If I am praying God's words of “Let there be” to heal my paralyzed legs, sickness or blindness, I can assist the outcome physically whether my blindness, paralysis or sickness were healed or not. However, when Christ spoke the “Let there be” words to the paralyzed, mute, sick, and blind, all the sick were healed. This physical evidence of healing is important, but is much less powerful than forgiveness of sins. If my sins are not forgiven before I reach death, I may loose eternal life. But my physical paralysis is not as serious and has no impact on my everlasting life even if my paralysis does not heal. Therefore, since I am most serious about my everlasting life, I seek forgiveness of sins directly from Christ to be certain my sins are forgiven before my death.
Those who heard of Christ and proof of His power to forgive sins, did not ask for forgiveness of their sins while remaining in their homes. At the time of Christ, sinners from many countries and even from as far east as the three wise men sought Christ in person. When it comes to a matter as critical as my sins I desire to get absolution; I am as careful as the three wise men to seek Christ from afar regardless of the risk and length of journey, “to worship Him” (Matthew 2:2) and to hear the life giving words, “Your sins have been forgiven” (Luke 7:48).
A sinner is the son who lives worse than a slave. A sinner lives without joy and deprived of his father's love. A sinner has an un-restful heart. Therefore, such a son deprived of his father's personal forgiveness, cannot settle with a mere apology letter. He cannot continue grieving with tears of sorrow on his pillow while reading his father's words of forgiveness that were stated personally to another repenting son and assume that the words were written for him personally. Instead, a repentant son leaves the world around him and hastily rushes to the feet of his father to personally ask forgiveness and to wait eagerly to hear the sweetest voice of reconciliation right there when the hearts are weeping sorrow and joy.
Love is intimately personal pleasures in songs and written words, but requires both a verbal and non-verbal relationship to reach the marital sacrificial forgiving love we yearn. God knows what the repentant heart yearns for and rushes to embrace us close to His Heart. The Prodigal son was living miserably. He first examined his conscience, felt sorrowful, prayed for forgiveness from his father. Finally he got up and went to his father so that he would hear the forgiveness in his own ears and so that he would be received with joy as a dead son who is found alive, as stated in Luke 15:17-20,
But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ So he got up and came to his father.
The prodigal son parable was illustrated by Christ to teach us what sin does to us and how to seek the Father's forgiveness. Part of my sorrow I can verbalize, but most of my sorrow my Father can feel in my heart and my eyes. Likewise, part of my forgiveness I yearn to hear in my ears, but most of my Father's forgiveness I hunger to feel in my heart and see with my own eyes. Likewise, my repentant heart yearns to hear the words of forgiveness in my ears not because of my weak faith, but because I am burdened with my transgressions and weakened physically and spiritually. I feel exhausted as King David expressed, “For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3). I may be able to hear and read, but a repentant sinner and an intimate lover yearn to see and feel in eyes and heart.
Sinners are unholy and imperfect which is synonymous with death, as illustrated by God (who is depicted as the Father of the prodigal son), “for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found” (Luke 15:32). Therefore, as previously discussed, the Everlasting life is a marital union with God as the only possibility to “be Perfect” and “be Holy” as explained by the Father of the prodigal son after the forgiveness, “has begun to live...and has been found.” Therefore, it is so essential to seek to feed the marital union in Baptism by divine nourishment that is prepared by God Himself.
Just in likewise manner to seeking forgiveness from Christ, we must daily continue to feast on Holy, Perfect, and Godly nourishment. Sin is death and sin begins to strain our marital union with God. In like manner, one of a married couple may rely on sporadic personal union with the spouse, but mainly by phone calls and letters. Even though phone calls, electronic communication, and writing letters are important, they are far from the close, personal, and intimate union with the spouse in the marital act. The marriage relationship could continue, but would not be as intimate because of the sporadic marital act and lack of the ongoing intimate nourishment to foster the marital union. Thus, one of the couple may become addicted to pleasure or to other time-consuming activities outside the marriage that would definitely deprive the marital union of nourishment.
In like manner, all the choices and activities that are perceived as deception and betrayal are enemies of the marital union and intimacy. Even when the betrayal and deception are hidden or never discovered, they deprive the marriage of resources to further strengthen the union. Because, no matter how many resources you place into the marital union, there remain endless possibilities to achieve deeper intimate union. In like manner, the goal of the baptismal marital union with God is to achieve the level of “be holy and be perfect,” so that we inherit Everlasting life. But deepening the baptismal intimacy requires ongoing divine nourishment. The unity with the Creator in Baptism by water and the Spirit is a free gift of grace designed and administered by Christ. Therefore, the special needed nourishment to strengthen the bond to the level of holy and perfect requires nourishment of grace prepared and administered personally by Christ.
God knows our need for everlasting life in union with Him after earthly life has ceased. Therefore, God in His divine love begot Himself a human son who is totally God and totally man the LORD Jesus Christ. God knows that we need God's creative words to create from us a new person in a marital union with God. Likewise, God knows our ongoing need to hear that our sins are forgiven when we lack proper judgment. Additionally, God knows that the requirement for such an incredible marital union to be holy and perfect is His personal nourishment, thus; “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).
Matthew 4:24 explains that many crowds followed Christ to receive personal healing,
The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.
Sin makes us stressed and sick. Sin depletes our energy and decreases our immunity. Sin leaves us depressed, helpless, hopeless, discouraged, disillusioned, lost, exhausted, blind, paralyzed, frustrated, weak, and dead as expressed in Psalm 32:3-4,
When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted awayThrough my groaning all day long.For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.
As a sinner, I hear Christ calling me, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). As a sinner, I haste to walk across the earth to seek Christ's forgiveness and see, feel, and hear it in my ears so I may be strengthened and healed. But my sins exhausted me to the point of death. Christ knows my sorrowful heart and my weak body. Therefore, God has warned me in Scripture and through the writing of those in unity with God and through my observing of the life of sinners. Yet I weakened and sinned. The loving Christ wants us back, because he “lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Therefore, Christ established His Church in an inseparable baptismal marital union saying, “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Furthermore, Christ breathed on His Church's chosen shepherds, gave them His authority that was given to His human Persona and His Holy Spirit. Thus, it is Christ acting in the invisible Holy Spirit speaking through the validly authorized visible shepherds. As a consequence, we can always receive Christ's divine graces administered by Christ to have the divine “Let there be life” as stated in John 20:22-23,
He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
Furthermore, Christ assigned one main shepherd above all – His one Church – so that it signifies the one voice of Christ unite to His one Church forming one baptismal marital union. His Church acts as one visible spouse in handing out the keys only to Peter as stated in Matthew 16:19,
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
Then again Jesus expressed the authority of Christ's one Church over other shepherds and the entire sheep as stated in John 21:15-17, “Tend My lambs,”…“Shepherd My sheep,”... “Tend My sheep.” Christ left us one authorized Church united to Him in Holy and Perfect baptismal Marital union to tend our needs and nourish our baptismal marital union with Divine Bread and Divine Drink of the Everlasting Life. The priests who are Christ's authorized persona are an incredible grace and they represent holy and perfect love. This is the only way possible to hear Christ Himself tending to the validly baptized marital spouse who is one with the Divine.
We seek the forgiveness of the iniquities that strain our baptismal marital union with God. We seek forgiveness to repair the wounds and restore the harmonious unity between the visible human and the invisible God – the baptismal marital union. Therefore, to heal our invisible soul we seek the visible priest who speaks with the voice of the invisible Christ; the priest speaks the words of reconciliation as the earthly Persona of invisible Christ. In seeking to be Holy, we lovingly offer all of our two copper coins of poverty to express how much we appreciate God's generous gift of His Total. We need holy boundaries to train us; we need the sheep to follow the way to God's pasture, but the unity of baptismal marital love gives us immeasurably more. Since God gives us all His holy magnificence, we should be encouraged to give all of our possessions and offerings even though they are minute in comparison to God’s gift. The invisible fruits of our baptismal marital union with God must be expressed in our choices and in every aspect of our life to give evidence to whom we are married to as taught by Christ in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” In their choices, words and actions, those who are validly baptized in water and Spirit reflect the invisible Shining Light of the baptismal marital union with God. We are in baptismal marital union with Christ daily, hourly, and in every split of every second. We ought to do what we can to strengthen our baptismal marital union and fend off visible and invisible powers that work to sour our marital baptismal union.
Christ established for us the proper divine nourishment of visible bread and wine to become the True Body and Blood of Christ. The Eucharist is the most appropriate divine nourishment for our union with the Divine. The Eucharist was graced to us by Christ who divinely baptized us in marital unity with the invisible God. Therefore, the valid authorized Holy Mass celebration of the Holy Eucharist is the ongoing celebration of our baptismal marital union orchestrated by our Groom, Christ. In the valid Baptism, our parents, sponsors, and parishioners celebrate our marriage with earthly food and music as best as they can in welcoming us as new members into our new one family unit with the divine and with one another. However, in the valid and authorized Holy Mass celebration, it is God our Father who is celebrating our marital union as heirs and coheirs in the Divine family. The Mass feast rejoices with psalms, Gloria, hymns, the teaching of God through the prophets, the Apostles, and Christ. Then, in an even grander celebration, the Mass Feast re-enacts the birth, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Christ. In this heavenly feast, the invisible Christ feeds us, through His visible authorized persona, the heavenly nourishment prepared by God the Father. Then finally, we receive the blessing, love, joy, and peace in the one name of our family, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit One God.
Christ renews our baptismal marital union with an ongoing eternal divine nourishment to feed the Divine within us; the food is His own divine Body and Blood in union with God. Thus, our rebirth of the divine and human union can now nourish on the Christ who is God. We are not limited to reading His words but we feed on His Flesh and His Blood, the source of holiness, perfection, love, and everlasting life. The difference between limiting our nourishment of the baptismal marital union to fasting, praying, praising, and good deeds, and nourishing our union by feasting on the Heavenly divine True Flesh and True Blood food of the Eternal life is so vast that the difference is beyond comprehension. Our understanding is so limited that we cannot possibly know on our own what nourishment is best or what we can afford to prepare to properly nourish our union with God; only Christ who is God can understand the nourishment we require. Thus, the holy Mass is the ongoing marital feast and divine nourishment to celebrate as the One Family in heaven, earth, past and present, divinely blended in marital baptismal union with God the Father. Can you excuse a day when you are not a worthy participant of the Mass Feast of miracles!