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Christ accepted death, in order to conquer death. He rose from the grave by His Divine power; He shared that same power with His devoted followers - and still does so today. Christ has made a Way back to Heaven, in which we can follow.
We must not worry if we cannot always 'compose' ourselves for prayer, or must pray in a hospital bed or a railway carriage. Christ's greatest prayer, the most beautiful, was prayed from the Cross, when He surrendered to the Father's Will, in death, in love and obedience.
After the Consecration, we can be certain that Christ is Present amongst us: Christ Who died on the Cross, praying for sinners, and Who is Present now, praying for us in our day, and offering the same sacrifice.
There are public talks for enquirers at which speakers tell of their personal friendship with Jesus, which is strengthened by what they read in the Bible. The best talks are those given by faithful Catholics who present the whole Gospel message, including the life of the Church: that God became man, to save us; He founded a Church on those who were witnesses to His Death and Resurrection; the Church can tell us how to live, and help us to know Christ and achieve salvation; we can belong to her.
Many priests fail to mention the Cross. Jesus died on it, because of our sins. Few warnings are given from the pulpit, by many priests, about the serious sin by which people condemn themselves to Hell if they do not repent before they die. Many are lost because they have failed to repent of their adulteries, suicides, abortions, and lack of faith in God.
Truly, only by His Death and Resurrection did Christ defeat sin and death; and that saving work is made present now, in what we call a sacramental manner. Hidden under the appearance of bread and wine, Jesus Christ is bodily Present with us, offering His once-for-all Sacrifice to the Father, in the Spirit.
There is only one Way to Heaven, made by Christ, Who had come down from Heaven; so if we picture life on earth, we should picture Christ on the Cross, on Calvary - with a ladder nearby, which reaches as far as Heaven. Christ made that Way, by His suffering and death and Resurrection. We are heirs and heiresses to life in Heaven if we have passed through the water of Baptism - like a cleansing river - and live for love of Christ until we die. That is 'salvation'.
Christ died, to conquer sin and death; yet He would have done so, to save a single person from going to Hell. Millions, however, are in danger of condemning themselves to Hell because they lead hard-hearted and sinful lives. Each of us needs to repent, by the grace of Christ, before we die.
People who use Mass as an opportunity to make protests against the teaching which Christ gives us through His Church make a sacrilegious interruption to the Church's most sacred rites. Christ suffered death on the Cross - a death remembered and re-presented at Mass - for our sins, including the very sins those people promote today.
By His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension, Christ made a Way to Heaven. It's as if His head is in Heaven, as He speaks to the Father from our midst at every Mass, as a great mass of needy people encircles the altar on earth.
The Lord asks Catholics who doubt His Presence in the Blessed Sacrament: Ff Christ could become man, through the Virgin Mary, and allow Himself to die and be buried, and yet visit Abraham and the Prophets in the underworld, then ascend to Heaven to live there in glory, can He not come down to earth again, by the same power, as the Holy Spirit makes Him Present on the altar, as the bread and wine are changed into Christ's Body and Blood, and His friends prepare to receive Him?
The Lord wants to see a crucifix on every altar, large enough to serve as a reminder for everyone that they are present at a solemn, living memorial of His Sacred Passion and death. The Mass is therefore not an appropriate place for frivolity, pop music, dancing, or chatter, or anything else which would draw hearts and minds away from the awesome act which takes place.
There is a whole world of people living in disbelief, ignorance of Christ, or sin; it's as if they live in a system of tunnels, in semi-darkness, underground. There is only one way out, through a narrow tunnel which leads up to the light, made by the One who emerged from death to new life. All who have been rescued by Him can show others the Way.
In the whole history of God's plan of salvation, a new corner was turned in the road when Christ was conceived, and born of Mary, and then in adult life walked towards the Cross, and the death He would offer up as atonement for our sins: the death by which He would make salvation possible for all who trust in Him.
God the Father looks from Heaven upon our lives. He sees that men who injure women, or women who abort their babies, are, in effect, crucifying Christ, because whoever engages in evils such as sadism or killing, is placing himself or herself on the side of Satan, who does not want us to act with love and compassion, and tried to overcome Christ.
God's chosen people were led by God on a long journey to the Promised Land, through a desert, and not always understanding His wishes - as if deep in a canyon. When they emerged, so to speak, to witness Jesus the Saviour in His life-time, it was as if on a great plain, at a time of testing. Few believed. Others crucified Jesus; but He rose to Heaven, having conquered sin and death.
If we try to escape the Cross, we merely flee into darkness. No Christian can expect to escape some sort of crucifixion, whether interior desolation and trials, and the dark nights, or persecution, or the knowledge of one's own sinfulness. The only way to sanctity and Heaven is upwards, with Christ, one with Him in crucifixion followed by Resurrection even in this life, to find fulfilment and joy in His service.
God the Father sent His Son to earth not just to die for our sins, but also to found a Church. If we follow her teachings about good and evil, by the grace of Christ, we bring about the fulfilment of God's plan for human life. People who claim to be practicing Catholics but who dispute long-standing teaching and discipline are like jigsaw pieces who agreed to be parts of a beautiful landscape but who now do what they please, and refuse to complete the Designer's plan.
God looks upon abortion as being the worst of all sins so widespread today, because it includes the pride which makes people imagine that they have the right to destroy the life of an innocent person. The Creator looks upon someone who causes the death of an infant as being like a person who caused the death of His own Son, Jesus Christ, Who shares our humanity.
The Divine Son of God crossed the vast gulf between Heaven and earth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to take flesh, and be born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After His Death and Resurrection He again crossed that gulf at His Ascension into Heaven, having promised that He would bring His faithful followers to Heaven, likewise; so the Spirit carries towards Heaven, all who die in a state of grace - though some pause for a while, in Purgatory, on their way to glory.
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