All from one and One for All

All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many [that is all men] were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned..." The apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men.: (CCC 402)

Romans 5:18 shows us yet another reason to dismiss the concept of an elect group God has chosen for salvation. If we can agree that ALL men are prone to sin as a result of one man's disobedience in the garden, then it should be apparent that God's plan of salvation, in motion since the first moment of man's fall, would be to reconcile ALL men to Him again.

There are too many verses in Scripture which indicate that Christ died for all men to afford a belief in a predetermined elect group. Instead, the elect are merely those men who respond to the invitation each of us has received. Our free will determines our membership in the elect groups Scripture repeatedly references.

We Go Together (Like Rama Lama Lama)

Man and woman were made "for each other" - not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents cooperate in a unique way in the Creator's work. (CCC 372)

The key word in this Catechism reference is that man and woman are complimentary. The Catechism states in paragraph 370 that God is neither male or female. Considering that both sexes are "created in His image," I wonder if the true essence of God is not best seen when man and woman join together in marriage and become one flesh? Only at that point do we as created get to work with God to create.

Any intelligent life form, God-faring or not, can see that man and woman are designed to fit together. Without making this a class on sexuality, it should be obvious to anyone that our body design does not support the concept of same sex unions. The Church in its wisdom pointed out that the advent of birth control and abortion would spell the doom of modern society. Once you take away the procreative aspect of our sexuality, you lose appreciation for the sanctity of marriage. By putting our own selfish pleasures above all of God's creation we downplay the significance of God.

It is therefore critical, as people of faith, that we recognize the dignity of both male and female while also recognizing that we each have unique strengths that were designed to be used together in complimentary fashion. While it may be true that a woman is capable of fixing her own carburetor and a man is perfectly able to iron his own clothes, we should never downplay the fact that we are not asexual creatures. Only in recognizing the uniqueness of our sex can we hope to fulfill God's plan in our life.

When Your Life Is "In The Pit"

"And now, we pray you, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." (Genesis 50:17-21)

Now I don't know of many pits where I live, but I'm pretty sure that if my siblings tossed me in one and left me for thieves to find me and sell me into slavery, I'd probably be inclined to hold a grudge against them and plot ways to get even should I ever be given the opportunity. Yet here we have Joseph, who never considered a negative response to his predicament. He was a slave and a prisoner as a result of actions out of his control, yet as a result of his faith and good will, God used his situation, not just to Joseph's personal success, but to the safety and well being of all of Egypt and Canaan.

In the story of Joseph and Egypt, we see that God can (and often does) take a bad situation and use it to His advantage. But for His plan to work, we have to accept the unfortunate situations that we are given, and remain faithful to God in the midst of our suffering. In that regard, our free will does play a role in God's salvation plan.

Consider if Joseph had taken his brothers into slavery when they came to him for food. Similarly, what if Noah had chosen not to heed God's advice to build an ark? What if Mary had said "No" to God's plan? Would God have failed in His plan to reconcile man to Himself? Unlikely -- He is God and He can do anything. Likely He would have worked with other events in history to bring about salvation, and we would now be honoring a Rebekah or a Therese as our blessed mother.

Our call then is to graciously accept our lot in life, and know that although it may seem pointless that we should have to suffer unnecessarily, perhaps if we handle our grief with humility and faith, a thousand years from now humanity will look back and credit our heroic struggles as part of God's redemptive plan.

A New World?

"The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will discover a new world. You will enjoy a peace and a calm unknown, surpassing even the happiest days of your life."
St Jaime Hilario

Unfortunately, I haven't yet learned how to surrender myself totally to God...

Not Such A "Little Angel" After All

St. Augustine says: "'Angel' is the name of the office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is 'spirit'; if you seek the name of their office, it is 'angel': from what they are, 'spirit,' from what they do, 'angel.'" With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face of my Father who is in Heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do His word, hearkening to the voice of His word." (CCC 329)

As good as It's A Wonderful Life is, it imparts an incorrect understanding of angels. Angels are not what becomes of men when they die and go to Heaven. Angels are a separate creature created by God to be his heavenly messengers. Among the many examples in Scripture, we can see that they closed the earthly paradise (Gen 3:24), protected Lot (Gen 19:15), saved Hagar and her child (Gen 21:17), stayed Abraham's hand (Gen 22:12), led the People of God (Exodus 23:23), assisted the prophets (Judges 6:11; Isaiah 6:6; 1 Kings 19:5), and announced the birth of Christ and His precursor (Luke 1:19, 26; Luke 2:13-14) .

While the creation of angels are not explicitly stated in the Bible, their existence is. The Church proclaims that angels were created prior to man in the fourth Lateran Council (1). Since they do not have corporeal bodies like us, their response to God's love did not require time and reflection to grow and mature. As soon as they were created and received grace, they had the opportunity to respond to God's love and thus be welcomed into bliss (2). Tradition also tells us that some of these spiritual creatures rebelled against God when they learned that their role included serving mankind. The leader of these fallen spirits was Satan, who was the tempter in the garden.

From "On the Celestial Hierarchies" authored by St Dionysius, we have a listing the hierarchy of the angelic ranks in order of their proximity to God: Seraphim (Isaiah 6:2), Cherubim (Numbers 7:89), Thrones (1 Col 1:16), Dominions (1 Col 1:16), Virtues (Eph 1:21), Powers (1 Col 1:16), Principalities (1 Col 1:16), Archangels (1 Thess 4:15), and Angels.

The general doctrine that the angels are our appointed guardians is considered to be a point of faith, but that each individual member of the human race has his own individual guardian angel is not of faith. (3) However, several doctors of the Church taught that the angels were indeed our guardians and in the Gospels we find some support: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father" (Matt 18:10).

While angels are a unique creation of God in that they are purely spiritual, man is equally unique in that among all of God's creation only humans are both spiritual and corporeal (CCC 327). Just as Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven, we believe that upon our final judgment our glorified bodies will be resurrected and joined once again with our spiritual nature, and thus we will not be angels, but sons of God in eternal communion with Him. All I can say to that is "Alleluia!" for I am not having much success with this non-glorified body I've been given here on Earth!

Sorry Clarence, but there's no need to listen for the ring of Zuzu Bailey's bell. Her teacher was mistaken.

Faith of Our Fathers

God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. (Genesis 22:8)

A man waits faithfully for one hundred years to have his only son by his wife as promised by God. And then God commands him to go out and kill that son as a sacrifice for Him, and he does it without question, even up to the point that he has the son strapped to the altar with a knife raised. THAT is steadfast faith in God. I do not have it, and must admit that it would be a hard thing even to ask for as truthfully I do not want to be put to a similar test of faith.

But is the story of Abraham and Isaac not a fantastic foreshadowing to the redemptive act of God when He offers His only Son as a sacrifice to us? Even more so that we celebrate that act of supreme love each week upon an altar? And that in God's mercy, we celebrate that act not with knives and fire, but with the simple species of bread and wine? Our God certainly likes His paradoxes.

Blasphemy!

but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. (Mark 3:29)

As a Catholic I have always been taught that this verse tells us that the only unforgivable sin is that of despair. To despair by turning one's back on God and refusing to accept that He can forgive our sins is in effect blaspheming His name. It is blasphemous to suggest that God is incapable of granting us forgiveness when we err. If we choose to turn our back on Him and deny Him, we will be left unforgiven and hardened of heart.