God's Plan Of Salvation
In the World, But Not Of The World
How beautiful is the church of Jesus Christ providing the Sacraments of His real presence. The fullness of grace, for obedience to what He, God's Only Divine Son, told mankind to do, to draw near to God and heaven.
Unfortunately, all is not beauty and bliss after the Confirmation anointing to be adult members of the One, Holy, Apostolic, (Catholic) Church of Jesus Christ. This article aims to give reason for persevering in the Sacramental life of the church and to bring awareness that besides the JOY of holding His name, CHRISTian, there will be our own ‘cross’ to pick up for being ‘in the world, but not of the world.’
One, Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic Judeo-Christian faithful!
Heaven, where all who receive Him through acts of faith here on earth, will one day be wholly ‘embodied’ in His glorified body, and yet retain their individual personhood. Heaven will not have signs that indicate Episcopalian Christians there, Calvinists over there, Methodists over there. No, as stated in Ephesians Chapter 4: there is ONE faith, ONE Baptism, ONE God who is Father. All baptized into the divine eternal life of Jesus, God’s ONLY Divine Son, are part of a new covenant with God, the Father, and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.
One, Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic Judeo-Christian faithful!
In the game people play sitting in a circle, an idea or thought is whispered to one person on the right, that person whispers to the next person, so it goes around the circle. The last person speaks the idea aloud, and it is 99.9% assured the words will be completely different from the original statement. Such is what also came to be with regards following The Way, The Truth, and The Life of Jesus Christ as He established His church on earth. (the new temple) Jesus knew, of course, some followers would get His teachings and His message mixed up.
The original message of God’s new covenant with man began: ‘it came upon a midnight clear’ — which involved a young girl named Mary, a manger scene, the purity of Mary’s soul which God conceived free of original sin, providing Mary a perpetual state of grace, and her YES, that brought God down to earth to dwell and be born of Mary.
Such scene of Mary’s holiness can be forgotten when in the contemporary adult world there are household bills to pay, home, condo, or apartment to maintain, one or more children yelling ‘I wanna, I wanna,’ the responsibilities of job or career, and hundreds; if not thousands, of distractions that entice the eyes to have ‘ease,’ ‘comfort’ and ‘social status’ popularity.
The ‘Body of Christ’ aka ‘church’ on earth is Holy because the Holy Spirit formed it. All who say YES, to partaking in Acts of Faith of the sanctifying Sacraments, where Jesus is lay hidden from natural eyes, are also being transformed to the same holiness as God provided to Mary. To be holy is the reason for obedience to the Sacramental life of the church.
One, Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic Judeo-Christian faithful!
Those within any branch of the Judeo Christian church of Christ can be as ‘catholic’ as those officially praying in the ‘official’ faith ‘in practice.’ As per those words said at weddings: ‘what God has brought together, let no man attempt to separate.’ True indeed, the Christian church is not simply built by brick and mortar. The church was built on ‘rock and a spiritual mother.’ The church is composed of human authority, which began with Peter, and a ministerial priesthood that originated with 12 apostles, and has a spiritual mother, Mary, who was not just mother of God incarnate, but the first disciple of Christ’s church, and whom Christ gave to all His followers as their spiritual mother. The essence of ‘the Christian church’ is the gift of faith flowing from Mary, aided by the fullness of God's grace found within Mary.
There is no earthly door that will hinder God's graced presence coming to those who are 'wholly' devoted to serving God after the initial cleansing waters of Baptism — of soul! All who are wholly devoted to God are a priestly people, priestly meaning being a servant of God. Those good souls, who identify as Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian — or whatever hyphenated Christian name is in the world are sometimes more catholic then in the earthly moment they are able to completely understand and are just as much part of Christ’s church on earth and priestly servants of God. Christians of the Catholic tradition of faith do and should always pray for them, no matter the physical building they sit in.
One, Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic Judeo-Christian faithful souls!
God is God, and there are truths that all of faith must accept and understand despite any 'hyphenated' Christian group name. These fundamental truths of the Christian 'body' are universal! That of God being 'born' incarnate to a girl named Mary. (Merry Christmas) God is One God in '3' divine 'persons. To know there is the necessity of being baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To understand the need of obedience to God’s Ten Commandments. Such basic truth provides universal and mutual faith in the Supreme 'spiritual being' called God. The word catholic means universal!
In faith, God is God. God is omniscient aka all knowing, and omnipresent, present everywhere where sin is not. God can raise anyone to knowledge, understanding, counsel, and wisdom of God who sincerely want Him to be Lord of their daily duties. The virtue of humility is the key to attaining those gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are knowledge, understanding, counsel, and wisdom.
All the above understood of being ‘in the world, but not of the world’ — to speak of faith learned in Sunday School classroom, the faith put to practice in taking the Real Presence of Christ in Sacraments, which is the religion of following our Savior, and living the Christian faith in a diverse human world where all persons in ‘the circle’ are not in ‘one place’ of ‘one understanding of mind, of the ONE TRUTH’ whispered by ONE GOD incarnate. This provides to all of faith their personal 'cross carrying' experience, as ‘in and through God’ one must speak objective God truth.
The job of being Christian is not to just enjoy the many graces and blessings we receive as a follower of God. As with any earthly job, there are responsibilities to the common Go(o)d whom we of faith serve. We do not work only for dollars, pensions, and prestigious human titles and praise. We are ‘in but not of this material world.’ Be aware that if ‘meek’ or ‘shy,’ there will be those who interpret such as being ‘easy’ to manipulate, to control, and to ignore the good we are about as a mutual adult. They will attempt to make us believe we are immature for not being assertive. If we do get rightly angry and rightly assert, ‘the world’ will throw out such words as ‘why do you harbor anger.’ I heard this word ‘harbor anger’ spoken once, and it immediately brought thought of a ‘docked’ boat, not a boat that is freely moving. It is when we can speak of what angers us to those whom are more or less as us but unaware of their disrespect, WE can all sail better on the sea as One Body of Christ. Other words heard by some souls when justified anger is expressed: just move forward! I reiterate — ONE BODY in God cannot move forward individually. When something is not right, we need to bring awareness. Ignore also those who say ‘let’s just agree to disagree.’ This too is mere human words to avoid the truth they do not wish to think about.
Do not get pulled down by nice sounding phrases that ‘sound like’ unity but is not.
It is essential to remember the following when living the faith daily:
· Expect to be poked, provoked, mocked, and have faith tested by humans as ourselves when sincerely attending to the teachings of the One, Holy, Apostolic, and Judeo-Christian Church of Jesus Christ. Be grateful for one or two or four special friends, two being the loving parents who ‘raised you up in the way you are to go.’ Popularity is not an essential to entering the narrow road upward to those Pearly Gates.
· Be aware of the trait that makes us all human: our emotions, also called our feelings. The temptation will be there to be angry when disrespect of our God values is blatant. Not, per se, our personhood of fleshly nature. The disrespect of our God values is cause for justified anger. This brings us the personal 'cross' of choosing battles carefully, yet not being 'a doormat' for 'the world' to wipe their discontent, misery, anger, and envy upon.
· While a Christian is called to be humble and meek, a Christian must not be weak. We are God's voice 'in the world' and have an obligation as His disciples to speak up and give reason why an idea, or action, is wrong action as stated in the Spiritual Works Of Mercy. We should remain humble in knowing we are human and are not going to change the ways of anyone, but we do need to bring otherwise good souls to an awareness of their ways and words. Admonitions are not just for young children. Admonitions are for all, because while in the material world, there are hundreds of distractions to mind and eyes that take the focus from the reason for the earthly journey. A false message once circulated that ‘we are not our brother’s keeper.’ This is half true. While our brothers and sisters do have free will, so too do the faithful have the free will to say NO to what dishonors God, and disrespects the values of God and our peace In Christ.
· Once the words are spoken to the offender of go(o)d actions, it is then for the faithful to God to not be consumed by the anger expressed, but to be consumed by the ways of love, which is prayer. We now 'offer up' the offender and our being offended to God by prayer. Praying may not bring 'immediate results' or an immediate reconciliation with our spiritual brothers and sisters. Still, we of faith must have the attitude of Christ: Mercy! Real Christians never slam any doors on those who were disrespectful to us, or block email, or slam a phone receiver down. We humbly continue 'as always,' understanding that life is eternal and trust God has heard and has initiated the change asked for this person. If we don’t see the change in our life on earth, we will see it in the world to come, because life is eternal — and patience is a virtue. Persevere in prayer!
· Through our continuing prayer, while our 'other self' may not immediately change as we asked — we will be changed, at the least, by being given the grace of strength to deal with any difficult soul.
In a diverse fleshly world where all are not as yet ‘together in spirit’ of The Way, The Truth, The Life, i.e., it isn’t the full heaven yet — it is essential to remain humble, ‘keep the faith,’ and pick up ‘the cross’ and follow the way of Jesus: pray, speak THE truth when truth needs to be stated, bringing awareness to ‘busy souls’ ‘distracted souls.’ Remember to ‘offer up’ the good we are about at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the unity of the body of Christ.
This is to be ‘in the world, but NOT of the world!
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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.
