Posted on 10/27/2004 1:25:44 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
All Souls Day and final destinations
What really hangs in the balance
Next Tuesday, Nov. 2, is more than Election Day. It’s also All Souls Day, a day of prayer for all those faithful who have died in God’s friendship but still face the purification of Purgatory.
The Church sets aside November so we can reflect on the Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. We can predict very little in our daily lives. But we do know that we’ll die. We’ll face God in judgment. And at the end of time we’ll find ourselves in one of two states: eternal joy with our Creator, or eternal bitterness in the prison of our own sins.
Every year at this time I reread the Prophet Amos. The word “Amos” in Hebrew literally means “one who bears the burden.” That’s what the prophets did. They were men who bore the burden of speaking God’s truth to people who didn’t want to hear it. And even today, when we read Scripture, the prophets continue to speak to us. They always give us a new burden — a new awareness that affects our lives. We find that burden summarized in a great warning the Prophet Amos gave the Jewish people: Thus says the Lord, God of hosts, “Woe to the complacent in Zion” (Am 6:1).
Our English word “complacent” comes from two Latin words; cum which means “with” and placere, which means “to please.” To be complacent means to be “pleased with,” and that usually means pleased with ourselves. Complacency has nothing to do with being lazy. It’s not about sloth. It’s about being self-satisfied. Being pleased with oneself, for a Christian, is a form of idolatry. We should only be satisfied with God.
Being pleased with themselves was the sin of the Jewish people that Amos attacked. According to Scripture, they were lying on beds of ivory, stretched out comfortably on their couches. They ate lambs taken from the flock and calves from the stall. They had more food than other people while the poor starved.
“Zion” is a word that the Old Testament sometimes uses to describe Jerusalem. Not the earthly city of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem perfected at the end of time. America today probably comes closer to that understanding of Zion than any nation in human history. We are a rich country. Our people are wealthy; even our poor are well off compared to the poor in other countries. We’re powerful in ways that no other nation has ever achieved, and compared to most places we enjoy peace. That’s why Sept. 11 was such a shock. We thought we were invincible and that we’d be at peace indefinitely. Thus, we’re a privileged nation, and so in a special way Amos’ warning is directed to us.
“Woe to the complacent in Zion.” The Jews of Amos’ time were not made ill by the collapse of Joseph. Joseph was the father of the northern tribes of Israel. Amos issued his warning because they were not made sick by the misfortune of their brothers and sisters. Likewise, if we are not made sick by the suffering of the poor, the crucifixion of other countries like Sudan and the persecution of fellow Christians around the world; if we are not somehow moved profoundly by those terrible things happening around the globe, then we deserve the same bitter judgment about which the Prophet Amos warned.
On Nov. 2 and throughout the coming month of prayer for the Poor Souls, we need to remember that we are citizens of God’s kingdom first, America second. God won’t ask about our political party when we stand before Him in judgment. He’ll ask what we did to protect the unborn child; to feed the hungry; to help the poor. And much more than a national election hangs on our answer.
Archbishop Chaput adapted his column this week from his homily at the Sept. 25 Sunset Mass at Red Rocks.
Okay -- I don't remember if Thomas A Kempis was a Catholic or Protestant and don't really care. But if we are to "imitate Christ" in all we do -- then how come Jesus didn't pray to the dead or to Moses or anyone like that?
Because it is forbidden by scripture to worship anything before God.
This is the First Commandment.
Nice exposition of Lutheran theology; too bad it's not Biblical. Why did John the Baptist say, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world", not "Behold the Lamb of God, who covers up the sin of the world."?
If your sins are merely covered, not wiped away, you're still going to hell. Luther said that the justified man was a snow-covered dungheap. The Bible says that God is a consuming fire. What happens when a snow-covered dungheap contacts a consuming fire?
Nobody is disputing that.
Now, one more time, believers who leave this life in the state of grace but with an attachment to sin must be purified before they enter the presence of God. Do you agree or disagree?
If you agree, then how, when or where does this purification take place in the life of the individual believer?
Nobody is disputing that.
Now, one more time, believers who leave this life in the state of grace but with an attachment to sin must be purified before they enter the presence of God. Do you agree or disagree?
If you agree, then how, when or where does this purification take place in the life of the individual believer?
Thomas a Kempis and Thomas Aquinas are two totally different men. Both were Catholic; Aquinas lived a good 200 years before the other fellow.
Because it is forbidden by scripture to worship anything before God.
I agree, but asking someone for their prayers isn't worshipping them. Whether the person you're asking is in heaven or on earth makes no difference. If saying "Mary, pray for us" is idolatry, then Paul was an idolater when he asked his readers to pray for him.
Hint: the problem is not that I worship Mary. The problem is that you do not really worship God. Biblical worship implies sacrifice; Protestant church services are not, and do not claim to be, a sacrifice. Asking someone for a favor, singing songs to them, or hearing a talk about them isn't real worship.
Then why are you hassling fellow Christian believers? Maybe you should be more concerned about being distracted yourself, and less concerned about what you think distracts other people.
Either one believes that Christ died as payment for their sins, and accepts this gift -- OR they don't.
THAT suffices as "purification."
As to the degree of that faith, and rejection OR heavenly reward, only God judges.
If you ask if I believe if the destination of the already-departed soul is affected by the living, my answer is NO.
THAT suffices as "purification."
That doesn't answer my question. You know as well as I do that (some, not all) believers die with an attachment to sins. Maybe they're little sins, but they're still sins in God's eyes. If you are trying to tell me that they can waltz right into God's presence that way, you're contradicting Scripture which says that nothing unclean can enter heaven. Attachment to sin ... any sin ... is uncleaness. It must be removed before you enter the presence of a perfectly righteous God.
Christ earned your right to have it removed, but that's not the same thing as actually removing it, just like having the money to pay the doctor for removing your cancer isn't the same thing has having the operation done.
The moment we are born again we leave the "old man" behind.
As for dung heaps and consuming fire -- you are parsing words instead of recognizing, with a childlike faith that God is a good God who loves you and sent His only begotten Son to take OUR place on the cross. Why are you mixing up the words of Luther with the Word of God? Who cares? Will you, or have you, accepted the FREE GIFT of salvation from Jesus in His finished work on the Cross?
If so, look around you at the real warfare going on for our country and sign up as an intercessor to pray that the very REAL forces of evil will not succeed in destoying us. If you say that you are on the side of Christ, then put on the whole armor of God and take your stand.
This passage in Matthew 12 always said to me that Jesus' disciples were doing the will of God while his mom and bros were head scratching outside as to what Jesus was doing. In other words, they did not get it about Jesus.
Failing to understand something perfectly is a sin?
it seems strange and unlikely that God would perform some extra biblical miracle of giving Mary divine, sinlessness after Jesus ascended.
This is a further error that Protestants make, that of equating "sinless" with "divine". Adam and Eve were sinless humans, until they sinned. They weren't divine. Nor was it inevitable that they sinned; not even Calvinists think so AFAIK. Asserting that Mary was created with the same original innocence as Eve no more makes her divine than it made Eve divine. Being sinless does not make a human being divine. It makes them fully human. Sin always makes us less than human, closer to the animals.
It breaks the First commandment.
The First Commandment says "have no strange gods before me," not "don't ask souls I've redeemed and glorified for their prayers".
You are like the mother of the soldier marcing by where she and a neighbor stood watching the 1000 of them march by. Mom exclaimes to her friend, that's my john! Did you see him go by? Her friend exclaimes...no! How can you tell it's your John? See, See...He is the only one in step.
Must be kind of cool that you are the only one with the truth!
I was referring to MY IMITATION OF CHRIST by THOMAS A KEMPIS. Not Thomas Aquinas. All these old dudes who did NOT have the gifts of the Spirit as did the early Church may have been smart but they did not have the gifts of Pentecost as promised -- that's why I could care less as to their denominational distinctions.
In other words, Mary wasn't sinless but you are? Come on, you can't have it both ways! You and I both know that most Christians still commit sins and still have some attachment to them.
Why are you mixing up the words of Luther with the Word of God?
Ask Luther; he started it.
If so, look around you at the real warfare going on for our country and sign up as an intercessor to pray that the very REAL forces of evil will not succeed in destoying us.
I do that every single night with my family, friend. So why are you sowing dissension between Christians when you correctly recognize that we face a much greater mutual enemy?
"Must be kind of cool that you are the only one with the truth!"
Nah. Just Jesus. But my hand is to the plow -- I'm not lookin' back.
Jesus isn't just my defense attorney. Scripture calls him my elder brother and kinsman redeemer. Justification is family, not just legal acquittal.
I need to go now. Picking fights doesn't build up the body of Christ. Think about it.
I understand...
Of course "nothing clean" can enter heaven. ALL of us are sinners. The sin is "removed" through the sacrifice of a sinless Christ and it is in that belief and testimony to HIM that he is your Lord, and you are promised "everlasting life."
Remember the criminal of the cross with Jesus? He story is a great metaphor for God's mercy.
He was a thief, unbeliever, and of course, a "sinner." Up until that last few seconds of his life. Christ Himself told the thief he would be with him in his "Kingdom" -- No "purification" required...
In fact should he mean it, if Saddam Hussein called Jesus Christ his "Lord and Savior" Lord one second before the hangman, even HE is promised "everlasting life."
Let me ask you a question: Isn't one itty bitty sin, the same as the most heinous sin is heaven?
God's grace is that great.
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