Blog - September 2022 RSS Feed

I mentioned last week that, even after the Ascension, God remains present with us in at least two ways. The first way was through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The other way God remains with us is through the sacraments.

Jesus is called Emmanuel, God with us. This would suggest that when Jesus ascended into Heaven, God was no longer with us. But this is not the case at all; in at least two ways, God is closer to us now than at any prior point in the history of Creation.

If the cross is the ultimate demonstration of love, Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate triumph of love. While not reducing or diminishing any of the suffering Jesus underwent, the resurrection shows that the love of God is not merely sacrificial, but redemptive.

I suggested last week that one of the best markers of our Christian faith is how well we imitate Christ. And most of us, at least in theory, have no trouble agreeing that we should imitate Christ’s concern for the poor and the outcast, His sense of justice, and His teachings of love. But there is one particular teaching where even His closest disciples balk.