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I Would Never Wanna Build A Theology On One Verse, But (John 12:32)

 Jesus says some amazing stuff. Jesus says some stuff that you're like, "I don't know about that one, Jesus" at first. And then he says weird God-man stuff that we can easily miss, that if you had the job to think about it, you'd just have your mind blown over and over. Jesus just says this, and leaves us to pick up the pieces.


"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."


It's totally fine to say it in this instance: "O my God!" This is why the Eucharistic Sacrifice isn't a new one; this is why all those verbs at the tail end of St. Paul's teaching on the Supper (1 Cor. 11:23-30) are present tense. It's why the Passover rites even today are present tense. Because the Cross is now. Then, but now. No wonder they dared to call it a "propitiatory sacrifice" at Trent. No Christian believes Jesus' atoning work is just a memory. You'd better not! And let me ask you: are you simply remembering, for you? St. Paul already says otherwise (1 Cor. 11:26). We're the proclaimers. You know, like that one Irish band with that annoying song from 1993. Stop lying; you know the one. You just sang the chorus, when you read this. I know. It's OK. It's our little secret.


I don't know, but I think it means that every time Mass/Divine Liturgy is celebrated, people get saved. Maybe even people who aren't there. If this is even halfway true--and Jesus said it, so it's better than halfway--it makes no logical sense to meet without a Eucharistic Sacrifice, unless we're supposed to. Like today. And this goes for the separated brethren, too: that quarterly Supper stuff is dumb. Jesus wants to save people. By all means, preach good words, too. But words are signs, and signs are words. Jesus the Word speaks powerfully, and His Body and Blood, the best possible words: "Your sins are forgiven; go in peace."

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