I’ve put in a standing request (should I be suddenly called from this world) for the priestly ministry and intercession of Saint Padre Pio, who is “a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech” (Hebrews 5:8) and is known for managing to get around pretty well, during even the toughest of times.
I’ve always had a great deal of respect for Saint Pio. He actually scares the Hell out of me.
But, God willing, that’s precisely what I’m looking for, when it’s my time to go!
Today’s question: What biblical thoughts or Scriptures bring you great peace?
Answer: Knowing and loving God is what leads to peace and joy, beyond all understanding, which is eternal salvation, in Jesus Christ. That is the ongoing mission of the holy Church and the Lord’s enduring promise to its’ members.
Philippians 4:4-9 Rejoice in the Lord always: again, I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men.
The Lord is nigh.
Be nothing solicitous: but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline: think on these things. The things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, these do ye: and the God of peace shall be with you.
Personally Founded By Jesus Christ
Catholicism is a dynamic and enduring faith, personally instituted by Jesus Christ, for the purpose of our salvation; divinely and appropriately structured, in order to effectively to deal with the various challenges presented by all the “ages” of man.
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 766 The Church is born primarily of Christ’s total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross.
“The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus.”
“For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the ‘wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.'” As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.
“Born” on Pentecost, of the Holy Spirit
The one Church of Jesus Christ was “born” on Pentecost, about 34 A.D. and according to Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who lived during the early 2nd century, has been known as “Catholic” – since at least, 107 A.D.
The Holy Catholic Church has always been said to possess four identifying “marks”:
The Church is ONE
Jesus personally founded, authorized, empowered and perpetually guaranteed only ONE Church – The Holy Catholic Church – for the purpose of our salvation.
The Church is HOLY
Thanks to Jesus Christ, its’ founder and head, who embodies holiness, in every possible way. Jesus remains the head of his “Mystical Body”, which is the Church. That which God takes to himself is holy, indeed, for he himself makes it so, by his own, awesome power and grace.
The Church is CATHOLIC
Catholic means “universal”. One bread, one body, one Spirit of God, for all true believers in Jesus Christ.
The Church is APOSTOLIC
The same Apostles who accompanied Jesus Christ on his salvific mission, who were present at the Last Supper, at the foot of the cross, who experienced the risen Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (minus Judas, plus Saint Matthias and Saint Paul) who went out and established all the original Christian congregations, preserving and transmitting all the original, divinely revealed truths, as well as selecting their own duly ordained successors, whose continuing mission was to propagate the true faith of Jesus Christ, until he returns for “The People of God”, at the end of the age.
The (present day) Bishops and the Pope govern the Church and minister to its various needs according to the power and authority personally given to the first Bishops (and priests) of the Church – known as “the Apostles” – by our Holy Lord, Jesus Christ, while he still walked the earth.
The Great Commission
According to that same Christ, the primary purpose of the Bishops – suitably assisted by Priests, Deacons and other, qualified Catholics – is to Evangelize: effectively reach out to share the authentic, Holy Gospel/Christian faith; Teach: faithfully preserve and accurately disseminate/interpret/strive to correctly, charitably and authoritatively apply all the divinely revealed truths; Baptize (and sanctify, in various, other appropriate ways) in the name of God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – in accordance with his awesome power, grace and express will.
Sacred and Apostolic Tradition
Catholics believe that Jesus Christ remains the head of the Catholic Church, with the Holy Spirit as its perpetual advocate; infallibly guiding the Church from generation to generation, to all truth.
The continuous and somewhat mysterious process by which that divine leadership actually occurs is known as “Tradition”.
The Holy Bible
Catholics believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, Holy Spirit inspired, written Word of God.
The Catholic Church originally compiled and certified all the authentic, Old Testament sacred texts, wrote and certified all the New Testament sacred texts, and with the extraordinary assistance of Saint Jerome, translated all the original languages into Latin – the common language of the people of that time – by the 4th century.
In the year 1455, The Catholic Latin Vulgate Bible became the first mass-produced publication of Johann Gutenberg, the acknowledged inventor of the movable type, printing press.
The Latin Vulgate was later translated into the English language, Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible, with the English language New Testament published in 1582, followed by the English Old Testament, in 1609-1610.
The Holy Bible continues to be a perennial, “best seller”
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Catholics believe that The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a real-time, divinely empowered, re-presentation of the Last Supper, as well as Jesus Christ’s one time, once for all, perfect and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, on the cross, at Calvary.
The Catholic Ministerial Priesthood
Through the power of the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood and the Holy Spirit, the crucified and risen Christ becomes present on the altar for us at Mass, under the auspices of bread and wine – body, blood, soul and divinity – so we Catholics might have the opportunity to personally participate in his propitiatory sacrifice – joining in with him to offer his divine perfection to God the Father, for our needs, for the needs of the Holy Catholic Church and for the whole world.
The Seven Sacraments
Catholics believe that each of the Seven Sacraments, which were instituted by Jesus Christ, to give grace, constitutes a unique, personal encounter with the risen Christ that is divinely ordered to the salvation of souls and exquisitely suited to the diverse needs of the People of God, throughout every phase of their earthly existence.
Rooted In the Judeo-Christian Tradition
This basic Catholic theological system has many similarities to that which had previously been employed by the Old Testament Hebrews: A reliance on a combination of Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and Divine Teaching Authority; the three biblical “witnesses” by which the truth might always be properly discerned.
But now, thanks to our Holy Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church also possesses the truly salvific power and grace that was not yet available in times of old.
A Mere COINCIDENCE of Human History?
The fact that the Holy Catholic Church (inexplicably) remains the world’s longest reigning, continuous government and the fact that the Catholic Church still manages to exist at all, in spite of a 2,000 year history of some of the worst internal scandals and leadership failures imaginable (as well as some of mankind’s greatest triumphs) serves to lend serious credibility to the Church’s original and exclusive claim of its’ divine origin in Jesus Christ and of God’s unwavering, perpetual solicitude.
Question: Did Jesus tell us to keep the (old) law?
Answer: Prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Old Law remained fully in force. Afterwards, by the power of Christ, the Old Law was respectfully fulfilled and set aside by Christ, with the New Covenant and the Church in its place.
Why? Because the Old Law, never had the ability to save a soul.
Only Jesus could obtain salvation for us, for if the Old Law/Old Covenant had been sufficient, the “New” Covenant would not have been necessary; Nor would Christ’s perfect and atoning sacrifice on the cross, for the sins of the world.
Jesus also spoke about the folly of attempting to put new “wine” into old wine “skins”. This is precisely the type of thing to which he was referring.
The sole governing authority of the New Covenant is the Holy Catholic Church, which was given the Power of Binding and Loosing, as well as the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, by Christ himself.
Only that which the New Covenant Church authoritatively decided to readopt or re-adapt (from OT times) made the transition from old to new.
Conclusion: The Holy Catholic Church remains the sole governing authority under the New Covenant, as well as the primary channel of God’s grace on earth, with Jesus as its’ head and the Holy Spirit as its’ constant Advocate and Spirit of Truth.
Grace – not Law – now, mercifully reigns – in and through Jesus Christ, our Divine Redeemer – in God’s “New” and “Better” order of things.
That’s how Jesus set things up for us. He knew what he was doing. He’s God!
For further study:
Question: What currently available Bible translation is the ONLY one considered to be infallible and inerrant, according to the Council of Trent (and hence, officially, by the Holy Catholic Church)?
Answer: The Church has already stated, extraordinarily at the Council of Trent and ordinarily through constant usage, that the Old Latin Vulgate is “authentic” and “free from error”.
Therefore, the only edition of Sacred Scripture we should be using for anything is either the Old Latin Vulgate itself, or if you can’t functionally understand Latin, a faithful, approved, widely attested and affirmed translation of the Vulgate.
Anything else is simply not guaranteed.
Trent, Session IV “Moreover, the same sacred and holy Synod … has decided and declares that the said old Vulgate edition, which has been approved by the Church itself through long usage for so many centuries in public lectures, disputations, sermons, and expositions, be considered authentic, and that no one under any pretext whatsoever dare to presume or reject it.”
See the entire article here. Be sure also, to view all the comments, since that’s where the two above passages, are located.
Also note that the Catholic Church of that time was standing up for the truth of the Old Latin Vulgate, as opposed to many of the “new” Protestant translation efforts that were underway, at the time.
Of course, none of our current, English language Catholic Bible translations existed back then, either.
This writer agrees with the author of the article that one of the the worst Bible translations of all time (even with most Protestant efforts included) is probably the disgraceful, vapid and totally uninspiring, “Catholic In Name Only” New American Bible.
Question: Do Catholics believe in salvation by works?
Answer: It would be a serious mistake for anyone to confuse the concept of divine justification with the concept/purpose of condign merit.
Nobody can “force” God to invite them into Heaven, by any means (works).
Anyone who is invited into Heaven (justified) gets there only by the timely and merciful application of the saving grace that Jesus obtained for us by his life, death and resurrection. That remains a free gift of God – for Catholics and everybody else.
Grace gets us into Heaven, but only if Jesus alone, mercifully judges it to be both sufficient and appropriate. That’s how we are justified.
Merit is the way we attempt to quantify/measure the incorruptible treasures that Jesus told us to store up in Heaven, by our good works, accomplished in his name, in hopeful anticipation of that great day.
Question: What is a Catholic priest in reality??? Does anyone know?? Catholic priest or pastor?? What’s the difference?
Answer: The true nature of the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood is that of a man conformed to Jesus Christ, specially consecrated and set apart by God, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the laying on of hands, in order to offer acceptable sacrifice to God (most significantly, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Eucharist) on behalf of the whole Church, for the greater glory of God and for the good of the whole world.
As a duly ordained agent/assistant/delegate of the local Bishop, who is a successor of the original Apostles, the responsibilities of the priest also extend to preaching, teaching, sanctifying and governing.
Only duly ordained Catholic or Orthodox males can be empowered and authorized to act “In Persona Christi” (in the “person” of Christ) as priests.
A Catholic pastor is (typically) a priest who is in charge of managing a Catholic parish.
In contrast, anyone – male or female – can become a Protestant Minister or preacher and/or become the pastor of a Protestant congregation.
The power and authority of the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood is reserved to the Catholic Church alone, according to Jesus Christ, the head of the Catholic Church, who personally established the Priesthood and who remains our Heavenly High Priest as well as the one time, once for all, perfect and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.
In summary, the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood
was personally established by Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper,
some 1500 years before the first Protestant minister/pastor
ever “thumped” a Bible.
When the Protestants chose to separate themselves from the Holy Catholic Church, they also made the conscious decision to separate themselves from the awesome and unique power that God gave to the Holy Catholic Church and the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood alone, for the salvation of souls.
As such, there is no real comparison between an ordained Catholic Priest and a Protestant Minister or pastor.
One is a consecrated man who has been given awesome and eternal power, directly from God, through the Catholic Bishop and the Holy Catholic Church.
The other has only his/her congregation’s limited, personal understanding of a holy (albeit, totally Catholic) book (the Bible) along with his/her (often, contrary) beliefs about it, on which to “stand”.
Question: Why do I deserve to burn in hell for eternity? Please explain how I deserve to burn in hell, from a human perspective and how can I possibly follow a religion that doesn’t make sense?
Answer: The problems related to “The Human Condition” are probably due as much to “circumstance” as to the personal “guilt” of we who are alive on earth, today.
That said, the problem of sin is and always has been, deadly serious!
Due to the Fall of Man (in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden) the default state of all humanity is to be born estranged from God; totally lacking the divine grace that is necessary to enter Heaven; perpetually enslaved to Satan, sin and death; having a natural attraction to sin, as well as an all too human propensity to commit sin.
The only known antidote to perpetual slavery and eternal damnation, is faith in Jesus Christ, the divine man who has demonstrated (as one of us and on our behalf) his total mastery over Satan, sin and death.
The fact that Jesus voluntarily took on flesh, became man, willingly sacrificed himself and then, rose again from the dead, in order to destroy Satan’s power over us (the power of death and hell) while asking nothing in return, except for our faithful allegiance, should be more than sufficient proof of God’s abiding love and tender mercies.
Christians typically swear faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ by being Baptized into his Holy Catholic (Universal) Church.
The Sacrament of Baptism, followed by a regular program of personal prayer and study, along with a lifetime of full, faithful participation in all the work, worship, sacraments and devotions of the Holy Catholic Church, is the time-tested, “Jesus Approved” method of first, being justified by the grace of God and then, proceeding to live a holy life that will serve to glorify God, while preparing us to (hopefully) spend an eternity with him, in Heaven.
The bottom line: Nobody “deserves” Heaven. An invitation to Heaven is a free gift from God, subject only to his divine will, his justice and his mercy.
God typically reserves the gift of Heaven for those who are (or who will be) faithful to Jesus Christ – the one who redeemed all of mankind from Satan, sin, eternal death and hell.
Absent faith in Jesus – or a great miracle/divine exception – there’s only one other choice available.
So what will it be: The Smoking Section or The Non-Smoking Section?
Question: Do you have to attend Christian meetings to be a Christian?
Answer: Christians have a sacred obligation to publicly worship God together; something which is typically done on Sundays.
We like to mix the sinners in with the saints, so that when God blesses the best of us, even the worst of us can’t help being “hit” with substantial “collateral blessings”.
Catholic Christians take that to a much higher level, worshiping God in spirit and in truth; body, blood, soul and divinity; every hour of every day, every day of every year; in virtually every nation on earth; through their full and active participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Mass is excellent practice and preparation for the biblical “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” where, at the end of time, Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ (the Bride Groom) will take his Church (the Bride) to himself, for all eternity.
So, yes.
Question: If god loves us so much why does he go through all these games and shenanigans? Why did he send his son to jump through hoops and die?
Answer: The Fall of Man unwittingly transferred dominion over the whole earth from Adam to Satan, with mankind ending up hopelessly and perpetually enslaved to Satan, sin and death.
So, mere forgiveness would have changed nothing.
The only hope for mankind
was divine intervention of a very particular type,
something only God was capable of accomplishing, for us.
Once redeemed from perpetual slavery to Satan, sin and death by Jesus Christ, it would be supremely foolish and wasteful for man to be voluntarily compromised by sin, once again.
That’s why God holds us to high standards, yet mercifully forgives, so long as we remain faithful (to him) and are truly repentant of our sins.
God typically accomplishes this for us by means of his grace and through our full, faithful and consistent participation in all the work, worship, sacraments and devotions of his Holy Catholic Church.
Question: If Christians want to convince us of their great beliefs, shouldn’t they make an effort to come across as more intelligent? They often come across as irrational, prejudiced and a bit wacky.
Answer: You are very observant.
Authentic Christianity, along with all its doctrines and dogmas, is laid out much like a computer algorithm: If it isn’t true and it isn’t logical/rational, then it doesn’t work and it should be rejected, since anything that doesn’t meet the standard of divine truth is essentially, good for nothing.
The Catholic Church used to excel in teaching and preaching only superb, rational and scholarly theology, but since it got “reformed” some fifty years ago, Catholic leadership seems to think that type of thing is no longer necessary, so they have opted instead to promote the kind of weak, superficial, irrational, politically correct drivel that had previously, been the hallmark of the followers of Martin Luther.
It’s still possible to discover and learn authentic Christianity and it’s still possible to learn to practice it and clearly explain it, but that evidently, requires more time and effort than many are willing to invest.
Question: So when the mythical Jesus guy was on Earth in the story, did he scare the Roman Empire enough to crush it or did the Roman Empire crush him?
Answer: Shortly after Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, he founded a universal Church, for the purpose of our salvation.
Jesus promised that the Gates of Hell (which is the Power of Death) would never prevail against his Church and that it (the Church) would last, until the end of time.
By about the 4th century, the Church had successfully converted the entire Roman Empire to Christ.
When the Roman Empire eventually declined and fell, the Church went on to rebuild all of modern western civilization, in the image of Heaven.
The Church (known today as Roman Catholic) constitutes the longest reigning, continuous government on Earth and has managed to continue to honor its divine mandate in spite of the many generations of corrupt people who have worked to subvert it, control it, overthrow it, and plunder its great treasures for themselves.
It’s really no wonder, since that “mythical Jesus guy” you asked about is still alive, is still the head of his universal Church and is still God, Almighty.
Question: What you do not like about the Catholics?
Answer: Catholics are the spoiled, rich kids of the Christian faith, on whom God has always lavished his inestimable love, sanctifying grace, awesome power and tender mercies.
God provides Catholics with a wide array of extraordinarily effective, spiritual “tools” with which Catholics might act to secure their eternal salvation, in Jesus Christ.
Jesus also never fails to appear on every altar, in every Catholic Church, all around the world, every hour of every day, every day of every year, at Holy Mass, so that Catholics might (through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, while giving great honor and glory to God the Father) faithfully renew the divine promise of Jesus’ one time, once for all, perfect and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.
It’s just not fair! Not fair, I tell you!
Question: How is it that Saint Pope John Paul II was able to stand before the Polish people, invoke the Holy Spirit and bring down the mighty, Soviet Union (without a single shot being fired) but he was apparently totally unable (or unwilling) to root out any of the virulent, homosexual corruption that was (and still is) known to be infesting every level of the Catholic Church?
Answer: Perhaps there’s only one of those extraordinarily rare, totally unexpected, “Black Swan Events” that instantly change the world, allowed, per customer?
Perhaps the “homosexual collective” within the Catholic Church
is actually more powerful than the Soviet Union,
courtesy of “The Smoke of Satan” that was duly noted
by Saint Pope Paul VI, way back in the 1970’s?
Pope John Paul II was able to successfully galvanize the faithful, Polish people into action, but it’s clear that nothing remotely similar has taken place, regarding the clerical scandals, by any high, Church official.
If anything, the opposite is true.
Diocesan priests have been forced to simply “shut up” and keep their heads down, indicating that silence is the price they must pay for being allowed to continue to do their priestly work.
Other priests – and even, bishops – particularly those with something to hide – are routinely blackmailed into submission – if they’re not summarily shipped off to Soviet style, reorientation (mental) facilities, run by the Church, for just that purpose.
John Paul II’s successor, Pope Benedict XVI,
was allegedly forced to resign,
when he dared to oppose the Church’s powerful,
“Lavender Mafia”.
To this day, nobody knows precisely why he quit.
What we do know, is that Pope Benedict was quickly replaced by “Jorge, the Bergoglion Menace, from Argentina” and the Catholic Church hasn’t been quite the same, since. In fact, if we continue to let “let Jorge do it”, the Catholic Church may never be the same, again.
Jorge Bergoglio – Pope Francis – evidently believes in keeping his enemies close, since he has promoted scandal ridden, openly homosexual clerics to many of the highest offices in the Vatican. Francis prefers to “room” with them, too – in the Vatican’s Santa Marta Hotel – rather than occupy the more traditional, Papal Apartments. The apparent justification: “Who Am I To Judge?”, says Francis.
I can think of at least one person who is totally qualified to judge!
Maybe it’s time we Catholics all got together
to invoke the divine help of Jesus Christ,
in combating Church corruption.
After all, Jesus founded the Church. Jesus remains the head of the Church. And of course, Jesus had his Judas, so he knows how it feels to be betrayed.
It should be noted that Judas constituted
about 8% of the Apostles, at the time.
Jesus is evidently, the only one who has the power and authority to “fire” a corrupt, heretic Pope, who has yet to display any truly Catholic, spiritual credentials.
Maybe Jesus is merely waiting for an appropriate request,
from “The Body of Christ”.
Let us pray…
Question: Does the bible describe the purchase of righteousness as a purchase like money?
Answer: Not exactly. The Bible describes the salvific act of Jesus Christ as that of a Kinsman Redeemer purchasing his enslaved relatives/family members from bondage: Not by paying a ransom to the slave holder, who illicitly obtained control over the slave(s) through malice and larceny (and hence, deserves nothing) but by selflessly offering himself as a propitiatory sacrifice to a just and righteous God, in order obtain justice for all and righteousness, for many.
In light of the unfolding (or perhaps one should say unraveling) of Pope Francis’s pontificate, we should revisit words once spoken by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, predating and anticipating Summorum—words that now have an alarming portentousness:
I am of the opinion, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted much more generously to all those who desire it. It’s impossible to see what could be dangerous or unacceptable about that. A community is calling its very being into question when it suddenly declares that what until now was its holiest and highest possession is strictly forbidden, and when it makes the longing for it seem downright indecent. Can it be trusted any more about anything else? Won’t it proscribe tomorrow what it prescribes today? (Salt of the Earth, 1997)
He has asked a question to which, so far, no honest answer has been given by the Church’s leaders.
The reason is not hard to see.
Ratzinger dared to say that the Church’s very being had been called into question when Paul VI declared the old Mass forbidden—which in fact he repeatedly did, in response to attempts to maintain a liturgy the Church had celebrated for 500 years, and in its essentials, for 1,000 years, and in the core of it, for 1,500 years.
The longing for this treasure of faith was mocked, stepped on, suppressed, treated as a form of disobedience, arrogance, or neurosis. And the haunting question rises up: “Can the Church be trusted any more about anything else? Won’t it proscribe tomorrow what it prescribes today?”
If Paul VI in 1969 can abolish the oldest liturgical rite of Christendom and replace it with a new-fangled rite fashioned by committee, according to modern ideas…
Some years ago I was at a parish that had a “capital campaign” to raise money to build a new multi-million dollar education building.
The faithful were shown the survey of the land to be purchased and drawings of the new building.
Once the money was raised, I was told that there was a directive from powers beyond the parish level that the parish must use the money to build a new church, not an education building.
I raised the issue that the money had been collected for an education building. I said that my family and others had been defrauded. Promptly, a representative of the parish finance council contacted me and said that, if I wanted, our donated money would be refunded.
I found out that, under canon law, money collected for one purpose cannot then be used for another purpose. (As an aside, the new church building was built, and, some years later, God flooded it, completely). I was then asked by the pastor personally, to leave the parish. Since it was not his, I stayed.
Canon law – the Church’s own law – says this:
“Canon 1267, §3: Offerings given by the faithful for a specified purpose may be used only for that purpose.”
“Canon 1300: The intentions of the faithful who give or leave goods to pious causes . . . are to be most carefully observed, even in the manner of the administration and the expending of the goods . . . “
I am unaware of any “Capital Campaign To Raise Money To Pay Off Sexual Assault Victims Of Priests & Bishops” in any parish or diocese in America; of a “Pay For Priest & Prelate Predators Campaign,” or of a fundraiser “For The Pastoral Malpractice Of Bishops Who Enabled, Fostered , And Shuttled Abusers & Criminals.”
In short, I am aware of no Catholic in the USA who donated money for the bishops to use to pay off claims against the Church and against them. It would be very surprising if, court-sealed, secret settlement documents do not include the provisions that all claims against the bishops personally are also settled, and ended, by the agreements.
Editor’s note: Carefully check your parish’s annual financial accounting summary and pay special attention to any and all insurance costs listed therein, especially for health care, disability, workmen’s compensation and similar items. It’s very likely that you will find these costs to be anywhere from thirty to fifty percent higher than they should be, since many parishes are forced to pay a silent “tax” in order to refill the coffers of the dioceses’ “secret abuse insurance fund” used to help pay off past settlements or to prepare for future settlements.
Professor Karl Skorecki, an expert on DNA and the discoverer of the “Cohen Gene”, which identifies members of the Jewish priestly caste through genetic testing, explained to Breaking Israel News how the findings harmonize with the Biblical account.
“Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all contemporary humans sampled today indicates that all of the different variations in the sequence of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) trace back, or converge to an original sequence in a given woman,” he explained.
“That woman, Mitochondrial Eve, transmitted her mtDNA sequence to her offspring, and over generations slight variations in sequence occurred and accumulated, leading to the diversity of existent sequences in men and women populating the earth today.”
Question: Precisely what type of “peace” are we hoping for when we say “Peace Be With You” at Mass?
Answer: The “peace beyond all understanding” that the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity became man in order to declare, is the peace between sinful mankind and God, which could only be achieved by the salvific work of Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son.
When we say “Peace Be With You” at Mass, we should be thinking something like this: “May God, according to the grace obtained for us by his divine son, forgive all our sins, justify us in faith and personally invite us to spend eternity with him, in Heaven.”
For people of true faith, that should also be enough to mitigate any of the temporarily anxieties and worries brought on by the stresses and strains of our mundane existence here on earth, until the day that we might be privileged to experience God as he really is.
Question: So god required a sacrifice and then he sacrificed his son who was also himself?
Answer: Not exactly.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three divine and distinct persons who essentially constitute the one, true God.
1 X 1 X 1 = 1
The 2nd person of the Holy Trinity (the Son) took on flesh and became man, while never ceasing to be God. We know him as Jesus Christ.
Jesus did for the human race what Adam failed to do: He remained totally and completely obedient to God the Father, even unto death on the cross.
Since Jesus is the eternal God, it is impossible for him to commit any type of sin, so Jesus is immune to the wickedness and snares of the devil. Jesus’ act of total obedience to his heavenly Father, as one of us and on our behalf, served to appease God’s wrath (due to our sins) redeem mankind and “make” the peace between man and God.
When Jesus permitted the forces of evil to unjustly put him to death, he became the perfect and spotless sacrifice for the sins of the world and the forces of evil became subject to divine judgment, subsequently forfeiting the dominion over all the earth that they enjoyed after “the fall of man”.
When he rose again three days later, Jesus defeated death and proved his claim to divinity, as well as his mastery over Satan, sin and death.
Jesus is now the King if Kings and Lord of Lords, wielding all power over heaven and earth, death and hell.
Fallen mankind does not have that type of power. Only Jesus does.
Through faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ, along with baptism into his church, the power to overcome death becomes available to all who truly seek it. This is primarily a function of divine grace, which is a free gift from God.
All we need do is accept God’s saving grace (which Jesus deliberately obtained for us by his life, death and resurrection) and make a free will choice to cooperate with that grace, as a full, faithful member of his church. Then, we hope for the best.
God will do the rest. His grace is sufficient.
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site 