The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible declared that God is Creator - the only being capable of making something from nothing - The book of Genesis also declared that God created humanity as "male and female." - Gen. 1:27 - Together they formed the blessed pair needed to replenish and subdue the earth.
Since God created the universe out of nothing, it is His and will always serve His purpose. As He shaped creation without any interference from anyone, He will bring creation to its desired end. No power can frustrate God in His purpose to complete the process started in creation and revealed in Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. God is Spirit - not a material substance - it must mean more than physical resemblance. To be created in God's image means that human being, though a creature, is akin to God. Our hope rests in the sovereign power of Him who created the world and then recreated us through the saving power of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bring you offspring from the east,
and gather you from the west.
To the north I will say, 'Give them up'
and to the south, 'Do not hold them.'
Bring back my sons from far away,
my daughters from the end of the earth,
all those who bear my name,
whom I have created for my glory,
whom I have formed, whom I have made. - Isaiah 43:5-7 -
I, I am Yahweh,
there is no other saviour but me.
It is I who have spoken, have saved, have made the proclamation,
not any strangers among you.
You are my witnesses - it is Yahweh who speaks -
and I, I am your God, I am he from eternity.
No one can deliver from my hand,
I act and no one can reverse it. - Isaiah 43:11-13 -
By sin, death came into the world, and sin had destroyed the plan of God's creation. Humankind was created without sin, morally upright and inclined to do good. - Eccl. 7:29 - But sin entered into human experience when Adam and Eve violated the direct command of God. - Gen. 3:6 - Thus, a new creation was necessary.
Well then, sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned....... Again, as one man's fall brought condemnation on everyone, so the good act of one man brings everyone life and makes them justified. As one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. When law came, it was to multiply the opportunities of falling, but however great the number of sins committed, grace was even greater; and so, just as sin reigned wherever there was death, so grace will reign to bring eternal life thanks to the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Rom. 5:12-21 -
Does it follow that we should remain in sin so as to let grace have greater scope? Of course not. We are dead to sin, so how can we continue to live in it? You have been taught that when we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death; in other words,when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glory, we too might live a new life.
If in union with Christ we have imitated his death, we shall also imitate him in his resurrection. We must realise that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us from the slavery of sin. When a man dies, of course, he has finished with sin.
But we believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him: Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again. Death has no power over him anymore. When he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is life with God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus. - Rom. 6:1-11 -
Now if Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead?............ If this were not true, what do people hope to gain by being baptised for the dead? If the dead are not ever going to be raised, why be baptised on their behalf? What about ourselves? Why are we living under a constant threat?...You say: let us eat and drink today; tomorrow we shall be dead. You must stop being led astray: "Bad friends ruin the noblest people." Come to your senses, behave properly, and leave sin alone; there are some of you who seem not to know God at all; you should be ashamed. - 1Cor. 15:12-34 -
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head by whom the whole body is filled and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separated part to work according to its foundation. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love. - Eph. 4:15-16 -
In his body lives the fullness of divinity, and in him you too find your own fulfillment, in the one who is the head of every Sovereignty and Power. - Col. 2:9-10 -
The Holy Eucharist is not only a sacrificial oblation but also a sacrificial meal. It is for the continuation of His work in the world. Through Holy Eucharist, or Holy Mass, or Holy Communion the Lord Jesus becomes incarnate in each one of us and continues His life through us. Jesus wants our human nature to be as completely at His disposal as was His sacred humanity during His life in the world.
Jesus said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 -
If Jesus Christ is not presence in the Holy Eucharist as our spiritual food and strength, as our love and life, the work of redemption might have been all in vain for us. Only Jesus Christ flesh and blood can unite heaven and earth. The stream of His blood and flesh flows on and shall flow till the end of time.
Jesus answered:
'I tell you most solemnly,
you are not looking for me
because you have seen the signs
but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
Do not work for food that cannot last,
but work for food that endures to eternal life,
the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you,
for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.'
Then they said to him, 'What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?' Jesus gave them this answer, 'This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.' So they said, 'What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you? What work will you do? Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat,' Jesus answered:
'I tell you most solemnly,
it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven,
it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven,
the true bread;
for the bread of God
is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.'
'Sir,' they said 'give us that bread always.' Jesus answered:
'I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me, will never be hungry;
he who believes in me will never thirst.
But, as I have told you,
you can see me and still you do not believe.
All that............
Meanwhile the Jews were complaining to each other about him because he had said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.'...Jesus said in reply, 'Stop complaining to each other.'
'No one can come to me
unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me,
....... I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate the manna in the dessert
and they are dead;
but this is the bread that comes down from heaven,
so that a man may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I shall give
is my flesh, for the life of the world.'
Then the Jews started arguing with one another: 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' they said, Jesus replied:
'I tell you most solemnly,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood,
you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate:
that are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.'
Jesus taught this doctrine at Capernaum, in the synagogue. After hearing it, many of his followers said, 'This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?' Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, 'Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?
'It is the spirit that gives life,
the flesh has nothing to offer.
The words I have spoken to you are spirit
and they are life.' - John 6:26-71 -
The flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ continues to flow from heaven to the earth and from earth back to heaven. Holy Eucharist is the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ from which "grace for grace" comes to us. This is a great mystery. "Indeed, from his fulness we have, all of us, received - yes, grace in return for grace." - John 1:16 -
Holy Eucharist, or Holy Mass, or Holy Communion is the Completion, as the harvest is the completion of the process begun with the sowing of the seed. Sacrifice requires the sacrificial meal. Sacrifice is also prayer, the attempt to become one with God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - the Holy Trinity - belong together like Faith, Hope, and Love. These cannot be separated.
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Friday, June 15, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
THE REAL PRESENCE OF THE GLORIFIED CHRIST
Memorial, sacrifice, banquet. This is the fullness and plenitude of the Eucharistic mystery. Or better still, we should speak of the banquet of the sacrificial memorial. We have already pointed out above that it would be an exercise in futility to try and establish an internal priority, a sort of 'hierarchy of truths' among these three aspects of the Eucharist, for all three are equally essential and none of them should be stressed at the expense of the other two. It is a harmonious blend of all three that will give us the heart of Eucharist. Maybe in the past, and probably as an unconscious anti-Protestant reaction, not only the average Catholic catechism, but even the official Catholic position emanating from the center tended to lay an exaggerated stress on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, leaving the memorial dimension and to a minor extent even the meal aspect, somewhat in the shadows.
The realization of her own past mistakes often leads the Church to a certain pendulum reaction in the opposite direction, and this seems to have happened in the present case. For a few years after Vatican II the Church witnessed one such sudden swing from an over insistence on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist to an almost obsessive preponderance of the banquet dimension. Some would even go to the extent of banning the sacrificial dimension altogether, to concentrate exclusively on the meal aspect. They would thus turn the Eucharist into a fraternal meal, a horizontal get together meant to foster unity and brotherhood, with the vertical, God-centered dimension practically forgotten and almost entirely neglected.
The remedy was even worse than the disease. The Eucharist can by no means be reduced to a sacrifice, a vertical self-offering to God, but much less can it be equated with a fraternal banquet. Extremes and exclusive positions are seldom correct. The Eucharist is certainly and most essentially - as we have seen above - a sacrificial memorial of Christ's death and resurrection. But it is also, and emphatically, a meal, a banquet, for it is a rather peculiar memorial which is celebrated under the form of bread and wine. It is plainly an edible and drinkable memorial and if this aspect of eventual consumption is left out, the memorial sacrifice is thereby crippled. This kind of edible sacrificial memorial leads necessarily to communion and communion is a consumption of the sacrificial victim previously offered to God. These three essential aspects - sacrifice, memorial, communion - are like three links in the same chain, closely intertwined and inseparable. Hence, the Eucharistic repast is by no means the passive reception of the sacrament, but rather the active participation of the faithful in the fullness of the sacrificial act.
The Eucharistic banquet is not the consumption of a symbol but rather the internal assimilation of divine life, imparted to the communicant by the transfigured Lord, Eucharistically present under bread and wine. The reality celebrated implies not only the sacramental presence of a past salvific event, but also the real, substantial presence of the very person whose salvific action is commemorated. The Jewish Passover brought home powerfully under the veil of sacramental symbols the past event of the Egyptian deliverance, making the celebrating Jewish community a sharer in the effects of that salvific act, but there was no real presence of any kind. Whereas now in the Eucharist the central mystery of our salvation is rendered symbolically present, and in addition to this the very person of Jesus, beyond the grasp of death and resplendent in his heavenly glory, becomes really present. It is a sacrificial memorial that is climaxed by a real, transfigured presence, a presence which is destined to act within the body of the communicant.
Until fairly recently, the common opinion held the sixth chapter of John's Gospel to be but a distant promise of the Eucharist by Jesus himself which would be fulfilled at the end of His life. It was said that John is the only evangelist that, surprisingly, does not breath a word on such a central event as the institution of the Eucharist. Jesus' so-called farewell discourse in the context of the Last Supper is certainly long, as long as it is profound and inspiring, but oddly enough, it does not contain one word of the Eucharist. The narrative of the 'washing of the feet' left out by the Synoptic and Paul is mentioned and given due emphasis by John; whereas the institution of the Eucharist, prominently mentioned by the other three evangelists, is apparently passed over in silence by John. Why this puzzling omission?
In reality there is neither omission nor promise. For John does speak of the Eucharist; in fact, he devotes to it one full. long chapter, which is a clear indication of the importance he attaches to it. The so-called 'promise' contained in John 6 is in reality not a promise at all but rather the fullness of the Eucharistic reality - only that John is not primarily a historian concerned above all with the accurate chronology of historical events. He does mention the institution of the Eucharist, but in 'the wrong place; as it were, not in the context of the Supper, shortly before the passion narrative, but rather and for reasons of his own, in the sixth chapter. This chapter, as we shall see presently, is not the faint glow of dawn - a promise - but rather the fullness of the midday sun. It is the presence of the bread of life that came down from heaven to instill divine life into the hearts of men, "that they may have life and have it abundantly." - John 10:10 -
John 6 is a most beautiful, profound chapter that contains an inexhaustible supply of spiritual nourishment. Fortunately gone is the time when such a jewel of spiritual literature used to be a bone of contention between Catholics and Protestants, the former emphasizing strongly the Eucharistic content of the passage and the latter denying it with equal vehemence. What is really John's own intention in this chapter? Is he laying stress on the reality of faith only, as some of the early Protestants contended, or is he giving us a full treasure on the Eucharist, as Catholics have traditionally maintained? Both sides were partly right and partly wrong. They were both right in what they affirmed and badly wrong in what they denied.
The "bread of life" theme which runs throughout the chapter does not refer to the Eucharist always and everywhere (that was a Catholic mistake, both exegetical and pastoral). But neither can John's emphatic statements be reduced to the sapiential theme of faith (and this was the Protestant error). A fuller, more objective study of the entire passage, in a calmer atmosphere and away from sterile polemics, has finally yielded a rich harvest of mutual understanding and peaceful agreement. The theme of faith is markedly present, and to this extent Protestants were undoubtedly right; the sacramental, Eucharistic meaning should also be given equal prominence, and to this extent the Catholic position was also correct. The danger arose when each side chose to insist exclusively either on faith or on the Eucharist, making a choice that was not John's. Why select arbitrarily only one of the two themes when in reality both are present?
BY REV. FR. LUIS M. BERMEJO S.J.
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Memorial, sacrifice, banquet. This is the fullness and plenitude of the Eucharistic mystery. Or better still, we should speak of the banquet of the sacrificial memorial. We have already pointed out above that it would be an exercise in futility to try and establish an internal priority, a sort of 'hierarchy of truths' among these three aspects of the Eucharist, for all three are equally essential and none of them should be stressed at the expense of the other two. It is a harmonious blend of all three that will give us the heart of Eucharist. Maybe in the past, and probably as an unconscious anti-Protestant reaction, not only the average Catholic catechism, but even the official Catholic position emanating from the center tended to lay an exaggerated stress on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, leaving the memorial dimension and to a minor extent even the meal aspect, somewhat in the shadows.
The realization of her own past mistakes often leads the Church to a certain pendulum reaction in the opposite direction, and this seems to have happened in the present case. For a few years after Vatican II the Church witnessed one such sudden swing from an over insistence on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist to an almost obsessive preponderance of the banquet dimension. Some would even go to the extent of banning the sacrificial dimension altogether, to concentrate exclusively on the meal aspect. They would thus turn the Eucharist into a fraternal meal, a horizontal get together meant to foster unity and brotherhood, with the vertical, God-centered dimension practically forgotten and almost entirely neglected.
The remedy was even worse than the disease. The Eucharist can by no means be reduced to a sacrifice, a vertical self-offering to God, but much less can it be equated with a fraternal banquet. Extremes and exclusive positions are seldom correct. The Eucharist is certainly and most essentially - as we have seen above - a sacrificial memorial of Christ's death and resurrection. But it is also, and emphatically, a meal, a banquet, for it is a rather peculiar memorial which is celebrated under the form of bread and wine. It is plainly an edible and drinkable memorial and if this aspect of eventual consumption is left out, the memorial sacrifice is thereby crippled. This kind of edible sacrificial memorial leads necessarily to communion and communion is a consumption of the sacrificial victim previously offered to God. These three essential aspects - sacrifice, memorial, communion - are like three links in the same chain, closely intertwined and inseparable. Hence, the Eucharistic repast is by no means the passive reception of the sacrament, but rather the active participation of the faithful in the fullness of the sacrificial act.
The Eucharistic banquet is not the consumption of a symbol but rather the internal assimilation of divine life, imparted to the communicant by the transfigured Lord, Eucharistically present under bread and wine. The reality celebrated implies not only the sacramental presence of a past salvific event, but also the real, substantial presence of the very person whose salvific action is commemorated. The Jewish Passover brought home powerfully under the veil of sacramental symbols the past event of the Egyptian deliverance, making the celebrating Jewish community a sharer in the effects of that salvific act, but there was no real presence of any kind. Whereas now in the Eucharist the central mystery of our salvation is rendered symbolically present, and in addition to this the very person of Jesus, beyond the grasp of death and resplendent in his heavenly glory, becomes really present. It is a sacrificial memorial that is climaxed by a real, transfigured presence, a presence which is destined to act within the body of the communicant.
Until fairly recently, the common opinion held the sixth chapter of John's Gospel to be but a distant promise of the Eucharist by Jesus himself which would be fulfilled at the end of His life. It was said that John is the only evangelist that, surprisingly, does not breath a word on such a central event as the institution of the Eucharist. Jesus' so-called farewell discourse in the context of the Last Supper is certainly long, as long as it is profound and inspiring, but oddly enough, it does not contain one word of the Eucharist. The narrative of the 'washing of the feet' left out by the Synoptic and Paul is mentioned and given due emphasis by John; whereas the institution of the Eucharist, prominently mentioned by the other three evangelists, is apparently passed over in silence by John. Why this puzzling omission?
In reality there is neither omission nor promise. For John does speak of the Eucharist; in fact, he devotes to it one full. long chapter, which is a clear indication of the importance he attaches to it. The so-called 'promise' contained in John 6 is in reality not a promise at all but rather the fullness of the Eucharistic reality - only that John is not primarily a historian concerned above all with the accurate chronology of historical events. He does mention the institution of the Eucharist, but in 'the wrong place; as it were, not in the context of the Supper, shortly before the passion narrative, but rather and for reasons of his own, in the sixth chapter. This chapter, as we shall see presently, is not the faint glow of dawn - a promise - but rather the fullness of the midday sun. It is the presence of the bread of life that came down from heaven to instill divine life into the hearts of men, "that they may have life and have it abundantly." - John 10:10 -
John 6 is a most beautiful, profound chapter that contains an inexhaustible supply of spiritual nourishment. Fortunately gone is the time when such a jewel of spiritual literature used to be a bone of contention between Catholics and Protestants, the former emphasizing strongly the Eucharistic content of the passage and the latter denying it with equal vehemence. What is really John's own intention in this chapter? Is he laying stress on the reality of faith only, as some of the early Protestants contended, or is he giving us a full treasure on the Eucharist, as Catholics have traditionally maintained? Both sides were partly right and partly wrong. They were both right in what they affirmed and badly wrong in what they denied.
The "bread of life" theme which runs throughout the chapter does not refer to the Eucharist always and everywhere (that was a Catholic mistake, both exegetical and pastoral). But neither can John's emphatic statements be reduced to the sapiential theme of faith (and this was the Protestant error). A fuller, more objective study of the entire passage, in a calmer atmosphere and away from sterile polemics, has finally yielded a rich harvest of mutual understanding and peaceful agreement. The theme of faith is markedly present, and to this extent Protestants were undoubtedly right; the sacramental, Eucharistic meaning should also be given equal prominence, and to this extent the Catholic position was also correct. The danger arose when each side chose to insist exclusively either on faith or on the Eucharist, making a choice that was not John's. Why select arbitrarily only one of the two themes when in reality both are present?
BY REV. FR. LUIS M. BERMEJO S.J.
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Saturday, June 9, 2012
"Holy Spirit" is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify with the Father and the Son. The Church has received this name from the Lord and professes it in the Baptism of her new children.
The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of him who is personally God's breath, the divine Spirit. On the other hand, "Spirit" and "Holy" are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy and theological language designate the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation with other uses of the terms "spirit" and "holy." - CCC 691 - Matt. 28:19; John 3:5-8 -
When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the "Paraclete" literally, "he who is called to one's side" ad-vocatus. "Paraclete" is commonly translated by "consoler" and Jesus is the first consoler. The Lord also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth." - CCC 692 - John 14:16,26, 15:26, 16:7,13; 1John 2:1 -
Besides the proper name of "Holy Spirit" which is most frequently used in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles, we also find in Saint Paul the titles: the Spirit of the promise, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, and the Spirit of God - and, in Saint Peter, the Spirit of glory. - CCC 693 - 1Cor. 6:11; 7:40; 2Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9,14-15, 15:19; Gal. 3:14, 4:6; Eph. 1:13; 1Peter 4:14 -
WATER - The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of new birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As "by one Spirit we were all baptized" so we are also "made to drink of one Spirit." Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water up from Christ crucified as its source and welling up in us to eternal life. - CCC 694 - 1Cor. 10:4, 12:13; John 4:10-14, 7:38, 19:34; 1John 5:8; Ex. 17:1-6; Isaiah 55:1; Zech. 14:8; Rev. 21:6, 22:17 -
ANOINTING - The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called "chrismation" in the Church of the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus, Christ (in Hebrew "messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, preeminently king David. But Jesus is God's Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ". The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord. The Spirit filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving. Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Now, fully established as "Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until "the saints" constitute - in their union with the humanity of the Son of God - that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ": the whole Christ"; in Saint Augustine's expression. - CCC 695 - 1John 2:20,27; 2Cor. 1:21; Ex. 30:22-32; 1Sam. 16:13; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 2:11,26-27, 4:1,18-19, 6:19, 8:46; Rom.1:4, 8:11; Eph. 4:13; Acts 2:36 -
FIRE - While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions. The prayer of the prophet Elijah, who "arose like fire" and whose "word burned like a torch" brought down fire from heaven on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. This event was a "figure" of the fire of the Holy Spirit, who transform what he touches. John the Baptist, who goes "before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah", proclaims Christ as the one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Jesus will say of the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" In the form of tongues "as of fire" the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself. The spiritual tradition has retained this symbolism of fire as one of the most expressive images of the Holy Spirit's actions. "Do not quench the Spirit." - CCC 696 - Sirach 48:1; 1Kings 18:38-39; Luke 1:17, 3:16, 12:49; Acts 2:3-4; 1Thes. 5:19 -
CLOUD and LIGHT - These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of his glory - with Moses on Mount Sinai, at the tent of meeting, and during the wandering in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple. In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. The Spirit comes upon the Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might conceive and give birth to Jesus. On the mountain of Transfiguration, the Spirit in the "cloud came and overshadowed" Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John, and "a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" Finally, the cloud took Jesus out of the sight of the disciples on the day of his ascension, and will reveal him as Son of Man in glory on the day of his final coming. - CCC 697 - Ex. 24:15-18, 33:9-10, 40:36-38; 1Kings 8:10-12; 1Cor. 10:1-2; Luke 1:35, 9:34-35, 21:27; Acts 1:9 -
The SEAL is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set his seal" on Christ and also seals us in him. Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis) has been used in some theological traditions to express the indelible "character" imprinted by these three unrepeatable sacraments. - CCC 698 - John 6:27; 2Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13, 4:30 -
THE HAND - Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on them. In his name the apostles will do the same. Even more pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. The 'Letter to the Hebrews' lists the imposition of hands among the "fundamental elements" of its teaching. The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in its sacramental epicleses. - CCC 699 - Mark 6:5, 8:23, 10:16, 16:18; Acts 5:12, 8:17-19, 13:3, 14:3, 19:6; Heb. 6:2 -
THE FINGER - "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons." If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God" then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts." The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's right hand." - CCC 700 - Luke 11:20; Ex. 31:18; 2Cor. 3:3 -
THE DOVE - At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of the dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized. In certain Church, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit. - CCC 701 - Gen. 8:8-12; Matt. 3:16 -
Page 2
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of him who is personally God's breath, the divine Spirit. On the other hand, "Spirit" and "Holy" are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy and theological language designate the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation with other uses of the terms "spirit" and "holy." - CCC 691 - Matt. 28:19; John 3:5-8 -
When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the "Paraclete" literally, "he who is called to one's side" ad-vocatus. "Paraclete" is commonly translated by "consoler" and Jesus is the first consoler. The Lord also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth." - CCC 692 - John 14:16,26, 15:26, 16:7,13; 1John 2:1 -
Besides the proper name of "Holy Spirit" which is most frequently used in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles, we also find in Saint Paul the titles: the Spirit of the promise, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, and the Spirit of God - and, in Saint Peter, the Spirit of glory. - CCC 693 - 1Cor. 6:11; 7:40; 2Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9,14-15, 15:19; Gal. 3:14, 4:6; Eph. 1:13; 1Peter 4:14 -
WATER - The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of new birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As "by one Spirit we were all baptized" so we are also "made to drink of one Spirit." Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water up from Christ crucified as its source and welling up in us to eternal life. - CCC 694 - 1Cor. 10:4, 12:13; John 4:10-14, 7:38, 19:34; 1John 5:8; Ex. 17:1-6; Isaiah 55:1; Zech. 14:8; Rev. 21:6, 22:17 -
ANOINTING - The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called "chrismation" in the Church of the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus, Christ (in Hebrew "messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, preeminently king David. But Jesus is God's Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ". The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord. The Spirit filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving. Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Now, fully established as "Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until "the saints" constitute - in their union with the humanity of the Son of God - that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ": the whole Christ"; in Saint Augustine's expression. - CCC 695 - 1John 2:20,27; 2Cor. 1:21; Ex. 30:22-32; 1Sam. 16:13; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 2:11,26-27, 4:1,18-19, 6:19, 8:46; Rom.1:4, 8:11; Eph. 4:13; Acts 2:36 -
FIRE - While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions. The prayer of the prophet Elijah, who "arose like fire" and whose "word burned like a torch" brought down fire from heaven on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. This event was a "figure" of the fire of the Holy Spirit, who transform what he touches. John the Baptist, who goes "before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah", proclaims Christ as the one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Jesus will say of the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" In the form of tongues "as of fire" the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself. The spiritual tradition has retained this symbolism of fire as one of the most expressive images of the Holy Spirit's actions. "Do not quench the Spirit." - CCC 696 - Sirach 48:1; 1Kings 18:38-39; Luke 1:17, 3:16, 12:49; Acts 2:3-4; 1Thes. 5:19 -
CLOUD and LIGHT - These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of his glory - with Moses on Mount Sinai, at the tent of meeting, and during the wandering in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple. In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. The Spirit comes upon the Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might conceive and give birth to Jesus. On the mountain of Transfiguration, the Spirit in the "cloud came and overshadowed" Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John, and "a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" Finally, the cloud took Jesus out of the sight of the disciples on the day of his ascension, and will reveal him as Son of Man in glory on the day of his final coming. - CCC 697 - Ex. 24:15-18, 33:9-10, 40:36-38; 1Kings 8:10-12; 1Cor. 10:1-2; Luke 1:35, 9:34-35, 21:27; Acts 1:9 -
The SEAL is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set his seal" on Christ and also seals us in him. Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis) has been used in some theological traditions to express the indelible "character" imprinted by these three unrepeatable sacraments. - CCC 698 - John 6:27; 2Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13, 4:30 -
THE HAND - Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on them. In his name the apostles will do the same. Even more pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. The 'Letter to the Hebrews' lists the imposition of hands among the "fundamental elements" of its teaching. The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in its sacramental epicleses. - CCC 699 - Mark 6:5, 8:23, 10:16, 16:18; Acts 5:12, 8:17-19, 13:3, 14:3, 19:6; Heb. 6:2 -
THE FINGER - "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons." If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God" then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts." The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's right hand." - CCC 700 - Luke 11:20; Ex. 31:18; 2Cor. 3:3 -
THE DOVE - At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of the dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized. In certain Church, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit. - CCC 701 - Gen. 8:8-12; Matt. 3:16 -
Page 2
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Friday, June 8, 2012
"No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit." "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!" This knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit: to be in touch with Christ, we must first have been touched by the Holy Spirit. He comes to meet us and kindles faith in us. By virtue of our Baptism, the first sacrament of the faith, the Holy Spirit in the Church communicates to us, intimately and personally, the life that originates in the Father and is offered to us in the Son. - CCC 683 - 1Cor. 12:2; Gal. 4:6 -
Baptism gives us the grace of new birth in God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. For those who bear God's Spirit are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son presents them to the Father, and the Father confers incorruptibility on them. And it is impossible to see God's Son without the Spirit, and no one can approach the Father without the Son, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of God's Son is obtained through the Holy Spirit. - Saint Irenaeus -
Through his grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to "know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ." But the Spirit is the last of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be revealed. - CCC 684 - John 17:3 -
The Old Testament proclaimed the Father clearly, but the Son more obscurely. The New Testament revealed the Son, and gave us a glimpse of the divinity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit dwells among us and grants us a clearer vision of himself. It was not prudent, when the divinity of the Father had not yet been confessed, to proclaim the Son openly and, when the divinity of the Son was not yet admitted, to add the Holy Spirit as an extra burden, to speak somewhat daringly... By advancing and progressing "from the glory," the light of the Trinity will shine in ever more brilliant rays. - Saint Gregory of Nazianzus -
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to profess that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son: "with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified." For this reason, the divine mystery of the Holy Spirit was already treated in the context of Trinitarian "theology". Here, however, we have to do with the Holy Spirit only in the divine "economy." - CCC 685 -
The Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our salvation. But in these "end times" ushered in by the Son's redeeming Incarnation, the Spirit is revealed and given, recognized and welcomed as a person. Now can this divine plan, accomplished in Christ, the firstborn and head of the new creation, be embodied in mankind by the outpouring of the Spirit: as the Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. - CCC 686 -
"No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." Now God's Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself. The Spirit who "has spoken through the prophets" makes us hear the Father's Word, but we do not hear the Spirit himself. We know him only in the movement by which he reveals the Word to us and disposes us to welcome him in faith. The Spirit of truth who "unveils" Christ to us "will not speak on his own." Such properly divine self-effacement explains why "the world cannot receive [him] because it neither sees him nor knows him," while those believe in Christ know the Spirit because he dwells with them. - CCC 687 - 1Cor. 2:11; John 16:13; 14:17 -
The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit:
- in the Sacred Scriptures he inspired;
- in the Tradition, to which the Church Fathers are always timely witnesses;
- in the Church's Magisterium, which he assists;
- in the sacramental liturgy, through his words and symbols, in which the Holy Spirit puts us into communion with Christ;
- in prayer, wherein he intercedes for us;
- in the charisms and ministries by which the Church is built up;
- in the signs of apostolic and missionary life;
- in the witness of saints through whom he manifests his holiness and continues the work of salvation. - CCC 688 -
The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly God. Consubstiantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstiantial and indivisible, the Church's faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him. - CCC 689 - Gal. 4:6 -
Jesus is Christ, "anointed" because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this fullness. When Christ is finally glorified, he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicated to them his glory, that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him. From that time on, this joint mission will be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live in him: - CCC 690 - John 3:34, 7:39, 17:22, 16:14 -
The notion of anointing suggests... that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith. - Saint Gregory of Nyssa -
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Baptism gives us the grace of new birth in God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. For those who bear God's Spirit are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son presents them to the Father, and the Father confers incorruptibility on them. And it is impossible to see God's Son without the Spirit, and no one can approach the Father without the Son, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of God's Son is obtained through the Holy Spirit. - Saint Irenaeus -
Through his grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to "know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ." But the Spirit is the last of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be revealed. - CCC 684 - John 17:3 -
The Old Testament proclaimed the Father clearly, but the Son more obscurely. The New Testament revealed the Son, and gave us a glimpse of the divinity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit dwells among us and grants us a clearer vision of himself. It was not prudent, when the divinity of the Father had not yet been confessed, to proclaim the Son openly and, when the divinity of the Son was not yet admitted, to add the Holy Spirit as an extra burden, to speak somewhat daringly... By advancing and progressing "from the glory," the light of the Trinity will shine in ever more brilliant rays. - Saint Gregory of Nazianzus -
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to profess that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son: "with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified." For this reason, the divine mystery of the Holy Spirit was already treated in the context of Trinitarian "theology". Here, however, we have to do with the Holy Spirit only in the divine "economy." - CCC 685 -
The Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our salvation. But in these "end times" ushered in by the Son's redeeming Incarnation, the Spirit is revealed and given, recognized and welcomed as a person. Now can this divine plan, accomplished in Christ, the firstborn and head of the new creation, be embodied in mankind by the outpouring of the Spirit: as the Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. - CCC 686 -
"No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." Now God's Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself. The Spirit who "has spoken through the prophets" makes us hear the Father's Word, but we do not hear the Spirit himself. We know him only in the movement by which he reveals the Word to us and disposes us to welcome him in faith. The Spirit of truth who "unveils" Christ to us "will not speak on his own." Such properly divine self-effacement explains why "the world cannot receive [him] because it neither sees him nor knows him," while those believe in Christ know the Spirit because he dwells with them. - CCC 687 - 1Cor. 2:11; John 16:13; 14:17 -
The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit:
- in the Sacred Scriptures he inspired;
- in the Tradition, to which the Church Fathers are always timely witnesses;
- in the Church's Magisterium, which he assists;
- in the sacramental liturgy, through his words and symbols, in which the Holy Spirit puts us into communion with Christ;
- in prayer, wherein he intercedes for us;
- in the charisms and ministries by which the Church is built up;
- in the signs of apostolic and missionary life;
- in the witness of saints through whom he manifests his holiness and continues the work of salvation. - CCC 688 -
The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly God. Consubstiantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstiantial and indivisible, the Church's faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him. - CCC 689 - Gal. 4:6 -
Jesus is Christ, "anointed" because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this fullness. When Christ is finally glorified, he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicated to them his glory, that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him. From that time on, this joint mission will be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live in him: - CCC 690 - John 3:34, 7:39, 17:22, 16:14 -
The notion of anointing suggests... that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith. - Saint Gregory of Nyssa -
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Thursday, June 7, 2012
To live in the Spirit is to be born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus said, 'How can a grown man be born? Can he go back into his mother's womb and be born again?' Jesus replied:
'I tell you most solemnly,
unless a man is born through water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God:
what is born of the flesh is flesh;
what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be surprised when I say:
You must be born from above.
The wind blows wherever it pleases;
you hear its sound,
but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit.' - John 3:4-8 -
Most of us have the intellectual life, good moral character, sound behaviour, and amiable qualities of disposition, but sadly, without the new life of the Holy Spirit.
From now onward, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God's work. - 2Cor. 5:16-17 -
The Holy Spirit, [Sanctifier] as a divine person, was united with the Father, [Creator] the Lord Jesus Christ [Saviour/Redeemer] - The Holy Trinity - When our soul or heart truly converted to God, yields itself wholly to His love and becomes living Spirit, who dwells in us. Henceforth, our life is spiritual and divine. Therefore, it is not we who live, but the Lord Jesus Christ who lives in us; and we draw life, strength, health, love, joy, peace and all the fruits of the good Spirit from Him through the Holy Spirit.
Let me put it like this: if you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit, the Spirit is totally against such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are so opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions. If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you.
When self-indulgences is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires. Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious. - Gal. 5:16-26 -
To live in the Spirit is to be Sanctified by the Spirit, to receive the Spirit of holiness, and thus be delivered from the power of sin.
The reason, therefore, why those who are in Christ Jesus are not condemned, is that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. God has done what the Law because of our unspiritual nature, was unable to do. - Rom. 8:1-3 -
If we live and walk in the Spirit, we have to acknowledge that the Spirit is presence and abiding in us, trust Him, depends of Him in the emergencies of life, called upon Him in every time of need or crisis. We must not only believe but unfailingly trusting the Holy Spirit and surely He will respond to our needs. Remember! the Holy Spirit cannot and will not dwell in an unconverted soul or heart, but He can and does work in the hearts of the unconverted, producing conviction and conversion of heart and leading them to a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Having led the soul to Christ, the Holy Spirit now becomes the personal Sanctifier, Teacher, Comforter of the believer. Our sanctification has been purchased for us through the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying. - Heb. 10:10,14 -
Sanctification is not a mere human experience but it is the reception of Christ as the very substance of our spiritual life. For example, it is not like a person offering assistance or help solving a personal problem or loan us money to pay debts or start a business, of course, in return for a favour. It is Himself assuming it with all its burdens and liabilities, while we become subordinate and receive all our needs from Him.
The Law, of course, as we know, is spiritual; but I am unspiritual; I have been sold as a slave to sin. I cannot understand my own behaviour. I fail to carry out the things I want to do, and I find myself.....
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
In short, it is I who with my reason serve the Law of God, and no less I who serve in my unspiritual self the law of sin. - Rom. 7:14-25 -
In conclusion, to live in the Spirit and have the Spirit as a divine person living in us, first and importantly, we need to be baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and for those who already been baptized, he or she must observed and practices all the commands the Lord Jesus Christ gave us. And know that He is with us always; yes, to the end of time, because 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Lord Jesus Christ.' - Matt. 28:16-20 -
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Nicodemus said, 'How can a grown man be born? Can he go back into his mother's womb and be born again?' Jesus replied:
'I tell you most solemnly,
unless a man is born through water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God:
what is born of the flesh is flesh;
what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be surprised when I say:
You must be born from above.
The wind blows wherever it pleases;
you hear its sound,
but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit.' - John 3:4-8 -
Most of us have the intellectual life, good moral character, sound behaviour, and amiable qualities of disposition, but sadly, without the new life of the Holy Spirit.
From now onward, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God's work. - 2Cor. 5:16-17 -
The Holy Spirit, [Sanctifier] as a divine person, was united with the Father, [Creator] the Lord Jesus Christ [Saviour/Redeemer] - The Holy Trinity - When our soul or heart truly converted to God, yields itself wholly to His love and becomes living Spirit, who dwells in us. Henceforth, our life is spiritual and divine. Therefore, it is not we who live, but the Lord Jesus Christ who lives in us; and we draw life, strength, health, love, joy, peace and all the fruits of the good Spirit from Him through the Holy Spirit.
Let me put it like this: if you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit, the Spirit is totally against such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are so opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions. If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you.
When self-indulgences is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires. Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious. - Gal. 5:16-26 -
To live in the Spirit is to be Sanctified by the Spirit, to receive the Spirit of holiness, and thus be delivered from the power of sin.
The reason, therefore, why those who are in Christ Jesus are not condemned, is that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. God has done what the Law because of our unspiritual nature, was unable to do. - Rom. 8:1-3 -
If we live and walk in the Spirit, we have to acknowledge that the Spirit is presence and abiding in us, trust Him, depends of Him in the emergencies of life, called upon Him in every time of need or crisis. We must not only believe but unfailingly trusting the Holy Spirit and surely He will respond to our needs. Remember! the Holy Spirit cannot and will not dwell in an unconverted soul or heart, but He can and does work in the hearts of the unconverted, producing conviction and conversion of heart and leading them to a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Having led the soul to Christ, the Holy Spirit now becomes the personal Sanctifier, Teacher, Comforter of the believer. Our sanctification has been purchased for us through the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying. - Heb. 10:10,14 -
Sanctification is not a mere human experience but it is the reception of Christ as the very substance of our spiritual life. For example, it is not like a person offering assistance or help solving a personal problem or loan us money to pay debts or start a business, of course, in return for a favour. It is Himself assuming it with all its burdens and liabilities, while we become subordinate and receive all our needs from Him.
The Law, of course, as we know, is spiritual; but I am unspiritual; I have been sold as a slave to sin. I cannot understand my own behaviour. I fail to carry out the things I want to do, and I find myself.....
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
In short, it is I who with my reason serve the Law of God, and no less I who serve in my unspiritual self the law of sin. - Rom. 7:14-25 -
In conclusion, to live in the Spirit and have the Spirit as a divine person living in us, first and importantly, we need to be baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and for those who already been baptized, he or she must observed and practices all the commands the Lord Jesus Christ gave us. And know that He is with us always; yes, to the end of time, because 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Lord Jesus Christ.' - Matt. 28:16-20 -
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Monday, May 14, 2012
The ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ set in motion the coming of the Holy Spirit through whom the work of Jesus would continues. As what the Father had promised. "It is" He had said "what you have heard Me speak about: John baptized with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. God determined that the presence of Jesus Christ would be replaced by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after the Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. 'It is' he had said 'what you have heard me speak about: John baptized with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
Now having met together, they asked him, 'Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?' He replied, 'It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth,'
As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, 'Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you seen him go there.' - Acts 1:1-11 -
The fact that Saint Paul used an Aramaic expression in addressing the Gentile Christians of Corinth indicates that 'Maranatha' had become a familiar expression of Christian hope - a watchword of the imminent "Second Coming" of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse on him. 'Maran atha.' - 1Cor. 16:22 - Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after the Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. 'It is' he had said 'what you have heard me speak about: John baptized with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
Now having met together, they asked him, 'Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?' He replied, 'It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth,'
As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, 'Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you seen him go there.' - Acts 1:1-11 -
The fact that Saint Paul used an Aramaic expression in addressing the Gentile Christians of Corinth indicates that 'Maranatha' had become a familiar expression of Christian hope - a watchword of the imminent "Second Coming" of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse on him. 'Maran atha.' - 1Cor. 16:22 - Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Saturday, May 12, 2012
America's greatest enemy is not from without, but from within, and that enemy is hate: hatred of races, peoples, classes, and religions. If America ever dies, it will not be through conquest, but suicide.
Tolerance pleas will not remedy this hate, for why should any creature on God's earth be merely tolerated? There is more tragedy than we suspect in the fact that we have become most united as a nation at a moment when we have developed a hate against certain foreign countries.
Hate can be eradicated only by creating a new focus, and that is possible only by charity. By charity we do not mean kindness, philanthropy, generosity, or big heartedness, but a supernatural gift of God by which we are enabled to love Him above all things for His own sake alone, and in that love, to love all that He loves.
The first quality of charity to be noted is that it resides in the will, not in the emotions or passions or senses. In other words, charity does not mean to like, but to love. Liking is in the feelings or emotions; loving is in the will. A little boy cannot help disliking spinach, as perhaps you cannot help disliking sauerkraut, and I cannot help disliking chicken. The same is true of your reactions to certain people. You cannot help feeling an emotional reaction against the egotistical, the sophisticated, and the loud, or those who run for the first seats, or those who snore in their sleep.
But through you cannot like everyone because you have no control over your physiological reactions, you can love everyone in the divine sense, for love, being in the will, can be commanded. As Our Lord said: "A new commandment I give you: that you love one another, as I have loved you." - John 13:34 -
Outwardly, your neighbor may be very unlikeable; but inwardly he is one in whom the image of God can be recreated by the kiss of charity. You can like only those who like you, but you can love those who dislike you. You can go through life liking those who like you without the love of God. Humanism is sufficient for those of our set, or for those who like to go slumming from ivory towers, but it is not enough to make us love those who apparently are not worth loving. To will to be kind when the emotion is unkind, requires a stronger dynamic than "love of humanity." To love them, we must recall that we who are not worth loving are loved by Love. "For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? - Matt. 5:46-48 -
A second feature of charity is that it is a habit, not a single act. There is a tremendous amount of sentimental romanticism associated with much human kindness. Remember the great glow you got from giving your overcoat to the beggars on the street, for assisting a blind man up the stairs, for escorting an old woman through traffic, or for contributing a ten dollar bill to relieve an indigent woman. The warmth of self-approval surged through your body, and though you never said it aloud, you did inwardly say: "Gee! I'm Okay!"
These good deeds are not to be reproved but commended. But what we wish to emphasize is that nothing has done so much harm to healthy friendliness as the belief that we ought to do one good act a day. Why one good act? What about all the other acts? Charity is a habit, not an isolated act. A husband and wife are out driving. They see a young blonde along the road side changing a tire. The husband gets out to help her. Would he have done it if the blonde were fifty? He changes the tire, dirties his clothes, cuts his finger, but is all politeness, overflowing sweetness, exuding charm. When he gets back into his own car, his heart aglow with the good deed, his wife says: "I wish you would talk that nice to me. yesterday when I asked you to bring in the milk you said: 'Are you crippled?'"
See the difference between one act and a habit? Charity is a habit, not a gush or a sentiment; it is a virtue, not an ephemeral thing of moods and impulses; it is a quality of the soul, rather than an individual good deed.
How do you judge a good piano player? By an occasional right note or by the habit or virtue of striking all the right notes? An habitually evil man every now and then may do a good deed. Gangsters endowed soup kitchens and the movies glorified them. But in Christians eyes, this did not prove they were good. Occasionally, an habitually good man may fall, but evil is the exception in his life, while it is the rule in the life of the gangster. Whether we know it or not, the actions of our daily life are fixing our character for good or for evil. The things you do, the thoughts you think, the words you say, are turning you either into a saint or a devil, to be placed at either the right or the left side of the Divine Judge. If love of God and neighbor becomes a habit of your soul, you are developing heaven within you. But if hatred and evil become the habit of your soul, then you are developing hell within you. Heaven is a place where charity is eternal. In heaven there will be no faith, for then we will see God; in heaven there will be no hope, for then we will possess God; but in heaven there will be charity, for "love endures forever."
Finally, love is universal. Translating charity's commandment into the concrete, it means that you must love your enemy as you love yourself. Does that mean that you must love Hitler as you love yourself, or the thief who stole your tires, or the woman who said you had so many wrinkles that you had to screw on your hat? It means just that. But how can you love that kind of an enemy as you love yourself?
Well, how do you love yourself? Do you like the way you look? If you did, you would not try to improve it out of a box. Did you ever wish to be anyone else? Why do you lie about your age and say you just turned thirty when you mean re-turned thirty. Do you like yourself when you develop a sense of rumour, or when you spread gossip and run down your neighbor's reputation, or when you are irritable and moody?
You do not like yourself in these moments. But at the same time, you do love yourself, and you know you do! When you come into a room you invariably pick out the softest chair; you buy yourself good clothes, treat yourself to nice presents; when anyone says you are intelligent or beautiful, you always feel that such a person is of very sound judgment. But when anyone says you are "catty" or selfish, you say they don't understand your good nature. or maybe they are "Fascists."
Thus you love yourself, and yet you do not love yourself. What you love about yourself is the person that God made; what you hate about yourself is that God-made person whom you spoiled. You liked the sinner, but you hate the sin. That is why, when you do wrong, you ask to be given another chance, or you say, "I was not my true self." But you never deny there is hope.
That is just the way Our Lord intended that you should love your enemies: love them as you love yourself, hating their sin, loving them as sinners; disliking that which blurs the divine image, loving the divine image beneath the blur, never arrogating to yourself a greater right to God's love than they, since deep in your own heart you know that no one could be less deserving of His love than you. And when you see them receiving the just due of their crimes, you do not gloat over them, but say: "There but for the grace of God go I." In this spirit, we are to understand the words of Our Lord: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who insult you. To the one who strikes you on one cheek, offer your other cheek as well. And from the one who takes your cloak, don't hold back your tunic." - Luke 6:27-29 - It is Christian to hate the evil of anti-Christians, but not without praying for these enemies that they might be saved - for God loved us when as yet we were sinners.
If, then, you bear a hatred toward anyone, overcome it by doing that person a favor. You can begin to like classical music only by listening to it, and you can make friends out of your enemies only by practicing charity. The reason you love someone else is because that person supplies your lack or fills up your void. You find in the other something you do not have: beauty, wealth, virtue, kindness, etc.
But God does not love you because you supply His lack. He finds you lovable not because, of and by yourself, you are lovable, but because He puts some of His love in you. As a mother loves her child because her nature is in the child, as the artist loves the canvas because his idea and his colored pattern is in it, so God loves you because His Power or His Nature or His Love is in some way in you.
If, then, God's love for you makes you lovable, why not put some of your love in other people and make them lovable. Where you do not find love, put it there. Love therefore all things, and all persons in God.
So long as there are poor, I am poor:
So long as there are prisons, I am a prisoner:
So long as there are sick, I am weak:
So long as there is ignorance, I must learn:
So long as there is hate, I must love.
BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN ( 1895 to 1979 )
Page 3
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 -
Tolerance pleas will not remedy this hate, for why should any creature on God's earth be merely tolerated? There is more tragedy than we suspect in the fact that we have become most united as a nation at a moment when we have developed a hate against certain foreign countries.
Hate can be eradicated only by creating a new focus, and that is possible only by charity. By charity we do not mean kindness, philanthropy, generosity, or big heartedness, but a supernatural gift of God by which we are enabled to love Him above all things for His own sake alone, and in that love, to love all that He loves.
The first quality of charity to be noted is that it resides in the will, not in the emotions or passions or senses. In other words, charity does not mean to like, but to love. Liking is in the feelings or emotions; loving is in the will. A little boy cannot help disliking spinach, as perhaps you cannot help disliking sauerkraut, and I cannot help disliking chicken. The same is true of your reactions to certain people. You cannot help feeling an emotional reaction against the egotistical, the sophisticated, and the loud, or those who run for the first seats, or those who snore in their sleep.
But through you cannot like everyone because you have no control over your physiological reactions, you can love everyone in the divine sense, for love, being in the will, can be commanded. As Our Lord said: "A new commandment I give you: that you love one another, as I have loved you." - John 13:34 -
Outwardly, your neighbor may be very unlikeable; but inwardly he is one in whom the image of God can be recreated by the kiss of charity. You can like only those who like you, but you can love those who dislike you. You can go through life liking those who like you without the love of God. Humanism is sufficient for those of our set, or for those who like to go slumming from ivory towers, but it is not enough to make us love those who apparently are not worth loving. To will to be kind when the emotion is unkind, requires a stronger dynamic than "love of humanity." To love them, we must recall that we who are not worth loving are loved by Love. "For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? - Matt. 5:46-48 -
A second feature of charity is that it is a habit, not a single act. There is a tremendous amount of sentimental romanticism associated with much human kindness. Remember the great glow you got from giving your overcoat to the beggars on the street, for assisting a blind man up the stairs, for escorting an old woman through traffic, or for contributing a ten dollar bill to relieve an indigent woman. The warmth of self-approval surged through your body, and though you never said it aloud, you did inwardly say: "Gee! I'm Okay!"
These good deeds are not to be reproved but commended. But what we wish to emphasize is that nothing has done so much harm to healthy friendliness as the belief that we ought to do one good act a day. Why one good act? What about all the other acts? Charity is a habit, not an isolated act. A husband and wife are out driving. They see a young blonde along the road side changing a tire. The husband gets out to help her. Would he have done it if the blonde were fifty? He changes the tire, dirties his clothes, cuts his finger, but is all politeness, overflowing sweetness, exuding charm. When he gets back into his own car, his heart aglow with the good deed, his wife says: "I wish you would talk that nice to me. yesterday when I asked you to bring in the milk you said: 'Are you crippled?'"
See the difference between one act and a habit? Charity is a habit, not a gush or a sentiment; it is a virtue, not an ephemeral thing of moods and impulses; it is a quality of the soul, rather than an individual good deed.
How do you judge a good piano player? By an occasional right note or by the habit or virtue of striking all the right notes? An habitually evil man every now and then may do a good deed. Gangsters endowed soup kitchens and the movies glorified them. But in Christians eyes, this did not prove they were good. Occasionally, an habitually good man may fall, but evil is the exception in his life, while it is the rule in the life of the gangster. Whether we know it or not, the actions of our daily life are fixing our character for good or for evil. The things you do, the thoughts you think, the words you say, are turning you either into a saint or a devil, to be placed at either the right or the left side of the Divine Judge. If love of God and neighbor becomes a habit of your soul, you are developing heaven within you. But if hatred and evil become the habit of your soul, then you are developing hell within you. Heaven is a place where charity is eternal. In heaven there will be no faith, for then we will see God; in heaven there will be no hope, for then we will possess God; but in heaven there will be charity, for "love endures forever."
Finally, love is universal. Translating charity's commandment into the concrete, it means that you must love your enemy as you love yourself. Does that mean that you must love Hitler as you love yourself, or the thief who stole your tires, or the woman who said you had so many wrinkles that you had to screw on your hat? It means just that. But how can you love that kind of an enemy as you love yourself?
Well, how do you love yourself? Do you like the way you look? If you did, you would not try to improve it out of a box. Did you ever wish to be anyone else? Why do you lie about your age and say you just turned thirty when you mean re-turned thirty. Do you like yourself when you develop a sense of rumour, or when you spread gossip and run down your neighbor's reputation, or when you are irritable and moody?
You do not like yourself in these moments. But at the same time, you do love yourself, and you know you do! When you come into a room you invariably pick out the softest chair; you buy yourself good clothes, treat yourself to nice presents; when anyone says you are intelligent or beautiful, you always feel that such a person is of very sound judgment. But when anyone says you are "catty" or selfish, you say they don't understand your good nature. or maybe they are "Fascists."
Thus you love yourself, and yet you do not love yourself. What you love about yourself is the person that God made; what you hate about yourself is that God-made person whom you spoiled. You liked the sinner, but you hate the sin. That is why, when you do wrong, you ask to be given another chance, or you say, "I was not my true self." But you never deny there is hope.
That is just the way Our Lord intended that you should love your enemies: love them as you love yourself, hating their sin, loving them as sinners; disliking that which blurs the divine image, loving the divine image beneath the blur, never arrogating to yourself a greater right to God's love than they, since deep in your own heart you know that no one could be less deserving of His love than you. And when you see them receiving the just due of their crimes, you do not gloat over them, but say: "There but for the grace of God go I." In this spirit, we are to understand the words of Our Lord: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who insult you. To the one who strikes you on one cheek, offer your other cheek as well. And from the one who takes your cloak, don't hold back your tunic." - Luke 6:27-29 - It is Christian to hate the evil of anti-Christians, but not without praying for these enemies that they might be saved - for God loved us when as yet we were sinners.
If, then, you bear a hatred toward anyone, overcome it by doing that person a favor. You can begin to like classical music only by listening to it, and you can make friends out of your enemies only by practicing charity. The reason you love someone else is because that person supplies your lack or fills up your void. You find in the other something you do not have: beauty, wealth, virtue, kindness, etc.
But God does not love you because you supply His lack. He finds you lovable not because, of and by yourself, you are lovable, but because He puts some of His love in you. As a mother loves her child because her nature is in the child, as the artist loves the canvas because his idea and his colored pattern is in it, so God loves you because His Power or His Nature or His Love is in some way in you.
If, then, God's love for you makes you lovable, why not put some of your love in other people and make them lovable. Where you do not find love, put it there. Love therefore all things, and all persons in God.
So long as there are poor, I am poor:
So long as there are prisons, I am a prisoner:
So long as there are sick, I am weak:
So long as there is ignorance, I must learn:
So long as there is hate, I must love.
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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