“3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God So Loved the World 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”” (Jn 3:1–21 ESV)

Therein was found the will to carry on: social fabric pockmarked, honeycombed by war, the guilt of survivorhood, the meaningless slaughters and Witchery white specter going door to door, gliding, eliding, apprising and touching, inappropriate Touch as to the lifeblood Robbed, the Poison or Contagion Spread, the Future Encounter preempted, inoculated against, murdered with plausible words, with scam art, with who-around-here-knows-whom-to-trust?

Because the first steps towards Purgatory and Hell are paved with good intentions. They are paved with Plausible rumors, and then why? Why do we say it is unfair these are consigned to eternal damnation and those are spared? It was never fair to begin with; the Serpent can be attributed as having all manner of Hypnotic Arts, all manner of come-along-for-my-joyride. No, Man’s temperament is to be sinful in Myriad ways, not just the Serpent and Joyride, but in Myriad offputting and humbling ways.

Who are you to say to your maker, why did you make me this way? Always, too, for those Taken In by Serpentine reasoning and plausible rumors, scam art and confusion, there is always Repentance on the table as a possibility. So do not protest, how can I be judged to be in error if it was a good story I bought into? Well, O would-be Saint, how about reaching the posture of Repentance? Is that too much for your precious little ego, or is it something Amenable, Doable, Exactable?

The honeycombed society means a society where its Leading Men, Women, are missing in action, addicted, confused, self-righteous, lied to, confused by the Ambitions of so-called Godly men and women. Who lie through their teeth as to the motives of their nemeses. Who lie through their teeth, because—let us go lenient—they are living a lie themselves, are in deep Denial themselves, are pained and compromised by Sin and the Devil and Satan.

The Liturgy, the Sacrament as experienced in the field, in the room temperature warming a degree, in the tenor of the voice melodious and Creative, no A.I. simulacra, but Human and celebratory, is where we first begin to See our estate for what it is, compromised by sin, hanging on by a thread, whittled to the bone. And we begin to Hear the call, corporately, to repent. To put aside the convenient Stories, to mine the Possibility of a dove-like Resurrection alighting upon the dry bones, to engage the Storyline that we, too, Matter, are Central to God’s friend request in His Son, by His Spirit.

Because to repent is also to Mourn, that we must spend the rest of our lives “fixing” something we pre-conversion undid in one hour or careless gesture. That is proper understanding of hell and damnation, hellfire and purgatory. It ain’t that we aren’t forgiven, its just that finally our rebellious headstrong Selves will ourselves be our judges: O soul, why did you have to undo the mystery of Christ in that hour spent pecking away at the keyboard? It is mournful, and no longer do we “sue” our “Father above” for the estate of another, for what we are jealous for, for things that are to a good parent, “Unfair”. Instead it is we who laughingly realize: I undid the Mystery! I untethered the Mission! The evangelistic Tell-All or Crusade… it ain’t gonna happen anymore! I had that Power! To do such wickedness, and now I laugh because my God Above has forgiven me, yet I will indeed labor day-in day-out to Remedy what I undid! Until I die and the burden is shouldered by my friends or children.

The reality of New Dispensations, of strange Wild West ways the world of ideas and camaraderies has reoriented itself overnight or over the course of a year, it is front and center to any average person you stop and query on the street corner, it is mutually Experienced yet not mutually Remedied until all souls come to a Saving Knowledge of Christ as Lord. This is our religion that mourns no longer the pockmarks of social fabric, but wearied and headstrong gazes into the winds of murderous Climes. Weakened not, but Soldiering On, because we have this Atlas and Encyclopedia of Knowledge as to How to engage a New Frontier, wilderness and Social Fabric. We consecrate ourselves to this task, aware of Enemies who—never able to arrive, always posturing—are undoing Holy Things with one hour of their careless calculated Expedients. And we Believe, the evangel is spreading, God is glorified, His Son as Holy, His Spirit as Myriad and Remedial and Present. God can use even the dregs of Failure to Resurrect something both mourned and Excitedly Grappled With, Resurrection Life. Life in the Spirit.