You have no right to say there is no higher life than the physical life you now live, any more that the rose has a right to say there is no life above it. You must remember that above the natural life which you live as a creature of God, there is such a thing as a supernatural life which God gives to make you His adopted son and daughter. You have no strict right to this Divine Life. Just as it would be "supernatural" or above the nature and powers of a rainbow to write poetry, or of a cow to quote Shakespeare, so in the strict sense it would be supernatural for you who are merely a creature of God's handiwork to be made a partaker of the Divine Nature and an heir of the Kingdom of God. Because that higher life is a free gift of God, it is called grace. Now in His goodness God has freely willed to restore to you the gifts and privileges of that life which were lost to you by the Fall, and this He does through the merits of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
If you thought about religion at all, you probably asked: But how can I contact that Divine Life of Christ who died over 2000 years ago? The answer is: Christ would have to infuse His life into your soul. But how would it be done? Look at nature to see how a lower life is elevated to a higher life. How, for example, do the moisture, the carbons, and the phosphates in the earth ever live in that plant? First, the plant life must descend to them, take them up into its roots and branches, while the chemicals themselves must abandon the crude lifeless state they have in nature. If the plant could speak, it would say to the chemicals: "Unless you die to yourselves, you cannot live in my kingdom." Actually, the sunshine, chemicals, and moisture now begin to thrill with life and vitality in the plant. They have been, in the broad sense of the term, "super naturalized."
If the animal could speak, it would say to the plants: "Unless you die to your lower life of mere vegetation and submit yourselves momentarily to the jaws of death, you cannot live in my kingdom. But once you live in me, you will share a life that not merely vegetates, but feels and moves and tastes and sees."
Man in his turn, going down to that which is lower, says to the animals" "Unless you die to yourselves by submitting to sacrificial death, you cannot live in my kingdom. But if you die to yourselves, you will share a life that is not merely sensible, but one that thinks and loves, has ideals, laughs and is artistic."
This is precisely what Christ says to you: "Unless you die to yourself, you cannot live in My Kingdom" - but with this difference: Since we are persons, which chemicals, plants and animals are not, the sacrifice enjoined on us is not physical, but spiritual. We do not have our personality destroyed, as a plant's nature is destroyed when taken into the beast. But otherwise the law holds good. The higher must come down to the lower; the Divine must descend into the human. Such was the Incarnation: God came down to man.
But on the other hand, man must die to his sinful nature, his old Adam, his heritage of the Fall, and this he can do only by sacrifice, by taking up "his cross daily" and following Him. This is what Our Lord meant when He said: "If the grain of wheat that falls to the ground does not die, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit." - John 12:24 - The law of transformation holds sway: chemicals are lifted into plants, plants into animals, animals into man, and since man is free, he can will, through the Graciousness of God, to be lifted up into Christ, so that he can say: "I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me." - Gal.2:20 - God came down to the level of man that He might in some way lift man to the level of God.
Now let us consider the normal ways in which that Life is communicated to us. Remember that the individual derives His life from the ecclesia or the Church; but the Church does not derive its life from the individual, as is the case with a club, a school, or a corporation. As no cell can live normally apart from your body, though your body can live without any individual cell, so you as a Christian cannot live a normal spiritual life apart from Christ's Body, the Church, but the Church can live without you.
Hence it is from the Church or Christ's Body that Christ's life pours out into your soul. And in order that the outpouring from that great Reservoir of merits on Calvary should not be haphazard, Our Lord instituted seven channels or Sacraments to convey that Life into your souls. Knowing that you have a body as well as a soul, He chose not to communicate His Divine Life to you invisibly. But since men are physical as well as spiritual, He willed normally to give you His supernatural life or grace under the symbol of some material sign.
Thus by seeing water you would know something was being washed away, and by seeing bread you would know something was being nourished. Furthermore, by using these sensible signs for communicating His Spiritual Life, God restores the materials of a chaotic world back again into the divine order. How many Sacraments are there? There are seven and it is becoming that there should be seven, for there are seven conditions of life, physical and spiritual. Five of these refer to the individual life of man, and two refer to his social life.
1. - As you cannot live a natural life unless you are born, so neither can you live the Christ-life unless you are born to it. That is why the Sacrament of Baptism is necessary for salvation.
2. - As your natural life must grow to maturity and assume responsibilities, so you cannot lead a perfect supernatural life unless you mature in the Spirit and grow into the full responsibilities of being a Christian soldier. This is the Sacrament of Confirmation.
3. - As you cannot live a natural life unless you nourish yourself, so you cannot lead a supernatural life unless you nourish the Divine Life which is already within you. This is the Holy Eucharist.
4. - When you wound your natural life you must be healed; when you wound your supernatural life by sin you must be absolved, and that is the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation or Confession.
5. - If your natural life suffers from a disease, the traces of that disease must be banished. Since no disease ever leave traces comparable to the disease of sin, it follows that before meeting your God the remains of sin must be blotted out. That is the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick or Extreme Unction.
But you are not mere individuals in religion. You are members of the Body of Christ. In order that this spiritual corporation may perfect itself, and grow, two more conditions must be fulfilled.
6. - As the natural life is preserved by propagation of the human species, so the supernatural life of the Kingdom of God is perfected by raising children of God. That is the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
7. - Finally, as your natural life must be lived under law and government, so your supernatural life must be lived under spiritual government, and this is the Sacrament of Holy Orders by which Christ's priesthood is prolonged to apply the fruits of law and order to all the members of His Mystical Body.
Christianity is not a system of ethics; it is a life. It is not good advice, it is Divine adoption. Being a Christian does not consist in being kind to the poor, generous to relief agencies, just to employees, gentle to cripples, though it includes all of these. It is first and foremost a love relationship, and as you can never become a member of a family by doing generous deeds, but only by being born into it out of love, so you can never become a Christian by doing good things but only by being born to it through Divine Love.
Doing good things to a man does not make you his son/daughter, but being a son and daughter does make you do good things. Christianity begins with being, not with doing with life and not with action. If you have the life of a plant you will bloom like as plant; if you have the life of a monkey, you will act like a monkey; if you have the life of a man, you will do the things a man does; but if you have the Life of Christ in you, you will act like a Christian. You are like your parents because you partake of their nature; you are like God if you partake of His Nature. What a man does is the externalization of what he is.
Let me show you the difference: Most people have their actions governed by their background; for example, you think a certain way in order to defend your class or your wealth or your want of it; you do certain things because they are profitable or pleasant to you; you hate certain people because they are a reproach to your conscience or because they challenge your egotism. Your psycho-physical make-up is the center of your life and therefore of your actions. You are, in a word, self-determined. Now to be a Christian means to discard self as the supreme determinant of actions; it means to put on the mind of Christ so as to be governed by Christ's Truths, to surrender your will to His Will, and to do all things that are pleasing to Him, not to you. In other words, your life instead of being self-determined is Christ-determined.
How often we hear non-Christian people say: "Oh, you can do nothing with him. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." But the Christian answers: "You can! If God's grace ever gets into that man's soul, he will become a new creature."
You then who are Christians, who know that the Divine Life is in your soul, be conscious that your every word, thought, and deed is enacted before a Divine Audience. Let the Christ be the Unseen Guest at your every meal; your Divine Host in every visit; your Captain in every war; your Fellow-Worker in every task; your Father in every home; your Giver of every gift; the Listener in your conversation; your Companion in every walk; your Visitor at every knock; your Neighbor in every street; your Owner of every treasure; and your Lover in every love.
Do not fear God with a servile fear, for perfect love casts out such fear. Be bold enough then to believe that God is on your side, even when you forget to be on His. Live your life not by law, but by love. As Saint Augustine of Hippo put it: "Love God and then do whatever you please. "For if you love God, you will never do anything to hurt Him or break off relationship with Him - and then you will always be happy.
BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN ( 1895 to 1979 )
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
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 -
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