More Into the Reality of the Unseen

On the Reality of the Unseen, second part

Exactly How Do I Profess That I Am 

A Believer In God?

Christ’s offer of love, as it has successfully redeemed the world and has saved souls, yet was and continually is, and will be spurned, refused, and mocked by a great many in the world unto their own harm and perdition.

In like manner, do-gooders in the world will meet welcome from some but spurning, refusal, and mocking by other great many of the world.

But at the end of the day, it matters not that the good deed is spurned, refused, and mocked by some for as long as the good deed is done.  God by his Divine Mystery infinitely values whatever will contribute to the Mystical Body of Christ, an event where what is an “unseen” good deed contributes to the magnificent but also mostly “unseen” reality entity. 

God stalls his final judgment till Christ’s Second Coming when his definitive divine rectitude shall both avenge the evils in the world, and reward people of true and steadfast faith.

Meantime, he lets the Fig Tree have its precarious chances..

He lets the ‘thief’s’ break in into the unprepared household be un-anticipated ‘waiting act’ up till the dark of the night...

He also lets both the wheat and the weeds continue to grow along side each other; lest the wheat gets destroyed with the weeds per a premature pulling out or destruction of the ‘weeds’ of the earth.

Jesus said not to fear anyone who can kill our body but can not kill our spirit.  

In the same vein Paul said nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, from our secure embrace and care of God notwithstanding whatever happened to our body.    

Then, Jesus also stated, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but suffer the loss of his soul?”

The bottom-line is this: nothing should and could supremely annoy us, anger us, or bother us.  For whatever done to us could at the most hurt our body but could not stop us in our most positive and even peaceful and joyful union with God.  That we are sacrificing for God is our most fruitful and fulfilling activity as human creatures.  Granted that our earthly life could be messed up bad, even for our whole lifetime; nevertheless for such a sacrificial living Jesus promises us a greater trade-off, ie. assured us of great reward in the real eternal life.

What should rather concern us as far as harm and injury that the world can and will inflict upon us are our falling victim to the allurements and enticements of the world, which by their natural power over our weak human flesh can detrimentally and fatally endanger and kill our souls.

What should motivate us about living are again not the visible or seen realities of the world.  Rather we are to be as much as we could wish and ask of God to be motivated by the “unseen” realities, the truly vast, wide, and un-circumscribable horizon and vertex of the universe or of creation.

How unwise and confined would be our reach and outreach if we are limited to only what we can see and feel and experience.  Our smallness will cramp the depth and the height of both knowledge, wonders, and marvels that are supposed to be open to and welcoming us for our exploring and ‘destinating’.

Ultimately, that is why faith offers us our real bountiful and genuine human and spiritual option.  Let the God of Creation speak to us and reveal to us of the infinite-ness of his actions.

Specifically, whereas the Church points to Christ’s resurrection being  the main event, upon which the Church and the Faith of the people bank on the dogmatic declaring of the un-assailability of the Faith, which  Jesus preached, and of the Church, which he founded.  Yet the Lord Jesus Christ was not at all too eager to make grand exhibit of his Divine Rising from the death after evil people put him to death.  Jesus did appear soon enough to Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the rest of the Apostles & disciples, including the famed pair of travelers to Emaus.  And Jesus did his appearing to them, specifically to the Apostles in the Upper Room only after a few days, then again the following week perhaps, sort of,  for the sake of the “doubting Thomas”.  Surely nothing could have prevented him from showing himself right away and much more publicly to his dismayed ‘followers’ if at least to give them, like a father, the tender reprimanding words: “Didn’t I tell you I will rise again in 3 days?”  Indeed, he did not.... right away, and did not ...... so very publicly, as it were, to larger assembly of his followers    Nevertheless, indeed, we are to mark the fact that personally, and as it were emotionally it did not matter to Jesus to immediately want to feel to have to vindicate the abuse his abusers subjected him to by, upon his resurrection, supposedly displaying and demonstrating upon them – his abusers – how superiorly their victimizing of him did not stop his supra-human rising from the death.  Jesus did not need to right away avenge on them his victory over their abuses, their murdering of him, and their immeasurable deed of injustice against him. 

Rather, didn’t this seem to tell us Christ’s real focus, and Christ’s real aim that believers do believe he rose from death BECAUSE HE SAID SO beforehand, and BECAUSE his followers, who had not seen him but HEARD THE FEW WHO HAD SEEN HIM TESTIFIED TO THE BELIEF, AND BELIEVED.  The response of his kindly followers mattered most to the Lord than whatever fearful response his persecutors, accusers, and victimizers might unravel upon his would-be confronting them with his un-perceived and un-believed claim for Divinity and Awesome Powerfulness. 

Indeed, by way of an example of a creed of our faith, theologically, it is with respect to the would-be believers that the resurrection of Christ is to be seen as the justification of the salvation preached, promised, and delivered by himself the Messiah.  Incarnationally,, ie. in terrestially metaphysical, logical & epistemological terms it would not have completely ‘demonstrated’ the saving act of and by Christ before men unless Jesus did rise and show himself to have risen from death.  It would not be a completed act unless the rising from death & the vision of his having risen is realized as one progressive act.  Hence, the importance of Christ’s rising and proof-positive vision of his risen life   (Caveat   But this is not to say Christ’s resurrection has to be proved, ie. logically demonstrated to be so before men or before some sort of historical commission, in order for the Church to be able to teach or convince mankind of the salvation in Christ.)  In terms of man’s salvation by Christ and in Christ, all that is necessary to be true is  that Christ the Son of God, was born of woman, lived as a man, preached of man’s salvation and his Messiahship, suffered & died on the cross, and rose from the dead.  All that is required is that it be the truth of God, the truth which God says so to be true And this truth of salvation in Christ is essentially the truth only because God said it so.  Revelation, alone, is the basis of the truth or of all fundamental events of salvation.  For God alone is the truth, and the basis of truth.  With regard to truth, thus, God alone is trustworthy.  God alone is free from perjury.    

Thus, I repeat what my particular statement above with respect to this supreme example of God’s active intervention in this one event of Christ’s resurrection : “This is not to say Christ’s resurrection has to be proved, ie. logically demonstrated to be so before men or before some sort of historical commission, in order for the Church to be able to teach or convince mankind of the salvation in Christ.”  For the Church’s dogma of Christ’s resurrection is a dogma of faith ; it is not a human declaration by reason.  It was enough that Christ said he was to rise from death, and that he did appear to ‘some’, or has shown very positive sign he had done so.  Any, as it were, big circus displaying or formalistic assembly demonstrating of his immediate rising by Christ was/is not fundamental; like it is not fundamental that God necessarily prove himself to us at every whimsical human demand to satisfy our fleshy insecurity.  But the universal preaching of his resurrection, and of the validity of any serious act of faith is fundamental as part and parcel in the preaching of salvation in God.

All the above brings us to the teaching of or about faith.  The belief in Christ’s resurrection, or for that matter in the reality of God’s moment to moment love of man in whatever circumstances he may be, is a gift of faith from God by the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.  The Christians’ concern about the resurrection of Christ, and for that matter about all his other teachings are that they exercise an act of faith: an act of accepting the truth of resurrection or of the doctrines of salvation or God’s life favors amidst unfavorable circumstances  because God revealed it to us as dispensed by the power of the Holy Spirit through words and the sacraments as administered by Christ’s Apostles.

Let us recall again, the words of Jesus to the unbelieving Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen; and have believed ”  As regards human relating with God, the Lord puts a high premium on believing.  

In contrast the world puts the accent upon seeing, or touching, or facing up to the real thing.  No wonder many a man rushed  their aging process.  They could not wait.  They want instant gratification in everything.  And so they ended up forcing the issue, even twisting some facts, so they could right away get their premature rewards and untimely finishes.  How often do we see these people winding up in trouble with the law on account they forced their way to the obtaining of their heart’s desire.  

The Lord ever unfolds to us how many times something good happens to them who waited.  It is not a cliche why it is often alluded the golden years of experience when applauding some people who have truly deserved having arrived in their lives.  

We are not here, however, merely making considerations about wise living, or exercises in prudence and discipline.  For these are really praiseworthy virtues but are virtues extolling mere human  efforts & diligence, or crediting mere human works.

But as we deal with faith, we are dealing with a human condition or state that man gets to have the faith because of grace. We are talking about the gift of faith.  It is God’s love for man which enables man to love him back; but never the other way around.  God is always the initiator in calling man back to himself, and in establishing a loving relation with man.  With God’s loving grace, man just needs to respond with the very means God provides him: grace.  Thus, we are dealing here with a virtue that is arrived at not by sheer power of the will,  mind, and body; but by an opportune taking advantage of the graciousness of God whose Spirit itself affords us to collaborate with the Spirit in loving  back the God who is after us.

The only clear cut major events promised and predicted by the Lord speaking of the vindication of Divine and universal justice are the personal judgment event of every after death experience, and the Final Judgment at the End-Times when Jesus Christ comes the last time around to this mere physical world to introduce the New Earth and the New Heaven and the crowning of the elect in God’s glorious ultimate Divine Manifestation as God and Master of the Universe and as the central and all encompassing Force and Power as well as Fulfillment of all that responded to his Commandment of unity or love, ie universal and Kingdom-wise Peace with God.