May 7 - 3rd Week of Easter - Tuesday

+ Our readings today are exceedingly powerful. In the first reading we read the account of the stoning to death of Stephen. And why were they stoning him, for the same reason basically that they were responsible for the murder of Jesus: when truth comes face to face with unflinching lies then the liar must kill, in some way, shape of form, the truth bearer. It’s classic – and it did not begin with Jesus – all the way back to the snake in the Garden, Cain and Abel, and many of the prophets.

A revolutionary idea here is that maybe truth and lies can exist at the same time, if only for the opposite to happen, for the truth to truly take root and transform the lies, the deceptions, the evil into something bright, light and sublime.

Isn’t this exactly what happen on the cross: life and death met there, darkness and light met there, lies and truth met there, hatred and compassion met there: and by accepting this negativity into himself Jesus once and for all time transformed them into some good, useful and salvific.

Can you grasp this: JESUS BECAME SIN IN ORDER TO CONQUER IT ONCE AND FOR ALL TIME? And at that moment: we were all “saved” if you will, we were forgiven (Jesus’ word), reconciled, (Paul’s word!)

This is huge. It’s done! We are already living in the redeemed world of love and grace, just like the rest of creation: all of it: most especially in birds, animals, fish, flowers, sunsets and the rest.

The only problem, and it is a problem, is that very many of us truly bury this treasure, this pearl of great price, the prized possession deep in our souls – lock the door – and then go off on our merry way to live our own lives, leaving God securely locked in our own inner resources.

And all of our thinking, reasoning, motivations, words and actions are tainted, distorted and for the most part simply backwards and upside down – especially the bit where we think we know who we are and what’s really going on: most of us are actually clueless.

For example, in the gospel passage the teachers of Israel think it was Moses who provided the manna from heaven, but Jesus says NO, it was my father – and if you can’t understand that, then you don’t understand God, nor me – who comes from God to make things clear. You have put an armed guard and the door of your own resource to God and others safely outside you heart and soul.

But there is a way to bore through the door of that inner temple: and that is to freely and consciously open our hearts to the reality of the Presence of the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit) that is always there, it is not only part of our very consciousness, it IS our consciousness – the consciousness we share with all creation. The only difference with us is that as human beings we are aware that we can know things, we are aware of awareness, we know God IS and LOVE is all there is. And that, my brothers and sisters, is what makes us human, makes us divine, and makes us cocreators with God of an enormously vibrant, fun and eternally evolving universe!

Amen. Alleluia!