The Cycle of Redemption

I got a book for Christmas from one of the kids in the Youth Group, Dez, called Why Do Catholics Do That? by Kevin Orlin Johnson, Ph.D. One of the chapters outlines briefly, but really clearly, the entire Salvation Plan. I thought I would reproduce it here. I hope the Author doesn't mind...

Life is a lot like school. You're put there at a very early age, without being consulted about it. You get a lot of work assigned to you, and it helps you grow, but you're tested every time you turn around. Then there's the big test, and you find out whether you graduate or flunk. You see this pattern of life reflected everywhere you look, not just in your own career but also in literature like the Odyssey, in the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, in the Koran, and even in our fairy tales and popular literature, like The Wizard of Oz. And you find the same view of the universe reflected in the Bible.
...It's the major theme of the Church's art and ceremonies, too. From the Church's point of view, this journey through life is governed by God's plan of creation, sanctification, and salvation: what you might call the "Cycle of Redemption".
...But although this cycle is mirrored in our secular art and culture, you hear all kinds of inaccurate accounts of it. It's not very well understood by the press or the broadcast media, and of course separated Christians don't see it this way. So we'll just run quickly through some of the basics here, with references to a few of the relevant Bible passages (but remember, the Church doesn't teach these points because they're in the Bible; they're in the Bible because the Church has always taught them). And we'll sample a few of the uncounted millions of words that the Church has written about the cycle during the past nineteen centuries. That should be enough to clarify the Church's art and liturgies a little, and to aim you in the right direction if you want to read more about it. [Remember, too, that this book isn't a catechism--this outline of the cycle is accurate as far as it goes, but there's a whole lot more to it than this. For the rest of the story, check the sources listed at the end of the book.]
...For each of us, the Cycle of Redemption can be summed up as birth, sin, reconciliation, death, judgement, and verdict--and grace, which pervades all of these.

Birth and the Beginning of the Cycle
We're all born into a flesh that's affected by the original sin of Adam and Eve (Gn 3). God created Adam and Eve good, in his own image and likeness (Gn 1:26). And, out of love, he gave them certain gifts that they had no right to expect, being human as they were. They got integrity, which means that their emotions (and even their passions) were controlled by their intellect--they didn't have any psychological problems, no compulsions, no shame, and no guilt. Well, they didn't have any sin yet, so they didn't have anything to be guilty about.
...They also got an intimate union with God, who lived with them visibly and on terms of friendship. And God gave them the promise of immortality, so they could enjoy this way of life forever. But to get this, they had to obey one simple little commandment: don't eat the fruit of that particular tree. God gave them everything else, but not that.
...He also gave them free will. They didn't have to sin (Gn 4:7), but the devil got to them, and they decided to go ahead with it anyway. Since their supernatural gifts were conditional on their obedience, their sin was a rejection of their innocence, wisdom, and bodily immortality. "Man too was created without corruption," as St. Methodius of Philippi wrote in about 300, "but when ... he transgressed the commandment, he suffered a terrible and destructive fall and was reduced to a state of death."

Sin, Original and Inventive
So now we're all born in original sin: not that we're punished for what Adam and Eve did, because God is not cruel, but just that we're born without those supernatural gifts that we'd otherwise have had. And this original sin also opened the gates for all subsequent sins, all of the times when people choose their own wills as opposed to God's (Romans 5:12-14). These are called actual sins, and they cut a person off from God (Is 59:1-2, for instance). And you can't save yourself on your own, so, as you remove yourself from God step by step, sin by sin, things get worse and worse for you.
...But that's not all; when you bring sin into being, you distort the whole world that much more. The story of Noah, for instance, says that "the Earth was corrupt; for all men lived corruptly on Earth," and God himself put the blame where it lies: "the Earth is full of violence because of them" (Gn 6:11-13). So, when one person sins, everybody else has to put up with the consequences, too--sin is sort of like air pollution: you can't hide it, and it ruins the quality of life everywhere, even far from its source (as in Is 24:5). We're all tied together in the great scheme of things, which explains why bad things happen to good people. If we were all the way Adam and Eve were before the Fall, there wouldn't be any death or taxes or crime or traffic jams or anything. God made the world, but we spoiled it.
...But note that original sin only changed man's state; it didn't change human nature. People were made in the image of God (Gn 1:26), and created good; people can act badly, but people are by nature good.
...You have to be perfectly clear about this one point, because a lot of Christians separated from the Church teach that humans are by nature depraved, sinful, and wicked--this is the point that all those fire-and-brimestone preachers have tried to make for the past three hundred years. But it isn't so; that's not part of Christian teaching, and you won't find anything in the Bible to back it up. It doesn't make sense, really. And it's interesting to hear what the notable anthropologist Ashley Montagu figured out on this point:
..."Perhaps the idea before all others I would like the reader to reconsider is the notion ... of innate depravity," he wrote in his book The Humanization of Man. This notion, he says,

seems to me to have been fiendishly damaging to man's growth in self-understanding...it is hardly likely to occur to anyone that the age-old doctrine of innate depravity is not only open to question but is demonstrably unsound....The need that is satisfied by the myth of innate depravity is the need for absolution from sin, for if sin is innately determined, then one can shift the burden of responsibility for it from oneself to one's innate heritage. Evil in this world is thus explained, and becomes easier to bear--and with a good conscience, much easier to do nothing about. My own interpretation of the evidence, strictly within the domain of science, leads me to the conclusion that man is born good, and is organized in such a manner from birth as to need to continue to grow and develop in his potentialities for goodness.

...It's interesting to see a man of science coming around to the Church's teaching on the matter despite what he calls "centuries of secular, religious, and 'scientific' authority" in Protestant England teaching the contrary. But no matter how you figure it, the innate goodness of human beings is a pivotal point in the cycle, because it means that people can attain Heaven, where nothing bad is allowed (Mt 5:8, Rv 21:27). So how are you supposed to overcome all of the sin in this world and end up with God, where you belong?

Grace and the Re-Sanctification of Humans
Well, have another look at Genesis. The same book that records the original sin tells that God promised a savior (Gn 3:14-16). It doesn't go into a lot of detail, but the rest of the plan is revealed little by little through the prophets of the Old Testament, like Abraham and Moses (Gn 17, Ex). Just as he'd offered a contract--a covenant--to Adam and Eve, God offered a covenant to people after the Fall, a covenant tied directly to the way the world works, to the whole pattern of health and happiness, disease and death, and so on. You obey those Commandments, God said, and I will be your God and take care of you, and I'll receive you after you die; if you deliberately reject this offer, you're on your own, and you've got to take the consequences, here and hereafter. Finally, after people had been waiting for centuries, God incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, was born (Lk 2). He brought the Old Covenant to its fulfillment and instituted the New Covenant, which is Christianity (Mt 5:17-19).
...In only a few years of public ministry, Christ got a tremendous amount of work done. He gave us the rest of the Faith that had only been partially revealed during a thousand years of Hebrew prophecy. He established his Church to preserve his teachings intact until the end of Time and to offer them to everybody on Earth (Mt 28:18-20), he ensured that he would be sacramentally present in the Eucharist (Mt 26:26-29; Mk 14:22-25; Lk 22:14-20; Jn 6; etc., etc.), and he empowered the Church to offer that means--and the other sacraments--to keep us close to him, to give us the grace that we need to avoid sin, and to offer forgiveness, reconciliation, and a chance for atonement when we slip up (Mt 18:15-18; Jn 20:21-23).
...The point of all this is grace--getting back the closeness to God that Adam and Eve rejected. And you get it back on exactly the same condition that God laid down for the first people he offered it to: obedience. You manage the necessary reconciliation primarily through the sacrament of the same name, which is the channel for the grace that comes when you resolve to repent and you stick to your resolution, and when you ask for the help that you need to do that. (You're never tempted beyond your ability to resist, either; see 1 Cor 10:13; 2 Pt 2:9.) [To get God's forgiveness through the sacrament of Reconciliation you have to meet the same conditions as for getting forgiveness from a person. You have to acknowledge that what you did was wrong, you have to say that you're sorry, you have to resolve never to do it again, and you have to make up for it somehow. And, of course, you have to ask for forgiveness; presuming on his mercy won't cut it. So, in the Church's view, you can't figure, "Well, I'll go to confession on Saturday," and do the thing anyway. The Church also makes the important distinction--again, parallel to earthly human relations--between imperfect contrition (born of the fear of punishment and loss of reward) and perfect contrition (being sorry simply because you've offended God and not thinking of yourself). The first kind is a start, anyway. It's seen as a "beneficial sorrow", as Trent said, that prepares you for the other kind. Note, too, how important this perception of how forgiveness works is to the ideals of civilized life here and now.]
...Christ made this reconciliation possible by coming, teaching, and establishing his Church. Then he suffered and died, not for his own sins--he didn't have any--but to take our punishment on himself (Rom 5:15-21) and undo what Adam did (1 Cor 15:21-22). This symmetry between Christ and Adam is why you sometimes see a skull at the base of the cross in Crucifixion scenes; the legend arose that the hill called Golgotha, "place of the skull", marks the grave of Adam and, in a way, it does.
...But, unlike Adam, Christ rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, to show us what we could look forward to if we kept his commandments. In other words, Christ redeemed mankind from sin. But salvation is another matter altogether, and it's a two-way street. You see, Christ's sacrifice laid the foundation of redemption, but each of us has to build on it, working out our own salvation in fear and trembling. (Check 1 Cor 3:11-15, 10:12, Phil 2:12, Mt 24:42-51--and notice, incidentally, that nobody has any assurance of salvation, any more than you know when you're going to die; see Sir 5:5-9, 1 Cor 10:1-12, etc.)
...For the Church, all of this means that this earthly life is consequential; what you do here and now influences what happens to you in the hereafter. Of course, you have to have faith--you have to believe, to know and understand, that God is God, that Jesus is Christ, and you have to hold the rest of the teachings of Christianity close to your heart. But faith alone isn't going to get you home safely after the journey of this life.
...Adam and Eve, to start with, had perfect faith. They knew God personally and talked with him, face to face, and it certainly never occurred to them to question his existence or nature. You can't get faith like that, nowadays. But their deliberate act got them (and us) thrown out of Paradise. The Jews always knew the importance of acts, too, way past Genesis. "Give alms out of your substance," the elder Tobias told his son, "for alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not allow a soul to go into darkness" (Tb 4:7-12). Psalms echo that same refrain, not to mention passages like Dt 30:10-14 and Lv 6:17-19. Even the stories about Satan tell how he stood next to God--again, perfect belief--but you know what happened when he willfully rebelled.
...Of course, the pattern holds true in Christ's own words. There's the Sermon on the Mount, for example (Mt 7:24-27; Lk 6:46-49), and his account of the process of judgement shows that everybody facing judgement has plenty of faith (they all say, "Lord, Lord"), but the sheep who did the right things are saved while the goats who didn't aren't (Mt 25:31-46). And in the account of the Apocalypse, the returning Christ says, "Behold, I come quickly! And my reward is with me, to render unto each one according to his works" (Rv 22:12). That's why Christianity teaches that "faith without works is dead," as St. James put it (Jas 2:17,26).

Death
Really, you could say that the major theme of the New Testament is the need to serve God faithfully, to keep up your end of the Covenant, in this life, because after you die it's too late--"after we have departed this world," explained St. Ignatius of Antioch more than eighteen hundred years ago, "it will no longer be possible to confess, nor will there be any opportunity to repent."
...Now, repentance has two parts to it: forgiveness and atonement. Again, this is reflected in common sense and in daily life. When you're hauled into civil or criminal court, the people whom you've injured can forgive you, but you still have to pay the penalty of the law--restitution and punishment are both perfectly just and reasonable. In the same way, the Church teaches that you have to be forgiven for sin and, even then, you still merit punishment for your sin, and you still have to make up for it. So "repentance...is not conducted before the conscience alone, but is to be carried out by some external act," as Tertullian phrased it, back in 203.
...You can make up for your sins, and take your licks for them, either in this life or in the next. In this life, there are sacramental penances, nowadays just token acts like the familiar "five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys" that may be prescribed after Reconciliation for remission from punishment. (In the old days, the really grave sins--the ones that get you on talk shows nowadays--used to get public penance involving things like sackcloth and ashes and standing there in front of the church for a few weeks with a sign around your neck detailing your sin, or walking to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and back.)
...Even today, the Church offers guidelines for optional sacrifices and penances, too. Almsgiving is as important now as it ever was, and so is fasting (which has the added advantage of keeping the devil at bay; see Mk 9:27-28). You can turn your need for penance into good account with things like giving up a meal during Lent and sending the money that you save to foreign missions that use it to feed the truly hungry. In fact, seasons like Lent and Advent were set up to remind us of the need for acts of penance to serve as punishment for sins and acts of charity to make up for them. Basically, the idea is to do good things to balance out all of the bad, as well as avoiding more bad things.

Judgement, Personal and General
But it's a good idea to keep repenting every day, because after you die you're subject to a personal judgement (Sir 11:26-30). Then you have to face the consequences of what you've said during your life (Mt 12:36-37, Lk 12:8-10), what you've done (Eccl 12:13-14; Mt 10:42, 13:41-43; 16:27; Mk 4:24; Jn 5:29; Rom 2:6; 2 Cor 5:10; to name a few), and what you've failed to do, like the unprofitable servant (Mt 25:24-30).
...Now this judgement takes place right after you die, but then, at the end of Time, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the dead are to be raised--souls rejoining bodies now "glorified", which is why images of Christ and the saints are so beautiful. He will come again, at that point, and then everybody has to face a general judgement (1 Cor 15:12-55, 1 Thes 4:16-18, etc.). But think about this: as soon as you die, your soul is released from your body, and it's in the dimension of the angels, outside of Time. From your point of view, then, there's no "before" and no "after", no "at the same time as", because there's no Time, period.
...So, even though your friends and relatives may go on for a while putting flowers on your grave, from your point of view outside of Time, your body has already risen and there you are. You probably won't even notice any delay. Your body can be risen in Heaven while your friends are seeing it dead on Earth, but that's not being in two places at one time, because you're outside of Time. See? (Well, it's tough. Even St. Augustine, in his Confessions, threw up his hands on this one--"Who can comprehend this even in a thought, so as to express it in a word?" he asked. "Who can explain this?" But then he did a fair job of explaining it himself. It's a minor point, anyway. You can figure it out when you get there.)
...Well then: general judgement. Christ described it (Mt 25), and it's logically necessary because our actions affect humanity as a whole; you have to wait until everything's over to see how it all comes out. This Last Judgement stands at the end of Time, and nobody can know when that's going to hit (Mt 25:13, Mk 13:32-37, Lk 12:35-48), but that doesn't seem to stop people from guessing. In fact, whenever times get rough, a lot of people figure, well, that's it, then. Which is why, in any war or economic depression, or in years like 1000, 1666, or 2000, you see so many street-corner preachers and manuscript illuminators and televangelists who come up with very creative opinions about every scary detail of the Apocalypse. That's when you get lots of people outside the Church trying desperately to figure out what's meant by The Tribulation and The Rapture and things like that.

The Verdict
So if you die with your sins forgiven and your atonement made, for instance in full sacramental communion with the Church, then, it is hoped, you go straight to Heaven, to enjoy forever the presence of God. If you died unrepentant, with unforgiven sins so serious that they imperil your soul, there's Hell, and some separated Christians try to deny its existence, but Christ himself kept describing Hell in glowing detail (Mt 8:12, 13:41-50; 25:41-46; Mk 9:43; Lk 16:19-26, etc.), so there it is.
...The Fathers of the Church have also described Hell eloquently, but one of the most moving impressions of what goes on there comes from a little girl, Lucía dos Santos, who told what the Lady of Fátima showed her:

Our kind heavenly Mother...had already prepared us by promising...to take us to Heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror...Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire that seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to unknown animals, all black and transparent.

...It makes you think. But we should note at this point that the Church has never condemned anybody, never said solemnly that so-and-so is in Hell. She can't, because that would be contrary to her mission. No Christian can, in fact, because we're supposed to judge as we would be judged. The Church can excommunicate somebody, and always has (1 Cor 5:9-12, for instance), but that's different. It means announcing publically that this person has acted so scandalously that he cannot receive the sacraments; this allows--even calls for--reconciliation. And even if the person dies excommunicated, the Church prays God to forgive him.
...Anyway, Hell is for mortal sin. But there are degrees of offense. Check out Dt 25:2, for instance, or 1 Jn 5:16-17, but St. Jerome summed it up: "There are venial sins," he explained, "and there are mortal sins. It is one thing to own ten thousand talents, another to owe but a farthing. We shall have to give an accounting for an idle word no less than for adultery. But to be made to blush and to be tortured are not the same thing....If we entreat for lesser sins we are granted pardon; but if for greater sins, it is difficult to obtain our request. There is a great difference between one sin and another." [To clarify the distinction, some catechisms point out certain criteria that a word, action, omission, thought, or desire has to meet to be a mortal sin: it has to be seriously wrong, you have to know that it is, and you have to fully consent to it. And, of course, you have to actually do it (but entertaining improper thoughts counts, too; they flash in your mind all the time, involuntarily, but you can reject them immediately). A venial sin is understood as one in which the evil wasn't seriously wrong or, even if it was, you understood it to be only slightly wrong or you didn't fully consent to it. Both kinds are willful acts that show you don't want God in your life, and the line blurs in cases like repetitive venial sins. In either case, you can't sin without knowing it or accidentally, but, here as in civil life, ignorance of the law isn't much of an excuse.] If you die with some of these minor sins on your soul, or with your sins forgiven but unatoned, there's Purgatory. Purgatory is an essential part of the Cycle of Redemption, and you can't really follow the major themes of the Bible or of Christian art if you leave it out.
...At judgement, St. Paul wrote, "the fire shall try every man's work....If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire" (1 Cor 3:13-15). Obviously, the fire isn't in Hell, because you can't be saved through hellfire, and there's no fire in Heaven. To clarify matters further, Christ himself promised that there was a punishment that exacted what was due but wasn't endless: "Amen, I say to you, you shall not go out of there until you repay the last farthing" (Mt 5:26; see also Mt 18:23-35). He also pointed out that there's some place for forgiveness after death, not just acceptance into Heaven or condemnation (Mt 12:32). So Purgatory is for sins that don't deserve absolute punishment--little venial sins, done by people whose hearts are in the right places.
...The souls in Purgaroty suffer, all right, but they've got an advantage over us because they know that they're saved. And they're still united with us and perfectly well able to pray for us and benefit from our prayers--check 2 Mc 12:39-46, and any of the Fathers of the Church, all of whom commend the practice of praying for the repose of the dead. Those in Heaven are aware of us and of those in Purgatory, or even Hell, also (Lk 16:19-31). You can, therefore, ask your departed friends to pray for you, on the charitable assumption that they're not in Hell, just as you can ask your bodily friends to pray for you. And if you know of people from the past (and you have reasonable assurance that they died in friendship with the Church), you can ask them to pray for you, too. After all, if bodily death separates us, then Christianity as a whole doesn't make any sense.
...So there you have it, in outline, at least. It's a view of things that doesn't let you out of any responsibility, and it doesn't cut any corners about the punishment part. But even in that, it recognises your inherent dignity and insists upon your ability to fulfill the promise of that dignity. And it stresses--uniquely--the importance of the individual person, the innate goodness of the human being, the unity of all people with each other and with God, the need to draw nearer to our Creator, and the crucial importance of active good.

__________
Johnson, Kevin Orlin, Ph.D. Why Do Catholics Do That? A Guide to the Teachings and Practices of the Catholic Church. (Ballantine Books: New York, 1994). Chapter 6, The Cycle of Redemption: Purgatory, etc. pp 43-54.

Being Obvious

Matthew 5:13-16

'You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people's feet.
'You are light for the world. A city on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in people's sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.'

After Jesus lays out the Beatitudes for us, He goes on to call us the Salt and Light for the world. What He teaches is both the consequence of living out the Beatitudes in the world, as well as the responsibility to live them out. He is calling us to be obvious in our faith.

Salt.
When Jesus calls us the "salt for the world", He's not suggesting that we'll go good on fries. In Jesus' day, salt wasn't just to spice up a meal. It was used much in the same way that we use a refrigerator or a freezer today. It preserved food and kept it from going bad. When Jesus calls us the "salt for the world", He is telling us that our role as Christians is to help preserve people--to show them the way of Salvation in order to keep them from going to Hell.

Light.
Why does Jesus call us light? Because this world is a dark place. His light shines in us to be a light in the darkness, so those who are lost and despairing without Him, can find their Way home! Jesus first compares our light to "a city on a hill." By this, He is saying that the Church as a whole is to be that light. The Church is a visible reality, an obvious institution in this world. It has stood for 2000 years as a testament to Jesus' saving power, and still stands, despite conflicts and divisions from sinners inside her, and persecutions and attacks from sinners outside her. And she will continue to stand firm and be that light, because the Light doesn't come from her, but from Christ, who shines out from her!

But then, Jesus talks about a lamp-stand in a room. When it is lit, we do not hide it. That would be really dumb. Instead, we set it up so that it lights the whole house. The lamp-stands are you and me. We are each responsible for lighting our room in the City that is the Church. The light of Christ inside each of us must play its part in lighting the way Home for the world.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, St. Paul uses another analogy to illustrate the relationship between the City and the individual Lamps. He uses the idea of the Body of Christ. He says that we all have a vital role to play in the Church, and just as when one part of a physical body is injured, the whole body suffers and has to compensate, so with the Church. We all have a place and a plan that God has given us--and we have the responsibility to live it out, so that the Church can be effective in the world, to fend off the powers of darkness and be the salt and light of the world.

Salt=to preserve people from Hell.
Light=to guide people to Heaven.

Refuse to be flavourless. Refuse to be hidden. Refuse to be mediocre. Choose to be obvious!

How to be Happy

Matthew 5:1-12

Seeing the crowds, He went onto the mountain. And when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He began to speak. This is what He taught them:

'How blessed are the poor in spirit:
the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Blessed are the gentle:
they shall have the earth as inheritance.
Blessed are those who mourn:
they shall be comforted.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness:
they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful:
they shall have mercy shown them.
Blessed are the pure in heart:
they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers:
They shall be recognised as children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness:
the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

'Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.'

When Jesus began teaching the Sermon on the Mount, He started with the "Beatitudes", or the "blessings"--or, in other words, He began by teaching people "how to be happy." However, even a casual reading of these tips for happiness will leave a person scratching his or her head and wondering, how would following these instructions make one happy? Happy are the poor? Happy is the person who is mourning? Happy is the person who is suffering? Jesus, You're not making any sense!

But rather, Jesus is truly the only One making sense of our lives. It is our understandings, the notions of this world, that are backwards. In the reading previous to this, from Archbishop Fulton Sheen, he stated that Jesus' teachings are in the end at war with those of the world. The last post was rather heavy and hard-hitting. Sheen points out the end result (at least as far as the world is concerned) of living out the Beatitudes: self-crucifixion. This week, I want to focus on the Beatitudes again, keeping in mind the reason for the self-denial: the rewards that Jesus promises. What the world offers us is temporary and artificial happiness. What Jesus offers us is eternal and true happiness.

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit. The rich person too often says, "I have everything I need. I don't need God!" Too often, we can take that attitude. The poor, on the other hand, realise that they have to depend solely on God for their very next meal--indeed, their very next breath! Being poor in spirit doesn't necessarily mean we're poor in wallet--but it does mean that we live our lives knowing that we, too, rely fully on Jesus for our next breath, and that He alone brings us fulfilment, peace and happiness--or, in a word, makes us "happy."

This attitude is what brings us close to God. This attitude is why Jesus proclaims that those with this attitude have the Kingdom of Heaven!

Blessed are the Gentle. Meekness in our world is often associated with weakness. An unwillingness to make an issue out of standing up for ourselves is seen as an inability to. But Jesus is trying to drive home the point that when we were freed from slavery to sin, He made us instead slaves to righteousness. A slave doesn't have rights. In a similar way, Jesus has made us citizens of Heaven, and not of earth. Again, this really puts a limit on our rights in the here and now. Jesus challenges us to live accordingly, and "turn the other cheek" (and no, that doesn't mean moon them!). We have the power to stand up for ourselves--in fact, in Christ, we can do everything! But, like Christ, we must have an attitude of gentle humility in everything that we do.

As a reward, we, who have forsaken our rights and status in this earth to become citizens of Heaven, will gain the earth as our inheritance as well!

Blessed are those who Mourn. This one really gets me. How is the person who is sad, at the same time, happy?! Often, "religious" people have this mentality that they should be happy all the time. Everything should be going right, because they love God and God loves them, and if something is wrong, it's a sign that there's something wrong with them. Well, let me tell you, that's a bunch of crap!

Jesus isn't looking for a bunch of people with fake, plastic smiles and all the "right answers." He's looking for people who are willing to be genuine with Him. 1 Peter 5:7 encouages us to "unload all your burden on to Him, since He is concerned about you." The Psalmist, David, knew all about being real with God. My favourite Psalm, number 13, sums up Jesus' beatitude perfectly:

How long, Yahweh, will You forget me? For ever?
How long will You turn away Your face from me?
How long must I nurse rebellion in my soul,
sorrow in my heart day and night?
How long is the enemy to domineer over me?
Look down, answer me, Yahweh my God!
Give light to my eyes or I shall fall into the sleep of death.
Or my foe will boast, 'I have overpowered him,'
and my enemy have the joy of seeing me stumble.

As for me, I trust in Your faithful love, Yahweh.
Let my heart delight in Your saving help,
let me sing to Yahweh for His generosity to me,
Let me sing to the name of Yahweh the Most High!

This is the promise of those who mourn, of those who are willing to bare their souls to God: God Himself will comfort them! That's the Love that He has for us!

Blessed are those who Hunger and Thirst for Uprightness. What's "uprightness"? It's doing the right thing. It's living the way that God wants us to. Jesus is saying that it's not just those who do what God wants, but those for whom doing what God wants is like a gnawing hunger inside them. What does that mean? It means that just like I might crave a juicy steak when I'm really hungry, I need to crave doing the right thing in the same way. The reward that Jesus promises those who do is that they will be filled. What's that mean? That it is He Himself who makes us upright. It is He Himself who first gives us that hunger, and then gives us the ability to actually do what's right, in order that our hunger for Him will be satisfied. It is what St. Paul was writing about when he said, "work out your salvation in fear and trembling. It is God who, for His own generous purpose, gives you the intention and the powers to act" (Philippians 2:12-13).

Blessed are the Merciful. Jesus is teaching us here not merely of the value of forgiving others, but the actual necessity. If we want to gain forgiveness, if we want to gain God's mercy, we need to be willing to show that mercy to others. When we pray the Our Father, we say, "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." When Jesus taught His disciples that prayer, immediately afterward, He said, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14-15). Without God's forgiveness, there is no Salvation. God's condition is clear: He expects from you nothing less than what He has given you. To be forgiven, you have to forgive.

Blessed are the Pure in Heart. We said above that "uprightness" was about doing the right things. It's talking about our actions. Purity, on the other hand, refers to our motives and our desires. It talks about what's going on inside--in our heads and in our hearts. Purity is choosing to ignore sinful things, to reject temptations and get away from them. It's being willing to stop hanging around "friends" who are bad influences on us. It's being willing to walk out of movies that depict and glorify sinful situations. It's being willing to focus only on what is True, Honourable, Upright, Pure, Lovable, Admirable, Good, and Praiseworthy (Philippians 4:7). When we choose to do that, we truly will see God--and not just in Heaven. If we are willing to purge our thoughts of sin, and focus only on what is Good, then we will truly get to know the Author of Good in a way that we never have before! The reward for Purity is an intimate friendship with God Himself!

Blessed are the Peacemakers. What's a peacemaker? How can you be one? A peacemaker is first and foremost a person who tries to live in peace with others--being good and honest and fair and gentle. But it goes beyond our own behaviour. Being a peacemaker means standing up for people who are being picked on, beat up, or otherwise abused. It means being willing to stand in the way of the bully and his prey. It means being willing to take a few knocks to protect someone who is weaker than you. It also means being a friend to those who need one, whether or not they are cool, or popular, or rich. It means valuing them simply because they are made in God's image, and that makes them infinitely valuable! It means standing up for life, everyone's life--whether they're very old, or not yet born, or anyone in between. This is being a peacemaker, and those who are, are recognised not just as being a "good guy", but of being a child of God!

Blessed are Those who are Persecuted in the Cause of Uprightness. How can one who is being persecuted--mocked, disowned, beaten, imprisoned, or even killed--be blessed?! You're not making any sense here, Lord! But notice the promise: "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven." That sounds familiar! Hey, that was the same promise that Jesus gave to the poor in spirit! Coincidence? I think not!

Neither does Jesus. When He appeared to St. John in a vision (the Book of Revelation), He gave seven letters to seven churches. One of those churches, Smyrna, was a poor and persecuted church. Here's what Jesus says to them:

"Write to the angel of the church in Smyrna and say, 'Here is the message of the First and the Last, who was dead and has come to life again: I know your hardships and your poverty, and--though you are rich--the slander of the people who falsely claim to be Jews but are really members of the synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of the sufferings that are coming to you. Look, the devil will send some of you to prison, to put you to the test, and you must face hardship for ten days. Even if you have to die, keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life for your prize. Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: for those who prove victorious will come to no harm from the second death.'"

Jesus first says that although the church at Smyrna was poor and persecuted, they were actually rich! And moreover He promises that if they stay faithful no matter what, they'll get a crown of life! That echoes the beatitudes, where they inherit the Kingdom (because, really, what's a crown without a Kingdom?)! Notably, the population of the city of Smyrna (in modern-day Turkey, a predominately Muslim nation) is still very much Christian! Today, in countries where Christianity is illegal, like China, the Church is thriving. This is because, as Tertullian, a member of the ancient Church remarked, "Martyrs are the seedbed of the Church."

These Beatitudes are hard, challenging, even impossible on our own. But through the Grace that God has given to us through Jesus Christ, we are able to live up to His Call. The question is, are we willing?

The Sermon on the Mount

A little while ago, over at Three Nails, I was in a debate with a fellow over the topic of salvation--whether it was by faith alone that we are saved, or if it was by faith and works, in cooperation with God's Grace. I believe that the Bible teaches the latter of these two perspectives, and illustrated my point with a brief outline of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount, which tells us how to live for three chapters, but never mentions "faith alone". At the time, I said that I would at a later time go through the Sermon on the Mount more thoroughly, since I thought it would make good material for Youth Group talks. Well, that later time is now, and for the next several weeks, until we're done, I'll be teaching expositorally through Matthew 5-7, with relevant thoughts from the similar record of it in Luke 11. To begin with, and to introduce the subject, I'm going to quote a pertinent chapter from a book that I am currently reading, titled Life of Christ by Fulton J. Sheen.

Two Mounts are related as the first and second acts of a two-act drama: The Mount of the Beatitudes and the Mount of Calvary. He who climbed the first to preach the Beatitudes must necessarily climb the second to practice what He preached. The unthinking often say the Sermon on the Mount constitutes the "essence of Christianity." But let any man put these Beatitudes into practice in his own life, and he too will draw down upon himself the wrath of the world. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be separated from His Crucifixion, any more than day can be separated from night. The day Our Lord taught the Beatitudes, He signed His own death warrant. The sound of nails and hammers digging through human flesh were the echoes thrown back from the mountainside where He told men how to be happy or blessed. Everyone wants to be happy; but His ways were the very opposite of the ways of the world.

One way to make enemies and antagonise people is to challenge the spirit of the world. The world has a spirit, as each age has a spirit. There are certain unanalyzed assumptions which govern the conduct of the world. Anyone who challenges these worldy maxims, such as, "you only live once," "get as much out of life as you can," "who will ever know about it?" "what is sex for if not for pleasure?" is bound to make himself unpopular.

In the Beatitudes, Our Divine Lord takes those eight flimsy catchwords of the world--"Security," "Revenge," "Laughter," "Popularity," "Getting Even," "Sex," "Armed Might," and "Comfort"--and turns them upside down. To those who say, "You cannot be happy unless you are rich," He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." To those who say, "Don't let him get away with it," He says, "Blessed are the patient." To those who say, "Laugh and the world laughs with you," He says, "Blessed are those who mourn." To those who say: "If nature gave you sex instincts you ought to give them free expression, otherwise you will become frustrated," He says, "Blessed are the clean of heart." To those who say, "Seek to be popular and well known," He says, "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely because of Me." To those who say, "In time of peace prepare for war," He says, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

The cheap clichés around which movies are written and novels composed, He scorns. He proposes to burn what they worship; to conquer errant sex instincts instead of allowing them to make slaves of man; to tame economic conquests instead of making happiness consist in an abundance of things external to the soul. All false beatitudes which make happiness depend on self-expression, license, having a good time, or "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die," He scorns because they bring mental disorders, unhappiness, false hopes, fears, and anxieties.

Those who would escape the impact of the Beatitudes say that Our Divine Savior was a creature of His time, but not of ours, and that, therefore, His words do not apply to us. He was not a creature of His time nor of any time; but we are! Mohammed belonged to his time; hence he said that a man could have concubines in addition to four wives at one time. Mohammed belongs even to our time, because moderns say that a man can have many wives, if he drives them in tandem style, one after another. But Our Lord did not belong to His day, any more than He belonged to ours. To marry one age is to be a widow in the next. Because He suited no age, He was the model for all ages. He never used a phrase that depended on the social order in which He lived; His Gospel was no easier then than it is now. As He put it:

Heaven and earth must disappear sooner than one jot,
..One flourish should disappear from the law;
It must all be accomplished.
...........................Matthew 5:18

...

The Sermon on the Mount is so much at variance with all that our world holds dear that the world will crucify anyone who tries to live up to its values. Because Christ preached them, He had to die. Calvary was the price He paid for the Sermon on the Mount. Only mediocrity survives. Those who call black black, and white white, are sentenced for intolerance. Only the grays live.

Let Him who says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," come into the world that believes in the primacy of the economic; let Him stand in the market place where some men live for collective profit, and others say men live for individual profit, and see what happens. He will be so poor that during His life He will have nowhere to lay His head; a day will come when He will die without anything of economic worth. In His last hour He will be so impoverished that they will strip Him of His garments and even give Him a stranger's grave for His burial, as He had had a stranger's stable for His birth.

Let Him come into the world which proclaims the gospel of the strong, advocates hating our enemies, an condemns Christian virtues as the "soft" virtues, and say to that world, "Blessed are the patient," and He will one day feel the scourges of the strong barbarians laid across His back; He will be struck on the cheek by a mocking fist during one of His trials; He will see men take a sickle and cut the grass from a hill on Calvary, and then use a hammer to pinion Him to a Cross to test the patience of One Who endures the worst that evil has to offer, that having exhausted itself it might eventually turn to Love.

Let Him come into our world which ridicules the idea of sin as morbidity, considers reparation for past guilt as a guilt complex and preach to that world, "Blessed are they who mourn" for their sins; and He will be blindfolded and mocked as a fool. They will take His Body and scourge it, until His bones can be numbered; they will crown His head with thorns, until He begins to weep not salt tears but crimson beads of blood, as they laugh at the weakness of Him Who will not come down from the Cross.

Let Him come into the world which denies Absolute Truth, which says that right and wrong are only questions of point of view, that we must be broadminded about virtue and vice, and let Him say, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after holiness," that is, after the Absolute, after the Truth which "I am"; and they will in their broadmindedness give the mob the choice of Him or Barabbas; they will crucify Him with thieves, and try to make the world believe that God is no different from a batch of robbers who are His bedfellows in death.

Let Him come into a world which says that "my neighbor is hell," that all which is opposite me is nothing, that the ego alone matters, that my will is supreme law, that what I decide is good, that I must forget others and think only of myself, and say to them, "Blessed are the merciful." He will find that He will receive no mercy; they will open five streams of blood out of His Body; they will pour vinegar and gall into His thirsting mouth; and, even after His death, be so merciless as to plunge a spear into His Sacred Heart.

Let Him come into a world that tries to interpret man in terms of sex; which regards purity as coldness, chastity as frustrated sex, self-containment as abnormality, and the union of husband and wife until death as boredom; which says that a marriage endures only so long as the glands endure, that one may unbind what God binds and unseal what God seals. Say to them, "Blessed are the pure"; and He will find Himself hanging naked on a Cross, made a spectacle to men and angels in a last wild crazy affirmation that purity is abnormal, the virgins are neurotics, and that carnality is right.

Let Him come into a world which believes that one must resort to every manner of chicanery and duplicity in order to conquer the world, carrying doves of peace with stomachs full of bombs, and say to them, "Blessed are the peacemakers," or "Blessed are they who eradicate sin that there may be peace"; and He will find Himself surrounded by men engaged in the silliest of all wars--a war against the Son of God; making violence with steel and wood, pinions and gall and then setting a watch over His grave that He who lost the battle might not win the day.

Let Him come into a world that believes that our whole life should be geared to flattering and influencing people for the sake of utility and popularity, and say to them: "Blessed are you when men hate, persecute, and revile you"; and He will find Himself without a friend in the world, an outcast on a hill, with mobs shouting His death, and His flesh hanging from Him like purple rags.

The Beatitudes cannot be taken alone: they are not ideals; they are hard facts and realities inseparable from the Cross of Calvary. What He taught was self-crucifixion: to love those who hate us; to pluck out eyes and cut off arms in order to prevent sinning; to be clean on the inside when the passions clamor for satisfaction on the outside; to forgive those who would put us to death; to overcome evil with good; to bless those who curse us; to stop mouthing freedom until we have justice, truth and love of God in our hearts as the condition of freedom; to live in the world and still keep oneself unpolluted from it; to deny ourselves sometimes legitimate pleasures in order the better to crucify our egotism--all this is to sentence the old man in us to death....

On the Mount of the Beatitudes, He bade men hurl themselves on the cross of self-denial; on the Mount of Calvary, He embraced that very cross. Though the shadow of the Cross would not fall across the place of the skull until three years later, it was already in His Heart the day He preached on "How to be Happy."

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Sheen, Rev. Fulton J., Ph.D., D.D. Life of Christ. (McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.: New York, 1958). Pp. 115-116, 119-121, 122.