Introduction  By  THOMAS  MERTON  - The City Of God  - By  SAINT  AUGUSTINE  OF  HIPPO  - Translated  By  MARCUS  DODS  D.D.  -

BOOK  OF  TWENTY - FIRST  -  ARGUMENT  -  OF THE END RESERVED FOR THE CITY OF THE DEVIL, NAMELY, THE ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OF THE DAMNED;  AND OF THE ARGUMENTS WHICH UNBELIEF BRINGS AGAINST IT  -

1. - Of the order of the discussion, which requires that we first speak of the eternal punishment of the lost in company with the devil, and then of the eternal happiness of the saints -

I  PROPOSE, with such ability as God may grant me, to discuss in this book more thoroughly the nature of the punishment which shall be assigned to the devil and all his retainers, when the two cities, the one of God, the other of the devil, shall have reached their proper ends through Jesus Christ our Lord, the Judge of quick and dead. And I have adopted this order, and preferred to speak, first of the punishment of the devils, and afterwards of the blessedness of the saints, because the body partakes of either destiny; and it seems to be more incredible that bodies endure in everlasting torments than that they continue to exist without any pain in everlasting felicity. Consequently, when I shall demonstrated that the punishment ought to be incredible, this will materially aid me in proving that which is much more credible, viz. the immortality of the bodies of the saints which are delivered from all pain. Neither is this order out of harmony with the divine writings, in which sometimes, indeed, the blessedness of the good is placed first, as in the words, "They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation;" - John v. 29 - but sometimes also last, as, "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things which offend, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of His Father"; - Matthew xiii. 41-43 - and that, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." - Matthew xxv. 46 - And though we have not room to cite instances, anyone who examines the prophets will find that they adopt now the one arrangement and now the other. My own reason for following the latter order I have given.

2. - Whether it is possible for bodies to last forever in burning fire -

What, then, can I adduce to convince those who refuse to believe that human bodies, animated and living, cannot only survive death, but also last in the torments of everlasting fires? They will not allow us to refer this simply to the power of the Almighty, but, demand that we persuade them by some example. If, then, we reply to them, that there are animals which certainly are corruptible, because they are mortal and which yet live in the midst of flames; and likewise, that in springs of water so hot that no one can put his hand in it with impunity a species of worm is found, which not only lives there, but cannot live elsewhere; they either refuse to believe these facts unless we can show them, or if we are in circumstances to prove them by ocular demonstration or by adequate testimony, they contend, with the same scepticism that this facts are not examples of what we seek to prove, inasmuch as these animals do not live forever, and besides, they live in that blaze of heat without pain, the element of fire being congenial to their nature, and causing it to thrive and not to suffer - just as if it were not more incredible that it should thrive than that it should suffer in such circumstances. It is strange that anything should suffer in fire and yet live, but stranger that it should live in fire and not suffer. If, then, the latter be believed, why not also the former?

3. - Whether bodily suffering necessarily terminates in the destruction of the flesh -

But, say they, there is no body which can suffer and cannot also die. How do we know this? For who can say with certainty that the devils do not suffer in their bodies, when they own that they are grievously tormented? And if it is replied that there is no earthly body - that is to say, no solid and perceptible body, or in one word, no flesh - which can suffer and cannot die, is not this to tell us only what men have gathered from experience and their bodily senses? For they indeed have no acquaintance with any flesh but that which is mortal; and this is their whole argument, that what they have had to experience of they judge quite impossible. For we cannot call it reasoning to make pain a presumption of death, while, in fact, it is rather a sign of life. For though it be a question whether that which suffers can continue to live for ever, yet it is certain that everything which suffers pain does not live, and that pain can exist only in a living subject. It is necessary, therefore, that he who is pained be living, not necessary that pain kill him; for every pain does not kill even those mortal bodies of ours which are destined to die. And that any pain kills them is caused by the circumstance that the soul is so connected with the body that it succumbs to great pain and withdraws; for the structure of our members and vital parts is so infirm that it cannot bear up against that violence which causes great or extreme agony. But in the life to come this connection of soul and body is of such a kind, that as it is dissolved by no lapse of time, so neither is it burst asunder by any pain. And so, although it be true that in this world there is no flesh which can suffer pain and yet cannot die, as there will also be death such as mow there is not. For death will not be abolished, but will be eternal, since the soul will neither be able to enjoy God and live, nor to die and escape the pains of the body. The first death drives the soul from the body against her will: the second death holds the soul in the body against her will. The two have this in common, that the soul suffers against her will. The two have this in common, that the soul suffers against her will what her own body inflicts.

Our opponents, too, make much of this, that in this world there is no flesh which can suffer pain and cannot die; while they make nothing of the fact that there is something which is greater than the body. For the spirit, whose presence animates and rules the body, can both suffer pain and cannot die. Here then is something which, though it can feel pain, is immortal. And this capacity, which we now see in the spirit of all, shall be hereafter in the bodies of the damned. Moreover, if we attend to the matter a little more closely, we see that what is called bodily pain is rather to be referred to the soul. For it is the soul, not the body, which is pained, even when the pain originates with the body - the soul feeling pain at the point where the body is hurt. And then we speak of bodies feeling and living, though the feeling and life of the body are from the soul, so also we speak of bodies being pained, though no pain can be suffered by the body apart from the soul. (The soul, then, is pained with the body in that part where something occurs to hurt it) and it is pained alone, though it be in the body, when some invisible cause distresses it, while the body is safe and sound. Even when not associates with the body it is pained; for certainly that rich man was suffering in hell when he cried, "I am tormented in this flame," - Luke xvi. 24 - But as for the body, it suffers no pain when it is soulless; and even when animate it can suffer only by the soul's suffering. If, therefore, we might draw a just presumption from the existence of pain to that of death, and conclude that where pain can be felt death can occur, death would rather be the property of the soul, for to it pain more peculiarly belongs. But, seeing that which suffers most cannot die, what ground is there for supposing that those bodies, because destined to suffer, are therefore destined to die? The Platonists indeed maintained that these earthly bodies and dying members gave rise to the fears, desires, griefs, and joys of the soul. "Hence," says Virgil (that is, from these earthly bodies and dying members),

"Hence wild desires and grovelling fears, And human laughter, human tears." - AEneid, vi. 733 -

But in the fourteenth book of this work, - Chapter 3, 5, 6 - we have proved that, according to the Platonists' own theory, souls, even when purged from all pollution of the body, are yet possessed by a monstrous desire to return again into their bodies. But where desire can exist, certainly pain also can exist; for desire frustrated, either by missing what it aims at or losing what it had attained, is turned into pain. And, therefore, if the soul, which is either the only or the chief sufferer, has yet a kind of immortality of its own, it is inconsequent to say that because the bodies of the damned shall suffer pain, therefore they shall die. (In fine, if the body causes the soul to suffer, why can the body not cause death as well as suffering, unless because it does not follow that what causes pain causes death as well?) And why then is it incredible that these fires can cause pain but not death to those bodies we speak of, just as the bodies themselves cause pain, but not therefore death, to the souls? Pain is therefore no necessary presumption of death.

4. - Examples from nature proving that bodies may remain unconsumed and alive in fire -

If, therefore, the salamander lives in fire, as naturalists - Aristotle does not affirm it as a fact observed by himself, but as a popular tradition ( Hist. anim. v. 19). Pliny is equally cautious (Hist. nat. xxix. 23). Dioscorides declared the thing impossible (ii. 68). -SAISSET. have recorded, and if certain famous mountains of Sicily have been continually on fire from the remotes antiquity until now, and yet remain entire, these are sufficiently convincing examples that everything which burns is not consumed. As the soul, too, is a proof that not everything which can suffer pain can also die, why then do they yet demand that we produce real examples to prove that it is not incredible that the bodies of men condemned to everlasting punishment may retain their soul in the fire, may burn without being consumed, and may suffer without perishing? For suitable properties will be communicated to the substance of the flesh by Him who has endowed the things we see with so marvellous and diverse properties, that their very multitude prevents our wonder. For who but God the Creator of all things has given to the flesh of the peacock its antiseptic property? This property, when I first heard of it, seemed to me incredible; but it happened at Carthage that a bird of this kind was cooked and served up to me, and taking a suitable slice of flesh from its breast, I ordered it to be kept, and when it had been kept as many days as make any other flesh stinking, it was produced and set before me, and emitted no offensive smell. And after it had been laid by for thirty days and more, it was still in the same state; and a year after, the same still, except that it was a little more shrivelled, and drier. Who gave to chaff such power to freeze that it preserves snow buried under it, and such power to warm that it ripens green fruit?

But who can explain the strange properties of fire itself, which blackens everything it burns, though itself bright; and which, though of the most beautiful colours, discolours almost all it touches and feeds upon, and turns blazing fuel into grimy cinders? Still this is not laid down as an absolutely uniform law; for, on the contrary, stones baked in glowing fire themselves also glow, and though the fire be rather of a red hue, and they white, yet white is congruous with light and black with darkness. Thus, though the fire burns the wood in calcining the stones, these contrary effects do not result from the contrariety of the materials. For though wood and stone differs they are not contraries, like black and white, the one of which colours is produced in the stones, while the other is produced in the wood by the same action of fire, which imparts its own brightness to the former, while it begrimes the latter, and which could have no effect on the one were it not fed by the other. Then what wonderful properties do we find in charcoal, which is so brittle that a light tap breaks it and a slight pressure pulverizes it, and yet is so strong that no moisture rots it, nor anytime causes it to decay. So enduring is it, that it is customary in laying down landmarks to put charcoal underneath them, so that if, after the longest interval, anyone raises an action, and pleads that there is no boundary stone, he may be convicted by the charcoal below. What then has enabled it to last so long without rotting, though buried in the damp earth in which [its original] wood rots, except this same fire which consumes all things?

Again, let us consider the wonders of lime; for besides growing white in fire, which makes other things black, and which I have already said enough, it has also a mysteriously property of conceiving fire within it. Itself cold to the touch, it yet has a hidden store of fire, which is not at once apparent to our senses, but which experience teaches us, lies as it were slumbering within it even while unseen. And it is for this reason called "quick lime," as if the fire were the invisible soul quickening the visible substance or body. But the marvellous thing is, this fire kindled when it is extinguished. For to disengage the hidden fire the lime is moistened or drenched with water, and then, though it be cold before, it becomes hot by that very application which cools what is hot. As if the fire were departing from the lime and breathing its last, it no longer lies hid, but appears; and then the lime lying in the coldness of death cannot be requickened and what we before called "quick," we now call "slaked." What can be stranger than this? Yet there is a greater marvel still. For if you treat the lime, not with water, but with oil, which is a fuel to fire, no amount of oil will heat it. Now if this marvel had been told us of some Indian mineral which we had no opportunity of experimenting upon, we should either have forthwith pronounced it a falsehood, or certainly should have been greatly astonished. But things that daily present themselves to our observation we despise, not because they are really less marvellous, but because they are common; so that even some products of India itself, remote as it is from ourselves, cease to excite our admiration as soon as we can admire them at our leisure. - So Lucretius, ii. 1025: "Sed neque tam facilis res ulla 'st, quin ea primum Difficillis magis ad credendum constet: itemque Nil adeo magnum, nec tam mirabile omnes Paulatim." - 

The diamond is a stone possessed by many among ourselves, especially by jewellers and lapidaries, and the stone is so hard that it can be wrought neither by iron nor fire, nor, they say, by anything at all except goat's blood. But do you suppose it is as much admired by those who own it and are familiar with its properties as by those who own it and are familiar with its properties as by those to whom it is shown for the first time? Persons who have not seen it perhaps do not believe what is said of it, or if they do, they wonder as at a thing beyond their experience; and if they happen to see it, still they marvel because they are unused to it, but gradually familiar experience [of it] dulls their admiration. We know that the loadstone has a wonderful of attracting iron. When I first saw it I was thunderstruck, for I saw an iron ring attracted and suspended by the stone; and then, as if it had communicated its own property to the iron it attracted, and had made it a substance like itself, this ring was put near another, and lifted it up; and as the first ring clung to the magnet, so did the second ring to the first. A third and a fourth were similarly added, so that there hung from the stone a kind of chain of rings, with their hoops connected, not interlinking, but attached together by their outer surface. Who would not be amazed at this virtue of the stone, subsisting as it does not only in itself, but transmitted through so many suspended rings, and binding them together by invisible links? Yet far more astonishing is what I heard about this stone from my brother in the episcopate, Severus bishop of Milevis. He told me that Bathanarius, once count of Africa, when the bishop was dining with him, produced a magnet, and held it under a silver plate on which he placed a bit of iron; then as he moved his hand with the magnet underneath the plate, the iron upon the plate moved about accordingly. The intervening silver was not affected at all, but precisely as the magnet was moved backwards and forwards below it, no matter how quickly, so was the iron attracted above. I have related what I myself have witnessed; I have related what I was told by one whom I trust as I trust my own eyes. Let me further say what I have read about this magnet. When a diamond is laid near it, it does not lift iron; or if it has already lifted it, as soon as the diamond approaches, it drops it. These stones comes from India. But if we cease to admire them because they are now familiar, how much less must they admire them who procure them very easily and send them to us? Perhaps they are held as cheap as we hold lime, which, because it is common, we think nothing of, though it has the strange property of burning when water, which is wont to quench fire, is poured on it, and of remaining cool when mixed with oil, which ordinarily feeds fire.

5. - That there are many things which reason cannot account for, and which are nevertheless true -  Nevertheless, when we declare the miracles which God has wrought, or will yet work, and which we cannot bring under the very eyes of men, sceptics keep demanding that we shall explain these marvels.............. -  PAGE  ONE  - 

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Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -  

One of the names for God in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, in the Old Testament is "Yahweh". The four letter Hebrew word "YHWH" was the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. Then Moses said to God, 'I am to go, then, to the sons of Israel and say to them, "the God of your fathers has sent me to you." But if they ask me what his name is, what am I to tell them?' And God said to Moses, 'I Am who I Am.' This 'He added' is what you must say to the sons of Israel: "I Am has sent me to you." And God also said to Moses, 'You are to say to the sons of Israel: "Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Israel), has sent me to you.'" This is my name for all time: by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come. - Exodus 3:13-15 -

The divine name "Yahweh" is usually translated "Lord" in English versions of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible because it became a practice in late Old Testament, that is, Judaism are not to pronounce the sacred name "YHWH" but to say instead "my Lord" (Adonai) a practice still used today. From the New Testament times, many Christians use the word "Yahweh" that is, "Lord." Jesus, God's Son, in human body is a literal revelation of God in the form of man. Jesus was in the form of God but He took "the form of a servant", the "likeness" and "appearance" of a man to save us and reveal the depth of God's love. Therefore, we can literally speak of God in human form.

His state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross. - Philippians 2:6 -

Anthropomorphism refers to the practice of describing God in human terms, as He has feet - Exodus 24:9-11 - hands - John 10:29 - a face - Matthew 18;10 - a heart - Hosea 11:8 - and so forth. Although the Old Testament and New Testament deny any literal similarity of form between God and His creatures, the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible uses such human language to affirm that God is personal and active in His creation. - Job. 9:32; John 4:24 -

KENOSIS is a theological term used in connection with dual nature of Jesus as fully human and fully divine, true man and true God. The word comes from a Greek verb which means "to empty" - Philippians 2:7 - but emptied himself, "Jesus made Himself of no reputation".

In fact, human beings: man and woman, male and female was created to see God. By sin, man/woman lost the blessedness for which he/she was made and found the misery for which he/she was not made. He did not keep what was good even though he could keep it easily. Without God it goes badly for us. Our efforts are in vain without God. Man cannot look for God unless God himself teaches him and find him or unless God reveals Himself. God created man in his image so that he might be aware of him, think about him and love him. The believer does not try to understand so that he may believe but he believes so that he may understand - for if he did not believe, he would not understand. - St. Anselm of Canterbury -

WHY GOD BECAME MAN - This is the debt which man and angel owe to God and no-one who pays this debts commits sin; but everyone who does not pay it, sins. This is justice or uprightness of will which makes a being just or upright in heart, that is, in will; and this is the sole and complete debt of honour which we owe to God and which God requires of us. - St. Anselm of Canterbury -

Adam and Eve were created by God in a state of sinless perfection so they could glorify God, reflecting His righteousness on the earth and enjoy fellowship and union with Him. Their calling was to exercise dominion or control over God's creation through their own labours and those of their offspring in faithful response to the word of God.

As a specific test of this loyalty. God commanded them not to eat of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". - Genesis 2:17 - Adam and Eve were to demonstrate their willingness to live "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord". - Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4 - God warned them clearly that their disobedience would result in death. They disobeyed and failed to submit to the authority of God. Hence, they sinned against God. This event plunged them and all mankind into a state of sin and corruption. The account of the Fall is found in Genesis Chapter 3. The disobedience and sin of Adam and Eve that caused them to lose the state of innocence in which they had been created.

The fall from their original state of innocence occurred when Satan approached Eve through the serpent who tempted her to eat of the forbidden fruit. Satan called into question the truthfulness of what God had spoken about the tree and its significance. Satan urged Eve to discover through trail and error whether it was in her best interest to do what God had forbidden. Eve's sin did not only consist of being tempted but in believing and acting on Satan's lie. Her rejection of God's command occurred when she ate of the forbidden fruit and persuaded her husband to do the same thing. The term Fall should not be interpreted to suggest that their sin was accidental. The temptation was purposeful and their submission to it involved their willing consent.

The immediate consequence of the Fall was death, symbolized by their loss of fellowship with God. For the first time, Adam and Eve experienced fear in the presence of the Lord God; and they hid when God approached. - Genesis 3:8-10 - Because of their unbelief and rebellion, they were driven from the garden that God had provided as their home. From that time on, man would experience pain and encounter resistance as he worked at the task of earning his daily bread. Physical death with the decay of the body is not a natural process. It entered the human experience as God's curse upon sin.

Adam and Eve did not sin simply as private persons but as representatives of all members of the human race. Their sin is the sin of all; and all persons receive from them a corrupt nature. It is this nature that stands behind all personal violations of the Lord's commandments. For this reason, the fall of Adam is the fall of the human race. The apostle Paul confirmed of Christ as the second Adam who would rebuild the old, sinful Adam through His redemption and salvation.

But Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet. - 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 -

Be transformed by the changing and renewing of your heart, mind, attitude, character inwardly or in appearance, to the values, ideals and behaviour of a fallen world. Believers should continually renew their heart and minds through prayer, pondering and reflecting of God's Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit and so be transformed and made like Christ. - 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 -

Transform refers to change radically in inner character, condition or nature. The apostle Paul exhorted Christians, 'Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.' - Romans 12:2 -

*** The experience of God in His Transcendence is supposed to be complemented with the experience of God in His Immanence. The former understands God as "completely Beyond human reach"; the latter understands God as the "intimate all pervasive Being". The first is prone to objectify the experience in clear and distinct ideas about our relationship to God; the second prefers to describe similar experience. The former experiences God as cold and distant; the latter finds God an intimate all encompassing Force.

Stern objective legalism in religion which comes from the experience of the Transcendence, can be tempered with subjective personal flexibility which flows from the experience of the Immanent. The rigidity of community demands can be softened with a respect for the legitimate rights of the individual person.

Christians find the harmonious tension of the Transcendence and the Immanence in Jesus Christ. He reveals to us the "Completely Other", God the Father, not as an inexorable Force who punishes and rewards accordingly but a loving Father. He reveals also the Holy Spirit, the "intimate" Counsellor, Consoler and Guide who dwells in us. However, the Holy Spirit only reveals what He has heard from the Father and the Son.

But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembering all that I have said to you. - John 14:26 - When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. - John 16:13-15 - So the experience of the Immanent cannot be subjective in the bad sense of the word. What the Spirit of God reveals conforms with the basic truths of objective revelation. 

A Christian, therefore, must discern whether what he/she receives is from God or from the Evil. Saint John tells Christians, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God." - 1 John 4:1-3 -

On the other hand, God the Father is not worshipped in ritualism nor obeyed legalistically, for Christians, God is spirit, and those who worship "must worship Him in spirit and truth" - John 4:23-24 - We obey God the Father or the Transcendence because we love Him. If, out of love, we obey His laws which flow from His love for us, we will be perfected.

The subjective is tested by the objective; the objective is personalized by the subjective.

In a similar way, Jesus Christ holds together the demands of the community and the legitimate rights of the individual. The key to unlock this seeming contradiction is love. Love takes care of the needs of the individual in such a way as to build up the community. The community, on the hand, exists so that individuals can blossom to be full mature persons. Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" - John 10:10 -

The most comforting result of the experience of Jesus Christ, God with a "human face" is the knowledge and experience of being loved and understood by God as we are: human beings with all our strong and weak points, with all our joys and sorrows, etc. God, having shared our human existence, tells us strongly in a way we humans can understand that He cares for us in all our joys and sorrows. Having experienced this, we are then able to communicate it to others: we try to love as God loves us. This experience is unique to all Christians. 

*** By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing S.J.

Love is not only one of God's attributes: it is also an essential part of His nature. "God is Love" - the personification of perfect love. Such love surpasses our powers of understanding.

Out of infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until knowing the love of Christ which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God. Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen. - Ephesians 3:16-21 -

God is love and He has demonstrated His love in the gift of His Son. The greatest desire of God is that we love Him with our whole being. - Matthew 22:37 - Our love should be expressed as His has been expressed, in both words and deeds. People sometimes find it difficult to say to God and others 'I Love You'. But when love for God fills our lives, we will express our love in prayer to the one who is ultimately responsible for all that we are. For the Lord Jesus said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father and I shall love him and show myself to him. - John 14:21 -

If you remain in me
and my words remain in you,
you may ask what you will
and you shall get it. - John 15:7 -

My dear people,
love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.
God's love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God's love for us when he sent his Son
to be sacrifice that takes our sins away. - 1 John 4:7-10 -

In love there can be no fear,
but fear is driven out by perfect love:
because to fear is to expect punishment,
and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love.
We are to love, then,
because he loved us first.
Anyone who says, 'I love God',
and hates his neighbour,
is a liar,
since a man who does not love the brother that he can see
cannot love God, whom he has never seen.
So this is the commandment that he has given us,
that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:18-21 -

We speak well of one whom we highly esteem and love. The one who we respect and love above all others naturally receives our highest commendation. For God Himself. We glorify and worship Him, for His love, His works and for His words, His peoples give sincere praise. Amen.

"What does it profit a man/woman to gain the whole world, if he/she suffers the loss of his/her soul?"

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Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -

-  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  - 

This raises the important question of how man may become more than he was - of what happens when a person is converted. The answer is this: A human is lifted to the super-natural order and is converted from a creature to a partaker of the Divine nature. This can come about only through the grace of God, with which the person freely cooperates.

There is throughout nature a law that says that no lower order is ever lifted into a higher order without two things: There must be a descent of the higher order to the lower order, and second, the lower order must surrender itself to the higher. Before the phosphates, the carbon, the sunlight, and the moisture can be absorbed into plant life, the plant must come down to the chemical order and take it up into itself; and the phosphates, the carbon, the sunlight, and the moisture must give up their lower existence when they are elevated. The plant cannot begin to live in the animal unless first the animal comes down to the plant life and lifts it up into itself; but the plant, too, immolates itself for the animal - it must be torn up from the roots and ground beneath the very jaws of death; then, and then only, does it begin to live in the animal kingdom and to share the joys of sentiency that it did not possess before. The animal begins to live in man only when man goes down to the animal and takes it unto himself; but the animal, in its turn, must itself to the knife and to the fire, for only by surrendering its lowly existence can it begin to live in the higher kingdom of man; then the animal participates in the life of a thinking, willing, and loving human being. If the plants and the animals could speak, they would say to the things that are below them, "Unless you die to yourself, you cannot live in my kingdom." man, who can speak, says to the chemicals, the plants and the animals, "Unless you die to your lower nature, you cannot begin to live in my kingdom." The reward for the immolation of all these lower orders is that they now live in man a far more magnificent kind of existence than they could attain in themselves. They fall under a new government, their existence is ennobled, their life is enriched, their nature is elevated; this is the reward of their surrender.

How does man begin to live the higher life in God? First of all, God must come down to him/her, the Eternal must invade human history: This is the meaning of the Incarnation. Second, man must himself surrender his lower nature. But here there appears a difference between man and all other creatures - man is a person, which sunshine, grass, and cows are not. Their lower natures are destroyed by surrendering themselves to man, but since man/woman is a person, his/her personality is indestructible. What man surrenders, then, is not his whole nature, but only that portion of it which is sinful, which is ungodlike. In conversion a man/woman suffers a mortification, a kind of spiritual death, but his/her personality survives.

The specific act by which a human dies to his/her lower nature is the Sacrament of Baptism. This commencement of his supernatural life does not mark a mere change of direction, but an elevation or, better still, a re-generation. We can therefore understand why the old man in the Gospel story who asked what he must do to be saved was told by Our Lord Blessed Lord that he must be born again. The aged Nicodemus thought that these words meant that he must enter again into his mother's womb; but Our Lord Jesus informed him that "...unless a person be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he/she cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit" - John 3:5-6 - The very heart of Christianity is the inspiration for man to strive to become something that he/she is not: "But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the children of God, to them that believe in his name: Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." - John 1:12-13 - 

As the soul gives life to the body, so does grace, or participation in the Divine Nature, give life to the soul. A body can be alive when its soul is dead. To the eyes of the spirit, every city and town is filled with such spiritual cadavers. The people seem to be alive; they eat, they go to movies, marry, talk politics, and they have one chance in 12,000 of being interviewed for a Kinsey Report - but their souls are dead. Yet this death need not be permanent, for while there is physical life, there is spiritual hope for everyone. So long as there is breath, there is still a possibility that the human nature will be divinized by grace.

Those who are spiritual alive do not see Jesus Christ as just a moral teacher or a great humanitarian; they know that He might be more appropriately called the Great Divinitarian, God in human flesh, true God and true man, whose purpose in coming to this earth was to give back to us that supernatural life which was lost through the original sin: "I come so that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly". - John 10:10 - In the universe, seen from the Divine point of view, there are no races or nations; there are, however, two humanities. There are those who are born of the flesh, and they belong to the humanity of Adam; but those who are born of the spirit belong to the new and redeemed humanity of the new Adam, Christ, Who was mothered through Mary. What physical birth is to the child of nature, Baptism is to the spiritual child of God. Children resemble their parents because they share the same nature; so, thanks to Baptism, spiritual children begin to resemble God, for now they are born of His Nature.

There are other parallels between the physical and the supernatural: For the human race to carry on its natural life, seven conditions are required - they must be born; they must be nourished; some of them must grow to maturity and assume its responsibilities; if their bodies are wounded, the wounds must be healed; if there is disease, the traces of that disease must be driven out; there must be propagation, to perpetuate the race; and humanity, to survive, must live under some rule of order and government. In order that we may lead the supernatural life, Our Blessed Lord has instituted seven Sacraments, analogous to these seven conditions of physical life. material signs are used in the Sacraments, as channels for the communication of His grace. If we were angels, we should need no such visible signs; but since we have bodies, as well as souls, and since nature, too, should be restored to God. Hence the use of oil, bread, water, hands and wine in the administration of the seven Sacraments. 

As a person must be born before he/she can begin to lead his/her physical life, so he/she must be born to lead a Divine Life. That birth occurs in the Sacrament of Baptism. To survive, the person must be nourished by Divine Life; that is done in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. He/She must grow spiritually and assume his/her spiritual responsibilities; that is accomplished in the Sacrament of Confirmation. He/She must heal the wounds of sin; for this there is the Sacrament of Penance. He/She must wipe out the traces of sin at the end, to prepare for his/her journey to eternal life; for this there is the Sacrament of Extreme Unction - also known as Anointing of the Sick. Man/Woman also prolong and edify the Kingdom of God, for which he/she is given the Sacrament of Matrimony. He/She must live under a spiritual government; this is provided through the Sacrament of Holy Orders in the Priesthood.

Nature makes human nature, but grace remakes human nature. Every person who has been born can also be regenerated, renewed and revived if he/she establishes contact with new and divine sources of energy. Christianity puts high value on human nature, but it does not trusts its unaided powers too far. It says that man/woman in his/her human nature is neither as saint nor a devil; he/she is neither intrinsically corrupt nor immaculately conceived. He/She needs divine assistance to perfect this nature. And it is available to him/her, no matter how wicked he/she has been in the past; even a man/woman who stoned a martyr like Apostle/Saint Stephen, as Apostle/Saint Paul did, can still be saved, not of himself but by the grace of God - as Apostle/Saint Paul was. And since the new energy and new power to rescue him come from God, it is beside the point for anyone to plead, "I am not good enough." Of course not - no person is good enough. But hidden reserves of power are available to anyone who so desires. That was why Our Savior said, "Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock and it shall be opened to you". - Matthew 7:7 -   

Those who lack grace - that gift of God which is given so freely - have physical life but do not have spiritual life. This raises the question, "Why does not everyone accept grace?" The answer is to be found in the fact that man, alone in all nature, is free. The grass does not need to consult the moisture before it absorbs it to itself; the cow need not plead with the grass to come with it into the animal kingdom; but man is free, and God will break down no doors to force a higher destiny upon our wills. The Divine may only entreat and plead; He will show how much He loves us by dying to redeem us. But He will not use force, even to save us from our own shortsighted preference for a meaner share of life.

Some people in backward countries refuse vaccination; they fear to be saved by a mystery they do not comprehend. Some sick people do not want to see a doctor; they are afraid the doctor may advise an operation as a condition of recovering their health. In the spiritual realm, too, we can refuse to be healed. We cannot initiate our own salvation - for the first movement of regeneration comes from God - but we can prevent it by our refusal to cooperate. Grace and human freedom are related like the two wings of a bird; both are needed for flight. Grace is a gift, and any gift can be rejected. Love is never imposed - to impose it would be to destroy love.

Because the acceptance of grace is a free act, implying a choice, it follows that some people will always be unwilling to accept it, especially since it invariably demands a sacrifice. The rich young man in the Gospel went away sad because he had great possessions; Saint Augustine of Hippo, at one time in his life, said, "Dear Lord, I want to be good, but later on, not now." The great problem, facing every human, concerns not sublimation, but elevation. Are we willing to surrender the lower to find the ecstasies of the higher? Do we want God enough to overcome the obstacles that keep Him away? Do we love the sunlight enough to open the blinds our own agnosticism has drawn down? 

The acceptance of grace is not a passive thing; it demands a surrender of something, even if it is only our pride. This fact alone should give pause to those naturalists who tells us that the supernatural is only a myth, for since when do myths and fantasies call for such sacrifices or make demands that are so hard to meet? Myths ask only for credulity - never for the plucking out an eye or the cutting off of an arm, as does the Gospel. Yet these sacrifices must be made, this price paid, if we are to live full lives. No sculptor can chisel, no artist can paint, unless he/she detaches himself/herself from noisy chatter in order to commune with the beautiful; so we can gain intimacy with the Divine only if we respond to God's invitation of grace with a willingness to give up some tawdry treasure, to surrender the field in order to buy the pearl of great price.

Then the life can really begin, for, without the supernatural gift, every human is undeveloped still. Feed a person until he/she is "fed-up"; surround him/her with the materials to satisfy his/her every passion; give him/her license to do whatever he/she pleases; castle him/her; cage him/her; cuddle him/her; amuse him/her! And invariably, time and time again, he/she will still be seeking for that which he/she has not, grasping for something already beyond his/her reach, hungering for the unworldly in the heart of the world. Without this great reality of God, man/woman knows himself/herself to be only half real and adequately describes himself/herself as "I am not." Thus does he/she dimly perceive the great need of Him Who defines Himself as "Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am" - John 8:58 -

The refusal of God's supernatural gift is the most tragic mistake a human being can make. Its acceptance is called conversion. Contrary to the common belief, a conversion is not caused by the emotions; emotions reflect only a mental state, and this change concerns the soul. Conversion, again, has nothing to do with sublimation; that process, too, is restricted to the order of nature. Conversion look upward, not inward; it is an experience in no way related to the upsurge of unconsciousness into the consciousness. Conversion, first and foremost, and above all else, is due to Divine Grace, a gift of God that illumines our intellect to perceive truths that we never perceived before and strengthens our will to follow those truths, even though they demand sacrifices in the natural order. Conversion is due to the invasion of a new power, to the inner penetration of spirit and spirit, to the influence of the changeless upon the fluid character of man/woman.

In his/her new awareness of the presence of a Divine Power, the individual turns over his/her whole personality, not to his/her "higher self," but to the higher new self, which is God. Those who have responded to that gift of grace begin to feel the presence of God in a new way. Their religion ceases to be "moralistic" in the sense that a person merely submits himself/herself to a code of law, and feels the necessity of obeying them as a duty. Religion also rises above the pietistic level on which there is a loving remembrance of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a kind of sentimental fellow-traveling, through hymns and sermons, with One who lived many years ago. For although some people have found a considerable emotional fulfillment on this pietistic plane, it is not Christianity and does not become so until one enters the third stage, the Mystical. Here at last - where Christ actually dwells in our hearts, and where there is an awareness rooted in love, and where the soul feels the tremendous impact of God working on itself - here is found the joy that surpasses all understanding.  -  PAGE  TWO  -  

BY  VENERABLE  FULTON  J.  SHEEN

-    WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY    - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -  

                                         -  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  - 

Psychiatry is able to give a certain measure of peace of mind, for it adjusts the mind to the mood and temper of the world; but it never inquires whether we ought to adjust ourselves so completely to the present society. "I have taken you out of the world," said the Savior. It is now becoming evident, even to the cynic, that those who help the world most are the ones detached from the world. Peace of soul is a different and a finer thing; it results from justice, not from adjustment, from rebirth, not from integration to the values of the moment. Pax opus justitiae. Justice implies the subordination of the body to the soul and of the whole person to God and to neighbor. On the other hand, adjustment is to become acceptable to those around us, whether they are good or bad, wise or foolish, saints or such individuals as a saint would rather flee than emulate.

It is important to distinguish between the two kinds of peace. Peace of mind rests principally on what called "sublimation," which psychology describes as a redirection of an instinct, passion, or energy from a crude, impulsive form to a creative activity that is social and, to some extent, ethical. There is nothing very new about sublimation except the name, for, throughout the ages, all wise teachers have recognized that it is important to divert man's interests from the base to the noble. Educators have always known that a child who is unduly curious can often have his/her curiosity sublimated into a healthy interest in science or history; the pugnacious instinct is sometimes sublimated by putting him/her in charge of a group, where he/she has to enforce the law. Such sublimations, useful as they are, can never give peace of soul, because this comes only from God. Psychological attempts to make man/woman create this sort of peace - which he/she has no potentiality to create - are like trying to get a spinning top to begin spinning in the other direction.

No flat tire can fix itself, and no frustrated, unhappy person can get well without the introduction into his/her nature of something that is not already there. Something more is needed to cure a person than his/her own libido or instinct. Water can never rise above its own level, and no amount of drainage from the unconscious to the conscious can make the stream of thought clearer, cleaner, or stronger. When the patient attempts to accomplish sublimation on his/her own, he/she is very apt - rightly - to have the feeling that he/she is practicing autosuggestion, a rather dangerous experiment. If the energy for betterment is believed to come from an outside human source, such as the psychiatrist, he/she feels - sometimes rightly - that he/she is being manipulated by someone incapable of judging all the factors of his/her case; if the psychiatrist is one of those who deny the soul, this is nearly always true.

If a person is physically sick, he/she does not try to cure himself/herself by expecting medicines to develop within his/her own body. Neither can a soul that is spiritually sick completely heal itself by its own efforts, without an energy and a power brought in from the outside. The sick person's own will is not sufficient; it is because the will and the instincts are at odds that he/she is suffering. Nor can human ideals alone cure him/her - these make no provision for the conflicts of those who cannot attain to them. Even the noblest of abstract ideals are of little use to a person who feels himself/herself a failure, shut off from the possibility of success, and too weak to achieve virtue.

It is precisely because many individuals are painfully conscious of their weakness and frustration that they yearn for a compulsive system of life that will dispense them from all responsibility, without fully evaluating the reason for their flight.

There is something both good and bad in this, as the prodigal son was right in being hungry and wrong in feeding on husks.

The modern soul, too, is right in hungering for a law higher than its own will, wrong in taking that law from a dictator. With the denial of God, eternal destinies, and moral righteousness, it has become disgusted with its own unworthiness to serve as a proper object of narcissistic devotion. Like the child in the progressive school, it asks, "Must I always do whatever I want?" Having denied Eternal Love as the object of its choice, it now turns to something apparently greater than self. It is right in wanting something to adore and love with an intense passion; it is wrong in adoring a false god. 

When one mediates upon the number of individuals who, in the midst of their frustrations, try to find healing without the aid of a Divine Physician, without an energy more powerful than themselves, one is reminded of the words of Carlyle, "The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather how much they miss." The greater opportunity they miss is that of becoming something more than their humanity. For it is possible for a human being to live on one of three levels. The first level is the subhuman, or the animal, in which a person is content to live only for his body, for his flesh and its pleasures; when a whole society lives thus, we have what Sorokin has called a "Senate Culture." If reason is used at all on this lowest level, it is only to discover new techniques for providing thrills and amusements for the animal nature. A human can also live on a second, or higher, level, the rational; here he will pursue a good pagan life and will defend the natural virtues, but without great enthusiasm. Under the inspiration of reason alone, he is tolerant, philanthropic; he favors the underdog and contributes to community enterprises, but he refuses to believe that there is a knowledge beyond the reach of his own intellect or a strength exceeding his own will. High above these two levels there is a third, which is the Divine level; in this, a human being, thanks to the grace of God, is elevated to the supernatural order and is made a child of God.

These three levels might be compared to a three-story house: The first floor is hardly furnished at all; the second has some comforts; but the third is orderly, luxurious, and full of peace. An individual who lives for purely animal pleasures will take as sheer nonsense the suggestion that there is a level of reason above the first floor, where peace of mind becomes peace of soul, is to invite them to ridicule the super-natural order. Those who dwell on the second floor have no understanding whatever of the supernatural; they regard it as a pious extra, as unessential as frost on a windowpane or frosting a cake. They are willing to admit that there is assimilation in the universe and that the progress has been upward and vertical from the chemical to man, but when it comes to the development of man himself, they refuse to admit a continuation of the same vertical process. They see the past in terms of an upward process until man was produced; from that tome on, they insist that it moves only on a horizontal plane and that man's progress is to be measured by his growing skill in the manipulation of nature and wealth and the acquiring of better material conditions - all of which are external to man. Those who refuse to mount to the third floor from the second are much like the two tadpoles who were one day discussing the possibility of a realm higher than that of the tadpoles. One little tadpoles said to the other. "I think I will stick my head above the water to see what the rest of the world looks like." The other tadpole said, "Don't be foolish. You don't mean to tell me that there is anything in this world besides water!"

A reasonable being should ask himself why - if chemicals can enter into plants, and plants be taken up into animals, and animals be taken into man - why man himself, who is the peak of visible creation, should be denied the privilege of being assimilated into higher power? The rose has no right to say that a vast capacity and unconquerable yearning for eternal life and truth and love.

The supernatural, the third level on which we may live, is not an outgrowth of the natural, as the oak develops from an acorn. It marks a complete break, a beginning anew. The development is not a gradual progress, in which a person becomes more tolerant, more broad-minded, more articulate about social justice, less hateful and less avaricious, until finally he reaches a point where he finds himself a Christian and a citizen of the supernatural order. That is not the way it happens.

It is a law of physics that a body continues in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line until it is compelled by outside forces to change that state; man, too, is subject to inertia, and he will remain a merely natural state unless he is changed from the outside. Stones do not become elephants, nor elephants people. Man, by nature, is only a creature of God, almost as a stone or a bird is a creature of God - although man reflects some of the attributes of the Creator more faithfully than the stars of the attributes of the Creator more faithfully than the stars and the plants do. In truth, the supernatural order is something to which man is not entitled; nevertheless it once belonged to our race. But the supernatural privilege of being a child of God, entitled to call Him Father, was always as unattainable to the nature of man as life is to a crystal. If a piece of marble suddenly burst into bloom, that would be a "supernatural" act, for it does not belong to the powers, the nature, or the capacities of marble to bloom. If a flower suddenly began to move from place to place, and to touch, and to taste, and to feel, that would be a "supernatural" act, for it does not belong to the flower's nature, its powers, or its capacities to possess the five senses. If a dog suddenly began to quote Shakespeare and Sophocles, that would be a "supernatural" act for a dog; it does belong to the nature, the powers, or the capacities of a dog to reason. Man is by nature a creature of God, as humbly as a table is a creature of the carpenter; if he suddenly begins to throb with the very life of God, so that he can call God not his Creator but his Father, that is a supernatural act for a man. Man then becomes something which he was not; that elevation of his nature can come only as a gift from God.

A plant is more than the sum of the chemicals that enter into it, because a plant possesses an X quality that is not in the chemical order; an animal is something more than the sum of, plant qualities, because it possess an X that is not found in the antecedent order; and, in the same way, man possesses an X quality that makes him different from the animal, something that makes him able to laugh and think and freely love. But when a human enters the supernatural order, a new and greater X quality is introduced - something that is different in its nature from the sum of merely natural virtues he may have possessed before. That is why, throughout the Sacred Scriptures, man is constantly invited to become something that he is not. There is assumed, throughout the Scriptures, a difference between making and begetting: We make what is unlike us - for example, someone makes a table; but we beget what is like us - for example, a father begets a child. Inasmuch as we are made by God, we are unlike Him in His Divine Nature; inasmuch as we are begotten by God, we can become like Him, be partakers of His Nature, assume our place as His Children and the Heirs of the Kingdom of God. This is possible only because of a miraculous elevation, which is not ours by right or nature; for if the supernatural order were natural to man, then man himself would be God.     -  PAGE  ONE  -     This raises the important question of how man may become more than he was - of what happens when a person is converted. The answer is....... 

BY  VENERABLE  FULTON  J.  SHEEN     

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function, so the body grows until it has built itself up, in love. - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -