This altar way in the back corner of the Angelicum chapel was a favorite place way back in the day. Thank you Jesus, for all you did and do for us. Happy Easter.
Tag Archives: Resurrection
Shroud of Turin proves the Resurrection. Yep. But you know what Jesus says Abraham says…
Great video on the Shroud. For myself, I was always entirely taken by the shroud. What scientists say in our own day as different even from a couple years ago is amazing. Proof for anyone of good will.
But that’s the catch. If you are malicious. If you are defending your own sinful life, you will simply refuse to believe. No proof can force someone to believe. Jesus says Abraham says this:
- Luke 16:19 There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day: 20. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, 21. And desiring to be fed from the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: and even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22. And it happened that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23. And, lifting up his eyes in hell, when he was in torments, he seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24. And he, crying out, said, Father Abraham, have compassion on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25. And Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus likewise evil things: but now he enjoys comfort, and thou art tormented. 26. And besides all these things, a vast gulf lieth between us and you; so that they who wish to pass hence to you cannot, nor can they pass to us thence. 27. And he said, I beseech thee, therefore, father, to send him to my father’s house: 28. For I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29. Abraham saith to him, They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them. 30. But he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent. 31. And he said to him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.
The universal salvation heretics say that the rich man is not in hell but in purgatory. They go against the parable spoken by the Truth Incarnate wherein trustworthy Abraham explicitly says no one can pass from one side to the other, over the chasm between heaven and hell, ever. Ain’t gonna happen. “Abraham is a liar!” they shriek: “Jesus is a liar!”
The universal salvation heretics say that the rich man is a nice guy, charitable, and should go to heaven. But in saying that, they actually deny the resurrection. Let’s examine that:
- (1) The rich man cries out: “Father Abraham, have compassion on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” The idea is that unless Abraham sends Lazarus to hell for the sake of mercy, Abraham himself along with Lazarus will go to hell for being unmerciful. To deny justice for the sake of a false mercy is in fact a sin. So Abraham rebukes this malicious “Bring ’em all to hell!” plot of the rich man: “Abraham said; ‘Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus likewise evil things: but now he enjoys comfort, and thou art tormented.’ So, the rich man stays in hell and Abraham and Lazarus remain in heaven marveling at how evil the rich man is.
- (2) The rich man cries out: “I beseech thee, therefore, father, to send him to my father’s house: For I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Obviously, the rich man, Dives, is the Herod under whom Jesus lived and died and rose. Rich, feasting sumptuously, dressed in purple, there’s only this one possibility: Herod. Lazarus is, of course, the Lazarus of Martha and Mary fame, the one Jesus raised from the dead and who the henchmen of Herod wanted to kill all over again. The five brothers are who-knows-who? amongst the insane genealogy of Herod’s father. Remember, there is no word for “cousin” in Hebrew. It’s always “brother.” But surely they are a well known, trusted group close to Herod, evil even in the eyes of the rich man in hell. Sending Lazarus to them would mean his instant murder at their hands. But more than this, Lazarus would be committing a sin worthy of hell if he were to disrespect Moses and the prophets by effectively saying that Moses and prophets weren’t good enough. With that sin Lazarus would simply go to hell with Abraham. That’s entirely evil and malicious of the rich man in hell who obviously deserves to be there. Abraham is right to say: “They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them.”
- The rich man in hell cannot stop being malicious and evil and plotting to get everyone in hell. He said again: “Nay, father Abraham; but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent.” He’s again disrespecting Moses and the Prophets, who spoke of the resurrection. So, Abraham rightly responds: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” So, the rich man stays condemned in hell forever, and Abraham and Lazarus remain safely in heaven. I love this.
Here’s how malicious and evil people are in hell: they want to be in hell and they only want everyone to be hell. They don’t want to come out of hell. They want to hate God and themselves and everyone else in hell, forever. That’s what they hotly desire, so to speak.
Is that kind of person going to be convinced by scientific studies and reason concerning the shroud? No. Because they don’t want the truth. Sure, the shroud is absolutely a proof of the resurrection. But it’s not a proof that will be received by those who are malicious and evil. You cannot force someone to believe. We are saved by grace. These proofs are but aids for someone to assent to the faith that God is already crashing down upon them. So, we provide such things, but we must rejoice that God is doing the work of salvation. People can say “no,” and do say “no,” but we can and must be there for them to try to get them to say “yes.”
By the way, those eyes on the shroud, opened up, they remind me of these eyes:
Meanwhile, I am many times a day being dragged through the mysteries of the Two Hearts Rosary as I call it. More to come on that. The currents run deep. The Rosary is amazing for those who pray it.
Let everyone know:
Filed under Jesus
Resurrection: Better than normal, better than wanting God to be dead. Happy Easter.
Happy Easter!
Islam has it that Allah is too holy to love us so much as to come into this world and die for us, the Innocent for the guilty. Better, it is said, to kill Jesus by saying that Jesus didn’t die for us, you know, that He just came down from that cross, saving Himself [?], but not us, so much not us that Muslims are directed in the Qur’an to cut down any Jews or Christians wherever they find them.
Asia also has a long history of killing God and neighbor by “praying,” you know, sitting a certain way, breathing a certain way, staring at one’s belly button in a certain way (talk about self-absorbed), and emptying one’s being of any thought, no room for God or neighbor anytime any where for any reason, effectively killing ’em all. I remember some Catholic religious sisters in upstate New York offering years of courses on how to “pray,” that is, on how not to pray in all these ways, destroying the life of God in those who went to them for such “direction.”
In Europe, we hear of the errors of Russia, their extremely violent capitalism of the state over the proletariat, which they jokingly nickname “communism.” They murder everyone, by the hundreds of millions so as to prove that they murder God. And the philosophers say, “God is dead,” even as they, pretending to have made themselves God, drop into the grave.
In these USA, we go out of our way to kill the image of God in the least of the brethren, abortifacients, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, policies that encourage cartels and kill untold numbers of people with drugs.
In Latin America, there is Pachamama, consort of the sun god, that demon idol used as the excuse to murder hundreds of millions in “sacrifice,” whereby human hearts became the main protein source for untold numbers of centuries, surely proving by such “power” that the murder of God is at hand.
When I was a seminarian attending pontifical universities in Rome it wasn’t any better being subjected to lectures on the meta-historical-resurrection of Jesus, you know, so as to say that God is dead and He stays dead, never rising, just becoming a widespread hysteria whereby we say that Jesus is dead figment of our imaginations – but Hey! – a nice figment at that. But Jesus is dead and He stays dead, they think. I’m guessing all my professors from way back in the day are today all dead.
Instead of all this, Jesus rose from the dead according to the flesh, truly rising from the dead. His glorified body, as they call it, doesn’t mean that He was any less risen from the dead according to the flesh. He even asked for a very dead fish to eat so as to prove to them that He was alive and actually with them in the flesh. Put your fingers in the nail prints, Thomas, and your hand into my side.
Jesus commanded us not to be afraid. We are not to think that Jesus is an abstraction of our imagination somewhere in outer space. Jesus repeatedly called us friends. Forget the nirvana, forget the murder of God and the murder of the members of the Body of Christ. Pray by speaking with Jesus in humble thanksgiving, plainly, as you were created to do, redeemed to do. God has made it easy for us to be one with Him. The “normal” we never knew. And better than normal. Oh happy fault that merited for us so great a Redeemer.
Jesus is risen. Jesus is truly risen. Alleluia.
Let everyone know:
Filed under Jesus
Coronavirus High Holy Days Humor in a real Prison while we’re on lockdown
Pilate in the center, Jesus in light, Barabbas in the dark.
When Pilate asks whom the people want him to release, as was the custom during the High Holy Days, the people shout repeatedly: “We want Barabbas! We want Barabbas!”
Jesus is the Divine Son of the Father, laying down His life for us, the Innocent for the guilty, taking on the punishment each one of us deserves so as to have the right in His own justice to have mercy on us. Hours before, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to His Father: “Abba! Father!”
Jesus, the Divine Son of the Father is passed over in favor of Barabbas, whose name, in full irony, means “Son of the Father.” And so are we all created and now redeemed as children of our gracious Heavenly Father.
Has any of us ever said about anyone anywhere, “Better him than me”?
Meanwhile, the people, all of us, received what we wanted: Barabbas.
And then this is what happened to Jesus before being crucified:
Notice the clever film editing: Jesus, who was at the right hand of the political powers that be, is now on the left hand of the political powers that be.
Humor: So, in prison, two good friends, Father Gordon MacRae and Pornchai Maximilian Moontri, celebrated Palm Sunday Mass with the reading of the Passion. Max took all the parts except Jesus and the Narrator, meaning he also had, for instance, the crowd.
Max, you have to know, is from Thailand, and grew up speaking Thai until 11 years old, when he was effectively stolen away to Maine, being a horrific saga that has turned out well in the end. The point is that he doesn’t have perfect English Pronunciation of Hebrew, which means that… drum roll… wait for it…
At the point where the crowd yells: “We want Barabbas! We want Barabbas!” Max instead reads, entirely innocently: “We want Baber-Ass! We want Baber-Ass!”
Father Gordon said that he somehow contained his laughter. I would have laughed so loudly the guards would have had to show up in force.
This is one of those epic, epic moments in the life of Jesus’ little flock. A story that will surely be told in heaven, hopefully with also a redeemed and saved Barabbas listening.
Meanwhile, on this Friday of Easter week – every day like Easter Day…
Let everyone know:
Filed under Coronavirus, Humor, Spiritual life
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 