One Down...

The first year of diaconate formation is officially in the books. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. It feels like only yesterday that I received my acceptance letter. I am surrounded by a great group of guys, each bringing a special gift to our group. I feel truly blessed to be among them. The knowledge and insight they bring to the party is incredible. Brother Brian summed up the experience for himself in one word – humbling. I think he correctly reflected the feeling we all share.

This year has been a whirlwind of classes on subjects like intros into theology and philosophy. We learned a bit on evangelization and stewardship. There were classes on spirituality, morality, and the types of prayer. We got an introduction on how to properly interpret the bible and took a deeper dive into the Old Testament. Some of the classes were light hearted and fun. Some left our heads hurting from the depth of information we received. All the classes I would compare to a great steak dinner – we were left thoroughly satisfied but longing for more.

One thing that became more and more apparent with every class is the depth of beauty and sheer genius of the Catholic faith, indeed, the entire human design. To be able to look at the internal working of life and not be able to see the hand of the divine creator constantly at work boggles my mind. To be able to see the hand of God at work boggles my mind even more. I can only equate it to what it must be like for a new born baby opening his eyes for the first time. Welcome to a much bigger world. We have so much to learn.

I am so humbled and thankful for not only my brothers I travel this road with but all of our wives who are the bedrock of support for us. We could not do this without you. We are especially thankful for Betsy who can support Bill and all of us in ways no one else can. Please pray for us, our formation, and our spiritual welfare as we continue this journey together.

Rockford Diocese Diaconate Formation Class of 2020 - now in Aspirancy 2

Rockford Diocese Office where we have classes

True Food

The Jews used animal sacrifice to atone for their sins. In this sacrifice wood would be placed on the altar. The animal to be sacrificed was slaughtered and placed on the wood. The wood was then set on fire. The aroma of the cooking food would rise to heaven and was pleasing to God. Blood is considered sacred because it contains life. The blood of the animal was sprinkled on the altar. If God found favor with the sacrifice his grace would descend down upon the animal. The animal was consumed by the people offering sacrifice and they shared a meal with God. This shared meal was the bond for the atonement. Animal sacrifice was never enough to atone for all sin for all times so the sacrifice had to be repeated as often as necessary.

The greatest sacrifice the Israelites offered to God was the Passover. When the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians Pharaoh ordered all new born male Israelites to be put to death. This kept the male population down and made the Israelites easier to control. The tenth and last plague God sent down upon Egypt was in kind. God would take the life of the first born male of every creature in Egypt, both human and animal.

The Israelites were warned of this coming plague and were told how to be delivered from it. Each household had to sacrifice a lamb or goat without blemish and then that sacrifice had to be consumed by the entire family the night of the plague in a very specific manner. The blood from the sacrifice had to be put on and over the doorposts. When the angel of death descended upon Egypt any family who sacrificed properly was passed over and the first born male of that family was not killed.

Jesus Christ is the new Passover. The altar he was sacrificed on was the cross and his holy blood saturated the wood. He was not offered up as a burnt sacrifice but his sacrifice did atone for all sins of all people who participate in the sacrifice for all time. How does one participate in the sacrifice of Christ? The same way the Jewish people participated in the sacrifices of atonement and of Passover - by consuming the flesh of the sacrifice and sealing the bond with a holy meal with God. Does this mean we have to eat the flesh of Christ to receive the blessing of atonement for our sins? That is exactly what Jesus told us we must do.

“Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”  - John 6, 52-56

 

How does Christ make this possible for all people through all time?

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”  - 1 Corinthians 11, 23 – 26

At the last supper Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In his earthly body he could only be in one place at one time. After he ascended to the Father he was able to come down into the Eucharist when a priest consecrates it. This allows Jesus to be everywhere at all times until the end of time. Jesus is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the form of bread and wine in a consecrated host.

Why must it be a priest? Jesus passed this authority on to the Twelve and only the Twelve. The Twelve passed this authority on to their successors, which became the bishops of the Catholic Church. Because bishops cannot be in every parish every day they have passed this authority on to their priests to act as their proxy. It is an unbroken line of apostolic authority from Jesus, through the Twelve, to the bishops, to the priests.

I thought Christ was sacrificed once for all. Doesn’t the Catholic Mass sacrifice him over and over again?

No, there was only one sacrifice for all. The Mass does not re-sacrifice Christ. It re-presents it. Mass acts as a conduit between time and space transporting those taking part in the Mass back to the original sacrifice, the crucifixion of Jesus. Our sacrifice does not re-sacrifice Christ but makes us present to the one sacrifice. If human eyes could see the supernatural glory taking part at the Mass we would be able to see Christ in his glory on the cross surrounded by all of the heavenly hosts and the Saints giving worship to the Lord our Pascal sacrifice, the Lamb of God without blemish. We are connected to the greatest event that will ever happen. But human eyes can only see the world in which we live and not the truth that surrounds us.

As Catholics we believe that Jesus descends down into the host during the words of consecration and that the Eucharist becomes the actual body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. We consume the Eucharist, eating the flesh of Jesus himself completing his sacrifice on our behalf. We do as he commanded and eat his flesh and drink his blood and believe we have his everlasting life within us.

This presents a problem for non-Catholic Christians who view communion as nothing more than a symbol of the last supper. For 1500 years Christianity took part in Jesus’ sacrifice and honestly believed they were actually eating the body and blood of Christ as he had instructed them to. Then along came Luther who thought himself smarter than the Church and began to teach his opinion over what the Church had always taught. He let the genie out of the bottle and people started creating churches that taught what they believed truth should be over that which Christ had passed on to his Church. Mass ceased being a sacrifice and became nothing more than an opportunity to instruct the faithful.

By Jewish understanding of the sacrificial laws passed down from God when Christians ceased eating the actual body and blood of Jesus they also ceased to participate in his sacrifice of atonement for sin. It is written in Holy Scripture that he was sacrificed for many, not all, who believe in him. It also says that not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only God knows who is saved and not saved. I have to take Jesus at his word and be part of the only Church that can offer me his real body and blood as my holy food. I don’t want symbolic salvation, I want to really be saved.

Do you think that the angel of death would have passed over a Jewish house the night of the tenth plague if they had coated their doorposts with red paint symbolizing blood? If the life of your firstborn son were at stake would you have chanced it?

When Jesus told those following him that if they wanted eternal life they would have to eat his flesh they fled from him in droves thinking him crazy. He didn’t chase after them telling them he was only speaking of symbolically eating his flesh. Instead he turned to his disciples and asked if they were going to leave him too.

Where can I go Lord? Only you have the words of eternal life. If you tell me I have to eat your flesh and drink your blood to have this life within me then that is what I will do.

Take this and eat. This is my body that will be given up for you….

 

Brother, let me be your servant.

Every year droves of people leave organized religion behind. They do this because organized religion has lost its relevance in their lives. Even the great gubernator Jesse, The Body, Ventura referred to organized religion as a crutch for the weak minded. Who can blame them for feeling this way? Whose fault is it that church has lost relevance in so many lives? Can we blame the devil? How about the culture? No, the blame falls squarely on our shoulders.

Each and every one of us has been given a cross that we must carry in this life. For some of us, that cross is more than we can bear. God will always provide. Sometimes he provides exactly what is needed. Sometimes he provides more than what is needed. When he provides you with more than what you need he expects that you will provide the extra to someone else in need. He is providing you to that person. Too many of us keep the extra for ourselves or fail to recognize the abundance that we have been blessed with. We let others go without so we can have more.

Organized religion is not a crutch that weak minded people lean on for help. Jesus’ own example shows us what we are to do. Jesus could not physically bear the weight of his cross on the way to his crucifixion. Simon of Cyrene was pulled from the crowd and made to help Jesus carry his cross. That is what Jesus has done for us. He has provided us with a church to help bear the weight of the crosses in our own lives. We are to be Simon to each other.

Pope Francis has referred to the Church as a field hospital after battle. We must love the wounded and heal their wounds. As the Pope so eloquently states, “It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds.”

People are leaving the Church in droves every year because they are tired of carrying their crosses alone. They are tired of hurting or being judged by those who are only supposed to love them. Whether they know it or not they go in search of Simon. They go in search of a cross bearer. Many times what they encounter instead is Satan disguised as Simon. He convinces them to drop their cross and embrace the self. God doesn’t want you to suffer under the weight of that wood. He made you this way so it is good. Embrace who you are and what you want. We all know where that road ends.

If we want to make church relevant in people’s lives again we have to start by becoming cross bearers. We have to be Simon. We have to minister to the injured and wounded. We have to see the person first and treat him or her with the dignity God gave them. We have to live beauty, joy, and love. Just as a light draws in the moth so too does a joy filled church draw in the sinner.

The Servant Song

Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too

We are pilgrims on the journey
We are brothers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load

I will hold the Christ light for you
In the night time of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you

Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping
When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you
I will share your joy and sorrow

Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven
We shall find such harmony
Born to all we’ve known together
Of Christ’s love and agony

Will you let me be your servant? Will you be my servant too?

How do you eat an elephant?

Question: How do you eat an elephant?

Artwork courtesy of Sean Gallo @ https://seangallo.com

Answer: One small bite at a time over a long period of time.

If a person had to eat an elephant in one big bite or all at one sitting it couldn’t be done. If you take small enough bites over a long period of time you could eat an entire elephant without even knowing it. This is exactly the tactic the devil uses to change a culture for the worse. He knows that if he were to introduce his plan all at once it would be outright rejected even by the most ungodly of us as being too extreme. But, if he introduces his plan in gradual steps people would accept it with little effort.

After gastric bypass surgery the stomach is left very small. A person having this surgery can only eat small amounts of food. With the drastic decrease in caloric intake the person loses weight quickly. This surgery only addresses the symptom, the added weight the person has. It does not address the real problem which is the fact that the person has an eating disorder where they eat more than they need. If the root cause of the problem is not addressed the surgery will only provide a temporary solution to the problem. The person will begin to eat just a little bit more, not enough to kill them but enough to stretch the stomach just a little. Now the person’s stomach can hold more so they eat a little more stretching the stomach just a little bit more again. Given enough time the stomach will return to its original size and the person will gain the weight they lost back and more.

Satan wishes to corrupt society and turn it away from God. He wants us to eat the elephant. He convinces the culture to push the limit of what is acceptable. Stretch that line just a little. When we have accepted and even embraced the change he gets us to stretch it some more. Given enough time something that was once considered morally reprehensible can become the norm to the point of being considered a human right. Take abortion as an example. At one point in our history no one would have supported killing an innocent baby growing in the womb. Now in our backward time it is considered a choice and even a woman’s reproductive right to do this horrid abomination.

How many people, even the avid prochoicers, would be on board with this if Satan had just come out at the beginning and said, “Sacrifice your children to me! Eat that elephant!" No way Jack. But when spoon fed one small bite over forty plus years half our population has eaten that elephant. A stomach once stretched can never return to its original size without drastic, long lasting change.

Not all change is bad. Any change that more deeply recognizes and respects a person’s dignity is indeed good and required. Any change that goes against the natural design God intended should be strongly fought and always resisted.

Don’t eat the elephant.

Walk the Talk, Pro-lifer

How many people who call themselves pro-life have limited themselves to just one or two children? How many use some form of contraception? How many pro-lifers visit the sick or those in hospitals? How many know what the inside of a nursing home looks like? How many pro-lifers sought vengeance after the World Trade Center fell and how many support capital punishment?


There is more to being pro-life than just being against abortion. Being against abortion is a good thing. Conception is when life begins and needs to be protected from that point forward. Conception is not where pro-life begins however. Pro-life begins by recognizing the dignity in all people. All people have dignity because each and every person has been created in the image and likeness of God. Dignity is like God's fingerprint on the soul. Pro-life continues by being open to life as God sees fit to provide it. Many pro-lifers are only willing to be pro-life when it is on their terms.


When most people hear the term pro-life they automatically associate it with those who protest abortions. Life runs from conception to natural death. True pro-lifers support all life. Womb to tomb. The elderly living in a nursing home are just as important and just as much a life as an unborn baby. We often forget about those at that end of the spectrum. Nursing homes and care centers are full of people who were left there to die. They go on basically forgotten. Many never receive a visitor outside of their care givers.


To be truly pro-life also means to love and care for those who hate you. They are still created in the image and likeness of God and they all have the same dignity as we do. We are called to love, not hate, our enemy. To love means to will the best for someone. Jesus loved his scourgers even as they flayed his flesh with their whips. If Jesus could do that we surely can love those who wish us dead.


Being pro-life means to hold all life sacred, not just life that is dear to us. Being pro-life means to see the sacred in even the worst among us. Can you see the dignity in the serial killer on death row? Can you love him enough to pray for his soul and not rejoice when they execute him? If that serial killer murdered someone close to you are you pro-life enough to forgive him? That is what Jesus asks us to do.


My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Blind Faith

You Catholics are stupid you know? You mindlessly believe whatever the Church tells you to and do whatever the Pope tells you to do. You are sheeple.

I cannot tell you how often I hear something along these lines. Are we required to believe whatever the Church tells us? Well, as with most things with our faith the answer is a mix between yes and no.

Catholics are required to believe 100% of what the Church teaches on faith and morals. This is a nonnegotiable. You cannot believe something contrary to what the Church teaches in these areas and still be Catholic no matter what you call yourself. We believe this because we believe the promise Jesus made to this Church, his Church, that he would be with us until the end of the age and that even the gates of the underworld would not prevail against us. We believe that the Church is infallible in these matters because Jesus would not allow her to enter into error.

Infallible is a word that means without error. We believe that our Pope, by his appointed position as head disciple of the disciples, is infallible. Does this mean that we believe that the Pope is without error in all things? Absolutely not. The Pope’s infallibility only extends to his official teaching done from the Chair of Peter in union with his bishops on matters of faith or morals. When it comes to something like the sanctity of human marriage he cannot be wrong. When it comes to something like what flavor of ice cream is best, what color papal robe to wear to bed after Labor Day,  or in the case of Pope Francis, global warming, he is subject to the same possibility of being wrong as any of us.

The Church has never changed a single one of her teachings in the area of faith and morals, ever. What Jesus taught the twelve is the exact same thing the Church teaches today. A truth is a truth and, like God, is not subject to change. The Church may use different words today and may have clarified teachings but the teachings themselves are the same. Words and definitions of words change with the culture and so the Church must always update her teachings with each generation. An author who marries himself to a generation will be widowed in the next.

As Catholics we are required to believe 100% of what the Church teaches. That does not mean we cannot question those teachings. Indeed, the path to understanding comes through question, through seeking to understand. The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary that she was to conceive Jesus. She did not blindly say ok. She asked how. How can this be? How, why, and who are all valid questions anyone who is seeking knowledge should ask but we do not start with rejection. We start by accepting a statement and then seek to understand it. God is good. Ok. Why is God good?

Unfortunately in the culture in which we live in today, especially in America, everyone is their own pope. Everyone is an expert in every subject even if they know absolutely nothing about the subject at hand. It must be true; I read it on the internet. Instead of seeking to understand a truth we form our own opinion on it based upon what is most desirable to us. Then our opinion becomes fact for us and nothing sways us from it, even the truth. We have an entire generation of people who now stand up and say “I believe” in Mass on Sunday but then get to the parking lot and say “But the Church is wrong on…”

Are we called to have blind faith? Not at all. The truth is out there. We just have to open ourselves up to it. Not only does the Church teach what Christ passed down to us but she goes to extremes to teach the hows and the whys. Many people don’t want to know the whys because then they wouldn’t have an excuse to disbelieve. The more I learn about this faith the more beautiful and brilliantly genius it becomes. The more I learn the more it becomes abundantly clear that it was the hand of God who designed this faith. I want to proclaim from the mountain tops so everyone can find what I have found.

Instead, what I encounter most of the time are closed minded people who have already determined for themselves what truth is and will not seek to understand. Who really has the blind faith?

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Angels Among Us

In 2008 doctors found one small block in an artery of my heart. It was too small to fix. In 2012 I started to have increased symptoms of a blocked ticker. I tried to get in to been seen by the VA but was only ignored. Two years later the symptoms got bad enough that I finally went back to my civilian doctor. He put me straight in for an angiogram. We expected that the one block had gotten bad enough that it could now be ballooned open. As expected it had become 80% closed. What was not expected was that the other two arterial branches were also blocked at 90 – 95%. My heart was a time bomb with little time left on it. There was no option but to have open heart bypass.

As I was wheeled off to recovery the doctor went out to talk to my wife. She did not take the news well. It filled her with fear and worry and she was a mess of uncontrollable emotion. Then at her side appeared a man. He was shabby in appearance, almost looking homeless. He was holding a bible in his hand. He told my wife not to worry, that everything was going to be alright.  Then he asked if he could pray with her for a while. When she wasn’t looking the man slipped away and she never saw him again.

True to his word my surgery went without a hitch. I was up and walking in the ICU just hours after leaving recovery. Everyone was amazed how the life returned to my face.  I healed quickly and without complication. I was given a reprieve, a second chance at living past fifty.

The man in the waiting room, I have no doubt that he was an angel. An angel, by definition, is nothing more than a messenger. In celestial form an angel is a servant of God. They are pure spirits who occasionally are allowed to take human form to perform a task. We are assured by Holy Scripture that each of us has a guardian angel whose job it is to watch over us and guide our way to heaven. So was this guy a celestial angel sent to calm my wife or just a good guy with nothing better to do than hang around a hospital waiting room looking for someone to comfort? You can decide that for yourself. As for me, he provided my wife the comforting words she needed to hear and that makes him a gift from God either way.

Masculinized Feminism

We have never had a true feminist movement in America. A true feminist movement would extol and celebrate the traits that make a woman strong and unique. Instead, what masquerades as a feminist movement are masculinist women who believe the only way they are considered equal is if they can say and do everything a man can. The extremes in this movement wish to minimalize or completely remove the male of the species from as many things as possible. This has nothing to do with praising femininity, which most, if not all, of the hardcore feminists view as weakness, and more about control and power.

The word hierarchy is the English translation of the Latin for holy order. When God created he created everything with a specific purpose, function, and holy order. When things happen according to their designed purpose it is said that they are ordered. When things happen contrary to their designed purpose they are disordered. When things are ordered they lead to happiness and disorders lead away from happiness. This is God’s design for everything.

At the top of the hierarchical order is, of course, God. But even for God there is a hierarchy. We have one God that contains three unique and divine persons. We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Son answers to the Father and the Holy Spirit answers to both the Father and the Son. There will never be division among the three because all wills conform to that of the Father. They are equal but different with different functions. The Father is the head of all creation. The Son sits to the right of the Father and all rule and authority of creation has been given to him. The Holy Spirit carries action forth from the Father and the Son. All are God. All are equal but all have a different purpose. Each performs their purpose perfectly so God is always perfectly ordered. God is the Order from which all order flows.

After the Trinity the next in line of the Holy Order is not the Pope as many might think. The next in line is woman. Woman holds the highest position in God’s hierarchy for the human person. To woman God gave the greatest honor he has bestowed upon any of his creation. He made woman the Tokos, the life bearer. Therefore woman is the most exalted among all of God’s creation. The most exalted among the exalted would then be the Theotokos or the mother of God. We know her as Mary, the woman who conceived and bore the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus. She is the greatest human person who will ever live and that is why Catholics venerate and honor her.

And then comes the Pope right? Um, no. Next in line after woman is another “woman”, the Holy Catholic Church. The Holy Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus founded and promised he would be with until the completion of time. In poetic speech the Church is the bride of Christ. Jesus is the bridegroom. The book of Revelation, commonly believed to be about the end of the world, is in reality the story of the wedding celebration between Jesus and his Church. If you want to know what heaven will be like attend a Catholic Mass. It will be like that only with every creature in heaven worshiping together at once. Words do not exist to describe the magnitude of that celebration.

Last in the hierarchy is man. We are the bottom rung in God’s Holy Order, not the top as so many of us believe ourselves to be. So where does that put the Pope? Don’t worry, we won’t forget poor Cardinal Bergolio, now Francis.

Everything was made in an order and for a purpose. The designed purpose for woman was to be the tokos, the life bearer and to ektrephó or nourish. Woman was given the ability to bring forth life and to bring it to full maturity. Man’s designed purpose is to protect and provide for woman and her offspring and to “till the garden” or care for the rest of God’s creation. Everything that we do as men is supposed to be towards those two ends. It was never intended that we lord over or dominate anything.

The Pope, the bishops, the priests, and the deacons are under a separate hierarchal order, the order of servitude. Their designed purpose is to serve the Church Jesus started and all of human kind. The order of servitude is not a chain of command like you would find in a military organization. This Holy Order is upside down. The Pope is on the bottom rung of the ladder and has the responsibility of lifting up all those above him. He does this in unity with his bishops who then serve the priests and the deacons above them who, in turn, serve the Church and all of humanity. The Pope is a bishop who leads the college of bishops. He has the responsibility of every living soul on this planet on his shoulders. Bishops are both the head priest and the head deacon in their diocese and have the responsibility for every soul living within their diocese. Priests and deacons are different arms of the bishop. Priests are the right hand and responsible for sacrifice. They are responsible for each and every soul in their parish. The deacon is the left hand of the bishop and is responsible for being the servant to a servant church.

The devil is a very cunning creature. He has successfully convinced many women that their value is tied to being equal to a man. They are only truly equal if they can do everything a man can do. Feminism convinces women to lower themselves, to be less than what they were created to be, to become the inferior of the race. He gets them to mock the very thing that makes them unique and most favored among all of God’s creation. He gets them to willfully turn their backs on the gift God shared only with them.

With woman stepping down to fill the man’s role man has stepped away all together. We no longer have to be the protector and provider. We no longer have to care for the garden. All of God’s creation suffers when we do not fully assume this role for which we were made. The family is the building block on which all human society is based. The father is the head of the family. A beheaded family has no life within it. When the family ceases to live all of society crumbles.

A mother’s job is to nourish the family. If the mother concentrates her time in trying to be equal to the father by being like the father the family does not get the nourishment it needs and it does not mature properly. When the family fails society fails and the devil triumphs.

True feminism extols the virtues of womanhood, the virtues of the tokos and the ektrephós. Mothers should be exalted yet most are demonized as accepting something less. When you see a mother with three, four, or more children desperately trying to keep chaos at bay thank her for embracing her womanhood and her yes to God’s design. The future of mankind depends on it.

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Barabbas - The Choice is Yours.

Barabbas, the man chosen for release by the crowds during the trial of Jesus. Was Barabbas just a character in the story or did his presence have deeper meaning? This event happened two thousand years ago and eye witnesses are hard to come by these days. One day we will be able to ask Jesus himself but for now we can only speculate based on what the scriptures tell us…..or no longer tell us.

Some of the oldest copies of the Gospel of Matthew list Barabbas’ full name – Yeshua bar-Abbas or Jesus Barabbas. Early Church Father Origen was deeply troubled by this. He thought it was impossible that a criminal like Barabbas would share such a holy name with our Lord and concluded that it must have been added by a heretic. In those days they did not have printing presses. Each copy of Holy Scripture was hand copied, one from another. From that day forward the name Yeshua bar-Abbas was simply written as Barabbas.

I am not one to disagree with a Church Father but there are some things about our Lord that I do not think people fully comprehend. I do not think people fully grasp how much God became like us in all things. This is exactly why the Jewish people do not believe that the Messiah has come yet. This is precisely the reason why Judas betrayed our Lord. They both expected a great king to come, a military leader who would kick the Romans out of the lands of Israel and restore the Jewish people to their rightful place as the chosen people of God. Judas expected Jesus to do this very thing and expected to be put in a place of power after Jesus reestablished the throne. When Jesus didn’t show any interest in doing this Judas thought his betrayal would force Jesus’ hand and get him going on conquest.

We all know that Jesus is the greatest king who will ever rule and his rule will be forever. Before his name every knee shall bend and every head shall bow. This is not how Jesus entered into the world. Jesus was born an innocent, fragile, helpless baby. He was not born into a rich and prestigious family. He was born in a barn and slept in a hay bunk. His parents were poor. His foster father was a tektōn, a day laborer, a carpenter. Saint Joseph’s only claim to fame was that he and his wife, Mary, were distant relatives to the once great King David.

Yeshua a holy name? Maybe after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven to become the greatest king ever. When he walked the earth the names Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were among the most common names in use. Jesus not only became like us in all things but he became like the most common and lowly of us in all things. Before he started his public ministry it would have been difficult to pick these three out of a crowd of three. Jesus did not live an earthly kingship. Instead he ascended from the lowest of human kind. He came up from the very bottom so that no one was below him in anything. A rising tide lifts all boats. This is what Jesus did for humanity.

Yeshua - one of the most common names in use. As ordinary as they come. Translations of this name include Joshua and Jesus.

Barabbas - this one gets interesting. The early texts list this name as bar-Abbas. Bar means “son of” and abba is commonly translated as “father”.  Abba actually has a deeper and more intimate meaning than father. A more precise translation of abba is “daddy”.

So the Jewish people were presented with the following choice; whom do you want, Jesus, son of the father or Jesus, the Christ? We know who the people chose. But why is this even in scripture? What purpose does it serve? The true reason is not known to us but much speculation exists. This is mine.

Jesus, son of Mary, is the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. I believe Jesus Barabbas was the incarnation Satan, the visible image of the invisible devil. The people were given the choice between keeping good or evil. We chose evil and Satan rejoiced. We chose to put God to death and the devil danced in glee for he was victorious.

But Jesus was more than just innocent. He was divine. He was tortured and his divine blood was shed. This not only satisfied the price of death but the price of death for all humanity. Death could no longer hold Christ and it could no longer hold anyone in Sheol, the land of the dead, who accepted Jesus as king and followed him out of the netherworld.

In the midst of his victory the devil was defeated and lost hold of all under his authority. Now the devil only has authority over those that choose themselves over God. Satan only has authority over those who choose Barabbas instead of Christ.

Barabbas is not only the choice given to the Jewish people by Pilot but is the choice each and every person must make on their own. It is the question we all must answer. Do you stand and scream "Barabbas!" or do you live for Christ?

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Old vs New

Angry, jealous, vengeful, wrathful. These are words used to describe the God of the Old Testament. Kind, loving, merciful, forgiving. These are words that describe the God of the New Testament. On the surface these appear to be polar opposites of each other and have led people through the centuries to believe that these are different Gods. Marcionism is a heresy that believed this very notion and the early second century Church had to deal with it. It has caused many Christians to ignore, dismiss, or outright reject the Old Testament altogether. It has led others to believe that God can change over time. God has evolved from a wrathful God to a loving God. This has been used to justify everything from women’s ordination to same sex marriage.

But the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. God has not changed. God has not evolved. God is the same today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow. God is eternal. He exists outside of time. More correctly stated time exists inside of God. Every moment in time is the same moment for God. Everything happens now and every place is here.

So how do you explain the seemingly different Gods in the bible? It is a matter of perspective. Where we see wrath God sees love. Where we see vengeance God sees justice. Where we see things skewed God sees them as they truly are.

A mother was boiling spaghetti for dinner one night. As she was cutting up vegetables to go in the sauce she saw her almost three-year old daughter reaching for the pot of boiling water. She screamed at the top of her lungs, “No!” as she ran over and slapped her daughter’s hand. “Hot!” she scolded. Every parent knows that this was done out of love. The mother did not want to see her daughter get hurt. She wanted to protect her daughter and teach her what she needed to know. From the daughter’s perspective all she saw was her mother’s anger. She did not understand that it was done for her own good. She could not see her mother’s love. All she saw was wrath.

This was the way it was for the young Israel. They were God’s chosen people but they were infants. God had to be the loving parent and do what was necessary to teach and protect his children. Where God saw only love Israel could only see anger and wrath.

God made a covenant with his people and was faithful to it. Israel broke the covenant at every given opportunity. God always forgave them and called them back to fidelity. They always strayed. Children have never been good at listening to their parents but they have never failed to imitate them. The Father sent the Son to show us the way. With the teacher living among us God had no reason to show anger or wrath and could be what he was – love. This God of the New Testament is the same as the God of the Old Testament. The only thing that changed is the way that we perceive him. When we view God through the prism of a parent we can clearly see that everything God did was done through and with love.

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Can I get a Halleluiah?

In February of 2004 Mel Gibson released The Passion of the Christ. It quickly became the gold standard that all bible based films to follow will be judged against. It is a virtual time machine, transporting the viewer back to Jerusalem for the crucifixion of Jesus. The entire movie is in the original languages of the day – Aramaic and Latin and is as true to life as a movie can possibly be. It is a gut wrenching film that leaves any believer totally mortified. It captures the essence of what our Lord endured for us out of love for his children. It depicts the day that God’s chosen people, the people of Israel, put their God to death over their lust for power. It will be forever the greatest film on the passion and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fast forward two thousand years. On March 20, 2016 Fox will be airing the live musical The Passion.  This is taken from their web site describing the show:

On Palm Sunday, March 20, 2016 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), FOX will present THE PASSION, a two-hour musical event, airing LIVE from New Orleans, that tells the 2000-year-old story of the last hours of Jesus Christ’s life on earth. Hosted and narrated by actor, writer, producer, director and New Orleans native Tyler Perry (“The Haves and The Have Nots,” “Gone Girl”), the special will feature a cast of today’s biggest stars (to be announced) performing a variety of popular music, arranged by executive producer and hit music producer Adam Anders (“Glee,” “Rock of Ages”).

Set in modern day, THE PASSION will follow the dramatic and inspirational story of Jesus of Nazareth, as he presides over the Last Supper, and then is betrayed by Judas, put on trial by Pontius Pilate, convicted, crucified and resurrected. The story will unfold live at some of New Orleans’ most iconic locations, while featuring a procession of hundreds of people carrying a 20-foot, illuminated cross from Champion Square outside the Superdome to the live stage at Woldenburg Park on the banks of the Mississippi River.

As you can see from the poster’s tagline this is, “The most celebrated story of all time set to today’s biggest music hits.”

The passion and execution of God is now a celebrated story set to music. This is inspirational and will fill you with joy and happiness. It will make you jump to your feet and shout “Halleluiah!” as you sing and dance to music performed by some of the biggest names in the industry.

Someone please help the devil up off the floor. He has just peed himself from laughing so hard. We are so far removed from the reality of the day that we take the single greatest tragedy in all of human history and we put it to music and sing and dance. He can quit now for his work is done.

Perhaps it would help if people understood what the word passion actually means. Passion comes from the Latin word Pati which means suffering. The Passion of the Christ properly translated means the Suffering of the Christ. Today we translate passion as strong and barely controllable emotion, intense sexual love, an intense desire, or something arousing enthusiasm. Given the modern day definition of passion it is easy to see how we can view the Passion of the Christ as a celebrated story that fills one with joy.

There is nothing to celebrate or nothing inspiring about the crucifixion of Jesus. It is mankind’s greatest and gravest error in judgment. It is the act where we lusted for power and murdered the very God who created us and loved us. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus so loved the world that he consciously willed the very breath into the men who were scourging him, mocking him, driving the crown of thorns onto his head, and nailing him to the cross. At any time Jesus could have simply willed them out of existence but he allowed them to do their evil for the love of us.

Our celebration as Christians does not begin until the stone is rolled away and we find the tomb empty. No depiction of the crucifixion should leave us feeling joyful or inspired. If it does the depiction is not from God but from the devil attempting to lead you away from God. Be horrified by the crucifixion. Be grief laden by it. Be filled with the true meaning of passion. And then on Easter Sunday when they find the stone rolled away and the tomb is empty let your hearts burst with joy for he has risen as he said he would. Be then inspired by Christ’s love. Become a lantern carrying the light of that love to all those still in darkness. Go forth and proclaim joyfully the good news to all people.

Do yourself a favor and skip this presentation that borders on sacrilege. Watch The Passion of the Christ instead. You will never look at Easter the same way again.

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

A Spoon Full of Sugar...

The Young Messiah was recently released and is the latest in bible based movies. It portrays Jesus as a seven year old boy who has not learned that he is the Son of God or what his purpose in life is yet. It has gotten great reviews and people generally seem to like the movie. Is it worth seeing?

If you have a well formed understanding of your faith and can separate fact from entertainment you will probably do ok seeing this movie. If your theology changes every time you watch something on TV you might want to avoid this movie.

This movie is well acted and well filmed and is entertaining. As a movie goes it is a good movie. As a source of Christian instruction it is horrible. It is worse than horrible. It is heresy. Heresy is any belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine. The heresy in this movie is that Jesus did not know who he was until his mother sat him down and told him. He was just a normal human kid living a normal human life until Mary told him he was God. This is contrary to Catholic doctrine.

This movie wrestles with one of the great mysteries of Christianity, the dual nature of Jesus. Most of the popular heresies in Christian history have revolved around this subject. To begin to have some sort of understanding on this we have to first start by understanding the difference between a person and a nature.

A person is a unique entity or being. There are only three types of persons – divine, angelic, and human. A divine person is God and we have three in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. More correctly stated we have the Father, the Word, and the Holy Breath. From the Father came the Breath and one word was uttered – Jesus.

An angelic person is a completely spiritual being created with full knowledge to be servants and messengers of God. These are the angels and the fallen angels or the demons.

Last in the pecking order we have the human person who is an incarnated spirit. We are not spirits trapped in flesh who get released when we die. Nor do we become angels. We are spirits joined with flesh and we will have physical bodies for eternity after the final judgment.

Jesus is not a human person. Jesus is solely a divine person. When we say that Jesus is fully human and fully divine we are speaking of his nature or the essence of his being. The second person of the Trinity took on a human nature when the Word became flesh.  It is this dual nature that has confounded people since Jesus came on the scene. Something cannot be 100% one thing and 100% another. That is if we view nature as a physical substance. Think of nature to be more like light.

Imagine for a moment a room with a box in the middle of it. On the left is a bright red light. On the right is a bright blue light. When we turn on just the red light the box turns red. When we turn on just the blue light the box turns blue. When we turn on both lights an interesting thing occurs. When we view the box from the left the box is red. When we view the box from the right the box is blue. When we view the box from the middle where both lights are shinning on it equally the box is purple. The box is 100% red and 100% blue at the same time. The red light does not displace the blue light and the blue does not displace the red. They exist equally.

The red light represents Christ’s divine nature. The blue represents his human nature. There are times where Jesus’ divine nature shines through, like when he is healing or forgiving sins. There are times when Jesus’ human nature shines through, like when he laments in the garden of Gethsemane. Most of the time in scripture we see the two natures shining together.

Equally as difficult to understand is what knowledge Jesus had during his time on earth. Some believe that as a divine person he was omnipotent and had all of the same knowledge as the Father. Others believe the exact opposite; that Jesus only knew what he was taught. We can cherry pick individual scripture passages that will support either belief.

I believe that, like with his dual nature, Jesus had dual knowledge. Jesus is a divine person and knew his divinity. He and the Father were one. Jesus knew who he was, what he was, and why he was here. Yet, Jesus could not tell you whether or not it would rain the next day. When Jesus became incarnate he became like us in all things except sin. He set aside his omnipotence and was obliged to know only that which the Father revealed to him. He had to learn human things the way a human does. He was not born knowing how to speak, to feed or dress himself. He had to learn to go to the bathroom.

Think for a moment of all of the knowledge that God posses as being contained in one book. This book represents the tree of life from the story of the Garden of Eden. God told man not to open the book. We did and we fell. When Jesus became man he closed the book and handed it to his Father. Jesus then only read the pages that his Father gave him to read and not one word more. From the very beginning Jesus had the divine knowledge of who he was and only the human knowledge he learned or was given for a specific task.

The major heresy in The Young Messiah is that Jesus did not know who he was until he was told by his mother. He was also able to create and restore life at seven. It makes for a good movie but does not reflect the teaching passed down through the centuries by the Church Jesus founded.

So what is the danger in it? It’s only a movie right? Unfortunately people these days believe what they see on a screen, whether that be from the internet on a computer screen, a non-Christian documentary on the T.V., or a religious based movie on the big screen. In the days of the eleven second attention span people learn through the images that enter through the eyes. And the devil knows this all too well.

How do you get a dog to take a pill? Usually you wrap it in a piece of cheese or some peanut butter and give it to them. They swallow the pill with the prize. Satan uses this same trick with us. He takes something morally corrosive and wraps it in gooey goodness. Take a heresy and wrap it up in a good film about the god boy and people will eat it up. Wasn’t it just darling the way he made doves out of clay and brought them to life? See, he had the power to resurrect people even when he was that young. Once you get someone walking down the wrong road it becomes easy to slowly wind that road completely away from God without the wanderer ever knowing the better.

We are instructed to avoid the near occasion of sin. We are to avoid those places that make it easier for us to fall into sin. Going to a movie such as this one with a questionable understanding of your faith puts you in the near occasion of sin. It should be avoided. If you are well founded in your faith and can see this as nothing more than entertainment then by all means go enjoy.

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.