Many people are under the misapprehension that to say one is 'catholic' makes them a Catholic, this is not so! In order to truly be Catholic, means one must abide with Scripture and the Church's Teaching and then live it!
What does Scripture say about those who call on the Lord but God is far from their hearts as they embrace a life of inner corruption, "Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. He summoned the crowd and said to them, "Hear and understand. It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one." Then his disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" He said in reply, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides (of the blind). If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit......Do you not realize that everything that enters the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."
In order to be truly Catholic comes a responsibility to live out our Credo, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died! and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting."
For each of us to live what we believe, we must put our Faith into practice otherwise we are merely prattlers who even though they can fool those around them, still they cannot fool God nor treat God as a fool! So those who say one thing yet live another, are enemies of the Church and are a threat to all Christians, who do try and live out the meaning of their beloved Faith. For those who live lives of corruption will try and drag down the children of God and many times these wolves in sheep clothing succeed!
These children of the dark will often use humour to try and lull our senses into believing that because a phrase is humorous then it is alright to join in on the joke, no matter how crude or vulgar the 'joke' is. This makes the father of lies jubilant as 'Christians' join in and almost outdo the joker with demeaning language and more course behaviour in order to be thought 'progressive'. Let us remind ourselves, when a crude joke is being shared is Jesus laughing too? Or daren't we tell that one to our Saviour? If not, why not? Perhaps because it is too shameful for our Lord's ears, yet He hears every word we utter, before we speak it!
As St. John Vianney says to those who live to embrace both God and worldliness, "But, you will say to me, who are these people who are partly on God's side and partly on the side of the world? Well, my dear children let me describe them. I will compare them (if I may dare to make use of the term) to dogs who will run to the first person who calls them. You may follow them from the morning to the evening, from the beginning of the year to the end. These people look upon Sunday as merely a day for rest and amusement. They stay in bed longer than on weekdays, and instead of giving themselves to God with all their hearts, they do not even think of Him. Some of them will be thinking of their amusements, others of people they expect to meet, still others of the sales they are about to make or the money they will be spending or receiving. With great difficulty they will manage the Sign of the Cross in some fashion or another. Because they will be going to church later, they will omit their prayers altogether, saying: "Oh, I'll have plenty of time to say them before Mass...You see these people who think they are following God but who are really living up to the maxims of the world. They have no scruples about! taking from their neighbour wood or fruit or a thousand and one other things. Whenever they are flattered for what they do for religion, they derive quite a lot of pleasure from their actions. Woe betide you, children of this world! Carry on; follow your master as you have done up to the present! Very soon you will see clearly that you have been mistaken in following his ways. But will that make you any wiser? No, my children, it will not. If someone cheats us once, we say: "We will not trust him any more -- and with good reason." The world cheats us continually and yet we love it." Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world," St. John warns us."
Now there are some 'Catholics' who discount the words of our Saints by suggesting that 'times have changed' yet God tells us in His Word and in the Teachings of our Church that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Yet many deceive themselves by pronouncing the words of our Saints as null and void whilst proclaiming their own words as full of wisdom! It is these very same souls who encourage those around them to disregard all Scripture and the Church, in order to have what they see as 'fun' but what is essentially sin!
Is it ever a good thing to speak obscenities, dress immodestly, speak brazenly and involve ourselves in debauched actions? Yet so many do become involved in this very behaviour, have they not realised that God is in their midst, that He sees and hears every course and vulgar word, and no God is not amused! Am I presuming to speak for God, let us see what is revealed in Scripture, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing."
There are 'Pharisees' in our own midst, who though one minute can speak of God, yet in the very next minute they engage themselves in crude and vulgar language and behaviour. These very same 'Christians' would not think of missing Mass, as they observe 'religious obligations' but their hearts are far from God. They also fool themselves into thinking that their decadent behaviour can be 'air brushed' by using and abusing the Sacrament of Penance yet they do not repent of their sin and instead continue on in the same fashion as they did before, this is the height of arrogance as they treat God as their 'spin doctor' for as Scripture says, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself."
Sin is not a game nor is it fun and hell does exist for those who live lives of hypocrisy and lukewarmness and accommodate themselves to the worldly both in word and deed. It is also not wise to use God's forgiveness against Him in that many believe no matter the reprehensible conduct that God will understand, He will forgive, even though they show no remorse or regret for their sins.
As Padre Pio once confided to a close friend when he was on his way to hear Confessions, "he saw the devil whispering in the peoples ears. He asked the devil what he was doing. The devil said he was going to give something back to them. Padre Pio said What? The devil said "Their shame." The devil said "I took their shame away so that they would commit these sins and now I want to give it back so they won't confess them."
We cannot rationalise sin as if it were a product of our society therefore any behaviour is acceptable and excusable as we have progressed and advanced in this modern age and become sophisticated. There is also no excuse for us when we find ourselves in the presense of sin in that by claiming we do not wish to judge, yet the person who continues to sin will be Judged by our Lord, what does that say about who is important the opinion of others towards oneself or the soul of one sinning?
When St. Teresa of Avila had finished reading the Confession of St. Augustine she was crushed and recoiled in horror as she came to understand that attending Mass had become a mere habit to her and upon this discovery she uttered these words, "So great was my distress when I thought how ill I had repaid Him for those wounds", she blurted through her tears, "that I felt as if my heart was breaking, and I threw myself down beside him."This great Saint of the Church also said this to her fellow Sisters, "We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness, we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble."
Do these words encourage us to sin and sin again no! They remind us to stay on our guard for the evil one prowls the world like a roaring lion seeking lukewarm souls to seduce using any means available. For Satan knows that pride is a battle we all must face and through God's Grace, pride is defeated! In the words of another great Saint, "Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God's strengthening aid and say to him: "O Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations"...as St. Boniface continues, "Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, "let us die for the holy laws of our fathers," so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them."
Let us remember God has an army and that army are those who not only believe in God but are obedient to Him, for without obedience we are paying mere lip service to the Divine Word. For when we embrace the worldly way we have not only failed God, we have also failed those who have been dragged down by the example shown by the lukewarm Christian that sin is justified and acceptable. For by living lives of worldliness and corruption many endanger their own salvation, yet these same people presume to think themselves 'saved' even if they show no sincere remorse for sins committed, have not these souls embraced the 'once saved always saved' theory?
When we compromise the Truth that God and the Church teaches us what is left to believe in, ourselves, our worldly friends? Can we save ourselves; can our worldly friends save us? No! Indeed not! As Theophilus of Antioch says regarding our Faith and its standards, "Far be it from Christians that to do such deeds [as our done by pagan sinners should enter their mind; for temperance dwells with them, self-restraint is practiced, monogamy is observed, chastity is guarded, injustice is exterminated, sin is rooted out, righteousness is exercised, law is ministered, reverence is preserved, God is acknowledged: truth controls, grace guards, peace protects, the holy word guides, wisdom teaches, life directs, God reigns."
From an unknown source comes this telling quote, "the company you keep, you will become"! Who is reigning in your heart? For what cannot be mentioned in God's Presence should not be spoken at all!
In finishing this is from a sermon given by Saint Joseph of Leonissa, "Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel. This is what Saint Paul says to the Corinthians, 'Clearly you are a letter of Christ which I have delivered, a letter written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh in the heart' (2 Corinthians 3:3). Our heart is the parchment; through my ministry the Holy Spirit is the writer because 'my tongue is nimble as the pen of a skillful scribe'(Psalms 45:2)."
Is your 'book' full of Divine inspirations or course and vulgar words whether expressed in anger or jest the end is the same, for upon Divine Judgement we all face Jesus...alone!
Peace of Christ to ALL
Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.
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