Author Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live (Read 62039 times)

cassini · « **Reply #60 on:** July 12, 2024, 06:00:47 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Acceptance of Jesus Spurs Rejection by the World

God sent Amos (7:12-15) to prophesy to His people. They knew him because he told them they would suffer for their sins. However, it didn’t stop him from being faithful to God by preaching His Word. Jesus sent out His Apostles in pairs and gave them authority over demons. He told them to rely on God’s providence rather than on human support. Thus He prepared them for rejection. “If any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them as you leave” (Mk 6:11). Jesus reminded them that they spoke in His Name, not in their own. “The one who listens to you listens to me, and the one who rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me rejects the One who sent me.” (Lk 10:16). Preparing the Apostles for what was to come, Jesus cautioned them, “Remember the word I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also” (Jn 15:20). Knowing what lay ahead, namely crucifixion, Jesus also knew that persecution was in store for His Church’s leaders and members. Worldly people would create their own god in their image worshipping pleasure, popularity, power, and possessions while rejecting the God who created them to live prudently, justly, courageously, and temperately by embracing Jesus Christ as members of His Church.

On the platform of a train station there was a large crate with a big dog inside. He had the saddest look imaginable. A lady asked a bystander about him and why he looked so sad. She was told: “You would look sad too if you were like him. You see he chewed the tag off the crate, and doesn’t know where he is going.” How many people in the world today are like that dog? They don’t know where they are going. They have no purpose. Their false gods have abandoned them. Only the God revealed and expressed by Jesus Christ is able to tell us who we are, what our purpose is, who the true source of our power is, what values are worth embracing, where we’re headed and how to get there.

Jesus provides us with the wherewithal to be fully human and fully alive. Mental, spiritual, emotional, moral, social, and even physical well-being depend on our relationship with Jesus. Why? Because to be healthy in each of these dimensions of our makeup we need to know and feel acknowledged, affirmed, and be treated with affection. Everyone needs to feel that his or her existence is acknowledged, his or her priceless value affirmed, and know that he or she is loved unconditionally. `We need these not just periodically but consistently. Without these we’re doomed to be dysfunctional and miserable. As a child I was taught that, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” We used to rattle that off when someone ridiculed us or called us ugly names. That helped us to look the persecutor in the eye and not be intimidated. Of course we also needed parents’ and teachers’ support. But above all we knew that God acknowledged our existence, affirmed, and loved us unconditionally. We knew that Jesus proved this love by dying on the Cross to save us from sin and eternal death. That knowledge gives us power over those who reject us. When we know that God loves us we have no fear.

Why does the world hate the Catholic Church? Catholics are the most persecuted group of people in the world today. Jesus sent the Apostles, “preaching the need of repentance, expelling many demons, anointing the sick with oil, and working many cures” (Mk 6:12-13). Why would anyone reject that? G.K. Chesterton wrote that, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” What’s difficult about Catholic teaching? In Jesus’ Name, it confronts us with the truth about God, ourselves and our role in the world and why we are totally dependent on Him for every good thing. The problem is that human beings want to be God and please themselves by using creation for their own selfish ends. The idea that we’re sinners-in-need-of-repentance flies in the face of our prideful ego that says “whatever satisfies me is what’s good and freedom is doing what I want!” We see that in abortion, euthanasia, atheism, Marxism, same-sex “marriage”, pornography, adultery, disrespect for human life, etc. So we see worldly governments and even some cardinals, bishops, and clergy, rejecting God’s Revelation, the Natural Law, and two thousand years of Jesus’ Church’s teaching. Those who want to be God hate Catholic teaching because it constantly reminds them that they’re not God, but rather false gods making false promises leading themselves and others to hell.

Catholic teaching calls for repentance, which implies the humility to face our sinfulness and accept our need for Jesus to save us through participative membership in His Church where He makes the Sacrament of Reconciliation available to us. It requires us to amend our lives according to God’s Commandments. Therefore, we pray, “May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call.” (Eph 1:17-28) The basis for that hope is the knowledge that God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens … to be holy and without blemish … in Him we have redemption … forgiveness of sins. …In all wisdom and insight, He has made known to us the mystery of His will … In Him we were chosen … that we might exist for the praise of His glory … In Him we have heard the word of truth, sealed with the Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:3-14). With the Psalmist, Jesus’ Church calls us to promise that we “…will hear what God proclaims: the Lord – for He proclaims peace. Near indeed is His salvation to those who fear Him” (Ps 85:9-10). Peace implies justice. Justice means being right with God, our self and our neighbor, which requires repentance and forgiveness. It is only when we’re right with God that we can be right with ourselves and others. Those who make themselves the standard of what’s right reject those who see God’s commandments as the true moral standard for human behavior. Standing up for Catholic moral teaching often brings down the wrath of those who refuse to admit that what they are doing is sinful. The Catholic Church, founded by Jesus on Peter, offers solid hope for genuine peace and permanent happiness. If I know that God is for me, it doesn’t matter who is against me (Rom 8:31), because I know that God acknowledges, affirms, and loves me so that I don’t need to kowtow to others for their acceptance, affirmation, and affection. This is the power we receive from embracing the Catholic Faith. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #61 on:** July 17, 2024, 12:01:40 PM »

Fr Sean again.
Sheep without a Shepherd Get Lost

A crowd of over five thousand followed Jesus. St. Mark (6:30-34) tells us that, “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Why do sheep need a shepherd? Because sheep aren’t the smartest of animals and they tend to wander off, get lost, or become victims of other animals. Was Jesus insulting the crowd when He likened them to sheep? I don’t think so. As human beings who’re supposed to be intelligent we often act foolishly trying to be independent and lose the run of ourselves, and become victims of our own stupidity. A math teacher asked her students, “If there were ten sheep in a field and one jumped over the fence, how many would be left?” All the children, except one, said nine. The teacher asked the lone boy for his answer and he said “none would be left.” She said to the boy, “You don’t know your math,” and he said, “Maybe not, but I know sheep!” [Cassini: I presume because the nine would follow the one out of the field] Just as sheep need a shepherd who knows what they’re like and what their needs are, so we need a leader who knows us and what we’re like. We need a good shepherd who has “the right or desirable quality” to “lead, tend, and guard” us in the world so that we don’t wander off, get lost, or be led astray by false prophets (Mt 7:15). That shepherd is Jesus Christ. He identified Himself as the “Good shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep” (Jn 10:11).He demonstrated His shepherding in Mk 6:37 when He asked His apostles to provide food for the hungry crowd. A good shepherd is always attentive to the needs of the flock.

In the Old Testament God imaged Himself as a shepherd (Jer 23:1-6) in relation to His people. He promised His scattered people, “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock…I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they no longer fear and tremble … I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; as king He shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land.” This, of course, is a prophecy about the coming of Jesus who will become the Kingly Shepherd and Saviour of all who repent and seek His forgiveness as He leads them to His Heavenly Father and eternal happiness. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Psalmist (Ps 23:1-6) proclaimed: “The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want … He guides me in right paths … I fear no evil for You are at my side with Your rod and your staff that give me courage.”

Knowing that in His human nature He wouldn’t be in the world very long, Jesus appointed men to continue the shepherding of His people in His Holy Name. These were the Apostles to whom He handed on His example and teaching. He founded His Church on Peter to be the pasture where He would give visibility to His flock and where he would nourish and give them courage. In His Church Jesus’ followers would hear His word and experience His Real Presence as He continues His shepherding through those whom His Church appoints in His Name. These are the Bishops, successors of the Apostles, and the priests and deacons as their helpers in shepherding God’s people, Jesus’ flock. Jesus gave three tasks to Peter (Jn 21:15-25) to be carried out for the good of the sheep – the members of His Church, namely: “Feed my lambs…Feed my sheep…Tend my sheep” (Jn 21:15-25). That involves supporting, nourishing and encouraging the faith of those who are loyal to Jesus and His Church; supporting, nourishing and encouraging charity toward the neighbour; and protecting and providing for the weakest and most vulnerable members of the flock from conception to natural death.

As shepherds acting in the Name of Jesus, the bishops, priests and deacons have the responsibility of carrying out three threefold task which Jesus gave to Peter. That involves evangelizing and catechizing the members of the Church which requires preaching the Gospel “in season and out of season, convenient or inconvenient (2 Tim 2:4-9). It involves the solemn and reverential celebration of the Holy Mass and the solemn administration of the Sacraments. It involves the moral teaching of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. It involves the formation of every Church family and group as Eucharistic communities guided by the Holy Spirit who equips each member with wisdom, understanding, counsel, courage, knowledge, prayerfulness, and fear of the Lord as needed in the life of each member and community. In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus conforms men to Himself as bishops, priests and deacons exercising His role of Priest, Prophet and King in order to nurture and nourish the priesthood of the laity. The laity participate in Jesus’ ministry of Priest, Prophet, and King through offering their sacrifices to Him, evangelizing and catechizing their children, and witnessing Christian virtue at home and in the workplace. Thus the shepherds lead, advise and nurture the sheep who in turn witness to their faith in Jesus to those who don’t know Him.

When I was in the seminary in America, professors used to tell us that God will judge bishops, priests, and deacons by a higher standard than lay people because of the graces He bestows on them as shepherds in His Holy Name. One professor used to say that only bishops and priests go to hell for being unfaithful to their vocation. That was frightening. God spells this out through the prophet Jeremiah: “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them. But I will take care to punish your evil deeds” (Jer 23:1-6).This is God’s word which mustn’t be taken lightly by bishops and clergy. What God said yesterday He says today and will say tomorrow because He doesn’t change His teaching. Sadly, today there is much confusion and anger within the Church which is generated by bishops and clergy promoting heresy and blaspheming the Lord. We must pray for good shepherds who feed and tend the lambs and the sheep with the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who died to save His flock, the Church. Similarly, bishops, priests, and deacons must be willing to walk in Jesus’ footsteps as He calls every man and woman to “reform your life, repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #62 on:** July 24, 2024, 12:24:21 PM »

Fr Sean again.
Faith in Jesus Is Always Tested

A student said to me once, “School would be great if it weren’t for tests.” Many adults deprive themselves of further education because they fear having to take exams. Why? Is it because we’re afraid of failure? Fear of exposing our weaknesses prevents us from achieving success. Testing is essential to identify strengths in order to develop them and expose weaknesses in order to eliminate them. Would you buy an automobile without a test drive? No intelligent person buys the proverbial pig in a poke. Unless we test something we can’t know if it will achieve its purpose. Religious faith, like everything else in life, needs to be tested to see if it’s real. If your Faith isn’t tested, you aren’t Catholic. Look at how Abraham's faith was tested when God asked him to sacrifice his son (Gn 22:2).

Just before the Jєωιѕн feast of Passover, Jesus miraculously healed many sick and demon-possessed people. Large numbers of people spent a whole day listening to Him. By the end of the day Jesus saw that the people were hungry, both physically and spiritually. He said to Philip, one of His apostles, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” (Jn 6:5). St. John tells us that Jesus, “… knew well what He intended to do but He asked this to test Philip’s response” (Jn 6:6). Philip, based on what he saw rather than on his faith in Jesus, answered: “Not even with two hundred days’ wages could we buy loaves enough to give each of them a mouthful!” (Jn 6:7). Andrew intervened saying that a boy in the crowd had five loaves of bread and a couple of fish and opined, “but what good are these for so many?” Both Philip and Andrew failed Jesus’ test. Philip and Andrew focused on what seemed impossible. Jesus, on the other hand, focused on what He could do knowing that His Father would provide. “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them … and also as much of the fish as they wanted.”

Both Philip and Andrew acted out of their senses rather than their faith in Jesus. What is faith? It is the ability to trust in God, in one another, and in ourselves. Natural faith isn’t enough; we need supernatural Faith which is a gift from God bestowed on us in Baptism. The Holy Spirit tells us, “Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen” (Heb 11:1). Faith enables us to hope for what we need even though we don’t see how it will come about. Faith always generates hope. That’s why we need faith to guarantee the blessings that we hope for. We hope for love, happiness, peace, forgiveness, mercy, justice, health and ultimately Heaven. But it’s our faith in Jesus Christ that makes that hope more than just wishful thinking. Faith proves the existence of these realities that at present remain unseen. The Holy reminds us, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7). Our problem is that we limit ourselves by wanting to walk by sight rather than by faith. Why? Because walking by sight put us in charge. Walking by faith makes us realize that God is in charge and we are dependent on Him. Our faith is tested when we face realities whose outcome we can’t see. Then we find out if our Catholic faith is real or superficial – intentional or cultural. When we’re faced with cancer, death, a business failure, or some misfortune or other we find out if our faith in Jesus is real. If my faith in Jesus’ Christ is real then, no matter what happens to me, I know He will make it all work out for my good and that of everyone else. I don’t see how, but I know through supernatural faith that I will emerge as a better person because I put my trust in Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s supernatural faith. Natural faith isn’t enough because it’s based on what I see. As St. Paul, that great man of faith inspired by the Holy Spirit, attests, “We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who have been called according to His decree” (Rom 8:28). The Divine virtue of Faith tells me that if I love God, all things, no matter how bad, will work for my good and the good of those whose paths I cross.

Having supernatural faith means we trust in Jesus’ power to provide for our needs. The Psalmist sums it up when he proclaimed: “I will extol You Lord, for You drew me clear and did not let my enemy rejoice over me … You preserve me from going down into the pit ...Hear, O Lord, and have pity on me … You change my mourning into dancing” (Ps 30:4-13). In a crisis our tendency is to focus on what we don’t have rather than on what we do have. Jesus exemplifies what we should do, namely taking the little we have and asking Him to bless it. Then God the Father will provide us with more than we need. That is the power and consolation of the Catholic Faith. But for that to happen we must truly believe with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength. The Holy Spirit reminds us through St. Paul: “I urge you to live In a manner worthy of the call you have received with all humility, gentleness, and patience … striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:1-6).

The message is that God provides for all our needs. But we must put all our trust in Him. How? By asking the Lord to bless what we have, however little it might be. If we do, the Lord will provide more than what we need. This is how the Catholic Faith makes a telling difference in our life. When we trust in God’s providence we know that the “Lord will guide you always and satisfy all your needs” (Is 58:11). Then we’ll pass the test of supernatural faith and show, in the inspired words of St. Paul, that, “In Him who is the source of my strength I have strength for everything” (Phil 4:13). We don’t know we’re Catholics until our faith in Jesus is tested and we pass the test. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #63 on:** July 31, 2024, 11:50:53 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Satisfying Your Soul’s Hunger

You and I are a combination of body and soul. They are integrally related since our soul penetrates every organ of our body. Actually we’re more spiritual than physical. Our body will die one day but our soul, our self, will continue. Both need nourishment while on this earth. But which one gets our attention? Olivia Newton John sang the raunchy song, “Let’s Get Physical”, that ended with, “Let's get animal … Let me hear your body talk.” The Holy Spirit, though, has a different emphasis: “I urge you not to indulge your bodily desires. By their nature they wage war on the soul” (1 Pt 2:11). The body talks selfishly. Hedonism is the philosophy that promotes the pursuit of sensual pleasure as the most important goal in life. Pain is to be avoided at any cost. This philosophy of self-indulgence or pain-phobia is reflected in the notion that “I’m entitled to comfort!” This is why the Spirit revealed that, “You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old nature, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires, and acquire a fresh spiritual way of thinking” (Eph 4:22). Thinking that pleasing the bodily desires will satisfy us is an illusion because our body can’t avoid suffering and death. “A man will reap only what he sows. If he sows in the field of the flesh, he will reap the harvest of corruption; but is his seed-ground is the soul, he will reap everlasting life” (Gal 6:8). Satisfying what doesn’t die, namely the soul, makes sense. Why would you put all your efforts into what doesn’t last?

Why does the body get more attention than the soul? The blind messages of the body are, eat, drink, and reproduce. These are animal instincts and need to be controlled for the good of our humanity which stems from our spiritual soul. The belly growls when it’s hungry but the soul doesn’t. So we forget the importance of nourishing our soul from which our humanity comes. It’s our soul that makes us human, not our body. Our humanity flows from the fact that we’ve a human soul that gives us the ability to think and freely make choices. If we couldn’t think or choose we would be like animals that are ruled by instinct. The animal part of our brain instinctively wants to eat, drink and reproduce. But the human part of our brain, informed by our spiritual soul, wants to belong, be free, be powerful and be joyful. It’s through our ability to think about and freely choose what we need to do in order to belong, be free, be powerful and be joyful that we’re able to control and direct our urges to eat, drink and reproduce. It’s our soul that gives us that capability. So if our soul isn’t properly nourished it loses its power to guide our bodily instincts or desires. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches us: “Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new nature that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:24). That takes place in Jesus’ Church.

Jesus Christ is God’s way to happiness for human beings. There’s no other. He shows us how to rise above our selfish desires and discipline our body so that it doesn’t overshadow our soul’s needs. A large percentage of our personal and communal problems stems from our malnourished souls. The demands of the body should never distract from the needs of the soul. God sent Moses to free the Hebrews from slavery. In the desert their bellies did the talking expressing their ingratitude to God for freeing them from slavery. “Why did we not die at the Lord’s hand in Egypt, when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content!” (Ex 16;2). Our body just wants immediate satisfaction very often to the detriment of our freedom, power and joy. Our soul, on the other hand, focuses us on belonging, freedom, being powerful and joyful which God through union with Jesus in His Church guided by the Holy Spirit.

When the soul is deprived our thinking is distorted and our will is weakened so that we make bad choices that leave us feeling empty and dissatisfied. Jesus came to free our soul from sin and fill it with God’s grace through the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might be fully human and fully alive.

Just as our body needs food, so does our soul. Jesus made Himself our soul’s food. As God provided bread for the hungry people in the desert, (Ex 16:2-4), so He now provides bread to satisfy our hungry soul in the Person of Jesus. When Jesus miraculously fed over five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, they wanted to make Him their King. But He knew they were only concerned with their bodily needs, not their soul’s nourishment. He told them: “You are not looking for me because you have seen miracles but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat...” (Jn 6:26). Then He added, “Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you…” (Jn 6:27). Jesus explained, “… for the bread of God is that which comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world” (Jn 6:33). The people begged Jesus, “Sir, give us that bread always” (Jn 6:34). Then Jesus revealed: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; and he who believes in me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35). Jesus is the bread of life, food for our soul, not symbolically but literally. This is what He does in every Holy Mass – He feeds our soul by giving Himself to us, body, soul and divinity, under the form of bread and wine changed by the priest in Jesus’ name at the Consecration and given to us in Holy Communion. A well-nourished soul is the foundation for good thinking and making good choices that deepen our sense of belonging to Jesus’ Church where He frees us from our sins, empowers us with His grace, and brings joy to our hearts. Earthly bread won’t satisfy the hunger for heaven; only heavenly bread will satisfy that hunger. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #64 on:** August 07, 2024, 01:23:48 PM »

Fr Sean again.
The Holy Eucharist: The Life-Giving Miracle

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray He included among the petitions, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Mt 6:11). The importance of bread as food for the body is evident in every civilization. Bread is one of our most basic foods. Even fasting doesn’t forbid the eating of bread. It’s considered essential for sustaining the body’s energy. It’s even used as a slang term for the money necessary to provide for our needs. Money is also referred to as “dough,” necessary for baking into bread. When we’re hungry we look forward to a slice of bread to calm a growling stomach. Without bread we’re dead.

In the Old Testament we read about the prophet Elijah escaping from Jezebel’s vow to kill him. Tiring, he sat under a broom tree and cried, “This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kgs 19:4). In his exhaustion, he fell asleep under the tree. An angel woke him up and found that, “at his head a hearth cake and a jug of water” (19:6). After eating, Elijah went back to sleep. Again, “The angel of the Lord came back a second time, touched him and ordered, ‘Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!’” (19:7). Elijah obeyed, and strengthened by the bread, walked for forty days and nights to the mountain of God, Horeb. God provided him with bread to restore his energy. In a similar way the bread we eat to strengthen our body as we journey through this world to where God wants us to be is a gift from Him. Every good thing comes from God. Our Faith must be that of the Psalmist: “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears… Taste and see the goodness of the Lord; blessed the man who takes refuge in Him” (Ps 34:2-9).

Just as our body needs bread, so also does our soul. We can bake bread to nourish our body, but where do we get bread for our soul? Again it has to come from God, since only He can nourish our soul since He created it. How does He provide the necessary nourishment? He does so in the Person of Jesus Christ who identified Himself as “the bread of life that came down from Heaven” (Jn 6:41). Many of those who heard Him reacted with disbelief and no longer followed Him. They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? … How can He claim to have come down from Heaven?” (Jn 6:42). Jesus didn’t say, “I’m just speaking symbolically or figuratively and I don’t want you to take me literally.” Instead He reinforced His declaration by saying, “I myself am the living bread come down from Heaven. If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world… Let me solemnly assure you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:51, 54). Jesus revealed that without eating His body and drinking His blood we are lifeless, dead.

Jesus revealed how He was going to make this possible at the Last Supper when He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and said, “Take this and eat of it, this is my body” (Mt 26:26). He did the same with the cup of wine, declaring, “this is the cup of my blood … take and drink…” Here Jesus changed bread into His body thereby making Himself the “Bread of Life.” Thus He made it possible for all believers to, “Taste and see how good the Lord is; blessed the man who takes refuge in Him” (Ps 34:9). To make it possible for all generations to taste Him, Jesus ordained His Apostles to, “Do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19). Jesus’ Church, in the person of her ordained bishops and priests, has been doing this since her birth at Pentecost in the Holy Mass until the end of time. Thus Jesus continues, through the ordained successors of His Apostles, to miraculously give us the gift of His body, blood, soul, and divinity to fill our soul with His life. Do you believe in this miracle? Do you taste and see the goodness of the Lord when Jesus miraculously gives Himself to you in Holy Communion?

This miracle takes place at every Holy Mass. Every Holy Mass is a miraculous encounter with Jesus sacrificing Himself in order to give life to our soul. We can see it only with the eyes of supernatural Faith? When Jesus encountered His listeners’ disbelief about accepting Him as the “bread of life come down from Heaven,” He reminded them that they were rejecting the Holy Spirit and weren’t acting as God’s children. He told them: “Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to me” (Jn 6:45). St. Paul warns us, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30). To hear God the Father and believe fully in Jesus as the “bread of life” it’s necessary to let the Holy Spirit enlighten our spirit. Remember that, “No one can say: ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 12:3). That’s the basis for supernatural Faith, a divine virtue and a gift from God. Many who identify as Catholic reject Jesus as the bread of life when they refuse to attend the Holy Mass and, as a result, deprive their soul of the eternal life for which it yearns. St. Paul urges us to, “Be imitators of God, as His beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed Himself over for us as a sacrificial offering for God for a fragrant aroma” (Eph 5:2). This is the life-giving miracle Jesus performs every time we celebrate Holy Mass. In receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, we receive the “Bread of Life.” Jesus is the Life-Giver who miraculously gives Himself to us and who empowers us to imitate God by being “kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Eph 4:32). The bread for our body won’t prevent it from dying. But the Bread for our soul, namely Jesus, will ensure it lives happily forever. The celebration of the Holy Mass is the visible witness of Jesus’ life-giving miracle enlivening our souls making us into a Holy Community as members of His Church. Do you realize this is a fact? (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #65 on:** August 14, 2024, 08:28:11 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Are You Living Wisely or Foolishly?

Wisdom is the quality of knowing how to make good judgments. A good judgment is a decision or choice where you gain much more than you lose, especially in the long term. Gaining or losing must be measured by what brings us closer to God or moves us farther away from Him. Biblical wisdom is the proper ordering of one’s life in accord with the rules of Faith in God. The long-term gain is eternal happiness. Foolishness is the living of one’s life in accord with the rules of the world. The long-term gain is eternal misery.

The Holy Spirit warns us: “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord … Giving thanks always and for everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Eph 5:15-20). God spoke to His people about the importance of wisdom: “To the one who lacks understanding, she (Wisdom) says, ‘Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding’” (Prov 9:1-6). Knowledge and understanding of the truth, Jesus Christ, is intellectual and spiritual food and drink.

I think that everyone would prefer to be wise rather than foolish, making the most of every opportunity to make good decisions. No one deliberately makes decisions they think are bad for them. What makes the difference is how we define “good” versus “bad.” These are evil days in the Church and in the world that confuse people as to what’s good or bad, wise or foolish, right or wrong, just or unjust. Nowadays people view truth, morality, as relative to them. That makes them their own god telling them that they are deciders of what constitutes good or evil. Satan loves this state of affairs because it gives him the opportunity to tempt people to think that there is no objective good – no one God who is all good and the Determiner of what is good or bad, right or wrong, true or false, wise or foolish. The Psalmist (34:2-7), guided by God’s Spirit, knew that there is only one God who is all good and the source of wisdom. He shared his experience of the One, True God: “I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears…When the poor man called out, the Lord heard, from all his distress He saved him.” A lack of understanding of the truth always leads to making foolish decisions, which in turn lead to fears and distress. Wise decisions, on the other hand, lead to confidence and peace.

We see how this lack of understanding led to unwise decisions when Jesus revealed to His listeners (Jn 6:51-58): “I am the bread of life that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Instead of asking Him how He would make that possible, they decided that because they knew Him and His family and where He lived that He was just like them so they concluded that He wasn’t making sense. Because they viewed him as like themselves, they said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So they decided to leave His company and walked away from the only One who could give them a life of eternal happiness. They made a foolish decision because they decided what Jesus couldn’t do rather than trusting in Him that He could do what He said. They were stupid. How did Jesus respond to them? He doubled down on what He already said, warning them: “I say to you, unless you each the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you…my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will have life because of me … Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Their lack of understanding and unwillingness to order their lives according to what Jesus was teaching led them to live foolishly rather than wisely. The same is true for you and me. To whom or what do we look or rely upon to decide what is wise and what is foolish? Is it Jesus or is it the world?

Those people knew Jesus and saw Him performing all kinds of miracles but they didn’t bother to try and understand who He really was, what He came to do, and how He was going to accomplish what He said. The inspired words of St. Paul warns us: “Do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.” It is the will of God the Father that we follow in the footsteps of His Son, Jesus Christ, if we want to enter Heaven. Jesus Himself revealed that, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (Jn 17:3). “Knowing” a person biblically is to have an intimate relationship with him or her. Therefore, to “know” God and Jesus Christ is to have a personal relationship with them. This personal, intimate, relationship finds its highest and holiest expression in the Holy Mass where Jesus, through the ordained priest conformed to Him, changes bread and wine into His flesh and blood to be consumed by the Baptized faithful. Therein God the Father and His people as individuals and as a community enter into a Holy Communion with one another initiated by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Just as in the days of Jesus Himself, many today walk away from the Holy Mass or try to reduce it to a symbol, thereby acting in ignorance and depriving themselves of the life Jesus wants to give them in and through the Holy Eucharist. The Catholic Church makes attendance at Sunday Mass obligatory because every Holy Mass is about “giving thanks always and for everything in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Eph 5:20). In justice we owe that to God. We owe God all our thanks especially for the opportunity to live in Jesus and to have Him live, both physically and spiritually, in us through His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist which is the only way the faithful can receive the gift of Himself as “the Bread of Life”. This act reflects a person’s true understanding of Jesus, present in His Church, and how He gives us the gift of His life that transcends death. Thus a person lives wisely and not foolishly. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #66 on:** August 21, 2024, 02:32:48 PM »

Fr Sean again.
Understanding Leads to Staying or Leaving the Church

Understanding is about grasping the meaning of some event whether it’s a word or an action. Meaning is that which the word or event intends to convey. Understanding is the act of knowing clearly what is being conveyed. That is why asking God questions to clarify what is said or done and giving good feedback to make sure that the intended meaning is grasped by the listener is essential for good communication. The content doesn’t always do justice to the intent, and it’s the intent that matters. The intended meaning of words and events isn’t always clear so we need clarification. Words and events, when taken superficially, don’t always mean that we understand what is intended. Just as the proverbial proof of the pudding is in the eating, so the proof of communication is in the understanding. Things get easier once we understand. Every time we ask “What, why, when, where, or how?” we’re seeking understanding. Sometimes we can’t answer “Why” questions because we can’t fully understand and must accept the mystery. Understanding is the goal of our intelligence and the motivation to delve deeper into the mystery that is God, ourselves, and creation. Without it, relationships would wither and die. Like the rungs of a ladder, each degree of understanding gives us a foothold to scale the heights of truth about God, ourselves and one another. The chief cause of human problems today is that there is a dire lack of understanding of who God is, who we are as humans, and what is natural, and what Jesus meant His Church to be.

God spoke through Joshua (24:1-18) and called the people and gave them a choice: Him or false gods. Joshua declared his own faith and that of his household in God saying, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord for the service of other gods. For it was the Lord, our God, who freed us from slavery … Therefore we will serve the Lord for He is our God.” Worshipping God calls for subordination by the people. Subordination did not mean being slaves but rather revering Him and living an orderly life. St. Paul (Eph 5:21-32) extended this notion of subordination as something necessary for order in the family. He called his listeners to “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” That means when we revere Christ He empowers to respect one another. Then he talks about order in the family in terms of how roles complement one another: “Wives, be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord … Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed Himself over for her to sanctify her … Husbands should love their wives as their own body. He who loves his wife loves his own body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh… children, be subject to your parents.” The husband is the head of the household and the wife is the home-maker where both focus on serving one another as Christ serves them. A lack of understanding of this Scripture views this as treating a wife as lower in rank than the husband. Subordination here is about disciplining one’s own selfish desires in order to serve the good of the other. God expects the husband to serve the good of his wife by being willing to die for her. The wife is the conceiver, nurturer, and formator of the children, and is loved, protected, defended, and provided for by her husband. The relationship of husband and wife is an image of the relationship between Jesus and His Church.

The opposite of understanding is ignorance. There are two kinds: vincible and invincible. Vincible ignorance is due to ignoring available information about the true meaning of something. Information is available but the individual ignores it. Invincible ignorance is when we search but can’t find the necessary resources to help us understand. Vincible ignorance regarding what it means to be a faithful Catholic is rampant in the world and even within the Church herself. Bishop Fulton Sheen said, “There are not one hundred people (in the world) who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they perceive the Catholic Church to be.” They haven’t sought to understand the true meaning of the mission of Jesus’ Church. Perception without solid information is very subjective and myopic, which leads to misinterpretation. Ignorance is the greatest enemy of Jesus’ Church. Satan loves people to be ignorant of Jesus’ and His Church’s teaching. He doesn’t want people to understand the Church and how she’s Jesus’ instrument of salvation outside of whom there is no salvation. Satan wants people to go to hell so he promotes lies, false perceptions and ignorance of the truth. As Hosea spoke on God's behalf: “My people perish because of ignorance!” (Hos 4:6). To understand Jesus is to be receptive to the Holy Spirit, listen to Him, heed Him, love and praise Him as He guides our human spirit through the Church and our conscience. To understand Jesus’ Church we must belong to her, participate in her Sacraments, especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and love her as Jesus’ Bride and our Mother within whom we are reborn in Baptism. Then the words of the Psalmist (34:2-3, 16-21) become real for us: “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord…when the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress He rescues them. The Lord is close to the broken-hearted; and those who are crushed in spirit He saves.”

We see an example of vincible ignorance in John’s Gospel. Jesus informed His followers, “I myself am the living bread that came down from Heaven … the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world … If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:51-52). Many reacted, “‘This sort of talk is hard to endure! How can anyone take it seriously?’ From this time on, many of His disciples broke away and would not remain in His company any longer” (Jn 6:60, 66). Their doubts could have been resolved if they had asked Him to explain how He would make what He said possible, but they ignored Him. Thus in their vincible ignorance they walked away from Him. They acted out of their own biased perceptions, and chose not to accept that Jesus had the power to make possible what He taught. Many who call themselves “Christian” today also reject this teaching of Jesus through imposing their own misinterpretation on it and viewing Jesus’ revelation as purely symbolic.

Why do Baptized Catholics walk away from the Church as unbelievers or view the Holy Mass just as an obligation? It’s because they are closed to the Holy Spirit and lack the understanding provided by God’s gift of Supernatural Faith they received in Baptism. Jesus explained, “no one comes to me unless it is granted him by my Father” (Jn 6:65). True believers are those who open themselves to receive God’s Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit that gives us the supernatural faith to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and as the “Bread of Life” in the Holy Mass. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul tells us that, “…no one can say: ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth who, “When He comes, however, being the Spirit of truth He will guide you to all truth” (Jn 16:13). Jesus is the Truth, the Way, and the Life (Jn 14:6). It’s this Spirit who brings us the gift of understanding Jesus and His Church, which He guides as her Soul. The Spirit is the life-giving breath from God to us bringing “a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, counsel, courage and fear of the Lord” (Is 11:2) that enlightens our mind. It was this Spirit that motivated Peter to respond to Jesus when He asked His Apostles, “Do you want to leave me too?” (Jn 6:67). Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe; we are convinced that You are God’s Holy One” (Jn 6:69). Peter not only had knowledge of Jesus but he also understood Jesus because he was receptive to the Holy Spirit.

It is our understanding of Jesus that determines whether we join, remain, or leave His Church where |He is present. Hence the need for our bishops, priests, and deacons, the ordained leaders of the Church, to devote themselves to evangelize and catechize the people, thereby being faithful to Jesus’ triple command to Peter: “Feed my lambs … Look after my sheep… Feed my sheep” (Jn 21:15-17). When the lambs and the sheep are well fed where they are able to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord,” they will not wander away from the fold. The more we know the Lord the more we will understand Him and subordinate ourselves to Him. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #67 on:** August 28, 2024, 05:02:20 AM »

Fr Sean again.
The Wise and Intelligent Obey God’s Law

The purpose of law is to guarantee order in society. Order is essential for both the common good of society and the individual members. Order requires rules that are followed by everyone. Without order it’s impossible for individuals and society to uphold the common good because chaos undermines it. The common good is the pursuit of freedom, justice, love, and peace, individually and communally. But it’s important to ask, “Who defines the common good?” Is it the people, courts, politicians, governments, the culture, or God?

Does good follow from law or law follow from the good? If law defines the good, then it’s dependent on what legislators say it is. Law, then, would be the final arbiter deciding the good. In that case there would be no such thing as bad law. However, we know from history that’s not the case. Since death is never good, laws that legalize killing, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted ѕυιcιdє, are bad.

The common good for creation can be determined only by the Creator. Law, whose purpose is to protect the common good, must protect moral living, which in turn flows from religion that gives structure to the relationship between the human and the Divine which is initiated by God. If the “good” of society contravenes the law of God everyone suffers. There’s a clear sequence here and with reason. The word “good” etymologically derives from the word God. God has revealed standards of behavior that uphold and promote the common good in both private and public life. A good law reflects the moral behavior, which human beings learned from their relationship with God that’s essential in maintaining their relationship with Him and with one another. Thus religion gave birth to morality, which defined the good to be protected and assured order in the life of individuals and society.

God revealed that His law reflects His love for us and obedience to His law reflects our love for Him. Without God’s law we would not know how to love Him. This is why He revealed to His people that, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye” (Ps 19:8-9). Again He tells us that, “The love of God consists in this: that we keep His commandments – and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3) because obedience stems from love. What we love is never burdensome. Because God loves us, what He asks of us is never burdensome because He provides us with the wherewithal to accomplish it. Our part is to choose to do it.

The tragedy today is that there’s an obsession on the part of many to dismiss religion, especially Catholic Christianity, as well as anything remotely related to it, as having nothing to do with the good of society, its order, protection, and promotion. Sadly, many philosophers and moralists have tried to separate morality from religious doctrine and base their definition of the good solely on human reason or feeling while ignoring Divine Revelation expressed in God’s Law as the ultimate source of what is real, true, good, and beautiful. Any time something is separated from its origin, it always suffers an identity crisis and becomes watered down losing its true meaning and purpose. The true purpose of law will become blurred or lost when separated from morality. In the same way, morality will become blurred or lost when separated from God and His Church’s Apostolic Tradition. Therefore, with the Psalmist, we must admit to God: “… Your law is like a lamp that guides my steps, a light that shows the path I should take. Your laws are good and fair. I have promised to obey them, and I will keep my promise.” (Ps 119:105-112). St. James urges us to “Humbly welcome the Word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves” (Jas 1:15-27).

We rely on God and the teaching of His Church for our understanding of what’s good and the rules that assure us we’re embracing that good in our thoughts and actions. People may belong to different religions and ecclesial groups, but still have certain basic principles in common. The major world religions recognize five basic commands from God to human beings: 1. Don’t kill. 2. Don’t lie. 3. Don’t steal. 4. Don’t practice immorality. 5. Respect parents and love children. (How Good People Make Tough Choices, Kidder, Rushworth M., Simon & Schuster). All of these are reflected in the 10 Commandments. Another work (Moral Rules: A New rational Foundation, Harper & Row) points out that humanity in general embraces a set of core values that seem to be universal. 1. Don’t kill. 2. Don’t cause pain. 3. Don’t disable. 4. Don’t deprive of freedom or opportunity. 5. Don’t deprive of pleasure. 6. Don’t deceive. 7. Keep your promises. 8. Don’t cheat. 9. Obey the law. 10 Do your duty. These basic moral rules reflect the aspirations of reasonable people listening to their consciences. Where do they come from? Certainly not from man-made law. Rather law comes from them. God has written His law on every person’s heart (Rom 2:12ff).

God’s Ten Commandments don’t contain anything that contradicts reason. They reflect an objective set of standards that are essential if human beings are to live ordered lives and build just communities. A non-religious person may not embrace the first three Commandments, which outline the minimum requirements for an ordered relationship with God. But even a non-religious person can accept that reason supports the notion of only one God who is All-Good and the source of all good. There can be only one leader in any organization. If there are more, it leads to division and weakness. The family of mankind needs one Divine leader who can offer the hope of achieving unity with one another. Reason supports respect for God. Reason supports worship of God. Because God is God, He deserves to be worshipped, not because He needs it, but because His followers owe Him in justice for all His gifts and need to publicly display that none of them seeks to be in competition with Him.

The last seven Commandments seek to ensure healthy, respectful, and safe human relationships with our neighbors. Honoring one’s father and mother is for the good of the family. Avoiding killing, adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting is for the good of everyone, both individually and communally. They insure order in one’s personal and communal life.

Moses addressed the people regarding the 10 Commandments: “Observe them carefully, for thus you will give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people'” (Deut 4;1-8). Twelve hundred years later Jesus criticized the people who prided themselves for their devotion to the observance of the law: “You disregard God’s commandments but cling to human tradition” (Mk 7:14-15). What did He mean? They replaced God’s rules with their own so they were serving their own interests instead of God’s. Their laws were subjectively motivated and they defined “the good” to suit themselves rather than the Good revealed by God. Jesus, quoting from Isaiah (Mk 7:1-13), described them: “This people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines mere human precepts.”

Just as the vision of the founders of a country is enshrined in its Constitution, so God’s vision for moral living and a lawful society is articulated in the Ten Commandments. Just as there are those who would try and change the Constitution to suit their own egotistical purposes, so there are those who would try to change God’s Law and the law of His Church. Those who would remove the 10 Commandments as the basis for moral living and the context for determining the good of individuals and society demonstrate neither intelligence nor wisdom. Thus today many leaders and those who support them are foolish and creators of chaos. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #68 on:** September 06, 2024, 04:41:46 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Be Sensible!

God revealed in the Book of Genesis that He created man and woman to be the high point of His earthly creation. After He created man and woman He declared them “very good” as distinct from the rest of creation, which He calls “good” (Gen 1:31). Creation is good while man and woman are very good. Another mark of distinction between man and the rest of creation was that God created them in His “image and likeness,” (Gen 1:26-28) while the rest wasn’t so privileged. God created man and woman as unique creatures and received the special purpose of subdue and filling the earth as its stewards (Gn 1:28). The tragedy today is that man and woman have become deaf and blind to the fact that they are accountable to God for how they treat human life from conception to natural death and that the earth is to be used for the benefit of all men and women.

Through human beings God puts His stamp, as it were, on His creation. This is why He created us in His image and likeness. Therefore, we must be continuously conscious of ourselves as God’s image and likeness to make sure that we are God’s instruments through which He continues to influence and direct His creation. If we are deaf and blind to God’s revelation we will stamp creation with our own human image and impose our own limitations and sinfulness upon it.

Our job, then, is to use creation in a manner that it too reflects the spirit of the Creator and shows that indeed we, as its stewards, show that we are God’s image and likeness on this earth. How do we know what it means to be the image and likeness of God? Who can tell and show us God’s image and likeness? God Himself made His image and likeness audible and visible when His Word took on human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is God’s Word-made-flesh. Jesus is the visible Model of what it means to be the human image and likeness of God. Therefore to be God’s image and likeness in the world you and I must make it our business to turn our eyes and ears to Jesus Christ who is present in His Church until the end of time (Mt 28:20).

To live calls for exercising all our abilities and gifts. God has gifted us with the ability to think and to choose. Thinking involves the mind whose nature is to know the truth. Choosing involves the will whose nature is to choose the good. The will is very much influenced by the mind since the good that is chosen is what the mind knows. Knowledge of the truth is an essential pursuit if we want to choose what’s truly good. Ignorance sentences us to less than the best. Since God is truth and is omniscient, all-knowing, He created us to know the truth. It’s unnatural for a human being not to want to know the truth.

Knowing always begins with experience. Everything that happens to us begins as an experience – either as a word or an event in our life. If we don’t experience something, it has no meaning for us. How do we experience it? With our senses. To experience something we must see, hear, smell, taste, or touch it. God has created us as sensible creatures. The animal level of creation has senses too, but it’s limited since animals, birds, and fish do not have the ability to reflect and evaluate what they sense. Only humans can reflect on and make decisions on what to do with their experiences.

A sensible person is one who uses one’s his or her senses to the fullest in order to collect as much information as possible about his or her environments. When we describe something as “nonsense” we imply that one or more of the senses contradicts it. When I say that something doesn’t make sense, I’m implying that it doesn’t square with what I see, hear,, smell, taste, or touch. When parents tell their children to be sensible, consciously or unconsciously they want them to use all their senses to collect correct information so they can make good decisions. If God gave us at least five senses, He means for us to use them so that we can make good decisions based on the sense knowledge we have cleaned. Seeing and hearing are two of our most important senses helping us to be secure and productive.

Jesus came to restore us to our senses, both physically and spiritually. This Sunday Jesus’ Church draws our attention to Him as He restores hearing and speech to a man who had lost the use of both (Mk 7:31-37). “He took the man away from the crowd, put His finger in the man’s ears, and using His spittle, touched his tongue. “He looked up to Heaven, groaned and said to the man, ‘Ephphatha – Be opened.’” Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy from Isaiah (34:5-7): “Be strong, fear not! Here is your God … He comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be cleared … the tongue of the mute will sing…” Here we see how the impairment of one sense affects the others. The healing or development of one sense enhances the others. When a person is deaf his or her speech is also adversely affected. When a person hears well he or she is able to speak more plainly.

An old saying reminds that “There are none so deaf as those who don’t want to hear.” The same goes for seeing. Hearing is a very important sense when it comes to the Christian faith. The Holy Spirit reveals through St. Paul, “Faith comes through hearing and hearing comes through speaking the Word of God” (Rom 10:17). Deafness, not just physical but especially mental, emotional, moral, and social, causes faith in God to die because it guarantees that His Word is not heard. Reluctance to preach the Word by bishops and clergy causes faith in God to die. If the Word isn’t spoken it can’t be heard and if it isn’t heard it cannot remind and encourage the hearer to be what God wants him or her to be, namely His image and likeness in the world. Deafness to the Word of God and impediments to speaking it are sure causes of the faith crisis in the Church today.

As a result of not hearing God’s Word people become spiritually dumb and insensitive to what God offers them, namely freedom from sin, the ability to see Jesus in the Sacraments of His Church, especially the Holy Mass, companionship to the lonely, hope to the despairing, love to the, loveless, faith to the faithless, protection to the vulnerable, the orphan, the widow, and thwarts the wicked (Ps 146:7-10).

Our prayer daily must be, “Heavenly Father, please open the ears and mouths of the bishops and clergy of Your Church so that I might hear You and know how to speak Your Word to all I know, so that, using their senses, they might be filled with Your Love and realize that You have created them in Your Holy Image and Likeness to bring back the world to Him. I ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen! (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #69 on:** September 11, 2024, 11:48:50 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Why Jesus asked, “Who Do People Say I Am?”

Have you ever wondered about how people perceive you? Who does your family, friends, co-workers, and the people in your neighborhood say that you are? Sometimes people claim they don’t care what others view them. What really matters is who God says I am! It’s important to realize that who others say I am determines the relationships we have or don’t have. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” (Mk 8:27-35). Why did He ask that question? Was He feeling insecure? Why did He care about how others saw Him? Because He knew that image was important in fostering relationships.

People who want to be popular put time and effort into developing an attractive image of themselves. Politicians spend lots of money trying to get people to view them favourably. The image they portray often makes the difference between winning and losing elections. Was Jesus interested in popularity? No. Was He interested in running for a political office? No. Why, then, did He ask the question about how others perceived Him? He wanted to know if the people really knew Him.

We collect information about the world through our perceiving functions. We tend to base our decisions on our perceptions; on how we see things. For many, perception is reality. If our perception is incorrect our reality isn’t real. Whether our perceptions are true or false will determine whether our relationships are real or fake. The problem with perceptions is that they’re affected by the limitations of our observations. Remember the old saying, “Don’t judge the book by the cover.” First impressions shouldn’t always be lasting. Perceptions or images always need to be examined objectively before memorizing them.

Who we say we are and who others say we are determine the strength or weakness of our relationships. We relate to one another based on the images we’ve developed of one another. We are imaginative creatures with an imagination whose purpose is to create images of reality. Our images are our ways of managing reality. We’re incapable of grasping the totality of reality, even of ourselves never mind that of another. All we know for sure about another is what he or she tells us either verbally or nonverbally. Since we can’t grasp the totality of reality, we must settle for pieces of it. The pieces of reality that we grasp are called images. When you and relate to one another we don’t relate to the fullness of who we are but rather to the image we have developed of one another. The reality of the relationship between two people is in proportion to how well the images they have of each other reflect the reality that is each person. If my image of you truly reflects you, and your image of me truly reflects me, then we can have a genuinely productive relationship. However, if the images we have of each other are false, a genuine relationship is impossible.

Jesus knew that people would relate to Him according to the image they had developed of Him. If the image didn’t reflect His true identity they couldn’t have a real relationship with Him nor let Him have a true relationship with them. We learn from the Gospel that the majority of people had a false image of Jesus, thinking He was an Old Testament prophet, Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptizer. He asked His closest disciples what their image of Him was. Peter answered on their behalf, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him, “Blest are you, Simon, son of John! No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (Mt 16:13-17). Having a true image of Jesus requires divine revelation. St. Paul reminds us that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). Therefore to form a true image of Jesus our mind and spirit must be receptive to the Holy Spirit as was Peter. Where does the Holy Spirit guide us? In the Bible interpreted by Jesus’ Church guided by the Holy Spirit. We cannot have a true image of Jesus without listening to His Church.

Even though Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had a true image of who Jesus was, namely Immanuel, God-with-us, he still tried to make Jesus change His mission. He tried to stop Him from facing death in Jerusalem. Even though we have a true image of Jesus we all attempt to get Him to do what suits us rather than what He chooses to do in fidelity to His Father’s will.

This week Jesus asks you and me, “Who do you say that I am?” What is your image of Him? Your image of Him influences how you relate to Him, His Church, its purpose, and your role in it. Why do some people actively participate in the Church while others are simply observers? Participants have an image of Jesus as the Lord calling them to be His eyes, hands, legs, mouth, mind, emotions, body, etc. Those who are merely observers have an image of Jesus as someone who has come to save them but doesn’t expect them to do anything. Participators have an image of Jesus as the Lord who continues to save mankind from hell in collaboration with them through the community of His Church. Observers seem to have faith, but it is dead. “Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Jas 2:14-18). Faith in Christ based on a true image of Him MUST be expressed in good works. There is no room for observers and volunteers in the Roman Catholic Church of Jesus Christ. Every Baptized and Confirmed member of the Catholic Church has received at least one spiritual gift from God to be developed and shared. Therefore, every person has a ministry in the Church. If a member of the Church isn’t doing at least one of the Spiritual or Corporal Works of Mercy, then he or she doesn’t have a true image of Christ. Without a true image of Christ, there can’t be a true relationship with Him. That is why He said to the foolish virgins, “I don’t know you ...” and didn’t let them into the banquet hall ( Mt 25:1-13). We can’t have a true relationship with someone when we have a false image of him or her and so we can’t have the benefits of the relationship.

Sadly, there are too many in the world, and even in the Church, who have a false image of Jesus and His Church. He is viewed as “nice” and His Church as “the Church of Nice.” But salvation comes only from the real Jesus and His true Church. The real Jesus warns us that, “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and follow in my steps. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will preserve it” (Mk 8:34-36). The real Jesus warns us that, “If anyone in this faithless and corrupt age is ashamed of me and my doctrine, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes with the holy angels in His Father’s glory” (Mk 8:38). The real Jesus reveals that “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn 14:6). Jesus is the only way to Heaven. You won’t find these Scriptures proclaimed from the pulpits of the Church-of-Nice.

Just as in human relationships developing a true image of one another is essential for true and genuine relationships, so is the development of a true image of Jesus and His Church essential in order to be a true Catholic Christian. Sadly, the image of Jesus and His Church that is promoted today by many in the Church is false because the Holy Spirit is being rejected so that Jesus is sanitized and His Church treated as another NGO. Let us turn to the Apostolic Tradition in which the Apostles hand on the true image of Jesus they developed of Him through spending three years in His company and guided by the Holy Spirit. Jesus founded His Church to faithfully protect and hand on that Tradition that contains the true image of Himself so that all people can come to know Him and form a true relationship with Him. Without the Church humanity and the world cannot know who Jesus truly is.

Reason tells us that if we want to have a genuine relationship with Jesus we must have a true image of Him. Our image of Him determines the caliber of our Christianity. Jesus said, “Where I am, there will my servants be.” If my image of Jesus is true, I will see Him as the One who has come to bring the world back to God and who asks me to let Him save the world through me. With that image of Jesus, I must ask myself, “What am I doing to make Jesus known as the only Savior of mankind?” (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #70 on:** September 18, 2024, 01:03:16 PM »

Fr Sean again.
Ambition: Good or Bad?

The word ‘ambition’ comes from Latin and was first used as a political term meaning a ‘going around’ or ‘striving for favour,’ soliciting votes for political office in Roman times. To be ambitious is to seek what we think will bring us some distinction, power, or fame that will make us stand out from the crowd or achieve something important to us. Is ambition good or bad? Who doesn’t want to be recognized, honoured, or achieve success? Who doesn’t want to be noticed, admired or favoured? Maybe introverts don’t like these things in public but they appreciate them in private. The fact is that every man, woman, and child is ambitious for what makes them happy. The problem isn’t ambition but what we’re ambitious for and what we do to attain it. The question is: Am I ambitious for the right or wrong things? When ambition is grounded in humility we’ll use it to serve others. When it’s laced with pride, arrogance or a superiority complex, we’ll use it to be served. This is what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel according to.

Jesus had just finished explaining to His Apostles (Mk 9:30-37) that betrayal, suffering, and death awaited Him as God’s Messiah. “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise” (Mk 9:31). St. Mark records that “they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question Him” (9:32). Instead they fell to arguing among themselves about which of them would be the greatest. Personal ambition occupied their thoughts. Who would be the most powerful, admired, or get the most votes? They were looking out for themselves. Nothing wrong with that, you might say! We all do it. Jesus was probably smiling as listened to them thinking to Himself, “There they go again thinking like humans and not like God. Will they ever learn?” Remember that Jesus is always listening to our conversations, even when we’re unconscious of His presence! When they arrived at their destination Jesus confronted them: “What were you arguing about on the way?” (Mk 9:33). Feeling embarrassed because Jesus had been talking about His forthcoming death while they were concerned with their own status, no one answered Him. Jesus used their silence as an opportunity to teach them about what ambition meant in His Church. He told them then, and He is telling us now through His Church, that “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mk 9:35). God teaches that ambition isn’t for glorifying one’s own ego, fueling vainglory, but for serving others.

Jesus didn’t condemn ambition. It’s natural to want to be acknowledged, affirmed, and receive affection. Without it we wouldn’t accomplish anything. Rather, He showed that ambition is good only when it leads to serving the needs of others. That requires the virtue of humility; it’s about putting thee before me. The way God sees things and the way we see things aren’t the same. God looks out for the whole of creation. We have a fallen nature and live in a world that says, “Look out for yourself!” Therein lies the problem. God is selfless and we are selfish. God wants us to be, as St. Paul wrote, “ambitious for the higher gifts … but if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever” (1Cor 12:31-13:3). Real love is by its nature sacrificial. The ambitious person who is humble realizes that every good thing comes from God. St. Paul confirms this when he wrote, “In any case, brothers and sisters, has anybody given you some special right? What do you have that was not given to you? And if it was given, how can you boast as though it were not?” (1 Cor 4:7). God’s gifts are not so much given to us as they are to be shared with others through us.

The humble person’s ambition is graced with gratitude that expresses itself in worshiping God and in serving those in need. To achieve fame, power, wealth, honour in God’s eyes, we must be the best servant we can be. Humble ambition empowers us to put others above ourselves. This is the man or woman who prays daily, “O God, by Your Name save me, and by Your might defend my cause. O God hear my prayer; hearken to the words of my mouth … Behold God is my Helper; the Lord sustains my life” (Ps 54: 4, 6). Wisdom (2:12, 17-20) depicts those people whose ambition is bad because they were prideful and sought only their own self-aggrandisement. “Let us beset the Just One, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the Law and charges us with violations of our training … Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” The “just one” refers to the promised Messiah. He came to confront sin in order to save people from their sins and so He identified the sins committed by the people for which they would have to repent, seek forgiveness and amend their life in order to saved. But they were prideful rather than humble and so set out to destroy the Messiah. They then sought to soothe their consciences by reminding themselves that the Just One said God would take care of Him. Selfish ambition served to put Jesus on the cross. It also tries to shut down Jesus’ Church today by trying to change her Traditional teaching. The conflict between those who use their ambition to serve Jesus in His Church and those who use their ambition to use Jesus and His Church to serve their prideful purposes is evident today.

Self-serving ambition is always destructive both outside and inside the Church. Why? Because it is blind and causes people to “sow in the flesh and so reap corruption” (Gal 6:8). St. James highlights the consequences of egotistical ambition: “Wherever you find jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every kind of wicked thing being done… You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. Why you don’t have what you want is because you don’t pray for it; when you do pray and don’t get it, it is because you have not prayed properly, you have prayed for something to indulge your own desires.” (Jas 3:16-4:3) St. James cautions that, “If there are any wise or learned men among you, let them show it by their good lives, with humility and wisdom in their actions” (Jas 3:13). If we temper our ambition with humility, we’ll be instruments of God’s blessing on society viewing ourselves as servants and not lords. If we don’t, we’ll be sores on the skin of the Church and of society. What matters is that our ambition runs on the tracks of humility and service seeking God’s glory whose favour and votes are the only things that count. In the words of St. Paul (12:31-13:13) “Be ambitious for the higher gifts…There are in the end three things that matter: Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the greatest of these is Charity.” Supernatural Faith, Hope, and Charity must drive all ambition if it is to be good and reflect God’s will which alone matters for our future. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #71 on:** September 25, 2024, 12:02:04 PM »

Fr Sean again.
The Effects of a Diseased Soul

Pathology is the branch of medicine that studies the nature of disease, its causes, processes, development, and consequences. The term comes from two Greek words, namely ‘pathos,’ which means disease, and ‘logos,’ which means study. Since we’re composed of body and soul integrally related, we can suffer from illnesses in each of these areas. Our soul is as prone to sickness as is our body. Sickness of the soul affects our intellect and our will, our thinking and our choices. Therefore, in order to ensure health we need to be alert to the existence of disease in each of these components for the sake of our well-being. However, when it comes to the soul we don’t always view it as being diseased or sick. Sickness of the soul may very well be the root cause of some of our physical and many of our mental illnesses. Sin infects the soul and causes it to become sick. That’s why it needs to be freed from sin if we’re going to be healthy human beings. A healthy soul is crucial in order to be a healthy person. Why? The soul is the person’s substance that expresses itself through the mind and body. The signs of a healthy soul are faith, charity, trust, prayerfulness, freedom, patience, hope, joy, prudence, justice, chastity, fortitude, temperance, wisdom, faithfulness, and understanding. A diseased soul will cause unhealthy thinking that generates feelings and expression in evil physical actions. The signs of an unhealthy soul are addiction, infidelity, cowardice, hesitancy, folly, hypocrisy, conflict, meanness, harshness, lewdness, ugliness, vengefulness, covetousness, etc. A person who is greedy, lustful, lazy, jealous, wrathful, prideful, or envious has a sick soul. Our body will ultimately die whether or not it’s diseased. But our soul will not die; it will continue beyond physical death in either a healthy or a sick state. In its healthy state the soul will enjoy eternal happiness. In its diseased state the soul will experience eternal hell. Hence the urgent need to rid the soul of disease that damages its “organs,” such as the intellect, mind, unconscious, decision-making, conscience, memory, and the “spark of God.” Since the soul is what gives form to the body, makes it human and determines whether it is male or female, what happens to the soul affects the body. The Body reflects the soul. A body that reflects a damaged soul is not relaxed or at peace. We can try to change the body with drugs or surgery but we cannot change the soul. Since the soul is the essence of the person, who the person truly is at the depth of his or her being, the state of the soul determines that state of his or her humanity.

Jesus came to rid the human soul from disease through repentance and the forgiveness of sin. This is why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so essential and why Jesus gave His Apostles, and through them their successors in His Church, the power to forgive sin. He empowered His Church under the leadership of Peter to make forgiveness of sin available to those with repentant hearts. “Then He breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you held them bound, they are held bound’” (Jn 20:22-23). Jesus made forgiveness an integral part of His Church’s mission emphasizing God’s love, justice, and mercy. But it’s also essential to realize that forgiveness requires repentance on our part if we want God to free our soul from spiritual sickness. Repentance, in turn, requires a contrite heart, confession of sin, doing penance, making restitution for the damage done to ourselves and others, and amending our life in fidelity to Jesus and His Church.

Amending our life means identifying our soul’s disease, recognizing its nature, identifying its cause and consequences, and taking the steps necessary to maintain spiritual wellness. Jesus addresses the seriousness of this when He told His listeners, “If your hand is your difficulty, cut it off! ... If your foot is your undoing, cut it off... If your eye is your downfall, tear it out!” (Mk 9:43-49). He told them that it was better for them to enter Heaven maimed, crippled, and blinded than to enter hell with an intact body. Jesus isn’t advocating self-mutilation, rather He is using hyperbole to emphasize the dire need to do what’s necessary, no matter how painful, to get rid of anything that damages our soul. As I have indicated, our soul is our self – our essence, what makes us unique and human. When we’re physically sick we often have to submit to surgery in order to remove an organ or part of an organ that if left there will bring about our physical death. The same is true of the soul when its sickness threatens us with spiritual death. We don’t excise the spiritual “organ,” rather we ask God to free it from its disease by restoring the soul to its healthy state where it restores its organs to health. We need to get rid of anything that threatens the health of the soul. The ultimate consequence of bodily disease is physical death if it isn’t cured. The ultimate consequence of spiritual disease is eternal hell if it isn’t cured before we leave this world.

We hear the Psalmist proclaim that, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple … Though Your servant is careful of them, very diligent in keeping them, yet who can detect failings? Cleanse me from my unknown faults!” (Ps 19:8,12-13). Loving obedience to God’s Law “refreshes the soul.” Dishonesty sickens the soul. St. James (5:1-6) warns us that those who become rich at the expense of others will lose everything, especially their soul’s eternal happiness. Why? Because what was ill-gotten infects the soul with greed and injustice. The consequence, if dishonest people die unrepentant and without making restitution, an eternity in hell awaits them.

The law of God keeps us on Jesus’ path loving God and neighbour in a spirit of service that promotes freedom, charity, justice, and peace, the characteristics of a healthy soul. The more we strive to serve the more Satan tempts us to focus on ourselves and our own gain so that we do only what will be personally rewarding. When selfishness kicks in our soul becomes dehydrated resulting in a narrowing of our thinking and pettiness in our choices. That’s why we need to confess our sins and seek Jesus’ and His Church’s forgiveness at least once each month, and preferably more often. Our prayer each day should be, “Have mercy on me, O God, in Your goodness; in the greatness of Your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me” (Ps 51:1-4). The effects of a diseased soul are deadly and dehumanizing. A clean soul brings joy to the heart, peace to the mind, and the promise of eternal happiness. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #72 on:** October 02, 2024, 04:13:38 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Marriage Is God’s Creation, not the State’s

God alone declares a relationship to be a marriage which He instituted between a man and a woman for the purpose of creating a family. The State can legalize a relationship but it has no authority to declare it a “marriage.” God revealed that, “‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I shall make a suitable partner for him’ … God then built up into a woman the rib he had taken from the man (who said), ‘This, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken’” (Gen 2:18, 22-23). Thus God made man and woman uniquely suited to one another not only physically, but also spiritually, mentally, emotionally, socially, and morally. Two men or two women can give each other compliments but they can’t complement one another as only a man and a woman have the ability to accomplish. That complementarity is uniquely expressed in an indissoluble marriage union. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). The fruitfulness of their union is made visible in the procreation of children and in their mutual love for one another that’s unconditional. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish … birds … and over every living thing…” (Gen 1:28). “The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame” (Gen 2:25) because, before they sinned, they related to each other in love rather than lust.

Satan entered the picture tempting Adam and Eve that they could be God’s equal by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then they would know what was good for them independently of God. Thus the scourge of relativism entered the world. Morality would now be subjective based on people’s likes and dislikes. With this came selfishness and sin. Thus the natural complementarity and solidarity between man and woman became severely damaged. While man and woman were still attracted to one another, often through disordered desires, alienation, and blaming pitted them against one another – Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the devil (Gen 3:13). Marriage, which called for complete union and unconditional love, was undermined making it more of a contract than a covenant. Man and woman no longer viewed each other in terms of collaboration but in terms of self-gratification. By rejecting God they rejected the source of unconditional love and eternal life, giving birth to selfishness and death. While human nature, despite its fallen state, brought man and woman together in marriage, they didn’t have the grace of God to help them love one another unconditionally or forgive one another so divorce entered the human scene.

The Pharisees confronted Jesus regarding divorce and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” (Mk 10:2). They reminded Him that, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” Jesus reminded them that, “Moses wrote you this commandment because of the hardness of your heart. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together no man or woman may separate” (Mk 10: 5-9). He reinforced God’s teaching when He told them that, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery” (Mk 10:11). A divorced man or woman who “remarries” isn’t married in God’s eyes but is living in a state of adultery. Adulterers are deprived of Heaven (1 Cor 6:9-11) unless they repent and get out of that sinful state.

Jesus stated that “What God has joined, man may not pull apart” (Mt 19:6; Mk 10:9). Jesus made marriage into a Sacrament wherein He provides the necessary graces to the man and woman to remain faithful and grow in their sacrificial love for one another in a holy covenant. What God joins He provides the wherewithal to remain joined. He revealed in Ps 128 1-6, “Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways … Blessed shall you, and favoured. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive branches around your table. For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork…”

Divorce reflects either the fact that one or both spouses refused to receive the graces God bestowed on them through the Sacrament of His Church, or the fact that these two people should never have entered marriage. Marriage is a vocation made in Heaven but it has to be lived on earth. The Church provides a divorced man or woman with the opportunity to examine the attempted marriage to see if God did join them together in the beginning. It is called the Annulment Process. Jesus gave Peter as the head of His Church the power to bind and to loose from bonds. If the Church’s conclusion is that God did join them but one or both decided to leave she cannot declare the marriage null and void. This is a reminder that in the mind of God and His Church marriage is a very serious undertaking for a man and a woman, hence the need for a thorough preparation to make sure that they are answering God’s call to them to marry. It is a fact that some people should never be married either because they aren’t called to that state or they are too immature and ignorant of what marital obligations entail. Marriage is for mature people who realize that God will judge them on their willingness to sacrifice themselves for one another.

Divorce is the scourge of the family. Broken families translate into broken societies. Broken societies breed dysfunctional people whose need to belong, be free, be powerful and be able to be joyful is not met. The Church should become much more stringent in her requirement of couples who present themselves for marriage. Preparation programmes should be intensified with a major emphasis on the spiritual and religious aspect of marriage. Couples who enter a sɛҳuąƖ relationship before marriage reduce the possibility of a successful marriage to 20%. The Church should require them to be chaste for at least a year before entering marriage. If people abuse their sɛҳuąƖity before marriage they will abuse it after marriage. Because marriage is created by God, not by human beings or the political government, man and woman individually need God’s unconditional love to keep them loving each other unconditionally. The vows are “until death do us part.” But one person can’t make a marriage. It takes both husband and wife with each needing Jesus as their Saviour and His Church as the means through which He spiritually nourishes and nurtures their relationship and the development of their children. Marriage calls people to be soul mates and if their souls are sick from sin so their relationship will be severely diseased. By making marriage a Sacrament of His Church Jesus assures the bride and groom of His unconditional love so each of them knows the source of the love that never runs out. Since God created marriage, only He can keep a man and woman in love with each other in a covenant relationship. This is why Jesus came to call sinners to repent and seek forgiveness from God so they could forgive one another and be reconciled so they could resume their complementary relationship. This requires humble and loving obedience to God’s will as the determiner of good and evil rather than following our own selfish notion of what’s good or bad for us. To highlight this Jesus reminds us, “Amen, I say to you whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Mk 10: 15). The implication is that we must trustingly accept what God’s Kingdom requires of us if we want to enter it rather than satisfying our own ego. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #73 on:** October 11, 2024, 07:40:24 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Only The Poor Go To Heaven

Jesus taught that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle (a small aperture in the Jerusalem wall) than for a rich man or woman to enter heaven. Jesus stated that, “It is hard for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Mk 10:17-30). I find this statement to be a wakeup call to practice poverty, namely making what we have available to help those in need. This particular Scripture is very important in a culture obsessed with the false god of wealth. Success or failure in political leadership is measured by how financially well off people are. The wealth of a person as a measurement of how successful he or she is not how God measures our success. This standard for measuring our wellbeing tends to completely omit morality, integrity, virtue, faith, and our obligation to share. A line in the hymn, “All My Trials Lord” reminds us that “If living was something that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die.” Money cannot buy Heaven. The rich have status on earth but the poor have status in Heaven. Status on earth is temporary but status in Heaven is permanent.

The famous are usually the materially rich and the materially rich are usually the famous. We seem to pay more attention to what we have than on who we are as persons and where we’re headed. People are rarely honored for the kind of person they are. People are more often than not rewarded for what they do, regardless of the kind of life they lead. In the big picture, who a person is rather than what a person does or has is far more important. Doing flows from being. However, the behavior of a person can be deceptive. On the surface, the action may seem to reflect a spirit of generosity but can be motivated by the false god of popularity. Look at the politicians who make all kinds of promises before an election but fail to fulfill even a fraction of them. They seem on the surface to be concerned with the welfare of the people but are mainly interested in money, power or prestige for themselves. Who a person is – the kind of character he or she has developed and continues to build – is far more important than what a person does or has.

St. Mark relates an encounter between Jesus and a rich young man who approaches Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He addresses Jesus as “Good teacher.” Jesus makes a very important statement in response: “No one is good but God alone.” Only God is good and the source of all. Therefore, no one can do what is good without God. Whatever we call “good” is so only because it reflects God. Nothing that doesn’t reflect God is good, no matter how good it looks.

This young man is well off materially but lacks spiritual fulfillment. Jesus asks him if he has kept the Commandments, the minimum requirement for being a Jєω. Jesus doesn’t mention the first three Commandments that spell out the minimum requirement for fidelity to God. He mentions some of those Commandments that spell out the minimum requirements for the building of a just community: you shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.” The young man was pleased with himself because he was able to say, “Teacher, I have observed all these from my youth.” Jesus looked at him with love. The young man at this point probably thought he could sit back on his laurels and cruise the rest of the way to Heaven. Then Jesus threw him for a loop. “You are lacking in one thing.” What was that? Jesus told him to “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in Heaven; then come, follow me.” Mark wrote that, “The young man went away sad, for he had many possessions.”

Since he was young he probably had inherited a lot of material wealth. He would be considered a “good man” because he obeyed the Commandments. His encounter with Jesus exposed the fact that he was possessed by his possessions. He put more faith in his wealth for his security than in Jesus. In this exchange Jesus is telling us that if we wish to inherit eternal life we must stop relying on things and start relying on God. Trusting in material things for one’s security always sets up a person for deep disappointment and a starved soul that makes us less human in our attitude towards others. The wealthier people become the more they rely on what is material than what is spiritual and religious. To inherit eternal life a man or woman must be eligible for such an inheritance. An inheritance is a gift. A gift cannot be bought. On the surface, it looked like this young man was a truly godly man. In reality, he wasn’t. This story demonstrates that material possessions can be huge obstacles to religious Faith and trust. The only way material possessions can help is if we use them according to God’s will. Jesus teaches us God’s will in this story. This young man found out he followed the Commandments but he didn’t trust in God. Because he didn’t trust in God, he was unwilling to share what he had with God’s family, especially those who were the poorest. The result: “his face fell, and he went away sad,” addicted to his things and rejecting Jesus’ invitation to follow Him. Wisdom is putting knowledge of God into action. This young man was unwise, a fool. Don’t let your possessions make a fool of you. You will die one day and have to let go of all of them. Then what will you have to cling to for security and happiness?

We cannot enter Heaven unless we’re poor. Jesus revealed that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor (Mt 5:3). To be a Christian is to practice a spirit of poverty. Poverty is reflected in a spirit of availability – making our time, talent, and treasure available to our family, parish Church, and all who are in need . Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be” (Mt 6:21). Where our heart is determines what we look to for security, power, meaning, purpose, peace, love, and life. These can never be fully attained here on earth. If our treasure is in Heaven, then our heart will be joined to the heart of Jesus that perfects our heart and fills it with a joy and a happiness that is eternal. Jesus taught, “Where I am, there will my servants be.” He spent the bulk of His time on earth with the poor, the needy, the condemned, the orphans and widows, the weak and the lost. Today He is in His Church continuing to call us to reform our life, repent and believe in the Gospel. That’s where we must be too, letting Him reform us through repentance for our sins and sharing our blessings with the poor so that they can feel blessed. That’s where Jesus needs us.

Every one of us will leave behind our material possessions when death comes. We cannot take our bank accounts, stocks, or property with us. Corpses do not have suitcases and hearses do not have luggage racks. We mustn’t wait for death to force us to give up our possessions. We must invest what we have through practicing the virtue of poverty that God translates into building up treasure in Heaven. When we invest what we have through totally relying on God’s providence we will become poor because to be poor is to recognize that whatever we give will be rewarded beyond our imagination. Jesus told His Apostles that whatever we give for His “sake and for the sake of the Gospel will receive a hundred times more now in this present age… and eternal life in the age to come. You and I cannot enter Heaven without becoming poor. The paradox of Christianity is that to become rich in eternity we must become poor here on earth. It is in giving that we receive. It is in giving that we know God’s love is aflame in our heart. The amount that we give and the attitude with which we give it, will be used by God to determine what is given back to us. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #74 on:** October 17, 2024, 05:16:30 AM »

29th Sunday
Fr Sean again.
Heaven Is for Servants – The World’s Unimportant People

The worldly expectation is that the important people are to be served while the unimportant people have to serve themselves and others. In Victorian England servants were viewed as the lower class and referred to by their last name, while the Master and Mistress of the house were the upper class to whom the servants bowed. To be someone’s servant assigned him or her to a lower class of people. Society categorizes the educated and wealthy as more important than the illiterate or the poor. Those claiming royalty were viewed as ‘blue bloods.’ Ironically, the origin of the term ‘blue blood’ stemmed from the skin and veins turning blue due to the use of silvery cutlery and goblets which, of course, only the materially wealthy could afford. ‘Blue blood’ was actually a disease. Society divides the labour force into “white collar” and “blue collar” workers. The managerial, professional worker is associated with belonging to a higher class than the manual labourer. This is the world into which Jesus came and confronted. It’s a world that continues today in one form or another despite two thousand years of Christianity.

Jesus changed the world’s value system by exposing its inhumanity and replacing it with God’s will for man and woman. He challenged the notion of class distinction by changing the standard for measuring people’s importance. “He raised up the lowly and deposed the mighty from their thrones” (Lk 1:22). Jesus warned, “What profit does a man show who gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul in the process?” (Mk 8:36). Saving the soul is more important than amassing possessions. Saving one’s soul comes about only through living according to the example and teaching of Jesus who guaranteed His presence in His Church until the end of time saving men and women from the sins of pride, greed, lust, wrath, sloth, covetousness. He revealed that the truly great are those who enter Heaven by living a life of service to God and neighbour. He turned the world’s standard for measuring importance and success on its head by making servanthood rather than knighthood the criterion for entry to Heaven. He also made suffering a means to salvation by showing that if accepted and united with His suffering it would lead to resurrection from the dead and help to save others. God revealed through Isaiah that the promised Messiah (Jesus) “By His suffering shall …justify many, taking their faults on himself” (Is 53:10-11).

Jesus set the example by proclaiming, “The Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve – to give His life in ransom for many” (Mk 10: 45). To follow in Jesus’ footsteps, to be a true member of His Church, requires us to be like Him, namely to be a servant to others by sharing our gifts with them. He made caring for the needs of others a necessary requirement to be Christian. On Holy Thursday evening, after Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist and ordained the Apostles to “Do this in memory of me,” He washed their feet. Then He commanded His newly ordained priests, “You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and fittingly enough for that is what I am. But if I washed your feet – I who am Teacher and Lord – then you must wash each other’s feet” (Jn 13:13-14). To impress the importance of service as a visible sign of faith in Him, Jesus added, “What I just did was to give you an example: as I have done, so you must do” (Jn 13:15). This is what makes Christianity both unique and difficult for us because we are sinners and basically selfish. Struggling with a fallen nature we’re prone to egotism and self-obsession. We expect a payoff for what we do. But service doesn’t always guarantee a payoff because those who’re being served often can’t pay us back. It’s easy to serve when we’re being rewarded but it takes Christian Faith and fortitude to continue serving when we’re not rewarded. True service lies in giving without counting the cost. For that we need supernatural Faith, Hope and Charity.

Jesus’ apostles, James and John, were thinking about themselves when they put in their application for good jobs in God’s Kingdom. “Grant that in Your glory we may sit one at Your right and the other at Your left” (Mk 10:37). Don’t we all tend to look out for our own security? Jesus asked them if they knew the kind of service and suffering their request would entail. He didn’t scold them for their self-importance but took the opportunity to teach them a key lesson that we all need to learn, namely that, “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all” (Mk 10:43-44). God's Kingdom is inhabited only by those who are willing to suffer and serve as the least important in society.

Service and suffering aren’t always easy because they involve sacrifice. Like Jesus, serving others requires that we sacrifice ourselves for their benefit. The biggest sacrifice of all is to put you before me. That involves giving up our own comfort and convenience in the process of responding to other’s needs. If Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, and if we want to be His followers, we must sacrifice ourselves for our neighbour if we want to be Christ-like – Christian. G.K. Chesterton reminds us that, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” Christianity has been left untried.” Why? Because it calls for humans to serve instead of being served, to be other-centred instead of being self-centred. The motivation stems from recognizing that, “Our soul is waiting for the Lord. The Lord is our help and our shield” (Ps 31:4-22). The more we serve the more our soul encounters the Lord who is our help and our protector enabling us to be selfless in our thoughts and behaviour.

It’s service to one another that the world is most in need of every day. Imagine what the world would be like if each of us was oriented to serving others instead of feeling entitled and expecting to be served. Service calls us to practice the virtues of generosity, humility, and charity. These virtues displace the vices of pride, lust, greed, jealousy and envy. They support and promote the preciousness of human life, thereby eliminating war, violence, abortion, euthanasia, sɛҳuąƖ trafficking, etc. While the world divides people into classes creating class distinction that generates conflict, abuse, jealousy, envy, disrespect, virtue signalling etc., Christian service promotes repentance and reconciliation. This is why the world is in dire need of Christianity, like dry land needs water, to create communities that are productive and fruitful. A spirit of service is what the world needs now and what Jesus came to instil in the heart of every human being. Let’s not resist that spirit that reflects the Holy Spirit’s truth and love. The salvation of our souls depends on it. We cannot enter heaven without being servants. As servants we pray, “May Your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in You” (Ps 32:22). (fr sean)

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