The Corporal Works of Mercy

DailyCatholic.org ^ | February 22, 2006 | Gabriel Garnica

[Salvation]

The Corporal Works of Mercy

Part Two of Virtue & Vice:
A New Angle on Social Justice

The Corporal Works of Mercy are intended for helping man get through this vale of tears within the structure of Social Justice as upheld and taught by the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church from Peter through Pius XII. To extend humanistic help means nothing if God is not front and center the reason for our extending help to others out of love for Him. All else is in vain and often performed out of vanity rather than sincerity. Those extending works of mercy with the intent of receiving recognition or a reward here on earth will have spent up their reward and have little, if anything, left in their spiritual bank.

"We are all sick whenever we sin, and this sickness is far more dangerous than any physical ailment could ever be. Visiting the sick is not merely about going to hospitals or visiting people on their sick bed. It is about being there for anyone tempted to sin or vulnerable to the lies of this society. The devil's virus of perdition is strong and we all need help to fight it, first through prayer and faith but also through supporting and guiding each other. Those who visit hospitals while ignoring spiritual illness in themselves or others are making a mockery of what truly makes us healthy. Likewise, any hospital or clinic that pretends to cure physical ills while inflicting spiritual ones is nothing but a vehicle of the devil!"

    Having established that Divine Justice trumps Social Justice in Part One of this series, we now turn our attention to seeing the content of that Social Justice from a different angle. This new perspective allows us to maintain the respect that such Justice merits while continuing to define Social Justice as necessarily subordinate to Divine Justice as defined by The Ten Commandments. We begin with the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy.

1. To Feed the Hungry

    Traditionally this work is seen as merely providing food for the poor, but in our new perspective we see that Christ reminded us that the most important food, the Bread of Life, is The Word of God with Christ as Its Teacher and Example. What good is giving mere physical nourishment to those poor in money if one ignores providing the nourishment of God's Word and Christ's example to those poor in the diet of that Word and example? Seen in this context, Social Justice does not merely require that one give bread but, rather, that one serve as a cook and waiter providing those hungry for God's Word and Christ's example with the nourishment they need. What value does feeding the body do if one starves the soul? Those who promote abortion, for example, as a form of social justice or who condone this evil on the grounds that they are otherwise feeding the poor are now seen as brazen fools who serve the temporary body while starving the eternal soul. Anything which fills the belly of this earth while starving the eternal soul is nothing but a fanciful tease, a fraud, and a deception to perdition!

2. To Give Drink To The Thirsty

    Once again, we find that one can live much longer without food than without the water so needed by the physical body. We are told that the body is mostly water, and that it will not survive very long deprived of that water. If food is the Word of God and the example of Christ, then water is the Holy Spirit by which we bathe our souls in the Essence of God and are made ready for our missions and purpose in life. While we must hear and spread that Word and that example mentioned above, our efforts will be empty unless they are bathed in that Holy Spirit that guides us and fills us with the refreshing energy and passion so vital to living and sharing that Word and that example. This passion and that Word and example are one and inseparable as given to us by God and Christ, but our weak and imperfect nature tears them apart amid our misconceptions, arrogance, and confusion. Taken in this context, we now see that The New Order defines social works as cold, mechanized, robotic acts of charity added to some tally that counterbalances evil and condones much more profound errors. This society's social justice is an exercise in accounting rather than a passionate plea to once again join the fervor and sincerity found in The Holy Ghost with the Word of God and the example of Christ which define Heaven's dogma of social justice! We now see that abortion and euthanasia, for example, can never be examples of social justice because they lack the Spirit of God's Word and the passionate application of Christ's example that demand subservience to God's Authority over life and respect for that life.

3. To Clothe The Naked

    This society pretends to cover its evils with a wardrobe of materialism, secularism, modernism, feminism, sodomy, and other paths to perdition. In the spirit of The Emperor's New Clothes everyone marvels at the superficial trappings of this wardrobe in both the secular and ecclesiastical sectors while ignoring the absurd spiritual nudity and moral nakedness that we all exhibit from time to time. True social justice is not just about throwing some clothes on the physically naked, but rather in striving to dress ourselves in the purest garments as often as we can such that we will be ready for the Groom's arrival. What good do the finest, most expensive clothes do when they cover the vile leftover of sin? What good is accomplished by clothing hundreds and thousands of lost souls without likewise providing them with the chance to wear the garments etched by the Eternal Tailor?

4. To Shelter The Homeless

    Our True Church is our only Home on earth, and Heaven is our only Home in eternity. The grandest mansions and the finest estates mean nothing if they house souls homeless of God. One can build a thousand homes for the needy yet keep this society morally and spiritually homeless. A home may protect us from the elements of nature, but a homeless soul cannot protect us from the elements of hell. Furthermore, how can anyone pretend to house the poor while condoning ripping the unborn from their home within the mother's womb? Social justice must house the soul before it can house the body.

5. To Visit The Sick

    We are all sick whenever we sin, and this sickness is far more dangerous than any physical ailment could ever be. Visiting the sick is not merely about going to hospitals or visiting people on their sick bed. It is about being there for anyone tempted to sin or vulnerable to the lies of this society. The devil's virus of perdition is strong and we all need help to fight it, first through prayer and faith but also through supporting and guiding each other. Those who visit hospitals while ignoring spiritual illness in themselves or others are making a mockery of what truly makes us healthy. Likewise, any hospital or clinic that pretends to cure physical ills while inflicting spiritual ones is nothing but a vehicle of the devil!

6. To Visit The Imprisoned

    To the extent that we are imprisoned by our human weakness and imperfect nature and the resulting sin, visiting the imprisoned merely means that we extend our charity and love of others from being there for each other to helping each other free ourselves from the trap of sin. We can also be chained by confusion, deception, and distortions served by this society or a lukewarm Church. True social justice demands that we help others free themselves from such chains and that we not chain others to spiritual prisons even as we pretend to be freeing them of physical prisons or having compassion for their plight.Those who really know their faith can be a tremendous help to those incarcerated, for you could say they have a captive audience and since God often allows man to hit rock bottom before building him back up, prisoners know best what that means and could very well be willing catechumens to learn more about the true Faith and the font of Divine Mercy - the Sacrament of Penance.

7. To Bury The Dead

    Confession should be about killing sin and burying that sin in the past. Just as we should respect the dead and learn from their successes and failures, so too we must respect the power of sin and the devil and learn from our own falls. This, however, does not mean that we must allow ourselves to be enslaved or tormented by our past sins. God Almighty, in His Supreme Wisdom and Mercy, has given us the vehicle to bury our sins while learning from them. This society pretends that there is no sin to bury and thus promotes that sin to grow and keep tormenting us. True social justice demands that we create a path to fresh starts toward salvation, not that we lead others on the wide road to perdition under the guise of serving their earthly needs.

Conclusion

    This society pretends that social justice has room for such evils as abortion, euthanasia, or sodomite rights. Taken in the context described above, we see that such notions are the lies of the devil luring fools toward perdition. One cannot truly feed or provide drink, clothe or nurse, house or visit, or respect the dead if one attempts to do so without God. God is the Source of all food, drink, compassion, mercy and life, and these acts are the basis and foundation of social justice. One cannot build a house of social justice without the bricks that compose its nature, and one cannot obtain those bricks without the God Who is the Source of the bricks. The so-called social justice served by this society is not built with the bricks of God but with the mud of the devil, and they will waste away when the sea of God's Justice rolls in. The Seven Corporal Works of Mercy then, are nothing more than extensions of The Ten Commandments, and these works become paths to perdition to the extent that they move away from those Commandments. Next, we will consider The Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy in this context.

[Salvation]

For your Lenten Good Works -- Almsgiving.

[Salvation]

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Corporal Works of Mercy

 

The seven practices of charity toward our neighbor, based on Christ’s prophecy of the Last Judgment, that will determine each person’s final destiny:

1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty
3. Clothe the naked
4. Shelter the homeless
5. Visit the sick
6. Visit those in prison
7. Bury the dead

Mt 25:34 “Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ’Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?’ And the king will answer them, ’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me.’”

The corporal works of mercy are oriented toward the body.

[Salvation]

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

The Corporal Works of Mercy

Lest We Forget - The Corporal Works of Mercy & The Spirtual Works of Mercy

Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy

[dsc]

“Social Justice”

The term and concept “social justice” are of and from Satan, and Karl Marx was (one of his) prophet(s).

Love and mercy are of and from God. That’s why these things have been called “Acts of Mercy” since antiquity.

Go back a couple of hundred years and look for the words, “social justice,” anywhere in the literature of the Church.

Where you see the words “social justice,” there also is Satan.

[Salvation]

I have no doubt about going back 200 or so years and finding the words “social justice.” I do think it has come to be a catch word for all works of corporal mercy, sadly. (Because it is then interpreted falsely.)

[Notwithstanding]

for me - is that from the cross itself,

Christ NEEDED the seven corporal works of mercy from us, and

Christ PERFORMED the seven spiritual works of mercy for us.

[Salvation]

Never thought of it that way.....but it is so true. Something for me to ponder as I go about some errands.

Bye for now.

[dsc]

“Because it is then interpreted falsely.”

I would say that it is interpreted to mean something that is contrary to Catholic teachings, and even Scripture itself. I think we should object to its use at every opportunity.

I sometimes read an English translation of something a pope has written, and I see the satanic-left (but that’s redundant) catchword, “solidarity.)

I’d like to know what Latin word was translated as “solidarity.”