Of Memory, Ancestors and the Liberation of the Land.

My primal sin: I take things for granted. 

What if my grandfather had not decided to be a Christian, or had not invested in my Dad’s formal education? What if my Dad had not valued education, and had not trained me to the university level? Surely, I could still have made it, but it would have been at a greater toil and in a lengthier time. 

Only God knows what important choices my Great-grandfather had taken to get me here, good or bad. 

Do I think at all? Am I grateful for these or do I take things for granted? And what choices will I make for my children to keep up this progress? This is the capital sin: Idagunla, aibikita. 

Memory, the bane of our society. We lack history, we treat death as another ‘spanner loss’, we ignore the lives of our ancestors, that is why wise elders are lacking, why dynamic leaders are short and why we have mediocre as followers. Don’t look too far: Mea culpa. 

In the scripture, upon satisfying the first goal to freedom, which is morality, Christ told the rich young man to apply the second step: ‘letting-go. He said: ‘Go, sell all what you have and give the money to the poor’. The virtue of a leader who desires freedom is about letting go. ‘Agba maa n gba ni’.

But, there was another proposal which came into play after ‘letting-go’; Christ said: ‘Then, follow Me’. This following is the stage of memory. ‘Follow me’ means, keep me in focus. It is the arrival at ‘Eldership’, the mystical age. The 24 elders described in the book of Revelations, who were always by the throne of the Lord, are those who have mastered this science of memory.

It is saddening that we practice faiths that tend to kill memory. How shall there then be growth? Even Christ cannot affect much without memory. A society whose followers are obedient and grateful, whose leaders let go, and whose elders practice memory and teach others its method will move at light speed. After morality and letting go, the next big qualitative virtue is memory. 

Look at yonder, how do they get on? They lack faith in God, they are immoral, they are aggressively secular and atheistic, but they value history, they have a reading and writing culture, they think and reminiscence, they do not forget, and they believe in and leave legacies for posterity.

The land cannot gain freedom if its inhabitants do not master the art of the memory of those which constitute the land: they are called ‘Alaales’ in Yorubaland.  ‘Alaales’ constitute our dead, buried but living ancestors. And the more that the memories of these ancestors are purified by centring them on Christ, the more liberated the land would truly become. This is truth, and it is because we believe this in a shallow way, or because we do not believe this at all, that evil still reigns supreme in the land.

Regarding the very matters of the afterlife, Christ said: ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me’. When we remember anyone, who dies in Christ - the least of the brethren-, we give Christ greater means of conquering the land. A damning belief is that which teaches us to forget the dead. A society or household that fails to constantly remember its dead is itself dead!

A soul in love cannot stand still. Movement is love, love happens for freedom and peace. When we remember our loved ones, we help them quite alright, but we benefit a lot more from them. We gain vision, progress and love. Blessed are those who mourn out of love, for they shall be comforted.

All Souls Day tend to portend sorrow, and the concept of Purgatory has a load of bad press, so much that we think of it little less than anathema. We look at our beloved dead as being helpless, and having no more contact whatsoever with our lives here on earth, and we spare little thoughts for them, if at all, only on All Souls Day. A considerable number of Christian faiths would not even do this at all. 

But, do we really need to be sad for our departed brethren? Perhaps yes, because they are no more around with us physically, but on the contrary, they feel a greater sorrow for us, because we are more to be pitied.  Any positive pain we feel at their remembrance is for our good. Sorrow helps the soul. Work, pain, labour, sorrow; these become positive over there. 

Christ’s reply to the man who wondered whether only a few people would be saved was astounding. Rather than looking outward, Christ told him to look inward. He told him that, rather than him to be concerned about the numbers of those who would make it, he should mind his own business and try his hardest to be saved, for many would try and would not succeed.

The opus magnum of ensuring the salvation of our beloved ancestors and of our posterity, is our own efforts at conversion and salvation. This conversion involves a radical approach of looking at reality, of unlearning and relearning of letting go and not judging. To save ourselves and our loved ones, we must judge not so that we are not judged; we must be merciful to all so that He would be merciful to us.

When we regard pains, labours, works, etc as evil, we should have a rethink. Think how, for instance, the Little Flower would want to spend her heaven doing good on earth. Or, what if we consider how the Blessed Virgin is still in labour of childbirth. Or, how St Paul would desire to be condemned on behalf of his Jewish brethren. Are these people stupid, or are we ignorant? 

Only when we learn to love and not hate, do we know the reason why. It is He who has not come to condemn, but who has come to save that which is lost, who causes this experience. What is purgatory, for those who live the beatitudes? Hell melts away at the sight of the love of one who has mastered the art of abasing and abounding.

It is because bad people seem to believe more in devils, than good people trust in God, that is why it seems easier for humanity to destroy than to build. But evil is a lie and lie would not survive because it does not exist, even if it appears so, that appearance does not last.

It is the devil’s motive to make us – for whatever reasons- forget the dead who have hold on the land. Freedom is all about the liberation of the land. Who owns the land? Who are these ancestors, the true ‘Alaales’? They are the whole human race who are departed, but this gets disintegrated and narrowed down, the more we enter individual cultures and languages, and they are powerful according to the passion which they initially displayed in life, good or bad.

The eternal legacy a man can achieve is the true acquisition of the land, and one can only acquire this land when it is truly liberated. But it is only through one man, that the land can be truly liberated and won, only He who has opened the seal: The Christ. Our Saviour!

Christ has won the land for us. How? When we realise that man goes back to dust; that, a man in Christ has become ‘Oro’ (word), and that this ‘Oro’ has become ‘Ile’ (land) (‘The Word became flesh…’; ‘Thou art dust…’); and that, it is through this ‘Oro’ that ‘Ile’ gains its freedom and liberation. 

Without destroying its concept, the time immemorial dynamics of ‘Alaale’ has taken a radical different dimension with the introduction of Christ. The continual disintegration of the land, through languages and cultures, has – and is being- reversed into a unifying integration of the land through the language of love and the culture of God by the factor of Christ. Thus, the real question of who owns the land has been redefined.

Christ’s ultimate legacy is: ‘Do this in memory of Me’. The more that all are brought into the mystery of the Eucharist, the more that this cult of memory would be continual and widespread. We shall continue to succumb to the devil’s illusions without the cultivation of this memory in Christ. The verb of his great power over the earth is this ‘memory’ of the Church through which the land is liberated.

Our lives, knowingly or unknowingly, are truly a battle for the land, and it is through letting go and memory that we gain the wisdom of conquest. We are the word, but we are also the world. It is up to us to decide if we would perpetuate this concept and make it a reality in Christ and in Mary, or not. The dead are alive. More so, those who are dead in Christ are the living ones. They keep liberating the land, they are awaiting the perpetuation of His true legacy!

When He is come He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: Of sin, because they believe not on Him; of righteousness because He goes to His Father, and we see Him no more; Of judgement because the prince of this world is already judged - Jn16:8-11.

The real fact of the many languages spoken during Pentecost is not for the novelty of ‘speaking in tongues’, but deeply speaking, it is that of a deep and divine understanding of the respective cultures of the languages spoken, which had been hitherto foreign to the disciples, because these needed to be entered into before the land can be conquered and brought into unity through Christ, in Christ, with Christ and for Christ.

Language is deeply engrained in culture and culture is deeply engrained in language, and without this Inculturation by the local word of God, or that of circumscribing the culture by a foreign word of God, the land cannot be liberated. The source of this word is the Eucharist and the scripture.

Asides the natural love fostered within the family, there is also this tribal and national language which is manifested in culture and tradition, and which only he who is born, bred and dies in the land can be adept at. This language, ultimately, is the Word of God, which is love and which every one of us shall become. The divine Logos.

This Logos must cut through the waft and weft of the illusions of every culture, it must consume every fake word and lies, exist, causing the entire land of humanity to be unified and liberated. The more that this Word is active, the more that our lands are unified and liberated, and the more that there shall be prosperity, for, the liberation of the land has a very close tie with the liberation of its people.

Even though, the land ultimately is -and shall be- one, and everything shall operate within its unifying essence, but what operates more in the heart of many now is the diversity of the land, that is why there are varied nations, cultures and languages, and it is within this imperfect manner that Christ wishes to act to create a true unifying nation of heaven, culture of God and language of love.

It is a form of laziness to seek to circumscribe inculturation by not labouring with Christ by engaging to refine the culture and language of the land through the mastery of memory. This sloth eventually creates more toil and lingers one’s freedom.

No matter our cries to Him for liberation, within this time and space, Christ would tell us:

‘Wait, I am busy with Israel and Palestine’.

And when we tell Him:

‘but won’t you come to Nigeria?’, He shall reply:

‘You have Tansi and all the numerous dead in my name to deliver your land’.

And we shall reply:

‘Tansi, we do not really know, the others: they are not saints, they are imperfect’, and they are not you.

And we shall rattle the faults and imperfections of our deceased to Him; and He shall reply:

‘Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me. Remember them, thus you remember Me, for they are in me. Ibi ori da ‘ni si l’aa gbe.  I rule from Israel, but I am present everywhere through my vicarages. Even Peter is not here in Israel, he is manning My site in Rome. My mother also is not here, she is in Ephesus, so also is my beloved disciple, John.

We avoid memory because we dread idolatry, but the fact is, Christ takes glory in the glorification of His members who have died and have been perfected in Him. What is sin and imperfection in the presence of love? When we believe that the dead in Christ are not saved, we are gradually commencing the process of our own condemnation.

The real war is on and has been won at the same time. The actual war is inside us and in our capacity to see and realize this work in love. Liberation of the land can only take effect through the memory of our ancestors, and our most liberating ancestors are those who have died in Christ. He who has mastered the utility of memory wins. On the other hand, evil thrives when we do not cultivate memory.

If Christ had not envisioned the attainment of the unity and universality of the church, though a loving and authentic confrontation with the world’s culture, respecting its autonomy while refining and purifying its assumptions, the disciples would probably have spoken only Hebrew on Pentecost.

Cultural changes are tough and challenging. Every ‘Alaale’ loathes evolution; but without evolution, revolution takes charge, and this is often worse, and it steals the land off its rightful labourers.

Even with the glorious event at Pentecost, it took persecutions to move the apostles from their comfort zones. Pentecost thrusted the Apostles out into an encounter with cultures that was not theirs. They spoke the gentiles’ languages, they knew, by grace, the waft and weft of dwelling in the respective lands.

That which was gained by the Apostles through divine grace is what we have been given naturally by our language. They know the power of using the Word to win the land. That was why the essence of memory through the Eucharistic dynamics was paramount in the early times.

We need to wake up, and wake up the dead in Christ through memory. They have the natural ability to speak our languages, in fact, they have become our languages, and that is a plus for our land. They are the real words, but they are powerless without us bringing about their memory.

Christ Himself would be powerless without us exercising His memory. But this, the Holy Spirit shall not permit. He still rules more from Jerusalem than in any other place because it was from there that He gave His life, He is still busy in Palestine because it was from there He came to earth, and He shall conquer in the Middle East, and when He does, He shall rule the world, but then He shall have to ask us, how have you assisted me to conquer the land that destiny has placed you?

Some ancestors have won over their traditions, cultures to truth or to falsehood. For instance, Latin has so much been conquered that it has become the language of the church, and how the devil trembles when it is spoken. Aramaic and Hebrew are also deep. Power also dwell in Arabic, Hindu, English, Greek and Yoruba, albeit positively or negatively.

There is a mystery that I have realised in my name that has shown me the lingering dichotomy of faith and culture. Named ‘Niyi’ and Baptized ‘Francis’, but notwithstanding the widespread popularity of ‘Francis’ as to my nomenclature, ‘Niyi’ seem to have a greater depth and pull on me, which has often made me wondered whether God has a greater preference for culture, or if it is my faith that is still shallow.

I know, He does not intend to kill one for the other. I have a strong feeling I would be called ‘Niyi’ before ‘Francis’ when I get to Him because it goes more intimate. I have a ‘Niyi’ that has been ingrained in my gene and it is impossible to extract, despite the affluence of ‘Francis’. I have become an advocate of a merger of Christening and naming ceremonies, so that such perceived dichotomies may be averted in others.

Home is the most natural place to build the passion of love, that which lasts till eternity. We should do everything to preserve the natural love of the home. ‘Bi ile o ba dun, bi igbe ni ilu n ri’. If we miss the love from home, we shall labour more to get it elsewhere, and the vastness of our destiny shall most probably be curtailed.

Thus, I have cultivated the memory of St Francis, my patron Saint to build the love in my home. He blesses me and blesses my family, but he has carried the remaining blessings to Assisi, for he could not speak Yoruba to effect much further, my culture was alien to him such that he finds it far easier at being an Assisi than a Yoruba. He would have to effect greater works at breaking through my genes and archetype despite we are close pals.

Another interesting factor is the confluence I found within my varied family’s ancestral culture and of the church’s culture which we poise, not to abolish the former, but to purify and complete them. Even, the Church’s culture – God’s culture on earth- must walk within our earthly culture, because they cannot be stamped out as an illusion; but while it walks within this culture, it seeks to pick the good and drop the bad in them.

Francis also does this walk, which is work, such that within the confines of my space, time and gene, it would become easier for him to work in and through Assisi, as an authentic Logos which he has been transformed.

Francis is more an ‘Alaale’ of Assisi than of ‘Yorubaland’ which I represent, even if we both confluence in the earthly culture of the Church as it becomes purified within my household. His strategy towards making me better and blessed is to send as emissary my Dad who is better acquainted with the cause and source of the hindering factors to my liberation.

After all, said and done, what shall I do then to liberate myself, and thus, my land? I must learn and practice the science and art of memory, bringing back alive my ancestors who are dead in Christ, for they love to dwell with us, they hold the true language that can liberate our land, and it is through them that there shall be prosperity, progress and true liberation of the land!

O blessed are the dead who have those that really matter to remember them, that is, the church, holy people, simple souls; and also blessed the living who have saintly dead to remember. Reciprocals of this bring liberation of the land!

My thought on JF Odunjo's Classical Poem

*Ise l’ogun ise*

(Work, far from being a curse, is the only path to any form of freedom)

*Mura s’ise ore mi*

(Work hard, but far more: work smart)

*Ise la fi n’deni giga*

(Unfortunately, if you still see work as a curse, you are set on being a dwarf for life)

*Bi a ko ba reni feyin ti*

(There is a salient need to build institutions)

*Bi ole la’nri*

(Work without building a network of capacities ends in servitude )

*Bi a ko ba reni gbekele*

(Trust God, but use that to build human 'Trusts', even if they would fail)

*A tera mo’se eni*

(Persistence pays and it yields many fruits, sooner or later. Don't quit!)

*Iya re le lowo lowo*

(Be born again, not just spiritually, but in mind and heart )

*Baba re le lesin lekan*

(Keep your culture, but move on from what your Ancestors have built, there is a lot to be discovered)

*Bi o ba gbo’ju lewon*

(Be complacent at your own risk)

*O te tan ni mo so fun o*

(Change, or become a dinosaur. Dare preserve yourself from extinction)

*Ohun ti a ko ba ji’ya fun*

(No pain, no gain)

*Se kii le pe lowo*

(No cross, no crown)

*Ohun ti a ba fara sise fun*

(There is dignity in labor)

*Nii pe lowo eni*

(Beware careful about free things , nothing actually comes free)

*Apa lara*

( Use your hand, but let your head, gut and heart do the commands)

*Igunpa niyekan*

(Knowledge moves, but technical skills lasts much longer. Merge it with changing trends)

*B’aye ba n’fe o loni*

(Love what you do , don't do things for praise)

*Bi o ba lowo lowo*

(Money is fleeting. It serves the purpose, but it is not the purpose)

*Aye a ma fe o lola*

( Do not be known for money, it is a murderous trap)

*Tabi ki o wa ni’po atata*

(The higher you go, the closer to the calamitous door you'll be, if you don't move on)

*Aye a ma ye o si terinterin*

(Be conscientious , you are what you are in the eyes of God -you dust and clay- and nothing more)

*Je k’o de’ni tin raago*

(Preserve humility, which is the truth about you, o nothingness, without God you go under, so why pretend?)

*Aye a ma yinmu si o*

(The world is only attracted to power, money and flesh; the height of folly is to depend too much on these which prevent authentic peace and freedom)

*Eko si’nso ni d’oga*

(Ah, education is everything, educate yourself to freedom)

*Mura ki o ko dara dara*

(Formal learning is but a minuscule; be deep and broad about learning, and apply what you learn)

*Bi o si r’opo eniyan*

(The vast majority are not educated, and it is little about going to school and colleges)

*Ti won f’eko s’erin rinrin*

(Look around your family and clan, you would find examples; and make comparisons)

*Dakun ma f’ara we won*

(Education is perpetual . Little minds discuss people , average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas)

*Iya n’bo fun’omo ti ko gbon*

( Whatever we call 'hell' comes about as a result of lack of education)

*Ekun n’be fun’omo to nsa kiri*

(Preserve patrimony, sustain memory)

*Ma f’owuro sere ore mi*

(You must set forth at dawn)

*Mura si’se ojo nlo*

( At the end of the day, we profess: love is everything, and it is a verb, an action word. You cannot love if you do not work)

An Arrogation of Power

 An arrogation of power is an ephemeral act. All efforts by man at perpetuating his history would be lost without a start from a disinterested position. It is not about you, it is about God and the people you serve. Let go and let God. Let go and let them.

Between Faith and Science; Sacraments and Reason.

The rejection by Christians, of the Sacraments, is what has resulted into what I call The Age of Matter. Science has made much progress at the expense of faith. Faith, on the other hand, has lost so much because of an abject rejection of the Sacraments; it's a question of simple law of energy conservation.

To save the world, faith can reclaim her lost energy from science through reason, which would be the battle ground , faith must employ reason to engage science in order to take back what belongs to her in all truth, and the weapons of  engagement between both parties would be M(m)atters. Matter of the Sacraments, from faith perspective and the matter of things, from Science perspective; 

If there would be any hope left at all for the world, While the battle rages between faith and science within Reason, the matter of science would have to pave way for the Matter of faith in the sacraments, only if people of faith universally embrace the efficacy of these Sacraments.

*On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (21)* *Conclusion…*

The write-up was conceived as an unhurried witness of a raw personal Eucharistic experience, a work which is a witness of the contemporaneousness of the Eucharist, and it is never exhaustive.

The Eucharist, far from being an archaic medieval ritual, is the actual reason and meaning behind our modern life and all the columns of thoughts that surround our present civilisation: in Politics, Economics, Arts and Science especially.

Human testimony is great and the scripture is marvellous, but when, constantly, regularly, faithfully and trustfully,we begin to eat, trust and live the Word of God made flesh, we arrive at a freedom far deeper than that which any intense trial or penance can acquire for us.

‘Surely, the Lord has been here and we did not know’ (Gen 28: 16). It is said that when scientists get to the summit of the mountain of knowledge, they would find Theologians already waiting there for them. This point of arrival - no doubt - would be about the very discovery of the reality and supreme potency of the Eucharist. Science will never find its ultimate purpose until it embraces faith in the Eucharist.

Faith also needs some humility to welcome the prodigality of Science, which then becomes a great utilitarian parable for healing, clarifying, explaining and authenticating the many perceived brittleness surrounding the mysteries of our faith.

On a personal note, I consider it as not a coincidence, but a merciful act of God’s design that this work is ending on a Sunday which is the glorious Feast of Transfiguration. 

Transfiguration explains all that I hope to discuss about my experience of the Eucharist as a perpetual sign of an existential continuum.

My best verse in the entire Holy Scripture arguably is about Jesus’ response to Martha regarding the Resurrection in Jn 11:25-26, and especially about verse 26:

25.Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. 26.And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” …

This verse (26) informs my personal slogan: “Passionate about living”. My testimony is that of an experience of life as a continuum, a passage from life unto life. There is no death, what we call death is Ascension, just as our present life is about the Resurrection of Easter, since our death actually happened at our Baptism (Gal 2:20; Col 3:3).

The good thing about writing is that one becomes the first student of one's write-up. Far from being filled with any exquisite grace, I only get informed daily about my shortcomings to the lofty ideals contained in the write-up, and that is a plus.

Finally, an apology to the Academicians and Theologians who would consider this work ill-suited for their pursuit, it was not written with any critical audience in mind, so if there is any error along the lines, I plead naively guilty, for it is only a writing borne of a raw testimony of an experiential discovery, without any academical justification or professorial backing, save some little references from the Holy Scripture.

Here ends for a while my thoughts from the Pew. I rise.

6th of August 2017

Feast of the Transfiguration

*On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (20)* *The “Ite Missa est” Trilogy* PART 3

Consider how knowledge has developed through the multiplicity of words in our days. For instance, when we perform a task on computer by typing on the keyboard, we copy these words simply by selecting them and pressing ‘Ctrl+C’, and with a ‘CTRL+V’, we can paste an infinite copy of the same words, thus we achieve a massive economy of scale through this means. 

Multiply this simple method and we understand how the development of codes, software and the multiplicity of various forms of knowledge through these means have built the present economy and civilisation. This method of multiplication out of little efforts is what makes Bill Gates and everyone who applies them, rich and successful. 

But this, in a more magnificent form, is also the science behind the Eucharist, behind the multiplicity of Bread (Jn: 6), behind Mass and the actions of Calvary. This is what He sought to achieve by entering our hearts in Communion. He is our task and leverage. He purifies our minds and frees us from the ‘scarcity mentality’ that enslaves us and changes our perception unto that of an ‘abundance mentality’. 

The Study of Economics is based on the concept of Scarcity. The Eucharist, on the other hand thrives upon the ‘abundance’ concept. The two do not meet, or rather, they meet in Mary, where ‘scarcity’ is swallowed up by ‘abundance’.

Just like one who does an initial heavy task of typing words on the computer before copying them, Christ had completed the initial Eucharistic work on Calvary, what we who are His ambassadors do, from the ‘Ite Missal Est’ on (2 Cor 5: 20), is the little job of copying and pasting what has already been achieved through faithfulness and thankfulness in our daily duties. 

This Word has been made flesh and has given Himself for us in the Eucharist at Mass, we have become the copied and pasted Words as we eat Him, and as such this concept of multiplicity shall grow more and more the more the Eucharist, which originates from the heart of Christ, is understood and multiplied; but only if we do not get stuck with the love of money accompanying this progress. This petrifies the heart, do not fall for it.

After all that is said and done, we confess: A faithful attendance at the Eucharistic table constitutes the greatest work to be done on earth, every other thing happens as a corollary of this work at Mass (Jn 6: 27). This is how we ‘take away the sins of the world’ (Jn 1: 29) and multiply the world’s good (Jn 6: 1 -15) through him, with Him and in Him.

*On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (20)* *The “Ite Missa est” Trilogy* PART 2

The Eucharist is the Incarnated word, the scripture which we have all become is the judgement of the world, and it begins from us who are the household of His Spirit (1 Pet 4: 17). 

But, this judgement is not a negative one, it is a verb, it is work, it is love and it is entirely immersed in His mercy. We only experience this work, either as a judgement than of mercy, in proportion to our lack of faith and humility, than of the reality of our sins and insufficiency.

This judgement or mercy -as the case may be- happens this way: once we receive Him - in awareness or not - we become like a Sink (that beautifully analysed in the study of Thermodynamics) , a dumping space for the world’s garbage. Or, like dipped towels that absorb water, we acquire the capacity to cure the world’s ill by absorbing them, so doing making up ‘what is lacking in His suffering’ through this absorption (Col 1: 24). 

Unlike Thermodynamics Sinks, we go beyond converting and recycling our sins and the sins of the entire world. By faithfully fulfilling our daily duties, we develop the means - through Him, with Him and in Him- to expiate all sins committed, to purify every good badly done and to supply for enormous works omitted out of neglects. Welcome to Redemption where nothing is wasted. What wonders we shall see on judgement day, when those who do next to nothing are awarded an ultimate glory!

   

While the Eucharist does not eliminate the trials of life, it mitigates and leverages their negative effects through the merits of Christ’s sufferings. Whatever we may be going through now could have been worse without the Eucharistic effect . How would we have handled it, we who dread the present grave circumstances? 

He says: ‘'Come to Me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest'(Mt 11: 28). That statement finds an ultimate truth within the Eucharistic livelihood .

*On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (20)* *The “Ite Missa est” Trilogy* PART 1

If Albert Einstein’s thought on Relativity and Isaac Newton’s formula of Gravity, can provoke such a change of an entire civilization, then, affirming that a holy and faithful reception of the Eucharist achieves so much more in fostering the world’s goodness, would not be a frivolous statement of piety, but a perfect fact about the reality of progress.

Eucharist is the actual source of all the positivity that we see, yet we study with admiration the Einstein and Newton’s wonders, and forget that we who receive Christ in the Eucharist are the actual protagonists of civilisation. 

But, how are we sure that all these Eucharistic ponderations are not figments of our imaginations? The answer lies in an unselfish verification of their effects. Like the Disciples at Gethsemane, we are often asleep and do not perceive in us and in the world, the unbelievable Eucharistic consequences of Ite missa est. The gusto of life as an awakening is in the verification of these Eucharistic actions in our daily activities.

With a humble attentiveness and a holy perseverance, we can perceive the growing effect of the Eucharistic authenticity in our lives and in the world. It was not a day that we and our ancestors create the present mess, to presume that within this realm of existence, the resolution of them would take a day, is an illusion begging for forgiveness. A God who has not come to abolish the law, but, with grace and mercy, has come to complete them, works on everyone uniquely within the confine of their space and time. Blessed is he who can wait and see.

God’s work of recreation goes on. Do not dwell on the spectacular, an attentiveness and perception of little things is what produces a multiplication of thanksgiving, the origin of a multitude of blessings. Take nothing for granted, His work continues in us, sharp and prompt but, gentle as silence; directing our plights, perfecting our actions, warding us from every evil and inspiring every little motives and actions of ours. 

 

Let us perceive His actions (Jn 10: 38) in little things, such as, a reduced frequency of our losing things, serendipity, just in time experiences, meeting important appointments. He conquers massive evils by giving victories in little things. 

Gradually, He reduces our fears and develops in us a humble and authentic confidence. As in the process of metamorphosis, our fallen natures are gradually flayed and made to give way to the freedom of the Spirit, where we grow from glory unto glory (2 Cor 3: 18).

Slowly but surely, amidst the ‘flip-flop’ of life, we shall perceive the orderliness of our lives, even amidst trials, sins and inconsistencies; we shall gradually develop the capacity to accept the things that we cannot change, build the courage to change the things that we can change, and receive the clarity and wisdom of perceiving the difference between these two.

‘Ite Missa est’, “go forth. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”. The Liturgy becomes ours, the Eucharistic baton is passed unto us. The church becomes for us, not simply a building along the high street, but a manifested source, where we experience the continuation of the liturgy, in us, and in the whole universe, within the uniqueness of our being. 

Resurrection then becomes a positive ad infinitum.

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (19). “Union and Holy Comm-u-nion”

Has all ended with the bestowal of Peace and Mercy? One would suppose so, but no.

He moves again, through the Priest. He moves forth from the altar to bestow on us the entire abode of heaven: Himself. Ah!

Heaven is Him and His perception of things. He brings this heaven forth from the altar and changes the abode of our body and soul into it, because the entirety of our beings is infinitely dearer to Him than all the seraphic realm of the altar and tabernacle. And this is the end, but just the beginning…

We become Him by Him. There transposes a merger of the beginning and the end. The finale and beginning actually is about us; Infinity confluences in us and the word ‘eternal’ takes an entire new dimension. This occurrence changes everything and overturns all we think and understand about love, about beauty, about peace and serenity. This is the entire subject of the popular Jn 3: 16. Standing on the aisle, we cannot help but ask, why?

The scandal of the altar started with the Transubstantiation, the understanding of which attains its ultimate irresolution in holy communion. Holy communion is like death, a ‘consumatum est’ where the Liturgy recommences from the catacombs of our hearts, bringing forth life within and making of us ambassadors of His work (2 Cor 5:20),  a consequence of the fallen Grain on Calvary (Jn 12:24).

What attracts Him in our soul is trust and an awareness of our lack and dependence; and like Mary, these subjects makes of us His comfy abode (Lk 1:38). But our adamant pride belabours Him, resulting into an arduous space distortion and time prolongation of our destiny. So much discrepancy about worthiness, a begging sinner is the champion of positivity.

Sins are ugly, but we need an enlightenment that thrives, not only in spite of them, but such that sees in them a great utility for progress and a positive paradigm for salvation. Sins fuel progress for a man who is not only discomforted by them, but who is also full of confidence, in such a way that these anomalies indeed become manures for the next level of progress. ‘O happy fault’ is the triumph of mercy.

A devotion to the science of our weakness is the source of an ultimate strength and power, which should translate to the world around us, such that, like faithful sentinels, we develop a keen awareness and sustain an ingenuity that creates the capability of tapping goodness out of every corruption.

The conscious and unconscious champions of the next golden age of freedom would be found - not from the mainstream- but from among the non-conformists, the radicals, the Ignored, the marginalised and the abhorrent. It is within this matrix of chaos that freedom would be picked up by the wise who would be stopped by nothing (Mt 10: 34).

But how would rebels and canal beings like us, who cannot manage with humility, survive such gargantuan energy as the Eucharist? Love burns, and love burns hard. The Lord does arises and His enemies are scattered (Ps 68:1). Even if we often do not imagine ourselves as constituting any of the bad soils (Mt 13: 3-9), the unmoved ego within us will pay the price of adamancy. Rethink before you come off the Pew. Can you drink of the chalice? (Mk 10:38).

If It is said that the energy hitting the earth from the sun in a single hour is way more than that which powers our civilisation in an entire year. How can we sustain our presumption at approaching a Source far more powerful than the sun when we even dread a simple 240V electric shock? 

How can we resolve the issue of ‘worthiness’ in Holy Communion without a proper awareness of our utter insufficiency, and how can we sustain this awareness without involving the Blessed Virgin? She is the champion of this awareness, and she introduces us to the Confessional, the source of this self awareness. Confession is the sacrament of the Blessed Virgin. The more we frequent the confessional, the more we understand the consequence of a whole vista of faults, failings and imperfections, the consciousness of which becomes for us, a great source of wisdom translating into peace and mercy.

Keeping confession solely within the realm of mortal sins or reserving Communion only until Sunday could perpetuate a stunted spiritual growth within this age of ours where there are just too numerous militating agenda against the theological virtues.

The greatest pilgrimage we shall ever make is neither to Jerusalem nor Rome, it is that which we thread from the Pew to the Altar in order to receive the Lord of the Universe, we should thus keep our focus and never be distracted. That is the peak of all journeys.

*On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (18)* *"Agnus Dei”

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us

Ascending with Him through the praise of Doxology, we arrive at this summit of everything from where we acquire the fruitful reward of His entire Eucharistic work, which is peace and mercy, the source of life, liberty and happiness.

As during the Confiteor, but with a deeper awareness of our utter lack of correspondence and a greater obligation against the imminence of our hypostatic union, we plead for mercy as we sense the consequential judgement that weighs upon us.

We say:

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

The Eucharist is our kept part of God’s covenant, mercy is the obligatory part of the Father’s. Mercy is the same covenant promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his seeds forever (Lk 1:72). It is where we see the perfect orderliness of our lives, even amid discomforts and woes.

Mercy starts with  forgiveness of sins, but broadens by making the whole cosmos and creation happen because of us and as a reference to us. It is an irreducible positivity which lies outside the scope of judgement. It is impossible to judge mercy for, mercy is the judge of judgement.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Once, by trust we grasp the mercy which grants freedom from bondage and bestows success to the works of our hand, we see how it is the ultimate anathema of the evil one, and how Peace is the very source of this reality. Trust is what bestows peace and mercy. 

Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world, happy are we -unworthy though we are- who are called to the supper of the Lord.

But Who can be worthy? To whom shall we go (Jn 6:68)? Only the Lamb that was slain is worthy (Rev 5:12). He alone has the capacity to do this work and He beckons that we partake of this mystery by maintaining the desire and awe around the Eucharistic summit of the altar. Do not dance to the ‘Agnus Dei’, it bothers on sacrilege.

While with the Centurion we beseech Him to heal us by saying the word (Mt 8:8), with the Virgin Mary we should seek this primordial union by reminding Him to ‘Behold His handmaid’ (Lk 1 : 38).

A beggar’s position is what gains the victory. Agnus Dei is the perfect time to ask for whatever we need and get away with it.

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (17). “Pax”

P: “Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles, Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will. Who live and reign for ever and ever”.

All: Amen.

Everything is now prepared on this heavenly mountain (Gen 22: 14) of the altar, as happened from the arduous work of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection (Lk 14: 16-17).

It is peace that this work of Christ has prepared for us. Peace is the summit of every soul’s aspirations. It is the height of heaven, the essence of the Holy Spirit, and here at the Eucharistic banquet of the altar, it cannot get any better.

We see within this heavenly banquette a plenitude of peace, in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over; and here, this gift of peace, more than any dependence upon our moralistic measure (Lk 6: 38), is given as a reliance of an unfailing hope, according to the root of an ecclesiastical faith derived from Peter’s confession as we say:

‘Look not upon our sins, but upon the faith of your Church…’

The peace to be derived from the altar is like non-other. It is His heavenly peace, devoid of the materialism that the world offers (Jn 14: 27). Keep your gaze on Christ on the altar. Do not blink or you'll miss this peace!

It is right that there be limited distractions, even though, the essence of benefiting from this vertical dimension of the altar is to share it around the communal horizontal dimension across the pew (1 Jn 4: 20) because we hear:

‘Let us offer each other the sign of peace’

But during this sharing of peace, many end up losing their peace. Unlike the Wise Virgins, we give out the oil of our salvation (Mt 25: 9), we get distracted, we return handshakes with humour and we forget the solemnity of the altar. 

360 degrees we turn, across the aisle we move, up and down the pews we go, chit chat we make, and we get caught up, unprepared and distracted, as the ‘Agnus Dei’ follows.

If we happen to have missed the peace, O Lord, may we not miss the mercy that follows…

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

He gave up everything, everything most dear to Him: His Spirit, His Mother (Which is His body). His heart was pierced and we -the Church- became engrained, married into Him.

At creation, Adam was put into a deep sleep, and from his ribs Eve was fashioned (Gen: 2 : 21 – 23). This deep sleep of recreation was Christ’s death on the cross, the fashioning of His spouse, the Church, was through the blood and water that gushed forth from His side. Abraham also went through a deep agonising sleep which was the process of God’s covenant with him (Gen: 15: 12-21). The ‘deep sleep’, which brought forth the origin of Eve from Adam, our father in the flesh; and of the Covenant from Abraham, our father in faith, signifies death and finds an eternal plenitude within the great deep sleep: the death of Christ.

He gave us – sinners that we are- His heart. He is married to sinners. Look and believe. Calvary was a complete immolation and dismemberment. His Spirit was in heaven, His body was on earth and His soul was in hell. His head is of heaven, but His heart is for us on earth; from it gushes out mercy: no condemnation, no fear. Of the head, He said: “Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit”, of His heart He said: “Son, behold thy Mother”. The summit of mercy is His heart. It is the shortest route to heaven within His body and it is through Mary – call it the Immaculate Heart – that this mystery would be known in its fullest treasure.

The 2 greatest treasures He’s got are His Spirit and His Mother, the combination of His constituent: Spirit and body. His Spirit, unto His Father He giveth. His Mother, unto us –through the beloved disciple- He commended.

Love and care for Mary is the part given us. His Spirit did not initially fall under our correspondence; it is commended to the Godhead through His head. The safer route from Calvary is to deal with Mary and walk our way up to the God-heart, put it in a better way, to acquire the Spirit of Christ through His Sacred Heart.

The blood and water which gushed forth from Christ at death was the origin of this mystery. ‘This is My body, which will be given up for you’. He, being the head, gave up the Spirit through His head (take this literally). But this Spirit returned to humanity, not through the head, but through the heart at His piercing.

He gave up the Spirit, back to the Father and, while everything seems lost, by shear providence, beyond every calculation, from the providential action of the piercing of His heart by Longinus, blood and water gushed forth, creating a gateway, an access, a return afresh of the Spirit given to the Father. This is a great means of regeneration, of recreation, through the blood and water from His earth, which is the sacramental Baptism and the Eucharist.

When all hope seemed lost, mercy and life gushed forth within the font of this heart. This is the seal of the new and the eternal covenant, this is the origin of the Church, which is the true spouse of Christ, the new Eve which was borne out of the deep sleep of Adam from his rib. Here is the fulfilment between the Adamic and the Abrahamic mystery of the deep sleep.

This final and lasting act of mercy is the drama emanated from the heart of Christ on the cross at Calvary. Ipinlese. The beginning of a real access to God is through the opening forth of this heart from His body on Calvary. The busting forth of His Spirit into the world through His heart, from whence gushes forth elements to be used by the Church for an access to the heavenly Godhead. The Blood and Water for sinners.

His Spirit, which otherwise would have been sealed in heaven, found an eternal route to the earth through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, His body. From this heart comes forth the 3 witnesses to the world as proclaimed by John: The Spirit, the Water and the Blood (1 Jn 5:7), without which heaven would be impossible for man.

This sacramental blood of the Eucharist and the Water of Baptism gushing forth from His heart, the heart from His given-up body, the same body signified from the bounty of His love at the Last Supper, the same body offered up by Mary, in life, and on the cross of Calvary. presents a direct route and access for the 7 Spirits of God (Is 11: 2-3), Incarnated in the womb of the Virgin Mary, made manifest to us after His Baptism at Jordan, delivered back to the Father by Christ through His death on Calvary –confirming His poverty of Spirit-and whose legacy we’ve got at Pentecost, actually found a gateway through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the commencement of our rebirth and of the new and eternal covenant of mercy, through the visible blood and water which gushed forth from His side. This is the visible mercy promised to our Fathers, to Abraham and his sons forever.

Man’s re-creation happened through the return of the Spirit, the source of which was the humanity of Christ, through the gateway of His Most Sacred Heart. The Spirit comes to recreate us and to renew the face of the earth through the Divine Mercy borne of His Sacred Heart and revealed through the mystery of the blood and water which gushed out from this heart, a reality of the sacrament of Baptism and the Eucharist.

Ultimately, it is this singular piercing of the heart of Jesus, by the mighty arm of God, through the providential act of Longinus that has become our ultimate rescue. Not the mercy of Abraham, not even that of Mary. Even, Jesus at a stage lost the sense of the meaningfulness of everything as He cried “Father, why have You forsaken Me?!”. But what is synonymous with everyone aligned with this covenant of mercy, irrespective of its depth and its timeliness, is the fact that its protagonist trusted in God and hopes against all hopes. This sense of poverty, humility and trust is what wins the victory.

The return of the Spirit was the force which gushed forth blood and water from the side of His humanity, through the human act of Longinus’ spear, from the depth of His Most Sacred heart. It was not from an earthly act, for He had been dead and immolated. It was borne of a complete sacrificial and immolating love which caused a new paradigm from the creativity of the Holy Spirit. This Trinitarian act is intermingled with the human elements of Christ and the human act of Longinus. What great mystery, that which is contained within the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Christ’s unparalleled trust is the link and bond and continuity in the covenanted mercy between God and the Patriarchs. A providence of the Father, which does not make any mistake in ordering our lives, who tells us that the strands of our hair has been numbered, caused Longinus to pierce the heart of Christ and the seal which John almost despaired of in Revelation was opened.

This positive providence is that which occurred during the piercing of His heart, in ensuring that no bone of His broken, in directing Joseph Arimathea and Nicodemus accordingly regarding His body’s burial, in moving the heart of Pilate to let go of His body, in constructing further events according to His plans and purposes.

Underneath the quantic incorrigible events of the world lies an absolute precise understandable theory of relativity and it is only by following this Christian mystery that we understand the Theory of Everything!

It was the rending of the sacred heart that caused the rending of the temple veil. We recently entered the Church, the house of God, through the Jubilee door of mercy, but the real door of the Church –His Body- from whence we enter the mystery of the Divine Mercy of heaven is through the Sacred heart of Jesus, where we discover the principal sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist and Penance, from whence flow the Divine mercy which gives no judgement or condemnation.

Our route to the Divinity is not simply an abstract or a spiritual one. It is a journey through the humanity of Christ within the Church’s sacraments.

From an Incarnation derived from Mary, through the route of His body, the Church, signalled in the mystery of the Sacrament of Matrimony and Holy Order,  entered through the gateway of that body: His sacred heart where we discover the corpus  of water through Baptism and of blood through the Eucharist, these two, confluence through the sacramental actions of Penance and Anointing of the Sick and the 3 binary Sacraments finding a cyclic Trinitarian confluence in the Sacrament of the Holy Spirit: Confirmation, which is the life of the Church,, the spouse of Christ, which acts though her, with her and in her.

Everything is embedded within the merciful plan of the Father. Leave it with Him. Everything is embedded within this positive divine plan, but we must stick to His heart to understand this mercy.

Sins and weaknesses are ugly, but we need an enlightenment that thrives, not only in spite of them, but such that sees in them a great utility for progress and a positive paradigm for salvation. Sin fuels progress for a man who is not only discomforted by them, but is full of confidence, in a way that these anomalies indeed become manures for the next level of progress. Herein lays the wonder and triumph of mercy. O happy fault!

I believe that the Spirit, which returned to earth, almost immediately after His heart was pierced, would have to find Mary out. Mary, who is the manifested synergy of His body and thus a co-redemptrix in the ‘sword that pierced their hearts’. A physical spear pierced His Most Sacred heart but a spiritual sword pierced her sorrowful and Immaculate heart. This human and divine interventions are necessary for the redemption of man.

The Spirit would have to find Mary out again at Pentecost before the Church could fully understand the meaningfulness of the action of Calvary through the revelation of the mystery of His Sacred heart, of the Sacraments, of the purpose and relevance of the Church: His body and spouse. The link between the ephemerality of this world and the perpetuity of Wisdom is found in the reasonability within the nothingness of Mary.

Love is the only utility for progress, and the reservoir for this love in its entirety is found within the Sacred heart of Jesus. Love conquers everything and it is fostered from a disinterestedness unison perspective between what God does for us and what He does in others. We can look at the glory of others and rather than envying, we rejoice on progress once we see the reasonability in the universality of His works. Rejoice with the joyful and be sad with the sorrowful.

We see how John’s commentary regarding the 3 things that bear witness makes sense (1 Jn 5:7). He called them Spirit, water and blood. The total annihilation and absolute poverty of Christ as He commended His Spirit to the Father, from a supreme act of providence, caused a return of that Spirit as a form of recreation, as occurred during the 3 great baptismal acts of God: In the Virgin’s womb at Incarnation, at River Jordan in His Baptism, and now on Mount Calvary in His crucifixion; we see the initiative of the Holy Spirit in these 3 great acts, which manifested out of a great act of humility and obedience.

We must not take Christ’s individual words at the institutionalising of the Eucharist at the Last Supper for granted. His distinctive words regarding His body and blood have great significances.

Of His body, He said:

“Take this, all of you and eat it, for this is My body, which will be given up for you”

His body is exclusively, for His friends, the Church. One becomes grafted within the Church and its divine mystery the more one receives His body in faith. The personification of His body, which was buried, has resurrected, ascended into heaven and is now glorified, in human terms, is found in Mary, for He derived His body from Mary. So, there is a close similitude between the giving up of His body at the Last Supper, on the cross and unto John the beloved at Calvary. But it is from this body that the constituent of His heart from which commeth blood and water, which leads to His next words at the institution of the Eucharist.

Of His blood, He said:

“Take this all of you and drink from it, for this is the chalice of My blood, the blood of the new and the eternal covenant, which will be shed for you and for many(all), so that sins may be forgiven; do this in memory of Me”

This second gesture shows specifically how he meant to fulfil His plans by the utilisation of His blood. As it is usually said:

‘Without the shedding of blood there is no redemption’.

It is His blood that flows out of His Sacred Heart, which is His body, which is His Church. The blood gushes from His Church for all humanity. This flow of His blood is a movement, like the command His disciples to go out to the entire world and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

This Baptism whereas, is through the water from His side. The blood, also from His heart is a movement on a mission. The two, that is, both blood and water, took their actions by the Holy Spirit.

As John said-, together with the water and the Spirit, is one of the principal witnesses for the salvation of humanity. As such, the Church is deeply engrained with the particular mission of the Divinity and Trinitarian actions of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, started from the Heart of Christ as Water, Blood and Spirit respectively. That Heart of Christ is His body of which we are its principal constituents. It is so much a unity such that these actions of ours and the Divinity are difficult to separate in the Heart of Christ.

It is this Trinitarian mission of the 3 elements, which first sought out the Apostles and grafted them into His Sacred Heart into becoming the Church, His Body, and through this Heart they also become agents of Trinitarian mission, become water, blood and Spirit, and witnessing through them to ever bring humanity into the heart of Christ, His body. Mission starts from the Heart. Peter may have a close relationship with His head as the head of the Church, but he is also saved through the Heart. Love conquers all, not faith, reason or perception.

It is this blood and water that should be utilised more and more by the church the living membrane of His body, through the action of the Holy Spirit, the third witness, to seek out all that are lost and the whole human race, that they may be grafted into His body, starting from His Most Sacred Heart. When His blood and water flow, they become mercy which forgives ‘70 x 7 times’, by faith through the Holy Spirit, its energy, until all are integrated into the mystery of His mystical body.

Remember, the Holy Spirit is within the Godhead. Christ’s head that was crowned literally is exclusively given over to the Father when He handed back His Spirit –the Holy Spirit- back to the Father as He said “Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit”, and yet, how impossible it is for one to disjoint His body from His head, even though we see how distinct they can be. This is the sort of unity between Him and His bride, the Church, between His humanity and His Divinity and between Him and the Trinity.

One cannot separate His body from the head nor His heart from His body, nor His blood from His heart, nor His water from His blood, yet all these are distinct but they are still the same Christ.

At the end of the day, all humanity, including all creation is a unity when perceived from the lenses of His most Sacred Heart. Great and lavish a mystery embedded in His divine mercy!

*On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (16)* *Pater Nosta*

When His disciples approached him with a request that he teach them to pray (Lk 11: 1), what they sought was a pry into His mind, which is the Trinitarian abode of heaven. Types and shadows, space and time, are illusive; it is the Bread on the altar that tells of reality.

We dialogue in the Spirit on this mountain where everything is unity, we speak with the Father through Christ, with Christ and in Christ as we passionately pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven: 

An audacious task for worms: the knowledge that we are Gods. But be not overwhelmed, for we cannot be God without God. A pry into his mind is a chance to be Him who tells us to call God our Father.

 

Hallowed be Thy name: 

Continuous surprises and thanksgiving at this discovery of dependence is the faithful tide which transports us on this journey, and awe becomes our paddle.

Thy Kingdom come: 

Caught up in the ‘Thy kingdom come’ war, we desire Him and this desire translates to the realization that this kingdom is not until ‘thy kingdom come’, but that which is already here!

Thy will be done on earth as it is heaven:

Taking responsibility for sin gives greater access to the potency of blood, water and spirit as witnesses within us (1 Jn 5:7), this translates into an intimate unity within the Trinity; a discovery made , not within holiness, but as an awareness of weakness and trust amidst the battle of wills (Rm 7:15-25).

Give us this day, our daily Bread:

The starting point of our desire is neither food nor money, but the daily Eucharist. This is what is worth toiling for (Jn 6:27), for, without the foundational wisdom from the Eucharist, every earthly bread becomes a regret with time.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us:

The greatest discovery of this Eucharistic adventure is the triumph of the Triune within a tussle. Drop the hypocrisy, it is solidarity as a Society of Sinners that gains the victory. He is horrible at addition once we can let go and let God.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil:

There is no sin where struggle is sustained, everything ultimately falls under the category of temptation, of which we should plead to be spared. The Accuser bruises our heels in temptations, and these hurt, but we strike its head by rising from them.

Real evil -from which we pray to be delivered - is the despair, not so much of a slide from morality, but of a loss of faith and trust in His mercy, which are the gradual consequences of that sliding. 

When we do not rise, we fall deeper into the bottomless Blackhole which prevents us from standing on the Trinitarian mind of God called the Pater Nosta.