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After Fishing And Falling

29 Monday Jun 2020

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The Holy Bible is a bottomless ocean of God’s zealous and steadfast love, which nurtures the spirit of man to thrive with life in abundance. Man is greatly influenced by the world, which quite often is a result of his want to please his flesh, even if it were for a moment’s pleasure. Faith is corrupted and can even be lost when pleasure is allowed to erect false gods in man’s heart. Man permits this contriving when he willingly diminishes the reality of God for whatsoever reason(s).

There are those who outrightly reject God, His existence and the ways through which they can know about Him. There are those who limit God’s intervention in their lives, based on their needs met. Then there are also those who are self-righteous and think that they’ve attained enough ‘holiness’, and so need not bear further crosses, make no further sacrifices, give no more love and serve none anymore. 

On the other hand, those who are known to be heroes in the history of man’s salvation, impress upon men, the remarkable surrendering of their will, which so easily and so many times, was allured by the world. This they could do, persistently, because they were aware of the reality of God and of the fact that their life on earth and life in eternity, totally and completely depends on God. 

Man fishing

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the lives of two luminous witnesses of Christ, who were by no means consistent in righteousness or faithfulness to the Master they served, oh so zealously. St. Peter and St. Paul, two men chosen by our Lord Jesus, uniquely different in personalities and personal backgrounds, bestowed with unique personal vocations which will transform the world until it’s very end. 

Simon bar Jonah, an uneducated, poor, unknown, fisherman from Galilee, was called by our Lord Jesus to become his disciple while he was busy with his daily occupation – fishing. This is an interesting aspect of the Christo-methodology of recruitment of disciples in the Kingdom of God. Not only does The Lord’s calling convinces Simon to abandon his livelihood “at once” (Matthew 4:20), but it also convicts him to follow Jesus, with faith in the extraordinarily greater meaning his life would receive. 

Through the course of his earthly pilgrimage in adoration, fellowship, worship, companionship and discipleship with God Incarnate, Simon, leaves no stone unturned to disqualify himself of Divine kinship. Simon’s personal relationship with the Son of God cannot by any means be appreciated as perfect. It is actually his imperfect relationship with Jesus which stands out as living theology of Mercy in his life. At one time he ignorantly tries influencing Jesus away from the cross, another time he shows faith which makes him walk on water, but in a matter of moments he let’s his doubt begin to drown his faith. 

Another time he is fired up to die along with Christ and a short while after that he can’t even stay up for an hour in prayer with the same Christ. He receives authority of being ‘the rock’ and during the passion of his Master, he resorts to bloodshed in the garden of gethsemane. He soon ends up denying The One whom he confessed to be the Anointed One of God and finally abandons Him during His crucifixion and death. 

Saul on the other hand has an elaborate and pompous reputation among the Hebrews of that time. A man who was highly intellectual, very well read and learned, zealous for the Lord of the Israelites and an avid persecutor of this new ‘Jesus cult’. His pre-conversion resume boasts of even being a witness to the barbaric murder of the first martyr of Christianity – Stephen. Even all his knowledge, wisdom, religiosity and total obedience to The Law could not move Him to the understanding that he was persecuting Christ Himself while he persecuted His people. 

With such an illustrious background, a Law abiding Jew, Saul ended up becoming a consistent, dangerous, controversial, immensely popular and powerful threat to the very community which allowed him to not only thrive ambitiously but also commit cold blooded murders of those believing in the Messiah. While he ferociously rode to massacre the followers of Christ, Our Lord Jesus gives Saul a profound encounter with His mercy. Now, Paul, is suddenly a man out of darkness and into the marvellous light of the Living God. A man who caused immense pain and suffering to the flock of the Good Shepherd is dramatically transformed into an Apostle to the Gentiles, who is completely at peace in-spite of being bitten by poisonous snakes, stoned and beaten by mobs, shipwrecked, jailed and eventually beheaded for his witness. In his own words, he reached the end of his life as the one who faithfully ran the race of faith and awaited the crown of righteousness. 

If there is one thing every believer in Christ Jesus can trust fully about what God can do with a person who abandons himself completely to the will of God, is, that God can make a saint out of any sinner who surrenders to God. There is no achievement, no accolade, no qualification, no reputation, no wealth, no prosperity, no sacrifice, no ritual that moves God’s favour upon us. Nor is their any sin or wrong that one can ever commit which would rob us of our share of love from God, provided the sinner repents for severing the bond of being children of God. 

Saints Peter and Paul

The one who denied the Messiah, repented for his doing and in return was given the authority to be the shepherd of the Church of Christ – His mystical body. The one who wanted to wipe out every Christian from Israel, was inducted into the apostleship and was sent forth to evangelise the gentiles. 

Each one of us who believes in Christ is called to sainthood, as were Simon and Saul. Each one of us believers are given the vocation to be witnesses of Christ and make disciples of our Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit who worked powerful through Peter & Paul, is the same Spirit who is at work in us. If we consistently be docile to the Holy Spirit, every day of our lives, we will discover our path to heaven and will also be given the grace and the faith to walk on that path until our end in this world.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us. 

“If you love me you will keep my commandments”

25 Sunday May 2014

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Advocate, Apostles, Catechism, Catholic, Church, Commandments, Friends, Friendship, God, Gospel, Holy, Holy Ghost, Holy Land, Holy Spirit, Jerusalem, Jesus, Love, Paraclete, Pope Francis, Saints, Sin, St.Peter, Vatican, Word of God, Youth

Reflection on the Holy Gospel according to John 14:15-21

“15 If you love me you will keep my commandments. 16 I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever, 17 the Spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you. 18 I shall not leave you orphans; I shall come to you. 19 In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see that I live and you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. 21 Whoever holds to my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.”


 

Jesus the only begotten Son of The Almighty God is the living covenant between God His Father and all of mankind. To listen to The Word of God in the Holy Gospels is to be taught by Jesus Himself. The teaching of Our Lord draws us to eternal life. It is a model by which those who have become saints have transformed their lives and have born witness to their exemplary faith. Therefore the commandments of Jesus are not a matter of choice for the faithful. His commandments lead us to truth. The sanctity of this truth is armored by the precious blood of The Lamb of God. This therefore is the only way a soul can find its way to its eternal well being, in the company of all that has been created to worship God in holiness.

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Even though Christ gave us His commandments, by obedience to which He assures us fellowship with His Father and Spirit, He knows the nature of our created being. That nature has been disfigured by disobedience, which led to the compelling Original Sin. Therefore, The Lord’s never drying fountain of mercy guarantees the constant companionship of the comforting Paraclete (Gr. παράκλητος, Lat. Paracletus), who counsels us, advocates for us and helps us to live by those commandments of God through the incarnate Christ. This Paraclete is the Spirit of Truth. The complexity and yet the simplicity of the Holy Spirit is favourable only to those who long to listen to the voice of The Lord. Thus the Book of Proverbs 3: 1-2 says, “My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commandments in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.”

The promise of the Holy Spirit by Christ Jesus is the promise of The Father Himself. It is the Father who sends His Son to us and it is The Father who promises to care for us even when His Son momentarily has to depart from the world. The Father who is in heaven is our Father who has carved us on the palm of His hand. Such a loving Father, one who is beyond any human understanding of Paternal love, unlike that of human fathers, is bound by his Holy will and His very nature of being our creator, to protect, care and comfort us – His children, with love and mercy.

Christ speaks to each one of us in unique ways, that is because His plans for each one of us is unique and has no replica in another’s life.  An infilling of the Holy Spirit within the human person is like the adorning of Yahweh’s holy temple by King Solomon, with the finest of Gold and rare jewels. It is the willingness of allowing holiness to engulf every space and void within the Holy of Holies. It is like the commissioning of the finest and exclusive artisan to create a unique throne for the enthronement of The Most High God, within the temple which is the human person. Such an infilling fortifies the will of a person and constantly guards it from being contaminated by concupiscence, temptation, corruption, pride, hypocrisy and sin.

Through discerning the will of God with the assistance of The Paraclete, we allow Jesus to reveal himself to us in ways He has already planned for each one of us, in ways exclusive to every single person. Directing the human will to the obedience of The Word of God – through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, therefore is conformity to the command of Christ – “Love God and love Thy neighbor as Thyself.”

The Fallen One

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Word Ignite in Catholic, Uncategorized

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Apostles, Catholic, Chastity, Christian, Divine, God, Gospel, Holiness, Jesus, Joy, Life, Love, Mercy, Rome, Trinity, Vatican, Virgin Mary, World

The Catholic Church has always held that the devil is real, not a mythical personification of evil. This teaching finds its origin in the teaching and example of Jesus in Mt 4:1-11; 12:22-30; Mk 1:34; Lk 10:18; 22:31; Jn 8:44. The Church’s teaching on the subject is clear from its liturgy. At baptism, those to be baptized are called upon to reject Satan, his works, and his empty promises.

Pope John Paul II, in his general audience of August 13, 1986, expounded at length on the fall of the angels and, in speaking on the origin of Satan, said, “When, by an act of his own free will, he rejected the truth that he knew about God, Satan became the cosmic “liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). For this reason, he lives in radical and irreversible denial of God and seeks to impose on creation–on the other beings created in the image of God and in particular on people–his own tragic “lie about the good” that is God.

I’d like to draw the premise, first by underlining what the word Devil means. It comes from the Latin diabolus (devil), which is a transliteration of the Greek diabolos (devil; diavolos; διάβολος) from the verb diaballo (to insinuate things), slander, calumniate. The Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen explains the ‘diabolic’ to be one which ‘tears apart’. The essence of the Devil’s agenda is the hatred towards the cross of Christ.

The first Epistle of St. John 5:19, the Word of God says: “The whole world is in the power of the evil one.” St. Padre Pio said, “The number of demons active in the world is more than the people who have ever lived; right from the time of Adam”. The Holy Mother Catholic Church in her Catechism teaches us that, “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.” “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” “Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries – of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.”

Lucifer

The world since a very long time, more so since the past century, is plagued with an anti-God motive. However, this plague need not be the cause of hatred towards God, but the subtlety is such that it becomes almost impossible to uncover the camouflage of the Prince of Darkness. Human slavery, fornication, child labor, homosexuality, abortion, pornography, insolent fashion and art, public nudity (the Devil simply loves to manifest itself in man’s desire to be nude & in indulgence of animalistic / degrading sexual actions), persecution of the Church and the Holy Eucharist in particular, attraction towards worldly luxury and sophistication, divorce, abandonment of the elderly and of those who need special care physically & mentally, broken families, pedophilia, women desiring to be Catholic Priests, and the list can be longer than one could imagine.

There are two mystical bodies, says St. Thomas Aquinas, in this world: The Mystical Body of Christ and the mystical body of the Devil or of the Antichrist. To one or another every man belongs. The Mystical Body of Christ is the Holy Church, His pure and faithful Spouse …. The mystical body of the Devil is the ensemble of impious men. Like an adulterous wet-nurse, it nourishes this ensemble. The Devil is its head, and the evil persons are its members ….” “The body of the Devil,” says St. Gregory, “is composed by all the impious men.

Demons use your fears against you. And they use your dreams and ambitions to manipulate you just the same. One thing that a lot of people misunderstand: They think that there’s just one demon. A demon is basically a military leader; they have so many legions of lesser demons that are inside that person with them. Demons are deceitful. They can make you believe that they’re gone, but they’re really still there.

St. Leo the Great responds, “Christ’s inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon’s envy had taken away.” St. Thomas Aquinas also wrote, “There is nothing to prevent human nature’s being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more’; and the Exsultet sings, ‘O happy fault, . . which gained for us so great a Redeemer!'”

John Roger Anthony

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