Easter

Well, Reader-land, I have been thinking.  I know, I know, it’s dangerous but I blame the Inturwubs.  And my family for texting on good Friday when I was off my phone.

But, here’s why. 

I can’t, in good consciousness of mind, think that this life is it.  If it is I got shafted with ALS.  There are all kinds of contradictions in the world too, like why is murder wrong if this is all it is?  What about theft?  Etc.  None of that matters if this is all there is because then we would have no different values than animals, and the law of the jungle works for them, we aren’t trying to get votes for female gorillas, are we?  No.  It also would mean I get mine no matter what.  But there are all kinds of laws everywhere that say we can’t do that.  It’s just a contradiction in terms, and that means it ain’t right.

I can’t, in soundness of mind, think that anything but Catholicism is True, then, if this life isn’t all there is.  Here’s a guy who says he’s God, who checks all the boxes of fulfillment for his own religion, says He’s going to build a church, then gets killed by the absolute most brutal torture devised by man, as a high criminal, but then his followers go out and share his message to everywhere.  And die for believing in it.  Many times over.

That guy, he’s either lying, he’s crazy, or what he said was true.  If what he said was true then I have a duty to believe him, not pick and choose which saying of his was good or sounded nice.  He said he was God, if he’s lying or crazy why the absolute EFF should I love my neighbor?  I want to do the Opposite of what he’s teaching, if he’s crazy or lying!  You see the logic there?  It isn’t hard.  The guy taught these things as if humans were equal, and again if it’s not true, then the whole thing goes out the window.

Why Catholicism?  Because he started it.  Everything else was founded by men.  All Christian denominations broke from the original.  Sorry Joel Osteen, you’re watering down the truth.  Not a sermon, just a thought.

There are also little signs all around.  The fact that even atheist scientists agree that there are things in the medical field that can’t be explained by science, like miraculous cures, or a dazzling sun, etc.  The shroud of Turin, supposedly debunked by an unreliable test that now is being repeatedly questioned.  The complexity of the human body, the fact that we can Reason and that sets us apart from the animals.  Light.  Did you guys see the picture of the black hole?  Yeah, that should blow your mind, and how the hell did all the cosmos happen, and just by chance we are here, reasoning.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo

So yeah, I believe.  Because of everything leading up to what Jesus said and did explained what he said and did.  As Hahn says, the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New, and the New is explained by the old.  The things Jesus said and did gave meaning to the reason why we are different than animals and explained that we have intrinsic value, and explains why we have all these rules.

At 36 I can say this with confidence because I have taken the time to learn and observe and think.   It’s the reason why I teach my kids the faith, because if it is true, I have to, otherwise I am lying to my kids.  We force them to learn the basics of reading or math, how can you then say that you shouldn’t teach them the basics of something that is true??  If he wasn’t lying, or crazy, then it was true and I have to share the truth.  If he was lying or crazy then none of this matters.

The thing is, they can’t all be true.

On Easter, we celebrate the event beyond time and space, when Jesus instituted the priesthood, the Eucharist, and suffered and died as the Lamb of God, and then rose from the dead, to reconcile humanity and the broken world back to God.  He broke the bonds of death and showed that indeed there is something else beyond this world and giving us all the tools and teaching necessary to reach it.  Not just oblivion, but a glorious something.  Because if He is alive then we can live with Him, and that is a comforting thought.  I have ALS, and if in that glorious something I get to hang out with Jesus and not have a twisted, broken body, then that is a glorious something worth striving for, that makes all the laws and signs and stuff make a little more sense and a lot less contradictory.

Nearly two thousand years of this teaching and it still goes on, because it was founded by Jesus and not by dudes.  As evidenced by the dudes who are massively screwing up and doing evil things in affront to what they profess to believe, the teaching hasn’t changed.  (By the way, if this is all there is, why is what those evil men did wrong?  Why would it be wrong?)

I know a lot of you might read this and say Naw, brah, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say it.   If you want to talk about it, debate about it, by all means, I am here.  I’m here to talk, as the Guy told me to.  But this is what Easter is.

This is the feast of Victory!  Alleluia!!!