The beginning of this story is I've been listening to EWTN radio... and pretty much nothing else. So, of course I learned about Marcus Grodi and the work he is doing to "bring people home" to the Catholic Church. One of the things suggested was reading the Bible and the Catechism in a year. And that sounded like a good idea. A new year's resolution idea. They even split everything up into 365 days. And I like to share it with everyone I know... to form a support group... to discuss the passages... and to keep each other actually continuing with it.
The link for the pdf is here .
As I will probably read these at night, I will begin tonight, and think over the passages (and maybe blog about them... is blog even a verb?) tomorrow. Because it's hard to spend a day thinking on passages that you are going to read at the end of the day. Please join me!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
If You Don't Think Our Culture is Prejudiced Against Catholics, Read This.
So my roommate put these quotes (in a sea of other more innocuous witty quotes) on our whiteboard and I was silently offended. I found a lot more offensive quotes in searching for them again.
The first one was "If I had been the Virgin Mary, I would have said "No." ~Margaret "Stevie" Smith." First off, I didn't have any idea who this person is... she is a British poet who has sunk into historical obscurity. This really is an arrogant position... it is not her decision to make. Jesus didn't pick you, Jesus, when He picked Mary knew of all the women that wouldn't accept Him. Jesus picked His mother and gave her gifts before she picked him. This doesn't deny her free choice, it just shows that God is not bound by time. Also, we should all imitate the servitude of Mary and the acceptance of Jesus into our lives... even if not in the same way Mary did. It is an insult to the Catholic Church (and all Christians) to say that Jesus's conception was undesirable!
The other quote is by Annie Dillard, who I had to read in High School:
The first one was "If I had been the Virgin Mary, I would have said "No." ~Margaret "Stevie" Smith." First off, I didn't have any idea who this person is... she is a British poet who has sunk into historical obscurity. This really is an arrogant position... it is not her decision to make. Jesus didn't pick you, Jesus, when He picked Mary knew of all the women that wouldn't accept Him. Jesus picked His mother and gave her gifts before she picked him. This doesn't deny her free choice, it just shows that God is not bound by time. Also, we should all imitate the servitude of Mary and the acceptance of Jesus into our lives... even if not in the same way Mary did. It is an insult to the Catholic Church (and all Christians) to say that Jesus's conception was undesirable!
The other quote is by Annie Dillard, who I had to read in High School:
Monday, November 29, 2010
Oh, no, the butterflies are back.
Continuing the metaphor of lots of random topics without much connection other than I've run across them and need to release thoughts somewhere (they each should properly be their own posts):
So, I'm currently an irresponsible student for writing on here now, but a lot of things currently in my head would like to be said (ooh, that rhymes). This will try to be in chronological order... emphasis on try...
Ok, reverse chronological order is easier to remember.
1. An amazing chastity website that I would like to share: onemoresoul.com
In it is the quote "Mary wasn't 'full of grace' because she was beautiful. She was beautiful because she was 'full of grace'.
2. "It's becoming more clear to the American public that one of the greatest threats to the supposed "right" to abortion is science." I don't know if it's becoming "more clear to the American public" but I don't want a doctor who denies science to prescribe medicine for me. But it is so true that there is NO scientific support for abortion. There is a hard truth about abortion...that it is unethical on the level of murder... that it is hard to say because so many women who have had abortions (and men who have been brainwashed into thinking it's good for a woman to have an abortion, and sexist to argue otherwise) are defensive to the point of insanity.
3. Happy New Year!!! As we hear about the calendar new year, the Jewish new year, the Chinese new year... don't forget that the Catholic Church has a new year too! November, from All Saint's day to Christ the King is the theme of death and the end times, placed strategically at the end of the Church's year. But we are now in the new year, looking ahead to the beginning of our savior: Jesus's birth. Thoughts from the readings: Advent is a time of quieting...not a time of busyness as the culture makes it. "He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again." (Isaiah 2:1-5) Advent is a time for thinking about the future... what are we working towards? Are we practicing spiritual procrastination? Not to say "remember how many minutes are left in your life" but "remember that at the end of your life, heaven wants you." Also "Throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day,not in orgies and drunkenness,not in promiscuity and lust,not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh." (Romans 13: 11-14). Our culture struggles with all of these "desires of the flesh." Lastly, I don't know how many Protestants would believe that Catholics accept this passage from the Bible: "Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left." This is pretty much the entire basis for the idea of "the rapture." For Catholics, having good Christians not go through hard times doesn't make much sense...Yes, Catholics believe that "one will be taken, and one will be left" but in a totally different context. At the end of time, all the dead will rise, and Jesus will judge, separating the sheep from the goats. And those that are "left behind" go to hell. Not really romantic enough to write a book series about, really.
4. Please, please pray with me. http://www.birthornot.com/ When I came across this website, the voting was still going on and even now the votes for this lady to have an abortion are more than double the votes for her to not. Abortion allowing (which is more accurate than "pro-choice" and I would guess is more accepting by them than the accurate "pro-abortion") groups and news media have insensitively called this website a hoax, but I think that claim is best responded to here. My one other comment is in response to the lady saying: "I’m the one that lost my job because of the media attention that this website has received and yet my opinions and statements seem to be discounted in favor of my husband’s. Since I’m the one carrying the baby it seems to me that this is a terrible oversight on the part of responsible media professionals... But when it comes to abortion I am the one that wears the pants in the decision because in the end it would be me going through the procedure. Even though my husband’s opinion and beliefs matter to me, I, as the one carrying the baby have the final say about my body and our unborn child." First, the "responsible media professionals" don't want anyone coming out in public and saying "I'm proud that I could've had an abortion, and didn't." Second, it splits marriage. If the child is born, he or she will be raised by two parents and decisions about school, food, and activities will be made by two parents. Why is the prevailing view that it is the "woman's choice?" Why does this lady feel she has the final say about their child? Her husband gave just as much DNA to the child as she did. It promotes a mentality of single-motherhood and pushes the decision on a woman when it is not hers alone to make. Whose child is it? The mother's, of course. But the father's and God's as well, and it does the father and God (and the child) a disservice to forget that.
5. Oh, it is a dangerous thing for two people I barely know and have to sit with for hours to start discussing politics. I don't know how my boyfriend can sit and just let people believe wrong things! And I wish I didn't have such a desire to correct people. Especially in person, when I can't think straight due to my heart running at 100 miles an hour. This is why I like facebook and blogs. I can somewhat control what I say. It doesn't help that my boyfriend's friend was talking a mile a minute bashing another friend's girlfriend about her republican/conservative beliefs. What first got on my nerves was his "What else do you believe so that I can explain to you that it is wrong." I got pulled into discussing abortion, which ended with him saying stuff like "I'm not pro-abortion, I'm pro-choice... Abortions only ever happen in cases of rape..." and going off into talking about societies in Africa where it's ethical to kill people "for the good of society" and how ethics and religion are unrelated (that got my boyfriend to speak up, interestingly) and that ethics can differ. Do you ever mentally continue conversations in your head? I've been continuing this conversation in my head ever since. That is why I started a blog.
6. Just what I didn't need to shake my world after the tragedy (reverse chronological order, so it will be #7). I have benefited from abortion. Chances are you have too, if you have been born since about the 70s... or earlier... and have had the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. Or the chicken pox vaccine. To have lived my life just accepting vaccines as useful, I am sickened of the process that "babies die so that other babies might live." It has got to be the second biggest human rights violation in America, after abortion itself. It is probably the most widespread violation, as it is a requirement for all children in order to be enrolled in school. I first heard about this on EWTN, but it was so outrageous I've been looking it up since. (I leave aside the issue of whether or not the vaccines are effective or harmful... I find it outrageous that we all hold in ourselves cells and DNA that rightfully belongs to and should be used by someone else, not me.)
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0044.html
This one is what convinced me:
http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/m/mmr_ii/mmr_ii_pi.pdf
Is it horrible that human tissue is under "animal tissue?"
http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html
This informed me of the ethical, "one baby dies for another" issue.
http://www.vaccineriskawareness.com/Vaccination-And-Abortion
And, from the source of all knowledge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vaccine_ingredients
7. This tragedy hit our school and it caused everyone, even me and my friends who didn't know who died, to stop and think and pray. I know for Catholics, we have some small hope, but for these students, we just don't know the state of their soul, and that is part of the pain. We had several memorial Masses for them. Wonderfully, our school's usual apathy was put aside and many people wore black and came to the candlelight vigil. Our hearts went out to the mother who lost two sons and a probable future daughter-in-law in the crash. And Thanksgiving and Christmas were coming, too. Our Catholic Campus minister and priest on campus said one of the most comforting things, which I haven't heard better expressed: "Many people say 'How could God allow such tragedy', but it was God's heart that was the first to break when the tragedy happened. God doesn't want our society to contain death." But my biggest struggle was with how to pray for people who you don't know the religion of. People I don't know whether to offer Masses for, or pray generally for them... or pray for people in Purgatory... I just don't know.
8. What I first wanted to post on here, a long, long time ago, but seems hardly worth the effort now, is my response to our school's production of "The Drowsy Chaperone." As always, I think our students perform very well. My complaints are against the material of the play itself which had a narrator who, to put it bluntly, was a very unloving (to the point of mocking love as 'resulting in divorce lawyers') human being.
As an end note (as I have to go to class now), go on http://minorcan.blogspot.com/ and tell HurricaneTeen to change name to HurricaneHam in honor of his Ham radio interests.
So, I'm currently an irresponsible student for writing on here now, but a lot of things currently in my head would like to be said (ooh, that rhymes). This will try to be in chronological order... emphasis on try...
Ok, reverse chronological order is easier to remember.
1. An amazing chastity website that I would like to share: onemoresoul.com
In it is the quote "Mary wasn't 'full of grace' because she was beautiful. She was beautiful because she was 'full of grace'.
2. "It's becoming more clear to the American public that one of the greatest threats to the supposed "right" to abortion is science." I don't know if it's becoming "more clear to the American public" but I don't want a doctor who denies science to prescribe medicine for me. But it is so true that there is NO scientific support for abortion. There is a hard truth about abortion...that it is unethical on the level of murder... that it is hard to say because so many women who have had abortions (and men who have been brainwashed into thinking it's good for a woman to have an abortion, and sexist to argue otherwise) are defensive to the point of insanity.
3. Happy New Year!!! As we hear about the calendar new year, the Jewish new year, the Chinese new year... don't forget that the Catholic Church has a new year too! November, from All Saint's day to Christ the King is the theme of death and the end times, placed strategically at the end of the Church's year. But we are now in the new year, looking ahead to the beginning of our savior: Jesus's birth. Thoughts from the readings: Advent is a time of quieting...not a time of busyness as the culture makes it. "He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again." (Isaiah 2:1-5) Advent is a time for thinking about the future... what are we working towards? Are we practicing spiritual procrastination? Not to say "remember how many minutes are left in your life" but "remember that at the end of your life, heaven wants you." Also "Throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day,not in orgies and drunkenness,not in promiscuity and lust,not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh." (Romans 13: 11-14). Our culture struggles with all of these "desires of the flesh." Lastly, I don't know how many Protestants would believe that Catholics accept this passage from the Bible: "Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left." This is pretty much the entire basis for the idea of "the rapture." For Catholics, having good Christians not go through hard times doesn't make much sense...Yes, Catholics believe that "one will be taken, and one will be left" but in a totally different context. At the end of time, all the dead will rise, and Jesus will judge, separating the sheep from the goats. And those that are "left behind" go to hell. Not really romantic enough to write a book series about, really.
4. Please, please pray with me. http://www.birthornot.com/ When I came across this website, the voting was still going on and even now the votes for this lady to have an abortion are more than double the votes for her to not. Abortion allowing (which is more accurate than "pro-choice" and I would guess is more accepting by them than the accurate "pro-abortion") groups and news media have insensitively called this website a hoax, but I think that claim is best responded to here. My one other comment is in response to the lady saying: "I’m the one that lost my job because of the media attention that this website has received and yet my opinions and statements seem to be discounted in favor of my husband’s. Since I’m the one carrying the baby it seems to me that this is a terrible oversight on the part of responsible media professionals... But when it comes to abortion I am the one that wears the pants in the decision because in the end it would be me going through the procedure. Even though my husband’s opinion and beliefs matter to me, I, as the one carrying the baby have the final say about my body and our unborn child." First, the "responsible media professionals" don't want anyone coming out in public and saying "I'm proud that I could've had an abortion, and didn't." Second, it splits marriage. If the child is born, he or she will be raised by two parents and decisions about school, food, and activities will be made by two parents. Why is the prevailing view that it is the "woman's choice?" Why does this lady feel she has the final say about their child? Her husband gave just as much DNA to the child as she did. It promotes a mentality of single-motherhood and pushes the decision on a woman when it is not hers alone to make. Whose child is it? The mother's, of course. But the father's and God's as well, and it does the father and God (and the child) a disservice to forget that.
5. Oh, it is a dangerous thing for two people I barely know and have to sit with for hours to start discussing politics. I don't know how my boyfriend can sit and just let people believe wrong things! And I wish I didn't have such a desire to correct people. Especially in person, when I can't think straight due to my heart running at 100 miles an hour. This is why I like facebook and blogs. I can somewhat control what I say. It doesn't help that my boyfriend's friend was talking a mile a minute bashing another friend's girlfriend about her republican/conservative beliefs. What first got on my nerves was his "What else do you believe so that I can explain to you that it is wrong." I got pulled into discussing abortion, which ended with him saying stuff like "I'm not pro-abortion, I'm pro-choice... Abortions only ever happen in cases of rape..." and going off into talking about societies in Africa where it's ethical to kill people "for the good of society" and how ethics and religion are unrelated (that got my boyfriend to speak up, interestingly) and that ethics can differ. Do you ever mentally continue conversations in your head? I've been continuing this conversation in my head ever since. That is why I started a blog.
6. Just what I didn't need to shake my world after the tragedy (reverse chronological order, so it will be #7). I have benefited from abortion. Chances are you have too, if you have been born since about the 70s... or earlier... and have had the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. Or the chicken pox vaccine. To have lived my life just accepting vaccines as useful, I am sickened of the process that "babies die so that other babies might live." It has got to be the second biggest human rights violation in America, after abortion itself. It is probably the most widespread violation, as it is a requirement for all children in order to be enrolled in school. I first heard about this on EWTN, but it was so outrageous I've been looking it up since. (I leave aside the issue of whether or not the vaccines are effective or harmful... I find it outrageous that we all hold in ourselves cells and DNA that rightfully belongs to and should be used by someone else, not me.)
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0044.html
This one is what convinced me:
http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/m/mmr_ii/mmr_ii_pi.pdf
Is it horrible that human tissue is under "animal tissue?"
http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html
This informed me of the ethical, "one baby dies for another" issue.
http://www.vaccineriskawareness.com/Vaccination-And-Abortion
And, from the source of all knowledge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vaccine_ingredients
7. This tragedy hit our school and it caused everyone, even me and my friends who didn't know who died, to stop and think and pray. I know for Catholics, we have some small hope, but for these students, we just don't know the state of their soul, and that is part of the pain. We had several memorial Masses for them. Wonderfully, our school's usual apathy was put aside and many people wore black and came to the candlelight vigil. Our hearts went out to the mother who lost two sons and a probable future daughter-in-law in the crash. And Thanksgiving and Christmas were coming, too. Our Catholic Campus minister and priest on campus said one of the most comforting things, which I haven't heard better expressed: "Many people say 'How could God allow such tragedy', but it was God's heart that was the first to break when the tragedy happened. God doesn't want our society to contain death." But my biggest struggle was with how to pray for people who you don't know the religion of. People I don't know whether to offer Masses for, or pray generally for them... or pray for people in Purgatory... I just don't know.
8. What I first wanted to post on here, a long, long time ago, but seems hardly worth the effort now, is my response to our school's production of "The Drowsy Chaperone." As always, I think our students perform very well. My complaints are against the material of the play itself which had a narrator who, to put it bluntly, was a very unloving (to the point of mocking love as 'resulting in divorce lawyers') human being.
As an end note (as I have to go to class now), go on http://minorcan.blogspot.com/ and tell HurricaneTeen to change name to HurricaneHam in honor of his Ham radio interests.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The more faith you have, the more you examine that faith for what it is and see that it is logical to believe. The less faith you have, the more you will try to find anything that could possibly refute your faith and so lose the ability to see your faith rationally and go further into thinking that you cannot reconcile faith and reason.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Why is Jesus the ONLY way?
Again, borrowing a friend's question. This was my response. I quite like it though my friend likes a noncommittal all-religions-are-the-same answer better. *shakes head in sadness at such illogicalness*
So here goes:
I will attempt the question... and most of my answer will be "stolen" from Frank Sheed's book "theology for beginners" because I like it a lot.
To understand why Jesus is the only way to heaven, we have to understand
0. What happens after we die
1. What Heaven is
2. How to get there
3. Why God didn't just make us able to go there in the first place.
4. How God fixed stuff.
5. Theology is fun, but what does this all mean for why Jesus is the O. N. L. Y way???
I'll add numbers as I think of things hence the odd numbering.
So, it would be a long explanation of what spirit is and is not, so I will suffice to say that Humans are unique creations of God. Humans are the only creatures made of both spirit and matter. When we die, our spirit is unable to control our body anymore and the common terminology is it "goes to Heaven (maybe by way of Purgatory) or Hell."
on to what heaven is: (quoting) "' Eye has not seen nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.' So St. Paul tells the Corinthians, quoting Isaiah. Until we reach heaven, we shall not know what heaven is. But, in the inspired word of God, we are given glimpses. In heaven, we shall know God in a new way, and love him according to the new knowledge... St John says (1 Jn 3:2) " We shall see him as he is" And we remember our Lord saying of the angels (Mt. 18:10) 'They see the face of my heavenly Father continually." Seeing is the key to life in heaven... The Church has worked out for us a first beginning of the meaning of this. Here below we know God by the idea we have formed of Him. But in heaven, our seeing will be direct. The nearest we can think of this is to think of the idea we now have of God; then try to conceive of God himself taking the place of the idea."
(still quoting, on question 3... no, 2) "But observe that all this is based on doing something which by nature we cannot do. The natural powers of man's intellect fall short of seeing God direct by a double limitation: our natural way of knowing things is by ideas, and God, being infinite, can never be within the hold of our natural strength to love. Life in heaven requires powers which by nature we do not possess. We need supernatural life. This is sanctifying grace, which we can only get by God's gift to us, which we accept into our hearts. If we do not have it, then to heaven we cannot go because simply our spirit lacks the powers that living in heaven calls for."
(3 ish) The beginning of what is called Salvation History (or the answer to "why did Jesus have to come to save us?") is the fall of Adam. What's most important in Genesis is the metaphor of Everyman, Everywoman, Everysin. God created us originally with sanctifying grace, but man sinned disobeying a command of God. There is something in the solidarity of the whole human race clear to God but not to us, that he could so treat the race as one thing. Some involvement in the fate of others we take for granted, like a father making decisions for his family. We do not see a solidarity for all men whatsoever-- foreigners, the dead, the unborn. But no one of them is remote to the eye of God. God sees the whole race, every member of which he created, as one thing-- somewhat as we see a family as one thing. The number and variety of people of all time does not impede the vision of the eternal and omniscient God. We all have sinned individually, but we are involved as a race too. Because Adam broke the unity, his children were born members of a fallen race. A given man might be virtuous and gain sanctifying grace, but he was a virtuous member of a fallen race: a race to which heaven was closed. Only if the breach between his race and God could be healed could he attain his own destiny. "
I'll put this sentence in because i find it funny: "The race had been at one with God; the central problem was at-one-ment, a word whose meaning we disguise by pronouncing it atonement." :)
Why did God do what he did to save us, instead of something else? I don't know... long discussion. not really a good answer. it's easier to focus on what God did than what God might have done.
(4) If this were a history book, chronologically time where the human race lived without much knowledge of God would come. Satan was the prince the world obeyed. The next chapter, the beginning of redemption, came when God revealed himself to Abraham, and created the Chosen People who were told that the Messiah would come to them. With mixed success: by the time the Messiah was due to come, the Jews were unshakably monotheistic, but only rare ones grasped the essential nature of the kingdom the Savior was to found. The supreme truth about the Savior, for which the chosen people were wholly unprepared, was that he was God. God chose that the sin committed in human nature should be expiated in human nature. In Jesus, humanity gave its all: a total obedience as against the total disobedience of man's sin. But he who performed the act was God. Because he was truly man, his sacrifice was truly human, so that it could be set against the sin of the race. But because he was God, his act had an infinite value, by which it compensated, outweighed, not only all the sin men had ever committed, but all they ever could. That is why it is redemptive. Also, the resurrection and ascension have there place in redemption. Unless God approves and accepts the offering, all is in vain. In restoring Jesus to life, God gives the visible sign that the priest who offered his own body and blood in sacrifice was wholly pleasing to him. In the ascension, God shows visibly that he is taking to himself that which has been offered to him."
"The bible says its true" is vague. Here's a concrete answer:
(oh dear, quoting again... but I do love this book) "At the Last Supper Our Lord uttered the words which are at once the formula of our redemption, and the charter of his Church. 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me'.
By asking if Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven, we wonder about other possibilities. Is it possible to gain sanctifying grace and go to heaven without ever hearing the name Jesus? Theoretically, yes. Is it very likely? hm... don't really think so. Has it happened? I don't know. The only way we are given to determine whether someone is in heaven or not is through the process of canonization. So its theoretically possible that some people in heaven aren't Catholic/Christian. We have no way to tell. They didn't get there from the original channels set up by Jesus and we have no way to tell from normal channels.
But even if they do get to heaven, never knowing the name of Jesus, it is still the same true God who gives sanctifying grace and it was still Jesus who redeemed the race to open heaven for them to get in. "It is in union with [Jesus], and only so, that men come to the everlasting union with God which is their destiny"
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. It is possible to follow a path that you don't know, but the way is still the way whether you know it or not.
However, the question of whether Jesus is the way is rather shallow. To steal from what i'm about to quote "The way is not the goal."
"Salvation is not handed to us on a dish; in no sense is it a laborsaving device. What Christ does for men is what men cannot do for themselves, not what they can; what they can, they should. To have found the way is not the end; it is the beginning. They way is not the goal. Only the goal is, for us, permanence; the way may be lost.
We might lose the way as we might lose any way, either by wandering from it through error, or by lacking the strength for the effort. Against the danger of losing the way we need truth. Against the danger of falling by the wayside we need life--the life of sanctifying grace.
Salvation then involves truth, life, and union with Jesus. Jesus says to the Apostles "Go and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever that I have commanded. And behold I am with you all days even to the end of the world." (Mt 28:19-20). Observe how closely this follows the great formula of the Last Supper- truth , life, union.
Truth: The Apostles are to teach. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth by bringing to their minds all that Our Lord had told them. And they were to teach the great mass of truth to all nations.
Life: They were to baptize. To be born means being born into the life of this world. To be born again means to be born into a higher life. And these were the men to whom he had given other powers for the dispensing of life. They were to forgive sins (Jn 20:23); that is, to give back the life of grace to those who had lost it by sin. And they were to change bread and wine into his body and blood--the very food of our life (Jn 6:54).
Union: Jesus says it! "Behold I am with you all days even to the end of the world" Through the Apostles--and since it was to be until the world should end, through their successors--we were to find the truth, the life, the union by which we shall be saved. "
It is logical that Jesus is the way to Heaven
1: God Exists (which I hope you believe)
2: God is Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
3: In some way, humanity broke from God
4: God wants us to be with him
therefore
5: the Son, Jesus, came to reunite humanity with God.
therefore
6: Jesus is the way to unity with God (heaven).
From a non-Christian standpoint, if you do not want to believe that Jesus is God or want to believe different things about the fundamental nature of God (solitary God, seeing yourself as God, or pantheistic). Go for it... but there can only be one truth. There is some pretty good evidence for Christianity. But if you search for the truth, you cannot blind yourself to thinking "oh, i already understand christianity." you could blind yourself to other religions i guess. but i think that most people blind themselves to christianity.
What's wrong with Jesus being the way to heaven? Do you personally want to turn from Jesus to something else and still want to be saved? Or do you have other people that you want in heaven with you who are not Christian? What harm is there in accepting Jesus? (other than the G. K. Chesterton quote: "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult, and not tried"
There is a truth. There is a moral law, just like there is a physical law. If you jump off a cliff because you are trying to show you don't believe in gravity, people will laugh. A certain amount of religion must be applied to science: it certainly is so for scientific atheists and atheist evolutionists. Also, a certain amount of rational, scientific rigour must be applied to your religion. Just because a religion says "All humans should be one and should love each other" is nice... but is not religion, it's philosophy. Religion is our relationship with God. If it is not rooted in truth, it is in vain and will begin to hurt our ability to be one with each other and will begin to hurt each other.
So here goes:
I will attempt the question... and most of my answer will be "stolen" from Frank Sheed's book "theology for beginners" because I like it a lot.
To understand why Jesus is the only way to heaven, we have to understand
0. What happens after we die
1. What Heaven is
2. How to get there
3. Why God didn't just make us able to go there in the first place.
4. How God fixed stuff.
5. Theology is fun, but what does this all mean for why Jesus is the O. N. L. Y way???
I'll add numbers as I think of things hence the odd numbering.
So, it would be a long explanation of what spirit is and is not, so I will suffice to say that Humans are unique creations of God. Humans are the only creatures made of both spirit and matter. When we die, our spirit is unable to control our body anymore and the common terminology is it "goes to Heaven (maybe by way of Purgatory) or Hell."
on to what heaven is: (quoting) "' Eye has not seen nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.' So St. Paul tells the Corinthians, quoting Isaiah. Until we reach heaven, we shall not know what heaven is. But, in the inspired word of God, we are given glimpses. In heaven, we shall know God in a new way, and love him according to the new knowledge... St John says (1 Jn 3:2) " We shall see him as he is" And we remember our Lord saying of the angels (Mt. 18:10) 'They see the face of my heavenly Father continually." Seeing is the key to life in heaven... The Church has worked out for us a first beginning of the meaning of this. Here below we know God by the idea we have formed of Him. But in heaven, our seeing will be direct. The nearest we can think of this is to think of the idea we now have of God; then try to conceive of God himself taking the place of the idea."
(still quoting, on question 3... no, 2) "But observe that all this is based on doing something which by nature we cannot do. The natural powers of man's intellect fall short of seeing God direct by a double limitation: our natural way of knowing things is by ideas, and God, being infinite, can never be within the hold of our natural strength to love. Life in heaven requires powers which by nature we do not possess. We need supernatural life. This is sanctifying grace, which we can only get by God's gift to us, which we accept into our hearts. If we do not have it, then to heaven we cannot go because simply our spirit lacks the powers that living in heaven calls for."
(3 ish) The beginning of what is called Salvation History (or the answer to "why did Jesus have to come to save us?") is the fall of Adam. What's most important in Genesis is the metaphor of Everyman, Everywoman, Everysin. God created us originally with sanctifying grace, but man sinned disobeying a command of God. There is something in the solidarity of the whole human race clear to God but not to us, that he could so treat the race as one thing. Some involvement in the fate of others we take for granted, like a father making decisions for his family. We do not see a solidarity for all men whatsoever-- foreigners, the dead, the unborn. But no one of them is remote to the eye of God. God sees the whole race, every member of which he created, as one thing-- somewhat as we see a family as one thing. The number and variety of people of all time does not impede the vision of the eternal and omniscient God. We all have sinned individually, but we are involved as a race too. Because Adam broke the unity, his children were born members of a fallen race. A given man might be virtuous and gain sanctifying grace, but he was a virtuous member of a fallen race: a race to which heaven was closed. Only if the breach between his race and God could be healed could he attain his own destiny. "
I'll put this sentence in because i find it funny: "The race had been at one with God; the central problem was at-one-ment, a word whose meaning we disguise by pronouncing it atonement." :)
Why did God do what he did to save us, instead of something else? I don't know... long discussion. not really a good answer. it's easier to focus on what God did than what God might have done.
(4) If this were a history book, chronologically time where the human race lived without much knowledge of God would come. Satan was the prince the world obeyed. The next chapter, the beginning of redemption, came when God revealed himself to Abraham, and created the Chosen People who were told that the Messiah would come to them. With mixed success: by the time the Messiah was due to come, the Jews were unshakably monotheistic, but only rare ones grasped the essential nature of the kingdom the Savior was to found. The supreme truth about the Savior, for which the chosen people were wholly unprepared, was that he was God. God chose that the sin committed in human nature should be expiated in human nature. In Jesus, humanity gave its all: a total obedience as against the total disobedience of man's sin. But he who performed the act was God. Because he was truly man, his sacrifice was truly human, so that it could be set against the sin of the race. But because he was God, his act had an infinite value, by which it compensated, outweighed, not only all the sin men had ever committed, but all they ever could. That is why it is redemptive. Also, the resurrection and ascension have there place in redemption. Unless God approves and accepts the offering, all is in vain. In restoring Jesus to life, God gives the visible sign that the priest who offered his own body and blood in sacrifice was wholly pleasing to him. In the ascension, God shows visibly that he is taking to himself that which has been offered to him."
"The bible says its true" is vague. Here's a concrete answer:
(oh dear, quoting again... but I do love this book) "At the Last Supper Our Lord uttered the words which are at once the formula of our redemption, and the charter of his Church. 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me'.
By asking if Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven, we wonder about other possibilities. Is it possible to gain sanctifying grace and go to heaven without ever hearing the name Jesus? Theoretically, yes. Is it very likely? hm... don't really think so. Has it happened? I don't know. The only way we are given to determine whether someone is in heaven or not is through the process of canonization. So its theoretically possible that some people in heaven aren't Catholic/Christian. We have no way to tell. They didn't get there from the original channels set up by Jesus and we have no way to tell from normal channels.
But even if they do get to heaven, never knowing the name of Jesus, it is still the same true God who gives sanctifying grace and it was still Jesus who redeemed the race to open heaven for them to get in. "It is in union with [Jesus], and only so, that men come to the everlasting union with God which is their destiny"
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. It is possible to follow a path that you don't know, but the way is still the way whether you know it or not.
However, the question of whether Jesus is the way is rather shallow. To steal from what i'm about to quote "The way is not the goal."
"Salvation is not handed to us on a dish; in no sense is it a laborsaving device. What Christ does for men is what men cannot do for themselves, not what they can; what they can, they should. To have found the way is not the end; it is the beginning. They way is not the goal. Only the goal is, for us, permanence; the way may be lost.
We might lose the way as we might lose any way, either by wandering from it through error, or by lacking the strength for the effort. Against the danger of losing the way we need truth. Against the danger of falling by the wayside we need life--the life of sanctifying grace.
Salvation then involves truth, life, and union with Jesus. Jesus says to the Apostles "Go and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever that I have commanded. And behold I am with you all days even to the end of the world." (Mt 28:19-20). Observe how closely this follows the great formula of the Last Supper- truth , life, union.
Truth: The Apostles are to teach. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth by bringing to their minds all that Our Lord had told them. And they were to teach the great mass of truth to all nations.
Life: They were to baptize. To be born means being born into the life of this world. To be born again means to be born into a higher life. And these were the men to whom he had given other powers for the dispensing of life. They were to forgive sins (Jn 20:23); that is, to give back the life of grace to those who had lost it by sin. And they were to change bread and wine into his body and blood--the very food of our life (Jn 6:54).
Union: Jesus says it! "Behold I am with you all days even to the end of the world" Through the Apostles--and since it was to be until the world should end, through their successors--we were to find the truth, the life, the union by which we shall be saved. "
It is logical that Jesus is the way to Heaven
1: God Exists (which I hope you believe)
2: God is Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
3: In some way, humanity broke from God
4: God wants us to be with him
therefore
5: the Son, Jesus, came to reunite humanity with God.
therefore
6: Jesus is the way to unity with God (heaven).
From a non-Christian standpoint, if you do not want to believe that Jesus is God or want to believe different things about the fundamental nature of God (solitary God, seeing yourself as God, or pantheistic). Go for it... but there can only be one truth. There is some pretty good evidence for Christianity. But if you search for the truth, you cannot blind yourself to thinking "oh, i already understand christianity." you could blind yourself to other religions i guess. but i think that most people blind themselves to christianity.
What's wrong with Jesus being the way to heaven? Do you personally want to turn from Jesus to something else and still want to be saved? Or do you have other people that you want in heaven with you who are not Christian? What harm is there in accepting Jesus? (other than the G. K. Chesterton quote: "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult, and not tried"
There is a truth. There is a moral law, just like there is a physical law. If you jump off a cliff because you are trying to show you don't believe in gravity, people will laugh. A certain amount of religion must be applied to science: it certainly is so for scientific atheists and atheist evolutionists. Also, a certain amount of rational, scientific rigour must be applied to your religion. Just because a religion says "All humans should be one and should love each other" is nice... but is not religion, it's philosophy. Religion is our relationship with God. If it is not rooted in truth, it is in vain and will begin to hurt our ability to be one with each other and will begin to hurt each other.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
Responding to a friend's question:
I also have a question about the fact that people can be saved without being catholic as long as they don't know of the Church's Truth. What exactly does this mean? Is it simply people who have never heard of the church or is it people who are uncertain?
I also have a question about the fact that people can be saved without being catholic as long as they don't know of the Church's Truth. What exactly does this mean? Is it simply people who have never heard of the church or is it people who are uncertain?
For the "no salvation outside the Church" thing, there's a lot of leeway in the phrase "not knowing." In general, its easiest to say, yeah, if a person's in the depths of a rainforest their whole lives & they've never heard of the Christianity, let alone the Catholic Church, then yeah, the Church accepts its not fair to say they can't be saved. For people who have heard about the Catholic Church, but don't know anything about it is another situation where they "don't know", in my opinion. But for a person who has grown up in Sunday school or in a Catholic school, or has researched the Church themselves & understands the Church's teachings correctly and rejects them, then they're "outside the church" but they can't be under the category of "not knowing".
It really gets summed up well by Clement of Alexandria: "From whathas been said, I think it is clear that there is one true Church, which is really ancient, into which those who are just according to design are enrolled." From this quote, the definition of what "the Church" is changes a little, for how can there be a "Church" before Jesus came and before the first Christians formed the Catholic Church.
"Those who follow the Spirit of Christ, who writes the law on their hearts, are Christians, are members of Christ, are members of His Church. They may lack indeed external adherence; they may never have heard of the Church. But yet, in the substantial sense, without formal adherence, they do belong to Christ, to His Church...we insist that even these people who belong without formal adherence have the objective obligation to formally enter the Church. It is only their ignorance that excuses them. Vatican II similarly: "They who without their own fault . . . can attain eternal salvation."
Really, I can't even go into what this means for dissenting Catholics, Christians that came out of the Protestant Rebellion, or people who know that Christianity exists. 1 Samuel 16:7 "Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart." If you follow the Catholic faith in your heart while being ignorant of the Catholic Church, you are de facto (if not de jour) a member of the Church.
So... what if you've been living the Catholic Faith in your heart all your life, but never heard about the Catholic Church. If you are "without fault and can attain eternal salvation" then should a missionary come to you and tell you about the Catholic Church? The answer is, if you are really that good, then you will gladly join the Catholic Church, because it's what you believe and have followed all your life already.
If the missionary does a good job. It doesn't make sense to follow the Catholic Church if it doesn't make sense to you because it has been poorly (or even wrongly in some cases) explained. This is the reason why Pope (Venerable) John Paul II called for a new evangelization, to re-teach areas that were historically Catholic Christian, but had lost the faith through misunderstanding. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen captured this need in his quote "Not 100 in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is."
Why through the Church? Because it is Christ's Church. If you belong to Christ, you are in His Church. If you do not belong to Christ, you reject eternal salvation and so you are not saved.
Other than an "everyone goes to heaven" mentality, I don't know if any other religion tries to be fair to people who have never heard of their religion.
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