XANDER DREAM
Demons trying to kill us ("needle press")
Grandma hand sewing "happy" = needle pain transfer "what are you doing"
Escape route from purgatory = "it's right above hell, where do you think the fire comes from"
Remember the huge dark room. "Do you want a light" "...yes"
Ended up in backyard??? Spring flowers & sunrise. He was awestruck; "is this what the world is like"?
The whole dream we had been growing closer in trust btw. That needle thing was a turnpoint; he wanted me to help just so he could survive? But ended up holding my hand
I remember hugging him soon after we survived, he had lost his "shirt" and the closeness was shocking
That too was a turnpoint because after a minute he pulled me very close, like he was admitting not just his relief but his fear and his care all at once, in the gesture
I know I said "I love you" then, but with total purity, like a simple acknowledgement of that caring truth. It wasn't romantic, but it was sincere & real and considering we had almost just been murdered together, it needed to be said.
Right then, right before we bailed on "hell", suddenly he kissed me??? And I was shocked because he was SO SOFT.
He was also warm, which was totally unexpected. I wondered if it was because he had spent so much time in this purgatory space, or if he had fire within him as an element somehow. Very unusual.
(side note = this weirdly made me miss Phlegmoni. I haven't seen him in too long and I only kissed him once, in the emergency room. But he's the only other "warm" beloved i can think of offhand)
So yeah my thoughts are PREOCCUPIED today.
GOOD. I MISS THIS.
Then as I was getting ready for the day, suddenly mentally I was IN THE KITCHEN WITH MISTY?????
Getting ready for the day with HER.
She had her coffee, good-naturedly teasing me about my monotonous diet, then after a thought, admitting that it probably was really helpful for managing stress– when everything else in life was unpredictable, knowing exactly what you were going to eat, and actually enjoy, was a much needed oasis of solace & stability. She laughed and said that's what her morning coffee was, considering it now
At some point I remember saying I needed to get her to morning Mass before she goes to work
In any case this happened out of the blue and it was surprisingly domestic & sweet???
ALSO unexpectedly revealed a bizarre dysphoria– I'm not used to being the "smaller" girl in a relationship??? Our brain doesn't know what to do or how to act when WE'RE not the obvious protector/ masculine role?? I felt our "inner image" actually adjusting to make us more tautly muscular and boxy, not as sickly thin as we still admittedly are IRL.
This topic deserves much thought soon
Evening =
We are apparently allergic to something in the melatonin gummies??? Every time we take one we get hives. It's frightening.
Ah well. Now we know NOT to try anymore. We'll donate the rest to the neighbors.
Listening to more audio reading of old entries while we did night chores
This is SUCH A GODSEND it is waking up our heart big time
...it's really making me miss Mimic, actually
The biggest consequence so far though =
It pinged Xenophon.
I was standing in the kitchen and it said her name and suddenly she was there, hesitant but real, to my left. Barely visible but there.
The... whoever I was, wanted to ignore her completely.
On the bike later the same thing happened. She showed up at a ping, and was ignored. But she called us out on it.
"I know you want to pretend I'm not here. And that's okay."
She forgave us. She didn't hate us but she was so, so sad and lost.
She just wants her father. And... and the thriskefoni won't let him exist anymore.
Oh he DOES exist. He actually DID push through to front for about two seconds while Xennie was there, but he got shoved right back out– or rather, shut off. Like he was a lightswitch. It was terrifying.
But he and his daughter both come from a timelkne that the religious voices absolutely refuse to acknowledge or accept or ever integrate.
I think that's killing us all.
Two huge things I noticed.
1. Jay was a FATHER. He wanted a FAMILY. In contrast, the female cores are ALL CELIBATE VIRGINS. So this is an INSURMOUNTABLE CLASH we are dealing with.
2. Xenophon does not deserve to be "ignored out of existence" regardless. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I think that, in order to truly "bring her back", into THIS timeline, I will need to decide to be her parent again. I need, in this life, to consciously choose what "I" did on July 7th, all those years ago.
...Something tells me that's what I need to do for Infinitii, too– and that may be inextricably tied into Xenophon's fate here. Infi is, quite literally, Xenophon's "mother" in that sense. We CANNOT ignore or deny that either. But I don't know how to grapple with all this yet, or properly. God give us wisdom.
Remember Laurie FURIOUS at the thriskefoni who were "using prayer to run away" from reality, or memory, or relationship. They REFUSED to type about all this and Laurie had to actually SHOUT at them "don't you dare, you take twenty seconds right now and answer me" before they "waved it all off" as unimportant & unreal because "I have to pray instead". Thats heartkilling hypocrisy and they don't even see it.
No wonder we haven't been journaling in months. Years, maybe, at this point. They're using this neglect as a form of identity annihilation. Its why they're now skipping therapy appointments too. "Nothing matters but religion." But don't you remember how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees? Stop acting like the other half of the Greatest Commandment doesn't exist, because it would mean that WE exist, too.
Before bed =
THANK YOU GOD WE FINALLY GOT A GOOD SPOTIFY NIGHT!!!
Apparently "quirky indie rock Friday night"– with a lot of great prog jazz mixed in– is an unexpected goldmine, haha. GOOD NOW WE KNOW WHERE TO LOOK FOR MORE
It just hit me =
AM I IN A "PRIESTLY ROLE" FOR THE "VILLAIN" OUTSPACERS???? what with "interceding for them before God" in some sense???
"Christ came to call sinners & heal the contrite of heart" and isn't that EXACTLY what I'm moved to do for them too? Would it be too bold to say that Christ IS working through me with this? Because I WANT Him to. This is what a Christian SHOULD do, both outside AND inside. And I WANT to do it.
It's all for Him, with Him, in Him, by Him, etc. All the glory is to God alone, and yet we are blessed with endless joy in the process, even with the agony, even with the countless scars that must be carried for love. But isn't that the heart of headspace? Amor et sacrificium. The wounds hold the light of heaven. The pain proves the love. And I NEED that like I need to breathe.
God help me to love those broken hearts all back into Your Life.
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I realized something as I was, admittedly, complaining to God about how I felt so exhausted having to "reread" Genesis so slowly when I "really wanted to learn about the priesthood."
He told me, how am I supposed to understand what comes later if I don't properly understand the beginning? And besides, where do you think the priesthood started?
Thats when it hit me.
JESUS is THE priest of all time. He is the HIGH PRIEST OF HEAVEN, in the "order of Melchizedek"– an eternal and heavenly priesthood, one untouched by sin!!
And ADAM was a priest too– BEFORE the Fall! How? Because priests are "bridges between heaven and earth"; priests exist to COMPLETE THE RELATIONSHIP between God and man, because the priests purpose is LOVE– it is GIFT, it is TRUE SACRIFICE, which DOESN'T REQUIRE DEATH!!!! Adam, as a priest, was to offer HIMSELF and ALSO ALL OF CREATION "BACK TO GOD" in LOVE and GRATITUDE.
Remember that the "only offering in God's Kingdom" as the Jews say will be the "THANK OFFERING"– the deathless, bloodless offering of BREAD & WINE = which is the EUCHARIST!!!!
Jesus's bloody death on the Cross was a SIN OFFERING, and it FULFILLED THAT ENTIRE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM so that DEATH WAS NO LONGER INVOLVED in sacrifice to God!!
Christ is the NEW ADAM, and therefore ALSO a priest, and He offers the THANK offering, which is "LIVING SACRIFICE"!!!
THAT'S WHAT ADAM WAS MEANT TO DO!! PRIESTS ARE TO OFFER LIFE, AND LOVE, TO GOD WHO IS LIFE AND LOVE!!! And this act of offering SANCTIFIED EVERYTHING. The priests are the appointed means by which God Makes EVERYTHING HOLY.
And that is what the CHURCH is meant to do NOW in the world.
So, before the Fall, Adam WAS a priest. I don't quite understand how yet, but I think Bishop Barron or Scott Hahn had some profound teaching on this that we heard back in 2024, when we were a "baby Catholic" and had NO IDEA what to do with that information yet. So we will need to find it and review it now. But I will pray for the Holy Spirit to guide me there. I was very humbled today, with how foolishly I was being impatient with God's slow but steady and sure process. Forgive me Lord. Thank You so much for deigning to teach me at ALL. Please make me more receptive and docile and pure and simple and meek, with grateful joy and love,as You guide me step by step, little by little, perfectly so, every single day. Amen.
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ASCENSION DAY 2
(continuing from yesterday)
⚠️⚠️⚠️☠☠☠ "Every one of us is born with grace missing, because Adam & Eve chose to enter into a personal relationship with Satan, and look at the fruit of that... if we choose to engage with conversation with the serpent, then we will experience the same fruit as they did"
"The Voice of God is the most clear, for each one of us, in Sacred Scripture"
"At the moment of conception, original sin is passed down to us. Original sin means we are born without the gift of God's supernatural life, which is a gift we would have received if Adam & Eve had not forfeited it through their turning away from God in disobedience."
"They could not pass down original grace because they no longer had it; therefore we cannot inherit it"
"Original sin isn't something we've done; its an ABSENCE of this original grace in our souls"
"Baptism TAKES AWAY THAT ABSENCE and FILLS US UP WITH GOD'S GRACE. Baptism puts something there that was NOT there before. Because our human parents cannot give that gift of grace to us, GOD gives it to us through the sacramental life of the CHURCH (Father & Mother parallel still!!)"
⚠️ "DISOBEDIENCE has corrupted our human nature"
⭐⭐‼️‼️‼️ "Baptism DOESN'T PREVENT OR REMOVE the FRUIT of original sin (concupiscence, suffering, death), but we STILL GET [BACK] THE GIFT OF SUPERNATURAL LIFE from Baptism, which is something Adam & Eve could not give to us"
[This is SO IMPORTANT and yet SO DIFFICULT to grasp. I still struggle with it. Somehow, being born without grace STILL WOUNDS US PERMANENTLY?? At least, in THIS life. We STILL have the "old man" IN us, even AFTER Baptism, as Saint Paul so vividly attests to, and which my priest has personally warned me!
"Because of original sin, "the good [we were supposed to inherit] isn't there" [anymore; there is an "emptiness" where grace should have been– Adam & Eve HAD it, but LOST it by disobedience, so now WE "lost" it too, and have NO WAY to "get" it other than from God the Giver Himself]"
The Catechism tells us that our first parents were created in an original “state of holiness and justice,” meaning that they were in friendship with God and were in harmony with each other and creation around them.
[Justice applies TO that harmony???]
[Was EVERYTHING "holy" in the beginning???]
As long as they obeyed God, they remained in friendship with Him and were free from all suffering and death.
[Disobedience is therefore effectively SYNONYMOUS with death & suffering!!! That's CRITICAL because God isn't just LIFE, God is REALITY, and rebelling against either of those things is inevitably going to end in catastrophe]
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 ‼️‼️‼️‼️...the Catechism states that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, MUST freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is DEPENDENT on his Creator, and SUBJECT to the Laws of Creation AND to the moral norms that govern the USE of freedom” (CCC 3986).
[NOTE THIS WELL and give it SERIOUS THOUGHT]
[LIMITS, LAWS, NORMS + SUBJECT, DEPENDENT, GOVERNED]
[The choice of the TotKoGaE REFUSES all this???]
[Consider how TERRIFYING the LACK of these things really is though!!! No limits means no form, no fixed shape, no definition! No laws means no order, no structure, no predictability! No norms means no patterns, no coherence, no systems! To be subject to nothing (except ironically "yourself") means you are unmoored, unanchored, without any guiding light or defining contexts! To be radically independent means that you have no true relationships, to be cut off from community, forced to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining! To be ungoverned means you live in a state of anarchy and chaos, uncontrolled and unrestricted, and yet ironically a slave to your own wild whims. WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT THIS. And yet, everyone still chooses it, every time they sin. That's existentially horrifying.]
[Sin effectively UNMAKES CREATION. It tries to unravel God's Good Work. Sin removes limits, breaks laws, upsets norms, refuses subjection, defies dependence, and resists government. Sin tries to overthrow God's Kingdom and set up its own, which is laughably ironic, because sin hates to be ruled but sin wants to rule everything else. Sin wants to be "free", but only to be its own prisoner. What else would you call such a miserable state, in which you are in unending protest and hateful offense against reality & life Himself? When the Rule of Reality is TRUTH, when the Law is LOVE, when the Norm is GOODNESS, what will your repudiation accomplish but misery & destruction? It can't do anything else. You spurn the very limits that safeguard from harmful extremes; you think that dependence is an affront to your pride– you abhor subjection because you cannot bear to be "less than" anyone else, and the mere thought of being governed makes you feel like an animal. Really? Would you be any less of a beast without governance? Let yourself run wild, and see where your humanity goes. Go ahead and be independent, when your very body is dependent on the rest of creation to exist at all. Just try to avoid being subject to anything, when gravity & inertia & fluid dynamics & all sorts of hidden natural forces are affecting your physical form in each moment?
I'm rambling. This hurts so much to think about.
It all boils down to this = Sin hates GOD'S control, even in passive ways, because it wants SELF to be in control. Sin hates vulnerability and sensitivity. It shuns accountability, and scorns responsibility. Sin will do anything to escape the threats of openness and honesty and purity and humility, those things that make humans "weak" and "inferior" and "helpless". Sin wants POWER & DOMINANCE; it wants glory & honor & authority; Sin wants what the devil wants= sin wants to be God. And so, sin wants to kill & annihilate everything that BELONGS to God, because He "stands in the way" of sin's own self-deification. This includes reality itself, as unbelievably scary as that is. But that's how insane sin, and Satan, really IS– since the cosmos, and especially mankind, reflects its Creator and His goodness, then it must all be destroyed, murdered and erased, for the ego of evil to be victorious. Thank God that can never actually happen, but that won't stop hell from trying... at least, until Christ returns as the TRUE VICTOR and sets the record straight for eternity. So DON'T SIN!!!!]
...Humanity’s disobedience to God’s [moral] Law [is what] constitutes our first sin... What is important is [not a literal fruit, but the literal fact] that Adam and Eve DID sin, and all of mankind subsequently inherits their fallen state.
There are two extremes to avoid here... we want to avoid reading the Adam and Eve story as straightforward history... we also want to avoid the view that sees these early chapters of Genesis as nothing but myth—that is, as only symbolic, with no reality behind them... rather, these early chapters of Genesis narrate real history but in a symbolic way.
The story of Adam and Eve relates something that REALLY HAPPENED at the dawn of human history; it affirms a primeval event... which is recounted in a deeply symbolic, poetic, and figurative way. [The FACT that this story is SCRIPTURE means that, in ANY case, it is Divine] Revelation [and therefore] gives us the certainty of FAITH that [regardless of the manner in which it is told, the historical & theological TRUTH is that] the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents."
🌟🌟🌟🌟‼️‼️‼️‼️ "We cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of CHRIST"!!
🌟🌟🌟🌟‼️‼️‼️‼️ The story of exile, along with the deep desire for return experienced by those exiled, is one replayed throughout salvation history. [It is ultimately] the story of a home lost and regained [and it] is a prominent theme chronicled throughout [all of Scripture]... From the Fall, when Adam and Eve are exiled from the Garden of Eden, to the experience of exile and return that characterizes the lives of Abraham, Moses, and David, to the great and terrible experience of exile and return suffered during the Babylonian captivity... from the story of the Prodigal Son, who experiences his own [painfully personal] exile and return, even to Jesus Himself, Who is "exiled" beyond the city walls to DIE on the cross, only to RETURN [to both life and to Jerusalem] in glory. With His Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and the sending of His Spirit, Jesus REVERSES the pattern of exile that began with Adam and Eve, [FINALLY & PERMANENTLY] ENDING humanity’s long exile from the Presence of God.
[The ASCENSION is the ACTUAL "RETURN HOME," when Jesus brings humanity back into the Presence of God through His Own Humanity, which CHANGES human nature for those who are "reborn in Him" and so CAN "inherit" original grace again??? And the Holy Spirit is our PROMISE that we ARE going home, once WE die– but die TO exile, this time??? Man I need to PONDER this!!]
[...My heart says that this pattern NEEDS to be a central element in the SPHERES, for the sake of reflecting this central Truth of God.]
⚠️⚠️⚠️‼️‼️‼️⭐⭐⭐ ...the narrative does not simply say that Cain’s offering is not accepted, but that Cain AND his offering are not accepted. The text implies that there is something wrong with the PERSON making the offering, not simply with the offering itself. Indeed, this is the point made by God Who tries to encourage a despondent Cain: “If YOU do well, will YOU not be accepted?”. The focus of God’s admonition is NOT Cain’s offering, but rather Cain HIMSELF.
The lesson is unmistakable: it is the moral disposition of the one making the offering— of which the offering is but a gift and sign— that decides the [true, spiritual] worth of the sacrifice.
[Gift = of self? Sign = of their disposition?]
🌟🌟🌟🌟‼️‼️‼️ God is NOT appeased by offerings, no matter how valuable, but rather He seeks an UPRIGHT HEART in those who OFFER sacrifice.
🌟🌟🌟‼️‼️‼️This lesson, at the beginning of humanity’s story, will be VITAL for correctly understanding the NATURE OF WORSHIP and the God Who IS worshiped.
[It ALSO reveals WHICH "god" we are worshipping– the TRUE God of justice & truth & life & love, or the FALSE "god" of selfishness & pride & grasping & control, the "god" of self, of ego, the ultimate idol. When we keep our best for ourselves, we're effectively "offering it" TO ourselves. We refuse to sacrifice, so we refuse to LOVE, instead choosing "self-love" which is not love at all, but a clever disguise of spiritual self-abuse & death. We were MADE for love+sacrifice, and until we do that, we will be negating our own existence and living in abominable sin, which– ironically– will destroy everything we have, and devour us like prey.]
[I wonder if THIS is the real delineation between true worship & pagan worship. Do pagan rites revolve around mechanical, obligatory duty? Or violence & power? Or self-gain & personal benefit? Historically, ONLY the Hebrew religion was founded on a RELATIONSHIP with God, a Covenant of LOVE, in which animal sacrifices were NOT the point, NOR desired, but only required as atonement for sins, which BROKE relationship, so that NO ONE HAD TO DIE and God could DWELL WITH THEM. No other religion is like this! No other "gods" love humanity! No other "gods" desire to be LOVED by humanity, not from need but FROM love, from sheer joy & generosity of grace! No other "gods" want to SHARE THEIR LIFE with humanity!!! You see the fundamental difference at the very foundation? Of course Israel's worship would be just as radically unique! Worship OF God REFLECTS God, and God wants LOVING OBEDIENCE to His Laws of JUSTICE & MERCY. Animal sacrifices aren't the point. A "sacrifice of PRAISE & THANKSGIVING" is. That's what Jesus teaches us, AND fulfills, AND EMBODIES.]
[But don't forget the core issue, pun intended. You CANNOT worship God as He desires & deserves UNLESS you have an "upright heart"! This is BECAUSE He doesn't mandate "mechanical" service so much as he requires RIGHTEOUSNESS. The LAW comes BEFORE the sacrificial system, even in Eden!! The point isn't burning things, or killing things, or anything destructive whatsoever. THAT'S paganism. God wants LIFE & GIFT & LOVE. God wants blood NOT spilled but SHARED, as family! God wants offerings not for their own sake, but for the sake of what they do for the offerer! They are meant to move one to repentance, or to be an expression of joyful gratitude! Worship of GOD actually inherently involves OUR sanctification!!! THAT'S what glorifies Him & pleases Him the most!]
[SCRIPTURE HAS SO MUCH TO SAY ON THIS POINT IT'S ASTOUNDING = ]
("For I desire and delight in steadfast loyalty (faithfulness in the covenant relationship), rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.")
("For You do not delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. My only sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart (broken with sorrow for sin, thoroughly penitent), such, O God, You will not despise.")
("Sacrifice and meal offering You do not desire, nor do You delight in them; rather, You have opened my ears and given me the capacity to hear and obey Your Word; Burnt offerings and sin offerings You do not require.")
("“What good are your multiplied sacrifices to Me without your repentance?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of your burnt offerings of rams, And the fat of well-fed cattle without your obedience; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls or lambs or goats offered without repentance.")
("Then Samuel said, "Does the LORD take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as He does in obedience? Certainly, obedience is far better than sacrifice; paying attention to His Voice is far better than the fat of (countless) rams.")
("Go and learn what this Scripture means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION (for those in distress), AND NOT (animal) SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call (to repentance) the (self-proclaimed) righteous (who see no need to change); but sinners (those who recognize their sin and actively seek forgiveness).”
("But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE MERCY, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.")
("To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice (for wrongs repeatedly committed)... Doing what is right and fair pleases the LORD more than any offering... HE who does righteousness and justice is (himself) more acceptable to the LORD than he who offers a sacrifice.")
("With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? ...He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD (actually) require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?")
("Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard... Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living! Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions like a stream that never dries up!")
("I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me... The only sacrifice I truly want is for you to be thankful to Me and to keep your word to Me... Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and give the Almighty all that you promised... Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay/ fulfill/ perform your vows to the Most High!")
("...Love God with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”)
("For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.")
("Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight. Then I said, ‘Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll: I have come to do Your will, O God!'")
(“I delight & desire to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”)
🌟🌟🌟‼️‼️💔❤ If God cares for humanity, why does he let people kill each other? For the same reason he lets people love each other. He loved us so much that he gave us the tremendous gift of free will.
🌟🌟🌟‼️‼️‼️💔💔💔 God wants human beings to choose Him freely. He does NOT want to force himself on us ("I stand at the door and knock"). God gave us wills so we would be able to experience some of the joy He knows as God. This joy comes from the Divine Love, and this type of Love REQUIRES freedom. Freedom [to Love therefore necessarily] involves the ABILITY to FREELY GIVE one’s SELF to another.
‼️‼️‼️💔💔💔Not even God can force us to love Him because the words “force” and “love” are mutually contradictory. Man cannot be free to LOVE God without having, at the same time, the freedom to REJECT Him.
[A vital "side note"= this is why I detest most of what I see of "selfship culture". The prevailing idea seems to be, "do whatever you want! MAKE whoever you want love you! It's all for YOU!" Actually NO IT'S NOT, because love NEVER FORCES. And even if you're "just imagining" how anyone you could ever desire would unquestionably love you, without being asked, without being courted, without any struggles or flaws, then you're ABUSING LOVE ITSELF. It might sound crazy to say, but you NEED to respect at least the REALITY of free will even in fictional characters. The moment you start acting like "any character I like MUST & WILL love me because I WANT them to," you're corrupting your own moral character & perspective of human dignity, and that "romantically arrogant" demeanor WILL bleed into your "IRL" relationships. Selfshipping should NEVER be "for fun" and I HATE that most people DO see it as "just a game", because you're playing with people's hearts. Fictional or not, there MUST be respect & vulnerability & the selfless willingness to be rejected or unfit for someone you care for. If you don't give them the REAL OPPORTUNITY TO FREELY CHOOSE, then how could you ever claim that they love you? And then how could what you feel be love?]
⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️💔💔💔 With this freedom [to reject God's love, i.e. to refuse to love God] comes the possibility of evil, which God HATES but does allow [in paradoxical "justice"– evil is the inevitable consequence of rejecting love, and if God wants to respect our free will, which He does, He must allow it to play out freely as well]. It is this free will that enables some people to embrace evil. This can lead to sin, including murder, even mass murder. Rest assured, however, that neither iniquities nor injustices will go unpunished in the eternal courtroom (Mt 12:36-37; Rom 2:6-11).
[WHY DOES EVERYONE SEEM TO USE "MAYBE" LANGUAGE FOR SIN????? "Invite" punishment, "possible" evil, "can" lead to sin– NO. THESE THINGS DO, AND WILL, AND MUST, AND ALWAYS HAPPEN BY JUSTICE AND NATURAL/ MORAL LAW!!! If you don't love God, you WILL commit evil! There ISN'T another option! If you embrace evil, you WILL sin!! The two are inextricable!! If you break the Covenant, you WILL be punished!! That's the legally binding outcome!! IT'S CUT AND DRY. GOD'S MERCY DOES NOT NEGATE HIS JUSTICE. THERE IS NO "WIGGLE ROOM" OR "ALLOWANCE" FOR SIN & EVIL & REBELLION & REFUSING TO LOVE. THEY ARE THEIR OWN PUNISHMENT. THEY BRING DEATH IN AND OF THEMSELVES.]
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ASCENSION DAY 3
The events of Genesis took place thousands of years ago in an era when people did not record linear history as we do... Nonetheless, the meaning of the story does not change.
🌟🌟🌟‼️‼️‼️When we read the Bible, we always need to begin with the literal sense: the intended meaning of the author. We then consider [each of] the three spiritual senses of the text: how it relates to JESUS, to OUR lives, and to the FUTURE.
🌟‼️ We always need to approach the Bible with an attitude of FAITH. If we do so, we will not get tripped up by passages that seem difficult to understand.
[We have limited, distorted, ignorant, feeble powers of understanding, just by being mortal creatures. We can barely understand the world we live in, all things considered, even with our science & math & philosophy & physics, because we don't even understand those fields of study properly! Now consider that the Bible is THE DIVINE WORD. You really think we're going to be able to understand THAT on our own, when we can't even understand laughter or sleep or blood types or brains or or sex? I'd argue that such things are only "understandable" IN God, and that's the problem our secular society cannot overcome. They stumble over God's mysteries in His world just as they stumble over His mysteries in His Word.
Like the Epistles say, you CANNOT interpret prophecy– and therefore effectively ALL of Scripture, because it ALL prophesies CHRIST– by human ideas or opinions, because IT IS ALL INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. Therefore it actually objectively CANNOT be properly understood by mortal minds! We NEED the Holy Spirit to guide & teach & explain & enlighten us, IN HIS WAYS & IN HIS TIME. But we cannot receive His gifts without grace, which we get primarily through the Sacraments, and yet, Jesus says "only the humble soul is capable of receiving My grace". So, without humility, we cannot hold that grace, and without grace, we cannot have faith, and without faith, we cannot understand Scripture. Without God's Light, we are doomed to stumble in our own myopic darkness.]
Adam’s genealogy begins with an account of how Seth is born "in Adam’s image and likeness", and it is prefaced by a reminder that "God made man, male and female, after HIS Own image and likeness." [This quietly implies that Seth, too, is born in God's image, despite original sin. But] These important details are recalled only in Genesis 5 with Seth’s line, and NOT in Genesis 4 with Cain’s line, in order to draw a sharp distinction ["separation" theme; "holy vs profane", etc.] between the two lines.
Cain’s line produces murderers and polygamists like Lamech. The Nephilim may refer to this fallen line, as the word “Nephilim” comes from the Hebrew naphal, “to fall.”
[BACE says, "[Fallen] spirits took possession of many of the women, ruled them completely, and taught them all sorts of seductive arts. Their children [who were therefore, horrifyingly, conceived by a demonically influenced union, borne & raised by a possessed woman!!], were very large... they gave themselves up entirely to the wicked spirits as their instruments. And so arose on this mountain and spread far around, a [frighteningly innately] wicked race which, by violence and seduction, sought to entangle Seth's posterity likewise in their own corrupt ways." So the "fallen" meaning applies to BOTH the fallen angels, AND the descendants of Cain who "lived according to the Fall," i.e. in "godless sensuality," and who were therefore "walking in the same ways" AS the fallen angels who ALSO chose self over God, and turned from God's ways!]
Seth’s line, on the other hand, produces righteous men, like Enoch and Noah, who worship God and “call upon the Name of the Lord”. Seth’s line, the line that worships God, is the one that is singled out as being in the [true, divinely intended, original] image and likeness of Adam and Eve, who are in turn in the image and likeness of God.
[Adam & Eve did MUCH PENANCE and were WAITING FOR THE MESSIAH ALREADY. So their hearts were properly disposed, as well as they could be after original sin, as opposed to Cain, who chose fratricude rather than repentance & reverence– potentially resulting in a "deeper" wound of sin that HE passed on to his children?? Like, original sin is definitively a lack of original grace, BUT God can still give "lesser graces" to souls that humbly seek Him? Otherwise we couldn't be righteous at all. Yet if we choose to keep sinning, we prevent ALL reception of grace?? And sin becomes ACTIVE, becomes not an inherited loss, but a personal decision, and its consequences get worse every time. They stack, really. Sin is a cancer in the soul, an insane propagation of self, and it WILL spread by feeding on your soul. If THAT'S the "new base condition" that CAIN was passing on to his children– a soul marred by murder– then NO, by definition, they were NOT "in the likeness of God." God ORIGINALLY made humankind as such, but SIN OBJECTIVELY NEGATES THAT LIKENESS. It CAN be lost, even as– by grace– it can be restored. But when you start getting involved with demons, with fallen spirits who decisively & eternally rejected their Creator, then you're actually taking on a "new" image, and it's not a good one...]
🌟🌟🌟⁉️⁉️⁉️ [Historically], given that "image and likeness" included the meaning of "being adopted as a son of A god," it is not at all a leap to say that the narrator is referring to the Sethite line as “sons of God.”
[SOURCE??? I actually have the book this is quoted from– GO CHECK. But this seems to imply that OTHER cultures (in Moses's time, I assume, when he wrote this down) had this same concept?? It would make sense, since we're ALL descendants of Adam & Eve, but it's fascinating if they used such specific language, given how Messianic it prophetically is.]
Thus, the narrative distinction between the “daughters of men” and the “sons of God”... is referring to the distinct genealogical lines of Cain and Seth.
The two lines, which HAD been distinct, are now intermarrying, with the Sethite line beginning to take on practices previously associated only with the Cainite line, namely, polygamy. In a narrative that earlier associated polygamy with violence, the description of the Sethite line "intermarrying and taking multiple wives" strikes an ominous note of increasing violence and sinfulness, which reaches its climax in universal wickedness.
[Also it's a subtle but clear reference to IDOLATRY, even to ORIGINAL SIN ITSELF, in the concept of MARITAL INFIDELITY to one's ONLY SPOUSE– and in this case, specifically with someone who HATES your spouse!]
[Why the tie with violence though? Were men of violent disposition also more lustful, unable to rein in either disordered passion? Or was polygamy an extension of the essence of their violent desire, which is to dominate & conquer others? Or is this just the cancer of sin metastatizing?]
A covenant was made by swearing an oath of fidelity, which often included an animal sacrifice as a WITNESS to the fidelity sworn.
[HOW WAS IT A WITNESS??? THE BLOOD?? Was it because blood belongs to God, and spilling it means death, and death is the result of sin in the world, and the first sin was of Adam & Eve, who sinned by INFIDELITY TO GOD??? Was it all an elaborate callback to the "first Covenant", the consequences of its breaking which they were calling actively to mind, by killing an animal as God had done when they left Eden, and as ALL godly people were now OBLIGED to do in sacrifice, in both penance & worship of the God OF Fidelity??? And in any case, remember Abel's murder– HIS blood was LITERALLY a witness to Cain's infidelity to God! There's a LOT to ponder & unpack here.]
🌟🌟🌟Additionally, making a covenant could include the sharing of a covenant meal and a sign marking the [persons and/or location of the] covenant.
🌟🌟🌟 🌟🌟‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️❤❤❤ To enter into a covenant IS to enter into a family relationship; to enter into a covenant with GOD is [ALWAYS, at its heart,] to enter into the Divine Family of the Most Holy Trinity.
[THIS UNDERSTANDING CHANGES EVERYTHING]
Throughout Scripture, by means of a SERIES of covenants, God expands His family UNTIL He establishes the “new and everlasting Covenant” in His SON, Jesus Christ, and pours out His Holy Spirit [on us] in Baptism [which RESTORES original grace, and therefore our ORIGINAL "image & likeness" as God's children, but NOW God ALSO literally unites us with His Son & so ADOPTS us AS sons IN Him???]
In English, when we want to emphasize a point, we use an exclamation point, underline, italicize, or bold the text, or put it in all capital letters. The Hebrews [didn't have anything like that, so they] did something entirely different to add emphasis to text: They used repetition... repetition focuses our attention on a particular idea the psalmist wants to emphasize. Repetition and “parallelism” are two of the hallmarks of Old Testament poetry... We are accustomed to hearing rhythm, rhyme, and refrain in poetry— a parallelism of sound. Hebrew poetry relies on a parallelism of meaning. You do not hear the echo as much as you “see” it in your mind or “feel it” in your heart. When the psalmist introduces variations or additions into parallel thoughts, they stand out and bring new understanding to the words.
[I wonder... is this a pattern of God? Like how so much of Creation is repetitive. Is that divine poetry? Every sunrise & sunset, every breath & heartbeat, every cycle of seasons, every child born... all these repetitions, all different yet all the same, they really do speak divine meaning to our heart. And then we have parallels, of tree branches & lightning & rivers & lungs, of fractals in cauliflower & ferns & frost... Creation isn't just the masterpiece of an artist or architect, it's also a poem, a song.]
Seth walked in the way of the Lord and Cain did not walk in the way of the Lord... and it's [effectively] intermarrying that brought wickedness on earth... marrying someone is an incredibly important thing... Who you choose to be your spouse determines in so many ways the trajectory of your life, and it determines the trajectory of your family's life, and the lives of your descendants, for good and for ill, both positively and negatively, and in this case what's being described is those who walked in the way of the Lord, those in the Sethite line, ended up ceasing to walk in the way of the Lord because of the fact that they intermarried people in the Cainite line.
Now obviously, all of Seth's children were not automatic saints, and all of Cain's children were not automatic sinners. We are all born into this broken world so we all could [go either way], but we do know exactly what happens when we surround ourselves with people who have the same worldview [for better or for worse].
That's one of the reasons why we're doing this Bible in a Year Podcast– to give us a biblical worldview, and to highlight the decisions that others [in the history of salvation] have made... both the decisions that brought about great destruction, and the decisions that have brought about a great hope.
There are always consequences to our actions– even the most destructive ones– but God always holds out an offering of HOPE, to every one of us, no matter what our situation.
Even the destruction that God is preparing Noah for is also meant to be a great hope.
"Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with violence..." So God determined to destroy that corruption. God determined to root out the cancer, and the reality is when we cling to the cancer, you cant destroy the cancer without destroying everything that's holding on to it.
God floods the entire earth because He MUST destroy EVERY BIT of the evil and corruption to which humanity had been clinging. However, He makes a promise of hope to Noah because HE chose to cling to GOD.
So yes, it is an end to much of humanity, but at the same time, it's a promise of hope because God is saying, "Noah, make this Ark, because since you have clinged to Me, I will lift you up."
🌟🌟🌟💔💔‼️❤❤❤ We are ALL made good, but we are ALL broken. No one is one hundred percent evil or one hundred percent good. But even if the people around us ARE choosing to be "wicked", even if the culture around us IS more broken than it is whole, WE can still choose to live as those who are following and pursuing the Lord. We CAN [each and all] choose to follow the Lord in the very midst of a broken world, like Noah. We can continue to "walk with God."
And so today we can ask the question, "God, how do You want me to walk with You? How can I walk with You today, regardless of what people in the culture around me are doing, regardless of what the people in my family are doing?" Maybe I'm married and my spouse does not walk with the Lord. But I can still walk with the Lord today...
So today, how are you going to walk with God like Noah walked with God? How are you going to cling to Him, so that even when the "floods" of life come, He can continue to lift you up?
Because, yes, we CAN cling to God even amidst the storms of life, and He WILL continue to lift us up.
We just live in right now, one day at a time, one day at a time. We're walking with God one day at a time, and we're choosing every day to LIVE with God, and to let His Word shape our view of His world.
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