, “Of Holy Virginity” or “De Virginitate.” I read the first twelve paragraphs, and I found four selections worth sharing.
The first comes from paragraph two: “Mary bare the Head of This Body after the flesh, the Church bears the members of that Body after the Spirit. In both virginity hinders not fruitfulness: in both fruitfulness takes not away virginity.” Normally, we think of virginity as being synonymous with barrenness. But in Mary and in the Church, virginity is synonymous with fruitfulness. This ties together well with my main theory; it is also interesting to note that no one is a member of the Church through natural birth. Natural birth does not work and is not enough. We need to be born again. In baptism, we are born again and become a new creation as a child of the virgin mother the Church.
In paragraph four, Saint Augustine talks about how Mary had already made a vow of perpetual virginity before the Angel Gabriel appeared to her: “This is shown by the words which Mary spake in answer to the Angel announcing to her her conception; ‘How,’ saith she, ‘shall this be, seeing I know not a man?’ Which assuredly she would not say, unless she had before vowed herself unto God as a virgin. But, because the habits of the Israelites as yet refused this, she was espoused to a just man, who would not take from her by violence, but rather guard against violent persons, what she had already vowed.” This ties in with my thoughts on Mary’s test.
Saint Augustine moves on in paragraph six to distinguish and compare marriage to virginity: “Forsooth both faithful women who are married, and virgins dedicated to God, by holy manners, and charity out of a pure heart, and good conscience, and faith unfeigned, because they do the will of the Father, are after a spiritual sense mothers of Christ. But they who in married life give birth to (children) after the flesh, give birth not to Christ, but to Adam, and therefore run, that their offspring having been dyed in His Sacraments, may become members of Christ, forasmuch as they know what they have given birth to.” In other words, anyone, a married woman or a virgin, who does the will of God is a mother to Christ. Married women, through natural generation, give birth only to a child who is not Christ but a son of man, so mothers run their child over to the Church to have their child be reborn as a child of God, as another Christ.
In paragraph twelve, Saint Augustine has a good paragraph on the distinction between marriage and the life of virginity. “Let marriages possess their own good, not that they beget sons, but that honestly, that lawfully, that modestly, that in a spirit of fellowship they beget them, and educate them, after they have been begotten, with cooperation, with wholesome teaching, and earnest purpose: in that they keep the faith of the couch one with another; in that they violate not the sacrament of wedlock. All these, however, are offices of human duty: but virginal chastity and freedom through pious continence from all sexual intercourse is the portion of Angels, and a practice, in corruptible flesh, of perpetual incorruption. To this let all fruitfulness of the flesh yield, all chastity of married life; the one is not in (man’s) power, the other is not in eternity; free choice hath not fruitfulness of the flesh, heaven hath not chastity of married life. Assuredly they will have something great beyond others in that common immortality, who have something already not of the flesh in the flesh.”
Marriage is very good, but virginity is the best, Saint Augustine is saying. Marriage is very good when children are well begotten and well raised and when the couple is faithful to the sacred marriage vows. However, marriage is of this world; there is no marriage in heaven. Virginity is possible through supernatural grace, is the portion of Angels, is the life of eternity, and will be greatly rewarded both on earth and in heaven.
The Church teaches that virginity is an objectively higher calling than marriage. Marriage is holy and good, yet virginity is better. Both are a vocation or calling. What matters to an individual is the question, “What is God calling me to?” God has different callings for different people; whatever He calls one to is the path He wants that one to take to get to heaven. Everyone is called to holiness and sanctity and to deep prayer. Marriage is a great and holy calling of God, and it is my personal path to holiness.
One last thought: marriage and virginity are essentially the same thing: they are both marriage. The first is marriage to another human person, and the second is marriage to God here on earth. There are of course many practical differences between the two, but at their essential core, they are of the same stuff. In the end, everyone in heaven will have no human person as a spouse, but we will all be married to God. God is asking you, “Will you marry me?” That is an invitation, no matter what your vocation, to deep communion with Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
The first comes from paragraph two: “Mary bare the Head of This Body after the flesh, the Church bears the members of that Body after the Spirit. In both virginity hinders not fruitfulness: in both fruitfulness takes not away virginity.” Normally, we think of virginity as being synonymous with barrenness. But in Mary and in the Church, virginity is synonymous with fruitfulness. This ties together well with my main theory; it is also interesting to note that no one is a member of the Church through natural birth. Natural birth does not work and is not enough. We need to be born again. In baptism, we are born again and become a new creation as a child of the virgin mother the Church.
In paragraph four, Saint Augustine talks about how Mary had already made a vow of perpetual virginity before the Angel Gabriel appeared to her: “This is shown by the words which Mary spake in answer to the Angel announcing to her her conception; ‘How,’ saith she, ‘shall this be, seeing I know not a man?’ Which assuredly she would not say, unless she had before vowed herself unto God as a virgin. But, because the habits of the Israelites as yet refused this, she was espoused to a just man, who would not take from her by violence, but rather guard against violent persons, what she had already vowed.” This ties in with my thoughts on Mary’s test.
Saint Augustine moves on in paragraph six to distinguish and compare marriage to virginity: “Forsooth both faithful women who are married, and virgins dedicated to God, by holy manners, and charity out of a pure heart, and good conscience, and faith unfeigned, because they do the will of the Father, are after a spiritual sense mothers of Christ. But they who in married life give birth to (children) after the flesh, give birth not to Christ, but to Adam, and therefore run, that their offspring having been dyed in His Sacraments, may become members of Christ, forasmuch as they know what they have given birth to.” In other words, anyone, a married woman or a virgin, who does the will of God is a mother to Christ. Married women, through natural generation, give birth only to a child who is not Christ but a son of man, so mothers run their child over to the Church to have their child be reborn as a child of God, as another Christ.
In paragraph twelve, Saint Augustine has a good paragraph on the distinction between marriage and the life of virginity. “Let marriages possess their own good, not that they beget sons, but that honestly, that lawfully, that modestly, that in a spirit of fellowship they beget them, and educate them, after they have been begotten, with cooperation, with wholesome teaching, and earnest purpose: in that they keep the faith of the couch one with another; in that they violate not the sacrament of wedlock. All these, however, are offices of human duty: but virginal chastity and freedom through pious continence from all sexual intercourse is the portion of Angels, and a practice, in corruptible flesh, of perpetual incorruption. To this let all fruitfulness of the flesh yield, all chastity of married life; the one is not in (man’s) power, the other is not in eternity; free choice hath not fruitfulness of the flesh, heaven hath not chastity of married life. Assuredly they will have something great beyond others in that common immortality, who have something already not of the flesh in the flesh.”
Marriage is very good, but virginity is the best, Saint Augustine is saying. Marriage is very good when children are well begotten and well raised and when the couple is faithful to the sacred marriage vows. However, marriage is of this world; there is no marriage in heaven. Virginity is possible through supernatural grace, is the portion of Angels, is the life of eternity, and will be greatly rewarded both on earth and in heaven.
The Church teaches that virginity is an objectively higher calling than marriage. Marriage is holy and good, yet virginity is better. Both are a vocation or calling. What matters to an individual is the question, “What is God calling me to?” God has different callings for different people; whatever He calls one to is the path He wants that one to take to get to heaven. Everyone is called to holiness and sanctity and to deep prayer. Marriage is a great and holy calling of God, and it is my personal path to holiness.
One last thought: marriage and virginity are essentially the same thing: they are both marriage. The first is marriage to another human person, and the second is marriage to God here on earth. There are of course many practical differences between the two, but at their essential core, they are of the same stuff. In the end, everyone in heaven will have no human person as a spouse, but we will all be married to God. God is asking you, “Will you marry me?” That is an invitation, no matter what your vocation, to deep communion with Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
1.01.2008
We Shall All Know the Lord
The first reading for tomorrow’s mass is from the first Letter of Saint John, and I would like to take a portion of this reading as my jumping off point tonight:
“As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him. And now, children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming” (2:27-28).
John is addressing the “children” or those who are babes in their understanding of the faith. They were anointed certainly at their baptism and perhaps also at their confirmation. The anointing of baptism remains inside us to teach us about the truth, and we, in turn, need to remain in Him. Baptism gives us the heart and mind of Christ; having been made a new creation with Our Savior’s way of seeing reality, we will come to know the truth as long as we remain in Him. The anointing teaches us because it endowed us with Jesus’ dwelling within us and giving us His heart; we will learn from Him if we continue to remain in Him.
This anointing and new heart reminds me of one of the most important passages of the prophet Jeremiah which is also quoted in Hebrews 8:8ff:
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
The key ideas here are new covenant, God as our husband, the law within us on our hearts, our sins forgiven, and we shall all know God. When we enter into the new covenant at our baptism, our sins are wiped away, and we receive a new heart of flesh that desires to please God, our divine spouse. The two shall become one flesh, says Genesis 2:24, and so you and I become one flesh with God, our Husband. The biblical sense of to “know” refers to sexual knowledge, and marriage is the symbol God created to reveal what He desires His relationship would be with us. He asks us: “Will you marry me?”
There is nothing sexual in our relationship with God, but it is most intimate. In baptism, God becomes our God, and we become His people. He becomes our Husband, and we become His bride. He becomes one flesh with us and gives us His very heart to replace our old stony one. With His heart beating within us, with Him dwelling within us, with His mind and will becoming our mind and will, we intimately come to know the Lord.
He asks us at our creation, “Will you marry me?” We take a huge step in our relationship with Him at our baptism. Baptism is our saying yes to God’s question and is our marriage to Him. At our baptism, we are married to God. We renew that commitment with every Holy Communion. Every Communion is like every renewal of the marriage covenant when the husband gives his body to his bride. At Communion we receive the body of our Husband so that we can bear good fruit. If we give ourselves fully to Jesus, and that means pleasing Him in all we think, say and do, He will be able to give Himself fully to us so that we may have life to the full and be full with His fruit.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him. And now, children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming” (2:27-28).
John is addressing the “children” or those who are babes in their understanding of the faith. They were anointed certainly at their baptism and perhaps also at their confirmation. The anointing of baptism remains inside us to teach us about the truth, and we, in turn, need to remain in Him. Baptism gives us the heart and mind of Christ; having been made a new creation with Our Savior’s way of seeing reality, we will come to know the truth as long as we remain in Him. The anointing teaches us because it endowed us with Jesus’ dwelling within us and giving us His heart; we will learn from Him if we continue to remain in Him.
This anointing and new heart reminds me of one of the most important passages of the prophet Jeremiah which is also quoted in Hebrews 8:8ff:
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
The key ideas here are new covenant, God as our husband, the law within us on our hearts, our sins forgiven, and we shall all know God. When we enter into the new covenant at our baptism, our sins are wiped away, and we receive a new heart of flesh that desires to please God, our divine spouse. The two shall become one flesh, says Genesis 2:24, and so you and I become one flesh with God, our Husband. The biblical sense of to “know” refers to sexual knowledge, and marriage is the symbol God created to reveal what He desires His relationship would be with us. He asks us: “Will you marry me?”
There is nothing sexual in our relationship with God, but it is most intimate. In baptism, God becomes our God, and we become His people. He becomes our Husband, and we become His bride. He becomes one flesh with us and gives us His very heart to replace our old stony one. With His heart beating within us, with Him dwelling within us, with His mind and will becoming our mind and will, we intimately come to know the Lord.
He asks us at our creation, “Will you marry me?” We take a huge step in our relationship with Him at our baptism. Baptism is our saying yes to God’s question and is our marriage to Him. At our baptism, we are married to God. We renew that commitment with every Holy Communion. Every Communion is like every renewal of the marriage covenant when the husband gives his body to his bride. At Communion we receive the body of our Husband so that we can bear good fruit. If we give ourselves fully to Jesus, and that means pleasing Him in all we think, say and do, He will be able to give Himself fully to us so that we may have life to the full and be full with His fruit.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
12.28.2007
The Meaning of Life
I left off on Tuesday in my post on The Three Passovers introducing the idea of the importance of the first-born. The three Passovers, Isaac’s sacrifice, the Passover, and Jesus’ sacrifice, all deal with the first-born. Isaac is the first-born, and he offers himself up as a sacrifice; he was passed over with a ram taking his place. Israel is God’s first-born, and they were passed over by the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and by eating the lamb. Jesus is the Father’s only-begotten Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus, as pre-eminent first-born, sacrifices Himself in order for you and me to be passed over. We are united to Him in baptism and Holy Communion wherein we put His blood on our doorpost and eat the Lamb, respectively.
In the first two Passovers, the first-born was passed over; in the final one, the first-born is the sacrifice. Is there another first-born that was passed over in Jesus’ saving actions? -Perhaps it is you and me: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16). Paul speaks of the Church as the Israel of God; therefore, since Israel is God’s first-born, and we are now the New Israel, we and all members of the Church are God’s first-born. So we are first-born who are passed over by the angel of death, and our Passover Lamb is Jesus at the Last Supper and on the Cross.
The question that arises in my mind is why is the first-born so important, and why does it hold such a pivotal place in these highly important events in Salvation History? As usual, I think the answer lies in the events at the beginning. The course the man and the woman set the human race upon is the answer to much of human history and to the questions we have today. According to my theory, the direct result of the Fall was the conception of Cain. They wanted him and were trying to get him; hence, his name means gotten. He was the first-born of the human race. He was a murderer and a son of the evil one. The first-born son of man belonged, in a certain respect, to satan, and Cain gave himself over to his ways and so slaughtered his righteous brother.
Cain imitated his fathers in killing his brother: humanity is like a brother to the angels, and satan wants to destroy us and has destroyed many of us; Adam’s fall resulted in the spiritual death of the human race. Both satan and Adam murdered their brothers so to speak, and Cain only imitated what they did. In one sense it is amazing just how bad the very first person born of man was, yet in another sense, Cain was merely a chip off the old block. Either way you look at it, humanity’s fruitfulness started off with a horrible beginning. And his name was Cain for he was gotten. He was gotten.
So why did the first-born need to be sacrificed or passed over? A clue resides in the three main sacrifices of the Old Testament: bulls, sheep and goats. Bulls needed to be sacrificed because people were worshipping bulls and the bull-god, Apis. The Golden Calf was part of this worship where people were seeking fertility and prosperity and so the men and women would imitated what bulls would do to female cattle. Seeking life, they had an orgy. The result, they hoped, would be a conception: thus, the golden calf. Here, too, they were seeking a child, and they sought this child in a way contrary to their dignity, to God’s plan, and to trusting in God. After the golden calf, bulls needed to be sacrificed as a financial penance and so that the people would no longer worship them.
After the Golden Calf, the people went after another false god symbolized by goats. It was another fertility cult, and the people were again seeking life and a child in their own way and by their own terms. “So they shall no more slay their sacrifices for satyrs, after whom they play the harlot” (Leviticus 17:7). The satyrs are the goat gods who are obsessed with continually having sex, and those who worship these false gods would imitate them. Since the people were involved with this evil practice, God had them sacrifice goats. Again, it was a financial difficulty to sacrifice one’s livestock, and one’s gods did not look kindly on being killed. It was a God-given help to avoid this near occasion of sin.
Sacrificing bulls and goats was mandated because they were worshipped. Sheep were never worshipped, so why would God have us sacrifice them? A sheep is the sacrifice of the Passover, and Jesus is the Lamb of God. They are the most important animal sacrifice, but why does God mandate this sacrifice? Was their any sin associated with sheep or lambs? I think there was. Sheep symbolize humanity. We are like sheep; we are incredibly stupid. So sheep need to be sacrificed because they symbolize us; we worshipped ourselves. When did we do this? We do it every time we sin, but we do it especially when we seek humans over God.
The man and the woman sought a child over and against God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted them to have a child, but He wanted to give it to them virginally as He did with Mary. They sought a child, and they got him, and they named him gotten (Cain). So here the theme of the first-born and sheep come together. The Passovers all have to do with sheep and with first-borns because our first parents worshiped, as it were, their first-born son and even disobeyed God to get him. Their souls were sold to satan in order to get Gotten; that is why he and all of the human family needs to be bought back or redeemed from the prince of this world.
We all deserve death and are in bondage to sin and satan, and we are like lambs, so the solution is for a lamb to take our place that we may be passed over and live. That is why sheep were sacrificed in the Old Testament, but those “sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9). These Old Testament laws were good, but they were the symbol, not the reality. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). Those sacrifices do not make perfect; however, Jesus’ sacrifice is capable of such a feat.
“For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book” (Hebrews 10:4-7). We are given a body in order to have something to sacrifice, and with our bodily sacrifices we are praying with the body. We are given a will in order that we can sacrifice that, too, and by saying “Thy will be done,” we are praying the most important prayer. Prayer and sacrifice, the prayer of the heart and of prayer of the body, when they are combined are the most powerful. When we completely trust God and seek to do whatever He asks of us, especially what He asks us to do with our bodies, then we are far along the path to unity with Him. It is in this full faithfulness that we have abundant life and belong to Him, and that is the meaning of life.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
In the first two Passovers, the first-born was passed over; in the final one, the first-born is the sacrifice. Is there another first-born that was passed over in Jesus’ saving actions? -Perhaps it is you and me: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16). Paul speaks of the Church as the Israel of God; therefore, since Israel is God’s first-born, and we are now the New Israel, we and all members of the Church are God’s first-born. So we are first-born who are passed over by the angel of death, and our Passover Lamb is Jesus at the Last Supper and on the Cross.
The question that arises in my mind is why is the first-born so important, and why does it hold such a pivotal place in these highly important events in Salvation History? As usual, I think the answer lies in the events at the beginning. The course the man and the woman set the human race upon is the answer to much of human history and to the questions we have today. According to my theory, the direct result of the Fall was the conception of Cain. They wanted him and were trying to get him; hence, his name means gotten. He was the first-born of the human race. He was a murderer and a son of the evil one. The first-born son of man belonged, in a certain respect, to satan, and Cain gave himself over to his ways and so slaughtered his righteous brother.
Cain imitated his fathers in killing his brother: humanity is like a brother to the angels, and satan wants to destroy us and has destroyed many of us; Adam’s fall resulted in the spiritual death of the human race. Both satan and Adam murdered their brothers so to speak, and Cain only imitated what they did. In one sense it is amazing just how bad the very first person born of man was, yet in another sense, Cain was merely a chip off the old block. Either way you look at it, humanity’s fruitfulness started off with a horrible beginning. And his name was Cain for he was gotten. He was gotten.
So why did the first-born need to be sacrificed or passed over? A clue resides in the three main sacrifices of the Old Testament: bulls, sheep and goats. Bulls needed to be sacrificed because people were worshipping bulls and the bull-god, Apis. The Golden Calf was part of this worship where people were seeking fertility and prosperity and so the men and women would imitated what bulls would do to female cattle. Seeking life, they had an orgy. The result, they hoped, would be a conception: thus, the golden calf. Here, too, they were seeking a child, and they sought this child in a way contrary to their dignity, to God’s plan, and to trusting in God. After the golden calf, bulls needed to be sacrificed as a financial penance and so that the people would no longer worship them.
After the Golden Calf, the people went after another false god symbolized by goats. It was another fertility cult, and the people were again seeking life and a child in their own way and by their own terms. “So they shall no more slay their sacrifices for satyrs, after whom they play the harlot” (Leviticus 17:7). The satyrs are the goat gods who are obsessed with continually having sex, and those who worship these false gods would imitate them. Since the people were involved with this evil practice, God had them sacrifice goats. Again, it was a financial difficulty to sacrifice one’s livestock, and one’s gods did not look kindly on being killed. It was a God-given help to avoid this near occasion of sin.
Sacrificing bulls and goats was mandated because they were worshipped. Sheep were never worshipped, so why would God have us sacrifice them? A sheep is the sacrifice of the Passover, and Jesus is the Lamb of God. They are the most important animal sacrifice, but why does God mandate this sacrifice? Was their any sin associated with sheep or lambs? I think there was. Sheep symbolize humanity. We are like sheep; we are incredibly stupid. So sheep need to be sacrificed because they symbolize us; we worshipped ourselves. When did we do this? We do it every time we sin, but we do it especially when we seek humans over God.
The man and the woman sought a child over and against God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted them to have a child, but He wanted to give it to them virginally as He did with Mary. They sought a child, and they got him, and they named him gotten (Cain). So here the theme of the first-born and sheep come together. The Passovers all have to do with sheep and with first-borns because our first parents worshiped, as it were, their first-born son and even disobeyed God to get him. Their souls were sold to satan in order to get Gotten; that is why he and all of the human family needs to be bought back or redeemed from the prince of this world.
We all deserve death and are in bondage to sin and satan, and we are like lambs, so the solution is for a lamb to take our place that we may be passed over and live. That is why sheep were sacrificed in the Old Testament, but those “sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9). These Old Testament laws were good, but they were the symbol, not the reality. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). Those sacrifices do not make perfect; however, Jesus’ sacrifice is capable of such a feat.
“For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book” (Hebrews 10:4-7). We are given a body in order to have something to sacrifice, and with our bodily sacrifices we are praying with the body. We are given a will in order that we can sacrifice that, too, and by saying “Thy will be done,” we are praying the most important prayer. Prayer and sacrifice, the prayer of the heart and of prayer of the body, when they are combined are the most powerful. When we completely trust God and seek to do whatever He asks of us, especially what He asks us to do with our bodies, then we are far along the path to unity with Him. It is in this full faithfulness that we have abundant life and belong to Him, and that is the meaning of life.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
12.24.2007
The Three Passovers
Most everyone is familiar with the Passover which is explained in Exodus 12; it was the last and most powerful plague that was the impetus for the Egyptians freeing their Israelite slaves. The plague attacked all the Egyptian firstborn; for the Israelite firstborn to be passed over, they had to slaughter an unblemished year-old male lamb, put its blood on their doorpost using a hyssop branch, and eat the lamb.
The Last Supper is a re-presentation of the Passover; Jesus is re-making and fulfilling this ancient and liberating sacrifice and meal. A very important difference in the Last Supper is that Jesus did not finish the Passover as usual; there were four cups of wine in the Passover, but Jesus stopped after the third. He finished the Passover as He was crucified on the cross and drank the vinegar (cheap wine) from the sponge on the hyssop branch: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:28-30). What Jesus finished is the re-making of the Passover.
The Last Supper and the Crucifixion are of one piece “For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor.5:7). Jesus takes on the role that the lamb plays in the Passover. He is sacrificed, and we are passed over. As the Israelites had to sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the doorpost and eat the lamb to be passed over, so we need to be baptized and receive Holy Communion. Baptism is the lamb’s blood on the doorpost because the “doorway” into our “house” is our eyes and face; therefore, the doorpost is our forehead. The water of baptism is the blood of Christ since we are baptized into Jesus’ death. Through these two essential sacraments, we are given the grace to be passed over by the angel of death.
The one Passover that is usually forgotten is Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac back in Genesis 22. I talked about this momentous event a few days ago on 12/19/07, and it is this event and the faithfulness of both Abraham and Isaac that brings about God’s saving actions with his ancestors, the Israelites. The foundation for the Passover is Isaac’s self offering for it is the only time God explicitly swears an oath. The Crucifixion is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of Isaac’s sacrifice, and the Last Supper is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of the Passover. Thus, there is a parallel structure of events that forms one piece, one reality:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One of the common themes here in these three Passovers is the first-born son. In the Passover, not only were the first born Egyptians killed and the first-born Israelites passed over, all of Israel was passed over for they are God’s first-born son: “And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son’” (Exodus 4:22-23).
The other common theme in all of these is the symbolism of baptism and the Eucharist. Even after the Passover, the Israelites had not completed their escape from their enemies. The Egyptians pursued Israel and had them trapped up against the Red Sea with no where to escape. God opened up a way of escape through the water which gave new life to Israel and destroyed their enemies in the process. Once they were out in the wilderness, they grew hungry, and God provided food from heaven. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites again were saved through the water and fed by the heavenly bread. A further structure could look like this:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
C Through the Red Sea
C' Manna in the Wilderness
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One thing we can learn from all this is the immense importance of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. If we receive baptism and Holy Communion, we are given the grace to pick up our cross and follow Jesus; we are given the new heart, the new tree of life, so that we can lay down our life in our everyday activity, so that we can be a person for others, so that we can love God with all our heart, mind and soul; we are given the grace to lay down our life for our friends and to be crucified alongside our Savior Jesus.
We, the baptized, are making our journey through the desert of this life on our way to the Promised Land, heaven. To make our way well, we need our daily bread which is daily prayer and Holy Communion. Many of the Israelites who ate the manna died along the way and did not make it to the Promised Land because of their faithless hearts. Likewise, just receiving the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist does not guarantee anything. We still have to step out in faith and follow our Lord wherever He leads and do whatever He asks. We still need to give ourselves entirely to Him. Thankfully, He provides even the grace to do that.
What I would like to examine next is the significance of the first-born in these key events and how it might possibly relate to the Fall of Adam and Eve.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
The Last Supper is a re-presentation of the Passover; Jesus is re-making and fulfilling this ancient and liberating sacrifice and meal. A very important difference in the Last Supper is that Jesus did not finish the Passover as usual; there were four cups of wine in the Passover, but Jesus stopped after the third. He finished the Passover as He was crucified on the cross and drank the vinegar (cheap wine) from the sponge on the hyssop branch: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:28-30). What Jesus finished is the re-making of the Passover.
The Last Supper and the Crucifixion are of one piece “For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor.5:7). Jesus takes on the role that the lamb plays in the Passover. He is sacrificed, and we are passed over. As the Israelites had to sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the doorpost and eat the lamb to be passed over, so we need to be baptized and receive Holy Communion. Baptism is the lamb’s blood on the doorpost because the “doorway” into our “house” is our eyes and face; therefore, the doorpost is our forehead. The water of baptism is the blood of Christ since we are baptized into Jesus’ death. Through these two essential sacraments, we are given the grace to be passed over by the angel of death.
The one Passover that is usually forgotten is Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac back in Genesis 22. I talked about this momentous event a few days ago on 12/19/07, and it is this event and the faithfulness of both Abraham and Isaac that brings about God’s saving actions with his ancestors, the Israelites. The foundation for the Passover is Isaac’s self offering for it is the only time God explicitly swears an oath. The Crucifixion is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of Isaac’s sacrifice, and the Last Supper is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of the Passover. Thus, there is a parallel structure of events that forms one piece, one reality:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One of the common themes here in these three Passovers is the first-born son. In the Passover, not only were the first born Egyptians killed and the first-born Israelites passed over, all of Israel was passed over for they are God’s first-born son: “And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son’” (Exodus 4:22-23).
The other common theme in all of these is the symbolism of baptism and the Eucharist. Even after the Passover, the Israelites had not completed their escape from their enemies. The Egyptians pursued Israel and had them trapped up against the Red Sea with no where to escape. God opened up a way of escape through the water which gave new life to Israel and destroyed their enemies in the process. Once they were out in the wilderness, they grew hungry, and God provided food from heaven. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites again were saved through the water and fed by the heavenly bread. A further structure could look like this:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
C Through the Red Sea
C' Manna in the Wilderness
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One thing we can learn from all this is the immense importance of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. If we receive baptism and Holy Communion, we are given the grace to pick up our cross and follow Jesus; we are given the new heart, the new tree of life, so that we can lay down our life in our everyday activity, so that we can be a person for others, so that we can love God with all our heart, mind and soul; we are given the grace to lay down our life for our friends and to be crucified alongside our Savior Jesus.
We, the baptized, are making our journey through the desert of this life on our way to the Promised Land, heaven. To make our way well, we need our daily bread which is daily prayer and Holy Communion. Many of the Israelites who ate the manna died along the way and did not make it to the Promised Land because of their faithless hearts. Likewise, just receiving the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist does not guarantee anything. We still have to step out in faith and follow our Lord wherever He leads and do whatever He asks. We still need to give ourselves entirely to Him. Thankfully, He provides even the grace to do that.
What I would like to examine next is the significance of the first-born in these key events and how it might possibly relate to the Fall of Adam and Eve.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
12.22.2007
Rivers of Living Water
In the prophet Isaiah there is a passage which talks about seeking water and God giving it. This is a metaphor for having God’s life in our hearts. Here is the passage: “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together; that men may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it” (Isaiah 41:17-20).
This seeking and granting of water is fulfilled in Jesus. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ’ Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39). After Jesus has been crucified/glorified, blood and water flow out of His heart; we receive the same heart at baptism and Eucharist so that out of our heart flows rivers of living waters. God makes the desert a pool of water with trees; God makes our dead heart a heart that loves, trusts and obeys Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
This seeking and granting of water is fulfilled in Jesus. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ’ Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39). After Jesus has been crucified/glorified, blood and water flow out of His heart; we receive the same heart at baptism and Eucharist so that out of our heart flows rivers of living waters. God makes the desert a pool of water with trees; God makes our dead heart a heart that loves, trusts and obeys Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
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