Called To Give A Common Witness

I was prompted to write this post after receiving a video via my Facebook Inbox from a Christian woman, not of the Catholic Faith, whom, after finding me on the world wide web, decided that I needed to be rescued from the evil clutches of Rome. The video follows this post, and is actually quite good!

She sent me the usual anti-Catholic rhetoric and suggested several links that would help to set me straight. I lovingly and gently responded by suggesting that she spend some time learning what the Catholic Faith truly teaches and directed her to the website Catholics Come Home.

The fact that this woman sent me this video served as a warm reminder that our call as Christians is a common call, in fact we are all commissioned by our Lord to proclaim the same Good News to the world! The point is that Christian unity is incredibly beautiful because it demonstrates the very love of God which is manifested by a common concern for the eternal salvation of every soul!

In this Year of Evangelization, our Holy Father shared the following reflection concerning Christian unity. On January 25, 2010, the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, Pope Benedict XVI in a homily he gave at vespers in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, appealed to all Christians to give a common witness starting immediately . . .Pope Says Now Is Time For United Testimony.

In a world in which the enemy has craftily led so many away from God by deception, distraction and false hopes of happiness, Christians need more than ever to unite to share the love of Christ with the world!

Pope Benedict reflected on the "fundamental intuition" of the preliminary ecumenical gathering held in Edinburgh, Scotland one hundred years ago: that Christians cannot proclaim the Gospel credibly if they are divided. Within Christianity there are about 34,000 separate groups of which over half of them are independent churches that have no interest in linking with a large denomination. There are over 4,684 Christian groups in the United States teaching their own brand of 'truth'.

Satan and his minions seem to have gained much ground in two major areas, both of which we must immediately begin work to reverse. We must abandon the culture of death in which we now live and acknowledge the sanctity of life! We must also begin to restore Christian unity into the one Body of Christ which God intended us to be!

Battle Over the Doctrine of Salvation

The Battle continues to wage over doctrine concerning salvation. Well meaning non-Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ vehemently argue that we Catholics are wrong to believe that works are an important aspect of salvation. In doing so they usually site a passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus in which he says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NAB).

These admonishments seem to imply that we Catholics believe that our salvation is determined solely by our works, and are therefore ignorant concerning the true Source of our salvation, and thus are not truly saved. Nothing could be further from the truth. If our brothers and sisters in Christ would just take the time to study carefully and prayerfully the teachings of the Catholic Church, they would soon learn of their gross misunderstanding, and perhaps even consider entering into the fullness of the Church! For it is there that Christ, the God of the universe and all its splendor and awesome wonder, humbles Himself out of love for each one of us, and makes Himself present in the sacrament of the Eucharist, giving Himself to us in a form we can understand and experience with all of our senses. What an awesome God to offer nourishment for our bodies and souls daily as we make our journey back to Him! Thank You Lord!!!

I can assure you that nowhere in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or in any other Magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church will one find anything that remotely implies that we Catholics are to believe that we are saved solely by our works, or that our salvation is contingent solely upon how good we tried to be in this lifetime! Catholics believe that we are saved by the grace which God makes available to us through our Lord Jesus Christ, which was gained for us through His passion, death and resurrection. It is a free gift to those who will accept it by faith!

We are free to accept or reject this gift, but if we make the freewill choice to accept it, we must continuously ask for God’s grace in order to meet the demands of daily Christian existence! As fallen creatures, this takes WORK! Jesus tells us in Luke 9:23-24, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily 11 and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” This means we must begin to deny ourselves in order to love and serve others, and we must live our lives in a manner that is indicative of our gratitude for God’s saving grace!

The words, ‘I am saved by grace alone’ seem to imply that once the free gift of salvation is accepted we need do nothing more then wait for God to carry us off to Heaven! Consider the following. The words, ‘I love you’ are meaningless without action, or, if you will, WORKS! Can we tell our wives, husbands, children, or anyone else for that matter that we love them and never give of ourselves to show it! Can one truly and sincerely accept God’s saving grace by merely speaking the words? I think we can all agree that the answer is no!

St. James talks about the necessity of both faith and works when he says the following, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, "You have faith and I have works." Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble. Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called "the friend of God." See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route? For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (James 2:14-26 NAB)

PLEASE, I appreciate the zeal expressed by my non-Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ, and the concern that they should have for my salvation, but I ask humbly and charitably to PLEASE look up and prayerfully read for yourself all that the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about SALVATION. Remember also that there is ONE TEACHING AUTHORITY for the Catholic Church, the Magisterium, which has been around for 2000 years, and will continue to exist until Christ returns.

Jesus Himself said, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, 13 and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” (Matt 16:18 NAB) THE Church will remain despite the attacks of Satan, all human frailty and weakness, and all persecution, until Jesus returns! Jesus said it, so you can BELIEVE it!

It is with charity and not pride that I ask that you to accept the Magisterial teachings of the Catholic Church as truth, for the sin of pride leads to death rather than life, and our Lord Jesus Christ is the Way, Truth, and the Life. There is no better way to intimately know and receive Jesus than in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which He, Himself instituted at the Last Supper as a way to remain with us until His return!

Approximately 1500 years after Christ founded His Church, a Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther, publicly protested (the word from which the word Protestant is derived) against several practices of the Catholic Church. Satan saw this as a golden opportunity and an open door to conduct a clever attack, which for a relatively short period of time (500 years) has resulted in an extremely rapid increase in dissension and division among Christians, to the extent that there are now literally tens of thousands of Christian churches and denominations that continue to divide over doctrinal issues.

Contained in the Liturgy of the Catholic Mass, as part of the Eucharistic Prayer II are the very beautiful words, “Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love, together with Benedict XVI, our Pope . . .” Let us all ask the Holy Spirit for the wisdom to recognize the truth, and to protect us from all deception that hinders us from experiencing the closest relationship we can possibly have with our Savior, which is in the Eucharist!

Look, Here is the Messiah! No, There He Is!

Whenever I think of how much Christianity has divided since the time of the Great Schism in the year 1054 to the present time, in which there are now literally thousands of Christian denominations and movements throughout the world, I think of the following words Jesus spoke to the apostles in the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24:23-28 NAB)

23 If anyone says to you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it.
24 False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect.
25 Behold, I have told it to you beforehand.
26 So if they say to you, 'He is in the desert,' do not go out there; if they say, 'He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it.
27 For just as lightning comes from the east and is seen as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

I think of these words also whenever well-meaning Christians, who I'm sure were genuinely concerned about my salvation, have said things to me like, 'why are you still remaining in the Catholic Church, it's a cult based on pagan practices,' or there is no biblical basis concerning the practices and doctrine of the Catholic Church, I immediately focus on the Jesus' words, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is! do not believe it.'

Christ warned in verse 24 of this passage, that false prophets and false messiahs would be able to deceive even the elect. You have to ask yourself the question, how is one so easily deceived? The answer is a lack of genuine knowledge about our faith!

I am not being judgmental here because I have certainly been guilty for many years of not taking the time and putting the effort into learning about my Catholic faith, but how many of us spend tremendous amounts of time to engage in meaningless activities, yet can never find the time or the energy to learn about our faith.

Please! Take the time to learn about your faith and put it into practice. It's been Christ's gift to us for the past 2000 years! When you sincerely seek the truth about it, you'll find it to be a beautiful source of spiritual strength and nourishment that is intended to sustain us until our Savior's return!

Peace!

Christians Unite In Prayer and Fasting!

A co-worker and I were talking about the state of the world the today. We spoke of the many concerns over the world economy, genocide, hunger, homelessness, and the ever growing lack of respect for human life, which has dramatically increased ever since we legalized the torturing and murdering of babies while they are in what should be the safest place in the world, their mother’s wombs.

While we standby and watch all that is happening, the enemy sits back and laughs over the lack of Christian unity. He gloats over this sin and its devastating effects!

With God’s grace let’s mount up a defense and defeat this attack!

Now is the time for Christians to unite and become the one body in Christ that we were meant to be, to pray for the renewal of faith, and to ask God to use us as instruments through which others will come to know of the salvation Christ obtained for us through his passion, death, and resurrection!

During this Lenten season, let us become united in prayer and fasting for the many who need to hear God’s call to come home with repentant hearts, seeking to restore their relationship with Him!

We ask this through Christ our Lord! Amen!

Christian Division: Satan’s Joy!

Upon performing a Google search on the words CHRISTIAN DIVISION, the 2nd website on the list of the results of the search was entitled, Biblical Evidence for Catholicism. I immediately clicked on the website, which brought me to an excellent article addressing the evils surrounding the division and bickering among Christians.

It is a must read for all of us who profess to follow Christ. The author effectively brings to light many of the victories Satan enjoys as a result of Christians battling over their differences.

Read the full article (The Wickedness of Christian Division, Anti-Catholicism, and Anti-Protestantism) by following the link below – a truly impressive site. May God’s blessings remain always upon the labor of this author!

http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2004/05/wickedness-of-christian-division-anti.html