'Oily' To Bed, 'Oily' To Rise: Achieving 'Goodness' Through Worship and Sacraments
The Source Of One Faith In God
In my last article, The Simple Math Of One God in 3 Distinct Divine Persons, I wrote of the Divine math of mystery of One God in 3 distinct, Divine persons. Keeping to the theme of the 'One-der' (wonder) of One-ness in the spiritual life (heaven), I thought it might be useful to explore Ephesians chapter 4 verse 5. One Faith, One Baptism, One Lord — ONE at a time.
Let's begin with One Faith. The concept of one Faith can be confusing when there are approximately 30,000 sects, groups, denominations, and non-denominational Christian churches with conflicting theology of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, the question needs to be asked: what is the source of the one Faith in God? The source of the unmerited gift of Faith in God came 'from the heavens,' when the soul of the soon to be person, Mary, was conceived and was made 'clean.' (Holy)
What is a clean soul? It is a soul in full union with the spirit of God and with pure love for God. Not a shred of self-interest or earthly attachments to Mary's human body to hinder the communication with the spiritual reality of heaven. God and human nature became 'wholly connected' again, by God's initiative to human Mary's soul. With such purity of love, love being God, Faith came to human nature, as stated in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." GOD was again 'wholly' part of humanity, beginning with Mary. There was nothing to deter the Faith from growing.
Now, some of today's world may ask how God could show partiality to Mary's soul to be made so spotless of any impurities. But, NO, God was not partial. In the Divine math of God and the 'one-der' (wonder) of Oneness, God's spirit was born of flesh to Mary. He was named Jesus, walked amongst humanity of flesh, taught God's ways, died on a cross, and was resurrected, providing all souls' ability to be washed clean and acquire the same graced real presence of God as Mary did. Yes, all souls could be cleansed of that original sin inherited by the actions of Adam and Eve, by water and the Spirit of God's real presence. Baptism is an Act of Faith in what Jesus himself did while walking the earth. With spiritual eyes, all soul cleansing is also 'done in heaven' because the spirit of heaven had come down to us through Mary.
The source of pure faith starts with Mary, the first of God's disciples, who did God's will. From one, come the many other souls, who become connected again to the real presence of God in their souls, washed clean of impurity of the original sin began by Adam and Eve, by God's unmerited grace.
There is ONE Faith, ONE Baptism, ONE Lord God in all who act in faith of what God taught to do, helping all towards full communion with God — in a word, THE heaven. His Sanctifying grace in accord the degree of faith in what the incarnate word taught to do!
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About the Author
Born and baptized in infancy into the Catholic Church, I have always been a practicing Catholic, living the gift of faith in God, with wisdom now understanding such living does take ‘lots of practice.’ For me, over 45 years worth of practice -- and that is as much as I will say about my chronological age. Please note by this introduction that I do enjoy lighthearted humor, which led to my 'call' to pursue the vocation of cartoon illustration. Such vocation is a very competitive field yet I do feel God directed my steps to both earning my daily bread and honing the illustration ability via the field of pre-press print production in such areas as community newspapers, retail advertising print production, and small print shop laying out text and image to be visually appealing.
From the repetitively doing of the graphic artwork of pre-press production, I came to realize that I can not only write with a picture (cartoon) but I can draw with words. What also came to be through the daily, dutiful, and disciplined service work for a living was the ever growing knowledge of my Catholic faith, as I persevered in 'offering up,' best I understood that, at each stage and age of my life, as I attended Catholic Mass weekly, and later in life daily Mass. Indeed the work-a-day world takes a lot of endurance and I found that attending daily Mass before going to the daily job in a print shop gave me an amazing 'strength' and 'endurance.'
I hope the articles I write for Catholic365.com are down-to-earth and fun, and that I have helped others to understand how special the Catholic faith practice is, and the grace that comes through the Catholic Church.
