Unfamiliar with Christianity? Read a synopsis, entitled "Essential Christianity, And the Place of Catholicism in It" by clicking on the essay title. |
Catholic Questions --
A Series of Explorations Focused on the Same Topic
We seek to know and love God and turn to the scriptures for help. They teach us that God is purposeful and not arbitrary. Ephesians, and many other works, teach us that God has a plan for creation which he is enacting at each moment. He reveals his plan—and himself—to us in the scriptures. So in some way, to some extent, we should be able to understand his plan, and him manifested in his plan.
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Topic:
Community
August 24, 2012
Community
August 24, 2012
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Sharing the Blessed Sacrament
1/27/10 The union of the Christian churches will not be brought about by institutional merger—like Wall Street investment banks—but by the sharing of the Blessed Sacrament. More. Take This, All of You, and Eat It
2/5/10 We Catholics have Jesus alive among us in his Body and Blood. We share him with one another at Mass and fill ourselves with him in Holy Communion. Is it right that we should keep so precious a gift to ourselves? Should we deny the precious Body and Blood—the living presence of Jesus—to anyone who sincerely desires a more intimate union with the Lord by receiving the Sacred Meal? How could we justify such a denial of this precious gift? Whole Article. Except Through Me
3/29/10 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This perplexes many, both those who question how salvation can come to people who have never heard of Jesus, or to people who antedated him; and those who accuse Christianity of a “chosen people” exclusivity. If God loves all he creates, then why does he appear to offer salvation only to some? More. Abolishing to Law 1/20/2011 So the Law had two effects: it gave the Jews as sense of cultural superiority—they alone were God’s chosen—and it created a power structure within Jewish society, so that the elite had knowledge of, and access to, the word of God, while the commoners and sinners were excluded. The outcome, then, was that the Law’s intended effect was defeated. As it was treated, the Law was no longer the Way to Peace and Happiness in society. It became a wedge, separating the Jews from other nations, and separating the elite within Jewish society from the disinherited. In these ways, the Law was rendered powerless to save. The Law, in the way that it was understood, could no longer unify all people with God and with one another, which is the only way to peace and happiness. Whole article. A Reflection on the Hail Mary 2/18/11 The Hail Mary prayer is meaningless outside the context of the Communion of Saints. The Communion of Saints is the relational aspect of the Body of Christ. That is, those who are baptized in Christ and who follow him participate in a unity of heart, a love for one another that is willing to give of self for the good of the other. In its essence, the Hail Mary is a request that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, join us in our prayer for ourselves to God. We are asking Mary to give herself to prayer for our good. More. The Meaning of the People of God 3/12/11 It was a turning point in the process of recognizing that individual salvation was not the issue when the bishops of Vatican II began the seminal document Lumen Gentium with a discussion of the People of God rather than of the Church hierarchy. The hierarchy proclaims itself to be the ministers of God’s grace through the sacraments in order to bring individuals through the morass of sin to salvation and eternal life. However, by emphasizing that the Church is first of all the People of God, the Fathers of Vatican II threw light on the authentic Divine plan for humanity. This plan is that we might live communally in a graced peace. This means that the Church is not a process by which individuals achieve eternal life so much as that it is a society—a community—in which the perfect life is practiced and lived in the here and now. Whole Article. The Essence of the Christian Life Originally written: 3/26/11 God’s aim in delivering the Law to Moses was the creation of a way of communal life that was founded on two principles: that God is the source of all goodness and is always to be worshiped, and that the members of one’s community are always to be treated justly. That was the ideal. But as St. Paul writes in Romans, it is impossible to achieve this ideal using a Law which only points out infractions of the commands of worship and justice, that is, which only steeps the people in the recognition of their sin. Christ showed us the way out of this impasse. More. |
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Mary, Exemplar of the Church
Holy Saturday, 4/23/11 The Liturgy of the Hours refers to Mary as the “Exemplar of the Church.” There are at least two meanings to this title, and both arise clearly in the Hail, Mary prayer, when this prayer is understood allegorically. More. How Jesus is “the way,
the truth, and the life” in the Christian Community June 18, 2011 When Jesus appeared in the midst of his disciples on Easter Sunday night, his first post-Resurrection gift to them was “peace”—not the world’s peace based on agreement to cease hostilities and pay tribute, but divine peace based on justice, cooperation, self-surrender, and conformity with the divine will. The “peace” that Jesus was giving is not a feeling. It is not a future promise. It is not a goal, nor an exclusively “spiritual” experience. The peace Jesus gave his followers was real, and on-going, and existential in the sense of penetrating to the core of each one of them. And most importantly, this peace was and is communal. More. Christian Community
and the Catholic Clergy 6/29/11 The intention of God for creation—the telos or destination of the whole created universe—is clearly expressed in Eph. 1:10—that all things are to be gathered together as one in Christ. This endpoint is restated in Colossians and is expressed beautifully by Jesus in John 17: Father, that they may all be one as you and I are one. It is clear from this last statement that the intention of God is that this universal unity and harmony is to be accomplished through the Christian community. More. Christ in Us
7/4/2011 In Romans 8:1-13, Paul makes clear that “living in the Spirit”—the Spirit of God which encourages agape love and by it, propels the universe toward final harmony—is the liberating component of the Christian life. Living in the Spirit turns one away from the selfish life, which is characterized as “living in the flesh,” serving the needs and desires of oneself, which is sin, which frustrates (but cannot prevent) the realization of the telos. Whole Article. The Communal Aspects of
the Lord’s Prayer 8/3/11 The Lord’s Prayer is a plea addressed to the Father that he bring about his kingdom on earth, that is, that perfect unity and harmony arise within the community who are the Body of Christ. In addition, the Lord’s Prayer is a pledge by the members of that community to cooperate with God’s grace, which moves them toward this perfect community. More. The Divine Community
June 11, 2012 I am thinking these days that if there is value in such a discussion among practitioners of a wide variety of religions and belief sets, it may be found in establishing common ground on which these adherents can agree and which can be used as the basis for a common social vision. In particular, what can arise from conversation among spiritual people of good will is a mutually agreeable notion of attainable peace. Whole Article.... The Renewed Church
6/21/12 Now, during the on-going sex-abuse scandal, as the Catholic Church leadership continues to degrade itself, is the time for our Church to die to what distorts it and to enter the world reborn as the image of Christ. More .... The Return of Christian Joy
7/5/12 Let us examine, then, the absence of that crucial Christian joy which brings life to the hearts of the faithful. We turn for our model of essential Christianity to the ancient Church, as it is depicted in contemporary documents. And we compare (to be precise, we contrast) the Church of our day with the ancient Church, hoping to discover the answer to our question: What happened to the joy? The whole article .. |
Topic:
Sin and Forgiveness
April 16, 2012
Sin and Forgiveness
April 16, 2012
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On the Nature of Sin
originally written 1/10/10 God creates us in love within his loving heart. His intention is that we should respond to him in love by aligning ourselves with his will and thus by all of us becoming one in him. However, we choose to ignore the kingship of God in our lives and to follow our own wills. When we do this, we close ourselves off to God and separate ourselves from his love. God continues to love us, hold us in existence, and await our return to him. Our intentional separation from him, the Creator, and our decision to attend to a creature instead is sin. More . . . On Sin and Forgiveness
originally written 1/15/10 Sin has two aspects: objective and subjective. Objectively, sin is an individual’s separation from God—rejection of unity with God—by devotion of will and attention to something other than God, i.e., to some creature. More . . . On Opening the Heart of the Church
originally written 1/26/10 The traditional view of sin is clear. God makes the law and hands it down to us—on Sinai and through Jesus. He expects the law to be obeyed. When we fail to obey the law, we sin. This sin is held against us by God—like a criminal offense for which the judge remands us to jail. In this juridical metaphor, we must be punished for our violations of the law—or make recompense for them, which as the scriptures say (e.g., the parable of the unrighteous servant), we can never do, and thus Jesus must do for us. This view of God is frightful . . . . More . . . On Forgiveness
Originally written May 30, 2010 Finally, we must confront the most difficult virtue—forgiveness. Jesus makes it look so easy. But for us, forgiveness is not easy when the stakes are high. More. . . . On Forgiveness, Contrition, and Reconciliation
Between Individuals and In the Church Originally written 11/27/10 Forgiveness is the way to freedom for the aggrieved person. The offense or the loss which the victim suffers always entangles the victim in emotions of hatred, anger, self-pity, etc., and possibly in litigation or arguments or estrangement, as well. Thus, the victim may continue to be enmeshed in recrimination or blame or defeat long after the perpetration of the offense. The only way to be free of this tangle—and the on-going power it gives the offender over the victim—is for the victim to forgive the offender. In doing so, the victim frees himself from the offense and its aftermath. The whole article . . . Forgiveness and the Cross of Christ
a personal reflection Originally written 12/21/2010 When we finally come to realize that when Jesus says, “Be perfect,” he is encouraging us, not commanding us; when we realize that with God’s grace, we may be able to stop one sort of sin, but that in its place a dozen more manifest themselves within us; in other words, when we realize that sin, sadly, is a permanent condition of our lives—when we find ourselves truly to be “immersed in sin”— then we can finally love the Cross of Christ, need it, and rely on its power. More . . . |
On Sinfulness and Perfection
originally written January 7, 2011 From an abstract, purely logical viewpoint, we sin when we decide to reject the will of God and choose what we ourselves desire. We bear responsibility for our choices, and so, we deserve punishment when we sin. And likewise, I suppose, we should acquire merit for our righteous choices. Existentially, however, there are few or no purely logical choices, few or no unhampered decisions. More . . . Sin, Forgiveness, and
Christian Community Originally written 6/22/11 I have come to the point in life where I recognize that I have no chance of winning the battle against those compulsive behaviors that I have been calling sin, and in particular, against that deeply-embedded sinfulness which each of us struggles with our whole lives. Paul, in Romans 7, confronts this same issue in himself. Those commentators who are honest with themselves see Paul speaking candidly about himself here. He says that he is overpowered by sin and has no strength to resist it nor to combat it in himself. More. On Sin and Redemption, Again
Originally written on Good Friday, 4/22/11 In the (Judeo-) Christian context, the term sin has two meanings. First, sin is a motion of the human will, in which one chooses a course of thought, desire, or action which is other than the will of God. This is active sin. It is a concrete choice of the will which of its nature is contrary to the Divine Will for unity, harmony, justice, peace, forgiveness, humility and self-sacrifice. Second, sin is the state of separation from God that results from the act of sinning, from active sin, as above. When a person chooses a different path than God’s will, God “leaves that person to their own devices.” Stative sin is a condition of removal from harmonious interaction with God. More . . . Sin, Forgiveness, and
Christian Community Originally written 6/22/11 I have come to the point in life where I recognize that I have no chance of winning the battle against those compulsive behaviors that I have been calling sin, and in particular, against that deeply-embedded sinfulness which each of us struggles with our whole lives. Paul, in Romans 7, confronts this same issue in himself. More . . . Righteousness and Justification
Originally written 8/14/11 A just person is one who recognizes the supremacy of God and worships God, as is God’s due, and who treats all people with respect, kindness, and mercy, as is their due as human beings, as participants in the fellowship of humanity. Therefore, a just person is a righteous person, that is, a person who follows the Law of God. More . . . |
Topic:
Sacrifice
March 21, 2012
Sacrifice
March 21, 2012
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ON SACRIFICE
Originally written: 10/18/2008 Jesus gave his life in sacrifice for our sins. How can we understand this sacrifice? The Torah demands that the Jews sacrifice animals to God in praise and thanksgiving, and in atonement. In what way does the blood of animals win forgiveness? Why would God demand that? It seems that his desire is that the people offer the best they have—give up their most prized possessions—as a sign of their repentance, their turning back to God. It’s not a pay-off; it’s a sign of humility and contrition. More . . . Sacrifice and the Cross
Originally written: 3/24/10 In its broadest sense, sacrifice is the giving up or surrender of something valuable for a good to be achieved by it. E.g., a sacrifice fly in baseball, Maximilian Kolbe’s sacrifice, career parents who choose to stay at home, actual celibate priests. In its religious sense, sacrifice is destroying by death and/or immolation something valuable to the faith community and dedicated to its deity, in order to express worship or thanks or petition or contrition, or to appease the deity. Basically, sacrifice is an act of submission. It expresses the right relationship between deity and community—and in doing so, may re-establish it. What the community holds to be valuable, it voluntarily hands over to the deity, as an expression of the community’s understanding and acceptance of the over-arching supremacy of the deity, and the community’s reliance on the favor of the deity for survival, protection, wealth, etc. In the Judeo-Christian setting, in the most ancient Jewish times, the head of the household or clan offered the sacrifice—never as an individual (to my knowledge) but always in his role as patriarch. Later, an order of priests was established, whose primary purpose was to offer sacrifice on behalf of the community or of individual members of the community. This of course led to the rise of cult and ritual. At the time it occurred, Jesus’ crucifixion was not viewed as a sacrifice, except by Jesus himself. The Romans and the Jews unassociated with Jesus saw it as simply another execution. The followers of Jesus saw it as a betrayal and a crushing defeat of whatever their individual expectations were for the group which Jesus had gathered around himself. They ran away. They slunk after him, denying him along the way. They hid in fear of further arrests and executions. Only Jesus saw his inevitable execution as a sacrifice. More . . . Sacrifice—Another Look
Originally written: 7/3/2010 Sacrifice as a gesture of submission and reverence to one’s god is understandable. One deprives oneself of something valuable by destroying it—or one shares the valuable item with one’s god in a sacred meal—as a symbolic action of reverence, acknowledging the superiority of the god over humans. Essentially, the valuable item is a substitute for the worshipers themselves. The sacrifice enacts the worshipers’ complete surrender of self to the god. . Sacrifice as an effective, productive action, however, is harder to understand. How does the destruction of an item valuable to the worshipers—but essentially valueless to the god—achieve appeasement or forgiveness or favor? The “mechanism” or the “divine psychology,” if you will, of the action of sacrifice is difficult to comprehend. In the Christian context, as I have written previously, the sacrifice of the Cross raises many difficult questions when the Cross and issues associated with it are examined logically. But there is another approach to the sacrifice of the Cross—the “salvation history” approach. Basically, according to this line of thought, there is only one efficacious sacrifice, and that is the Cross of Christ. More . . . |
Sacrifice – Next Attempt
Originally written: 1/20/11 I suppose that in the beginning, sacrifice was a way of sanctifying the commonplace, for the purpose of expressing gratitude. Animals, of course, were routinely slaughtered to be eaten. Offering the animal’s life or blood or body parts to one’s god was a way of respecting the god for providing the meat and by extension, all else in one’s life. That makes sense. More difficult is the sacrifice of reparation. As Paul says, once the Jews had the Law, a standard of behavior was established, and one was liable for violations of the standard. That is, the Law brought with it the guilt of sin. God’s justice is expressed in the Law. When one violated the Law, one offended God’s justice. To make up for that offense and re-align oneself with God’s justice, the Law provided the mechanism of sacrifice. In sacrifice, one gives up to God a valuable commodity as a way of symbolically repaying God for the violation. In fact, the sacrifice could be understood as substitutionary. The life of the animal offered in sacrifice represented and substituted for the life of the sinner—as a recognition of the depth of the offense against the Almighty. There is a problem here, however. More . . . Receiving the Cross of Christ
Originally written: 2/1/12 There are only two spiritual states with regard to the Cross of Christ: knowledge of it, and ignorance of it. One need not know the Cross of Christ specifically to have knowledge of it. If one has never heard of Jesus or has never seriously considered Jesus because of inadequate presentation or the pressure of social factors, such as anti-Christian prejudice, one can still benefit from the Cross of Christ by knowledge of its fruits: the experience of the presence of the Loving God, knowledge or intuition of the forgiveness of sin that results in freedom and joy of spirit, and effective love of others—love that transforms the lives of others so that they experience, even simply intuitively, the loving presence of God in their own lives. If one does know the Cross of Christ, then one understands it as the sacrament of our salvation. It is both sign and effective action. More . . . |
