There are of course many ways of describing the pastoral, liturgical and theological struggles of our day. But one very simple way of describing current problems that touches on all these areas is simply this: that a presumptive attitude of mercy without repentance is both taught and widely held by far too many modern Catholics, and other Christians. (Editor’s note: And evidently – certain Roman Catholic Popes.)
Unfortunately, the church is often still accused of wanting to steer people in directions they did not want to take, he continued. It would have to ask itself whether it hadn’t set the wrong priorities when proclaiming the Gospel message.
“Many older people have grown up with the idea that the church is a moral institution and that God is only a merciful God if we keep his commandments. But God doesn’t say, ‘If you’re good, then I’ll also be good to you.’ Jesus proclaims a God who says, ‘I love you — so live,’ and thus gives us the freedom to decide whether we want to accept and return his love.”
Editor’s note: Yes, Marx is a Catholic Cardinal – although his thinking on sin and mercy are much more in tune with the Lutherans.
“Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.” ― Martin Luther
Does God really give us license to sin? I doubt it! And why does the Cardinal make no mention of the necessity of contrition and repentance – or are those outmoded theological concepts, as well? More importantly, we have to wonder if this an example of Pope Francis’ thinking on these matters.
How’s this for Gospel, your eminence?:
“If you love me, keep my commandments.” ― Jesus Christ
In the last few years the phrase “Bucket List” has come into the American lexicon. A bucket list is a list of this to accomplish before you die. There is some sort of TV show related to this that I have never seen, but from the few snips I have seen, it is mostly about frivolous, even unpleasant stuff.
But for the Christian the Scriptures announce a number of things that we well ought to have either done or have up and running long before we die. Our goal is to die in an act of loving God, to die in the life giving transformation relationship we we call faith. And our prayer is that grace and mercy have had the necessary affects to make us ready to go home and be with God.
The list that I present here is modified by me a bit, but in essence not original to me.
The weekend right before my scheduled abortion God pierced my soul with His unconditional, perfect love. It was as if all the readings and the homily were directed specifically at me.
That day at mass I learned about God’s infinite mercy and forgiveness. I had obviously known intellectually about forgiveness and mercy, but that day was different. That day, God gave me the grace to feel His presence and his mercy and forgiveness in my heart.
For the first time I knew with every ounce of my being that God DID love me as much as he loved the little life inside of me. For the first time in over a month of depression and turmoil and shame, I felt loved – in the midst of my brokenness. I realized that God gifted me not only with my life, but also entrusted to me the life growing inside me. In that moment I felt overwhelming peace and the courage to offer my life back to God as a gift and do His will, no matter how scared I was.
By the grace of God alone, I cancelled my abortion.
Read the original article here.
by Doug Lawrence
The universal penalty for sin, is death. Conversely, a person who is totally without sin is not liable to die, at all.
Even babes in their mother’s womb, who are innocent of personal sin, cannot always escape its’ deadly consequences. Hence, spontaneous natural abortions remain an unfortunate fact of this life.
That even newly conceived infants are subject to death should be conclusive proof that sin negatively affects every human being, from the very moment of conception, and that every human being is in desperate need of the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, our Divine Savior and Redeemer.
God is sovereign and all powerful, and he alone rightly wields the awesomely creative power of life and death. God also has no need to apologize … to anyone … for anything … so don’t waste your time crabbing about the current, natural order of things.
Such is most definitely not the case with abortionists, who engage in the unnatural slaughter of innocent babies, for the sake of money and/or convenience, and with those who continue to promote and support such ungodly abominations.
A necessary component of God’s universal law of sin and death is divine judgment, which means that these blood-stained butchers of innocent humanity will someday have to answer to God, for their actions.
Perhaps God will be more merciful to them, than they were to the babies.
We can only hope!
by Doug Lawrence
God created man as a free person, obliged to make all kinds of free-will choices, and to answer for them, come Judgment Day.
One who knowingly and willingly chooses evil has nothing but the mercy of God, on which to rely.
One who knowingly induces others to do evil, by whatever means, shares the responsibility for all the negative consequences that logically follow.
But what of the person who claims their conscience informs them to the contrary … who perceives evil as good … and perhaps, good as evil? What then?
He gets to be President of the United States, and he gets to give a State of the Union speech on national television, in order to try to justify his seriously disordered “take” on things!
May God have mercy on his soul … and if he manages to get himself reelected … on this once great country!
