Author Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live (Read 1771707 times)

cassini · « **Reply #30 on:** January 11, 2024, 05:21:51 AM »

Fr Sean again:
Are You Listening to God Calling You?

Having entered this New Year it would be good for us to ask, “Am I listening to God calling me?” God, as the loving Father who provides for us, the Redeemer who died to save us, and the Holy Spirit who makes us holy, continuously calls each of His children to some service. Therefore, in the words of the psalm (40:2 -10), if we listen, you and I learn that “…the Lord is attentive to me. He heard my prayers and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs … He directed my steps and He put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God… Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Name of the Lord; and who has no regard for vanities and lying follies …to do Your will, O God, is my delight, and Your law is within my heart! I announced Your justice in the vast assemblies; I do not restrain my lips as You, O Lord, know.” What God calls us to be and do He also gives us the wherewithal to accomplish.

The purpose of listening is to learn. God talks to us in our conscience, in Holy Scripture and His Church’s Tradition, but if we don’t listen we won’t learn and so remain dullards in our ignorance of what He calls us to be. The Holy Spirit urges us to, “Act on this Word. If all you do is hear it, you are deceiving yourselves. There is, on the other hand, the person who looks into freedom’s ideal law and abides by it. That person is no forgetful hearer, but one who carries out the law in practice. Blest will this person be in whatever he or she does” (Jas 1:22, 25). Ignorance and forgetfulness are the root of all evil, particularly regarding how much we need God, hear and listen to Him and follow His ways. Hearing and listening aren’t the same. They are two stages in the process of understanding. We must hear with a listening ear. Too often we hear without listening and so we receive only the content but not the intent. It’s the intent that’s most important. Content can be misunderstood but intent cannot. What we think we hear isn’t always what is intended. Listening requires presence, empathy, and reflection. This is how understanding comes about.

This Sunday the Church proclaims God’s call to Samuel (1 Sam 3:3-10, 19) to be His prophet, Jesus’ call to His first Apostles (Jn 3:35-42), and St. Paul’s call to focus on the purity of the body ( 1 Cor 6:13-20).

Samuel was awakened one night by a voice calling his name. He thought it was the prophet Eli. Eli advised Samuel it might be God and so to say, if he heard the voice again, “Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening.” This prayer prepared Samuel to hear and listen to what God wanted. Thus “Samuel grew up and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.” Listening leads to understanding what we’re being called to do.

Our daily prayer each day must be, “Speak Lord, Your servant is listening,” if we want to understand what God is telling us. We have to develop our ability to listen because we’re not automatically good listeners. We have to learn listening skills. Listening requires the following ingredients: be respectful toward and have faith in the speaker; empathize with the speaker, ask true questions to deepen our understanding, and give good feedback to make sure we’re grasping the speaker’s intent. These apply in every relationship including with God. In the absence of these qualities we’re not listening and so we miss the message and abort the communication.

Every sin signifies a refusal to listen to God. When we don’t listen we become “forgetful hearers.” Listening calls for an investment of oneself in the speaker. Merely hearing the person doesn’t. When I invest myself in a speaker I allow myself to be influenced and to learn from him or her. When God speaks to us and we listen we cannot help but be influenced by Him. We can hear Jesus, but because we don’t listen we’ll walk away and remain untouched. Where there’s no investment there’s no change.

Samuel listened and invested Himself in God. So did Andrew and Peter. The Holy Spirit empowered John the Baptizer to recognize Jesus with the words, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” These words have rung continuously down through the generations in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at Holy Communion time. Having listened to John, Andrew asked Jesus where he lived. He replied, “Come and see!” Having listened to Jesus, Andrew was so influenced that he went and told his brother, Simon, “We have found the Messiah” and brought him to Jesus who named him “Cephas – Peter.”

What do we see here? Andrew listened to Jesus and invested himself in Him with the result that he felt compelled to share the experience with his brother. This is what happens when we listen to Jesus and invest ourselves in Him. We can’t keep the good news to ourselves. If we don’t listen we won’t let Jesus influence us and so we’ve no good news to share. Perhaps that’s why so many say, “I get nothing out of going to Church.” Jesus calls each of us to listen, invest ourselves in Him, and respond, “Here I am, Lord, I come to do Thy will” (Ps 40). Then Jesus invests in us and we’re able to proclaim with the Psalmist, “To do Your will, O God, is my delight, and Your law is written on my heart. I announced Your justice in the vast assembly; I didn’t restrain my lips, as You, O Lord, know.” Thus we have great news to share.

We invest ourselves in God’s call not just spiritually but also bodily. Therefore we must use our body in accord with His word. The Holy Spirit warns us through St. Paul to “avoid immorality/fornication” (1 Cor 6: 13-20). “The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord … You know that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? God forbid … He who is joined to a prostitute is made one body ... Flee from fornication. Every sin that a man commits is outside his body, but he that commits fornication, sins against his own body. Do you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own. You are bought with a great price, therefore glorify God in your body.”

God calls us to unite with Him as body-soul creatures. If we use our body selfishly we separate ourselves from God. We cannot be united with God spiritually without being united with Him bodily. We listen to God with our whole self – body and soul. If we use our body for immoral purposes we insult our Creator by investing in evil rather than in Him. None of us is immune to sɛҳuąƖ urges which can overpower us if we stop listening to God.

In the listening process our whole self must be involved if we’re to understand and be influenced by what we’re hearing. Therefore we must use our body in such a way that we give glory to God as our Creator and redeemer. Immorality or fornication, adultery, sex abuse, desecrate our body that became a temple of the Holy Spirit the day we were baptized. What we do with our body affects our soul and vice versa. So to fully listen to God, answer His call, and be transformed by Him we must be united with Him both in body and soul in order to receive His blessing and be a blessing to others. Our bodies aren’t our own to do what we want with them. We must use them to serve God and not our disordered desires. That means avoiding sins of the flesh that pollute the body and soul. Immorality impedes us from carrying out God’s call to live as His gifted children destined for eternal happiness. May we be willing listeners, in body and soul, to God’s daily call each day of our life. (fr sean)

Viva Cristo Rey · « **Reply #31 on:** January 11, 2024, 08:51:51 AM »

Thank you, Father Sean.

cassini · « **Reply #32 on:** January 17, 2024, 10:44:17 AM »

Fr Sean again:

Are You Seeking Fulfilment?

Erik Erickson identified eight stages of psychosocial development from infancy to old age. Each stage involves a choice between a positive or negative approach to life, such as choosing to trust or mistrust the world in infancy. The last stage in old age involves the choice between facing the end of life with integrity or despair. Choosing integrity would reflect the belief that one lived a fulfilled life and have no regrets. Facing the end of life in despair would reflect the opposite. A life well lived would give a person a sense of fulfilment as he or she approaches death. A life well lived is a life of integrity. It’s one that is lived honestly, principled, and to the best of one’s ability. It is a life wherein a person has fulfilled his or her hopes and dreams.

The dictionary defines fulfilment as the achievement of what we long for? So what do we long for? There are as many answers as there are people. As creatures we consciously or unconsciously long for the Creator. Why? Because we need to understand ourselves and get answers to questions about ourselves and our world that we cannot answer on our own. Also we have yearnings that we cannot satisfy on our own. Because we haven’t created ourselves we need our Creator to show us what our potential is and how to achieve it. Can we achieve this on our own? No. We need God’s wisdom to guide us. This is why the Holy Spirit tells us that, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Ps 14:1). The fool is the person who thinks he or she can function independently of God. Sadly, the majority of people in the world today are infected by such foolhardiness and so doom themselves to despair. We see the results in the drastic increase in ѕυιcιdє, euthanasia, abortion, transgenderism, and Malthusianism. The root cause is the rejection of God and the vain attempt at self-fulfillment and self-salvation. This is the legacy of Adam and Eve which they created by letting Satan tempt them into thinking that they didn’t need God. To expose this delusion, this sin, Jesus to show and tell us what we need to do to avoid despair and achieve the fulfillment for which we yearn. It takes the Creator to enable us as His creatures to achieve our true purpose, namely to know, love and serve Him here on earth and after death to be with Him forever in Heaven. This is why God sent Jonah to call the Ninevites (Jon 3:1-5, 10) to repent and turn to Him so that they could realize their true purpose in life.

In the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark (1:14-20), Jesus speaks about fulfillment. “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” In Jesus, God has fulfilled His promises to bring us back to Him by saving us from our sinfulness and hopelessness. He shows us how to be free, just, love, and at peace. He shows us how to integrate body and soul and live a fulfilled life so we don’t have regrets at the end. Having requested John’s baptism of water, Jesus started forming His community that He would designate as the visible sign of God’s Kingdom on earth wherein people would unite with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. Simon and Andrew were the first members of His Church calling them to, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Imagine the looks on their faces when He told them they would become “fishers of men.” Later on He said something similar to James and John, who immediately left their father and their boats to follow Him. They were all fishermen fishing for fish. How did Jesus mean them to be “fishers of men”? Their culture had steeped them in expectation of a Messiah whom God would send to liberate them. They hoped that Jesus would be the promised Messiah. This whole episode is connected to the notion of human “fulfillment,” namely to be free. The freedom Jesus would offer was not political or economic, but spiritual – freedom from sin. Jesus’ formula for achieving fulfillment was through repentance and belief in the Gospel. Worldly people, fools, laugh at this. But does the world provide human fulfilment? The world’s news is that the worst is ahead so we have to save the planet. Jesus’ news is that the best is ahead and He will save us. We attain it by repenting and believing the Gospel. The Psalmist knew the best was ahead when he proclaimed, “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me… Guide me in Your truth … For You are God my Savior … Good and upright is the Lord; He shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble His way” (Ps 25:4-19). His way calls us to be humble, repent and have faith in the Gospel.

St. Augustine wrote, “You have created us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” The heart of every person is restless since it cannot find fulfillment in any created thing. Only the Infinite can perfect the finite. Our jobs cannot provide us with the level of satisfaction or achievement sought by our soul. Our relationships cannot completely satisfy us because we’re all imperfect. Our education, degrees, wealth, popularity, etc., cannot make us permanently happy unless they lead us to God. Only God can do this. And the great obstacle that prevents our hearts from resting in God is our sinfulness. So the first step on the path toward fulfilment is the recognition of our sinfulness and our need for the grace of repentance which comes from God.

It’s sad today, despite all our scientific knowledge and material progress, to see the amount of energy and effort being put into an attempt to eliminate God from the world. It’s a perfect example of people shooting themselves in the foot. Why are people so intent in making despair inevitable? Instead of emphasizing the importance of God’s presence in society as the only effective means to overcome restlessness, violence, depression, and disrespect for human life, immorality, and the insane blurring of the differences between man and woman. Why? Because sin is the root cause of all of them. The world’s cure focuses on offering more material things, more antidepressants, more physical pleasure, more egotism, and less responsibility, which actually makes things worse. When are we going to heed the message that humanity has to be saved from sin before it can be perfected? Man and woman need God for their fulfillment. The time to start on the path to fulfilment is now. The Kingdom of God is here, visible in Jesus’ Church announcing His revelation that if you want to live a fulfilled life, a life of integrity rather than despair, then accept that “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” This is the formula for happiness. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #33 on:** January 24, 2024, 02:01:48 PM »

Fr Sean again:
Jesus Spoke with Authority

The Church opens this week by proclaiming Jesus as the One who speaks with authority. “The people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes” (Mk 1:21-28). What is authority? The dictionary defines authority as “the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.” Where does that power or right come from? It comes from the one who is all-powerful and who determines what is right and, by default, what is wrong, namely God. All authority comes from God who shares His power with men and women for the benefit of His creation.

The purpose of power is to change and improve ourselves and creation according to God’s will. That means eliminating what’s sinful so we can grow in God’s image and likeness thereby achieving our true purpose and the fullness of our potential. To show us how to do this God sent His Word to take on our nature in the womb of a virgin and become man. This man is Jesus whose coming was prophesied hundreds of years earlier in the Old Testament. Moses told God’s people, “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to Him you will listen” (Deut 18: 15-20). Listening to Jesus is crucial because He shows us that God shares His power with us and how to use it in service to Him and to our neighbor. The Psalmist emphasizes the urgency of listening to Jesus when he proclaims, “Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation,,, Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us. For He is our God and we are … the flock He guides. If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps 95:1-9).

The fact that all authority comes from God is a reminder that whoever is in a position of authority in this world will be held accountable by Him for the way they use it. No person or institution has authority or power independently of God. The notion that a person or the State authorizes itself and uses power for its own agenda leads to dictatorship and abuse that destroys humanity and creation. The State receives her authority from the people and the people receive it from God. Since the State can’t exist without the people, and people can’t exist without God neither entity has authority apart from God. When the State attempts to deprive the people of the power God has given them it abuses its authority. Such use of authority translates into dictatorship, oligarchy, or some such absolutist form of authoritarian government. Such a government has no authority in the eyes of God and mustn’t be obeyed.

Parents are given authority over their children by God in the Sacrament of Matrimony. From that authority flows the power to raise their children in accord with the teaching of Jesus and His Church. That means listening to Jesus and following in His footsteps as faithful members of His Church. The purpose of this authority is to serve the children by teaching them, through word and example, how to unite with God as their Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Guarantor of eternal happiness. To use their authority and power to deprive the children of the knowledge and grace of God, parents abuse their authority for which God will hold them accountable.

The people were impressed with Jesus because He spoke what He believed, namely the truth of which He is the Author, and what He wanted for every man and woman to know, namely that He would make it possible for them to be saved from their sins and enter Heaven. They saw Him use the power that came from His authority to conquer evil and death. The demons recognized His authority and power over them. “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” Jesus silenced them: “Be quiet! Come out of the man!” In amazement the onlookers said to one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the evil spirits and they obey Him.” Jesus demonstrated how God means for authority and power to be used, namely to conquer evil in all its manifestations.

To continue demonstrating God’s authority and power Jesus founded His Church on Peter and authorized him to be the keeper of the keys of God’s Kingdom empowering him to teach the truth. The truth being Jesus Himself. Jesus gave the Apostles, and through them His Church, the authority to speak in His Name. “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me rejects the One who sent me” (Lk 10:16). He shared His power with them when He said, “Whose sins you shall forgive they are for-given; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. Whatsoever you bind on earth is bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is loosed in Heaven” (Jn 10:23).

The Apostles, in turn in the Name of Jesus, handed on to the whole Church the authority Jesus had personally given them to continue to bring that deposit of faith to all generations, undiluted. Jesus has authorized His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church to preach and teach His Gospel in His Name guided by the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised, “I will be with my Church all days until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). The Church in which Jesus is present is the Church to which He has given the authority to speak authentically in His Name under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The authenticity of authority is judged by whether power is being used to facilitate obedience to the Ten Commandments and living the Beatitudes, or it’s being used for egotistical glorification. The Church’s proper use of her authority and power is determined by her emphasis on fidelity to preaching the Gospel. God created the universe as an expression of His love. He created men and women to be stewards of the earth and use it for their benefit. We are stewards of the earth, not saviors of the planet. As its stewards, God authorizes us to use the earth in a manner that unites us with Him. The authority Jesus gave the Apostles and they in turn handed on to the whole Church is authentic only when it’s used to call and enable men and women to convert from sin and receive God’s grace.

Sadly, the Church is made up of sinful human beings and therefore her Apostolic-given authority from Christ has often been abused by her ordained leaders and lay members. That is why Christ instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We’re all sinners, prone to egotism and temptation. The greatest temptation is to try and appropriate authority and power for our own selfish purposes. There is something in our fallen nature that has difficulty trusting in God and doing things His way. We would rather be gods ourselves and create our own truth which is a disguise for the lies we tell ourselves and others. False gods always wield authority and power as weapons for dominating others rather than as instruments of service. Let us pray that we may use the authority Jesus has given us in Baptism and Confirmation to speak and live the Gospel with the power of conviction that will astonish the Woke-infected world and quieten its demons. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #34 on:** January 31, 2024, 10:50:19 AM »

Fr Sean again:
Everybody Is Looking for Jesus

How do you feel when a lot of people call on you for help? Do you become irritated and wish they would go away? Jesus had gone to “a lonely place in the desert; there He was absorbed in prayer” spending time alone with His Father when the Apostles interrupted Him. They said, “Everybody was looking for you!” The people kept chasing Him. Why? He offered them freedom from their physical and spiritual diseases and maladies. We all want to be healthy. No one wants to be sick because illness implies pain, weakness, and the reality of death. But we can’t always avoid it. Everyone suffers in one way or another. We can empathize with Job (Jb 7:1-7) when he asked, “Is not man’s life a drudgery? I am filled with restlessness … my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again …” He recognized his need for help to cope with his misery that he couldn’t give himself. We need God to rescue us. The Psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reveals that in our misery we should, “Praise the Lord for He is good … He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds … To his wisdom there is no limit. The Lord sustains the lowly; the wicked He casts to the ground.” Jesus came to fulfil what the Holy Spirit revealed.

In the Gospel of St. Mark (1:29-39) people witnessed Jesus freeing those suffering from physical and spiritual sickness. Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering with a fever when Jesus visited. He took her hand and helped her up from her sickbed. She was down but He raised her up. The word about Jesus’ miracle spread. By that night several people suffering physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental illnesses were brought to Jesus in the hope of being lifted up from them. Jesus helped helpless people to regain their strength and freedom. Was it any wonder that the Apostles located Him as He prayed and said, “Everybody is looking for you”?

Jesus said: “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10). He came to restore fallen human nature to its original state by re-uniting it with God. Thus He empowers all who believe in Him to turn their life of drudgery into an exciting and productive one where they’re no longer bored living meaningless lives. The creature needs a positive relationship with the Creator in order to know what his or her potential is. The creature needs to be constantly in the company of the Creator in order to know what is natural or unnatural for him or her. The Creator energizes the creature to be creative and fulfil his or her potential.

Is everybody looking for Jesus today? Yes, even though many don’t know it and look for fulfillment in all the wrong places. As creatures we’re looking for our Creator who alone can fulfil us. Jesus is the only one who can tell us who the Creator is and what His directions are. Without Jesus we can’t have a personal relationship with God and so are easily tempted to follow false gods. When I know my Creator He enables me to know my true identity and purpose as His creature. The Creator creates the creature and gives it its nature. That nature has a built-in law directing it to its true goal or destiny. That is called the Natural Law. When nature goes against that law it behaves unnaturally. Unnatural behavior does an injustice to the integrity of the creature, turning it into something it was never meant to be. The result is disorder, confusion, and destruction. When we act in a manner that contradicts our nature we become disordered internally and externally. We twist our soul into a grotesque shape by feeding it with what is poisonous. Our human nature has a built-in law that acts like the white lines on the road. When we cross these lines we leave the safety zone and endanger our life as well as the life of others. The law of nature isn’t there to limit us, but to keep us on track as we confidently move forward to our true destiny. Thus we have order in our life and are able to be fully present to ourselves and to all of God’s creation. The moment we reject the law of our human nature is also the moment we ignore the laws built into the natures of other parts of creation. When we ignore the law of our human nature, because we’re the high-point of earthly creation, we automatically cause disorder in the rest of the universe. As we go, so goes the world. If we lead the world away from God by rebelling against the law He instilled in our human nature the result will be chaos since we’ll try to redefine our own purpose and the purpose of creation as we want it, not as the Creator ordained it.

The more we deny or ignore the law of human nature the more we’ll enact laws that promote what’s unnatural to humanity. The legalization of abortion is a perfect example of a law enacted by men who have rejected the built-in law of human nature to continue our species. It’s unnatural to kill one’s young. Margaret Mead, noted anthropologist, said that any species that kills its young dooms itself to extinction. Attempts to enact laws legitimizing assisted ѕυιcιdє are examples of man acting against his nature, which is to live. Death is unnatural because God didn’t create us to die but to live eternally. Promoting the legalization and blessing of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ unions exemplifies the attempt to reject the natural law that God created man and a woman to naturally complement one another and use their sɛҳuąƖity to transmit life. Due to Adam and Eve’s sin we suffer from a fallen nature. Jesus redeemed it so that we don’t fall into the trap of trying to make a behavior that flows from fallen human nature into an accepted behavior of redeemed human nature. That would be an aberration. The natural law is always bolstered by the revealed will of God expressed in Jesus’ teaching. It doesn’t change.

Man-made laws must always reflect the natural law if they are to promote the common good of all men and women. What’s legal isn’t always what’s moral. The morality of a law is always judged by whether or not it reflects the natural law. If it doesn’t - as in the case of abortion, same-sex unions, transgenderism, euthanasia, etc. - it is immoral and fuels disorder in the world. We need Jesus to help us put order into our disordered lives.

Everybody needs Jesus because He alone enables fallen human nature to obey the law instilled in it by His Father. He came to cure and make whole those who suffered disorders, of one kind or another, namely sin. He called everyone to become holy. Holiness is attained through walking in the company of God. This walk automatically leads to wholeness, which involves adherence to nature’s laws.

Jesus reminds us that He came to bring order to a disordered humanity through hearing and living in accord with His word of truth. He said to His Apostles, “Let us go to the nearby villages so that I may preach there also. For this purpose I have come.” St Paul (1 Cor 9:16-23), inspired by the Holy Spirit, felt the urgency to introduce Jesus to the world. “Woe to me if I do not preach it (Gospel) …I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.” Jesus handed the task of preaching His Gospel to His Apostles as the first leaders of His Church and they in turn handed it on to their successors down to today. He said, “Go forth and make disciples of all the nations… Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28:18-20). What He commanded them to do was preach the Gospel that called everyone to know that “The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). This is how order is restored. Everyone is seeking, in one way or another, to improve their life and that requires putting Jesus first in our life. Since only Jesus can help people do that, everyone needs to find Him. Hence the urgency to evangelize. (fr sean).

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Author Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live (Read 1771707 times)

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

Viva Cristo Rey

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live