 |
Monday thru Friday at
www.DailyCatholic.org
See why so many consider the
Daily CATHOLIC as the
"USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
e-mail: DailyCatholic@dailycatholic.org
|
|
"Jesus was a social revolutionary!!!!" If one sees Christ as some sort of revolutionary, then one can say that Jesus would forcibly divest the rich of their wealth and redistribute it among the poor. (This is no joke, many priests, theologians, etc. advocate this) This puts Christ in the ranks of the Zealots, the social revolutionaries of His day. But Christ was opposed to this 'politicization' of the 'Good News'.
"Jesus said to him, 'If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me.' When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions" (Matthew 19:21-22).
Note here, Christ didn't 'demand' he divest himself of his possessions. Nor force him to sell all he had. He asked him too. What would Christ do if the Apostles jumped the man and 'robbed' him of his possessions, even if they then sold them and gave them to the poor?
"Then he said to them, 'Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's'." (Matthew 22:21).
"And Jesus went with them. When He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, 'Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to You. But say the word, and let my servant shall be healed'." (Luke 7:6-7)
If Christ was a social revolutionary, is it likely He would say and do such things? Rome was the 'cruel, occupier' of Israel. Wouldn't a social revolutionary oppose them at every opportunity? Wouldn't He take His 'Good News' to the political spectrum to force change?
This is what many Jews of His day thought He was, a King who would expel Rome and re-instate Israel as a 'world power' equal (at least) to Rome.
We are told by many that Christ merely 'winks' at sin. That with Christ the 'law' (of the Old Testament) no longer applies to us. Yet Christ said:
"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till Heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 5:17-19).
It isn't that the law has changed or is abolished, but that we have a clearer understanding of it, through Christ. The Lord 'taught' His people in Old Testament through His Prophets. But from Christ, we get a clearer understanding of their meaning. Not that certain sins deserving death means we have the right to kill them, but that those sins bring a spiritual death. They 'die' by committing those sins.
Though St. Paul speaks of not being 'under' the law with Christ, it isn't that we can ignore it. Rather, we follow it because it is written in our hearts. While under the law, we followed it for fear of punishment, with it in our hearts, we follow it because we fear hurting the Lord. St. Maximillian Kolbe reportedly said, "I fear nothing except sin." For him it was because sin hurt Our Lord and Our Lady.
So, what would Jesus do when confronted by sin? Well, we're 'told' to do nothing, since Christ said "Judge not, lest you be judged." This is essentially approving of the sin by silence, or even defense.
"And He said to His disciples, 'Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin'." (Luke 17:1-2).
He also said, "Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive him" (Luke 17:3-4).
We hear it taught that Christ opposed established religions, the institution of the Church. That 'WE' are the Church. Yet Christ said: "Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice'." (Matthew 23:1-3).
Christ is confirming that the Scribes and Pharisees are the 'hierarchy' of the Jewish faith, that they are the successors of Moses as teachers of that faith. Not that all of them are good examples of Judiaism, nor even bad. Christ also, though He is God, followed the 'rules' of His faith every step of the way.
He was circumcised, bar mitzvah, observed the Sabbath and celebrated the Passover. Went to the Temple to pray, etc. In short, every 'rule' of Judiaism, He followed and observed. Not to mention that He 'built' His Church on Peter (ref. Matt. 16:16-19) , and exhorted His Apostles to 'teach all nations' (ref. Matt.28:18-20)
In short, maybe the WWJD bracelets should come with instructions. Because one first needs to know Jesus before they can truly determine what He would do.
Judas, after his betrayal of my Divine Son, was permitted by God to see the hideousness of his deed. Satan laughed and mocked as Judas saw himself as God saw him. But also, at that same time, the Father, preventing Lucifer from absolute control, allowed Judas’ soul and mind to hear the prayers, the pleas of Jesus and of me, His Holy Mother.
Because of this Judas, by a single act of will, could yet have broken satan’s bonds and run instead to the condemned Lamb and received forgiveness. But his pride was so entrenched, so totally under Lucifer’s control that the prayers of my Divine Son became for him a burning, torturing fire that shut out God’s Light and enclosed him in the eternal darkness of Lucifer.
He truly was driven mad by the demon. He had willed to let satan enter him, use him, and when he rejected the last chance of divine forgiveness, he was easy prey for satan to drive to despair, to suicide.
Little children of my Immaculate Heart, all men sin. All men are in need of forgiveness which strengthens by making the soul contrite, the heart repentant and the human will surrender to God. When you reject God’s Sacrament of Penance, when you listen to the evil one’s lies that hell doesn’t exist and, therefore, sin does not exist, you are headed in the same direction as Judas.
That is why, in these end times, I implore you to pray from the heart because from the heart satan cannot speak to you h is lies. I ask you to meditate upon Judas, upon his own will, which, so filled with pride, led him to deicide, to despair, and suicide. Meditate upon the continual prayers raised to Heaven for Judas by my tortured Son, and realize that had the Father permitted, my Divine Son would have suffered over and over if Judas would have converted his heart.
Judas’ heart was rotten flesh, maggot-eaten and filled with filth. This Judas wanted and allowed.
Do not, my Little Ones, ever consider yourselves strong, fully-prepared. Rather be humble and meek, seeking only God and His holy will. Then in these end times, my Dear Children, you shall not be driven into the abyss, but be with me at the foot of my Son’s Cross where His Sacred Heart was pierced, opened for all the world.
Pray that in these end times you shall not be counted among the Judases, but be gathered beneath my Immaculate Mantle, secure in the refuge of my Son’s Heart.
You must pray! You must do penance. You must root out all pride, for pride is the sure path to hell!
part two
IN GOD WE TRUST
We must trust God enough that whatever He sends our way we will praise Him. Just as the Blessed Mother, Saint Joseph and all of the angels and saints, throughout all ages have done, our response must be an unqualified "Yes" to whatever we are asked or commanded to do in obedience to the spiritual direction given to us by those God has sent to guide and help us.
Many times that is one of the major hurdles in trusting. Do we love God enough to give up our will? Do we love Him enough to forgive everything that has ever bothered us in our life and go on? Do we love Him enough to recognize His voice in our spiritual directors, priests, and bishops to say, "Yes, I will obey" even though we may not fully understand it. That'' one of the toughest commitments --blind obedience.
But in this obedience come great fruits nourished by our "yes". When we say "yes", we are better able to recognize that the very heart of all that we're called to be comes from His Sacred Heart, opened by a lance. Our hearts, too, have to be pierced by that same lance, and that suffering. We cannot be purified, cannot totally trust, unless we suffer. And we will suffer. But what is that to us, what is that to each other, what is that to the world as long as He knows, and it's for Him?
This last week of Lent offers an excellent opportunity to fine-tune that trust. We must trust Him enough to let Him pierce our hearts of stone the way He needs to pierce them in order to get through. It's going to be different with each one of us and God expects each one of us to support each other with prayer from the heart, with charity that has no limit, knowing that He is there, dwelling within each one of us. Taking into consideration man's free will and pension for succumbing to sin, jealousy, and other secular passions, it is not always easy to trust in our fellow man. Satan works overtime to thwart that trust.
God knows this. That is why Our Lord suffered and died on the cross for us. God knows we are struggling. His Holy Mother knows each one of our struggles and she can see, far more clearly than we can the root of our struggle. In one of her Medjugorje Messages, Our Lady said:
Our Lady stresses that "without prayer you cannot be close to me" and she begs us to pray and through prayer, that trust will become more natural to us. But it is a virtue that we must work on and nourish.
Because of our finite minds and weak wills, the root of that struggle mentioned above is that we do not keep our eyes upon our Crucified Savior and recognize in Him perfect Love, perfect Mercy. It is in Him, crucified, that we must have absolute trust; trust that transcends the human need, the human fallible weaknesses that cause us to doubt, to question, to wonder if everything is going to work out.
It would seem we don't have enough confidence in God. We all rely too much upon our finite selves to address the issues of day-to-day life. When we take our eyes and hearts off of God and focus them not only on an individual, but also upon ourselves, it is evident there is no trust in God.
Next installment: Part Three of "IN GOD WE TRUST."
708 A.D.
Syrian Pope Constantine becomes the 88th successor of Peter. His pontificate would last seven years. He would be carried off to Constantinople by force but would succeed in bring about some form of peace between the Church and the Byzantine Empire. He would encourage the Christians of Spain in their struggle with the Saracens and Constantine would encourage the kissing of the foot of St. Peter by the Roman Pontiffs as an act of obedience.
752 A.D.
Pope Stephen II is elected the 92nd supreme pontiff on the same day another Pope Stephen II dies after only one day in office. In deference to the latter and because the first was never consecrated, the second pope took the same name, thus causing confusion that Pope Stephen II was elected and died on the same day. Both succeeded the holy Pope Saint Zacharias who had died ten days earlier.
1133 A.D.
Birth of Henry II who would becomes King of the England
1252 A.D.
Pope Innocent IV excommunicates Manfred, illegitimate son of Frederick II Hohenstaufen who had also been handed the bell, book and candle by Innocent and Pope Gregory IX. On that same day Manfred's half-brother Conrad IV's wife gave birth to a son - Conrad the Younger whom Conrad Senior entrusted to Innocent's care and upbringing on his deathbead two years later. The child would go on to become King of Jerusalem and Sicily.
1306 A.D.
Robert I - "the Bruce" proclaimed King of the Scots at Scone, Scotland, pledging his loyalty to the God and country.
1347 A.D.
Birth of Saint Catherine of Siena who would go on to influence popes and bring reform to the Church and return the pontiffs to their rightful place at the Vatican after the Avignon exile years.
1437 A.D.
James II becomes King of the Scots in Holyrood, Scotland
1555 A.D.
The Catholic village of Valencia in Venezuela is founded in honor of Spain.
1634 A.D.
The first Catholic colonists take Lord Baltimore up on his offer of promulgating religious freedom to all settlers and arrive in Maryland, establishing what would be a Catholic stronghold in America.
1643 A.D.
The same year that the celebrated Louis XIV became King of France, Saint John Eudes founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (Eudists) for the purpose of upgrading clergy and establishing effective seminaries.
1847 A.D.
Pope Pius IX publishes his second encyclical Praedessores Nostros on aid for Ireland in light of the terrible potato famine on the emerald isle.
1954 A.D.
Pope Pius XII releases his twenty-seventh encyclical Sacra virginitas on consecrated virginity and the ideals of religious life.
1987 A.D.
Pope John Paul II issues his sixth encyclical Redemptoris Mater on the role of Mary in the mystery of Christ and her active, exemplary presence in the life of the Church.
1995 A.D.
Pope John Paul II publishes his eleventh encyclical Evangelium Vitae on the value and inviolability of human life in all its stages in his crusade for the culture of life.
I am Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, the Word made flesh, the Savior of the world.
I love each of you with Perfect Love, and therefore, My desire is to pour out My Mercy upon you in a vast ocean of special graces to help you through these end times.
I do not desire anyone to be lost. Rather, I await you with outstretched arms so that you might run to My embrace and, like a little child, allow Me, your God, to do all in you, through you and for you.
Yet, My children, you do not come, for you do not understand Divine Mercy and to understand you must be filled with absolute Trust in Me. I Am God. All things are possible to Me. You are My children, and the Holy Spirit must take complete possession of you if you are to be one with Me. In these end times I solemnly tell all the world that I will for the Order of Divine Mercy, of which I and My Mother have spoken, to become full reality. It is through this Order that I choose to let forth a torrent of graces to illuminate souls, hearts and minds to the fullness of the Scriptures which now are to be fulfilled.
I call upon each of you to turn away from all sin and come to Me in absolute Trust. I call upon you to offer prayer and sacrifice to the Most Blessed Trinity, pleading for My Mercy. When you do this the torrents of Mercy fall from Heaven as a cleansing fire of Love, and countless souls are saved.
I love and bless you. Heed My Call!
I solemnly tell you the Hour of the Father's Justice has already dawned. But before this fire from Heaven falls, first must come the Hour of Divine Mercy. Therefore do all that I inspire you to do to help those called by Me to live as My consecrated brides in the Order, and to support all those of the laity who will live as the Divine Mercy Community in monastic simplicity, as bearing witness to the full Gospel as a Eucharistic community.
Trust in Me, for I, your God shall accomplish all that I have told you. Pay heed to My Mother's words which She gives to you, for She, the Immaculate Virgin, shall crush the serpent's head. The moment comes swiftly. Be alert and watchful, for I solemnly tell you the time of fulfillment is at hand.
Peace I give to you. I love you. I bless you. Keep watch with Me for you will not be found wanting at the Hour of Justice.
