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One of the biggest reasons I turned away from my Faith after tragedy struck was because I was under the impression that Christianity was synonymous with an easy life.
I believed Jesus had taken care of everything back in the day and His followers afterwards would live the “good” life. Good meaning easy, comfortable, pleasant, and safe.
Then something bad happened to me and I was a supposed “good” Christian, so this must mean that God had abandoned me. I had never been talked to about suffering, sacrifice, evil, and free will in the context of my Faith and, consequently, I was left reeling.
You cannot sanitize the Faith by stripping Jesus off the Crucifix and handing out bland platitudes to people that mean nothing when hard times comes. And make no mistake, they will come.
You cannot talk about Christianity without talking about suffering. You just can’t. St. Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity, shows us that the path of a Christian is not lined with ease and he was just the first.
When all we give people is nice guy Jesus, we give them just that—a nice guy.
Christianity has got to be understood through the Risen Lord, yes. But, it also has to be understood through the Crucified Lord, as well. Because it was Christ’s suffering that was redemptive and His Resurrection was the victory over evil.
We won’t always feel like the victory is ours when we go through trials and suffering, but if we look to Christ on the Cross, we are reminded that our suffering united to Christ’s suffering can made into good and be sanctifying.
Live the Faith boldly, Catholic Pilgrims, and travel well.
Yesterday, I watched a video of Charlie Kirk debating a cocky Oxford student on the topic of religion. Charlie always impresses me with his ability to keep calm, especially when the other guy is agitated and loud. Anyway, I won't go into all the details, as the video was rather long, but the basic idea was that non-religious Oxford man was trying to say that orthodox Christians are wrong in how we interpret Scripture when it comes to the sinfulness of homo$exual acts. The guy was trying to say that it was "all a linguistic error," you see. Charlie did a very good job of explaining what the verses actual say, but the guy wasn't really listening. At one point, though, seeing that trying to explain Scripture wasn't working, Charlie appealed to Tradition. This shocked me, as Charlie Kirk is a pretty staunch Protestant. He even acknowledged, as much, in his argument when he said, 'Now, I'm a Protestant, but we have 2000 years of Tradition..." I was like, "Whoa," and kept eating my popcorn with wide-eyed amusement. However, Mr. Oxford Man brushed that off. And then, the debate turned into both men trying to prove whose interpretation was correct. Round and round it went until the moderator cut it off. Charlie is close. So close. What he's missing is that third pillar--the teaching authority of the Church--the Magisterium. Mr. Oxford Guy has no authority to tell anybody what Scripture means. Protestantism lacks the Magisterium, which is why you have hundreds of denominations all saying THEY know what Scripture says. Once you chuck the authority given to Christ's Church by Christ, well, this is the inevitable outcome. As a Catholic, I do not nor should I, appeal to my own authority on interpretation. I should appeal to the authority of the Church given to us by Christ. The Church that canonized the Scriptures, passed on the Traditions when the Scriptures weren't yet compiled, and has authority from Christ. Like I said, he's close. He's got two of the pillars. Let's pray that he, and others in the same boat, find that third pillar, Catholic Pilgrims. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Thursday. *Pillars are from Laodicea in modern day Turkey
Continue ReadingLove, for it to be true, must be like a refiner’s fire. It must help burn off weakness and purge you of sin. If God is nothing more than a distant deity that asks nothing of us, we will never become who He created us to be. If your spouse never tries to raise the bar for you, never calls you out of sin, they do not really love you. Real love cannot stand to see you sink and be stagnant. If a parent refuses to discipline, guide, and lead their children, there is no real love. Parents are called to help “burn” off the selfish inclinations of children and teach them to be productive, caring, giving people. If a friend is fine with seeing you fall into sin, if they encourage sin, or join you in sinning, they do not love you. We have confused in our culture the idea of what love actually is and what it should do. For many, love is blind tolerance to any behavior or belief. However, Love is never indifferent to sin. Love always should call you higher. Love should make you want to be a better person. Love should burn off weaknesses within us. Will we always like to hear that we aren’t perfect people? No. More often than not, it will anger us and cause division. Jesus said as much. However, we cannot expect people who love us to stand by and watch us lose our souls to mortal sin. That would be the most unloving thing a person could do, but we see people do it all the time. True love will and should cause some friction within you, Catholic Pilgrims, as it calls you out of complacency and selfishness into a life of holiness. Have a blessed Sunday.
Continue ReadingToday is my favorite Marian Feast Day and this painting is my all-time favorite of Mary. It is found in The Cathedral of San Pedro de Los Milagros in Colombia by Juan de Jesus Munera Ochoa. About a week ago, I was watching a Catholic respond to Allie B. Stucky's attempt to debunk the Assumption. In true Sola Scriptura fashion, she dismissed the Assumption because it's not in Scripture and there is no historical evidence for it. As for historical evidence, well, that's right. There is no tomb, no bones, no body, no nothing. Because...of the Assumption. For all the ridicule Catholics get over their devotion to Mary, one would know that there is no way on earth that Catholics would have let the knowledge of the location of her tomb just fade away like the Beatles on "Hey, Jude." We Catholics are pretty darn good at knowing the location of Biblical people's graves and placing a church over it. So, back to the video. I watched it and I commented, "Well, is there any precedent for people being taken up into Heaven in the Bible? I think so." To this, a guy responded with a very lengthy response about her Assumption not being in the Bible. I responded back, "But, could it be possible? Do we have precedent?" He wrote out another long lecture, but didn't answer my question. So, I asked him to answer my question and he said that he did. He didn't. Then he proceeded with another lecture. Here, I was done, because at the very end of the last lecture he declared that "Catholics were wrong and he knew better because he studied Scripture." Basically, it was the I'm-my-own-pope-and-magisterium argument and when people claim that, well, I'm out, because he has no claim to authority other than his one man show. There is no definitive verse that declares that Mary was assumed into Heaven, this is true. But, there is precedent for it in the OT and it is not outside of God's power. Mary did not ascend by her own power, as Christ did. She was assumed into Heaven--Body and Soul, by the power of God. It makes me so happy to know that Mary did not see bodily decay here on earth. The Mother of Our Lord--the woman whose Body carried Jesus Christ--deserved to join her Son, Body and Soul at the end of her earthy life. What a beautiful grace. Have a blessed Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary, Catholic Pilgrims. Get thee to Mass!
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