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A Great Easter (and not because of the chocolate eggs!)

4/25/2011

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There was much for me to be thankful for this Easter.

The Planned Concert

On Saturday night my son drove off with his girlfriend to a concert four hours away, planning to come back that same evening. Behind my smile and “I hope you both have a good time” was deep anxiety that he would have an accident. He’s only nineteen and had just arrived home for Easter from college.

The Aborted Concert

An hour after leaving, he returned. “Must have forgotten the tickets, or his driver’s license,” I thought as I saw the car draw up. No. His girlfriend had checked the concert tickets en route: they were for October! (Luckily she thought it was funny.)

So instead of sitting at home fretting about them both, I spent a wonderful evening dining out with my husband, son and son’s girlfriend.

A Glorious Easter

On Sunday my menfolk surprised me by taking Easter seriously and dressing up in their smartest suits. I felt so proud sitting next to them in church! And during the whole of Mass I was giving God thanks for such a fantastic Easter.

(If I'm allowed to mention it, my horse also went well for me in the afternoon...)

Pushing Against that Stone

The Easter message began with a basketball analogy - the then Washington Bullets’ game in 1978. They were down by twenty in the fourth quarter and dispirited fans began streaming out of the stadium. They included our parish priest, a mere stripling in those days.

But suddenly people began running back to the game. The Bullets had made a comeback, and our priest returned to witness the final two minutes and the Washington team’s triumphant win.

His message to us is that we shouldn’t give up ‘before the fourth quarter is over.’ That is when God comes through for us.

When we feel trapped inside the tomb as was Christ, we must keep on pushing against the heavy stone that bars the entrance. God is on the other side, ready and willing to roll that boulder away if we remain confident in Him.  We Christians mustn’t give up, but hand over our problems and sufferings to God with complete confidence that He will resolve them for us.

Submission Ain't Easy

Have you noticed that when we need to do it the most, relinquishing control of our lives is the hardest to do? Handing over to God in our worst moments is the greatest test of our faith. The Devil works diligently on us at such times, trying to make us despair.

But complete submission to God is necessary in order for Him to work in our lives. It may be tough, but it’s absolutely worth it. That’s when we grasp victory in the fourth quarter.

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Easter Is Almost Here!

4/19/2011

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Almost: but first will come Good Friday.  Before we receive redemption, Jesus will suffer.

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

I’ve always had a hard time understanding why Jesus had to die in order for us to be saved.

Father Jean C.J. d’Elbée addresses this question in ‘I Believe In Love.'
He writes that, according to St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica, Christ’s  ‘death was, in itself, not at all necessary, but He shows the benefits which the Passion procures for us beyond our reconciliation with God.’

What Benefits?

One: Christ shows us how much He loves us, which urges us to love God back - thus perfecting our salvation.

Two: In submitting Himself to the Passion, Christ illustrated the virtues we need for our salvation, among them humility, constancy, justice and obedience.

Three: Christ’s Passion freed man from sin, which encourages us to avoid the occasion of sin.

Four: Christ endured great suffering, and can therefore assist those of us who are suffering. When we undergo pain, we know of Someone Else who did, too, even though He didn’t have to.

Father d’Elbée writes that, according to St. Thomas, ‘the death of Christ was not caused by sin, but by His love, on the occasion of our sin.’

Complete Love

Christ loves us so much, is so merciful and so desirous of our salvation, that He was prepared to do whatever it took to redeem and save us. ‘Jesus delivered Himself up out of love; God is love: the death of Jesus is the great revelation of that fact.’

Christ exhibited complete, 'crazy' love for us, because He deeply desires that we be united with Him in Heaven. I think such love is hard for us to comprehend because it's way beyond our limited, human understanding of the concept.

However, we are still capable of great love, and God desires that we offer it all to Him. He so wants to show us His mercy, but can only do this if we humbly respond to His love with our whole hearts.

(How) Are We Going to Respond?

Christ, a completely innocent man, suffered horribly and died an agonizing death for you and me.
 
It’s now up to us to show Christ how much we appreciate His sacrifice.

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Why Confess?

4/11/2011

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My non-Catholic husband looks at me in bewilderment whenever I tell him I’m going to confession. Why go to a priest when you can just confess your sins to God?

Yes, that would be much easier than going through the indignity of telling another human being what I’ve been up to!

But confession is more than simply relating our sins.

I Don’t Need to Be Humble – or Do I?

If we’re really sorry for our sins, we must be humble enough to admit we sinned in the first place. It takes a lot of humility to verbalize our trespasses to another person. Telling God about them in the privacy of our thoughts is just too comfortable.

Plus, we’re not confessing to an ordinary person: the priest is Christ’s minister on earth. So we are telling God about our sins, but in a more humbling situation.

Absolution

After confessing, we ask for God’s forgiveness, which the priest is able to grant through the act of absolution. Receiving absolution is a wonderful sensation. It’s hard to convey just how liberating it is, being allowed to turn over a new leaf.

Remember when, as a little kid, you did something wrong and were scared of how your parents would react? You put off telling them what you’d done for as long as you could! Then you finally screwed up enough courage to tell them.

Do you recall the great relief when your parents forgave you? That feeling of having the slate wiped clean? You may have had to atone for your behavior, but it was out in the open. You harbored no evil secrets, and felt at peace again.
 
The other name for confession is ‘reconciliation’ – reconciling us with God our Heavenly Parent.
 
You don’t look forward to going to confession, but you're sure glad you went!

Permission to Sin all Over Again?

Many non-Catholics suspect confession makes us think it ’O.K.’ to sin again. We’ll always be forgiven, so what’s there to stop us being repeat offenders?

But it's embarrassing to have to confess our sins over and over again! The very fact that we Catholics have to ‘tell all’ is a big deterrent. Once that slate is wiped clean, we try to keep it that way. We won’t succeed completely – we’re only human - but we’re encouraged in our daily struggle not to sin.

State of Grace

Another reason to keep that slate clean is in order to stay in a state of grace. Otherwise we're unable to receive Communion. Receiving our ‘daily bread’ in the form of Communion is vital to a Catholic.

The Long-Time Absentee

Our priest is a great one for encouraging those who’ve been away from the sacrament of confession to come back to it. He’s not going to judge or criticize anyone. He’s there to forgive.

He recently gave a sermon at another parish, explaining that if he persuaded enough penitents to come to confession to him that day he’d be given a cruise to the Bahamas. (Humor is a great trademark of many priests, today, thankfully!)

An old man entered the confessional later and put his hand over the priest’s, saying: “Father, I’ve just upgraded you to first class. It’s been seventy years since my last confession.”

It’s never too late to humble ourselves and seek God’s forgiveness. That is, before we die and that chance is gone.

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Consent Makes the Sin

4/4/2011

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We tend to think of the saints as being superhumans who never had a bad thought in their lives and were born patient, loving, obedient and humble.

What a relief to realize that this is not the case! They were just as human as the rest of us, with the same negative traits. What sets them apart is their love for God, which led them to strive constantly to overcome their self-love and pride.

Desiring to Love

Father Jean C.J. d’Elbée writes in I Believe In Love that “to desire to love is already to love.” Isn’t it wonderful to know that in wanting to love God we’re already loving Him!

The more we strive to love Him, the more aware we become of our sinfulness, and the worse we feel about ourselves for the sins we commit. But thankfully our love moves us to ask humbly for God’s mercy, and our confidence in Him allows us to believe He will forgive us.

Consenting to Sin

Once forgiven, we need to pick ourselves up again. Always acknowledging our negative traits, we move forward with faith that God will help us in our battle against self-love, pride, lack of humility, and self-preoccupation.

The Devil will always tempt us, but, as Father d’Elbée writes: “it is consent that makes the sin.” He explains that, for example, having a proud nature and being a proud person are two different things. By not taking pleasure in our pride, by understanding that it is evil and having the humility to ask God for mercy, we cheat the Devil. We don’t consent to being proud, we fight against it.

Evil Can Produce Good

By doing so we allow God to create good within us as a result of the evil.  “It could be a very fruitful humiliation to recognize your pride without consenting to it.” With these words Father d’Elbée almost gives us a reason to rejoice in our sinful natures. They become a daily means of showing God how much we love Him as we battle against them for His sake.

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What is "Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit"?

4/1/2011

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Have you ever read that passage from Matthew 12:31 which talks about the greatest sin "which shall not be forgiven" and wonder whether you've committed it? And if so, what's the point of believing we can be saved?

This "greatest sin" is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But what exactly is that? Have I committed it without realizing it?

Imagine how relieved I was to read in "I Believe in Love" that this sin is 'through despair and pride, refusing mercy.'

Father d’Elbée writes that Judas would have been forgiven for betraying Jesus, if only he'd believed in His infinite love and desire to forgive him. But instead, Judas despaired or was maybe too proud to humble himself and ask for forgiveness.

The wonderful news is that as long as we believe, we can be forgiven. If we place ourselves humbly before Christ - Who went to the enormous lengths of dying so that we could be forgiven - and ask for it, we shall be granted that mercy.

The worst thing we can do is throw Jesus' sacrifice back in His face by refusing to accept His gift of forgiveness.

Isn't it good to know how simple it is to avoid the greatest sin of them all?

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    Hilary Walker

    A fanatic horse rider and writer of Christian Inspirational Fiction, who's beginning to understand that making it to Heaven is a tad more important than winning at horse shows.

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