Gift Outweighs the Cost: Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost I

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Jesus gives cost for following

Look at the costs versus the rewards of undertaking, profit and loss

Lk 14:31-32 Go into battle presume there is a good to be obtained

Calculate necessary forces required

Take up Cross, engage the battle

Rewards? A life that makes sense, happiness, and eternal beatitude

Life of sanity, life can make connections between suffering & joy, peace between seemingly opposing ideas

  1. Sanity

Theology & Sanity Frank Sheed

Seeing what God sees is truth for the intellect. Intellectual truth is sanity.

Sanctity is doing something about what we see. It is the act of the will informed by the intellect.

Sanity gives a sure basis for decisions. It allows for peace of heart.

“God is infinite, eternal, Trinity, Unity

Individual human life born into the life of nature, reborn into the life of grace, united with Christ in the church which is His mystical Body

Aided by angels, hindered by devils, destined for heaven, in peril of hell.”[1]

To the degree the person has this mental landscape, is the degree of sanity the person possesses. It is not a matter of seeing what other people see and adding these theological truths.

It is about seeing God created, upholding, and being the goal of existence. It is the difference between life as one damn thing after another or life destined for greatness and purpose. “For our sakes, He made us for His sake.”[2] (Prov 16:4) We do not add anything to His happiness, but nonetheless He willed us into existence because He loved us and wanted to share His life with us so we could experience His love and goodness.

To know that I am loved beyond measure puts the Cross in its proper light.

Cross is everything, all or nothing. First gift, get mind back.

Life is rightly ordered. Precede   from right premise, follow logical propositions, lead to truth.

Begin with Him, alpha omega, end with Him.

Don’t start with Him, will not end in satisfactory conclusion. Every person realizes alone cannot do anything, happiness sacrifices. End of driving power or money, nothing is there.

No one to share joy with, life unsatisfactory.

God made us to know & love Him. Began in Him, end with Him, all things reach correct ending.

God is faithful, will fulfill.

[1] Frank Sheed Theology and Sanity (Ignatius Press: San Francisco 1993) 27

[2] ibid 128