God left us

wait, is that what Gabriel told Mary? is that what Mt1.23 says? oh wait. no. Immanuel. "God with us." so why would Christ come and go? why would He make the most profound military attack in all of Creation, promise to lead us into all Truth and to be with us until the end of the age, then high-tail it outta here? why would He tell us He loves us so much that He would die for us, then leave us on our own to figure this life (and even Him) out?

yes, He gave us His Spirit, yes, He gave us His Written Word, but how is that any different than what He did for mankind through the Jews previously? Isn't the awesome love of God exemplified by Him descending from heaven to live side-by-side with us, teaching and growing and loving and leading us? isn't Jesus' Great Work to redeem mankind and restore us to God? didn't He unite us-- who we are-- with Divinity? does our humanness count for nothing anymore?

if so, why don't we just POP! out of the physical when we become Christians? what's the point of living life on this earth anymore?

i think our physical selves do count for something. i think God made Man and loves Man and works to reconcile Man to Himself. He can't love us if He hates what He made us. Yes, our flesh has been corrupted by our own doing and we need to be purified and purged of selfishness and division, but we are still Man and God still cares about our physical selves (why else would He desire so desperately for us to care for the hungry, naked, poor and help-/defenseless?) and our broken selves will eventually give way to our glorified bodies (in the style of our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ).

so this brings us to a Physical Church (because we are still physical even though the Spirit of God has given us new life) where God Himself teaches and guides us and explains Himself to us when we just dont understand. again, we believers, His Body, have to be physically united as long as we are physical creatures (it just makes sense) and He promised to teach us Truth. how does He do that? how does He teach us if He is not with us as we are (His Spirit and Sacred Scripture are not living, breathing people)?

it's simple, really. He ascended to the Right Hand of the Father, but not before anointing His peeps to live in His stead. not just teach, not just talk about, but to live in place of Him. He gave us the Magisterium! His Apostles speak His Words, perform His Acts and live by His Spirit. Heck, they wrote the New Testament, dont you think what they did would count for something as far as what we should do goes? doesnt it make sense that, since, "those who hear [them] hear [Him]," their teachings would be pretty perfect?

and why would their teaching end with them? well, it doesnt. 2Tim2.2 "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." succession! four tiers of succession in that verse alone. and that's not a new thing as Mt23.2 shows us. and v.3 shows us that, NO MATTER WHAT, we have to do what His successors tell us to do.

when i was struggling with the idea of God, and especially when i was a fallen believer too scared to come back, i would cry, cry, cry to Jesus, asking for Him to make Himself physically present to me so i could just talk to Him. i would plead, "You were a man! You know what it is to need a face to talk to and a person to touch! please!" i found that He later answered that prayer by bringing ywam modesto and new hope to me, specifically through Jimmy, as my Confessor and mentor.

James says to confess our sins, one to another (Jm5.16) and we're told elsewhere to encourage each other daily (Heb3.13). we're constantly admonsished to pray for each other and i ask for it nearly every day from my friends. why? because Christ is physically present when we are physcially, emotionally and spiritually there for each other, as a part of His Body.

there is life and freedom and power in hearing the words "Your sins are forgiven" by a man in persona Christi and that's why God has allowed us, Man, to share in His role of Mediator, Intercessor, Reconciler and Forgiver. just as there is none who baptizes with water and the Holy Spirit but Jesus Christ (Jn1.33) but we are told to "baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt28.19) "in the name [power/authority] of Jesus Christ" (Act2.38), so too are we given the power and authority [right] to forgive and intercess on behalf of Jesus, for Jesus, with Jesus, by Jesus (Jn20.23).

then, of course, there's His Word. yes, Sacred Scripture, but that's only half of it. what Catholics call Sacred Tradition, or as i see it, Jesus' life lived out every Sunday, is what we've been looking at. these Sacraments are physical avenues that Jesus chose to physically give us to physically receive His Physical and Spiriutal blessings.

i'll start off by briefly addressing the idea of the "traditions of men!" and why Catholics aren't rebelling against God by living out the (infallible) teachings of the Church (can Jesus teach error? Mt16.19, Lk10.16-- if they can bind and loose, if Jesus is heard through their words, can it ever be error?).

in Mt15 and Mk7, Jesus was talking to the religious leaders about their traditions (not Scipturally based) that they would do in order to worm their way out of doing the Will of God. and that's the difference.

every Sacrament, every Tradition that the Catholic Church teaches and practices is taken directly from a gift of Grace that God gave us and Christ Himself completed for us-- baptism, confession, marriage, anointing the sick-- all for His glory, all for our growth in relationship with Him (that's not to say that people havent gotten the wrong idea and have taken advantage of the Sacraments as an idea of "fire insurance" ["sinner's prayer"/once-saved-always-saved, anyone?], but that's not official Church teaching).

the Word lived out every Sunday at Mass. Heaven touching earth; angel and saint-- both living and fully alive-- worshipping the God of Creation and His Anointed, side-by-side. that's what Revelations is. didnt you know that? yes, it's history. yes, it's prophecy. yes, it's poetic. yes, it's cryptic. it's also a parallel of how to-- and what happens when-- we worship God through Jesus and His completion of the Shadow of the Spiritual, ie, the Law. (for a more detailed explanation of this ancient idea [is 2000 years considered ancient?] see Dr Scott Hahn's book The Lamb's Supper). now that's a gift-- experiencing Heaven in our bodies now.

i would say His greatest Phsycial Presence (Present), on top of all of that, is His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity present in all of Its broken-for-us, faithful-submission-to-God glory that is the Eucharist (you might know it as Communion or the Lord's Supper). The Power of God, the One thing that could unite our fallen selves to the Divine, Christ on the Cross, is given to us in pure, unadulterd love, holding nothing back. more than giving us a mere symbol of His Power of and over Death in and by Life, He gives us Himself to eat, to take into ourselves, to receive His Infinite Love and Strength, as a Bride her Bridegroom, for His glory, in rememberance of Him, as our Strength and Shield and Redeemer and Lover and King and Friend.

just as the Jews were required to eat the actual flesh of the sacrificial lamb, so too God loving requires that we eat the Actual Flesh of the Sacrificial Lamb, Who takes away the sins of the world. It's the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven. It's God Himself offering... Him... self... to us for His Life and Love and Power in all of Its glory. It's Jesus Christ in the Flesh!

i think our problem is (as it has always been) a lack of trust. we short-change what God has told us because it's too hard or it's too hard to comprehend. yes, Jesus gave us His Spirit and His Written Word, just as we are His Spiritual Body, but as long as we are physical people, Jesus has also made us His Physical Body which, as He promised, He will always be Physically Present for, "to the very end of the age." (Mt28.20).

so if you hear about anything Jesus gave us (especially Himself) being only spiritual (or even worse, merely symbolic), remember-- He loves us to much to do that.