Posted on 09/03/2009 10:25:47 AM PDT by NYer
I was an atheist through my teens, and I think the reason for atheism has to do with the intellectually gifted and creative side. Gifted kids see at an early age past the little lies that adults tell them because adults know they aren't really mature enough to handle a real explanation. Once you have an immature person who has "looked behind the curtain" enough, then their system gets shocked and jaded early and pride takes over for the rest of it.
I don't put much stock into claims of having "personally suffered injury". Usually it's from their offense at being treated at their maturity level in adolescence.
But this is already the case. Excommunication occurs automatically when a believer knowingly and of his/her own free will commits a mortal sin. This applies to priests, religious, and laypersons. Believers can also be formally excommunicated by the Church in certain circumstances. Both types of excommunication can be undone through the Sacrament of Penance.
In the Western Church, a priest can't "lose" his priesthood; he can only be laicized -- that is, dismissed from the clerical state. Such a priest is denied the authority to administer the Sacraments except in certain extremely rare circumstances. This happens automatically as a penalty for certain grave offenses, or by a papal decree granted for grave reasons.
However, since no one and nothing impure can enter the Presence of God, a person who has led a sinful life ( = everybody ) must also be cleansed of the temporal penalties of his/her sins. In other words, he or she must suffer punishment for his or her sins as a means of purification. This "purging" of the believer of the temporal penalties of his or her sins is called Purgatory. This is what the Apostle Paul meant in the third chapter of his first Letter to the Corinthians (I Cor 3:1-12) when he wrote "And every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour... Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire" [Source]
Rest assured that none of us will die perfectly free from the guilt of what we did to our fellow men in this life. By the Blood of His Son, God has preserved us from the eternal death we surely deserve for our rebellion against Him, but for divine Justice to be served, the "bill" for the suffering we caused our fellow men must also be paid. Thus as each of us dies, we are drawn towards the Presence of the Just Judge -- and that Judge will deliver us to the exacter, and the exacter will cast us into prison -- and not one of us will go out thence, until we have paid that bill to he last bitter penny! [Source]
I think of Purgatory not so much as a place but as a journey. As I die, I enter the Beyond cleaned of deadly sin by the Blood of Christ, but still bearing the guilt of the other sinful things I did in life. As I approach the Presence, the Glory of God acts as a refining fire, burning away and annihilating this guilt until I am worthy to arrive in the Presence.
Sometimes I think that Purgatory consists of God forcing you to relive every horrible thing you ever did in this life -- from the point of view of the people you did them to. "Saved as through fire" indeed...
One thing is certain, God is perfect, and that means He is perfectly just. And that means that come Judgment Day, we each of us will receive exactly what we deserve. And if that prospect scares you, thank God -- there's still hope. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” [Genesis 18:25]
We will all gladly enter Purgatory. Not just because it means we’ve evaded Hell, but because we’ll want to be cleansed.
When people ask questions about that, I like to ask them how they would feel if they knew their mother was coming to visit and the house was a pigsty. “Mortified,” is the usual response. “I would want to clean it from head to toe.”
Then I ask them, if they’re driven to deep clean their house for a visit from their mortal mother, what would they think about being covered in the effects of sin before visting the House of their Immortal Father?
The light goes on quickly, at that point.
“They called it a disgrace.”
Did they? Good for them. I didn’t see that. I’ll have to look for it.
Communists want to destroy all faiths. Funny how Islamic extremists love to team up with commies to bring down faiths and governments, isn't it? Never works tho, Iran is a perfect example. Islamic extremists use commies like a China toy.
It’s not the mumbling that counts. You have to truly repent in your heart. If he did that he will be forgiven in God’s own time. But the public example that he left should not have been sanctioned publicly by the Catholic Church. It makes a mockery of the beliefs of faithful Catholics.
I am Jewish but, believe me, I am equally appalled by this Nazi-like mentality and impunity with which these insults are hurdled. When we hear something like this, we should all stand with our Catholic friends.
My deacon just sent this out to a lot of parishioners.
Time to act and tell CBS what we think of their version of the truth.
Yes. I tried to listen to it on the link listed. I got several minutes in before I could take no more of the heavy handed, superlative laden monologue. I fail to see the humor, aren't they supposed to be funny? It was more a Maher-inspired diatribe. Sad that they claim to be driven by 'morals - personal, ethical, rational and humanitarian' (my paraphrase of his opening 'rationale') and yet lambaste an entire group based on their hatred of what that group espouses.
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