The Ascension

Today marks the 40th day since Easter and thus the Christian celebration of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. The Ascension is a critical piece in Christian theology for numerous reasons. It was the pre-requisite for the sending of the Holy Spirit into the world. It was the final glorification of Jesus, who not only returned victorious from his battle with sin and death, but now is enthroned in the Holy City where he is worshipped day and night by the saints and angels in light.

But one of the key ideas associated with the Ascension is that we now have a Mediator who has ascended into the heavens where he lives to make constant intercession for us.

"It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us." (Rom. 8:34) Christ's intercessory work is tied closely to his ascension. Why? I believe because a mediator needs to be able to talk to both sides, both parties. In the context of Faith, Christians have always referred to God as the Other. Some have argued that you can have an Analogia Entis (analogy of being) but many, myself included, have concluded that there is a definitive line drawn between Creator and creature. It was a line that could only be mediated by one who was both Created and uncreated, divine and human, God and man.

Thus, Jesus Christ came in the flesh as the Son of the Virgin. He lived, died, and was raised from the dead in that same flesh. He has now taken our human flesh back to God. That is, the line has been crossed and re-crossed by Jesus. He can now plead our case in the throne room of his Father. He can be touched by our infirmities because he has experienced them and carries the marks of pain in his body. He knows our temptations, our weaknesses, and can plead for us as only one familiar with human strife and suffering can.

That is why St. Paul came to the conclusion "that there is one Mediator between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus." (I Tim. 2:5) God could intercede for us prior to the Incarnation, but how much greater and perfect is the mediation of God and Man united in one Person constantly interceeding before the Father.

That is the beauty of the Ascension. Our human form has access to God Almighty through the manhood of God the Son in eternal proximity to the Father. Further, our needs, our sadness, our joy is truly felt in heaven.

"Alleluia! not as orphans are we left in sorrow now.
Alleluia! he is with us, faith believes nor questions how.
Intercessor, Friend of Sinners, Earth's Redeemer plead for me!
Where the songs of all the sinless, sweep across the crystal sea." William Dix

The Next Ten Years

I was reminded tonight in a coversation that I graduated high school in 2000, nearly ten years ago. Ten years is a substantial amount of time and I have been thinking tonight about how I spent it. I have a fair amount to show for it; two degrees, friends literally around the world, a working knowledge of a number of things I didn't even know existed, moderate fluency in Latin, a performance in a musical, and other things really too numerous too mention.

But when I look at that list, I see a list of things that are largely finished. I may work on a PH.D at some point, but not soon. I don't plan on making many more friends outside the states. And I have no real intention of learning another language. What might the next ten years then hold?

I suppose I might like to get married. But how does one bereft of social skills pull that one off? Would I like to get ordained? Sure. But can I ever overcome my fear of going through with it? I am not sure I can.
If neither of these things happen, it seems that I'm out of big opportunities for the next period of my life. So I would like to set some smaller goals over a smaller time period.

This year I will...
Read 5 of the classics...
Write an essay on Election and Free Will
Learn another Beethoven Sonata
Lose another 20 LBS.

That may seem like a modest list, but it will take me awhile to accomplish it all. Can anyone else think of anything I should do this year?

Five Books I Can't Live Without

In my senior year of college, my Latin Lit. professor posed the question to each of us regarding five books we would have to have if stranded on a desert island.
I don't remember what answer I gave that day, and I am not sure I can even answer it today, though I am going to try.

First on the list would be the Bible. I shouldn't have to explain the reason for this...if it is what it claims to be, and I believe it is, there is not a single more important document in the history of the world. (Note: I would definately have a Bible that included the so-called apocryphal books-http://patrickmadrid.blogspot.com/2009/03/5-myths-about-7-books-catholics.html
this post adequately sums up my thoughts on the matter.

Secondly, I would bring C.S. Lewis's the Great Divorce. While a fictional story on the after-life, there has been no book that I've read on Last Things which was more influential on the way I understand heaven and hell. It also addresses the issues of the will, the elect, the damned, and how they ended up in those categories. You have to love Lewis' cleverness as well. The trip through purgatory is modeled after Dante's Divine Comedy. The Protagonist meets a historic personage on the way, just as in Dante's poem, and the book ends the exact same way. "I awoke and it had all been a dream."

Thirdly, I would want a great example of literature on the island. I can think of nothing more witty, charming, romantic, and insightful than Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The tale of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy is one of the great love stories of all time. But if you will allow yourself to be drawn into the narrative, you will see the tremendous sense of humor of Austen is every bit as good as her ability to tell a love story. The novel also allows us insights into family politics of that epoch. It is certainly a reminder to never be too proud-but not just in the obvious characters. Mrs. Bennett, manages to be too proud and prejudiced, camaflouging it in self-pity and nervous angst.

I would also want a great devotional on our fictitious island. The Imitation of Christ would be a leading candidate, as would the diary of St. Maria Faustina. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress would also have to make this list. But having grown up an Anglican, the liturgy of the Catholic Church, reformed and enshrined in the Book of Common Prayer would be pretty close to indispensable. The prayers literally form your life...not just the outcome of your theological thinking, (the prayers aren't there for proof-texting). But the more and more you pray the Offices, the more and more your life takes on the pattern of confessing sin at the behest of God and responding in praise because "the mighty God has done great things for me." Obviously that is a simplification of the Book of Common Prayer, but it is not a coincedence that when I kneel or, lay down as the case may be, to pray...the first words I utter, almost without failing, are "Lord have mercy upon me." It causes one to live in a continual state of penitence for our miserable failures. And it is only after having cleared the conscience that one can adequately confess the Faith, as found in the three creeds. Testifying to the faith is the call of the Great Commission, the offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, and the Celebration of Holy Communion all train the person to learn to live and holiness and then confess the faith before the world.

I would also have to have a political book of some kind with me. I would want it to have the drama of elections, logical arguing of contested issues, and a section that deals with economic issues. I do not know of such a book, so I would have to settle for something that includes some of these things. Being a libertarian, the Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul would be enticing, but hardly something of epic proportion...it is not a top five book. The Communist Manifest is important, but I disagree with much of its contents, and it is very limited to economic issues. The Republic by Plato would be a leading contender, but there is one other book which has greatly influenced me that I would like to have. The book is called Money, Possessions, and Eternity. It is written by Randy Alcorn and deals biblically with the subjects its title mentions. For all people, but especially Christians, learning how to deal with material wealth is of extreme importance. This is wonderful handbook on how to use your money to your best, and more importanltly, the Kingdom's best interest. It is not so much political, as it is economic and religious.
I would miss having daily access to the web and daily newspapers...but alas! we cannot have it all in this exercise.

These books I suppose could change, but it is not likely soon. What would be your top five and why?

A Striking Admission

"It is the grimmest of ironies that one of the most savage, barbaric acts of evil in history began in one of the most modernized societies of its time, where so many markers of human progress became tools of human depravity: science that can heal used to kill; education that can enlighten used to rationalize away basic moral impulses; the bureaucracy that sustains modern life used as the machinery of mass death -- a ruthless, chillingly efficient system where many were responsible for the killing, but few got actual blood on their hands."
-President Barack Obama
April 23rd 2009

Well said, Mr. President. Perhaps one day you will see that the only difference between the Holocaust in Europe and the Holocaust in the United States is that one of them has ended.

"The bliss that is eternal is only yours when what you most desire is just out of reach."
The idea that joy is in the wanting, the desiring of something is not my own. Many people have said this in one way or the other.

Once we have what we desire, we are often left with a sense of loss, with the realization that this was not we wanted all along. But this is not necessarily a bad thing, if the thing desired is good and holy, and ordained of God. All things will eventually perish, and the pain of losing something in the future is part of the deal, the exchange, of having joy now.

But what if you never get the good thing you desire? From experience, I think I can say this statement is at least partially true, or there is a ring to it with which I am sympathetic. But the bliss that I had been feeling for some time, has now dissapeared. I wanted it so badly...or at least the joy of knowing how close I was to it! The fact that I have now taken a couple of steps back from this object...what to say!...I wonder if the torture and anguish of seeing something you really wanted slip away is worse than having had that object and lost it?

Would I have really been happy if I had gotten this object? I don't know. But I know now, knowing that I probably never will have it, has left me restless and genuinely hurt. The joy of the possibility truly was great...and the joy of having may well have been greater (if God willed it to be I have no doubt of this). But now that the exciting anticipation has languished, what was possible bliss, has become the strangest pain; a pain I really did not know I could feel.

Don't know if this makes sense...my personal life does not make a lot of sense at all right now.

Thoughts on Palm Sunday

Many this weekend will remember the Triumphal Entry of our Lord into Jerusalem and the throngs which gathered who had heard about the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

I was thinking about the Old Testament prophecies of this...certianly Zechariah's...Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. (9:9)

But there has been another one that I keep thinking of, which is perhaps not a direct prophecy, but still related. From the 24th Psalm "Lift up your head, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord Strong and Mighty, even the Lord mighty in battle."

As Jesus came through the proverbial gates and doors of the city of Jerusalem, sitting on a donkey, what else could the people have been thinking other than, "who is this King of Glory." Well, some of them knew. They shouted "Hosanna to the Son of David." They knew he was their king.

But things hadn't changed much. Even though they recognized that this was their King coming into them, they did not realize his mightiness in battle would be revealed in his weakest moments. They wanted just as the Hebrews at the beginning wanted, a King who could throw off the oppression of their enemies. The Israelites wanted Saul to ward off the Philistines. They wanted Jesus to cast off the yolk of the Romans.

Who is this King of Glory? The one who would finally liberate us from the tyranny of Rome; the one who would stand toe to toe with Ceasar and that awful governor Pontius Pilate.

But their opinion changed so fast. I suppose it was when they realized that Christ had come to call them to repentance that they no longer desired him as king. This is not what they had envisioned. They didn't want a king who the Roman guard could arrest and crucify.
But in their rejection of the One who became weak in battle...and in our rejection of the One who became weak in battle, the Lord strong and mighty bound and tied our real Foe and destroyed any illusion that there was any King greater than himself.

So this Palm Sunday, let us remember to bow the knee to the King who comes to reclaim this world as his own; to a King who was willing to wear a crown of thorns to save us from the Real Tyrant...the Roaring Lion, Satan.

Reflections on the propers for the fifth Sunday in Lent, Passion Sunday

I would post the entire sermon that I wrote here, but I do not believe that many people read this blog and I do not want to discourage those who do read with too long of a post.
But the propers for this past Sunday are taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews 9:11-15 and the ending of the 8th chapter of John's Gospel.
The basic thrust of Passion Sunday is to prepare us for the events we will now begin commemorating in about a week; the events that would change the course of history and the entire world. Passion means suffering and so this Sunday points us toward the Suffering Servant himself.
The two readings which are appointed teach us different sides of who had to suffer. You see Hebrews makes it very plain that God required as a sacrifice the blood and death of a spotless creature to appease his wrath. And while some animals were perfect, that is unblemished, they were all touched by the Fall. Animal sacrifices were therefore limited in their atoning capabilities. So what then are we to do? If everything is affected by sin but we need a sacrifice of blood and death which is free from sin, where are we to look?
Enter Jesus of Nazareth. The Incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the taking to his divinity a human nature and fusing the two natures to form one Person, allowed for flesh and blood untainted by the Fall to be offered. John 8 is perhaps one of the greatest texts on the divinity of Jesus Christ. The reason it is read on this Sunday is to remind Christians that it took the God-Man to stand in the gap for us. There was no other conceivable possibility. Only God was pure enough to die for man, but before the Incarnation, God had no body.

With the purity of God influencing the human nature of Christ we now had a perfect sacrificial candidate, and he was a willing victim. It was hard, no doubt, "nevertheless, not my will by thy will be done." The answer to Christ's famous prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, is simply put, "no". The will of the Father was for his Son to die, because there was no other way possible for salvation to come into the world.

As we approach Holy Week, keep in mind the nature of the sacrifice that was made for you. Understand it was all that could be done, but that it was done perfectly, "to purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God." And as Christ in humility has obeyed his Father, so too should we humbly obey him, who has by his death given us the ability to do so.