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The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Pentecost of his Spirit do not mean that Jesus Christ is henceforth the answer to everything (‘Jesus or nothing’) and that in him Christians from now on have the answer to everything. They indicate that God bears witness that the question raised by Jesus Christ is the one by which God manifests himself, that the reply given by Jesus Christ is what human beings can expect of God. It is useless to expect anything else of God, and to ask him anything else. God has no other meaning, gives no other meaning than that shown by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the way in which the Pentecost of his Spirit makes him alive among us today. God does not show himself in Jesus Christ as being the totality of meaning, Jesus Christ does not manifest himself as being the totality of meaning. When they believe that this is nevertheless the case, Christians prevent meaning being found in the manifestation of God in Jesus Christ, which is not a manifestation of the significance of omnipotence. One could say, in a rough paraphrase of St Paul: We do not have the omnipotence of meaning; we do not proclaim to you the totality of meaning, we have nothing to proclaim but Jesus dead and risen; we have only this news which has no value as a response to everything or as the totality of meaning, but has value in itself. 

After Peter denied Jesus, he experienced Easter, but after Judas betrayed Jesus, he bought a field, tripped and fell, and his guts burst open. He died alone in a field of blood. He died knowing that he was a sinner and perhaps thinking that God did not want him.  There was no Easter for Judas. There was no Resurrection. There was no light shining which the darkness could not overcome. Judas never got to be filled with joy and disbelief at Pentecost like those in the upper room. He never got to stick his fingers in the wounds of God. He never got to eat sacramental broiled fish on a beach, served to him by the resurrected Christ. Judas never experienced the defeat of sin and death revealed in the breaking of the bread. He chose death before seeing that death was done for. Our brother Judas.  But was what he did so unforgivable? How is it that Judas, who betrayed Jesus once and was filled with remorse, became the villain, while Peter, who denied Jesus three times and wept bitterly, became the rock on which the church was built? When it comes down to it, what is the difference between Peter and Judas? Well, maybe nothing. And maybe there's not a whole lot of difference between us and them too. But we get to share something with Peter that Judas never got to experience and it's the thing that could have made all the difference. In Judas's isolation, he never availed himself to the means of grace. Judas carried with him into that field the burden of not experiencing God's grace because he was removed from the community in which he could hear it. In Judas's ears there never was placed a word of grace.

Praise, at its heart, is the desire for integration; to see God's heaven and our earth reflected in one another. Praise acknowledges a God who is recognizable, who is present, who acts in and among our lives. […] And if praise in prayer is the act of recognizing a God who is present in our lives, then petition is the expression of our desire for that same God to be present in a place in our lives in which we do not see Him.

. . . after [Jesus] was told about Lazarus, He went slowly to Bethany and took four days. He waited so that He could teach us something that is very important: that we must wait, that we must be patient, that we must have faith even when it appears that things are not as we would wish them to be, and that they won't change. [If] Jesus Christ can take a man, stinking, from the grave, after four days, and raise him from the dead, He can raise us. But don't believe in the resurrection later; believe in the resurrection now. Live in that belief. Try to change because of that belief. Believe that you can be changed. I don't care what it is that assails you. God can heal you. Not later, but now . Don't believe in the resurrection -- later. Believe in the resurrection and the life, Who is with us, now. We're about to partake of His holy body and blood for our sustenance, that medicine of immortality. Our immortality, you know, begins with our baptism. And we are just increasingly fulfilling it every day that we live. Live in the light of the resurrection. Believe it. Believe that you will change. And when you hear God's voice saying, "Come forth" at the resurrection, you will be filled with joy. May God help you.

hi, your blog is so interesting to me and i applogise if this is a weird or unwelcome question but how do you seem to be such a devout catholic with much love towards god but at the same time have so many posts that i would assume many catholics would consider extremely blasphemous—talking about god in “gross” ways or sexual ways or just in general horror-aligned ways—but at the end of the day seem eager to practice your faith and continue identifying strongly with catholicism? im just curious and have no judgement whatsoever! please feel free to ignore this ask if you don’t like it. all respect to your blog!

the lyrics of the loved: yhwh grazes me, there's nothing i lack. / in comely grass he lies me, in rivers resting he gives. my vapourish life he returns, guiding me to right courses in his name. / though i come through the valley of gloomest gloom, i've no terror. you're with me. your rods and rods clamour, console. / you lay for me a table for those that violence me. you chrism me in olive oil; my cup's runny-over. / only goodness, good goodness, runs to me, for the years of my life. i remain in the house of yhwh for long years

The descent of Christ into Hell is the manifestation of Life amid the hopelessness of death, it is victory over death.