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Posted August 11, 2005
We all have occassion to reflect on the purpose
of life. And as Roman Catholics, we should, we
must, come to the conclusion that this life, for
how ever many years, months, or days it lasts,
is fleeting; that eternity depends on our decisions
in this life; and that we are here to know, to
love, to serve the Lord in this life so that we
may be with Him in the next.
So we must order our lives in
accordance with the Catechism of the Catholic
Church. In all we do, think, say, and believe,
we must be Roman Catholic. We cannot deviate one
iota from the teachings of the Faith, from 2000
years of inspiration and revelation, from the
words of Our Savior and the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit. If we do so deviate, we risk eternal
damnation. That is, and always has been, rock
hard dogma of the Faith even though priests, bishops,
and cardinals seldom discuss it or talk about
it nowadays. Indeed, hell has been forgotten and
sin is never mentioned. And so souls are lost.
The greatest charity we can
show our brother or sister is to help them gain
heaven, and to pray that the Lord sends them the
gift of faith and the courage to answer the call.
We help others gain heaven through solidarity
— by staying close with them and teaching
and living the Truth, always, and by serving as
an example to them. We tell them, we remind them,
we encourage them, to do what is right and that
doing what is evil may lead to eternal damnation.
It's not a popular job. But, like the old saying
goes, someone has to do it. And that someone is
you and me.
Our task is easier if we live
in a society, or culture, or sub-culture where
habits are encouraged and mores are enforced that
lead one to act in a non-sinful, loving way towards
others and God. These societies used to exist,
and even in the USA as late as the early 1960s.
But in the USA and most other countries around
the world, the dominant culture has become the
culture of death through television, music, entertainment
of all kinds, a rapacious capitalistic system,
a rootless individualism, and more. And this culture
has been created and nurtured by heretics, non-Catholics,
and the traditional enemies of the Faith and the
Church.
The reason is clear —
power, profit, glory, yes. More properly, power,
profit, glory for those who dominate out of evil
so that evil, bad habits, sinful norms of behavior
can be propagated, encouraged, spread, and infused
throughout all groups of people. With such a situation,
souls can be taken by Satan, and eternal life
with Him lost for those who fall away. The ways
of the world are the ways of the culture of death
and are the ways of eternal damnation.
Real charity is saving souls,
no matter how unpopular, or hard, or "divisive",
or "hateful", or backwards that may
seem. Souls can't be saved by being pc or by being
wimpish or gay. Saving souls means standing up
and fighting. Saving souls takes courage and faith
and truth.
Saving souls is the work of
women and men.
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