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Christ came from Heaven as a man: a fire of Divine Love, embodied. His presence 'melted' and changed some people, who enjoyed a new and glorious life; but other people had no desire to allow Him to 'thaw' their frozen hearts and cold souls, and reacted to Him with anger.
People who meet Christ after death vary in their reactions. A person on fire with Divine Love is overjoyed to greet Him. Someone aware of her still-cold heart will accept the painful 'thawing' which is her purification. Someone frozen in spirit and unwilling to be changed will freely choose to hurl himself away, into Hell.
It was by her total surrender to the Father's Will that the Blessed Virgin Mary accepted the message of the Angel, and was able to reply that she was the handmaid of the Lord; and so Christ was conceived in her womb.
A sure proof of devotion to God and the Saints is the keeping of a calendar or diary of the Church's year, when a Catholic looks up the feasts and seasons, prepares for them, and prays sincere and appropriate prayers.
We are right to pray for people in need: for the poor, the sick, those in prison or held hostage, and many more; but there are people in need of prayer who are often well-fed and physically strong, but left in darkness by their atheism: their lack of belief in God. Large areas of the world are afflicted by this tragedy.
A firm and mistaken private judgement about a moral issue is like a boulder in the heart of someone who claims to have examined Catholic claims and found them inadequate. A private opinion that abortion is a right, for example, prevents sincere and fruitful exploration about the Catholic Church.
Bishops and priests who fail to teach the Faith in its fullness, rarely or never speaking against contraception or abortion, send a wrong message not just to Catholics but also to other Christians who notice what they say, and conclude that these are matters of little importance. Such things, objectively, (such as contraception, abortion, so-called 're-marriage' and other practices) are serious sins.
Just as a loving Father, on holiday with his family, helps his disabled child to leave the water after only a short dip, so God the Father looks on lovingly if a sick or disabled person has to 'leave' prayer, through exhaustion; unable to concentrate. He is neither surprised nor offended; He looks on with sympathetic eyes.
Someone who persists in sin but who says to himself that his sin is not serious, or who tells himself that he will give up his sin later on, is like a man who has let himself down into the lift-shaft of an old mine, pretending that there is no danger from fire, flood, or a frayed rope.
Jesus Christ was aware of His own Origin and Divine nature throughout His whole life on earth. Though He took a human nature to Himself and lived as a little boy in our world, He did not have to be told His purpose in life. About all these things, He had Divine knowledge and implicit human knowledge, as a boy, though He had to learn how to put it into words.
At the Consecration of the bread, it is changed into the Scared Body of Christ, Who is Present with us, in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity: whole and entire. His radiance shines upon all who are present there, with an outpouring of graces for those willing to receive them.
Christ sees everything that human beings do. Human life is like a long, dimly-lit corridor; yet though people act in dark corners or behind closed doors, He sees and understands everything people do, whether in hidden areas, behind locked doors, in bright chambers or dark rooms - or in cellars deep underground. He loves sinners, but loathes sin; and so He encourages us all to repent, and He longs for everyone to change.
Jesus is willing to say, today, to each person who goes to Him, repenting of sin, what He once said to the adulterous, sorrowful woman: "Neither do I condemn you. Go away and don't sin anymore". This is true, even for people guilty of those sins which are particularly repulsive to virtuous people.
It is often true that of people who ask aggressive questions of a Catholic speaker, and who mention the Inquisition and the Crusades, few have actually read a book about Catholic beliefs, or listed the benefits brought to the human race by the Church.
If we are attacked once again for our Catholic Faith, by persons who can speak only about the Crusades and the Inquisition, we are not wrong to ask them if they have even read a book on what we really believe, and whether they are aware of all the good which Christ has introduced into the world, through His Church.
In the history of the world and of religions, there has been one Person Who killed no-one, who healed everyone who suffered, and Who has proved, by His Resurrection from death, that He can take His followers, too, up to Heaven, just as He has promised. That person is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary.
Whoever searches for an answer to life's questions can do no better than to listen to Jesus. He is the only one of Whom it can be said: He healed everyone, He killed no-one, and He rose from the dead, proving that He has the power to take His followers up to Heaven. Everyone looking clearly at the truth will appreciate that good news, which is worth having.
It is the Lord's wish that the Last Judgement picture be used on a sanctuary wall, as a reminder of the truths we ought to know: that each of us, by our freely-made choices, is walking towards either Heaven - by the grace of Christ - or towards Hell, which is the loss of God.
It is part of Christ's plan that this 'Last Judgement' picture serve as an image in a sanctuary, and as a restatement of truth, an illustration of the Catechism, a teaching aid, and a proof of my own understanding of the Gospel: that each of us is making our way to Heaven or Hell, through our freely made choices as we accept or reject the graces Christ won for us on the Cross.
Christ took loaves and fishes, and fed thousands of hungry people.