As we prepare to remember the Great Sacrifice on the Cross

…and celebrate its re-presentation on the Altar, some wonder if, being the fundamentally Okay species we are, God really needed to go to all that fuss and bother.

Stories like this remind us that, yes, we really are a deeply, hideously screwed up race whose priorities tend toward fretting about how our world has a shortage of frightening weapons.

And, by the way, one of the silliest objections anti-Christians can make to the faith is the complaint that God is a brute for redeeming us by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ–and besides there’s no God.

Make up your mind. And as you do, realize that the crucifixion and all the other agonies Jesus endured were *our* idea. God simply met us where we are and handed himself over to us so that we could do with him as we chose. Rankling under the horrible burden of a God who tells you what to do and gives you no freedom? Look no further. On the cross you see what the human species does with the gift of freedom. You also see how God answers that spite and hate with relentless mercy.

And with that, I’m outta here till Monday. Have a glorious Triduum!