The Fullness of Truth

Man’s purpose is not salvation. Man’s purpose is to seek, know, and love God. (CCC 1). Through our love of God, we become His adopted children and heirs to eternal life.
Salvation is secondary. Love of God is primary. Love of God is not binary. We can always love God more. Truth is not binary. We can always know more Truth. The fullness of Truth lies within the Catholic Church.

HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM

Some selected words from our new Pope (with the help of Google Translate):

It is what it is worth and all those who are called, are called to this: to participate in the peace that the song is sung in gospel, to participate and to share unit of meekness, because this guy later when he became man and preached I tell people: "Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart." A message that after twenty centuries is still relevant to the petulance, arrogance, sufficiency, aggression, insult, tension, war , misinformation disorienting, defamation and slander. Meekness and unity ... consistency is all that comes from here, from this first sign. "This will be a sign", this is the password that is coming to teach.

Beside the crib, does two things: first, sentite invited the beauty of humility, meekness, simplicity, and second, search your heart at what point you are in out side, how are marginalized and you let Jesus from this lack convene yours, yours from that limit from that selfishness yours.  Soak up God, and you'll understand more what is simplicity, meekness and unity.  (From Christmas Homily 2012)

The Gospel speaks of humility.  Humility reveals a self-conscious human smallness, the potential it has in itself.  In fact, the more aware of our gifts and limitations, the two things together, we will be free from the blindness of pride.  And as Jesus praises the Father for this revelation to small, we should also praise the Father for making May the sun rise in those who trusted the gift of freedom, the freedom that brought forth in the heart of this people who bet to greatness without losing awareness of their smallness. 

Listen to the top as he listened, be listeners (ob-audientes) to reveal the truth to the extent that it reveals our pride.  Listen to the Lord that inspires great things in the silence of the heart itself and brother, friend and companion.  To reconstruct the social bond from the consistent common search.

This is how it grows and unfolds the wisdom of our people, quiet and hardworking, no other status but that of being humble.

 The wisdom of those who bear the cross of suffering, of injustice, of the living conditions faced to get up every morning to sacrifice for themselves.

 The wisdom of those who bear the cross of his illness, loss of their ailments and putting his shoulder like Christ.    (Te Deum, 5/25/11)

 

Today we need that, after being shaken by so many frustrations, I'll meet Him and tell us "Fear not," put yourself back on track, back to the Galilee of first love.  We need to resume the march that began our father Abraham and pointing us this Easter candle.  Today we need to meet him, we find him and he finds us.  Brothers, the "Happy Easter" that I wish is that today some angel roll the stone and let us find Him So be it.  (Easter Vigil 2008)

 

Let's pray for the new Pope as he leads men towards humility.  As he leads men to Christ.

Addiction

It is in man’s blueprint to be addictive.

Some are addicted to money, some to sex, some to worldly goods.

Whatever we are addicted to, we become a slave of it. It owns us.

Scripture tells us to become a slave to Christ. Let Christ be our master. In Christ, we find salvation.
Through Him, we become united to God. In essence, we become Christ. We are Christ. And we are called to serve. In service, I deliver Christ to you and you deliver Christ to me. In service, we are called to deliver Christ to the world so that the world is delivered to Christ. 

Prayer for Liberation

What is Truth?

Jesus said to those who believed in Him,

"If you remain in my word, you will truly be My disciples,

And you will know the truth and the Truth will set you free."

Lord, in this upcoming year, guide us.  Lead us.  So that we

always remain in Your word. 

Open our hearts so that we feel your love.

Open our ears so that we hear your voice.

Open our eyes so that we can see the Truth. 

Free us, Lord. 

Draw us to your cross.

In obedience to you, we are free. 

In Your love, we are liberated. 

In Your body, we are saved.

On Faith and Works

From the Catholic perspective, faith and works have to go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Faith is more than just the obedience though. It’s to trust in His message so that you completely submit intellect and will to Christ. It’s the “obedience of faith.”

Moreover, Jesus explains to us “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” The obedience of faith works through love per Galatians 5:6. As I had mentioned previously, God calls man and man responds to God. God’s call to man was Christ crucified on the cross. It’s a visible sign of love to us per John 3:16 and our response to Christ is love out of obedience to Him. So, first we love Christ (per His command) and then through faith we keep His commandments (out of love)
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The response to God is out of love for a God who loved us first. If our obedience is not out of love–perhaps we are obedient in the hope of “being saved” or we are going to mass out of “obligation” then it is not truly a perfect response. It’s not out of love and is not properly centered. It’s an imperfect faith.

On Salvation

To me, salvation is not just going to Heaven. Salvation means getting back to Eden. Gaining access to the Tree of Life. It’s to live forever. We can only do that through Jesus Christ. We can only do that in Him. He lives forever and we must be united to Him in Baptism (as Scripture tells us). Once we are Baptized, we are born anew (or born from above per John 3:5) and we must remain in Him. We are obedient to Christ in all things. We eat of His Body and unite ourselves more. Should we be disobedient, we become separated from Christ’s body and must be reconciled back to Him for it is only in Christ that we are saved. Christ’s body is His Church. In His Body is salvation. Outside of His Body, there is no salvation. That’s what salvation means to me. That’s what Christ promises. That’s what the Catholic Church teaches and that’s the true Gospel.

Approaching Scripture

The entire Bible is a love story. It’s a story of how God wants to be in relationship with Man. Throughout the Old Testament, God keeps making covenants and man keeps breaking them and God keeps coming back. God asks man to be obedient to Him and He will bless them. Finally, with the New Covenant, that’s it. God’s revelation to man is completed and the relationship has been perfected. God finally rights Adam’s disobedience with His obedience. Through His sacrifice on the cross, we no longer have to be dead to sin. Now, we can be alive in Christ. No longer is it just a covenant but rather we become one with God. We are united to Him in Baptism. The New Covenant–His plan in the New Testament–far outshines any of the old covenants found in the Old Testament.

What is the Gospel?

The Gospel (i.e. Good News) is that God loves you. He loves you so much that He would rather die than to be without you. He would rather be nailed to a tree than to live without you. He loves you so much that He is giving you the opportunity to share in His divine life for eternity. All you have to do is be obedient to Him in all things. In Baptism, you are united to Him in His Church. United to Him, you partake in the divine life. You will live forever in Christ. Apart from Him, you have no chance at eternal salvation. We are united to Christ in the sacraments. In Baptism, we are united to Christ’s Body. We become part of His Body and we are born anew. We are washed clean of our sins and we must remain obedient. In the Eucharist, we eat His flesh and drink His blood and we are united to Him even more. That is the Gospel.