Keeping our Faith when Antagonist's seem to have control

Keeping our Faith when Antagonist’s seem to have control

It isn’t always a walk in the dark when new enemies come along, yet, there are those who feel they have the right to upset the very peace of believers in Christ who died for even them.  As history will show, God tried to teach the people of the Old Testament how generous and loving he was and he only got sarcastic answers by the way they ignored him and all the blessings that were confounded.    

When God called Abraham to become his prophet of salvation he found a man who would accept and do God’s bidding that changed the attitude of the wandering tribes, at least for a period of time.  It was soon after that Abram and Lot discovered that there would be problems if both tribes stayed together with their flocks that caused strife among the herdsmen.  So even here we see that it takes a lot of thought to satisfy these people we might call peaceful.  

Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are kinsmen.”  (Gn 13: 8).  Right in the beginning of his ministry Abram followed the graciousness of his God and drew the sense of peace between his kinfolk by enabling men to live at peace with one another.

Throughout human history there have been men and women who worked diligently to bring together opposing friends and nations when disagreements get out of hand which ultimately bring anger from each and many times cause war between several or in cases with Germany in WWII that ended up killing many thousands of soldiers not including innocent citizens in more than one nation.  My use of the term antagonistic is a right to the point word that places the outcome of warlike members in families, municipal gatherings, and national entities that decide to be the ones who will be in control of everything evil.

It is not a mystery as to the problems that mankind ended up as an extreme violent species that could never seem to live with each other without finding fault in everything someone else does

The Catholic Catechism describes envy as the prime evil that needs to be banished from the human heart.  When the prophet Nathan wanted to spur King David to repentance, he told him the story about the poor man who had only one ewe lamb that he treated like his own daughter and the rich man who who, despite the great number of his flocks, envied the poor man and ended by stealing his lamb.  Envy can lead to the worst crimes.  “Through the devil’s envy death entered the world.”  (CCC 2538).

We fight one another, and envy arms us against one another…If everyone strives to unsettle the Body of Christ, where shall we end up?  We are engaged in making Christ’s  Body a  corpse…We declare ourselves members of one and the same organism, yet we devour one another like beasts.  (St. John Chrysostom Homily).

Envy is a capital sin.  It refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly.  When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:  (CCC 2539).

St. Augustine saw envy as “the diabolical sin.”  From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity.”  (St. Gregory the Great).

We need not search further at the envy or jealousy of our next store neighbor, be it a family we know well or a nation that we once collaborated with peacefully now is a mortal enemy.       

The challenge to keep close guard of our faith is the one attribute that God hands us through grace and we must thank him by giving back our trust in his Omnipotence.  

Ralph B. Hathaway