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The human race is doomed, without Christ. It would sink into utter hopelessness and vice. Christ alone has the power to free us and make us worthy of Heaven: holy and happy.
Just as the Titanic was lost, with many hundreds of lives, because of the decisions and actions of a small number of people, so the human race was 'lost' - deprived of supernatural life - because of the decisions and actions of a small number, who were our first parents. Yet Christ came to save us. The Father could not allow mankind to sink in hopelessness and sin.
A person who ends his life in Hell is trapped, and hopeless. He had one life on earth, and countless opportunities in which to do good, to love God and his neighbour and to make wise choices. But in freely choosing to do evil, right to the end, he chose to live in Satan's Kingdom, from which there is no escape.
Christ urges us all to go to Him at the tabernacle and to ask for His help, in our fight against temptations. With His powerful graces, He can give us new hope and strength, and save us from Hell. With Him, we can do good and avoid evil.
Before Jesus came to earth, people everywhere were being carried away on torrents of sin. Only because He has conquered death and sin by His Cross and Resurrection can we now receive the grace to change and find forgiveness and the hope of Heaven. No-one can make himself holy, or enter Heaven, by relying on his own efforts.
When someone we care for seems to be 'lost' in sinful behaviour, or alienation from the Church, it's as though he seems to be drowning: but Christ is there with a net, acting to rescue him, if he will allow it. As long as a person is alive, there is hope that he will repent and be saved.
God looks with horror upon abortion and related sins; it is as though a large fence separates the lives of those who do God's Will and obey His laws from those who deliberately choose to go against Him. Beyond the 'fence' lies darkness of soul and intellect and little hope of eternal joy.
As well as being fervent teachers, the Church's greatest sinners, when forgiven, have been the most lyrical in their expressions of gratitude to God for helping the weak and hopeless: for example, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ignatius Loyola, and St. Francis of Assisi.
The living God is a 'Holy Fire', blazing with love in our sanctuary, it seems, as we gather to offer Him honour and praise in His house of prayer, through the Holy Mysteries. Christ is Present; with His Angels and Saints, enfolded in the glory of the Father: glory into which we hope to plunge at death, having been purified in the Sacred Liturgy. Our reverent attention should be drawn towards God, for Whose glory this Church was built.
Christ invites every woman who has had an abortion to turn to Him, and not to lose hope. He loves her. She need only say to Him: "I did wrong, and I am sorry!" to show her regret and repentance. Christ wants the Clergy to speak more about the Sacrament of Penance, and about how the sin of abortion can be forgiven.
Fathers have traditionally sacrificed themselves to defend their wives and children. Mothers have traditionally sacrificed their hopes, in times of crisis, to send their children into safe-keeping, away from danger. Today, many mothers sacrifice their babies on the altar of convenience. To avoid hardship to themselves, they sentence their own children to death by abortion.
It is not the duty of the priest, at a Requiem Mass, to announce that the deceased person is certainly in Heaven. His duty is to lead the Church in prayer, and to offer the Holy Sacrifice for the remission of the sins of the living and the departed. Only God knows who has been saved - though we should live in hope - and who has gone straight to Heaven: God and His Church, who canonises the Saints.
There is only one Heaven: the one that people can hope to enter because of what Christ has done to make a way in, to give us access to the Father. There is no other Heaven. Only through union with Christ can people enter, some straight away, others - if not in mortal sin - after some purification.
Through the intercession of Our Blessed Lady, a person who walks in a dark tunnel of the spiritual life can be given a moment of new hope, or refreshment - as if he had suddenly come upon a window through which he can see the beautiful country ahead, and can revive his hope of achieving sanctity, and entering Heaven.
Whoever wants to know about a religion should look at the Founder. Jesus Christ, who founded the Catholic Faith and Catholic Church, came down from Heaven! He proved His claim by rising from the dead, as He had predicted. If we go to His Church we can share His Divine life, and receive forgiveness, light and strength for our journey, and the sure hope of Heaven.
Just as we want to tell people the reason for the traffic queue in which they are stuck, as we drive freely on our side of the road, so we should want to tell people about the Way to Heaven - Christ's Way - to people who feel 'stuck' in ignorance or hopelessness, and are without the joy that the hope of Heaven brings to the human heart.
Long ago, when the evil one dragged down two-thirds of the stars from the sky, he hoped to seize the victory; but Saint Michael defeated the evil one and threw him into the depths.
If we could see into a tunnel where a train has crashed we would see helpless people, in darkness, in desperate need of outside help; and so it is with people trapped in mortal sin. They are in desperate need of the Divine grace that can bring them to repentance, with new life, hope and joy and forgiveness. They desperately need the prayers of the faithful, to help them.
Just as a flower in summer is wide open to receive the honeybee, so the Godhead is as if 'wide-open', always, to receive the thoughts and words of human beings. God is so loving that He is inviting us to bring all our problems, hopes and secret causes for shame, to Him in prayer. There is nothing He is not willing to hear about, and to help us through.
In the play called 'Pygmalion', a rich man gave lessons to a poor working girl, and transformed her speech and outlook, and clothing. Christ works an even more marvellous transformation, by His grace acting within a willing soul. He transforms the whole person, leading each to Him, to find security, joy, peace-of-soul and fulfilment in sharing His life, and also to grow in wisdom, purity, courage, hope and charity.
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