The second wave of evil plaguing Catholics
A wave of secularism has taken the Catholics by storm. By secularism I mean the idea that a person's religion and the way that person acts need not have any effect upon each other. A person can be a Catholic and also support abortion, euthenasia, fetal stem cell research, promiscuity, and hundreds of other social and moral evils because the faith is far and away from being a deciding factor in choices people make. On Sundays, and maybe in religion class in school if it's being taught faithfully, people are Catholic in action, mostly. But in every other situation they base their decisions on things other than the Truth. These people can live with themselves, I imagine, because they are not bad people. On the contrary I am sure they are, in fact, good people. They probably don't engage in gravely sinful activity, they go to Church on Sunday, they tithe, etc.
Unfortunately for these people, Jesus did not call the human race to be "good" people. That sentence probably sounds absolutely wierd and wrong, but it's true. Jesus called each and every person to be great saints! Every person is supposed to radically change the world, either indirectly through prayer, or actively through virtue. If a person is not radically in love with the Chuch and with God and doing absolutely everything to grow in his relationship with Christ, he is probably lukewarm. As for myself, I can't even pretend that I am perfect in this regard. In fact, I'm not nearly as on fire as I should be. I'm working on that. That doesn't mean I can't put this message out. The message needs to be preached, and if I don't I don't know who will.
Objections to the call to greatness generally do not stem from the lack of desire to be great - on the contrary they stem from the fear of becoming great. I will not lie, becoming a great saint is one of the hardest things a person can do. It takes dedication, perseverence, resiliance, and above all the theological virtues. It can and does take a lifetime to become devout and on fire for Christ. I do not mean to discourage by this message, but the fact is that if a person wants to be great and holy, he must persevere through the hardest of trials. The enemy will try his hardest to persuade anyone to leave the straight and narrow path.
This leads to objection 1: it is simply too dificult. Because of the state of the culture and past sinfulness and addictions to said sin, a person might feel that he is in slavery to sin and cannot break free to pursue greatness. This, however, is a lie promulgated by the enemy. St. Paul promised that "no temptation is too great for you to conquer." (First Corinthians 10:13)
The second objection: That the worldy life is better than a life of virtue and prayer. It is simply so boring to sit around in chuch in prayer all day - that the true good is to go out and party, etcetera. However, this falls apart as well. First of all, the devout life is anything but sitting in church praying all day. True, some are called to perpetual adoration, but those are few, blessed people. In reality, the devout life (or your mission from God) is to communicate to everyone around you the truth of the Gospel. Doing this is both exciting and challenging. It need not be through arguing with everyone - St. Francis once said "speak the gospel every day, and when necessary use words," implying that the best way to preach our Lord's message is by our actions. Secondly, if God truly created man, then He would certainly know what is best for man. Therefore, to say that God does not, in fact, know what is good for man is to say that he is either not the creator or that he is not omnipotent. Either way, it denies his divinity.
I can think of no other objections to being a saint. Who does not want to be great? The fact is, God calls everyone to be a light in the darkness, the salt of the earth, and a brilliant example to the entire world. God wants every person to be GREAT. I cannot emphasize this enough. What God is calling you to is not a boring, dull life, He is calling you to greatness! He is calling you to happiness and perfection!
I might also mention that Jesus very clearly denounced being lukewarm - i.e. being a Sunday-only Catholic who does nothing to become the great person God designed him to be. In Revelation 3: 15-19, St. John writes " The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God's creation, says this: "I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot or hold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, 'I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,' and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold purified by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments to put on so that your shameful nakedness may not be exposed, and buy ointment to smear on your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be zealous, therefore, and repent." At the end of the world, Jesus will say to those who were lukewarm, who were "good" people, he will say: "You were not on fire for me, therefore I will not be on fire for you. You will be cast into Hell." In very plain language, Jesus says that in order to enter heaven, you m ust be on fire with love for him! "Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be zealous, therefore, and repent."
I don't mean to be a harbringer of evil. I simply want to get the message out: The faithful need to be zealous and on fire for their faith! "The blood of martyrs is the seed of new faith" foes the ancient saying, and nothing is further from the truth. But where will the seed come from if none will be zealous enough to be martyrs? God brings a message of Love, yes, but violent Love. Love so powerful it will drive people to be faitful unto death! Therefore I say to every person who calls themselves a Catholic. God calls you to be great, and if you do not respond to that call, you are not truly being Catholic.
to end, I will quote the great C. S. Lewis. "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."
~Ambrose
Unfortunately for these people, Jesus did not call the human race to be "good" people. That sentence probably sounds absolutely wierd and wrong, but it's true. Jesus called each and every person to be great saints! Every person is supposed to radically change the world, either indirectly through prayer, or actively through virtue. If a person is not radically in love with the Chuch and with God and doing absolutely everything to grow in his relationship with Christ, he is probably lukewarm. As for myself, I can't even pretend that I am perfect in this regard. In fact, I'm not nearly as on fire as I should be. I'm working on that. That doesn't mean I can't put this message out. The message needs to be preached, and if I don't I don't know who will.
Objections to the call to greatness generally do not stem from the lack of desire to be great - on the contrary they stem from the fear of becoming great. I will not lie, becoming a great saint is one of the hardest things a person can do. It takes dedication, perseverence, resiliance, and above all the theological virtues. It can and does take a lifetime to become devout and on fire for Christ. I do not mean to discourage by this message, but the fact is that if a person wants to be great and holy, he must persevere through the hardest of trials. The enemy will try his hardest to persuade anyone to leave the straight and narrow path.
This leads to objection 1: it is simply too dificult. Because of the state of the culture and past sinfulness and addictions to said sin, a person might feel that he is in slavery to sin and cannot break free to pursue greatness. This, however, is a lie promulgated by the enemy. St. Paul promised that "no temptation is too great for you to conquer." (First Corinthians 10:13)
The second objection: That the worldy life is better than a life of virtue and prayer. It is simply so boring to sit around in chuch in prayer all day - that the true good is to go out and party, etcetera. However, this falls apart as well. First of all, the devout life is anything but sitting in church praying all day. True, some are called to perpetual adoration, but those are few, blessed people. In reality, the devout life (or your mission from God) is to communicate to everyone around you the truth of the Gospel. Doing this is both exciting and challenging. It need not be through arguing with everyone - St. Francis once said "speak the gospel every day, and when necessary use words," implying that the best way to preach our Lord's message is by our actions. Secondly, if God truly created man, then He would certainly know what is best for man. Therefore, to say that God does not, in fact, know what is good for man is to say that he is either not the creator or that he is not omnipotent. Either way, it denies his divinity.
I can think of no other objections to being a saint. Who does not want to be great? The fact is, God calls everyone to be a light in the darkness, the salt of the earth, and a brilliant example to the entire world. God wants every person to be GREAT. I cannot emphasize this enough. What God is calling you to is not a boring, dull life, He is calling you to greatness! He is calling you to happiness and perfection!
I might also mention that Jesus very clearly denounced being lukewarm - i.e. being a Sunday-only Catholic who does nothing to become the great person God designed him to be. In Revelation 3: 15-19, St. John writes " The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God's creation, says this: "I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot or hold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, 'I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,' and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold purified by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments to put on so that your shameful nakedness may not be exposed, and buy ointment to smear on your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be zealous, therefore, and repent." At the end of the world, Jesus will say to those who were lukewarm, who were "good" people, he will say: "You were not on fire for me, therefore I will not be on fire for you. You will be cast into Hell." In very plain language, Jesus says that in order to enter heaven, you m ust be on fire with love for him! "Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be zealous, therefore, and repent."
I don't mean to be a harbringer of evil. I simply want to get the message out: The faithful need to be zealous and on fire for their faith! "The blood of martyrs is the seed of new faith" foes the ancient saying, and nothing is further from the truth. But where will the seed come from if none will be zealous enough to be martyrs? God brings a message of Love, yes, but violent Love. Love so powerful it will drive people to be faitful unto death! Therefore I say to every person who calls themselves a Catholic. God calls you to be great, and if you do not respond to that call, you are not truly being Catholic.
to end, I will quote the great C. S. Lewis. "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."
~Ambrose
posted by Ambrose at 9/10/2007 11:52:00 AM
2 Comments:
Just to clarify, could you tell us when was the first wave of evil, plaguing Catholics? I think I know what you're referring to, but I'd like to know for sure.
Oh, right. I wrote about Relativism in THIS post. That was the first evil.
Sorry about that..
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