For the Father, who is the source of life, has made the Son the source of life; and, because he is the Son of Man, has appointed him supreme judge. - John 5:26-27 - In truth I know him and obey his word. - John 8:55 - I am the truth. - John 14:16 - As the Father has life giving power in himself, so has the Son, by the Father's gift. As Son of Man, he has also been given the right to pass judgment. "Because he is the Son of Man, has appointed him supreme judge." - John 5:27 -

God acts in accordance with the laws and principles that He has established in the world. The laws of the nature are nothing more than man's description of how we perceive God at work in the world. They neither have inherent power nor do they work by themselves.

Man/Woman is not free to choose and acts independently from God's will and plan; he/she chooses and acts in accordance with them. God's actions, however, do not violate the reality of human choice or negate man's responsibility as a moral beings. However, God permits sinful acts to occur but He does not cause man to sin. He often overrules evil for good.

***  Theologians sometimes try to simplify the meaning of the resurrection by packaging its essence into one sentence: In the resurrection, God vindicated Jesus, his life, his message and his fidelity. What does that mean?

Jesus entered our world preaching faith, love and forgiveness but the world didn't accept that. Instead it crucified him and, in that crucifixion, seemingly shamed his message. We see this most clearly on the cross when Jesus is taunted, mocked and challenged: If you are the Son of God, come down from there! If your message is true, let God verify that right now!

If your fidelity is more than plain stubbornness and human ignorance then why are you dying in shame?

And what was God's response to those taunts? Nothing, no commentary, no defense, no apologia, no counter-challenge, just silence. Jesus dies in silence. Neither he nor the God he believed in tried to fill that excruciating void with any consoling words or explanations challenging people to look at the brighter side of things. None of that. Just silence.

Jesus died in silence, inside God's silence and inside the world's incomprehension. And we can let ourselves be humbly scandalized by that silence, just as we can let ourselves be perpetually scandalized by the seeming triumph of evil, pain and suffering in our world. God's silence can forever scandalize us: in the Jewish holocaust, in ethnic genocides, in brutal and senseless wars, in the earthquakes and tsunamis which kill thousands of people and devastate whole countries, in the deaths of countless people taken out of this life by cancer and by violence, in how unfair life can be sometimes, and in the casual manner that those without conscience can rape whole areas of life seemingly without consequence.

Where is God in all this? What's God's answer?

God's answer is in the resurrection, in the resurrection of Jesus and in the perennial resurrection of goodness within life itself. But resurrection is not necessarily rescue. God doesn't necessarily rescue us from the effects of evil or even from death. Evil does what it does, natural disasters are what they are and those without conscience can rape even as they feed off life's sacred fire. God doesn't intervene. The parting of the Red Sea isn't a weekly occurrence. God lets his loved one suffers and die, just as Jesus let his dear friend, Lazarus, die and God let Jesus die. God redeems, raises us up afterwards, in a deeper more lasting vindication. And the truth of that statement can even be tested empirically.

Despite every appearance sometimes, in the end, love does triumph over hatred. Peace does triumph over chaos. Forgiveness does triumph over bitterness. Hope does triumph over cynicism. Fidelity does triumph over despair. Virtue does triumph over sin. Conscience does triumph over callousness. Life does triumph over death. And good does triumph over evil, always. Mohandas K. Gandhi once wrote: "When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants and for a time they seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always".

The resurrection, most forcibly, makes that point. God has the last word. The resurrection of Jesus is that last word. From the ashes of shame, of seeming defeat, failure and death, a new, deeper and eternal life perennially bursts forth. Our faith begins at the very point where it seems it might end, in God's seeming silence at Jesus' death. And what does this ask of us?

First of all, simply that we trust its truth. The resurrection of Jesus asks us to believe what Gandhi affirmed, namely, that in the end, evil will not have the last word. It will fall. Good will eventually triumph.

More deeply, it asks us to roll the dice of our lives on that trust and that truth: What Jesus taught is true: Virtue is not naive, even when it is shamed. Sin and cynicism are naive, even when they appear to triumph. Those who genuflect before God and others in conscience will find meaning and joy, even when they are deprived of the world's pleasures. Those who drink in and manipulate sacred energy without conscience will not find meaning and life, even when they taste pleasure. Those who live in honesty, no matter the cost, will find freedom. Those who lie and rationalize will find themselves imprisoned self-hate. Those who live in trust will find love. God's silence can be trusted, even when we die inside of it.

We can live in faith, love, forgiveness, conscience and fidelity in spite of everything that suggests that they aren't true. They will bring us to what is deepest inside of life and love because God vindicates virtue. God vindicates love. God vindicates conscience. God vindicates forgiveness. God vindicates fidelity. God vindicated Jesus and will vindicate us if we remain faithful as Jesus did.

***  BY REV. FR. RON ROLHEISER SJ

For the Father, who is the source of life, has made the Son the source of life; and, because he is the Son of Man, has appointed him supreme judge. - John 5:26-27 - In truth I know him and obey his word. - John 8:55 - I am the truth. - John 14:16 - As the Father has life giving power in himself, so has the Son, by the Father's gift. As Son of Man, he has also been given the right to pass judgment. "Because he is the Son of Man, has appointed him supreme judge." - John 5:27 -

God acts in accordance with the laws and principles that He has established in the world. The laws of the nature are nothing more than man's description of how we perceive God at work in the world. They neither have inherent power nor do they work by themselves.

Man/Woman is not free to choose and acts independently from God's will and plan; he/she chooses and acts in accordance with them. God's actions, however, do not violate the reality of human choice or negate man's responsibility as a moral beings. However, God permits sinful acts to occur but He does not cause man to sin. He often overrules evil for good.

Remember Yahweh your God: it was he who gave you this strength and won you this power thus keeping the covenant then, as today, that he swore to your fathers. Be sure that if you forget Yahweh your God, if you follow other gods, if you serve them and bow down before them - I warn you today - you will most certainly perish. - Deuteronomy 8:18-19 -

The evil you planned to do me has by God's design been turned to good that he might bring about as indeed, he has, the deliverance of a numerous people. So you need not be afraid; I myself will provide for you and your dependents. In this way, he reassured them with words that touched their hearts. - Genesis 50:20-21 -

Surely a potter can do what he likes with the clay? It is surely for him to decide whether he will use a particular lump of clay to make a special pot or an ordinary one? Or else imagine that although God is ready to show his anger and display his power, yet he patiently puts up with the people who make him angry, however, much they deserve to be destroyed. - Romans 9: 21-22 -

Now that day happened to be the Sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, 'It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping mat. He replied, 'But the man who cured me told me, "Pick up your mat and walk"'. They asked, 'Who is the man who said to you, "Pick up your mat and walk"?' The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that filled the place. After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, 'Now you are well again, be sure not to sin anymore, or something worse may happen to you'. The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to persecute Jesus. His answer to them was, 'My Father goes on working, and so do I'. But that only made the Jews even more intent on killing him, because, not content with breaking the Sabbath, he spoke of God as his own Father, and so made himself God's equal. - John 5:10-18 -

To this accusation Jesus replied: 'I tell you most solemnly, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees the Father doing: and whatever the Father does the Son does too. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does himself, and he will show him ever greater things than these, works that will astonish you. Thus, as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to anyone he chooses; for the Father judges no one; he has entrusted all judgement to the Son, so that all may honour the Son as they honour the Father. Whoever refuses honour to the Son refuses honour to the Father who sent him. I tell you most solemnly, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life; without being brought to judgement, he has passed from death to life. I tell you most solemnly, the hour will come - in fact it is here already - when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear it will live. 

For the Father, who is the source of life, has made the Son the source of life; and, because he is the Son of Man, has appointed him supreme judge. Do not be surprised at this, for the hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of the voice: those who did good will rise again to life; and those who did evil, to condemnation. I can do nothing myself; I can only judge as I am told to judge, and my judging is just, because my aim is to do not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 'Were I to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid; but there is another witness who can speak on my behalf, and I know that his testimony is valid. You sent messengers to John, and he gave his testimony to the truth: not that I depend on human testimony; no, it is for your salvation that I speak of this. John was  lamp alight and shining and for a time you were content to enjoy the light that he gave. But my testimony is greater than John's: the works my Father has given me to carry out, these same works of mine testify that the Father has sent me. Besides, the Father who sent me bears witness to me himself. You have never heard his voice, you have never seen his shape, and his word finds no home in you because you do not believe in the one he has sent.

You study the scriptures, believing in them you have eternal life; now these same scriptures testify to me, and yet you refuse to come to me for life! As for human approval, this means nothing to me. Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you. I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me; if someone else comes in his own name you will accept him. How can you believe, since you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval that comes from the one God? Do not imagine that I am going to accuse you before the Father: you place your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be your accuser. If you really believed him you would believed me too, since it was I that he was writing about; but if you refuse to believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?' - John 5:19-47 -

It was the refusal of people to love the best that created the most difficult problem in the whole history of humanity, namely the problem of restoring peoples to the favour of Divine Love. In short, the problem was this; Man/Woman had sinned; but his/her sin was not merely a rebellion against another man/woman, but a revolt against the infinite love of God.

Mankind was created without sin, morally upright and inclined to do good. But sin entered in human experience when Eve and Adam violated the direct command of God. "Then Yahweh God gave the man this admonition, 'You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.'" - Genesis 2:16-17 -

In the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible sin is viewed in several ways: as an offense against God which requires a pardon; as defilement which requires cleansing; as slavery which cries out for emancipation; as a debt which must be cancelled; as defeat which must be reversed by victory; and as estrangement which must be set right by reconciliation. However sin is viewed, it is through the work of Christ that the remedy is provided. He has procured the pardon, the cleansing, the emancipation, the cancellation, the victory and the reconciliation.

When sin is viewed as an offense against God, it is also interpreted as a breach of His law. The law of God, like law in general, involves penalties against the lawbreaker. So strict are these penalties that they appear to leave no avenue of escape for the lawbreaker. The apostle Paul conducting his argument along these lines, quoted one uncompromising declaration from the Old Testament: "A curse on him who does not maintain the words of the Law by observing them". And all the people shall say: Amen. - Deuteronomy 27:26 -

On the other hand, those who rely on the keeping of the Law are under a curse since scripture says: - Galatians 3:10 - But Paul goes on to say that Christ, by enduring the form of death on which a divine curse was expressly pronounced in the law, absorbed in His own person the curse invoked on the lawbreaker: - Deuteronomy 21:22-23 - Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by being cursed for our sake since scripture says: Cursed be everyone who is hanged on a tree. - Galatians 3:13 - Since Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine, He partakes in the nature of both God and humanity. He represents God to humanity and He also represents humanity to God. God is both Lawgiver and Judge; Christ Jesus represents Him.

In the hour of His death, Jesus Christ offered His life to God on behalf of mankind. The perfect life which He offered was acceptable to God. The salvation secured through the giving up of that life is God's free gift to mankind in Christ. The work of Christ is to set humanity in a right relationship with God.

When sin is considered as defilement that requires cleansing, the most straightforward affirmation is that 'the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from sin. - 1 John 1:7 - The effect of His death is to purify a conscience that has been polluted by sin. Spiritual defilement calls for spiritual cleansing and this is what the death of Christ has accomplished. When sin is considered as slavery from which the slave must be set free, then the death of Christ is spoken of as a ransom or means of redemption. Jesus Himself declared that he came 'to give His life a ransom for many' - Mark 10:45 -

Saint/Apostle Paul not only spoke of sin as slavery; he also personified sin as a slave-owner who compels his slaves to obey his evil orders. When they are set free from his control by the death of Christ to enter the service of God, they find this service, by contrast, to be perfect freedom.

The idea of sin as a debt that must be cancelled is based on the teaching of Jesus' parable of the creditor and the two debtors - Luke 7:40-43 - the creditor forgave them both when they could make no repayment. But the debtor who owed the larger sum, and therefore had more cause to love the forgiving creditor, represented the woman whose "sins which are many, are forgiven" - Luke 7:47 - This is similar to Paul's reference to God in Colossians 2:14-15 - Colossians 2:15 speak of the 'principalities and powers' as a personification of the hostile forces in the world which have conquered men and women and hold them as prisoners of war. There was no hope of successful resistance against them until Christ confronted them. It looked as if they had conquered Him too but on the cross He conquered death itself, along with all other hostile forces. In His victory all who believe in Him have a share. - 1 Corinthians 15:57 -Sins is also viewed as estrangement or alienation from God. In this case, the saving work of Christ includes the reconciliation of sinners to God. The initiative in this reconciling work is taken by God: - 2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 1:20 - 

Those who are separated from God by sin are also estranged from one another. Accordingly, the work of Christ that reconciles sinners to God also brings them together as human beings. Hostile divisions of humanity have peace with one another through Him. Saint/Apostle Paul celebrated the way in which the work of Christ overcame the mutual estrangement of Jews and Gentiles. - Ephesians 2:14 -

To brings a person into right relationship with God requires the initial change of character, attitude and behavior, that is, conversion of heart. True conversion of heart involves turning away from evil deeds and false worship and turning toward serving and worship God in spirit and true. Only by true conversion of heart makes a person's entrance into a new genuine relationship with God. Closely related to conversion are repentance. In a general sense, repentance means a change of mind, or a feeling of remorse or regret from past sin. But true repentance is a turning away from sin, disobedience, rebellion and turning back to God. True repentance leads to a fundamental change in a person's relationship to God.

Sin involves the denial of the living God from whom human beings draw their life and existence; the consequence of this revolt is 'death' and the torment of 'hell.' Death is the ultimate penalty imposed by God for sin. Sin is a real and positive evil. Sin is more than unwise, inexpedient, calamitous behavior that produces sorrow and distress. In another word, it is rebellion against God's commandments. Sin is thus the faithless rebellion of the creatures against the just authority of his/her Creator. For this reason, breaking God's commandments at any point involves transgression at every point. Sin is actually a contradiction to the holiness of God, whose image mankind bears. That is why you must not let sin reign in your mortal bodies or command your obedience to bodily  passions, why you must not let any part of your body turn into an unholy weapon fighting on the side of sin; you should, instead, offer yourselves to God, and consider yourselves dead men brought back to life; you should make every part of your body into a weapon fighting on the side of God; and then sin will no longer dominate your life, since you are living by grace and not by law.

Love, Joy, Peace, Mercy, Forgiveness, Compassion, Courage, and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit are characteristics of God. All these words are used frequently of God in the Old Testament and the New Testament. God always shows love, mercy, peace, forgiveness, compassion, joy and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit by actively helping those who are miserable due to circumstances beyond their control. Thus, it is an attribute of both God and the good human being. Sin deserves divine punishment because it is a violation of God's command and Holy character. 

"Let me put it like this: if you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is totally against such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are so opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions. If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, and bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

What the Spirits brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to the Lord Jesus Christ unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires. Since the Holy Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious." - Galatians 5:16-26 - 

In reality, and the truth is; God initiates contacts with humans and forgives sins through the death of Jesus Christ [God only begotten Son] God's Love, Mercy, Forgiveness, Compassion, Joy and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit are variously described as justification, salvation and reconciliation. As a gift to be practiced and exercised now and as a sign of the future consumption of the new creation which God begun in Christ Jesus, a fulfilment of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. Because all the fruits of the Holy Spirit does not originate in the human heart. It is not human possibility, it is a divine 'Gift.' It is the Lord Jesus Christ who now lives in the believer, therefore, the believer must practices and actualizes all these fruits of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Free your minds, then, of encumbrances; control them, and put your trust in nothing but the grace that will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Do not behave in the way that you liked to before you learnt the truth; make a habit of obedience: be holy in all you do, since it is the Holy One who has called you, and scripture says: Be holy, for I am holy. - 1 Peter 1:13-16 - 

I wanted you to know how people ought to behave in God's family - that is, in the Church of the living God, which upholds the truth and keeps it safe. Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is very deep indeed: He was made visible in the flesh, attested by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the pagans, believed in by the world, taken up in glory. - 1 Timothy 3:15-16 - Hence, Christ's resurrection was a necessary condition for the forgiveness of man's sins. To be  forgiven is to be identified with Christ in His crucifixion and resurrection.

The Holy Spirit is the One who binds Christ Jesus to all peoples so that they receive grace, love, forgiveness, and newness of life as well as the spiritual gifts. "Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, through all and within all. Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted. It was said that He would: When he ascended to the height, he captured prisoners, he gave gifts to men. - Ephesians 4:3-8 -

The theme of grace is especially prominent in the epistles of Saint/Apostle Paul. He sets grace radically over against law and works of the law. Saint /Apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear that salvation is not something that can be earned or merited; it can be received only as a gift of grace. Grace, however, must be accompanied by faith, hope and love.

In short, there are three things that last: Faith, Hope and Love; and the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13 -

Christ resurrection was the proof and it was related in a special way to His forgiveness. Christ's resurrection was an act by which God wiped out the false charges against Him; it was God's declaration of the perfect righteousness of His Son, the Second Adam, and of His acceptance of Christ's sacrifice. Now if Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless: indeed, we are shown up as witnesses who have committed perjury before God, because we swore in evidence before God that he had raised Christ to life. For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins. And what is more serious, all who have died in Christ have perished. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of all people. 

But Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet. _Though when it is said that everything is subjected, this clearly cannot include the One who subjected everything to him. And when everything is subjected to him, the Son himself will be subject in his turn to the One who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all. - 1 Corinthians 15:12-28 - 

For the Father, who is the source of life, has made the Son the source of life; and, because he is the Son of Man, has appointed him supreme judge. - John 5:26-27

When it came to judging the world, at the end of time, that is: by separating the sheep and the goats, holding the scales of virtue and vice in each soul, that privilege and authority was His because He suffered and redeemed mankind as "the Son of Man." Because the Lord Jesus Christ was obedient unto death, His Father exalted Him as Judge. Knowing what was in man, as "the Son of Man" He could best judge man and woman.

Man / Woman, who is finite, owes an infinite debt. But how can a man or woman who owes a million pay the debt with a cent? How can the human atone to the divine? How can justice and mercy be reconciled?

If satisfaction is ever to be made for the fall of man/woman, the finite and the infinite, the human and the divine. God and man must in some way be linked together. It would not do good for God alone to come down and suffer as God alone, for then He would not have anything in common with man; the sin was not God's, but man's. It would not do good for man alone to suffer or atone, for the merit of his/her sufferings would be only finite. And if the satisfaction were to be complete, two conditions would have to be fulfilled: First, man would have to be man to act as man and to atone. Man and woman would have to be God in order that his and her sufferings should have an infinite value.

But in order that the finite and the infinite should not be acting as two distinct personalities, and in order that infinite merit should result from man's suffering, God and man in some way would have to become one, or in other words, there would have to be a God-man.

"Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice." Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "upright heart" as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God. - C C C # 30, Psalms 105:3 -

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. - Saint Augustine of Hippo -

We (all human beings) are created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are so called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of "converging and convincing arguments" which allows us to attain certainty about the truth.

These "ways" of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world, and the human person. - C C C # 31 -

The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe.

As Apostle/Saint Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. - Romans 1:19-20; Acts 14:15-17, 17:27-28; Wisdom 13:1-9 - C C C # 32 -

The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man/woman is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he or she find the truth and happiness; he never stops searching for: Since the truth He came to bring to this earth was reserved for those who accepted His Divinity, and was not something to tickle ears, He never used "The Son of Man" as the source of that truth. The truth He brought was Divine truth, final and absolute. Hence, He avoided using the term "Son of Man" in relation to His Divine nature, which was one with the Father.

In truth I know him and obey his word. - John 8:55 - I am the truth. - John 14:16 - 

But when it came to judging the world, at the end of time, by separating the sheep and the goats, holding the scales of virtue and vice in each soul, that privilege and authority was His because He suffered and redeemed mankind as "the Son of Man." Because He was obedient unto death, His Father exalted Him as Judge. Knowing what was in man, as "the Son of Man" He could best judge man.

As the Father has life giving power in himself, so has the Son, by the Father's gift. As Son of Man, he has also been given the right to pass judgment. "Because he is the Son of Man, has appointed him supreme judge." - John 5:27 -

Though "the Son of Man" expressed His federation with humanity, He was very careful to note that He was like man in all things to save sinner. Jesus challenged His hearers to convict Him of sin. But the consequences of sin were all His as "the Son of Man." Hence, the prayer to let the chalice pass; His endurance of hunger and thirst; His agony and bloody sweat; perhaps even His seeming older than He actually was; His condescension to wash the feet of His disciples; His absence of resentment as the swine-owning capitalists ordered Him from their shores; His endurance of false charges of being a wine-bibber, a glutton; His gentleness, which expressed itself in hiding when His enemies would have stoned Him; above all, His endurance of worry, anxiety, fear, pain, mental anguish, fever, hunger, thirst, and agony during the hours of His Passion - all these things were to inspire men to imitate "the Son of Man." Nothing that was human was foreign to Him.

****  Often suffering itself is not the deepest pain. It is essentially more painful not to be able to love people who make us suffer. We have to make ourselves ready to suffer. We fear suffering and flee from it. The unconscious has been loaded, so to say, with rejection of suffering. The other rind which separates the dark layer from the sphere of thought and action, is resistance to suffering. We flee by any means from suffering and personal distress. We are convinced that only the guilty should suffer.

So we are always in search of a scapegoat on whom we can load the painful punishment. We justify ourselves and accuse others in order to escape suffering. Behind all human harshness lies the fear of having to suffer. With every hurt received comes the desire to retaliate. The alternative to an aggressive reaction is swallowing everything by which, however, nothing has been suffered through. It has only been represented and is stored in the subconscious like everything else that is already waiting there for redemption. How many distractions we invent during meditation! They only serve to prevent the confrontation with our darkness, because it is painful.

Redemption takes place only through suffering. Our nature resists suffering. So we always need to strengthen our inner readiness to suffer what life imposes on us. Our readiness to suffer can be compared to a trapdoor. If someone wants to enter through to it to another room, it opens wide with a strong movement. As soon as someone has passed through it begins to close. Before half a minute has gone, it is already firmly closed again. It is similar with our readiness to suffer. In a moment of good will we are only too ready to take up our cross and follow Christ. In this shortest time this readiness disappears quietly and unnoticeably, until we again reject all that means suffering, as we did before. The readiness to follow Christ reduced itself to the pleasant moments.

We ourselves hardly notice it. Active readiness is very important. If we are not ready to suffer, we unconsciously reject nearly everything from the beginning. We don't even notice that we have again suppressed something. This takes place most often in meditation. In the silence we come to face ourselves, and so our unsolved conflicts begin to move in our unconscious. They force themselves into consciousness to be accepted. that is, redeemed. If the active readiness to suffer is lacking at the moment, we do not even become aware of the fact that we again suppress the unredeemed shadow into the unconscious.

With active readiness to suffer our times of meditation become more painful, but also more salvific. What is suffered in love is healed.

Through our willingness to suffer whatever life demands of us we become disciples of Christ. We often feel that we have much to suffer. Saint Paul however is convinced that the sufferings of this present world cannot be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. - Romans 8:18 -

That is why he preached Christ crucified. - 1 Corinthians 1:23 - He wanted to fill up what was still lacking in the sufferings of Christ. - Colossians 1:24 - This union with Christ is deeper than we think. Jesus Christ came into this world to redeem us. He laid the foundation for this in his life and suffering. The redemption is not completed.

Christ wants to continue his work of redemption through human beings. He wants to become human again in us, until we have become "alter Christus", that is, a new Christ on earth. This can be realised only in human beings who open themselves to Christ to such a degree that his grace can flow through them to others. This can happen only in the measure in which we let go of ourselves in order to become wholly permeable. This is a first condition. Another is to become defenceless to such a degree that sin can flow through us and can be accepted by Christ. When the willingness to be open to unredeemed darkness without defending ourselves grows in us then Christ can receive it and redeem it.

Perhaps, these few sentences make clear what a deep union with Christ can be created through suffering of what is unredeemed. Jesus Christ redeemed us by his suffering. He continues to suffer in us, until we are totally redeemed. His deepest pain is not caused by our sin, but by our interior resistance to this process of redemption.

We want to give him our best, we want to become wholly good people for him, but we forget to give him our worst also. He asks us to suffer our sins through him and with him. Anyone who wishes to go this way should strive enduringly to keep his willingness to suffer alive.

We are on earth in order to be redeemed. Sin, the darkness in us, separates us from God and from others. Only when all the darkness in us is dissolved, are we wholly received into the eternal love of God. Only after the dark zone in ourselves has been redeemed through suffering, can we see God. That is the goal of our earthly existence.

A person who has suffered his original sin to the end in love and has followed Christ in this sense has not live in vain on earth. But a person who has evaded this redemptive love during life has to continue the way of redemption after death. That is the Church's teaching on purgatory.

We are on earth in order to allow our own and others' darkness to be received. Love alone dissolves the darkness, When a human being is loved, he and she is more and more enabled to accept his and her darkness, suffer it and allow it to be redeemed. No one goes this way for himself and herself alone, but also for others.

If someone wants to help others in this process, he and she has to radiate much love. Should anyone believe he and she can work for the redemption of his and her fellow human beings without allowing himself and herself to be intensely involved with this redeeming process, deceives himself and herself.

We radiate only what we are. The radiation touches the human being from within, on the level of contemplation, there where redemption takes place. Every work with others, be it pastoral care, charitable or social work, depends for effectiveness more on one's own transformation than on manifold activity.

****  BY REV. FR. FRANZ JALICS  S.J.

-     WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY     - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -

Your generous contribution and support is profoundly cherish. I sincerely pray that: God blessing be upon you, always. Amen! Bank transfer: Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah - Public Bank Berhad account no. 4076577113 - Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.