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Author Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live  (Read 1779599 times)

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Offline cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live
« Reply #15 on: October 25, 2023, 12:20:12 PM »
Fr Sean again:

Jesus’ Marching Orders
        You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Follow the doctor’s orders,” in order to get well. But have you heard the phrase, “Follow Jesus’ orders,” to get saved from sin and be able to love? An order is a command by someone in authority requiring you to carry out some task. A parent orders a child to do something. A policeman orders a driver to move his vehicle that’s illegally parked. A boss orders an employee to do a particular job. Legitimate orders imply legitimate authority can legitimately. A child can’t give an order to a parent, even though he or she might try. Why? Because a child doesn’t have authority over the parent.  So when we talk about obeying commandments or carrying out orders we recognize that the commander has the proper authority. Jesus gives His followers their marching orders because He received His authority from God the Father whose orders He carries out. He tells us that if we want to be His followers we will show it by obeying His commandments (Jn 14;15). In other words, He is telling us that if we love Him as our Saviour  and benefit from His presence we’ll carry out His orders. Mary articulated this in her advice to the waiters at the wedding feast at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5). What He orders us to do is to love God and our neighbour. That sounds easy but, because of our proneness to selfishness, it isn’t. The nature of love is self-sacrifice for the good of others, exemplified by Jesus on the cross.
    A lawyer asked Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment of the law is the greatest?” (Mt 22:36). The Pharisees had divided the Law into 613 statutes. He was asking Jesus to prioritize them. The most important Commandment would be the one that called for the most obedience in order to be in God’s favour. The most important commandment would set the tone within which all the others would be viewed.
    Jesus answered the lawyer: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first Commandment. The second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments the whole law is based, and the prophets as well.” The lawyer was probably dumbfounded. To enter heaven it’s necessary to love God with all your heart (be emotionally committed to Him in a personal relationship), with your whole soul (allow God to be the center of your life), with all your mind (fill your mind with knowledge of Him). We do that by obeying the first 3 Commandments: Adore God alone; Revere His Holy Name; and Keep the Sabbath Holy. Jesus identifies a second Commandment which He connects to the first that orders us to love our neighbor as if he or she were us. Love of neighbour is spelled out in the last seven Commandments.
  What does it mean to love your neighbor? What does it mean to love yourself? We need to understand love. Since God is love (1 Jn 4:16), to love is to be like God who cares wholeheartedly for His creation. The basic stuff of love is caring. To love is to care about yourself and others. We demonstrate love by c-a-r-i-n-g: concerned, accepting, affirming, affectionate, respectful, fostering integrity, nurturing, and generous towards others.  Loving others as yourself means helping yourself and others to reach your and their fullest potential. Our fullest potential is achieved the more we become what God created us to be, namely His image and likeness. The Church tells us that we love our neighbor and ourselves by practicing the  Spiritual and Corporal works of mercy through Admonish the Sinner -Luke 15:7; 17:3; Instructing the Ignorant-Matthew 28:19-20; Counseling the Doubtful -Matthew 13:18-23; Bearing Wrongs Patiently -Matthew 5:38-48; Forgiving Offenses Willingly - Matthew 6:14-15; 18:15-35; Comforting the Afflicted -Matthew 11:28-30; Praying for the Living and the Dead -2 Maccabees 38-46; Feeding the (physically and spiritually) Hungry -Matthew 14:15-21; 25:35; Giving Drink to the (physically and spiritually )Thirsty -Matthew 25:35; Clothing the (physically and spiritually) Naked -Matthew 25:36; Sheltering the (physically and spiritually) Homeless -Matthew 25:35; Visiting the (physically and spiritually) Sick -Matthew 25:36; Visiting the (physically and spiritually) Imprisoned -Matthew 25:36, Burying the Dead -Tobit 1:17-19. Thus we continually become our true selves, imaging and being like the caring God who created us. At death we need to be our true selves as much as possible so that Satan won’t cause us to lose our Faith in God’s love at the moment of death.
    In loving God and our neighbour God gives us the grace to withstand Satan’s temptation to make our ego the centre of our life. Through Moses (Exodus 22:20-26) God ordered His people: “You shall not molest or oppress an alien ... You shall not wrong any widow or orphan ... If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors you shall not act like an extortioner toward them by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's coat as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset because he needs it to keep the cold out that night.” In other words, our love of neighbor must reflect our love for God who is caring by obeying His order to be like Him and act compassionately towards the needy. Then we can pray from the heart: “I love you Lord, my strength, O Lord my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, … my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold …” (Ps 18: 2-4, 47, 51).
    Sadly,  we hear little of nothing about the necessity of obeying God’s marching orders today. This is why there is such disarray in the Church and in the world. We hear a lot about what we should do to save the planet, but little or nothing about what we must do in order to save our souls. Jesus commissioned His Apostles to “Go forth and teach all nations to observe all that I have commanded you …” (Mt 28-19-20).  God’s orders to love Him with all we are and have and our neighbour as ourselves isn’t only necessary in order to enter Heaven, obeying them is also necessary for society to be mentally, emotionally, socially and morally healthy. Obeying them is necessary if we’re to be an orderly and civilized society. Nobody can be fully human without obeying God’s orders because they identify what we must do to build a just and caring community. If we don’t love God and neighbour we’re no better than the animals. Rejecting God’s orders is a rebellion against Him manifested in the deadly sins of pride, anger, greed, lust, sloth, envy, and an obtuse spirit. If you don't believe me just look around the world. The problems in the world and in the Church today reflect the disorder that follows from the refusal to carry out Jesus’ orders. (fr sean)
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Offline cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live
« Reply #16 on: November 01, 2023, 11:24:55 AM »
Fr Sean again:

God Hates Hypocrisy 
  We all struggle with the conflict between integrity and hypocrisy. Integrity is defined as the faithful adherence to a code of behaviour. Our words and actions mirror one another. Integrity calls us to say and do what we mean and mean what we do and say. It ensures that we are who we say we are. Whether we agree or disagree with such a person we’re sure of what we’re agreeing or disagreeing with. People of integrity won’t change their beliefs and behaviour for the sake of popularity, possessions, power, or passion. There’s no hidden agenda. In private or public life they stand for what they believe. Hypocrisy is the opposite of integrity. It’s the pretence to be someone externally that we aren’t internally. Hypocrisy breeds distrust, disloyalty, and dishonesty. Actions and words belie one another. Its only concern is with personal popularity or power.
  God expressed His hatred for hypocrisy and His call for integrity when He spoke to the priests through His prophet, Malachi (1:14-2:2-10). “And now, O priests, this commandment is for you: If you do not listen, if you do not lay it to heart, to give glory to my Name … I will send a curse upon you, and of your blessing I will make a curse. You have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to falter by your instruction … you show partiality in your decisions. Have we not all one Father? Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with one another violating the covenant …?” When we act hypocritically we diminish our likeness to God and imitate Satan. There are bishops and priests today who took an oath to hand on the Church’s Apostolic Tradition that Jesus gave to the Apostles and ordered them to preach it “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) and now renege on that promise to suit the empty clamour of ideologies that promote the abnormal. Their blessings have become curses because they create the illusion that sin can be blessed thereby leading people to hell. They’re also causing division by substituting Jesus’ authority with their own. They give false instruction that contradicts the Church’s traditional teaching and violate the covenant that Jesus signed in His blood. They show partiality to ideologies that promote immorality and try to change the Church to suit their self-serving agendas. They speak with a forked tongue.
 
Jesus confronted hypocrisy and called for integrity in the religious leaders of His day. He ordered His listeners to, “do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice…. All their works are performed to be seen” (Mt 23: 3-5). Like the builders of the Tower of Babel, they wanted to make a name for themselves (Gen 11:4).They wanted to replace God. “They love places of honour at banquets and front seats in ѕуηαgσgυєs, getting marks of respect in public and of being called ‘Rabbi’” (Mt 23:6-7). They hobnob with the politicians and the so-called elites.  Jesus criticized their use of titles to honour themselves, while ignoring God. Since the word ‘Rabbi’ meant ‘my master,’ Jesus reminds them of who the real “Master” is.  “Avoid the title ‘Rabbi.’ One among you is your teacher, the rest are learners. Do not call anyone on earth your father. Only One is your Father, the One in Heaven. Avoid being called teachers. Only one is your Teacher, the Messiah...” (Mt 23:8-10). Jesus wasn’t ordering the elimination of these titles from the religious dictionary. He was simply saying these titles rightfully belong to God because they have their origin in Him and mustn’t be used for self-aggrandisement but to humbly serve the neighbour in God’s Name. Thus, Jesus declares, “The greatest among you must be the servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt 23:12) Integrity is the antidote to hypocrisy because it calls for an honest evaluation of oneself and one’s behaviour.
  Is it only leaders who are prone to hypocrisy? No. Jesus is also confronting my hypocrisy and yours. None of us is immune. As Jesus said, we “… wash the outside of the cup while leaving the inside dirty” (Mt 23:25). We prefer show over substance. We want to be liked. That’s why Catholic teaching urges us to practice a monthly confession of sin. In Confession we recognize the dirt with which our hypocrisy stains our souls. In confession we accept that only God’s grace can heal our disloyalty to Him, to our neighbour, and to ourselves. We need humility to admit our hypocrisy and ask God and His Church for the grace to restore our integrity, our likeness to Jesus, so we can be credible Christians. To be credible Christians we must recognize that “in receiving the Word of God from hearing us “Church), you received not a human word, but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe” (1 Thess 2:7-9, 13). Therefore to avoid hypocrisy we must let God’s word take precedence over  all other words we might hear in the world.

  I don’t think we set out to be hypocrites. We’re weak and cave to Satan’s temptation to go along in order to get along by giving in to worldly pressure, convenience, pleasure, or fear. We abandon integrity by trying to please people instead of God. Jesus warns, “You cannot serve two masters” (Mt 76:24). Hypocrisy is always sinful and divisive because it involves ignoring the truth thereby lying to ourselves. This is often played out in the statement, “Personally I’m for … but publicly I’m against …” This split between my personal and public persona undermines the peace Jesus wants to give me. We see this hypocrisy in the following situations:  parents who seek Baptism for their child but don’t raise him or her in the Faith; people who say they respect life but support the choice for abortion; people who say they love God but disobey His Commandments; people who say they are spiritual but not religious; people who want to be married but act as if single; people who identify as Catholic but reject the Church’s teaching; people who seek justice but behave unjustly themselves.  Integrity says that if I want something I must do what is necessary to get it. If I want to be loved by God I must daily obey His Commandments. This is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit who urges us to pray: “O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty … Hope in the Lord, both now and forever. In You, Lord, I have found my peace” (Ps 131:1-3). God hates hypocrisy because it makes us totally unlike Him and enslaves us to what’s false enshrined in atheistic and destructive ideologies. Integrity and humility make us more like Jesus Christ, enhance our freedom, and give us a peace that the world can’t give. (fr sean)

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Offline Viva Cristo Rey

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live
« Reply #17 on: November 01, 2023, 06:59:08 PM »
Thank you. :pray:
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Offline cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live
« Reply #18 on: November 08, 2023, 01:32:23 PM »
Fr Sean again:
What’s Your First Priority?

  The end of the year is in sight. November is here accompanied by falling leaves and cooler breezes, shorter days and longer nights. The time change gave us extra light in the morning but more darkness in the evening. The Church uses the seasons of Autumn and Winter to call her members’ attention to the reality of dying and death, the time and place of which we don’t know.  This is something that many of us would rather not think about. But that would be foolish, since we can’t escape dying and death. Jesus notifies us that we “know not the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Mt 25:13). Shouldn’t we make preparation for this eternity defining event in our life our first priority?

  In his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey advocates that to be effective we must “work with the end in sight.” Thus, we keep our focus sharp and don’t lose sight of what we want to accomplish. St. Peter (1:8-9) points out to us that the goal of our Faith is the salvation of our soul. Since death is the end of our life on earth shouldn’t we make it our first priority to die in the arms of Jesus? Effective preparation always involves prioritizing what’s of primary importance in order to achieve the goal. If our goal is to go to Heaven, then it’s of primary importance to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, present in His Church, who alone can enable us to achieve it.

    This weekend Jesus’ Church  proclaims the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Mt 25:1-13). Jesus uses the story to stress the importance of personal preparation for the coming of the Lord. He is the only way to Heaven (Jn 14:6). He founded His Church wherein He calls us to join Him in and through her Sacraments, beginning with Baptism. Jesus enables us to meet Him sacramentally in each of the seven Sacraments where He graces us with repentance and forgiveness of sin,  and is especially and uniquely present to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as our Shepherd who leads and nourishes us. St. Paul explains that, “We see now as through a glass’ darkly; then we shall see face to face: now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known” ( 1 Cor 12:13). In death everything that we are and will be is revealed in the ever-penetrating light of Jesus glorified, who is the “Light of the world” (Jn 8:12). Preparing for death is preparation for eternity and makes us appreciate life’s opportunities to deepen our relationship with Jesus without whom we face eternal damnation because we can’t free ourselves from our sins.

    The parable instills in us that the wise are those who are prepared for all eventualities while the foolish aren’t. The lamp is supernatural faith and the oil is prayer without which the light of faith will go out. The wise bridesmaids refused to share their oil with the unwise ones. Were they being uncharitable? The responsibility of bridesmaids was to keep the light on in welcome for newlyweds to the bridegroom’s home after the wedding. To keep their lamps lit for a longer period of time than normal there was only enough oil for five lamps, not ten. Sharing the oil would have been irresponsible because then all would be in darkness when the newlyweds arrived. God teaches us in the Book of Wisdom (6:12-16) that  wisdom, which is putting knowledge of the truth into action, is the key to adequate preparation. So knowing that they are going to die, wise people act on that knowledge and prepare for death. Knowing that Jesus is the only Saviour, wise people make Him the centre of their life.  Jesus tells us in the New Testament, authentically interpreted for us by His Church, what we need to do to be prepared for His coming and so we have no excuse. The bridegroom’s words to the foolish bridesmaids, “Go away. I don’t know you,” are crushing, but they only have themselves to blame. At the end of the parable Jesus warns us: “The moral is: keep your eyes open, for you know not the day nor the hour.” In other words, make preparation for Jesus’ coming your first priority by getting to know Him while here on earth. We cannot know Jesus without making our relationship with Him the first priority in our life.

  There are some things we can and must do for ourselves that no one else can do for us. Preparing for that face-to-face meeting with Jesus is one of those things that no one else can do for us. Others can assist us but we must meet the Lord on our own, accompanied by our Guardian Angel who will testify to our behavior. Nobody can pray another person into heaven. Each person is judged on the basis of his or her own conduct. God has given each of us the lamp of Faith and it is up to us to keep it lit with the oil of prayer and worship by being receptive to the Holy Spirit and a faithful member of Jesus’ Church.

  Do people die without prioritizing  an adequate preparation for death? Yes. Just because we’re baptized doesn’t assure us of salvation. Jesus Himself lamented, “But when the Son of Man comes, will He find any Faith on the earth?” (Lk 18:8). Why aren't people prepared? Because they’re busy with other things, or else they rationalize that God will give them a free pass. But God shows no partiality because He is just and has the same expectations for everyone. God is merciful but only to the repentant who seek forgiveness and commit to amending their life to one of virtue rather than vice. Yes, God will understand that they didn't bother to take the time and make the effort to follow Jesus, for which He, in justice, will hold them accountable. And so He will say, “Go away. I don’t know you!”

    We give priority to what’s most important to us. Is Jesus the most important Person in your life? If He is, you’ll prepare to meet Him every day of your life. Making this your first priority means that your heart, filled with wisdom, cries out, “O God, You are my God whom I seek; for You my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water” (Ps 63: 2-8).  The Lord will then say to you at the moment of death: “Come, you good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master! (Mt 25:23). The unwise and unprepared will hear Jesus’ damning words: “Out of my sight, you condemned, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). Whether we’re welcomed or condemned by Jesus is determined by what we prioritize each day. It’s our choice! (fr sean)
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Offline cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live
« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2023, 01:38:29 PM »
Fr Sean again:
To Invest or not to Invest: Success or Failure

To Invest or not to Invest: Success or Failure

  When you die what do you want God to say to you? Will He say that you lived a successful life by the difference you made in the world? What would you like to hear others say when you die? There’s something about us that seeks recognition, acceptance, affirmation, and affection. We want to feel that someone will miss us when we go. Sometimes we hear people say - or maybe we’ve said it ourselves - when they’re leaving to go somewhere, “Will you miss me?” Then when the answer is “Yes,” the other person often responds with, “Oh, no you won’t!” How successfully we lived and we’re remembered depends on what we did with what God gave us. If we don’t invest what we have we gain nothing and can’t be successful.
  What’s successful living? It’s the achievement of goals.  It’s about having a positive impact on others. We’re successful when our contribution improves humanity and the world.  Success is the experience of getting a good return on our investment. Success always implies investment whether it’s of time, treasure, or effort. In turn, investment assumes we have something to invest which will enrich us and others in some way. There’s no one as pitiful as a person who thinks he or she has nothing to invest. Such an individual has no hope of enrichment and has nothing for which to look forward. Bishop Fulton Sheen noted that the greatest insult anyone could heap on another was to label him or her as useless. But the person who doesn’t believe he or she has anything to invest renders himself or herself useless. Feelings of uselessness are expressed in low self-esteem and a sense of self-loathing.
  Do people feel useless? Yes. Why? They don’t know God. If they did, they would realize that He didn’t create anyone to be useless since He has given talents to each person to be discerned, developed, and shared with others. If a person doesn’t believe he or she has talents or gifts to share with others then a genuine loving relationship is impossible. To love means to share - to invest in another. If there’s nothing to share, love dies. When people feel they have nothing to share, the only other option is to try and take what others have. Perhaps the reason so many relationships break up is because those involved in them don’t believe they have anything to invest in each other and simply concentrate on taking from each other. The end is a feeling of being used. Love, on the other hand, emphasizes the mutual investment of gifts in each other where the emphasis is on giving rather than on taking. Love is so enriching because each person invests his or her gift in the other thereby making their relationship successful due to the interest gained on investment.
  God emphasizes the importance of investment of talents in the Book of Proverbs (31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31). “A worthy wife has value beyond pearls. Her husband has an unfailing prize.” What makes her worthy - the same goes for a husband, indeed for each of us – is the fact that she invests her gifts in her family and in charitable outreach. “She brings good, not evil … works with loving hands … reaches her hands out to the poor … the needy.” God then tells us that, “The woman who fears the Lord is to be praised … Her works praise her.” Her investment made her a success as a person. She was a God-fearing woman who served him by investing what He gave her for the benefit of others and through that investment enriched herself in God’s eyes and in the eyes of her family and neighbors. God tells us through the Psalmist: “Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be and favored” (Ps 128:1-5). Fear of the Lord, fear of losing or disappointing Him, is the motivation for investing what He has given us for the good of others just as He invested Himself in the Person of Jesus for our good. This is the investment that makes us a success in life. This is the investment that brings God’s blessing as it did with the worthy wife in Proverbs because through it we become successful people – givers rather than takers.
  In the Gospel (Mt 15:14-30) Jesus calls His listeners to invest and not bury their God-given talents. A man “entrusted his possessions” to three servants, giving each an amount that he was capable of handling. Revealed here is the fact that God shares His possessions, graces, gifts with each of us in accord with our ability to use them. Everything we have is on loan from God. What has He given you? God gives us talents to be invested not just for our personal enrichment but also for the enrichment of others. He doesn’t want the talents back. But when He settles accounts with us at death we’ll have to show what we did with what He gave us. Jesus tells us that if we don’t invest we’ll lose everything. It’s by refusing to invest that we live unsuccessful lives.
  When we die God will ask us what we did with His talent. What will our answer be? “I had no talent!” “I didn’t know You gave me a gift!” “I just kept it for myself!” “I was too lazy to do anything with it!” “I didn’t believe my gift was important enough!” “I used it for my own glory!” “You gave all the good gifts to others and the most insignificant to me, so I didn’t think it was worth sharing with anyone!”
  Every one of us has received talents from God. He gave them to us so that we could make our unique contribution to the betterment of humanity and promote His glory. The return on our investment of what God gave us is what makes us successful in this world. This is the success for which God will reward us and for which we’ll be remembered. So how you want to be remembered is determined by whether or not you’re investing what you have been given. How are you investing your gift? Those who fear the Lord are happy because their fear of losing God’s friendship caused them to put their total trust in Him and invest themselves in the service of others.
  If you haven’t been investing the talents God gave you, now is the time to start before it’s too late. “The Day of the Lord shall come like a thief in the night … therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober” (1 Thess 5:1-6). Remember how Jesus’ parable taught that the investors received more while the non-investor lost everything? What will you have to show when the Lord calls you to settle accounts with Him and asks: “What did you do with my talents? Will He say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Mt 25:23) or “Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth” (Mt 25:30). You will either be remembered and blessed for investing God’s gifts or cursed for burying them. (fr. sean)

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