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Jesus said: Whoever welcomes a little child, welcomes Me. And He warned of the punishments due to those who harm the 'little ones'.
Just as Christ bore suffering as punishment for others, so it is with us, who can help other souls by our patient acceptance of suffering.
Just as Christ bore suffering as punishment for others, so it is with us, who can help other souls by our patient acceptance of suffering.
Just as Christ bore suffering as punishment for others, so it is with us, who can help other souls by our patient acceptance of suffering.
"Would St. Paul Recognise it?" The Lord showed me the 'New Gospel' preached today by those who dissent from the Church's teachings, and who rarely mention sin or punishment, and speak as if it is easy to be saved, no matter how a person chooses to live.
How could God warn us that people risk eternal punishment in Hell, for unrepented serious sin, if He had not given us, in His Church, sure teachings about what is sinful and what is not, with the means of avoiding sin and growing in holiness?
A person acts wholly against God and His Laws if he threatens or inflicts death as part of his criminal activities, for gain, fraud, punishment or bargaining, or any other reason.
People act wholly against God and His laws when they threaten to kill, or do kill others, to settle a private feud or a family or clan vendetta - or in gang warfare.
Someone who has been powerful in earthly life, yet cruel to the people in his care, finds, after death - if he has not repented - that he is in the power of the evil one, in Hell, experiencing the powerlessness once felt by people in his charge.
It is a work of mercy to pray and preach so that people who are cruel and thoughtless towards others will repent before they die. Those who have no respect for fellow human beings, or no respect for the poor and the weak, are as if an inch away from Hell, should death suddenly arrive before they can repent and avoid eternal punishment.
God has permitted capital punishment at certain times, for grave crimes. Yet the human race has been in such a dire state of sinfulness, since the Original Sin, that in whatever era of history Christ might have come to earth to speak the truth about sin and salvation, He would have been persecuted, and then killed by whatever method was usual at the time, despite His innocence.
It is a fearsome thing, to take a person's life. But some who loudly criticise the 'God of the Bible' for his punishments think nothing of the fact that thousands of innocent babies are slaughtered in the womb, every year, in one country, and many more elsewhere.
The Lord asked me to take care, in my explanations about the Last Judgement painting, especially about the entrance of souls to Purgatory. I must make sure, he said, that I explain it is for purification not punishment.
The Lord showed me the results of the Plenary Indulgence which I had gained, by His grace, through Mass and Holy Communion, special prayers, and a sincere Confession. All my sins had been forgiven, with no punishment due. It was as though I was clothed in an unspotted white Baptismal robe, and was like a carefree child in God's presence, like the people in white in the Last Judgement painting.
While capital punishment is being outlawed in many countries for being too barbaric, more and more countries allow the barbaric killing of babies in the womb
Whether a man cruelly murders an innocent woman in order to steal her valuables without a witness, or kills an innocent baby currently developing in its mother's womb, an act has been done which is barbaric in God the Father's sight, and deserving of punishment - even if the circumstances vary.
When someone is sentenced to death, people usually say, "What evil has he done?" None of the little babies put to death in the womb is guilty of crime, or personal sin, but only of being unwanted. So they are dismembered or poisoned, and thrown away, in what was once a civilised society.
Although God allowed sinful men, whom He justified, to guide and lead His People, He wants to teach all the peoples of the world through the truth spoken by His own Son, on earth, hence the Incarnation and Birth of Jesus Christ. He was inevitably persecuted and killed, yet knowing and accepting this in advance. But death, a punishment for sin, could not hold the sinless one, or His sinless Virgin Mother. They are in Heaven now, encouraging us to persevere is truth and holiness.
In giving us hundreds of beautiful, joyful, spiritual images, Christ wants us to know that He leads us by love, not by threats of punishment; yet for a full catechesis (as shown in the recent few dozen paintings of the Radiant Light series) there must also be serious mention of death, Hell and Satan, to show the Eternal consequences of unrepented grave sin and the loss of God, in ways people can understand.
How to Pray: Perseverance, by Elizabeth Wang
This text is published as Chapter 3 of How to Pray (Part One: Foundations), pages 19-30, entitled 'How to Persevere'. An introduction to the life of prayer with much practical advice about how to deep…
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