Posts Tagged ‘religion’

This will not be a popular post with my fellow Catholics/Christians

Posted: August 26, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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Robert Stacy McCain is one of my favorite bloggers. Yesterday this post went up at his blog:

Aurelio Vallerillo-Sanchez is So totally going to hell.

The post is the story of a 39 year old fellow who assaulted a 14 year old girl, got her pregnant then Stole a 300 year old painting of the Madonna from a church and took the painting and the girl to Mexico, then sold the painting to pay for an Abortion.

In the end the abortion didn’t happen, the child wasn’t put up for adoption and Aurelio Vallerillo Sanchez is now off to serve a 70 year jail term.

I read that headline and understood the irony and humor but all I could think when I read it was: I sure hope not.

What I would like to see is a man who repents and eventually makes it to heaven. There is no limit to the power and mercy of God. I think the abortion was avoided by the mercy of God and the intercession of Mary. I think that the repentance and redemption of Aurelio Vallerillo-Sanchez would be a wonderful thing. I think there is nothing more pleasing to God and more frustrating to Satan than to pull a soul ANY SOUL that is “so going to hell” out of the fire.

I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. Luke 15:7

Now if you’re an atheist you think this is all a fairy tale so this shouldn’t offend you (if you are offended then I guess you’re not the atheist you think you are) if you are a Christian in general or a Catholic in particular you might say: “But DaTechGuy you can’t mean Any Soul? What about someone like Tim McVeigh?” Funny you should bring him up:

Somewhere along the line, clearly something went horribly wrong, and he made a series of choices that culminated in the horrific crime for which he paid the ultimate penalty of the law. But at the end, we know McVeigh was anointed. We may presume that he confessed his sins, since the anointing of the sick, assuming the person about to die is conscious, requires such a confession before the sacrament can be conferred.

If this is the case, and McVeigh’s confession and contrition were sincere, he received Christ’s pardon for all his sins, thus reopening the way to heaven. According to Catholic teaching, McVeigh faced his Lord and Savior for judgment immediately after his death. If he was indeed in a state of grace, he would be received into heaven or sent to an intermediate state called purgatory for a period of purification. There also he would be punished for past sins that, although repented, still needed to be atoned for.

Personally I really like the idea of McVeigh in purgatory and eventually heaven, imagine a soul all ready for the pit suddenly stolen away mere hours from damnation. That type of thing drives Satan nuts.

Now before the inevitable angry comments about justice go up I would remind all Christians of this little prayer that you likely pray every day:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. Matt 6:9-13 emphasis mine

The next two verses are even more blunt:

If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions. Matt 6:14,15

Every time you say the Our Father (of you prefer the term The Lord’s Prayer) and you choose not to forgive you are condemning yourself. Christ was very explicit here. He meant to be. This is not an optional doctrine. These are the rules.

I suspect the potential satisfaction of somebody’s damnation will be considerably lessened if you’re burning next to him. I think I’d prefer mercy for me any anyone else who’ll accept it.

And if you are a Christian in general and a Catholic in particular you should too.

Update: The Anchoress shows Christian Charity

Great find by WI Catholic Musings…

Posted: August 24, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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…concerning “Myths” that non-Catholics have concerning Catholics.

Should be required watching for non-Catholics and Catholics alike. Go over there and watch it.

Update: Some readers said they couldn’t see it there so I’ll include it here.

Deal with it, don’t duck it

Posted: August 23, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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Last week for the table top baseball league I’m in I was playing over a friend’s house. They are very religious and have cards of many biblical quotes on the side of their walls. They are however both ex-Catholics and tend to tease about Holy Communion being a magic trick. So as you might guess John 6:53 doesn’t make the cut:

Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

It’s a real peeve with me when people duck bits of the Gospel or the bible. Ironically today the ducking took place at many Masses and considering todays reading it’s quite ironic:

The first reading was from Joshua 24 the key verse being 15:

If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Basically a “choose sides” reading, you’ve seen what things are make up your mind.

John Chapter 6 has been the focus of the gospel reading for the last month and we concluded this week with verses 60-69: For the purpose of this post we are only interested up to verse 62.

Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ”

Another choose sides, yeah it’s a tough saying can you handle it?

The theme of the sermon today was the Eucharist and it was a good one, but we never discussed today’s 2nd reading. It was Ephesins 5:21-33. We read the short form that omitted verses 22-24 they say:

Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.

Now three or four years ago we did the long form and our priest gave a great sermon on its meaning in context, but I couldn’t get over the irony that we skipped that verse when the theme of the Gospel today was getting over a “hard saying”. From what Fr. Tom Washburn had to say we were likely not alone in skipping it:

This is perhaps the most dangerous passage in all of Scripture to preach on, in fact, most preachers usually try and avoid it. But, I feel a little dangerous today, so let’s give it a try

He does almost as good a job as Father Bob when he tackled it the whole thing is here the key bit:

The problem with this phrase from Colossians, “Wives be subordinate to your husbands,” is that we tend to isolate that passage out and not look at the rest of the reading. Alone, this passage is troubling and seems to support a subjugation of women, but it is out of context. When we look at the bigger picture, we find not a chauvinistic household, but one that is balanced; not one where husbands lord authority over wives, but one where everyone is subordinate, or the servant, to the other. There are two keys to this reading – the first is the initial words we heard today, “Brothers and sisters, be subordinate to one another.” We are all called to be in that position of subordination to each other, deferring to each other, serving each other. So, if “wives be subordinate to your husbands” is true; then it is also true to say, “husbands be subordinate to your wives,” “children be subordinate to your parents,” “parents be subordinate to your children.” This reading doesn’t want to perpetuate a power dynamic, it wants to eliminate it; leaving in its wake a community of servants.

Context is everything, people tend to hear what they want so when for example the rules on Meatless Fridays are relaxed they hear the eating meat part but not the “substitute sacrifice“. Our protestant friends take John 6:53-56 metaphorically while ignoring the context that Jesus actually challenges them on it and loses disciples over it. People either attack or overemphasize Ephesians 22:24 and ignore the context to suit their agendas.

The Church and scripture can stand on it own two feet. If we try to gimmick it as the ECLA did to fill the seats our seats won’t be worth filling. No pulling a Yale and ducking.

Bioethike on the ball…

Posted: August 22, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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…when it comes to the ELCA decision with updates on reactions from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and the ELS. Just keep scrolling.

Plus he posted a nice thank you note for yesterdays link too.

I haven’t been exposed to this much Lutherism since Davey and Goliath when I was a kid.

Oh one thing I’ve noticed looking at all those Lutheran sites yesterday is how well Catholic a lot of them are. Particularly the ones that keep track of the saints, but since Lutherans kept holy communion when they left that isn’t so odd.

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