How real is a conversion to Christianity? And I'm not talking about us Catholics, 'cause with our year-long Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (a process through which interested adults are gradually introduced to the Roman Catholic faith and way of life) with its numerous liturgical rites, anyone undergoing it faithfully has got to be ready to be a practising Catholic. I'm talking about door-to-door baptisms and email asking people to say a prayer to Jesus as a way to become a Christian. Before I continue, I must stress that whether a person accepts, loves and fully trusts Jesus is between that person and Jesus, not matter how he/she was baptised. After all, the Bible (1 John 2:27) states that "Now as for you, the anointing that you received from him resides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, it is true and is not a lie. Just as it has taught you, you reside in him." And the Holy Spirit is 110% capable of teaching anyone to accept, love and fully trust in Jesus all on His own.
But let's get back to the impromptu-baptism business. Can we seriously expect people who received minutes of sales talk about Jesus to be ready to accept Him? Especially if they have been inculcated with beliefs contrary to properly accepting, loving and trusting in Jesus? If even priests with their years of inculcation to fall away from Jesus, what about the aforementioned people? Baptising these people without proper follow-up and inculcation into Christianity is only going to damn them. So for those door-to-door baptisers: are you ready to be responsible for the state of the souls of those you baptise? To stand before the Lord on Judgement Day and tell him that no soul you baptised was lost due to your ignorance and/or negligence? If you are, well and good. Do continue your good work. If not, you know what to do.
Friday, 26 October 2007
Questions, questions...
1) Why did God allow many Christian denominations? Are they equally valid? How true are they to Jesus' teachings? Does it matter?
2) Why are Catholics forced to defend their faith against cartain Protestants? Why are there no Protestants defending their faith against Catholics? Why is it that with so much material out there defending Catholicism Protestant still accuse Catholics of being non-Christian?
3) Why would anyone choose to say no to Jesus' love? Is there any alternatives to this love offered by other faiths and philosophies?
2) Why are Catholics forced to defend their faith against cartain Protestants? Why are there no Protestants defending their faith against Catholics? Why is it that with so much material out there defending Catholicism Protestant still accuse Catholics of being non-Christian?
3) Why would anyone choose to say no to Jesus' love? Is there any alternatives to this love offered by other faiths and philosophies?
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Something interesting...
Tonight I attended two talks, one on the Theology of the Body and the other on prayer. I'm not going to go into either in detail- just highlight some quotes I heard in the two talks:
1)The price men pay for sex is love, while the price women pay for love is sex.
Male lust is men using women for physical gratification, while female lust is women using men for emotional gratification.
Nowadays it seems that women cannot commit sex crimes, either the legal sort or the moral sort. Maybe it's because men are perceived as the ones getting the most out of sex, while women are at best persuaded and at worst coerced into the act. But people don't have sex all the time, and when it comes to the non-sex part of the non-platonic relationship, women are seen as forcing men to go along with their whims. I guess the first part the can be considered physical gratification (sexual arousal on his part alone) while the second part is emotional gratification (getting men to fulfill their emotional needs alone). But who says these two situations are natural? Not God, that's for sure. God (the Trinitarian one, at least) wants men and women to be equal partners in a sexual relationship. After all, with marriage man and woman are supposed to become one flesh, like they were before God separated Eve from Adam. Therefore lust is something people should avoid. And by lust I mean focussing on one's needs alone to the exclusion of one's partner's needs. Lust is self-love, and thus goes against Jesus' second commandement: Love your neighbour as well as yourselves.
2) Just because your life is shit doesn't mean God can't use it to grow flowers.
Your vocation is you working with God for His purposes.
Prayer is not for God (the Trinitarian one). After all, He not only knows how to do His job, He has done it for eons without your help or worship. Prayer is for you. Through praying for others we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us for the benefit of others, and such a working cannot fail to change us for the better. Prayer also shows us that we are weak and powerless sinners, and therefore we need God. It creates in us a humble attitude, which helps us to humbly ask Him to make our lives better instead of simply presenting Him a list of demands as if He's a divine Santa Claus. Such an asking allows us to hear God's voice gently telling us what He wants us to do and/or be. God wants to be our friend, and us to be friends with one another (I could use the word love here, but love have many shades of meaning while friend have very few shades of meaning). So next time we pray, why don't we talk to Him like we talk to our good friends: tell Him our problems and ask Him to help us? Let's let Him find solutions to our problems and don't do the thinking for Him.
1)The price men pay for sex is love, while the price women pay for love is sex.
Male lust is men using women for physical gratification, while female lust is women using men for emotional gratification.
Nowadays it seems that women cannot commit sex crimes, either the legal sort or the moral sort. Maybe it's because men are perceived as the ones getting the most out of sex, while women are at best persuaded and at worst coerced into the act. But people don't have sex all the time, and when it comes to the non-sex part of the non-platonic relationship, women are seen as forcing men to go along with their whims. I guess the first part the can be considered physical gratification (sexual arousal on his part alone) while the second part is emotional gratification (getting men to fulfill their emotional needs alone). But who says these two situations are natural? Not God, that's for sure. God (the Trinitarian one, at least) wants men and women to be equal partners in a sexual relationship. After all, with marriage man and woman are supposed to become one flesh, like they were before God separated Eve from Adam. Therefore lust is something people should avoid. And by lust I mean focussing on one's needs alone to the exclusion of one's partner's needs. Lust is self-love, and thus goes against Jesus' second commandement: Love your neighbour as well as yourselves.
2) Just because your life is shit doesn't mean God can't use it to grow flowers.
Your vocation is you working with God for His purposes.
Prayer is not for God (the Trinitarian one). After all, He not only knows how to do His job, He has done it for eons without your help or worship. Prayer is for you. Through praying for others we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us for the benefit of others, and such a working cannot fail to change us for the better. Prayer also shows us that we are weak and powerless sinners, and therefore we need God. It creates in us a humble attitude, which helps us to humbly ask Him to make our lives better instead of simply presenting Him a list of demands as if He's a divine Santa Claus. Such an asking allows us to hear God's voice gently telling us what He wants us to do and/or be. God wants to be our friend, and us to be friends with one another (I could use the word love here, but love have many shades of meaning while friend have very few shades of meaning). So next time we pray, why don't we talk to Him like we talk to our good friends: tell Him our problems and ask Him to help us? Let's let Him find solutions to our problems and don't do the thinking for Him.
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