"My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?..."

We in the flesh are hindered in such a way that with our senses we cannot perceive eternity.   The God who took flesh in the form of Jesus in order to be like us in all things chose to forgo some knowledge in agreement that such temporarily 'forgetting' was part of the perfection of the plan of God.  As God shielded Moses when God passed by, Moses was denied a knowledge of God because his flesh could not look upon the face of God and live.  So to Jesus while incarnate in the flesh would suffer a 'shielding', or a lack of knowledge of some things that He would have had access to prior to the incarnation and would again gain access at the exact moment of His last heart beat.  This 'forgetting' of certain things for a time was part of God's participation in our humanity and the perfection of His passion on the Cross. The God who knows all could by His own will decide to forgo knowledge in order that an infinite benefit could be given to us by His Passion.

What did Jesus not know?  When Jesus spoke of the sign of His coming and the end of the age He said,  "But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." Matthew 24: 36.   

But there was something else He did not know when He went to His passion.  

In the Gospels, Jesus predicts His death in the following way.  Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" Matthew 20: 17-19

View from the Cross

He did not mention in either of His predictions the great suffering that He would endure when he said, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"  Many Protestant denominations say that at this moment God the Father turned away because He could not look upon the suffering of His son.  This is not so.  If this was so then God would not be God because He would be one who would experience suffering which would bring a reaction or a recoiling from horror.  God is God, He requires nothing, He needs nothing, He is complete in all, He can withstand all.  How could the God who created the universe and knows the most minute future action of all His creatures recoil in horror to a scene placed in an earthly timeline that He had already foreseen and by His will allowed to be?   

Flesh is flesh, and has its limits for suffering for an eternal salvation transaction to humanity.  For a person to receive the opportunity of salvation whether they were alive at the death of our Lord or living 2000 years after the Crucifixion the propitiation that Jesus offered for us must have two qualities.  

It would have to:

1) reach heaven (so it had to be perfect and Holy) and 

2) It had to open heaven for us (So the sacrifice required would have to be equal to the justice demanded for the sinful offense of Adam).  

God received a sacrifice of equal value to His judgement, but this also had to have an eternal value.   God is eternal and we are protected in this life by God to a measure that we do not realize.  We are shielded from perceiving both the rewards and the chastisement of eternity as a consequence of being in the flesh and the world.  One that is Holy and close to God can access the heavenly realm as God allows them to for their instruction and purification and the instruction of others.    The flesh cannot withstand the holiness of God.  "But you cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live."  Exodus 33:20. 

Mystical Perception of Heaven

God allows that our perception of the truth of the Heavenly realm is dimmed for our good.  But this can be accessed  if you love God and obey Him and seek the good of others in a hidden way.   The other side of eternity, the chastisement part also can be accessed by ouija boards, witchcraft, etc.  This is why God was so specific in warning us to not go to psychics and the like.   God wishes us to access eternity on the side of Heaven, not via the devils domain.

But the Holy Flesh of God in the Form of Jesus took the ultimate punishment for us.  His Holy Blood was shed for us.  But like us, Jesus had the presence of God the Father with Him.  On the Cross when He said, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me.”  At this moment, God allowed His son to feel the absence of Himself.  Jesus did not know this was going to happen as Jesus had forgone knowledge of it when He took flesh so that His suffering at this moment could be perfected for us.    This suffering at this moment was infinitely painful for our Lord and Savior.    At this moment God withdrew Himself not because of the pain God the Father experienced in watching the passion of His son for us, but so that the suffering of His Son could reach the ultimate perfection required for our salvation.    If Jesus would have to suffer all things then we know that in order to suffer all things, He would have to suffer in an infinite way for an infinite benefit.  

In Hell the damned suffer the absolute absence of God, this is a great suffering that is difficult to describe.   God is always God and cannot be anything but God.  So God could not suffer the loss of His own presence in Heaven.  But Jesus on the Cross at the moment of His greatest suffering suffered the absence of the Father for the moment when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me.”  Jesus is God, He was never without the presence of the Father in all His life on the Earth, but those that would face Hell would have the 100% absence of God for all eternity which is an indescribable suffering.   God in His great mercy and love for us would suffer all things for us, even the absence of the presence of God the Father for a moment so that He would truly understand eternal hopelessness.  This was not done so as to commiserate with those suffering in Hell nor was it done to redeem them, for they cannot be redeemed.  But the infinite nature of this suffering which God allowed was the final perfection of the suffering on the Crucifixtion of our Lord..  

God is perfect, all His ways are perfect, even in suffering.  The suffering of His Son whose Passion is a perfect oblation ever present before the throne of God petitioning God's mercy by His blood. 

Legions of Angels Will Defend You

St. Michael the Archangel

The average person has one guardian angel, they can have more as needed, but most of the time, one is more than sufficient to protect the soul because of the strength of the least angel in the Kingdom of God can defend the soul against many many demons.  This is in accordance with the free will of the person being defended.   

The free will of the soul fighting off the evil forces is the key to whether the Angel can be effective to provide God's protection and guidance, because if God will not take back His gift of free will to man, then the Angels certainly can not go against man's God given free will, even if that free will is to reject the Creator. 

The Warrior on the other hand, can call upon a Legion of Angels if needed.   The reason for this, is that the average person, whether they are Christian or not does not delve in the battlefield that the Warrior has been given and takes by choice.  The Warrior's fight is for the salvation of souls and to plead to the Father for the salvation of others.    

Because Warriors seek by the grace of God to take the blackest souls directly from the demon's grasp, the Warriors are high on the devil's hit list.   This is why the Warriors, can, at God's discretion, ask for a Legion's protection.  Every night before the Warrior sleeps, he or she should cross themselves with holy water, and ask God to send an angel to stand guard outside the doors and windows of the home.  

With great love for God and for the souls that God loves, even the most lost soul, the Warrior takes the battlefield of the Cross and pleads at the bottom of the Cross with Jesus hanging in his suffering with the blood pouring from Him.  The Cross of Christ, as is all of His life, Passion, and Resurrection are moments that are NOT in the past, they are NOW.  

The eternal God took flesh, and gave us a permanent oblation of His life, Suffering, Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection that is not placed in the past but the eternal NOW.    When God who is eternal touched the earth by becoming the Holy God Man, even though His flesh was subject to time, He DIVINITY was NOT, and as such as He was equally Man and Equally God, then we have the God given gift of pleading EVERY MOMENT OF THE LIFE OF JESUS for the salvation of one is lost.  

Jesus was our offering to God, so offer to the Father every moment of His life and plead to the Father through the Son for the salvation of the lost.

Offer to the Father the infancy of our Lord Jesus Christ for those about to be aborted, and plead for the conversion of the heart of the Mother to a heart like His Mother's.

Offer to the Father the childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ for those who are physically abused as children and plead to God for the conversion of the abusers. 

Offer to the Father the teenage years of our Lord Jesus Christ for those teenagers who face a world that does not seem to know God anymore.  

Offer to the Father the early years of our Lord Jesus Christ for those who struggle with the loss of a Parent, (He lost Joseph), for those trying to learn a trade or looking for a job, (Jesus had to work to support His Mother)

Offer to the Father the last day that Jesus was in His Mother's home, and their goodbye to each other before He would start His ministry.  Offer this to the Father for parents who have to say goodbye to children by separation, death or other means.  

We must never forget that God is a very efficient God, and nothing He did on the Earth was wasted.  Every step, every breath, everything He did had a purpose geared toward our salvation. 

THE EXCHANGE*

The truth of our Salvation is far more terrifying on this side of the Cross than for the Jews before the Incarnation of God in the flesh.  

When you study His Passion, you only begin to understand the truth of what His Blood truly means to both those who accept Him and those who .....reject Him.

When you have touched the edge of Eternity and faced a second of your own future Judgement you are never quite the same again. This is why those that claim to be mystics and have messages from Jesus or Mary but then try to get WEALTH from these claims of mystical knowledge are LIARS.   When you have touched the edge of heaven, you never fully want the things of the earth again, because everything that sparkles is so dull compared to the beauty of Heaven.

I have sure knowledge of God's existence and He has confirmed every promise made to those who love and also fear Him.  I cannot prove His existence, because that is not how He works.  Do not ask God to provide you proof of His existence, ask Him to provide proof of His love, and then watch what happens in your life.

THE EXCHANGE

In the beginning God created with His word, and it was good.  Satan created with his word, and it was evil.   Adam and Eve listened to the devil and by their free will chose death and sin to come into the world.  Man, through Adam had EXCHANGED intimate relationship with God for a stain of sin and death that would be generational.

Because of the unfaithfulness of His people, God allowed His people to go through many tribulations and suffering in order to bring them to a state of purification.  He did this by the creation of life through a holy act of sexual creation.  (The "begat"s in the bible).  With each "begat",  This purification of the hearts of the Jewish people in one lineage (David) led to a heart so pure that the heart of the woman that had the potential to be a holy vessel for God himself to come into her womb.  At God's intervention, at Mary's conception, God made the chosen vessel of the Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be Immaculate, or free of the original sin of Adam in her Mother's womb.  

At the exact moment that Mary was perfected to be God's vessel of our Salvation, God rained His blessings on the Earth by sending an angel to say to her, "Hail Favored One!", and with her yes, the story of our Salvation begins.  She was always the first to say yes to Jesus.  She was presented with an EXCHANGE of her own, for this unplanned pregnancy could potentially cost her suffering and even her life.  God in His goodness sent her a protector in the form of Joseph her husband.  

At the conception of Jesus in the womb of the Holy Virgin Mary (for God cannot come into any place that is not holy) the EXCHANGE began.

God EXCHANGED heaven for flesh, and at His death on a Cross, God would leave a permanent sign of the way to heaven through the EXCHANGE.  The sign of this exchange is NOT an empty cross, but one with our Lord on it in His suffering.    

When Moses held up the snake on a wooden staff, those that looked upon it were healed.  Jesus even compared His passion to this event. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life."  [John 3:14-15].

Many deny Jesus on the Cross, and protest that He is no longer on the Cross.  True, but if Jesus compared himself to the event in the Old Testament, and did not instruct us to remove the image of the snake on the pole that represented His passion, then we must study the Lord's passion with Jesus ON THE CROSS.    Not to re-crucify our Lord, but to study the ULTIMATE SIGN OF THE EXCHANGE, and find our way to our own final suffering and passion as He wills it.    Only by studying the sign allowed by God which is Jesus ON the Cross can we fully walk the path that is laid before us and drink the cup of suffering that may be presented to us.  

The EXCHANGE  is simple.  A life for a life.  

God came and by His will laid down His life for us, submitting His flesh completely to the will of God, as God allowed His Passion to progress.  He did this not because He had to, not because it was something He could do for His Father, but because the LOVE in His heart brought forth His willingness to lay down His life for all of us. 

 Jesus didn't just begin pouring out His life for us at His Passion, He began pouring himself out at the beginning of His ministry.  Feeding the poor, healing the sick, raising the dead,  showing us not only holy poverty but God's providence in that holy poverty.   In His poverty Jesus paid his bills in holy obedience.  (The temple tax). 

As the shadow of the Cross passes over us, we know that we too must walk our own path to Calvary, not exactly as He did, but as we have been assigned and placed on this Earth and to the best of our abilities.  

Jesus did nothing for Himself, and we see Him teaching and giving all for others, pouring Himself out for others through all His Ministry.  All of this was like the previews to what the final destination would be, but the message from all of it is the same.  

The road to heaven is to pour yourself out for another because of love for God and the one you pour yourself out for.  In order to seek the salvation and the good of another because you love God so much you would not wish to feel the heart of God hurt by the loss of a soul to hell for all time.  Knowing that you can do nothing for God, but as you love Him, you know that His heart will be moved by your love to work in the life and salvation of those you pray for. All of this must be done to seek NOTHING FOR SELF.  We only pray for a few crumbs from the Master's table to fall to us at the judgement.  This is giving a life for a life.  

This is what the Saints knew, and tried to teach us.  Fasting, prayer, works of charity, and with the greatest love of God in the hearts of the Saints, even miracles.   When we see the life of a person completely make a 180 degree turn, and every aspect of the person's life changes to reflect the life God wishes for us, we are witnessing a soul who has accepted the EXCHANGE.    St. Augustine of Hippo is one of these. 

The Saints that embraced Holy Poverty, Obedience, and Chastity, giving all that they had for love alone to God and others, where those that also realized the terrifying aspect of the Cross.

The terrifying aspect of the Cross is that before the moment of His Ascension into Heaven was 100% of God's mercy poured on the Earth in the form of the Blood of His Son.  On the judgement side of the Cross will be the Judgement of God when He returns.  Each of us will be presented with His Passion and Crucifixion in comparison to how we have lived our own Passion in our lives in our book of life.

While we live, we are still on this side of the Cross, the side of His love and Mercy.  We have time to repent and preach to other's the importance of studying the Passion of our Lord on the Cross so that those who would, will accept the gift of the EXCHANGE.

Look at the world.  How many are shirking the EXCHANGE in their lives, leading lives of complete "me, me, me..." selfishness.  This self centeredness leads to so many sins; adultery, lying, stealing, murder, all sexual sins.  How many are on the path of destruction because they wish their own will and not Gods.  

Jesus taught us this also.  

The Innocent must pay for the guilty.

Holy hidden souls are needed that love God and are willing to do much Penance and offer sacrifices for the sake of the Salvation of those who are running headlong into eternal damnation. 

If we have someone we love who is not saved, or living an atheistic life, then if we say we love them, we can offer some small sacrifice and do penance for this soul.   All of this must be completely hidden from the eyes of others, for if we seek acclaim for our holiness, we have cut off our communication with the ONE who can actually do something about the one we love who is lost.     

The time of  seeking mercy by the Holy Passion and Crucifixion of our Lord is a limited proposition.   There will come a time when our Lord will say..."That's it, time's up. "  

Do the sacrifice now, do penance now, for the one you seek to know God, and never give up on those that are lost, even to your last breath.   
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*Inspired by the writing of Bryan Melvin.

Storm the Gates (Part 3)

Nothing will be impossible for you...

This is another experience while I was praying the Stations of the Cross.

This is what I asked for.

Out of love for all the lost souls that fall into hell constantly, that souls not be lost....

I asked God that the gates of Hell be closed for one hour.

I'm praying the stations, crying and begging God for my request.

I get to the 11th Station....

I hear the Lord say to me....

"By her faith, let it be so."

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The hour is late, and many fall into hell, join me in the pleading to the Father through the Passion of His son, so that God will pull from a just, eternal sentence of hell those that can by saved by His infinite mercy.  

For your discernment.