Proposing the truth

If by "impose" is meant that we try to force people to agree, then we certainly must not impose the gospel.  In an encyclical on mission - Redemptoris Missio (The Mission of the Redeemer) - John Paul II says, "The Church imposes nothing.  She only proposes."  But what she proposes she proposes as the truth. This is basic.  It is so basic that, if we don't understand this, all talk about mission really is no more than arrogance and presumption.  The one who said "I thirst" and received on the hyssop the wine of the new covenant, representing the blood shed and the blood shared by the eucharistic community to which he surrenders his spirit, this one is either Lord of all or he is not Lord at all. - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon

Okay, I've posted separately on the significance of this last phrase for me individually.  Fr. Neuhaus isn't saying that unless all acknowledge Jesus as Lord that he isn't Lord at all.  Rather, if we don't all owe Jesus acknowledgement as Lord, very Son of God from before the universe began, then no one does.  

I love Fr. Neuhaus' explanation of the hyssop, and the connection this draws between the blood of the Pesach lamb first applied to the lintels of the Hebrew homes in Egypt, Jesus' physical blood shed for us on the cross, and Jesus' Eucharistic blood now made present for us in the physical guise of wine.  The Jewish understanding of the Passover feast is crucial to seeing how these, once united, can never be truly separated again.  Even today the Jewish people celebrate at each Passover their own delivery from slavery in Egypt, though they are thousands of years removed from that slavery.  Likewise, we do not offer the sacrifice of Christ over and over again.  Rather, we unite ourselves with his sacrifice when we come together for Eucharist, at which time we are present at the first Passover, and at the cross, and at the empty tomb, and at the heavenly banquet which we will one day see in its fullness and of which we now catch only the most fleeting glimpse.

I can't wait until we're not locked into time anymore!  Only then will we see the fullness of what we celebrate.