Author Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live (Read 1768695 times)

cassini · « **Reply #140 on:** January 07, 2026, 12:07:38 PM »

Fr Sean again
Baptism: Foundation for Human Dignity and Holiness

As creatures our value and self-worth are determined by our Creator. By creating us in His image and likeness God gave us a value, a dignity, self-respect and a capacity for holiness that we could neither give ourselves nor receive from anyone else. These are key elements in order to be fully human and fully alive. They are essential for maturity and for being responsible and productive individuals. How does God provide us with a sense of dignity, self-respect, and a spirit of holiness? He does it through what I call them the “Triple A” of mental and spiritual health, namely acknowledging our existence, affirming His love for us and giving us gifts, and showing His affection for us by treating us justly and mercifully. Acknowledgement, affirmation and affection on a human level are usually embodied in handshakes, smiles, nods, being listened to, encouragement, and friendly gestures. To be acknowledged, affirmed, and receive affection for who we are, not just for what we accomplish, is essential for valuing and ourselves and others. When we have this experience, instead of feeling that our life is worthless, we see the worth in our life.

The Antidote to Worthlessness

There’s nothing worse than feeling worthless and feeling that nobody cares about us. These negative feelings or images of ourselves are due to a lack of feeling acknowledged, affirmed, and affection. But sometimes these feelings come about through our own fault when we shut out those who believe in us and encourage us to develop and deploy the gifts they see in us. When we shut others out we also shut God out because our relationship with Him is no better or worse than the one we have with others. A slogan back in the 60s noted that “God doesn’t make junk.” If we think we’re junk we become deaf to the acknowledgment, affirmation, and affection bestowed on us by God and others. Thus we deprive ourselves of the God-given authority for our dignity, self-respect and basic human rights.

The Need for Others

Acknowledging, affirming and showing affection reflects faith in the person’s capability of being what God created him or her to be – namely His image and likeness in thought, word and action. We don’t come into the world acknowledging, affirming and being affectionate toward ourselves. The psychologist, Erick Erickson, noted in his theory of psychosocial stages of human development that maturity is achieved through resolving positive polarities in favour of negative ones as one grows through life. The first polarity faced by us at birth is that of trust vs. mistrust as we enter this new world. To resolve this polarity in favour of trust we need the first people in our life to show us we can trust them by loving us. If we don’t experience that love we will become distrustful of the new world we’ve entered. Acknowledgment of our existence, affirmation that we are loved and affection shown towards us initially become realities for us through the attitude of first persons in our lives.

God is the Initiator

In the Old Testament God acknowledged, affirmed, and was affectionate towards His people in many ways, especially through His covenants calling them to be His people. He bestowed these gifts on His people especially when He promised to send them a Messiah who would acknowledge their existence, affirm His love for them, and display His affection towards them. He promised, “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my Chosen One with whom I am pleased … He shall bring forth justice to the nations … open the eyes of the blind, bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness” (Is 42:1-7). His servant – Jesus Christ - would fulfil these promises in a calm, peaceful and gentle manner, in His birth, passion, crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension when He promised His apostles, “I will not leave you orphaned. I will come back to you” (Jn 14:18).

Saved from Being Orphans

What did Jesus do to save us from being orphaned? He made it possible for us to be adopted by His heavenly Father. Adoption is a visible sign that the adoptee’s existence is freely acknowledged, affirmed that he or she is loved, and feels the affection from the adoptive parents. Jesus began the adoption process when He humbly came to John at the River Jordan and asked to be baptized, even though His soul was sinless. John protested because he recognized Jesus as the “Lamb of God” and wanted to be baptized by Him instead. Jesus responded, “Give in for now. We must do this if we would fulfil all of God’s demands” (Mt 4:15). God’s demands were to save mankind through adopting them as His children giving them a new dignity and a new holiness. Baptism became the event wherein God acknowledges, affirms and displays His affection towards Jesus acknowledging and affirming Him as His Son “in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). “After Jesus was baptized, He came directly out of the water … the sky opened … the Spirit of God descended like a dove and hovered over Him … a voice from the heavens said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on Him’” (Mt 3:16-17). Jesus perfected John’s baptism of repentance by making the water a visible sign of the Holy Spirit cleansing the person of sin and bestowing a new identity on the baptized person as God’s adopted child.

What Baptism Signifies

God the Father used John’s baptism as the visible sign of His specific acknowledgment of Jesus as His Son whom He favoured with all His power and blessings. In turn, Jesus made Baptism with water and the Holy Spirit the visible sign of God’s personal acknowledgment, affirmation and affection for every person who chooses to embrace Him as Lord and Redeemer. He gave this sign to His Church to be the Sacrament of Initiation into His family thereby freeing us from being orphaned and doomed to loneliness in this world. In Baptism Jesus, through His Church, brings us to His Father for adoption as His children through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sign that God Acknowledges, Affirms, and Shows us His Affection

Baptism into Christ’s Church is the first public sign of God’s personal acknowledgment, affirmation, and affection towards those who receive it. In this Sacrament God adopts the child or adult the child or adult as His son or daughter and an adopted brother or sister of Jesus. It’s a public sign in which the person is given a new dignity and the wherewithal to be holy, which provides the necessary awareness and strength to resist evil . In Baptism God restores the person to His likeness that was lost through Original Sin thus making the person a new creation cleansed from all sin. God bestows His favour on every baptized person by giving him or her a new identity, a new power, a new destiny, and a new family, the Church. In Baptism God empowers people to call themselves His children. As God’s children through Baptism He gives us the capacity for supernatural Faith, Hope, and Love. That means we have the capacity to be Godly people, holy people who follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Jesus has provided His Church with other signs assuring us, after Baptism, of His continued presence to us in our struggle to be God’s lovingly obedient children through whom He calls the world to salvation. Each Sacrament is an instance of God acknowledging our existence as His children, His affirmation of His love for us, and His affection towards us. He provides us with the Holy Eucharist to nourish our souls; Confirmation to strengthen our resolve to be His public witnesses; Reconciliation to forgive our infidelities and give us another chance to be just in our relationships; Matrimony to raise Christian families; Holy Orders to provide spiritual leadership in Jesus’ Name; and Anointing of the Sick to assure us of His help in our suffering. Through these signs, celebrated in His Church, Jesus guarantees the continuity and visibility of His presence among and in us as His adopted brothers and sisters called to holiness and to treat each other with dignity and respect.

What the Church’s Sacraments Signify

God clearly demonstrates His love for us in these holy signs wherein He accomplishes what they signify. “Even while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). We demonstrate our reciprocal acknowledgment, affirmation and affection towards Jesus in how we live our life. We show that we acknowledge Jesus’ existence, affirm our love for Him and express our affection towards Him through our prayer, worship, and service to those in need. In Jesus’ Name we promote and uphold justice, seek the good calmly, and gently do our best to open the eyes of the mentally, emotionally and spiritually blind, showing people how to be free from what imprisons them and keeps them in darkness, namely sin. Thus we proclaim Baptism as the foundation for our God-given dignity and holiness that makes us lights in a dark world. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #141 on:** January 15, 2026, 12:48:34 PM »

Fr Sean again
The Call to Holiness: Be Christ-like

It is God’s will that we become holy. “In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do Your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” (Ps 40:8-9). Jesus’ Church calls not only her members to holiness, namely to be Christ-like, but also, through them, the whole world. The Holy Spirit calls everyone to, “Be holy in all you do, since it is the Holy One who has called you, and scripture says: Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16). Jesus makes this possible through His Church when she celebrates Jesus’ birth, Baptism, death, Resurrection, Ascension and the fulfillment of the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit. During Advent she calls us to wait for the return of Jesus, the Savior of the world, by being spiritually productive. During Christmas she reminds us to be joyful that Jesus has come and remains with us in and through His Church through her preaching of His Gospel and her sacramental worship. During Lent she focuses us on our sinfulness and our need to repent of our sins, seek God’s and our neighbor’s forgiveness, and amend our lives in accord with God’s Commandments and His Beatitudes. During Easter she gives us Hope as she celebrates Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead. Pentecost reminds us that God has sent His Spirit to His Church as her Advocate and Sanctifier enabling us to embrace the only way to Heaven, the truth about God and ourselves, and the life that never ends as taught and lived by Jesus.

Ordinary Time

During her season of Ordinary time she calls us to practice holiness by following in Jesus’ footsteps. How? By daily reforming our lives, repenting and living Jesus Gospel through acting in a manner that reflects our growth in His image and likeness as faithful members of His Church through daily prayer, attendance at Sunday Holy Mass and each day if possible, and being charitable to those in need. The Liturgical color is green, a symbol of freshness and hope. Ordinary time is when we live our ordinary life in an extraordinary manner as we faithfully follow Jesus through, with, and in His Church. We live with the certain knowledge that Christ has come; Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ is with us now in His Church; Christ will come again to judge mankind, which for you and me will probably be at our death unless the world ends before then.

Life’s Polarities

The psychologist, Erik Erikson, in his work on psychosocial development, identified eight stages where people face choices between positive and negative polarities that life presents to each individual. The first polarity is at birth between trust vs. mistrust. We either choose to trust or distrust the new world into which we are born. Our choice affects the rest of our life. The last polarity we face towards the end of our life is integrity vs. despair. The choice of integrity or despair is prompted in old age by the question, “Have I lived a meaningful and productive life or am I full of regrets because my life was useless?” Our growth in holiness is either aided or inhibited by the psychosocial choices we make when addressing life’s polarities. Grace builds on nature. What God calls us to He also provides us with the wherewithal to make the best choice (Phil 4:19). A productive life is one where the person answers God’s call to holiness in the words of Psalm 40 and Hebrews 10:9, “Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will.” But to do God’s will we must say to Him in the inspired words of Samuel: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3:10). We need to spend more time listening to God than we do to gossip just like we need to spend more time in adoration than we do watching TV or looking at our phones.

The Call to Holiness

The Holy Spirit addresses us as we begin Ordinary time, “… to you who have been sanctified (made holy) in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours” (1 Cor 1:2). Jesus is the only One who can sanctify us and make us holy through the power of the Holy Spirit. He alone is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29) The “sin of the world” is the original sin of Adam and Eve. To follow Jesus is to say “Yes” to His call to holiness, to be “perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). The Holy Spirit urges, “As obedient children …become holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, after the likeness of the Holy One who called you” (1 Pet 1:15).

The Need for Religion

The Christian vocation is to be holy. Since God alone is holy, holiness is about being connected to God. That’s why we need the Catholic Religion to keep us connected to God and grow spiritually. This is also why the Sacraments are essential in the process of becoming holy because it is in and through them that we unite with Jesus. No one can be spiritual without being religious. The word “holy” comes from a root word meaning wholeness. Holiness is wholeness. To be whole means to be integrated, where all of our component parts, body, soul, mind and will are working together in unison for the good of others. To be whole is to be without sin. Only Jesus and Mary experienced this level of integrity because they were without sin. The rest of us struggle with integrity, wholeness because of our proneness to sin. Yet God calls us to be whole, integrated, holy persons. After teaching His apostles the Beatitudes, Jesus told them, “In a word, you must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48), meaning that we must be holy as our Heavenly Father is holy. Jesus intends for us to be made perfect, holy.

Integrity

John the Baptizer preached a baptism of repentance in calling his people to holiness, to be a people of integrity in fidelity to the covenant between themselves and God. Sin is the enemy of integrity. Through sin we separate ourselves from God, making ourselves unholy, hypocritical, unfaithful. We deprive ourselves of wholeness and demean our humanity. How do you feel when you meet an unwholesome person? John emphasized repentance as the first step toward attaining integrity, holiness. John called people to repentance but he couldn’t bring them forgiveness. Forgiveness comes only from God. That’s why John was so thrilled at Jesus’ presence. Joyfully he shouted, “Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). John was happy because he knew Jesus was divine and had the Spirit of forgiveness when he saw the Dove alight on Jesus’ shoulder and the Voice from heaven proclaiming, “This is my Son, my Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). Now it was possible not only to seek unity with God by repenting of sin but to actually attain it through His forgiveness. John baptized with water but Jesus made the water a visible sign of the Holy Spirit with the power to cleanse from sin. “It is He who is to baptize with the Holy Spirit.” (Jn 1:33). The Holy Spirit reminds us that, “God it is who has given you life in Christ Jesus. He has made Him our wisdom and also our justice, our sanctification, and our redemption” (1 Cor 1:30).

The Need for Church

Just as we develop psychosocially in stages, so do we develop in faith stages. In order to work and walk with us daily, Jesus founded His Church on Peter as the visible sign of His redeeming presence among us and gave her 7 Sacraments as signs of His grace enabling us to be holy, like Him. A holy person isn’t someone who is better than anyone else. Neither is he or she sinless. Rather a holy person is one who is conscious of his or her sinfulness and continual need for God’s forgiveness. That is why we begin every Holy Mass with the Penitential Rite where we admit that we are sinners in need of forgiveness. This Rite in the Holy Mass is not a sacrament but an admission of who we are in God’s presence. The saints weren’t perfect but used their imperfections as reminders to turn more and more to God so that He alone could perfect them. To be a Christian is to be holy with God’s holy help. It means letting the Holy Spirit perfect our human spirits as Jesus’ followers adopted by His Father through Mother Church, in order to be a holy people, living a trusting, generative and integrated life here on earth and after death to be perfected by Him in Heaven. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #142 on:** January 21, 2026, 02:13:52 PM »

Jesus is the Light of Truth that Exposes the Darkness of Lies
Around 98 A.D., St. Ignatius of Antioch urged Christians to, “Form all together one choir, so that, with the symphony of your feelings and having all taken the tone of God, you may sing with one voice to the Father through Jesus Christ, that He may listen to you and know you from your chant as the canticle of His only Son” (Letter to the Ephesians 4:2). Ignatius wasn’t addressing choir directors but he was warning all Christians to sing from the same hymn sheet if they wanted to be heard and known by God. The unity of the Holy Trinity is the model for all who credibly call themselves Christian. It is in community that we are the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity. Jesus emphasized this need for unity, “If you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift at the altar, go first to be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Mt 5:23-24). This is why He called men and women to “reform your life … repent and believe in the Gospel”(Mk 1:15). For men and women to unite they must be willing to repent, seek forgiveness and be willing to forgive others, otherwise unity is impossible. God won’t accept the prayer or worship of those who refuse to repent, forgive, and unite because they’re not united with Him and with one another.

No Unity without Forgiveness

Jesus was emphatic when He said, “If you do not forgive your brother from your heart your Heavenly Father will not forgive you” (Mt 18:35). St. Augustine wrote, “There are three unions in this world: Christ and the Church, husband and wife, spirit and flesh.” Everything must be done to preserve and strengthen these unions as visible signs of love for God. It is Christ’s unity with His Church, as Bridegroom and Bride that enables Him to continue His presence in the world. Apart from union with Christ the Church has no meaning and apart from our union as members of His Church we can’t have a personal relationship with Jesus or a Christian relationship with one another. The nature of the Church is to be in union with Jesus as her Head, her Way, her Truth, and her Life. To be Christian, membership in Jesus’ Church, which He founded on Peter as His first Vicar on earth, is essential. Using St. Paul’s inspired metaphor of the human body, every member of the Church must work as one for the health of the whole (1 Cor 12:12ff).

A Light that Dispels Darkness

Jesus came to reunite mankind with His Father. He prayed to His Father, “that all may be one as You, Father, are in me, and I in You; I pray that they may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent me” (Jn 17:20-21). Jesus is the Light who has come to dispel the darkness of sin, with its symptoms of selfishness, division, alienation, abuse of life, loneliness, suffering, and death, that has infected the world. He is the Good Shepherd who “Guides me in right paths for His name’s sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for You are at my side with Your rod and Your staff that give me courage” (Ps 23:3-4). Unity among Christians is an essential witness to convince the world that Jesus is the Light sent by God the Father to unite everyone through the forgiveness of sin and the establishment of justice and mercy in the world. Jesus is the light of truth that exposes Satan’s lies that promise what he can’t deliver, namely happiness through worldly power, possessions, popularity, and pleasure. Sin darkens the mind and causes us to do mindless deeds. Jesus came to lead us out of this darkness by shedding light on the beauty, happiness and fulfilment for which God created man and woman. As the Son of God, He was able to truthfully say: “I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall ever walk in darkness; no, he shall possess the light of life” (Jn 8:12). Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament messianic prophecy that brought assurance to God’s people, namely that, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone” (Is 9:1). Jesus enlightens us with the truth about ourselves and our potential. Jesus is the Truth who tells us how we know we have received Him as our Light: “The man who continues in the light is the one who loves his brother …. But the man who hates his brother is in darkness. He walks in shadows not knowing where he is going, since the dark has blinded his eyes” (1 Jn 2:10-11).

The Blindness of Sin

Sin, born of selfishness and pride, blinds us to what is real, true, good and beautiful. It causes us to focus only on self-gratification. It separates us from Christ Jesus, husbands from wives, and flesh from spirit, leaving misery in its wake. Just as love unifies, sin divides. No person is immune to sin. “If we say, ‘We have never sinned,’ we make Jesus a liar. And His word finds no place in us” (1 Jn 1:10). Our struggle against sin is constant both individually and communally because the Tempter never ceases to tempt us with his lies framed as making us feel good, therefore we constantly need Jesus to block the Tempter and “deliver us from evil” (Mt 6:13).

Emphasizing the necessity of unity as essential for God to accept our prayer and worship, The Holy Spirit pleads with us, “I urge, brothers and sisters, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among toy, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose” (1 Cor 1:10). He asks, “Has Christ been divided into parts?” (1 Cor 1:13). The divisions among those who call themselves Christian is a scandal and weakens Christ’s mission to save mankind. Similarly the division among Catholics weakens the Church’s credibility and her ability to call the world to embrace Christ Jesus as its only hope for unity and salvation. There’s only one Christ and one Church. The Holy Spirit revealed that, “There is but one body and one spirit ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and works through all, and is in all” (Eph 4:4-6).

The Need for a United Front

Jesus calls everyone to “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). As the visible sign of God’s Kingdom in this world, all the members of Jesus’ Church must put forward a united front to convince the world that Jesus’ is its true and only Saviour. All Christians together must confidently proclaim, in the words of the Psalmist, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; The Lord is my life’s refuge; whom should I fear?” (Ps27:1). Jesus identified His mission, which He handed on to His Apostles and continues to be faithfully handed on through His Church when He revealed, “I have come to the world as its light, to keep anyone who believes in me from remaining in the dark” (Jn 112:46). The “dark” is sinfulness that reflects distorted thinking and bad choices. If the Lord is our light and our salvation from sin, surely we should be filled with Faith in Him and, as a result, have no fear of anything or anyone. With the Lord as our light and our salvation we know the Way to Heaven, which requires us to be united as we follow Him; we know the Truth about who God is and who we are, what He wants from us and what we need from Him as Jesus outlined in the Prayer He taught His Apostles; and we know who can gives the life that lasts and brings happiness.

We Must Be a Holy Community

For us as Christians to have credibility as Jesus Church on earth and the visible sign of His continued presence among us and with each of us, and for Jesus to carry out His work, we must unite in Jesus as a Holy Community in communion with Him and fully recognizing Him as the light that enlightens everyone regarding what truly fulfils and frees him or her. Each of us must as individual organs of Christ Jesus’ body, the Church, work together for the good of the whole body. Thus Satan, the Prince of Darkness, “whose smoke has entered the Church” (Pope St. Paul VI) and the “ruler of this world” (Jn 12:31), will be dazzled and stopped in his tracks by the Light of Christ shining through members of His Church as they evangelize and catechize all whose paths they cross. So, as fishers of men and women, we must throw our net out there and bring people to Jesus as the only Light who can dispel the darkness of their sinfulness and ignorance so that they can experience the joy of knowing Jesus' presence in His Church. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #143 on:** January 30, 2026, 12:03:06 PM »

Fr Sean again
The Beatitudes: The Humble Person’s Moral Compass

St. Augustine, when asked to name the three most important virtues, replied: “humility, humility, humility.” Humility is central to Christianity. Christians are those who introduce Jesus to the world as its only Savior by letting His Spirit speak and work through them as members of His Church. This requires giving Jesus, and the sharing of our Faith in Him, the first priority in our life. This requires humility, which isn’t easy since our fallen nature seeks to glorify the ego. The challenge of Christianity, and why it has such a purifying effect on the individual and community, is that it brings us down to earth and gives us the Beatitudes as our moral code.

It’s Hard to Be Humble when You Think You’re Perfect

It is hard to be humble because pride - Satan’s stock in trade - is so deeply rooted in us that we are easily tempted to let it rule us through our desire to do wrong because it feels good. Three priests, a Dominican, Jesuit and a Carthusian, were discussing what made them unique. The Dominican said his order was the best at preaching, the Jesuit lauded his order’s teaching ability. The Carthusian, scratched his head and lamented that his order wasn’t noted for either teaching or preaching. However, he said that when it came to humility his order surpassed them all.

The humble person feels like a stranger in the present culture of self-absorption and god-complexes. What is humility? It’s the ability to be realistic about who and what we are, namely sinners whom God calls to be saints. We are creatures full of contradictions, possessing strengths and weaknesses, beauty and ugliness, generosity and selfishness, helpful and hurtful, loving and hateful, forgiving and vengeful, independent and needy. Humility means recognizing and accepting ourselves as such a mixed bag that we need Jesus and His Church to help us make sure that the positives in us overcome the negatives. Humility is the acceptance of the paradox that it is “in giving we receive” (Lk 6:38; Acts 20:35; 2 Cor 9:6). The humble person is above all a realist, not a defeatist, a globalist, or a megalomaniac. Pride, the opposite of humility, creates an unrealistic and false vision of ourselves by denying what is flawed in us and having delusions of grandeur. Pride keeps us on the emotional level of a 2-year old thinking the world revolves around us and is there to serve us, whereas humility spurs us on to adulthood and the willingness to give without counting the cost.

The Beatitudes Constitute the Moral Code of the Humble

Jesus’ Church proclaims God’s word from the prophet Zephaniah (2:3; 3:12-13), Psalm 146, First Corinthians(1:26-31) and St. Matthew (5:1-12). All stress the need for humility as essential for anyone wanting to experience heavenly joy in this world and completely in Heaven. Jesus is the epitome of the humble person. He always put His Father and His Father’s mission to save mankind before Himself and His own comfort. He is the Man who died so that others might repent, be forgiven and live. To be Christian is to be like Christ, therefore His followers must be men and women willing to give their lives proclaiming Jesus’ mission of salvation to everyone calling them to repent and seek forgiveness in order to live fully and be fully human. Humility is about virtue living, not virtue signaling. To practice humility Jesus taught His Apostles the Beatitudes as their moral code. Only the humble can live the Beatitudes. In the Beatitudes we find the heart of Christianity, what makes Jesus Church and her members different from all other religions. Jesus gave His followers Be-attitudes - attitudes that are reflected in living the Christian life. These attitudes are demonstrated in gratitude, comforting the grieving, in meekness, being just, being merciful, having a pure heart, being a peacemaker, willing to embrace martyrdom, and persevere as faithful members of God’s Family here on earth, the Church.

Collaborators with Christ Jesus

The Christian is a member of Jesus’ Church whom He has made His collaborator in His mission to save mankind. The Holy Spirit tells us that as Christians we must, “… seek justice, seek humility …do no wrong and speak no lies .. a deceitful tongue shall not be found in their mouths” ( Zeph 2:3; 3:12-13). What the Lord did, His collaborators must do likewise. “The Lord keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets captives free ... gives sight to the blind .. raises up those who are bowed down …loves the just … protects strangers … sustains the fatherless and the widow ... thwarts the wicked …” (Ps 146). This is the ministry of every Christian. People often expect God to miraculously fix all the problems caused by human beings. But they forget that God works through His people. He provides us with all the gifts we need to rise above the ills of our fallen nature. How? By embracing and living the Beatitudes we become the recipients of God’s blessings that bring us happiness. But sadly, we deprive ourselves of the blessings God wants to bestow on us because we lack the necessary humility to believe that what He asks of us he also provides us with the wherewithal to accomplish. Faith in God always makes us humble because we realize that every good thing comes from Him if we are receptive.

God Blesses the Person Who Lives the Beatitudes

The person who lacks humility doesn’t really believe in Jesus Christ and so is won’t to say when asked to live the Beatitudes: “Oh, I could never do that. I’m not qualified.” But we learn from Paul that, “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise … the weak to shame the strong … the lowly and despised to reduce to nothing those who are something ….” (1 Cor 1:26-31). The humble person recognizes his or her foolishness, weakness, and lowliness. But he or she also hears God’s call to make His presence felt by striving for justice, freedom, and lifting up those who are bowed down. As someone noted, “Where there is a will there's a way, but where there’s no will there ain’t no way!” Humility is the will to place our trust in God’s Spirit that enables us do what would otherwise be impossible and benefit from Jesus’ promise to is that when we live the Beatitudes we will be able to rejoice and be glad for our “…reward in Heaven will be great” (Mt 5:12). Jesus warns us that, “whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt 23:12). (fr sean)

Prayer

O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others,
Open my ears that I may hear their cries,
Open my heart so that they need not be without success.
Let me neither be afraid to defend the weak,
Because of the anger of the strong,
Nor afraid to defend the poor
Because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed
And use me to bring them to those places.
Open my eyes and ears that I may, this coming day,
Be able to do some work of peace for thee. (Alan Paton)

cassini · « **Reply #144 on:** February 04, 2026, 09:08:02 AM »

Fr Sean again
Your Mission as a Member of Jesus’ Church Is …

In the American television series, “Mission Impossible,” each episode opened with the commander’s line to the spy, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves …” Then he explained the mission’s purpose. Jesus came from Heaven with a mission to save men and women from the slavery of sin and death. He said, “I came that they might have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10) by reforming their lives and believing in the Gospel (Mk :15). He redeemed human nature from Satan’s deadly grip and reunited humanity with divinity in His Person. Through the grace of repentance and the gift of forgiveness He conquered sin. He conquered death, the result of sin, by His resurrection. Jesus entrusted this mission of salvation to His Church which He founded on Peter and continues through Peter’s duly elected successors, in union with the duly ordained successors of the other Apostles until the end of time. The mission would be characterized by a spirit of service to God and neighbour. Jesus visibly impressed the importance of this spirit of service upon His apostles as His Church’s leaders when, at the Last Supper, He washed His Apostles’ feet. Then He reminded them, “if I washed your feet – I who am Teacher and Lord – then you must wash each other’s feet. … as I have done, so you must do” (Jn 13:14-15). Washing His Apostles’ feet symbolized His humble service to them as their example in carrying out His mission to others. Jesus calls every follower to be a humble servant in the interests of His mission. A humble servant always acts according to the master’s wishes. It’s Jesus’ wish that through His mission “all may be one as You, Father, are in me, and I in you; I pray that they may be one in Us, that the whole world may believe that You sent me” (Jn 17:21).

Christians Are by Nature Missioners

Christians are those who have freely accepted Jesus as their Teacher, Lord, and Saviour and that His Church is His Bride with Himself as the Bridegroom. But unlike Mission Impossible, the person who wants to be Christian has no choice regarding the mission. To be Christian is to actively participate in Jesus’ mission. Jesus’ Church isn’t composed of passive followers but rather active missionaries using their gifts to enhance the lives of their fellow men and women and lead them to God who alone can fulfil their deepest yearnings. No one can embrace Jesus without also embracing His mission to bring all men and women into His Father’s loving embrace in this world which is completed in Heaven. How is that done? By being salt and light in a sinful world that’s tasteless, decaying, and dark!

Salt and Light

Jesus gave a new identity to the leaders of His Church and her members by designating them to be “salt” and “light” in the world. He told His Apostles: “You are the salt of the earth….You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:13-14). Salt both preserves and flavours what would otherwise rot or be tasteless. Light dispels darkness. It is essential for growth. Neither exists for itself but for the benefit of something else. To act like salt means to preserve people from the rottenness of sin and give flavour to a life that is bland. To act as a light is to lead others out of the darkness of their ignorance and sin and to replace them with truth, repentance, and forgiveness. To act as salt and light means we aren’t there for ourselves but for the benefit of others. We make the world tasteful and enlightened by introducing people to Jesus as the Preserver of Goodness, the Light of the World and the only One who can save them from rotting in the dark of pride, lust, greed, wrath, envy, gluttony, and sloth. These deadly sins make a person’s behaviour tasteless and causes spiritual and emotional decay.

Salty and Enlightening Attitudes

Jesus confirmed the apostles as salt and light immediately after teaching them the Beatitudes. When we choose the beatitudes as our lifestyle we become salt and light in the world of dis-ease and spiritual darkness. These holy attitudes begin with humbly recognizing that Jesus is our Salt and our Light who enables us to preserve our dignity and that of others, leading them to Him so that they might embrace Him as their Light and preserve their sanity. In calling people to be His people God called them to make the Beatitudes their attitudes when He told them to, “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked, and do not turn your back on your own” (Is 57:7). As His followers you and I must do the same. This requires us to invite God’s Spirit to motivate us. Thus the Holy Spirit tells us to “put your faith not on human wisdom but on the power of God” (1 Cor 2:5). It is then, He tells us, that, “your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall be quickly healed” (Is 58:8).

Preservation and Purification

True Christianity preserves and enlightens us, purifying us from Satan’s temptation to embrace tastelessness and sin, disguised as delicious and feeling good. God tells us that this purification comes about when you, “remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech” (Is 58:9). These are what makes life tasteless and cause relationships to decay. When you and I strive to be salt and light for others we are personally healed from the rotting wounds of our sins and are able to dispel the darkness of evil. Thus the Holy Spirit enables us to replace pride with humility, lust with chastity, greed with generosity, wrath with patience, envy with gratitude, sloth with diligence, and gluttony with moderation. God tells us that when we’re salt and light He hears our prayer: “… you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and He will say: Here I am!” (Is 58:9).

Continuing Christ’s Mission

Our mission as Christians is possible because it’s Jesus’ mission and He provides us with the wherewithal through His Church to accomplish what He asks of us. He can’t be defeated because as He revealed, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rev 1:18). The Christian mission provides the only hope for a life that can be lived as humanly and fully as possible. As Christians we must be careful that as salt we don’t lose our tastefulness by reneging on the mission. As light we mustn’t hide ourselves but rather be a lamp for others to dispel their darkness. Thus Jesus urges, “Your light must shine before men so that they may see the goodness in your acts and give praise to your heavenly Father” (Mt 5:16).

The Mission Has No Room for Passivity

Being a member of Jesus’ Church automatically implies an active participation in His mission. This is why the priest at the end of every Holy Mass bids the worshippers to, “Go forth, the Mass is ended,” or “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord,” or “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” Whichever words of dismissal the priest chooses they reflect the call of Jesus to each follower to continue His mission in the world. Refusal to carry our Jesus’ mission is a refusal to be a true member of His Church. Then we become obstacles to the effectiveness of Jesus’ mission and the opportunity He offers every man, woman, and child to be free from the slavery of sin and to be able to practice the supernatural virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. These are the virtues that enable us to live prudently, justly, courageously, and temperately as we embrace God who is the source of what is real, true, good and beautiful. Our mission as members of Jesus’ Church is to inspire people to praise God for His justice and mercy towards us. (fr sean)

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