GOD WANTS YOU IN HEAVEN
Learn why the saints teach:
"VERY FEW CHRISTIANS ARE SAVED"
the fewness of the saved is real
Souls are Dying!Our Lord’s Sacred Heart of Love is being stabbed profusely over the loss of so many souls. It is unfathomable how many people are dying: choosing Hell for eternity but don’t even know it… until “the day of judgment” (Matthew 11:22) when it is too late.
I know this can be hard to believe. But please don’t be so proud to think we are given more wisdom than the saints. They want to guide us to Life.
“The elect [those who obtain Heaven]… are few in number. It would cause us to faint away from grief to learn how surprisingly small is their number.”
–St. Louis De Montfort, (A Letter to the Friends of the Cross, Part II, #14)
My friend, please know, we aren’t automatically saved just because we are “Christians”… or because we go to church or do any good work. No. “He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done” (Titus 3:5) but from His love. Thinking we are saved–forgiven of our sins–because of something we do is a lie of the devil to keep us lukewarm and not concerned with our eternity.
But yet, please don’t be deceived. Not all “good” people go to Heaven… that is a fallacy… that isn’t how salvation works. And our confessions, which are supposed to be saving us, simply aren’t true either. We don’t know how to accept God’s forgiveness. We have been deceived.
We must know, this unfathomable gift of Eternal Life, this perfect forgiveness of our sins, we REJECT when we don’t repent, with TRUE SORROW, for any of our sins. “There is a sin which is always ‘unto death’ (1 John 5:16): the sin for which we do not repent [lack true sorrow for].” as St. Mark the Ascetic teaches (On Those Who Think that They are Made Righteous by Works, Ch. 41).
Please tell me, how can we accept God’s forgiveness–His saving grace–that He died to give us, if we aren’t truly sorry for offending Him? We can’t.
“REPENT and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38).
If we think we are saved by faith, well that is true. “For by [God’s saving/forgiving] grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). But if we think we have a faith that saves–a faith that can accept His saving forgiving grace–without having true sorrow for our sins, we are believing a lie from the deceiver. “Such faith has no power to save” (James 2:14).
Yes, to be saved, we need a SAVING FAITH. Oh, the devil works tirelessly to deceive us, to keep us from obtaining “mature manhood” (Ephesians 4:13)… a saving faith in Christ, all with the purpose of preventing us from sincerely repenting, so we won’t embrace God’s saving forgiving mercy for the salvation of our souls.
Abomination of Love
Please know, it is an abomination of love to not care that we are offending God with any sin? That isn’t how someone feels who has a saving faith. How horrible is that! But for many of us, our love for God is so little that we don’t even care that we are offending Our Beloved Lord? We don’t really hate what is evil/sin, which proves we are far from having a saving faith.
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil [sin]” (Romans 12:9).
Honestly, how many of us have spent our lives habitually committing so many sins? From our lack of true hatred for our sins, we just continue in them without restraint, over and over again, without even seeking Our Savior to help us remove our desire for them.
Then, we live our lives never gaining true repentance for our sins, because we can’t sincerely repent of any sin if we don’t even hate it enough to TRULY want to stop? We must “repent and turn to God [seek God to help us hate and stop the sin]” (Acts 26:20), if we wish for our sins to ever be forgiven.
This is why we are dying. Our Savior, who’s love for us is unfathomable, came to save us, but tragically, we are rejecting Him. We still want to stay in many of our sins and not love God. Oh, what little faith… what little love for God we have!
Yes, how many of us want to stay in our sins so greatly, we pretend like we don’t or hardly even sin, especially if we are confronted with an error. Then, from our pride, we become angry, conceal our offences and/or continue in them, which is damning our souls. That isn’t repentance. Sadly, we don’t want to see our sins nor do we really even care that we are offending God with so many of them. Where is our love for God?
“[There are] faults of which they think little [of], and what is still worse, they defend them as if they were virtues [not sins], and will not be corrected for them. These faults place the soul in great peril of eternal damnation [if they don’t repent].”
–God the Father to St. Gertrude the Great, (Life and Revelation, Part 4, Ch.2)
If we desire/commit even a venial sin, and we love God so little that it doesn’t even bother us that we are offending Him with that sin, from our lack of hatred for sinning–our lack of care for offending God–that venial sin has now become mortal. We must hate to offend God and be working hard to avoid and leave all of our offences if we wish to not die from mortal sin… “deadly sin” (1 John 5:16).
“A venial sin… becomes a serious one [mortal] through a person’s negligence [not working to stop the sin] and scorn [disregarding it of importance].”
–Jesus to St. Bridget of Sweden (Prophecies and Revelations, Ch. 19)
Oh, but how many venial sins do we simply pay no attention to. We think nothing of them. We aren’t working hard to not commit them. If anything, we think “Well, since venial sins don’t damn us, why worry about them?” Our hearts simply have no concern that we are offending God with so many sins. Where is our love for God?
Souls who truly love God have grown so much in their faith that they are now “resolved to suffer death rather than commit a deliberate venial offence against God” as St. Alphonsus teaches in his sermon on Passion Sunday. That is the kind of love we must obtain. We must, in sincerity of heart, not want to offend God with any sin. Therefore, it isn’t the act of desiring/committing the venial sin that is killing us, but it is our lack of hatred for sinning, which is.
Plus, we should know the more venial sins we commit, the more we weaken our souls into committing mortal sin and from being so deceived, we most likely won’t even recognize them… and every mortal sin, whether it is our lack of hatred for our venial sins or any of the other grave sins we can commit, increases our blindness to The Way to Heaven. To learn more please read, “What Are Mortal Sins?”
“By mortal sin we forfeit the friendship of God… [it] deprives the soul of all merit [from works]… [and it] deprives us of our liberty [freedom from control and death by sin]… [it] robs us of peace of heart… [and it] destroys the soul [making it unable to] see… [or] hear… [and makes us] insensible… [and the spreader of] corruption.”
–St. Ignatius of Loyola (Spiritual Exercises, Fifth Exercise)
Yet horribly, from being deceived into thinking that it doesn’t matter if we are offending God, we commit sin without restraint. We are suffering from great blindness and have no sorrow for our endless sins. “Sorrow for sin is a grief of the soul leading us to detest [hate] sins committed and to resolve not to commit them any more” as Pope St. Pius X taught in his catechism. Sadly, now, from not having true faith or true sorrow, we are unknowingly rejecting God and Eternal Life, from our a great lack of love for Him (our great lack of hatred for sin).
“For this single sin [defiance of God’s command], Adam was left deprived of all [true] happiness… [and all his] descendants are condemned [needing a Savior]… For this single sin, a majority of adults are damned for all eternity [since they rejected their Savior for sin]… [Yes], one who (mortally) sins once, deserves hell… O, sin how great is the evil hidden in you!”
— St. Anthony Mary Claret (The Golden Key to Heaven, Med. 4)
How great is one offence against God, but sadly, we just don’t care! Can we now understand why there are so “few” who are saved? “Many are invited but FEW are chosen” (Matthew 22:14), because few of us love God enough to sincerely want to stop offending Him. Truly, “God will smite the head…of those who persist in their sins” (Psalm 68:21).
But it isn’t only the few sins, which we are willing to recognize, that are killing us but the vast sin we refuse to see, as are described in this article, which are leading us to eternal doom and this great blindness we are suffering from.
Please know, this isn’t only a concern for those who aren’t striving to live the faith, but from the devils great deception, shockingly, this is an equally great problem for the “faithful” too, as the saints teach and is explained later.
How Do We Love God?
How do we love God?–by NOT OFFENDING HIM.
“Whoever loves me will keep my word” (John 14:23)
How can we love God–really love God–if we aren’t even working hard to keep His Word… to stop offending Him? We can’t. St. Peter Damian said, “Love of God is the highest objective toward which one can strive in this life” (Teachings on the Spiritual Life, Ch.5), but are we even seeking this?
We might think we are loving God by all of our prayers and works, but are we really? Oh, we can pray a million prayers and do vast works for God… preach and heel… but if we aren’t working hard stop all of our sins–to perfectly keep God’s Word–those prayers and works are meaningless. They are done from hearts that have been so deceived, they have forgotten how we truly love God.
“Whoever has my commandments and OBSERVES THEM is the one who loves me” (John 14:21).
So, please ask ourselves, are we REALLY striving to love God, working hard to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1) removing sin after sin, detaching from attachment after attachment (our idols, what we seek/need for happiness that isn’t God or His will), “be[ing] conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29) by way of the cross? Are we truly striving to live all moments for His will, so to not give a second to sin, so to not offend Him in the slightest way, because we want to LOVE HIM? Is there anyone doing this?
No wonder so few are saved. We still would rather sin than work hard to love God.
“Alas, daughter, how few there are who truthfully love me!”
–Jesus to St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, (Autobiography Ch. 40)
Oh, what good is our life if we can’t die and obtain Heaven! Tragically, from being deceived, we think we are justified because we are “Christians” or because we go to church or because we “say” we are sorry, but we are saved when we ACCEPT God’s forgiveness that He died to give us, which occurs when we have true contrition (true sorrow) in our hearts for our life time of offences against Him.
And we reject God’s forgiving saving mercy, when we lack TRUE SORROW for a single sin… when we don’t care enough to work hard to avoid or stop any offence against God. Actually, to have real true sorrow is much more than just working hard to not sin, as is addressed later.
Nonetheless, this is why we live such hypocritical lives… we go to church and say we love God, but then we go off committing horrible sins, treating others so poorly and repeating so many of them right afterwards. We don’t really hate our sins nor do we really love God. Sadly, we habitually, without restraint, sin against God and for most, if not for all of our sins, we don’t even care.
“Habitual sin binds down the mind [with its desire for sin], so that it cannot rise to uprightness [it can not gain a state of grace].
–St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, (Catena Aurea, 13:10-17)
Are You Striving to Become a Real Saint?
Reality is, we aren’t working hard to become saints–not real saints and as a result, we are dying.
Sure some of us will “say” we are wanting to become a saint, but we only want to become one of those lukewarm saints, not a true saint… not one who seeks perfection: strives to “not sin any more” John 14:15 and lives for the cross: joyful suffers and sacrifices pleasures for the salvation of souls, who “rejoice[s] in my sufferings” Colossians 1:24 (as explained later), like the real saints have done before us… so to LOVE GOD and save souls.
Please know, we will be becoming a real self-sacrificing saint, not just a “good” person, when we sincerely decide we are going to stop our sins and live The Word. Truly, the result of living the faith–following Christ–is becoming like Him. If this isn’t happening, then something is very wrong with our faith.
Yes, those who truly hate their sins, one by one leave them and gain virtue and more virtue (qualities of Christ)… never stopping, from a complacency with any sin, until they grow into a perfect self-sacrificing saint.
“To reach the Promised Land you must weep with grief at the thought of the sins you have committed. Further, you must resist temptations to evil, and you must ‘advance from virtue to virtue ‘ (Psalm 83)”
–St. Bonaventure (Holiness of Life, Ch. 1)
Sadly, from being deceived, many just want to pray, go to church and do good works, if we are even doing that, filling our pride with greater and greater accomplishments, perhaps thinking that saves.
But we don’t want to sacrifice and suffer–deny ourselves of what we want and take up our crosses– for the salvation of souls like Christ and the true saints have done nor do we want to work hard to stop sinning… not to really stop offending God. Sadly, we just want to continue doing “good” or what we think is “good” thinking that somehow makes up for our sins. But please know, it isn’t the good we do that is going to damn us, but the bad we don’t truly repent of that will.
Tragically, despite how “good” we are, we are still remaining in many of our sins–which is anything we think, say or do that doesn’t LOVE GOD… anything that Christ or a saint wouldn’t do–since we aren’t really resolved/working to stop them… to follow Christ and become like Him.
As a result, we have actually forgotten what a true saint really is. This is true. Now, we don’t really know what we should be doing to be a real Christian (as explained later).
But we should be able to see plenty of our more obvious failures to act like Christ. If we can be honest with ourselves, all we need to do is just looking at our lives. Look at what we are doing with our time. Sure some of it we give to God, but what about the rest? How much is given to our will, to the world, and to sin… so to love ourselves and not God.
Oh, what comes out of our mouths… is it foul, dirty, full of gossip or complaints (wanting our will)? How about what we listen to or watch? Is it really pure, truly helping us to know, love and serve God… done according to His will (not ours)? I tell you, any part of our lives that is not what a true saint would do–that isn’t to love God done for His honor and glory–is offending God… whom we should be loving.
How about what we wear? Do we look like a humble pure innocent saint? Or has vanity/sensuality consumed us? Oh, how many things do we do or think about that a real saint wouldn’t dare do… and yet, we aren’t even concerned.
What about our sinful personality traits: our impatience, worrying, complaints about this person or that situation… oh, how about our unwillingness to suffer (bear a cross), as we become frustrated, angry or even fall into despair when things don’t go the way we desire (don’t obtain our will). Oh, the devil has us!
Yes, how about our refusal to understand others, our lack of kindness towards certain people, and our intolerance of others errors? Oh, the lack of peace we have because of our sinfulness is great. Yes, our jealousy, negativity, laziness, vanity, gluttony, immorality and the bounds of arguing and/or selfish things we do just to try to get what we want that a true saint wouldn’t ever do are so horrible. Really, what are we doing to leave them? Do we even realize that the evil one has us trapped into loving and continuing in these sins?
“Do not worry” (Matthew 6:35)… “Do not complain” (James 5:9)… “Surely impatience kills” (Job 5:2)… “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. [And] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you [who offend Him with countless sins of your own]” (Ephesians 4:31-32).
Oh, we all do different things. But the one thing we all have in common is that we aren’t working hard to leave so many of them. This is why we are dying. We love sin so much that we don’t sincerely want to do what is necessary to change many of our sinful ways.
From being so deceived, we have made offending God, with so many sins, a perfectly acceptable part of our lives. Yet, any ONE of them that we don’t gain a true hatred for… that we aren’t resolved/working hard to amend is mortal: causing us to choose everlasting punishment because we just won’t repent of them.
Honestly, what sins are you not striving to leave? Well, now is the time to change. Truly, we must be striving to perfectly obey all of God’s Word, not staying blind or ignoring any of Him, if we want to gain a true hatred/true contrition so to Live.
“Neglect of God’s law [any law] brings inescapable punishment for the soul and that unquenchable fire [since we still want to offend God and not love Him].
–St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, (On Marriage and Family Life, SVS pg. 89)
Don’t we understand everyone of those sins greatly wounds/offends Our Lord… St. Anthony Mary Claret teaches in his book “The Golden Key to Heaven” that, “A single sin arouses in Thee [God] a nausea, a horror and an infinite displeasure… and a venial sin… contains in itself so much malice that one should not commit it, not even if thereby he could save… all the inhabitants of the world” but tragically, we would rather offend God than work hard to stop, and we still continue in bounds of sins with no concern. Where is our love for God? Where is our horror for sinning against Our Beloved Lord?
Perhaps we have been committing some of our sins our whole life long, complacently thinking these are just part of who we are. Honestly, we aren’t really striving to perfectly obey/love God. Sadly, we don’t hate sin that much. It is time to seek Mercy to change us.
Yes, It Is Possible to Become Perfect
Oh, how many of us don’t even think it is possible to stop sinning? Sure, we believe God, by His grace, can remove some of our horrible sinful habits.
But the devil has deceived some of us so much, we don’t believe God has the power to remove all of our ability to choose to sin… just some of it. Tragically, we don’t really believe in the almighty power of God? Do we?
“Since that day [when I had made my Act of Oblation on June 9, 1895], love has surrounded me and penetrated me through and through. Moment by moment, the Merciful Love of God renews and cleanses me and leaves my heart without a trace of sin.”
–St. Thérèse of Lisieux (Story of a Soul, Ch. 8)
Yes, some saints have received so much grace from God they have become perfect (unable to choose sin). Believe! With God’s grace, we can too. But we must work hard and seek Him and seek Him and seek Him to obtain it.
But, if we don’t believe God’s grace can prevent us from sinning, then how can we strive to perfectly love God/to stop all of our sins, if we don’t even believe perfect obedience is possible? We can’t.
“You have regarded perfection as something impossible, even though Jesus Christ tells you to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Therefore instead of achieving perfection, you have drunk down iniquity like water. Oh, what grumbling! What lying!”
–St. Anthony Mary Claret, (The Golden Key to Heaven, Med. 1, first point)
Sure the perfection/purity we obtain after we die as we are transformed for our entrance into Heaven, if we die saved, is greater than anything we can achieve on earth (as explained later), but if we want to become saved–obtain true sorrow for our sins–we must strive to not offend God again… to become PERFECT. Frankly, deciding we are going to become a perfect saint, from having a fear of sinning against God, is the FIRST step, one needs to make towards obtaining a saving faith.
Sure, some people will say, “God doesn’t want you perfect.” But don’t believe them. That is a lie from the deceiver to keep us lukewarm. God most certainly doesn’t want us to offend Him again. He wants us to LOVE HIM.
Of course, our lack of talents/abilities are not sinful and part of God’s wonderful plan for our lives. He doesn’t make mistakes with any qualities or lack of qualities we have. They should lead us to a wonderful life IF we can trust in Him and allow Him to do great things through us… short comings and all. And our imperfections and mistakes are fine too (as long as they aren’t from our neglect), but even with them, we should seek to learn and grow so to not fail with them; but our sins must end. God wants us to “stop sinning” (1 Corinthians 15:34).
Now, we don’t have to stop sinning to be saved, but we must come to truly HATE SIN–gain a TRUE desire to never want to offend God again, which gives us true contrition for our sins.… not repeatedly, without restraint, commit any of our sins over and over again. That isn’t how we love God.
Yet, we continue in so many sins, without a care in the world, which clearly proves we are very much not truly sorry for our offences against God. Then upon our death, we wind up rejecting the very Savior we think is saving us. Oh, it is tragic!
“He who really loves God, and is anxious to save his soul, will employ every possible precaution to avoid the occasions of sin [everything that causes him to sin]. He will not only avoid the grievous faults, but he will also be very careful to avoid the very least of them. He considers everything that can displease God as a great evil.”
–St. John Vianney (Sermons for Sundays and Feast Days, How you can determine if you belong to the lukewarm.)
Honestly, do we really consider all sin to be a great evil that we are doing all we can to avoid every one of them so to love God? If not, then we still desire sin over loving Our Lord. And we are damning our souls. Now is the time to change.
“Lord, save us, we are perishing.” (Matthew 8:25). Truly, we can’t live a lukewarm life–just becoming a “good person” lacking true faith in Christ… not truly following Him towards perfection, or we will lose it all.
“[Please] escape from that lukewarmness which provokes God to reject you.”
–St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church (Letter #96, to Abbot of Fountains)
Please know, once we stop working for the goal–to “sin no more” (John 8:10)–and think we are good enough by our prayers and works, we are lukewarm and dead… it doesn’t matter how far we have advanced in our faith; we are dead and don’t understand our need for mercy nor the consequence of just one sin.
Be Willing to Suffer Rather Than Offend God
In order to sincerely want to sin no more–to have true contrition–our hatred for sin and resolve we need to amend our trespasses can’t be a small hatred or resolve–a half-hearted effort. No. To be saved, our belief in Jesus must grow from some faith–having a slight desire to love God, some desire to not offend Him–until we love and believe in God so greatly, we would be willing to suffer anything rather than offend Him… even to the point of shedding blood rather than sinning. This is when we truly hate sin.
“In your struggle against [removing your liking/desire for] sin, you have not yet resisted [temptation enough] to the point of shedding blood [to avoid sinning].” (Hebrews 12:4)
Yes, we must love God enough to be willing to suffer anything rather than offend Him. Oh, how far are we from this kind of love… this kind of hatred for sin? Be willing to shed blood rather than sin… oh, most of us won’t do anything to avoid sinning… never mind suffer.
We need to GROW in our hatred for sin from just some hatred, which perhaps only has a thought of stopping a sin, into a hatred so great we would rather suffer anything even death than offend God again with any sin. Please don’t be deceived.
“If you ask me what [true] repentance is, I tell you that it is an anguish of the soul, and a detestation for past sin, and a firm resolve never to sin again… No my friends, you must not rely on tears alone. They are often deceiving, and many persons weep in the confessional and fall back into the same sin at the first opportunity… Christians who has sinned and wishes to obtain pardon, must be so minded that he would rather SUFFER THE MOST CRUEL TORTURES than fall back into the sin which he has just confessed.
–St. John Vianney, (Sermon of the Cure d Ars, Passion Sunday: Repentance).
Truly, if we lack this contrition–this hatred for sin–for just ONE sin, we reject God and His saving forgiving mercy for that sin. This is the truth. To be able to accept God’s saving mercy, we must reject sin–ALL sin–so we can choose Him over evil… not just in our words but in our hearts, which is proven by our actions.
This is why we need Jesus so greatly to save us. To obtain this kind of faith, which saves, takes A LOT OF GRACE. To do this, we need to seek Mercy to help us grow into such a great love for Him, to where we love Him above ourselves… then we would rather suffer greatly than to offend, in the slightest way, The One we seek to love. This is true love.
This is the kind of contrition we need before we can atone for a single sin too. But, we have been deceived. Tragically, we have wasted away our lives seeking bounds of worthless things instead of seeking salvation (a saving faith/true contrition for our sins) and then sanctity.
If we were really sorrowful for our sins and really hated to offend God, I promise you, we most certainly would be leaving everything that causes us to sin, making real resolutions to help prevent us from sinning, and seeking Him daily for help (grace), as we work hard every moment to avoid sin, all sin and we would be growing into saints. Not casually repeating them over and over again.
“Among the penitent’s acts [the person confessing their sins] contrition occupies first place [since it is needed for salvation and forgiveness]. Contrition is sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the RESOLUTION NOT TO SIN AGAIN.”
–Pope St. John Paul II (CCC #1451)
Therefore, please ask ourselves, is our goal to become a real self-sacrificing saint: someone who doesn’t want to be loved, but wants to love… someone who doesn’t want others to be kind to us, but seeks to be kind to others, especially to those who are unkind to us… someone who wants to carry the cross (suffer and sacrifice), so God can send grace from that love, for the salvation of others souls–to help move others towards a saving faith of true love for God/true contrition for our sins?
Honestly, what resolutions did we have today to not sin again… did we even have a resolution to amend a single sin? Oh, the devil has deceived us.
“You could punish yourself [perform a penance (choose the cross) to deter yourselves and/or obtain grace] and flee from the illicit lusts you delight in, and so honor My martyrdom by fighting against your burning desires [for sin and the world] and bear My cross in your body… but you despise good and do evil… you choose not to restrain yourself, but to sin freely.”
–Jesus to St. Hildegard of Bingen (Vision 10, #2)
Our Insincere Confessions Reject Forgiveness
Yes, repentance is how we accept God’s forgiving mercy. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9).
But again, what good are our confessions, if our hearts aren’t sorry for offending God… if we still want to stay in our sins–if we desire the sin so greatly, we don’t even work hard to stop? Our confessions are WORTHLESS. To learn more please read, “How Can Bad Confession Damn Us?”
Hopefully, we can clearly see this is why we are dying. Our confessions aren’t accepting forgiveness; we are rejecting it. We don’t want–really want–to amend our ways… frankly, we don’t even want to see many of our sins. This is why the world is a mess. We say we are Christians, but we aren’t looking for our sins, nor leaving our sins, nor becoming saints. We simply aren’t stopping our sins, but justifying our acts opposed to love as acceptable.
So many faiths tell us we need to repent to be saved, but they have been deceived into believing just “saying” we are sorry is enough. But I tell you, our words are MEANINGLESS if our actions don’t live the sorrow we claim we have. We will reject God for sin… and choose an eternity of torment.
“When he [John the Baptist] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees [who had no desire to leave their sins] coming to his baptism [for the forgiveness of their sins], he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come [and now you know you need forgiveness]?
[If you want to be forgiven and Live] produce good fruit [love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… stop the sin] as evidence of your [true] repentance… every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit [leave sin and gain fruits of the Spirit] is cut down and thrown into the fire [from proving their lack of true repentance].” (Matthew 3:7–8).
Yes, if we are to claim we are sorry (have any degree of sorrow outside of word alone) for our sins, we must be little by little leaving them and growing in fruits of the spirit (gaining qualities of Christ/losing the sin). This is a vital quality one has when we are advancing towards obtaining a truly contrite heart. Yes, we must be amending our sins growing towards perfection.
“The first degree of knowledge [of our sinfulness] brings about repentance–that is, sorrow–changing laughter into lamentation [loosing our false happiness (founded upon pride) and crying over our offences against God]… In its second degree knowledge brings about amendment, and as a result you no longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but you curb gluttony, throttle lust, put down pride and make the body that formerly served sin into a servant of holiness. Repentance without amendment gains nothing…
–St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church (Sermon on Christmas Eve)
However, when our hearts are truly contrite or when we are even growing towards becoming truly contrite, not only will we be leaving what causes us to sin, making and keeping resolutions so to amend our ways, we will also desire to live a life of great penance–in sorrow, wanting to make right our wrongs (as best we can)–living in “sackcloth and ashes” (Luke 10:13), not seeking out the world’s pleasures, as discussed later.
When we sincerely hate our sins, we will want to suffer and sacrifice, in atonement for our sins and even for the sins of the whole world, as we “rejoice in my sufferings for your sake [to send you grace], and in my flesh I am filling up [with grace from my sufferings for the salvation of souls (mine and others)]” (Colossians 1:24).
Yes, when we hate our sins or want to hate our sins, we will LOVE OUR CROSSES (all of our pains and challenges in life) knowing when we embrace them, we accept much help/grace from God, who desires to bless us and others by carrying our crosses. Then we will be truly working for the salvation of souls: helping others to obtain true contrition/true love of God, following the TRUE example of Christ and the saints before us.
“The life of a Christian should be a continual exercise of penance… nothing is more necessary in order to establish in your soul the empire of grace and destroy that of nature [of wanting to sin, so we can sincerely want to love God, for the salvation of our souls].”
–St. Francis de Sales, (The Secrets of Sanctity, Rule of Life VII)
But penance and atonement are completely lost in the world today too. Please know, true penance, is so much more than just saying a couple of prayers, which is addressed later. Oh, the devil has destroyed the true, saving faith. But now it is time to restore it. Despite our life of sin, God’s love for us still hasn’t subsided, and He wants to restore us and the faith to Life. “[Come Lord Jesus] the Restorer of ruined dwellings” (Isaiah 58:12).
We Are Not Born With a Saving Faith
I tell you, we aren’t born with this kind of faith… this great hatred for sin.
From the consequences of Adam and Eve’s first sin, our nature is now greatly inclined towards evil. We are born with a great will for sin. “The flesh is hostility toward God [it desires sin]” (Romans 8:7).
To obtain this kind of saving faith that truly hates sin, we need to seek Jesus, OUR SAVIOR, so He can change our nature (our hearts) and give us a “new heart” (Ezekiel 36:26), which has a great hatred for offending Him.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances”(Ezekiel 36:26-27).
St. John Henry Newman teaches a congregation how to obtain this kind of heart. He says, “Grace overcomes nature, and grace only overcomes it.” So, as was said before, GRACE–God’s transforming grace–we must seek and a lot of it, since our condition (our want for sin) is very great.
“You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world [loving sin over God]… at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh [before God’s transforming grace changed our hearts], following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath [who willed to sin], like everyone else.
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us [who seek Him to change our hearts] alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:1-7).
Please know, this grace that saves is a two part gift from God:
- saving grace: “solid food” for the mature– those with a saving faith (1 Corinthians 3:2)
- transforming grace : “pure spiritual milk” for those growing towards maturity (1 Peter 2:2)
“[Those wanting to grow towards maturity] long for pure spiritual milk so that through it you may grow into salvation [grow into a saving faith]” (1 Peter 2:2).
This salvation we seek–sanctifying grace/perfect forgiveness–came from God’s suffering and death, in which we received at our baptisms. But when we became of the age to sin (had full knowledge of what we were doing) and our nature, which is hostile towards God, desired sin (lacked contrition for our first sin), we rejected God’s free gift of eternal life, since not hating to offend God with any sin makes those sins mortal. Now, because of our great desire for sin, we need to follow Christ and seek God’s helping/transforming grace to remove our want for disobedience, so we may obtain a new heart that wants to love God. Then we can comes to truly love God and become alive again with Christ.
Therefore, since “God delivered all to disobedience” and now we all desire to disobey, to grow into a saving faith (maturity in the faith), we must seek Christ for mercy (His transforming grace/pure spiritual milk) “until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, [and grow in] to mature manhood [a saving faith]” (Ephesians 4:13).
“[Only] those who have grown to maturity [into a saving faith] in the grace of God will find the joy of adopted children in the kingdom of heaven; those who have not grown to maturity [haven’t reached a saving faith] will become God’s enemies and, even though they were once his children [from baptism], they will be punished according to their deeds for all eternity.”
–St. Andrew Kim Taegon, (His Final Exhortation Letter)
If we seek God’s help daily and do so correctly, from His actual/transforming grace, He will teach us and show us how and what we need to change so we can grow and grow in faith. Then we will become a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17), and be saved by the grace of God. Amen!
Therefore, we must seek Our Savior to save us. We must “believe in the victory of grace over sin… [and] not to surrender before any sin,” as Pope St. John Paul II taught us in his spiritual diaries (Sept. 2, 1964).
Please know, if we surrender to any sin and neglect to seek Christ to save us (to remove our desire for it)— just ONE sin, which we don’t TRULY repent of (lack true hatred for) rejects God’s forgiving saving mercy for that sin and chooses an eternity of torment. This is the truth. We must repent of ALL of our sins with true sorrow to be saved.
What is more terrifying than this? Shouldn’t we be concerned with our Eternal Life? Shouldn’t we be “work[ing] out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
“Thy death will not save me, if I do not on my part detest every evil [sin] and have TRUE sorrow for the sins I have committed against Thee.
–St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, (Meditations for Every Day of Advent, Med.)
Oh, how far are we from a saving faith, since we have neglected to seek Christ to help us remove our desire for so many sins our entire lives, and we just repeatedly commit them over and over again… thinking nothing of them. Well, each one is deadly and our hour of judgement is rapidly approaching. Beware! There is no moment to waste! It takes much time, for most, to come to truly hate what we have spent our entire lives loving. Seek Christ to change us today.
Yes, despite our life of rejecting Christ, injuring Him greatly, God still wants to save us. “By the tender compassion of our God” (Luke 1:78) Christ came in the form of His own creation to achieve for us the repentance we couldn’t obtain on our own, in which we received at our baptisms. AND, after our nature rejected His forgiveness–He became an example for us to follow, so from our new birth we can easily see how to become renewed in grace and grow from that new birth to regain and keep God’s saving mercy He died to give us, for the salvation of our souls.
“He saved us through the baptism of new birth AND renewal [renewing grace in us, to destroy our desire for sin] by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
I know, perhaps we have sought Jesus to make our lives better on earth, but from being deceived, we have neglected to seek Him to SAVE US. Truly we have neglected to seek Christ to change our hard hearts of self-love and make them into hearts of true love for God. As a result, we grow in faith a little, but tragically, we are still far from a mature/saving faith, and we are rejecting Him at the time of our death for sin. Tragic!
We can’t continue to do this. Sadly, most have a GREAT lack of repentance in our hearts upon our deaths, from our great neglect to seek Mercy to remove our great will to sin— from our neglect to seek Christ to save us.
“The souls in hell having been found at the moment of death with a WILL TO SIN [desire to sin], have with them an infinite degree of guilt; and the punishment they suffer, though less than they deserve, is yet, so far as it exists, endless.”
–St. Catherine of Genoa, (The Treatise of Purgatory, Ch. 4)
Therefore, after our entire lives of being a “Christian” with all of our Masses and confessions attended, with all of our prayers and sacrifices made, and all of our countless hours of reading The Word and serving others… after all of the bounds of blessings (grace sent) from God, do we have such little hatred for our sins, we are still continuing in so many of them without change? Yet, any ONE we aren’t resolved to change (working hard to leave the sin completely), we still love and have a will to commit, and are choosing over God.
Oh, the devil has tricked us into thinking attending church, praying a lot and doing good for others makes us “holy” and saved but remember, we aren’t saved by what we do. Our works don’t save. NOT OFFENDING GOD is what truly makes us pleasing to Our Lord.
“Become holy [like Christ] yourselves in EVERY aspect of your conduct, after the likeness of the holy One who called you” (1 Peter1:15).
Sure, all of the aforementioned pious things we can do should help us to become at least someone who wants to become holy, someone who doesn’t want to offend God and wants to love Him… who want’s to become just like Him, that is, if we do them with humble hearts, knowing our great sinfulness and need for mercy (help to change).
But the reason all of our prayers, Masses and works, etc. don’t move us to sin no more (to perfectly love God) is because we do them with proud hearts of self-righteousness… thinking those acts make us holy. When it is God’s grace, given to the HUMBLE HEART through those acts, that causes us to not want to sin again and love God that does.
“We believe in Him… and are confident that by His grace and guidance we shall prevail against our adversary the devil.”
–St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church (Letter to St. Augustine )
Yes, God’s grace changes our hearts into hearts of true contrition for our sins. But, since “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5), because we are so proud (don’t know our real sinfulness and need for mercy/need to change), we have rejected so much of the grace that was sent through those pious acts, which should have helped us to come to truly hate sin and truly LOVE GOD that now we are blind and dead.
Sadly, after all that God has done… all of our years of being a “Christian”, most have rejected all or most of God’s transforming grace, and we are still with such little faith (little love for God). We are still hating our crosses and complaining and impatient when things don’t go our way? We are still lacking so much trust in what God allows that we worry when things don’t go well or according to our will? What kind of faith do we really have? What kinds of sins are we still living in–ignoring? Honestly, are we really leaving our sins and becoming saints so we can LOVE GOD? Truly, lying to ourselves, won’t save our souls.
“A great number of Christian adults are damned… those who are damned are damned by their own [unrepentant] malice.”
–St. Leonard of Port Maurice (Homily on the Fewness of the Saved)
How Do We Respond to Our Suffering (The Cross)?
To help us see if we are living the faith correctly or not, we need to look into how we respond to the cross. There is no easier way to “test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5) than how we respond to God’s tests: our challenges/suffering.
Sure some of us can put false smiles on our faces during all that happens, which is not from our great faith and trust in God’s will, but from our great pride, as we try to show off how “good” we are compared to others. But most of us can’t do that and have direct negative responses to the cross, which are easily seen. And these negative responses are meant to help us see how we need to change.
When we live the faith correctly and are in the state of grace, we have accepted God’s grace and have been given the fruits of the Spirit… not some of them, but all of them.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
When we accept God’s saving grace our habitual sins–the sins we made part of our lives… the sins we have such a great liking for that we used to repeat over and over again–are now gone (no longer habitually repeated).
Sure we still commit sin, but not habitually from having a desire for the sin. Unrestrained habitual sin is clear proof of having a love for sin, which is what most of us suffer from.
Therefore, if we want to see how we are dying, let’s look at how we respond to the cross, so we can learn what sins we need to leave. If we are living the faith correctly and growing into a saving faith, from accepting God’s great transforming mercy, we will consistently live in GREAT “PEACE” (Galatians 5:22), especially during our crosses.
Of course, we will still be in pain and weep/grieve over our and others sins; if we didn’t do that, what kind of love for God/contrition (sorrow) for our sins would we have? But, when we are living the faith correctly, we will have accepted God’s grace from trusting in Him and we will no longer be in distress when what we don’t want happens… when “bad” happens… even our sins won’t distress us, since we know God loves the sinner (wants to save the sinner), and if we can see them, we have the opportunity to amend them.
This peace will reign in us because we have grown enough in our faith to sincerely trust in all God allows… knowing it leads to our good, which gives us a great LOVE FOR THE CORSS. We won’t run to God in despair begging and pleading for our will (what we think is best) to be done. Sure we will pray for what we think is good, especially when bad happens, but at the same time we will surrender to God’s will and trust in what God allows as being truly good. Never fretting when bad occurs or when our prayers aren’t answered according to our will, but peacefully accepting what ever has occurred as leading to good, waiting for God to make it good..
Actually, we will want our crosses (if God wants us to have them) not only so we can offer up our suffering for the salvation of souls (us and others)–so God can send grace through the cross, to help us in our daily lives–but, from our trust in all God allows, we know we NEED the cross: to teach us our sins, to show us how to change and to send grace from accepting our suffering as God’s heavenly will to help us grow in faith for the salvation of our souls and atonement for our sins (to make us saints).
“A good Christian, my friends, is seldom occupied with the things of the earth… he lets his HAPPINESS CONSIST IN CROSSES, tribulations, prayer, fasting and the thought of God. Now, the lukewarm Christian loses his trust in God [and frets during the cross], though, perhaps, not entirely.”
–St. John Vianney (How you can tell whether you belong to the lukewarm)
When we truly trust in God, we know the cross is intended to move us into a saving faith and sanctity. We know God will make something good out of something very bad. We truly believe all God allows is for the good of our souls, so when we have true faith in God, we know He is using the cross to help save us (to help us become like Him)… so we live in “great peace” (Pslam 119:165), from our trust in Him. To learn more please read, “How to Find True Happiness.”
Are we living in consistent fantastic peace during all moments of our lives from truly trusting in God? If not, then we know our repeated sins–our frustrations, impatience, anger, etc.–when things don’t go well (not wanting God’s will)–are God clearly telling us we are still rejecting God’s saving forgiving mercy for those sins.
So let’s look at our lives. How are we lacking Christ’s peace–sinning–and not working to amend them (not leaving those sins)? How do we respond when we are threatened with becoming sick… are we still doing God’s will, trusting in all God allows as part of God’s plan for the good of our souls; or are we worried, not wanting the cross if He wills it? How about if we have more work than we think we can do…. do we surrender to God’s will and just do the best we can, accepting whatever that is as good; or are we stressed… feeling overwhelmed… snapping at others… feeling embarrassed if we are less than perfect? All which is proof of our lack of grace?
How about when we lose something/someone we love… are we accepting what God allows as being what He intends to use for our good, if we allow Him; or are we distressed or even in despair… wanting what/who we lost back? How about, when we are tired and still have to work… are we rejoicing in our cross happily bearing it for the love of God; or are we short tempered, doing poor quality work just it get done?
How do we act when others treat us badly… do love the cross and are grateful we have an opportunity to conform our lives with Christ; or do we reject the cross (don’t want to suffer like Christ), and complain, have self-pity, perhaps even gossiping about what they have done to us, from our lack of forgiveness? How about when someone makes a mistake and gives us a burden… are we understanding, forgiving and willing carry the cross God allowed us to bear; or are we intolerant of others imperfection, full of complaint, wanting them to pay for what they have done?
How do we respond when we are hungry, tired or in pain… are we loving our crosses offering them up for the salvation of souls; or are we grumpy and treating others poorly? How about when we can’t do something from lacking talent… do we love who God made knowing He will use us, if we allow Him, with the skills we have for whatever plan He has for our lives; or do we have self-pity, putting ourselves down wishing we were someone we aren’t? What about when someone criticizes/corrects us… do we happily look for our faults, since we want to know where we go wrong so we can change or do we become offended, deny their claims and/or seek to criticize them in return, desiring to boost our pride?
Truly, are our problems, sufferings, losses, sicknesses, exhaustion, mistreatment’s–problems (crosses) in life–causing us to live outside of peace with complaints, worries, angers (unforgiveness), frustrations, fears, loneliness, self-pity, jealousies, resentments, anxieties, selfishness, being grumpy, upset and/or offended, etc.? If so, then we need to seek Mercy to change us. God intends to bring us to Him (a saving faith) through each cross. Let’s learn how to embrace God’s grace from the cross, not reject it.
So, how do we respond to the cross? If we aren’t consistently in trusting peace, happily carrying our crosses, during ALL God allows, saying “Thy will be done” as we do the best we can, accepting that as good, “rejoice[ing] in our sufferings” (Romans 5:3), seeking to learn and grow from each cross… trusting in God to bring good out of them, then something is wrong.
We simply aren’t surrendering our will for God’s; we love/desire what we want more. “Abandonment to the will of God is the secret of happiness on earth” as St. Josemaria Escriva teaches in His book “The Way” (#767). To learn more please read, “How to Love the Cross.”
Truly, our repeated unrestrained negative behaviors in response to the cross (God’s will) are only normal behaviors for those of us living outside of God’s saving grace, who still desire sin (self-love/our will), who still don’t love God’s Law, trust in Him nor want to follow Him to Heaven. Please don’t be deceived.
Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble” (Psalm 119:165).
No Fear – No Life
Therefore, since one sin is of infinite offence to our infinitely perfect Lord, we should greatly fear sin and it’s consequences, not only because if we don’t truly repent of any sin, we are damned or because if we stay in our sins, we will suffer greatly on earth because of our sins (as a direct consequence or a punishment to awaken us to our need to change), but we should mostly fear sin especially since each sin increases Our Lord’s agony at His crucifixion, and wounds His Most Sacred Heart of Love in Heaven.
Yes, our sins not only cause us suffering on earth and damn us, but they greatly wound Our Lord. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth… and it grieved him to his heart”(Genesis 6:5-6). Don’t we care? Tell me, how can we truly love God if we don’t even fear to offend Him?
“Love is NEVER without fear, but it is godly fear.”
–St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of The Church (On Loving God, Ch.14)
Tragically, we have such little fear of sinning, such love for God, we hardly care at all about our sins. Sure, some might confess a few of them, but then we just go back and repeat them all over again. How is that truly hating to offend God?
“He is a scoffer, not a penitent [not someone sorry for their sins], who [easily] commits what he repented of. Nor is he cleansed [forgiven] who weeps for his sins, yet does not forsake [work to stop] them.”
— St. Isadore of Seville, Doctor of the Church (De Summo Beno ii)
Yes, today, we continue in sin without concern. We live in a world so deceived we aren’t with the mind set of never wanting to offending God again. No. The world tries its best to strip us of any fear of sinning against God, so we continue in them fearing nothing, which is of course damning us. It removes our desire to flee from sin. It convinces us we can somehow love God and be saved without even caring that we are offending God. It is just horrible!
Yet, a “soul’s motion in flight from them [sin] is called fear“ as St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, teaches “On Faith, Hope, and Love” (Ch 8. #24). Without fearing sin and its consequences against ourselves, others and God there is no life in us… no motivation to really do what is necessary to turn away from evil and do good, so God’s mercy can change our hearts and give us a saving faith of true love/true contrition for all of our sins.
“Who would not fear to offend a God who punishes so rigorously? “Who shall not fear Thee, O King of nations?” (Jer. 10:7)
–St. Ignatus of Lyolola (Spiritual Exercised, Third Ex. #3)
Only those who don’t understand sin and it’s consequences would not fear to offend God.
Now, sure, when we come to know God, we might leave some of our sins, but not the ones we greatly cling to… the ones that will damn us. To do what is necessary to come to truly hate them, we need great fear (finial or servile) to move us !
But as a result of the world removing our life (our fear, our concern for salvation), we aren’t seeking Mercy for grace daily to help enlighten us to our sinfulness so we can stop them, nor are we seeking Him for strength to help us make and keep resolutions to amend and avoid sin. We aren’t growing towards a saving faith.
Oh, we wound God so greatly, and we just don’t care!
“I learned in the depths of my soul how horrible sin was, even the smallest sin, and how much it tormented the soul of Jesus. I would rather suffer a thousand hells than commit even the smallest venial sin. “
–St. Faustina, (Diary # 1016)
We need to seek Mercy to give us great horror for sin too, so we can truly love God. But horribly, from our lack of care for sinning, it is unbelievable, what we “Christians” are doing to Our Beloved Lord, and how we are doing so little, if anything, to help others or even ourselves to stop offending God.
“They [Christians] crucify me on the wood [the cross] through their WILL TO SIN.”
–Jesus to St. Bridget of Sweden (Revelations, Ch. 30)
Yes, we want to sin so greatly, we put forth little if any effort to stop. HORRIBLE!
Where is our love for God? Oh, the devil has stolen it.
In reality, we have only a slight, if any, hatred at all for offending Our Lord. Honestly, how many sins do we ignore, think little of or put forth a scant to no effort at all into stopping them? Oh, there are just so many of them, which clearly proves we have a great will to sin? Those sins are damning our souls.
We need to change what we are doing, and seek Jesus to help us remove our will to commit sin, so we can truly love Him. It is a gift from God to obtain a true hatred for sin, but if we never seek it, how do we expect to obtain it?
To start, we need to gain some kind of fear of sinning and have that fear move us to at least want to amend our sins. “A fearful thing is sin, fearful, and the ruin of the soul” as St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church tells us (Homily- The Gospel of John 5:14). But, who of us fears to sin at all and is really working to “not sin again” (John 8:11), so to love God or to even avoid Hell? Is there anyone?
Tell me, how can we sincerely hate any sin if we aren’t working hard to amend it? We can’t. Therefore, if we aren’t striving to become “perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), so ALL of our sins can be forgiven, then now is the time to change, because as we now know, having a lack of true contrition–a lack of resolve to amend any sin kills.
“[Those who] wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved.”
–Pope St. Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church, (Dignity and Duties of the Priest, St. Liguori, Injury Done to the Priest by Tepidity, II)
That is why, St. Anthony Mary Claret was explaining to nuns (Autobiography, #714) about how they must “seek to be perfect [without sin] if they were going to be saved”… not just read the Bible and study it, but seek Mercy to perfectly live it.
Yet, how many people do we see who are really rejecting their sins, working hard to leave them one at a time, growing and growing (never stopping from being complacent with any sin), “put[ing] aside your old self with its past deeds and put[ing] on a new man, one who grows in knowledge as he is formed anew in the image of his Creator [acts like Him]” (Colossians 3:7), the One we should be following, towards becoming perfect saints? Truly, is there anyone?
And yet, we live lives as if everyone dies and goes to Heaven? This is just so horrible. We don’t know we are rejecting God for sin. Oh, Christians aren’t saving souls. Where is the concern for our or our neighbor’s salvation? We don’t have it. The devil has stolen it.
“Nothing is more frigid [cold] than a Christian, who cares not for the salvation of others.”
–St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church (Homily 20, Acts of the Apostles)
The devil has deceived us so greatly, we have no concern with the salvation of souls. We are not preaching nor living The Truth, and we are wounding God in unsurmountable ways through our disobedience. The children Jesus died to save, so they could spend eternity in Heaven with Him, are rejecting Him and being lost forever.
Oh we are received His sanctifying grace at out baptism–and have been redeemed–but instead of the healing waters moving us to Life, since we don’t believe enough in Jesus to sincerely follow Him–to strive to perfectly obey Him–“the baptism… heals not but pollutes” as St. Ambrose teaches “On the Mysteries” (Ch. 4), and we are forfeiting salvation and meriting greater punishment in Hell from our rejection of Him. Oh, what has the devil done!
“They [Christians] are worse than those who crucified my Son, for the Jews did it for the sake of envy and because they did not know that he was God, but these [Christians] know him to be God, and yet, in their own malice and presumption [presuming they are saved] and greed [want of the world/sin], they crucify him spiritually more cruelly than the Jews did physically. For they themselves have been redeemed [baptized], but the Jews had not yet been redeemed. Therefore, my bride, obey my Son and fear him, for just as he is merciful, he is also just.”
–The Mother of God to St. Bridget of Sweden (Revelations Ch.37)
The Devil Has Stolen Our Faith
Look at what we have allowed the devil to do! He has stolen our faith and salvation!
We are remaining in our sins, and presuming we are saved because we are “Christians.” Tragic! Oh, from misguided love, we say, “Focus on God’s love”… “Trust in God’s mercy”, thinking we are helping others, but we aren’t helping anyone, since God’s children are REJECTING God’s love and mercy for sin. We are so deceived!
We don’t know how to really help people or save souls. Sadly, “we shall find out at the day of judgment that the greater number of Christians who are lost were damned because they did not know their own religion” as St. John Vianney warns a congregation.
“The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth… [the devil] went off to wage war against… those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus… Fascinated [by his lies], the WHOLE WORLD followed after the beast [and lost The Way to Heaven]… whoever has ears ought to hear these words.” (Revelations 12: 1-9)
Yes, as prophesied, we–those who “bear witness to Jesus [Christians],” have fallen into “the snare of the devil” (2 Timothy 2:26). We aren’t even concerned with our ETERNAL LIVES, but yet, we are dying.
We want to make others “happy” in their earthly lives, but horribly, we have no care for their eternal happiness. It isn’t even a thought in most of our minds, except perhaps when we are dying. Tragic! Yet, what is more important than this?
And for those of us, who God has enlightened to this atrocity–humanity perishing from our lack of true love for God/lack of true contrition for our sins–from our lack of faith, care, and/or courage (our self-love), we stay mute.
We are apparently okay with doing nothing, letting souls stay ignorant and not warning them of their need to seek Christ to save them, as we watch bounds of souls not sincerely repenting and changing from their life of sin and choosing to be tormented for all time—“[being thrown] into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” (Matthew 13:50)–because nobody has loved God’s children enough to warn and help them grow into a true mature saving faith: a faith of True love for God, which has TRUE contrition/true hatred for every sin we have ever committed.
Oh, how much do we really love and care for God and His children, if we aren’t even willing to carry a cross so to do what is necessary to help save their souls from eternal torment? “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Yes, this is what awaits us who refuse to clearly preach THE TRUTH. We are guilty of horrific crimes against humanity. We can’t just do nothing and watch God’s children die. This must end!
“I can not rest, but must needs [to] run and shout a warning to them… Neither can I understand why other priests… do not preach or exhort their flock so that they might avoid this unbearable eternity of Hell.
It is still a source of wonder to me how the laity–those men and women blessed with the Faith–do not give warning [what kind of faith do they really have?]…. why should there not be a warning of the eternal fire to waken those who are drifting in the sleep of sin [to their eternal doom]…”
–St. Anthony Mary Claret, (Autobiography, Ch. 2)
Our Priorities Are All Wrong
Oh, the world is all concerned about possibly getting sick and dying from COVID, but we have little to absolutely no concern at all with our eternal lives… with the scores of people, practically the whole of humanity, during this time of darkness, dying–perishing into Hell–since we lack true sorrow for our sins.
Oh, what kind of terrifying judgment and eternity awaits us.
“Oh, Hell! Oh, Hell! Mother of God have pity on those who do not amend their lives. If men only know what awaits them in eternity, they would do everything in their power to change their lives.”
–St. Jacinta of Fatima
Horribly, we were never told outside of The Word or by the saints that we need Christ to help us change, so we can amend our lives and GROW in faith to, at least, at the moment of our deaths, obtain true contrition/true hatred for our life time of offences against God, so we can embrace His saving Mercy and Live.
“People must renounce sin and not persist in it, as has been done until now. It is essential to repent greatly!”
–The Mother of God to St. Jacinta of Fatima
Truly, from being blinded by the devil, since we fell into his trap, we live for everything but salvation. We don’t even realize if we don’t change, we are choosing Hell for eternity. We don’t know this, because the devil has made us terrified to speak about the real eternal consequences of unrepentant sin. This occurred because in the past, damnation was preached about, but instead of it moving us to Life, it moved us to despair, because it was preached without teaching of God’s mercy who wants to change and save us.
Now, the devil moved us to swing completely in the other direction removing all fear of Hell, tricking us into thinking Mercy will save us, even though we are rejecting Him from our unrepentant sin. Now, horribly, The Truth is omitted from our preaching, teaching and lives so much that we don’t understand it anymore.
Yet, without coming to understand this reality, we will never have a true desire to seek Mercy to change. This servile fear (fear of suffering from our sins) is the fear that will begin to move us. Please listen to what God the Father said, “They have arisen with servile fear from the vomit of mortal sin” as St. Catherine of Siena wrote in her Treatise of Discretion. This fear MUST be included in our preaching or we are to remain blind and damned.
“Remember then what you received and heard [The Truth]; obey it, and repent [with true contrition when you fail]. If you do not wake up [and amend your ways], I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you [and you will not be ready, from your unrepentant sin]” (Revelations 3:3).
Oh, the saints of the past have preached this truth, but sadly not anyone today. Today, we live in a time of darkness. “Complete darkness is in store for his treasured ones” (Job 20:26), which, if we now have been enlightened, we can see is occurring today.
Tragically, we don’t really know how to be saved, what repentance is nor how to acquire it anymore… nor do we really understand what happens when we don’t obtain it. The devil has made us blind and dumb. Yes, we don’t know we are dying and need Christ to save us, and we are perishing!
Can You Hear?If you can hear God speaking to you through this article and you now have a fear of gong to Hell, then praise God! You are one of the few, who have ears that can hear and have been given the great blessing of having “fear of the Lord (fear 0f sin).” (Acts 9:31).
“You want to gain this fear of the Lord… [to do so, come to] understand the seriousness of an offense against God and to reflect on this frequently in your thoughts; for it is worth our life [salvation] and much more [yours and others eternal closeness with God] to have this virtue rooted in our souls.”
–St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, (The Way of Perfection, Ch. 41.)
Fear of the Lord is a gift from God meant to move/motivate us towards doing what is necessary to obtain Eternal Life. “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, so that [from fearing sin and its consequences] one may avoid the snares of death [by seeking Christ to remove our desire to sin that leads to Hell]” (Proverbs 14:27). This is the first stage of wisdom.
“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom [knowing our need to seek a saving faith]” (Psalm 111:10).
No, fear of the Lord isn’t having an awe or reverence of God or some other nonsense the devil has deceived us with, so we will stay complacent with our sins and die.
According to the true saints, who know The Way correctly, fear of the Lord is having a fear of sinning, because of its consequences, for we know our sins greatly offend God, whom we should desire to perfectly love (finial fear). And if we don’t gain true hatred/true contrition for them, they will banish us into Hell (servile fear), since we have chosen them over God. Sin should be greatly feared; it can kill us. Eternity is forever!
“The gift of fear of the Lord is definitely the basis [from the Holy Spirit]. It is FEAR OF SIN.”
–Pope St. John Paul II, (Spiritual Diary, Sept. 23)
If you have been blessed with this fear, you are honest with yourself (humble enough to admit your guilt) because you know you are not truly trying to leave all your sins; you know you are complacent with many of your sinful ways, lacking true sorrow for them and need Mercy to help remove your great liking for sin from your heart.
Having this knowledge is great! Like was said, this is the first stage of wisdom–the very first step we need to have in order to move from darkness into Light. Most people don’t have this. To learn more please read, “What is Fear of the Lord?”
“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil [sin]” (Proverbs 8:13).
Now, you can begin, if you are willing to do what is necessary to change, to learn and grow into a saving faith… so one day you can finally come to truly love God. Then you can embrace His Saving Forgiving Mercy and Live. Therefore, if you believe you aren’t saved, then this web-site is for you, and you can start to allow God to transform your life… Alleluia!
But if you have been reading this article thinking, “surely it is not I who has this lack of faith”, believing you are certainly saved… since you are so holy and working to become a saint, or since you love God so greatly, or maybe because you do so much good and hardly sin, or perhaps thinking you have great knowledge of God, fantastic blessings and gifts and/or already possess true contrition for your offences, then this web site is even more greatly needed for you, since you are suffering from much blinding pride like Peter was (Matthew 26:33) and are confused about many things.
I know this is hard to believe but truly, your pride has you deceived as to who you really are. You are actually lying to yourself, and you can’t see many of the sins you love (the ones you don’t sincerely desire to leave) nor do you correctly understand what true contrition really is… it is HARD to obtain (as explained later). Sadly, your pride has blinded you.
Please don’t live in denial or allow this to anger you and blind you even more, but humbly look for where you might be going wrong (it is possible)… because God wants you in Heaven too.
“For in pride there is ruin and great confusion” (Tobit 4:13)… “When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but wisdom is with the humble” (Proverbs 11:2).
Our hearts are supposed to be fixed on God–He wants to be Our Savior. But we have it on idols: what we seek for happiness instead of God and His will. Oh, we might say we desire God, but our thoughts and actions prove very clearly we still desire the world and all of its pleasures.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world” (1 John 2:15).
Honestly, what is your mind on all day as you work or relax? Is it on God… Your Lord… Your Heart’s Desire and how you can more perfectly love Him: serve Him, stop offending Him, save the souls of His children and do His will? Or is your mind on a billion other things: like perhaps, your next great meal, or getting together with your friends, or an accomplishment you seek, or a hobby, or a sport, or the news, or sex, or vanity, or some movie you just watched or even want to watch, or any number of things we have given our hearts and minds to instead of God… the source of true happiness.
We should have been spending our lives seeking God’s mercy to help us GROW in faith… to learn how to really follow Christ, so we can leave desiring all of those worldly things, so our hearts can desire God and be in the Light. For, “whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life [will know how to obtain Heaven]” (John 8:12). But we haven’t and now we live in darkness, desiring bounds of things of the world… things that aren’t God or His will and we don’t know The Way.
“Repent and turn away from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations” (Ezekiel:14:6).
Oh, how hard it is to come to truly hate the world: our sins and idols, so to sincerely die to the world/sin, when we have spent our life time loving the world, frequently committing and/or desiring so many sins and idols!
“Unless they resolve to die to the world [lose their desire for sin and their idols], and in reality do so, without doubt will die a bad death, and be condemned with the world… the whole law, and the understanding of it, and its observance, and the way to eternal life, depend [on it].”
–St. Robert Bellarmine (The Art of Dying Well, Ch.2)
We must work hard to leave this world of distractions and idolatry, which keeps us from loving God and accepting His grace, and seek to fill our every second with wanting to Love God. If we won’t “well then, what chance have you of making progress in the virtue of holy life [towards salvation], if you never think of him who should be the SOLE object of your thoughts?” as St. John Baptist de La Salle wrote to a Brother (Sept. 1709).
Oh, how many idols do we have?
“It pains me to see so many pitiful blind people fleeing hurriedly from the very gracious offer [Eternal Life] of the Master… My soul is extremely distressed when I see these truly blind people… who’s passions [for the world] have robbed them of wisdom… They are constantly on fire with thousands of desires for earthly satisfactions… Jesus extends his very tender invitation to come and drink the living water [that changes our hard hearts that love sin and the world], but… what response does he get from these wretched people [they still want the world instead of Him]?”
–St. Padre Pio, (Letter, Oct. 10, 1915)
Oh, we don’t know our faith. Who even knows what an idol is anymore? Is anyone trying to leave them? “Put to death therefore [lose our liking for] what is earthly in you: immorality, impurity, passion [wanting our will], evil desire [desire for sin], and covetousness [wanting what we don’t have], which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).
Yes, our idols are everything we repeatedly desire in our day that is of this world “earthly”… it is everything we long for that isn’t God or His will. Our hearts are supposed to be set on God, attached to Him. He should be our heart’s desire. We should “love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). But so sadly, we are seeking everything but Him. Oh, we have allowed the evil one to make us so pitifully blind, as we chase after all our hearts really desire… which isn’t God.
“Blessed are those who wash their robes [allowed Christ to purify them of their sins/idols], that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates [to Heaven]. Outside are the… idolaters, and every one who loves and practices falsehood [sin]” (Revelations 22:14-15).
If we are able to honestly look into what we are thinking about and seeking throughout our day, we will see our minds aren’t really on God, loving and trusting in Him… wanting Him and His will, but on our problems, our praises (boasting) and our desires for pleasure. We sinners, who should be living a life of penance, are “full of plunder [sin] and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25). Sadly, from being so far from the path of Life, “[we have become] lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4). God help us!
Sure we might be considering God while we are at church, if we do go, but plenty of of our time after that we give to sin (whatever we desire that isn’t God or His will). Sadly, for most of our time, our thoughts are on everything but God and His will. Truly, we have many distractions we suffer from and idols we seek–attachments to the world. We simply don’t desire God alone and have “grieved His Holy Spirit” (Isaiah 63:10).
Yet, just ONE idol/attachment we don’t obtain a true hatred for–gain a true desire to never want again–condemns us forever. Please, we must wake up from our sleep of death–living with no fear of sin, loving sin and the world–so “may He not come suddenly and find you sleeping [unprepared]”(Mark 13:36).
Frankly, what is required to obtain a saving faith, is SO MUCH MORE involved than just what was mentioned. The entire gamut of the faith has been distorted by the evil one, as will be discussed later. This is true.
Yet, please know, the greater the sins we commit and the greater the attachments (idols) we have, the more greatly we wound God and push Him away; so we need to begin to leave our sins and idols today. Truly, it takes much time (much grace) to pull our heart and minds off of the world/sin and give it to God, so we can become attached to Him, so we can go to Heaven. Oh, we really need Mercy to change us!
“The soul that has attachment to anything, however much virtue [qualities of Christ] it possess, will not attain to the liberty of Divine union [will not be united to God while on earth and is only saved if he is (so fortunate enough) to gain a true hatred/true contrition for them, at least, upon our death and then is purified of those attachments in Purgatory to be welcomed into Heaven].”
–St. John of the Cross, Doctor of The Church, (The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Ch. 11)
Oh, salvation is much harder to obtain than we ever thought. Please don’t be deceived… horribly, “scarcely anyone is saved” as St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, explains to Christians. This is true, despite what any non-sanctified person wants to try to convince us, so we continue to remain unconcerned with our eternity and die. Truly “scarcely anyone is saved.”
Please know, St. Alphonsus doesn’t want us to despair; God will save us, if we sincerely turn to Him. But St. Alphonsus is trying to get us to “wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death” (Revelations 3:2) before it is too late, so we can come to understand what is at stake if we don’t come to see and modify our lives.
Jesus wants and can save us, but we must come to fully understand that “whoever believes in Him [with TRUE faith] should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Yes, TRUE faith is what we need, which gives us TRUE sorrow/true hatred for our sins. True faith: a willingness to suffer death rather than offend God is what we need.
The saints, in their vast wisdom, are telling us our belief in Christ simply isn’t true… it isn’t enough to accept His forgiving saving mercy, and we are damning our souls.
“[Tragically,] there are FEW who wish to receive Him and to be saved by Him [most choose our sin instead], although His yoke [command] is sweet and His burden [cross] light.”
–St. Francis of Assisi, (Letter to All the Faithful)
We Are Bad Christians, Who Need Help
Yes, we have much to change and God is waiting to help us. But please also know, no one can become a saint, go to Heaven or Purgatory, or even receive Holy Communion (without punishment) if we are complacent with any of our sins. That means to even receive Holy Communion, we MUST hate sin enough to desire to become a perfect saint (never want to sin again), and we must hate sin enough to be seeking Christ daily, from having fear of offending Him, to help us grow in our hatred for our sins so it can become so great so it can become true. Then from there it can grow until our hatred for sin/love for God can atone for our life time of sins and then embrace all of God’s grace, so we can become perfect.
But to receive Holy Communion worthily, we must have confessed and stopped all regular moral sins and be working hard to obtain a true hatred for sinning: seeking Mercy to remove our irregular mortal sin–our venial sins or idols we lack true sorrow/true hatred for. Plus, this desire to change must be great enough that we sincerely want to “sin no more” and are working hard to do it. We must be honestly working towards sanctity and not neglecting any of our sins.
“Bad Christians receive Thee unworthily, some without contrition [without any sorrow for sinning], others without desire of amendment [don’t have a resolution to amend their sins, lack of resolve to become a saint], others, perhaps, with crime [mortal sin] in their hearts.”
–St. John Vianney
Please know, we don’t have to consistently succeed in our efforts to leave sin, but we must hate sin enough to at least try with a true effort. Holding on to any sin and saying “I will change later” or not putting a sincere effort into changing is not a soul worthy of Holy Communion. To lack a sincere effort or not even want to try to stop offending God with any sin is a horrible state to live in. It is an abomination of love and makes us unworthy for Holy Communion and of course damned.
Receiving in this state of sin is horrible, but pretending like we sincerely want to leave our sins when we still don’t is even worse. It is a blessing to be able to be honest with ourselves. Many can’t. May it lead us to Life.
Therefore, if we can be honest with ourselves and see we don’t have this kind of faith yet–that truly wants to leave all sin/idols and is willing to follow Christ/do His will one step at a time to change so to become a real self-sacrificing saint–then we must wait and seek that faith through God’s grace by confession, prayer, fasting, penance and works, before we receive Holy Communion, or we are harming God and damaging our souls. “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27).
Holy Communion is supposed to help us to sin no more, not confuse us into thinking we are saved because we receive. Yes, with the Eucharist is our hope. But nobody can receive Holy Communion wanting to offend God with any sin. Please don’t be deceived. Do you REALLY want to leave all of your sins and the world’s pleasures you crave, so to love God? If not, then you need to abstain from The Holy Eucharist until God sends you the grace needed to desire to truly love Him and be willing to suffer (deny yourself of what you want) to do it. To learn more please read, “How to Receive Holy Communion Worthily.”
Oh, we must learn how to love God and not our sin! Eternity is forever.
“Oh, Christians… Let us now, for love of the Lord, awake from this sleep [of death and seek Our Savior to save us]…. these Christians can make amends and be saved — [yet] it fears that many are being condemned [since they don’t know The Way to Heaven].”
–St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church (Meditations on the Song of Songs Ch. 4 #246; Interior Castle V.2 #345)
Truly, the saints aren’t lying… tragically, most Christians and everyone for that matter aren’t saved, especially during this time of darkness. From being mislead, God’s children don’t understand what are the requirements for salvation.
The devil has greatly deceived us. Yes, from the “deceiving power…[we have] believed the lie”… and if we don’t learn the truth and change, we will “be condemned” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-13). To learn more please read, “What Are the Requirements of Salvation?”
“We see that death [denying ourselves of our desires of the flesh/dying to sin] is gain, life [gaining all we desire] is loss. Paul says: For me life is Christ, and death a gain. What does “Christ” mean but to die in the body [lose our desire for sin], and receive the breath of life [obtain saving grace]?…
The law of our fallen nature [desiring sin] is at war with the law of our reason [desiring God]… What is the remedy? Who will set me free from this body of death? THE GRACE OF GOD, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
–St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church, (Book on the death of his brother Satyrus)
Therefore, let’s learn how to seek Grace to save us. Truly, Christ didn’t come and die to give us a free rein to sin. No. “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching” (Matthew 4:25), so we can obtain the grace needed to desire to no longer offend Him for the salvation of our souls.
Yes, He came to teach us The Way to Heaven… to teach us how to truly love God… to teach us how to lose our slavery to sin (become a new creation)… to teach us how to obtain true belief in Him: a belief that believes so greatly that Jesus is Lord that we would rather die than to not follow/obey Him… Yes, Christ came to teach us how to obtain a saving faith and then sanctity. To learn more please read, “Why Did Jesus Die for Our Sins?”
After we grow in faith and die to sin (lose our desire for sin), then we can accept and KEEP His saving forgiving mercy He died to give us. This is how Christ saves us.
Hopefully, through the rest of this article, from the help of God’s grace, Our Lord will enlighten us to some of the vast ways we are being deceived, so we may grow in faith correctly into a saving faith. Praise Jesus!
The Devil Has Us Living Lukewarm Lives
You see, the devil doesn’t want us to know of our great need to change. Yet, we need to fully understand that even though God loves us and wants to forgive us, it is our actions that are rejecting God’s love and forgiveness. “It is your crimes that separate you from your God” (Isaiah 59:2). Sure, we might not think our sins are great enough to separate us from God, but that is the deceiver trying to keep us blind. Beware!
Truly, God’s unfathomable mercy wants to forgive us and save our souls–“[He] desires everyone to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4), but WE PUSH HIM AWAY, because we want our sins instead Him. Sadly, we don’t believe in Jesus enough to sincerely want to leave many of our trespasses that are rejecting Him.
The evil one wants us praising God in our words, but being lukewarm in our actions–not really seeking to become saints–desiring all sorts of sinful and worldly things, not living for God and His will but for our own desires, all along thinking we are saved. He doesn’t want us concerned with salvation…. and he certainly doesn’t want us to seek Jesus to save us, so we can grow into a saving faith and then into beautiful saints.
No. Satan doesn’t want us to stop offending God. He wants us complacent with our sins… thinking we are saved by just “saying” we believe, even though our actions are far from living the faith we claim we believe in…. yet again, “such faith has no power to save” (James 2:14).
The evil one wants us to be deceived into thinking we have true belief in Christ, so we won’t really know of our need for Mercy nor work hard to receive grace, so we can grow into true faith. Perhaps the devil is convincing us, we are saved no matter what we do, since God loves us unconditionally and His mercy is so great… even though The Word says, “If you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” (Luke 13:3).
Oh, the devil wants us to continue to believe that obtaining salvation is easy… just avoid a few sins and bam “we are saved”… even though The Word says “the road is HARD that leads to Life” (Matthew 7:14), so we will continue to live lukewarm lives, not truly repenting or changing… not growing into self-sacrificing saints… even though The Word says, “we are called to be saints [true followers of Christ]” (1 Corinthians).
Yes, the evil one doesn’t want us to seek Our Savior to remove our great will/desire for sin (to save us), so we can all die (go to Hell)… even though The Word says, “if we willfully persist in sin [have unrestrained habitually sin] after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins [since we reject His forgiveness and atonement from our desire for the sin/our lack of contrition], but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire [hell] that will consume the adversaries [awaits us, if we don’t repent and change].” (Hebrews 10:26-27).
“See how great is the blindness of man… and the more they are enlightened by the Holy Scripture, the greater are their obligations and more intolerable confusion do they receive for not fulfilling them… Theirs is the fate of the false Christian, who is placed in Hell in greater torment than a pagan, because he had the light of faith and renounced it, while the pagan never had it.”
–God the Father to St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church (Treatise of Prayer)
Oh, but, from being deceived, we persist in our sins, ignoring most of them… thinking we are saved, from any number of justifications we have been deceived into believing, as to why it isn’t necessary to sincerely strive to live the faith–to obey The Word and to sanctify our souls.
“Have you sought to deceive yourself by foolish reasonings on the justice of God and on His mercy? Have you not sought to persuade yourself that sin is not so great an evil–that God is too good to punish you?
–St. Ignatius of Loyola, (Spiritual Exercises, The Punishment of Sin)
Yet, “the righteous shall live by faith [obedience to Christ/living for His will]” (1 Peter 3:11), so they can one day love God “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). But tragically, we are still rejecting God’s saving love, since we obviously lack true sorrow for our sins, because we lack a sincere resolve to leave so many of them… we aren’t becoming saints.
“Repent, therefore, and be converted [leave sin/live The Word], that your sins may be wiped away” (1 Timothy 2:4).
This pretending like salvation is easy to obtain is killing us. This false teaching, of presuming everyone is saved, is preventing us from doing what is necessary for Christ to save our and our loved one’s souls. Oh, it is hard to come to truly hate all of these sins we have spent our life time loving. Please don’t be deceived!
“[We] almost entirely neglect our eternal salvation… the devil is most diligent in his endeavors to bring them [us] to eternal ruin… after this short life, another life awaits us, which will be either eternally happy or eternally miserable. [What are you working hard to obtain?]”
–St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, (The Way of Salvation and Perfection, Med. 31)
We simply must come to know that by Jesus’ sacrifice, we have been forgiven of our sins—“He is expiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2)—but this unmerited gift that welcomes us into Heaven, horribly, we are REJECTING. God is forlorn! We must change!
Yes, Our Lord came to “give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), for all of us who became baptized into the faith, but what have we done with this gift? Tragically, we have refused it… since we have chosen sin instead.
Oh, we have been invited to the wedding banquet–Heaven–but most of us have made excuses, or have not even tried to attend. We have neglected to work hard and purify our garments (our souls). Sadly, we have chosen to spend our lives doing other things and have spurned Eternal Life, since we are stained with unrepentant sin.
Please don’t be deceived. Our and our neighbors’ souls are dying. We must do something about this; we must save our souls. So please humbly listen for God is speaking to you. Our eternity is everything! Don’t allow the devil to blind and kill you. God wants you in Heaven! Now is the time to change.
“That gate [to Life] is narrow. They who desire to enter in that way are FEW, while those who desire the joys that come by it [from God] are many [they just never obtain it].”
–St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, (A Spiritual Canticle, Stanza XXXVL)
Who is Warning Us of Our Impending Doom
Oh, where are the John the Baptists of today… telling us to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3:2). Yes, repent, for your judgement has come near. Oh, we might have thought John the Baptist was speaking about Jesus coming with that statement but rather, he is warning us of our need to repent, so we can be clean/purified for judgment with Christ, which will be in the kingdom of Heaven, “See! The judge stands at the gate” (James 5:9), and it is coming very near.
“Jesus [who is in their presence] began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17).
Yes, Jesus proves that John, in that statement, wasn’t speaking about Jesus coming near… but rather about our need to repent, so we can obtain the kingdom of Heaven (salvation). We see both John and Jesus preach repentance as being needed to be ready for judgement, for the salvation of our souls.
But sadly, from our lack of correct living, understanding and preaching, we see a world so greatly deceived, with no concern over their sins or their salvation… living lives greatly opposed to the Law of Love. Many are even looking for ways to be assured of our salvation, despite how we live, so to not “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
Tragically, we are wanting salvation without seeking Our Savior to save us… without seeking Jesus to remove our great desire of sin… as we live comfortable with our offences against God, with false smiles on our faces, thinking nothing of our sins and our idols, believing, since God is so merciful He will save us, even though we are rejecting His mercy and far from a saving faith from our great love for sin. It is absolutely tragic!
“Woe to you, [those who have seen Jesus’ love/Christians]… For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day [not destroyed and sent to their doom]. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you” (Matthew 11:21:24).
If we want to see the truth–how the world is deceived–we don’t have to look very hard. We see how the world is a mess. “Layman and priest alike… the earth is polluted [with evil] because of its inhabitants, who have transgressed laws, violated statues, broken the ancient covenant [of love]. Therefore a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants pay for their guilt” (Isaiah 24:2-6).
Yes, we are suffering a curse–the consequences of our sins–because of our great defilement of God‘s Law, and now, we can no longer see The Way to Heaven and are living with much confusion. Honestly, we don’t see a world with beautiful saints, who have left their lives of sin, to love God. No; we see a world swarming with evil/sin, who has no desire to amend… suffering and suffering.
Perhaps, we see how we are a mess–with depression, anxieties, worries, impatience, tempers, complaints, negative thoughts about others and many other sins–which is great proof we are doing something very wrong. Not only is the world a mess… as we now know the world is dying. We are not embracing God’s saving forgiving mercy; we are rejecting it, and we are DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT.
“The whole world has thus become corrupt, they [My ministers] being much more guilty than seculars.”
–God the Father to St. Catherine of Sienna (A Treatise of Prayer)
Yes, Christians are dying… religious and non-religious alike. The saints in their vast wisdom are telling us the truth.
This is a tragedy that simply can’t be ignored. We are talking about ETERNITY! We must save our souls. What is more important than this? But since we have been so deceived, we don’t know where we are going wrong or perhaps now we do see something, but it is still so very few of our great errors that are damning us. We need help!
Truly, because of our great inclination to sin, “the path leading to Heaven is so narrow and so rough, so over grown, so dark and difficult to discern [since we can’t see what is causing us to reject God], that there are many who never find it their whole life long.” as St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church, warns us in this commentary on Matthew. Yes, sadly, many stay so deceived that they never even find the path to Life, never mind even attempt to walk on it hoping to make it to the end: to Life.
But the devil doesn’t want us to acknowledge “how great is the multitude of those who still sleep in the darkness of error” as Pope St. Pius X has warned us, so we won’t with “fear and trembling” seek Our Savior correctly. No, the evil one wants us to live as if everyone goes to Heaven… with no fear of Hell, which has given us no motivation to amend our lives, which has killed God’s children.
But now it is time to gain fear of the Lord (fear of sin and it’s consequences) and seek Mercy to save us. Then we can learn what God’s will and purpose is for our lives, which is great and leads to Life, and not waste our time on fruitless things anymore.
When we hear the aforementioned truths, we can respond in three ways:
- ignore them and think they are speaking about someone else,
- think we are given more wisdom and we know better, or
- try to understand where we are going wrong, so we can change and be with the “few,” since there is much of the faith we have lost correct understanding.
“Lord, will only a few be saved?” He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. [They won’t have a saving faith]” (Luke 13:23-24).
Horribly, we have been so darkened to the truth. Who REALLY understands that without having true sorrow for literally every offence we have ever committed against God, we are choosing Hell (sin) over God? Is there anyone?
Well, I mean sure many of us know we need to be truly sorrow to be forgiven. That is part of our innate understanding. We haven’t all blocked this reality from our conscience. But if we REALLY knew, we were choosing Hell for eternity if we neglected to have a firm amendment to leave any sin, wouldn’t we be running to God… sincerely seeking Mercy daily for help to leave all of our offences against Him and from our desire to change being true, wouldn’t we be amending them. But we aren’t.
We are committing the same sins, day in and day out, without change. Sadly, for most of our sins, we are even without the smallest thought or effort towards amending. We are far from having a true desire to stop our offences… far from a true hatred for them. Sadly, we are even far from being willing to admit so many of them. Yes, we are complacent with our sinfulness, and that complacency with sin shows we love sin over LOVING GOD.
Tragically, we have been so deceived, we are spending our lives worrying about how to find happiness for ourselves or for others… that now, we don’t even realize we aren’t LOVING GOD.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15.)
Our lives should have been focused on how to love God–how to not offend Him–but they haven’t been, and now the whole world is under the spell of the evil one.
Please don’t be deceived. I know so many of us are blessed to have a great passion for Our Lord. We say “I love you Lord; I want to do your will” because we are being moved by the Spirit and feel great love for God. But tragically much of the time the love we actually have for God, even if we think we want to become a saint, is still so very little–since we have accepted so little of God’s transforming grace. It is far from true love (a love that truly hates one’s sins). Our love is mostly only in word, not in our actions, since we aren’t leaving our offences against Him, which makes our declaration of love worthless.
This is the truth. Please know, this complacency with sin (lack of contrition for sin)/ lack of love for God is so much bigger of a problem than we understand, as explained later. From being so darkened by the evil one, we just can’t see it. Sadly, we can’t see the magnitude of sins we love.
Truly, this is why the world is dying. We love sin but can’t even see it. We have blocked the truth from our hearts. It will take much grace to bring to light what we have chosen to hide in the dark. But don’t worry, this article is here to help.
We–especially the “faithful”–simply can’t, or should I say, don’t want to see our love of sin or the deception of the truth we suffer from, since we don’t want to know how blind and sinful we really are. Oh, how hard it is to see our sins that we really like… that we have convinced ourselves they are perfectly acceptable (not sins/virtues).
This is a big problem. We prefer to live believing a lie, since our happiness is found through lying to ourselves: pretending like we are good, wise and knowledgeable and don’t or hardly sin.
Really, this is a big problem for all of us. We look at ourselves through warped glasses, seeing ourselves as doing good, knowing what is right, and without much sin, but we are flattering ourselves.
“He so flatters himself in his mind that he knows not his guilt” (Psalm 36:2).
Oh, from constantly seeking to boost our pride, we don’t know reality… we don’t know that we are really drowning in darkness and sin, but trust me this is true. This happened because our happiness is not found by LOVING GOD: wanting to see our sins so we can work hard to stop offending Him. Our happiness is found through building up ourselves, our pride, and by getting what we want… with lies (complements, affirmation, self-praise, etc.).
We have spent our life seeking happiness through boosting our pride. Therefore, to break this terrible habit of self-love and begin to see our reality–to gain self-knowledge of our real sinfulness–so we can grow in knowledge of The Truth and repent with true contrition–it will take a great desire to see and much grace, since this problem is so deeply rooted within us. But “with God all things are possible’ (Matthew 19:26). So, let’s seek Mercy to enlighten us, so He can save us.
Yes, sadly, so many have fallen astray…“the world is on the road to perdition [Hell]” as St. Padrie Pio in his Letter to the Seers of Garabandal, in 1962 tells us; please don’t die as one of them.
We are the Epitome of Selfishness
To help humble us some more, since gaining humility is what opens our eyes, so we can come to see and not die blind to the sins we love and live in darkness to The Way, we need to know just how selfish we really are.
“Before I was humbled I went astray [since I didn’t know how sinful I was], but now I keep your word” (Psalm 119:67).
Tragically, we are so selfish. We want God’s love and we want God’s love. When we are feeling badly, we run to Him. We hear His call and go off to serve Him–to do His will–all to experience His love. There are countless books written on how to obtain His love/peace. We seek Him day and night, not so we can stop offending Him–not so we can love Him–but so He can make our lives better.
We aren’t true disciples of Christ…. we are just someone who follows Christ for all of the “perks” He gives us, not to truly love Him (to stop offending Him).
And when God loves us, by allowing us to feel His love, by giving us what we seek, and making our lives better, which He does hoping we will want to truly love Him in return (which is how we are saved), we “say” we love him… but we prove our love is so far from true, since don’t even desire to LOVE HIM: we don’t even want to work hard to stop our constant offences against Him. What kind of love is that?
Instead of seeking to stop offending God, we make excuses why our sinfulness is okay, and we continue in them like we don’t even care that we are offending Perfect Goodness, saying “God loves me anyway” as we justify our offences against God as no big deal.
Where is our love for God?
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 John 5:3).
Sadly, we only love God for what He does for us, but we don’t love Him–we don’t want to stop offending Him.
Yes, we ask God for help and accept His gifts; we pray prayers day and night all to get His love (what we want)… help for ourselves and for others. We take and take and take from Him… and don’t get me wrong God wants to help us, but what do we do in return? We say “thank you for the love and help,” if we even do that, and then we BEAT God unreservedly, with our unrestrained sins, as gratitude for all He does for us. We don’t work hard to stop our sins.
Horribly, we are so deceived… so selfish, we constantly seek God for self-seeking reasons: to experience His love, to heal us or to make our or others lives better, but not so we can LOVE HIM: not so we and/or others can stop offending God, whom we should be loving with all of our hearts. But to love ourselves.
Most sadly, we prove our love for God is a very broken selfish love. Not a real or a saving love. Reality is, we are the epitome of selfishness.
Sure, some of us are moved by the Spirit and feel great love for God. We want to know, love and serve Him. We spend our time praying, learning about God and doing many good works, but we do them with hearts not working to leave our sins… As a result, we aren’t growing into perfect saints. We just grow in greater prayers, knowledge or works thinking that is proof we are growing in holiness… but it isn’t. We aren’t leaving sin and becoming like Christ. We have been deceived!
“A meditation without fruit (becoming like Christ) is an amusement of the mind and a very dangerous form of idleness [causes us to desire God for self-love]. We must not judge of meditation by the tender sentiments we have experienced [feeling God’s love], but by the profit we have derived from it, or at least by the sincere desire we have to do good and to practice virtue. When you leave meditation, however dry it may have been, with the desire, the resolution, to correct our faults and to do God’s will, your time has not been lost…
The end of prayer is to correct our faults, we should consider that as the best prayer which inspires us with the greatest horror of sin and the greatest desire to avoid it.
–St. Francis De Sales, Doctor of the Church (The Secrets of Sanctity, Third Treatise, Prayer Ch 1, Sec. 4 & Ch 10)
Please know, there are many kinds of love for God we can have or feel. But reality is, most of us have not grown much in our faith for our love to be a true/saving love… sadly, most of us don’t even have enough grace to have real love for God (a love that can develop into true love)… mostly because we aren’t seeking it (we don’t know we need it). We are stuck living in a selfish love for God, not really loving God nor profiting towards salvation from anything we do. Tragic! To learn more please read, “How to Perfectly Love God.”
God is Being Patient with You
Yet, despite all we have done wrong, God still wants us in Heaven. His love is never ending. “How precious is your steadfast love, O God!” (Psalm 36:7).
Yes, of course, He has anger and great disappointment towards us, and rightly so. But it is an anger and disappointment of a loving father, who wants to move a child to make the right choices so to avoid injury.
“The discipline of the Lord, my son, do not spurn; do not disdain his reproof; For whom the Lord loves he reproves, as a father, the son he favors” (Proverbs 3:11-12).
But God doesn’t always love us (try to save us) by showing us His anger and disappointment towards us with punishments and allowing us to suffer greatly as a consequence of our sins. No, actually, even though we see many punishments from God, which are meant to spur us to change, most of the time (unless there is no other way or that isn’t the greatest good), God is loving us with blessings to help move us into sincerely following/loving Him.
So please know, when God shows us His love–by blessing us–that is Him being “patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to [true] repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God shows His love, because He is wanting us to love Him in return (to stop offending Him/to live for His will, so He can save us)… that is Him trying to motivate us to move in the right direction towards Life–to live for His will, since He doesn’t want us to reject Him and die.
But, we must know, when God loves us sinners that is in no way Him approving of our life of sin, so we stay cold or lukewarm deceiving ourselves into believing we are “holy” or even saved. “For he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good” (Matthew 5:45).
All God does is for our salvation (to move us towards a saving faith). “Consider that Our Lord’s patience is direct towards salvation.” (2 Peter 3:15). Through His acts of love for us, He wants us to become on fire with love for Him and salvation… not just for us but for our neighbor as well. He wants us striving to become saints every single day… working hard to perfectly obey Him (to do His will). Every day we don’t, is a day we are complacent with our lives of sin.
“He became the source of eternal salvation for all who OBEY Him” (Hebrews 5:9).
It is our pride that takes all of God’s blessings and convinces us that we are “holy” people because of them, so we can remain blind to our sinfulness.
Sadly, most of us are so deceived, we are far from even understanding what we should be doing to become saints. There is such deception being preached that we either think being a saint isn’t obtainable to us or the journey has been depicted so wrongly, many think we are working towards becoming saints, when, we haven’t even begin The Way. Tragic!
How many of us think we are working towards becoming a saint if we pray a lot and do many good works… okay, well saints do that, but seeking true sanctity is so much more. Really it is a surrender of our will completely for God’s, so God can change us by following Him: by the way of humility, suffering and sacrificing (the cross).
“Would that I could persuade spiritual persons that the way to God consist not in the multiplicity of meditations, ways of devotions or sweetness [experiencing God’s love], though these may be necessary for beginners [to be motivated to begin the journey], but in one necessary thing only, in knowing how to deny themselves [of everything in the world that keeps them from loving God]… giving themselves up to suffer for Christ’s sake, and annihilating themselves [destroy their pride/will] utterly… There is no progress but in the following of Christ.”
–St. John of the Cross, (Accent to Mount Carmel Ch. 7)
But please know, real saints… not the lukewarm saint that is preached, but people who really leave the world to love God, no longer care about restaurants, conversations, praise, entertainment, fashion, sports, technology nor any of that stuff in the world any more. All of them only want to spend their time knowing, loving, and serving God.
Their old-self is gone and now a new-self, with a new clean heart, lives to love God. This must be our goal too… or we will love sin/the world (our idols) over God and choose eternal suffering. Oh, we have much to learn, as is discussed later. To learn more please read, “How to Become a Saint.”
Please know what a great life awaits us, when we leave everything in the world that we run to for happiness, so we can love God… Oh, their is no depression or boredom with this life, just a wonderful life loving God, trusting in His will. Sure getting to this will be hard, but of course it is all worth it.
“Put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts [for the world’s pleasures], and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds [for God], and to clothe yourselves with the new self [with a pure garment], created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Live The Faith to be Saved By the Faith
If we want to learn how to love God (gain a hatred for sin), become saved and KEEP God’s saving grace in us–we need to learn how to really live the faith that saves… “Put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome The Word [live all of The Word] that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls [change your hardened hearts into ones of true love]” (James 1:21).
“For thus do [for this is how] the faithful keep [are constantly saved], having the Holy Spirit constantly dwelling in them, who was given from Him at baptism and KEPT by the recipient LIVING IN TRUTH AND HOLINESS and righteousness and patience; for it is by this Spirit that the resurrection [salvation] comes to believers.”
–St. St. Irenaeus of Lyons (On The Apostolic Preaching, The preparation for Salvation #42)
Therefore, not only does living the faith bring us into a saving faith, it keeps us in a state of grace for the salvation of our souls.
To do this, like Saint John the Baptist said, we need to “flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7) and learn how to be righteous through “fear of the Lord”. Then we can have our sins forgiven, so the fire of God’s anger, which we deserve, won’t come upon us for eternity.
“Whoever [truly] believes in the Son [hates sin/loves God] has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son [choses sin instead of Him] will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him” (John 3:36).
Wonderfully, from God’s mercy, so we don’t perish, Our Lord spends our entire lives, loving us, blessing us… trying and trying to get us to understand the horror of sin. He sends us fantastic warnings and puishments that should enlighten us to our need for mercy.
“[He] rebuke[s] offenders [us] little by little, warn[s] them, and remind[s] them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you [that Your Way of purity is The Way to Heaven]” (Wisdom 12:2).
To see many of God’s warnings, all we need to do is look to see if we are in peace. If we aren’t, then that is from sin. Then we need to look for where we are going wrong, and seek God to show us how to change and strengthen us to do it.
Oh but, perhaps we are one of the few blessed souls, whom God is sending big warnings of our lack of grace, so we can see how we are rejecting His Mercy and need Him, and we are even going backwards: becoming more grumpy, more anxious, more worried, more impatient, more irritable etc… having less and less virtues. We might even think we need to see a psychiatrist or that our suffering is just too great, when what we really need is to see Jesus to heal us… to help us remove our sins.
But please always remember even if God heals us and removes many of our miseries and we are much more pleasant and in peace, unless we grow all the way into a true saving faith of having true contrition for every sin, at least at the moment of our death, all is still for not.
Therefore, so we don’t live deceived, as our years go on, no matter what crosses come our way, we should be becoming more and more in peace and virtuous like Christ–actually our crosses should be greatly moving us toward imitating Jesus–that is IF we are truly following Christ… but not only that, our choices need to be giving us such a wonderful heart of contrition for our sins, we are growing into a perfect saint. But if we aren’t, and are in distress, God is clearly warning us we are dying and going to be brought down to Hades if we don’t repent and change before our hour comes.
Oh, perhaps we make excuses as to why our sins–unpleasant dispositions–exist to try to justify them? “Oh, I’m sick, hungry and/or tired… that is why I’m so grumpy” as if God’s grace can’t remove our evil inclinations when we are sick, hungry and/or tired. But instead of repenting and seeking God for strength to love at all times (to not sin) under any cross (trial), we justify our sinful dispositions as just part of life, not even concerned with the fact that those sins are OFFENDING GOD. Where is our love for Our Lord?
Therefore, please ask ourselves, how often do we think “that’s not so bad” as we ignore and think lightly of the minor things we think, say or do wrong, not even caring that we just offended God venially. Well, we didn’t just offend Him venially… no, from our lack of care, we just offended Him mortally. Yes, all sins matter. All sins we choose OFFEND GOD, whom we should desire to perfectly love. If we don’t care that we have just offended God with any sin, we are damning our souls from having a lack of love for God (a lack of hatred for our sin).
“O my God, now I know something of how great is the evil of venial sin! Ah, if I had understood it before, I would not have sinned as I did!…My Father, I give Thee my word that from now on I will make use of the means I know to be best suited to keep me from ever falling again into venial sins.”
–St. Anthony Mary Claret, (The Golden Key to Heaven, Meditation 11)
Now, we can’t see every facet of our failures to live the faith by just looking at our lack of peace, frankly many of our sins are covered by our great false happiness we display, which makes seeing our sins even harder (as explained later).
But we should know we can’t just live some of the faith, like removing our anger, foul mouths, immorality, gossiping, laziness, gluttony, materialism, etc. but we need to live all of it… especially that of joyfully carrying our crosses with Christ.
“The one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:35).
That means no more impatience, no more complaining, no more worrying, no more running from the cross when things go opposed to our will. We need to learn how to TRUST IN GOD. We must really believe that God has a plan to lead us to a saving faith through everything He allows. We need to pull our minds off of seeking God just to make our lives on earth better, but we need to seek Him to help us love Him. Therefore, we must look for what He wants to teach us, through the cross, so we can change. Then allow God to lead us to what we need to do to remove our horrible liking for sin, so He can save us.
Now, please know, even though we are called to live the faith if we want to be saved, we can’t just become a great “holy” person, who leaves everything to serve the needy, so to bring Christ to them (to do what works God wants of us) and expect to be saved either. Remember, we aren’t saved by our works.
Therefore, not only must we be growing in our outward acts of love and be becoming “holy”, a saint, doing the works God has planned for our lives, since we want to obey Him for He is Our Lord, but we must ALSO be growing in faith to obtain a terrific horror for sinning against God–a horror for offending God that brings us into true contrition for all of our sins or all will still be lost, since salvation is by true faith/true love for Jesus–LOVING GOD OVER OUR SINS–sincerely wanting to love Him instead of sinning, which allows us to accept His forgiving Mercy He died to give us.
Hence, to be saved, we must have two qualities:
- Great charity/LOVE in our actions/hearts (be leaving sin, doing God’s will, following Christ/becoming saints) “None are pleasing to God that are not inflamed with charity” St. Bonaventure (Life of Our Lord, Ch. 27)
- Great CONTRITION in our hearts for our sins (desire to suffer greatly rather than offend God). “Do you think to be admitted to the marriage feast [Heaven] in foul and disordered garments?… [Only through] holy confession, contrition of heart, satisfaction [make right the wrong], and purpose of amendment… will throw off that hideous and defiled garment.” God the Father to St. Catherine of Sienna (Treatise of Obedience)
Without these two, our faith is dead.
If our faith is alive, we must be constantly growing in both of these qualities until we become perfect (never able to sin again), trusting that God can bring us to, at least, a saving faith if we continue seeking Mercy to help us grow until our end. Once our growing ends and we are staying the same, we are lukewarm again or at least without true contrition and rejecting God for sin.
Again, to obtain this kind of saving faith, God’s gives us His commands, His laws for us to obey. They aren’t a burden… that is His blessing to us. They are exactly what we need do to not die in sin, loving our idols.
“Thanks be to God that [after you repented and changed], although you were once slaves of sin [desiring and habitually committing them], you have become obedient from the heart [desiring God, not sin] to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted [living The Word]. Freed from sin [by accepting saving grace/forgiveness], you have become slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).
Therefore, to obtain that kind of saving faith–to become a true slave of righteousness, who has true contrition for our sins–requires us to “leave behind the basic teaching about Christ and advance to maturity [a saving faith]” (Hebrews 6:1).
Truly, if we want to be saved, we need to actually do this; we must humbly admit our need for help, confess our sins and start from the beginning (even if we are vastly spiritual), with God’s helping grace to bring us to the light of Truth, since sadly, we are still infants in the faith.
“Newborn infants [who desire to grow], long for pure spiritual milk [actual/helping grace] so that through it you may grow into salvation [into a saving faith/mature/sustained by solid food–sanctifying grace]” (1 Peter 2:2).
Yes, from our lack of fear of sin, to the surprise of many–especially to the faithful–we haven’t grown into “mature manhood” (Ephesians 4:11-13)–a true saving faith. Sadly, most remain as infants (not eating solid food/not with God’s saving grace) our entire lives, even though we might be seen as “great” Christians from all our knowledge, prayers and works we do, but God who reads our hearts knows we still desire many many sins.
This complacency with sin–lack of maturity– all came about because we never obtained the true wisdom–the fear of the Lord (fear of sinning)–that we needed to motivate us to do what was necessary to stop sinning and grow into true hatred for our offences against God. Now we are not only lacking a saving faith, we have been blinded to much of the truths of the faith as well, in which we will have to learn.
“You need to have someone teach you again the basic elements of the utterances of God. You need milk [helping grace], not solid food [saving grace]. Everyone who lives on milk lacks experience of the word of righteousness [isn’t with a saving faith], for he is a child [not with a mature saving faith]” (Hebrews 5:12-13).
Yes, we must gain correct knowledge and wisdom and mature (grow in grace) one step at a time to obtain a truly humble contrite heart (a saving faith)…. so we can accept God’s sanctifying grace that we once received at Baptism but rejected the first time we lacked true hatred for any sin.
But if we, blind soul, refuse to admit we need this, pure spiritual milk, like infants so we can grow, we will die from our pride. Yes, we must grow through God’s grace or we will die. To Learn more please read, “What is God’s Mercy and How Can I Receive It.”
Nonetheless, we can’t waste our lives on fruitless things or things of lesser importance anymore, when we have bounds of sins and worldly pleasures we are attached to (that we desire instead of God). We don’t know how many hours we have left before our time of judgement will come… Truly, “you do not know on which day your Lord will come” (Matthew 22:34). Don’t throw away any moment to the evil one… seek God and His will. His will is exactly what we need to follow to obtain Life. Let’s learn how to really love Him… to really hate sin, so we can Live. With God’s grace, we can do this.
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ [His grace], and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires [for sin]]” (Romans 13:14).
Oh, we will need to change our entire lives… yes, our entire lives and really “seek first the kingdom of God [salvation] and his righteousness [a saving faith]” (Matthew 6:33).
There is Endless Deception
Sadly, we haven’t been hearing God, since there is endless deception all around us. God’s warnings and fatherly punishments aren’t even seen as coming from God. We ignore our consequences of our sins (our earthly suffering) and don’t change. To learn more please read “Why Does God Allow Suffering and Punishment?”
As a result of ignoring God’s guidance in our lives and even His suffering/punishment He allows us to bear–we haven’t been learning, changing and growing towards maturity. But now, if we want to love God and live, we are going to need to learn how to see God’s love (His warnings), recognize our sins and learn how to live by the Spirit, so we can come to truly hate sin/truly love God.
“If you live according to the flesh [desiring sin/the world], you will die [go to Hell]; but if by the Spirit [desiring what is holy] you put to death the deeds of the body [you stop your unrestrained habitual sins and come to truly hate sin, then], you will live [go to Heaven]” (Romans 8:13).
We can clearly see we aren’t “desiring what is holy” and still living according to the flesh or we wouldn’t be committing all of these unrestrained habitual sins. Oh, we might think we desire what is holy, but our actions–our lack of sanctity–is proving us to be liars.
Sure, we might desire some things that are holy, but that isn’t what is damning us; it is all we desire that isn’t holy that is. Remember, one sin, in which we desire/don’t truly hate rejects God for sin. Yes, if we desire one thing that isn’t holy, we are rejecting God for that sin and choosing Hell. Really think about what I have just said… look at all you do and want… all that isn’t holy is killing you. Please don’t be deceived.
Of course, we will still have to learn about what is really holy, because when we become darkened to The Truth like we have become, right from wrong, good from bad, pride from humility, is now blurred… but we just won’t know it. This is VERY HARD for someone to understand, especially if we have vastly studied the faith. Yet trust me; we, even theologians, have to humbly learn what is truly good. We have been greatly blinded.
Frankly, the deception that lives in us branches out to every facet of the faith. This darkness we live in has, believe it or not, distorted the whole faith. This is the truth. The following are a just a few of the topics the devil has confused us with to keep us blind, which are discussed in this article.
Sadly, we no longer correctly understand:
- Fear of the Lord
- Giving Glory to God
- Sack cloth and Ashes (Penance)
- Love of the Cross
- Trust in God
- God’s Will
- How To Love Other as God loves Us
- and so much more…
Oh, we might think we understand these things correctly, but, just like I’m sure we thought we understood how to be saved, we are truly being deceived with all of these too–yes a deceiving power has come over us with ALL of the above to some degree and much more. What the devil has done is truly terrifying. The anti-christ has infiltrated all of our lives and in every way and has destroyed our understanding of the true faith.. To learn more please read, “What Does Evil Look Like?”
We must seek Mercy to stamp him out so he no longer has control of us.
“The apostasy [the abandonment of the true faith] comes first [before the second coming of Christ] and the lawless one [the anti-christ] is revealed… claiming that he is a god [through all the world’s pleasures (people, power, & possessions) we seek instead of God/our idols]— do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you these things?…
And then the lawless one will be revealed [as is happening today], whom the Lord [Jesus] will kill [at then end of time] with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming [so we will never sin again and finally worship God without fear of dying from our sins]…
[But for us, who left The Truth for the anti-christ,] God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie, that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-12).
But we don’t need to remain in the dark and be condemned any longer. God, from His mercy, is giving us a wonderful blessing of bringing His light–even a “seven times greater [light]” (Isaiah 30:26) than what was shown before–so we may see all what the evil one has darkened. Yes, a great light of God will show us The Way, so we can join Him again. Therefore, let’s allow God to enlighten us, so He can save our souls.
“The Lord said: Since this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, though their hearts are far from me [they really desire the world]. And fear of me has become mere precept of human teaching [yet they think they are faithful]. Therefore I will again deal with this people in surprising and wondrous fashion: The wisdom of the wise shall perish, the prudence [understanding] of the prudent [wise] shall vanish…
Surely, in a very little while [after the great darkness/fall], Lebanon [the Church] shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be considered a forest! On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll [this article]; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see” (Isaiah 29:11-18).
Therefore, please hear God speaking to you. He wants to open your eyes… God wants you in Heaven.
We don’t need to continue to live this way of sin and die! We need to convert and then tell the world of our great error and of Our Savior who desires to save us: to change us… to give us true hatred for our sins so we can have real hope for Eternal Life.
“[But after she learns of her impending doom] go up on to a high mountain [speak to the whole world], Zion, [God’s children, I am a] herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, [God’s chosen ones; I am a] herald of good news!… Here is your God!.. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care [you will not be left alone; He will show you The Way–LOOK FOR HIM]” (Isaiah 40:9&11).
Our Lord is calling out for His children. He wants to save us. Let’s learn where we are going wrong–which is a lot–so we can allow God to change us so we can be with the “few.” Eternity is forever! What is more important than this?
I know, perhaps we haven’t robbed any banks or killed anyone lately… but that doesn’t mean we are saved–forgiven of All of our wrong doings. Truly, sin and what is expected of us is so much more than we think. And obtaining forgiveness for ALL of our sins is much more challenging than we might think too. We can’t continue to believe the “false teachers” (2 Peter 2:1). They are killing us.
I’m a Good Person
I know we all have some wonderful virtues of Christ in us. God gave us hearts of love, so even though our nature is that of desiring sin, we also have a nature that desires to love. Some of us volunteer and make great sacrifices to help others. Oh, there is much good we do. But again remember, it isn’t the good we do that is going to damn us, but it is the bad that we don’t truly repent of that will. We need to FULLY understand this.
Like was said, our good works don’t save us, but the grace from Jesus’ sacrifice saves. “For by [saving] grace you have been saved… [it is] not the result of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9). And we reject that saving mercy by just ONE unrepentant sin. No wonder so few are saved.
Yes, since one sin is of infinite offence to our infinitely perfect God, “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it [and must repent to be saved]” (James 2:10).
Therefore, we can be fantastically holy but if we still cling to one sin, we lose it all. Please don’t be deceived. So ask ourselves, is there anything we are doing which a saint wouldn’t do? That is a sin. Yes, we are supposed to imitate the saints; they are of Christ. “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:10).
I mean really, we need to honestly look into our lives… not run from our sins pretending like we are all great people, when we are far from real saints… we can’t continue to lie to ourselves and cover our sins, so we can feel happy through our pride. Truly, we need to sincerely look for what we have done wrong. We have sinned.
We are talking about our eternity. In all sincerity, is there anything we do that doesn’t help us to know, love or serve God… that we do for self-gratification/pleasure? Then that is a sin which is keeping from loving God. We are called to do EVERYTHING for the glory of God, not the glory of ourselves.
Is there any command of God (any part of The Word) that we don’t really obey, in which we aren’t humbly seeking God for grace–His strength–to amend… that we aren’t REALLY resolved/working hard to leave (any law we aren’t striving with our whole heart to obey)? If there is, then that is a sin we are rejecting Heaven for Hell.
Yes, we have rejected God’s forgiveness–His gift of Eternal Life–for that sin, since we aren’t resolved to leave it? When we want to become saints (to offend God no more), we banish those things and only seek to love God, by doing His will. We need to seek God to give us a heart that cares about Him more than ourselves.
We Don’t Know How to Bring Others to Salvation
Horribly, from being so deceived, our friends, family and even the shepherds, have actually tried to justify some of our sins as good. Then we stay blind. Yes, the very people who should be helping to heal us of our sins by providing us a cure–what we can do to amend and gain true hatred for them are horribly the “murderer of souls” as Jesus tells St. Bridget of Sweden (Revelations, Ch. 41).
Oh, how many people has God brought to us to guide to The Light (away from sin towards God), and we guided them to a complacency with sin… not even telling them of the consequences of unrepentant unchanged sin?
This has occurred because, from our hearts of love, naturally we want to make others happy. But from the devil deceiving us, we do it in all the wrong ways. Sure, we are pretty good at helping others with their worldly problems. Many of us will read and preach The Word and lead others to Christ to help them have a better life on earth, but we have no idea how bring others to true happiness… no idea how to bring people to a saving faith. Yet, we must learn how to seek Christ correctly to change us, so to save our souls.
What is more important in life? This is what determines our eternal happiness or misery. But we have allowed the devil to stupefy us, and we don’t know how to bring others to salvation.
We are especially blind and inept today, since we live in a world that tries to make sin (offending God) acceptable. We only want to hear “positive things”… so we come up with great reasons why we should ignore our sins. Of course, I’m not saying we should be rude or mean or bash another to put them down, that isn’t what Jesus did. But we should, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, be leading others away from their sins towards a saving faith. Or at least letting them know they need one.
Oh, but the devil convinces us that we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings or make them feel like they are a failure or not a good person… so to avoid conflict, we say nothing, since we don’t want to carry the cross to help save the souls of God’s children.
“Repent… leave your life of sin or you will perish” isn’t what anyone wants to hear. But this is what needs to be preached. Oh, we don’t want to know reality, but if we don’t, we will die blind, loving sin and perish.
Sadly, we just want to make others happy. We don’t want people to have any fear of their sins knowing that they could be banished into Hell from not repenting for a single one of them. So we say only nice, positive things… as the devil tells us, as if allowing God’s children to remain blind (unconcerned with their eternity) and die is nice.
Yet, if we only knew, once we come to learn the truth, as terrifying as it is… and begin to change for the right reasons–so to love God (to not offend Him)–that life of happiness which everyone is looking for, will happen.
“Happy are those who keep my ways” (Proverbs 8:32).
Remove My Guilt
Frankly, from being so deceived, as to what brings true happiness, we are not looking for God to make us horribly sinful beings good by removing our sins. From our pride, we want to feel like we are good, awesome, powerful people. Many of us are even looking for others to tell us we are “good” by supporting and condoning our sinful ways of life, since we don’t want to feel “guilt.”
People will go to great extremes to remove feeling guilty for doing something wrong. Feeling guilty crushes our pride. And unless, we know this is The Way to Heaven, we seek to rid it from our lives.
Therefore, from not wanting to feel guilt and having her pride crushed, Heroidus (Herod’s wife) even had John the Baptist beheaded for offending her (correcting her). The common thought of, “How dare he tell me I’m anything less than wonderful” was most likely running through her mind, as she exploded in prideful anger from having her sin brought to the light, which made her feel guilty (crushed in power).
Since she had no intention of humbling herself and stopping her sin, to restore her power, she was going to show him who is the powerful one, by ending his life. When we are filled with fantastic pride, this feeling of guilt can cause us to have great adverse reactions… not reactions of humility, which should lead to amendment, which is its intent.
Oh, we don’t like how it feels to be guilty for having done wrong, and we want it gone. So we lie and come up with a million justification so we can pretend like we have done nothing wrong, all to remove our feeling of guilt. Some, from the malice that lives in us, will perhaps threaten others and tell others to be quite if they say something opposing what we are doing. Claiming that they have no right to judge and/or criticize us for what we do. All, which keeps us proud, blind and damned.
Feeling guilt is a blessing from God and is activated from either love or pride or a little of both. Athiests and Christians can both feel guilty for doing something wrong. But, it should be the beginning of contrition. Guilt is good. It is a natural reaction of our conscience. But only guilt derived from love for God can lead to Life. Yet, guilt from pride or love for another can be a stepping stone towards Life, so either are beneficial.
For example: Let’s say we were just rude to someone. So, our conscience kicks in and causes us to feel badly for treating another poorly. Now, the question is why do we feel guilt (sorry for doing wrong)? Is it because we want to be a good person and we weren’t? Is it because God calls us to love others and we didn’t? Or, is it because we know when we fail to love others, we are not only harming the ones we treat badly but most importantly, we are offending God, who is all good and deserving of all of our love?
Why do we feel guilty? Is it really because we aren’t loving God?
You see, instead of our lives being focused on how we can love God–not offend Him–our lives are focused on how we can feel good. Therefore, since feeling guilty feels bad, like was said, we go through extremes to remove it.
Many go to confession not looking to apologize to God for all of our wrongs, looking for God’s grace to help us sin no more, but looking to remove our feeling of guilt. Yet, if we do that, we are removing our chances of obtaining True contrition. No guilt = no contrition.
Of course knowing God love us and will forgive us (if we have true contrition for our sins) even if we have greatly offended Him does leave us feeling loved, which is wonderful. If our hearts weren’t focused on self-love, it should cause us to want to return that perfect love… to want to never sin again. But it doesn’t.
So ask ourselves, if we confess a sin, does that somehow mean we never offended God. No, we still wounded Him. Why would we not feel guilty for such a crime against Perfect Goodness? Sure if we are truly sorry for offending God, He will forgive us, so we are no longer guilty of that crime… meaning: punished in Hell for that sin, but that does not remove the damage we have done to God?
Confession should cause us to rejoice in God’s love and forgiveness, as He gives us a second chance to amend our life, not remove our feeling of guilt (not strip us of feeling badly for offending God). We have still offended Him and He has/is suffering because of our choices. That should cause us to want to change our lives.
But, from being deceived, instead of using confession as a means to move us towards Life, so we can grow into greater understanding of our guilt (the consequences our sins have on God), we use it as tool to remove our ability of obtaining true contrition (strip us of guilt). Tragic!
Those of us, who don’t feel guilty for offending Our Beloved Lord, like sadly is where most of humanity stands today, we have been struck so greatly with the devils lies and our pride is so great, we are cold. Yes, cold. Sadly, no matter how much we want to “say” we love God, tragically, our love for Him is really ice cold.
“The love of many waxed cold… few who still loved the true faith [remained].. men openly sought to take their lives [destroyed their salvation with sin] every expedient [sin] was employed against them [for their destruction].”
–St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church (Letter 127 “Principia”, #11)
If we have a little guilt for offending God–now, I’m not talking about personal guilt (guilt from pride) because we are disappointed in ourselves, since we didn’t do what we think we should have done or feeling guilty because we hurt another, but I’m talking about feeling guilty because we have offended/wounded Perfect Goodness by our sins, then our flame of love for God is slight. If we really understand what our sins have done, then our guilt is great and our love for God is great as well. “
When we truly love someone, of course, we feel guilty for offending/hurting them. How could we not? We don’t want to hurt them; we want to love them. It is only when our love goes cold–becomes SELFISH, and we only love for self-gain–that when we just don’t care if we hurt the one we “love”, which produces no feeling of guilt in our hearts. It is a love that says, “He/she will forgive me anyway”… it is a love that just doesn’t care that we hurt another.
Tragically, from being so infected with the devils lies, we have little if any real love for God and are clueless as to our real sinfulness and of their consequences, which produces no guilt/no contrition. Think about it. How can we not feel horribly guilty for offending/wounding God… The Author of Life… The Source of Infinite Love… The One who has given us everything? But sadly, this is the state the devil has us living in; we only seek to take from God and love Him for what He gives us. But we won’t love Him–want to stop wounding Him. Therefore, we have no real love!
I know this can be very hard to accept, but if we don’t we will perish into Hell. let’s accept reality and run to God who wants to help us learn how to love Him. To learn more please read, “How to Obtain Perfect Contrition.”
Oh, the guilt that was supposed to motivate us to leave our sins, so we can really love God, has been snuffed out in so many ways.
The ways we seek to remove our guilt:
- Look for someone to tell us what we have done wrong really isn’t wrong or not so bad
- Get angry at the person correcting/criticizing us… thinking they have no right to speak in such a way
- Mistreat the one correcting us; speak badly about them, don’t speak to them, or worse
- Tell the one constructively criticizing us to be quiet
- Justify that what we have done wrong as not really wrong
- Point our what we think is a fault in the one correcting us, so we can feel better about ourselves
- Twist around, why we really did what we did, to make it seek like it was good, so we can be without guilt
- Translate The Law of Love to mean what we want it to say, so we won’t have guilt
- Convince ourselves that the person correcting us is stupid and/or the one who is wrong
- Manipulate what has occurred making a new reality in our minds, so we see no wrong
- Look for someone else who seems to be committing the sin in a bigger way, so we won’t feel so guilty
- Distract ourselves, ignore our conscience
- Focus on our good, don’t examine our conscience to see our bad
- Look for God’s forgiveness, thinking that removes our offence, etc.
This article is meant to bring on much guilt in ourselves, so we can begin to see that we have done wrong, so we can gain humility and will be inspired to change, just like was John the Baptist’s intention for Herodias. Yet, her response or any of the aforementioned responses aren’t intended… only the crushing of ones pride (humility), so we can seek Mercy to save us is. Because, without this guilt there is no hope for a saving faith.
Yes, true contrition is founded on having great guilt for our sins. Contemplating Christ’s wounds/suffering (His love) because of our sins (our guilt) is the main means of growing into this saving contrition. Sure, we can’t contemplate the true consequences of our sinfulness (guilt) without also contemplating His unfathomable mercy, or we would die in despair, but feeling guilty we must have and understand to advance toward Life.
Use Guilt for Good
Trying to remove our guilt (feeling responsible or remorse for doing something wrong) is such a problem today. The devil wants us to take our hearts of love and make them cold, with no care for anything truly good.
From being deceived, we see this tragedy occur all over… from in the confessional as the priest tries to make light of our sins and/or encourages us to “not be so hard on ourselves” all the way to our closest family/friends, as they try to justify our sins as perfectly fine or they try to cover them by perhaps saying “you are wonderful just the way you are” or maybe saying, “that isn’t a sin; everyone does that,” and in many other ways, even though much of the time the guilt we show is derived from self-pity or sadness over offending another, not from contrition for offending God. However, no matter what kind of guilt we have, it isn’t being used for good.
Through misguided love, those who care about us and want to help, much of the time try to love us (make us feel better) through a lie… trying to remove our guilt. As if true happiness is found through a life of covering sin and being complacent with offending God. To learn more please read, “How Can I Find True Happiness?”
Please know, when someone has guilt that doesn’t mean we have to be in despair or with anxiety. Actually, having guilt from not loving God produces quite the opposite results. It produces great a love for God as we grow in understanding of God’s love, as we come to trust in His mercy to change/save us despite our sinfulness. However, since we live in the time of great darkness, we shouldn’t expect to find people feeling guilty for our sins, because we have offended God… most hardly think of God, whom we are offending, unless we are now blessed with feeling guilty from reading this article.
However, today, most suffer from guilt, which could be so great that it causes us to despair or be with anxieties, over our sinfulness, because of self-pity/pride or from sadness over hurting someone else. Those who suffer from guilt driven by pride (not being happy with who we are), saying “I’m such a screw up” “I can never do anything right” or other self-degrading comments, should be told how good it is to want to do what is right (to feel sorry for our wrongs)–to have a heart that cares–for some people could careless about anything.
But from there, we need to help modify their motives from wanting to do good driven from pride–seeking self-love (self-improvement) to benefit themselves–into a the desire change, so to LOVE GOD. Then we need to help them learn how to accept who they are… a wretched sinner in need of mercy (help), like everyone else, not to pretend like they don’t sin or that sinning is ok. It isn’t.
This is why all of those self-improvement books fail to make a real change in us. They don’t lead us to change for the right reasons… to LOVE GOD, but to love ourselves… and not accept our misery, but to cover it. They drive us to increase our pride, not reduce it. In essence, they can pretend like they are leading us to God, but they aren’t.
Everyone also needs to come to understand that as long as we are sincerely trying to change, God is most pleased with us, even if we fall and injure Him. Our Lord will be glad to suffer any injury, we inflict upon Him from our sins, to help save our souls. This is the fantastic love God has for us. But His unfathomable love shouldn’t make us not care that we are offending Him and causing Him to suffer because of our choices, but seeing His love should move us to love God even more greatly and seek even more whole heartedly to not offend Him again.
Therefore, to make our guilt into something good, we aren’t seeking to remove our guilt (destroy our sorrow for doing wrong) and strip of us of motivation to change, but we are directing it to the right place, so our guilt can motivate us to work hard to sin no more, to perfectly LOVE GOD.
But watch out for many people, who have guilt over their sins from their pride, tend to also have guilt over their lack of skills or talents and seek for their weaknesses to leave for reasons of pride too, which is sinful. There is nothing to feel guilty over or lack self-esteem with in regards to our imperfections… all of our short comings are perfect, as God wants us to be. God intends to use them to make and keep us humble and to do great things through us, for His glory to shine… God wants us to seek Him for strength to bring us to a saving faith through our shorting comings and all, so we won’t become self-reliant and damned.
Also, some have guilt (feel responsible for bad that has happened), which is not because of any sin of their own. If they think the wrong occurred because of a sin, this is unfounded guilt and doesn’t lead to good, but self-pity. If the bad has occurred because of a mistake we made, we are called to learn from it, so to not repeat it again, and to accept our short comings as part of our fallen nature. Sure, we should try to not make that mistake again, but we must humbly accept ourselves as less than perfect and not accuse ourselves of sinning, when we haven’t… knowing even bad that occurs from a mistake, God will use to lead us to Life, if we can humbly accept our broken nature and trust in Him.
But then there are others who have guilt because their wrong choices have really hurt another. Again, we are to remind them how they are blessed to have a heart of love, not wanting to hurt another. Then we are to encourage them to use that guilt to move them to repent, to make right their wrongs and to move them to never recommit that sin again… But please never strive to remove the guilt, but to use it to love. But they need to understand, that their guilt for sinning against another needs to be less than their guilt for offending God, if they ever want their contrition to become true. For our contrition to ever become true, no matter what sin we commit, our guilt needs to be greatest for offending Perfect Goodness. This is what we must seek.
Yet, from being deceived, we think successfully counseling another, who has guilt, is done by helping them remove their guilt (remove their sorrow for sinning). Tragic! When someone has guilt because of a wrong they have done, that is a BLESSING, as we can hopefully see, and striving to remove that blessing leads someone to their doom, not Life.
The person suffering from guilt needs to understand that is the beginning of obtaining contrition if we accept what we have done wrong, even if it derived from self-pity (not being who we want to be) or from feeling guilty for offending another. That means they are not cold: with a heart that doesn’t care that they have done wrong, as sadly so many are today. They should be encouraged to accept reality and the consequences of their sin, repent (accusing themselves of their sin), asking God for forgiveness and help to make right their wrong and for strength to never commit it again. Also, they should ask God to take that guilt and use it to move them to obtain a horror so great for offending God, they would rather suffer anything than commit a single offence again.
Of course, if we have despair or anxiety over our sinfulness, because we aren’t doing anything to amend our ways, that is most logical. We should be in despair and full of anxiety. We are rejecting God’s mercy and damning ourselves. But don’t let that despair and anxiety really kill us, but allow it to move us with great desperation to God for His help. He wants to save us no matter what we have done… God wants us in Heaven.
Tell Me I’m Good
Giving encouragement, for the right things/reasons is great, but helping others to stay blind to their sinfulness isn’t. I tell you, we aren’t wonderful just the way we are… we are horribly sinful and in greatly need to repent and change. Sure our short comings and lack of talents/abilities, as was said, are just how God designed us, which are perfect, but our sins aren’t “wonderful.” Our sins offend God.
Just because everyone commits a certain sin, doesn’t mean it isn’t somehow sinful. Oh, dread the thought. That means God is so grossly injured over and over again by His children. Oh, our desire to thrive off our pride is killing us. We don’t want to admit we aren’t ” good”/guilty and need to seek Christ to change us. We don’t want guilt (sorrow for our sins).
Christians are not called to make others happy, well at least not with the happiness of the world… with smiles of approval, getting someone what their hearts desires, telling them how great they are to build up their pride (blinding pride), only saying what they want to hear, doing all they desire, etc. That isn’t the role of a Christian.
Sure, living The Word very well might make others happy, especially when we bring others to Christ’s peace but a Christian’s focus isn’t supposed to be on making others happy. A true Christian’s focus needs to be on doing what is TRULY GOOD for another: what will help them obtain Eternal Life. And a lot of the times that isn’t going to bring someone the immediate earthly happiness most people are looking for, but that is how we truly love others.
Of course we aren’t to try to anger others and without a doubt, we are called to love and serve others, but we aren’t called to make others happy through the world: accepting sin and the world’s pleasures as The Way to true happiness (Christ). Oh, how many of us, to make our loved ones feel happy will pretend their sins aren’t sins, as we fill them with false or blinding complements, to boost their pride (remove their guilt). Oh, that only leads to their doom. Our sins are what is destroying our happiness and ruining our lives. Please don’t be deceived.
The happiness we need to seek for our spouse, family, friends and the world, needs to be their eternal happiness… not filling their every want, so to keep them blindly happy with the world, but helping to lead them to true earthly and eternal happiness by way of the cross. But our focus is all wrong. The devil has deceived us.
But from being so deceived, we don’t realize how many of our acts of “love” are leading souls to their doom. How many of us say, “Oh, you have the right to happiness [committing/living in your life of sin]” because we want to support them “love them”, as we deceive the ones we are trying to love into thinking that their sins are acceptable so they won’t feel guilty. Yet, there is no sin which is acceptable. Damnation is found through not striving to amend our ways; not joy. That isn’t how we “love, as Christ loved us” (Ephesians 5:2). That is how we allow the evil one to use us as a tool of death.
We are to care about the salvation of others’ souls… not trying to make others happy through helping them to be content in their sinfulness. If we convince someone that just one offence isn’t a sin or a big deal–like tragically happens in many relationships or in so many confessionals today–we have lead them to death, not Life. There is no repentance found in not admitting our sins.
“Those who conceal their sins do not prosper, but those who confess and forsake them obtain mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13).
I know leading other to true happiness can be very hard. Without having God’s grace moving us, we will error terribly. How many of us have tried to help others, but instead of God’s wisdom moving our words and actions, it was our pride telling others what they should be doing , and then we wind up harming, not helping them.
Sadly, from our lack of grace and lack of wisdom, we guide others so poorly, since we are only concerned about their earthly success and happiness and/or drowning in pride. Then we only wind up giving those needing help cleaver ways to have a better earthly life, since we have no wisdom to help us guide them to true happiness. Yes, sadly, we aren’t really guiding others on how to “walk by the Spirit” so to be saved nor are we following It ourselves… and we are rejecting God’s saving mercy for sin.
“Walk by the Spirit [accept God’s transforming grace from wanting to do what Christ would do], and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh [you will not commit/desire sin instead of loving God] ” (Galatians 5:16).
Prior to having fear of the Lord–a fear of sin and its consequences–the first stage of wisdom, which is sadly how most of us have lived our lives, therefore, believe it or not, we have only made false confessions. Yes, this blindness to our eternal doom, to the true faith and to ourselves has caused us to commit sacrilege in the confessional, not sincere confessions, not only because we lack hatred for our sins (aren’t resolved to amend) but also because we lack a fear of sinning against God. Tragic!
“Oh, how many live blind lives [not knowing the faith or themselves]… from day to day, from year to year, until we approach death, when we expect to find that we have done something to our credit, only to discover nothing but sacrileges [was truly done], which we have committed by our confessions and communions.”
–St. John Vianney, (Sermons of the Cure d’ Ars, Passion Sunday-“Repentance”)
I know this can be shocking especially if we have been religiously attending confession. But it is true. This is because for a confession to be considered valid, we must confess with some amount of fear of sinning against God (moved by faith) known as “godly grief”.
“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation [causes us to leave the sins we love and embrace Mercy] and brings no regret, but worldly grief [sorrow derived from self-love or self-pity/pride] produces death.
For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves [to stop the sins–truly repent]” (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).
When we approach God in confession looking for forgiveness without some amount of fear, our confession received no helping or forgiving grace through participating in the sacrament. Even if we think we felt God’s forgiveness and were greatly relieved after confession, no forgiveness was received… God’s helping and/or forgiving grace just fell to the ground. This it true. Please don’t be deceived.
“Repentance (also called contrition) must be inspired by motives that arise from faith [fear of the Lord].” CCC#1492
Fear that accepts mercy (help or forgiveness) through confession:
- Fear of suffering (servile fear/imperfect contrition),
- Fear of not loving God (filial fear/perfect contrition).
Sadly, as was said, most have never had those fears, since we live in a world that tries so hard to strip us of all fear. Then we approach God, with out even caring that we have offended Him. We think if we just confess with our mouth, we are forgiven, but that is a lie.
Yet, we should know, to accept actual (helping) grace from God through confession, to move us towards true contrition, all we need some amount of either of these fears, which hopefully we have now. But to accept forgiveness of a single sin, we must hate that sin enough to be willing to die rather than commit the sin again because of fear of the Lord (more discussed later).
However, reality is, most of us attend confession seeking forgiveness without even considering that our sins are horribly offending God. We have NO FEAR OF SINNING. Most are wanting to be forgiven just to remove our feeling of guilt or for various other reasons: “worldly grief”. We are concerned about ourselves, not with wanting to apologize to God since we are so sorry, seeking His help (grace) so we can STOP OFFENDING HIM.
From living so deceived, we simply aren’t horrified and grief stricken that we have offend Our Most Beloved Lord from fear of Hell or having a lack of love towards Him. We don’t grieve over our sins. Sure, we might cry over our sins, but it is driven from self-pity, perhaps because we messed up so badly and feel so guilty, not because we are grief-stricken from offending Our Lord, whom we want to love perfectly (filial fear).
“They grieve over everything but [offending/losing] me. They grieve for their own and their friends’ losses…They grieve over offending or hurting people more… but they do not grieve about offending or hurting me, who am the Creator of all things… I am utterly vile and despicable in their eyes [but they think they love me,]… [yet] they do not consider me worthy of any good [to stop offending Me… to humble themselves], even though I have given them all good things.”
–Jesus to St. Bridget of Sweden, (Revelations, Ch. 46)
Yes, we are so far from loving God. Do we hear the cry of Our Lord? We must change! Our selfishness must end. We must come to hate our sins and grieve over offending GOD, whom we should be perfectly loving. We must lean how to fear sin.
Sadly, we attend confession for reasons like wanting self-improvement, duty–thinking going to confession is what good Catholics do or even because we want to be saved, since we believe if we “confess” our mortal sins we are saved, but we do it without a heart that hates our sins. We have been blinded to the fact that our sins offend/wound God, whom we should be loving, there fore, we lack contrition.
For example: Let’s say, we committed an abortion and then feel really badly for taking the life of our child, and we want to be forgiven of our sin to find peace within ourselves. Then we go to confession seeking God’s forgiveness… but if we don’t realize that not only did we end the life of our child, which is of course very wrong, but even more important than that, we greatly OFFENDED GOD, we will reject God’s forgiveness. This is true.
We can be sorry and should be sorry for any wrong we do, but even athiets are sorry for their wrongs. Our intentions for our sorrow must be greater than that of an athiest. And sure the act of confessing our sins by nature does help us find peace, even if we haven’t been forgiven by God… and especially if we can forgive ourselves for our sins. But even athiest can find this release of anexity from confessing his sins… that isn’t proof of God’s forgiveness.
Yes sadly, even though God’s unfathomable mercy wants to forgive us of any and all of our sins, since He loves us regardless of our injuries to Him, if we aren’t at least mostly sorry for offending Him (above being sorry for offending others), either because we fear His just punishments (servile fear/imperfect contrition) or because we can’t bear to offend Our God, who is all good and deserving of all of our love (finial fear/perfect/true contrition), of course being resolved to never commit that sin again, WE REJECT HIS FORGIVENESS in the sacrament of reconciliation.
This is why the saints are trying to warn us that so few are being saved. We are not sorry for offending God. Few have grown from having just some sorrow “worldly grief”: sorry for offending others, sorry for being less than who what we want to be, sorry for getting caught, sorry for feeling guilty, etc.), into “godly grief”: sorry for offending God based on fear that leads to change, so we can grow into having true sorrow (sorry to the point of wanting to suffer so to not offend God, whom we seek to perfectly love) for all of our sins.
When we have real “godly grief” that leads us to change (to stopping our sins) and then we can grow into continuous true sorrow for all of our sins, which is what we need have to be living united with God, with a saving faith, in the state of grace.
After we confess our sins, if we don’t change (move completely or little by little away from the sin)… we are still too weak in faith and our declaration of sorrow (godly grief) is still a lie. It isn’t true or even real contrition (a contrition that can lead to true sorrow). To learn more please read, “What is True Sorrow?”
Please know, all sins which we have true imperfect contrition can be forgiven during confession to a catholic priest, which will give us much grace to help move towards true contrition for all of our sins… but we will be forgiven only for the sins in which such a great contrition exists in our hearts. To learn more please read, “Can I be Forgiven of Some Sins but Not All Sins?”
But remember TRUE Contrition is the contrition we need for every sin to be saved at our death. Plus, imperfect contrition (fear of punishment for our sins) can only obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation, not at the moment of our deaths… the moment that determines our eternity. Only True contrition can do that. But there are some very rare cases with sacrament of anointing of the sick that forgiveness can be received while still being with imperfect contrition outside of confession. To learn more please read, “Does Anointing of the Sick Forgive Mortal Sin?”
To accept grace (not forgiveness but transforming grace) during confession, to help move us toward true contrition for every sin, we need some amount of servile fear/imperfect contrition (some fear of offending God because of His just punishments) and/or finial fear/perfect (true) contrition (some fear of offending God whom we desire to perfectly love)… which I define as “real” contrition.
Yes, some amount of “fear of the Lord” must be present, or we should NOT attend confession… since our confessions are nothing but sacrilegious (having no real amount of hatred for sin). To learn more please read, “How to Make a Good Confession.”
Please know, we might have felt God’s grace in the sacrament of confession, but without at least having some amount of “fear of the Lord”, we couldn’t embrace the grace. Tragically, Our Lord’s transforming and/or forgiving grace hit the surface of our souls and then fell to the floor. To learn more please read, “How Bad Confession Damn Us?”
Please know, from God’s unfathomable mercy, there are many ways God has provided to help us grow into a truly contrite heart (as listed further in this article).
Some saint make a general confession of their life time of sins (the major ones) once a year, not because they doubt in God’s mercy, but because they aren’t sure if they have arisen to true contrition for all of their sins and can accept His mercy.
Therefore, if we are now just obtaining a true fear of sinning, it is prudent to re-confess any of our past mortal sins or any sins we haven’t had a true resolve to amend (to the best of our ability). Trusting that God will help us grow into true contrition for all of our sins, if we continue to seek Him.
Now is the time to begin to seek Christ to give us such a love for Him, that we would rather be tortured than to offend Him. WE must never stop seeking Him to give us this kind of heart… it is this kind of heart of love that embraces His saving forgiving mercy so we can Live.
To obtain this contrition that saves, there are specific steps one goes. Without having a fear of Hell where “their worm [of their conscience] does not die, and the fire [of suffering] is not quenched” (Mark 9:48)… like was said, one can’t move (unless a special grace is given).
Yes, without knowing our unrepentant sins choose eternal torment, there is no way we can obtain Life. This is a MUST know. This is because, we will arise from our sleep and want to amend our sins first being mostly motivated to amend from fear of suffering for eternity in Hell, since we are lacking much grace and still driven by much self-love.
Sure, we can have both a fear of Hell and a fear of not loving God move us, but in the beginning of our transformation, we will most be moved by fear of our damnation rather than love of God.
“They have arisen with servile fear [fear of suffering]… the soul, having seen the punishment which follows her sin, climbs; and gathers together her memory to recollect her vice [learn her sins], her intellect to see the punishment which she expects to receive for her fault, and her will to move her to hate that fault. And let us consider this to be the FIRST STEP [towards a saving faith].”
–God the Father to St. Catherine of Sienna (A Treatise of Discretion)
Yet, from this first step, after we receive much of God’s grace, we should arise from mostly seeking to amend from fear of suffering (servile fear), to mostly wanting to fly from sin because we can’t bear to offend God, whom we seek to perfectly love (finial fear), which is the contrition we need to obtain True/Perfect contrition for the salvation of our souls. Yet, this isn’t all. A heart of true contrition is also compelled to live a life of wonderful penance too, which is described later.
We Are Saved by Faith–Obedience–Trust in Christ (The Word)
Yes, we are saved by obedience to Jesus. Please know, we are not supposed to obey the “law” thinking we are saved by obedience to a law. No. “A man is not justified by observance of the law” (Galatians 2:16). We aren’t obeying just a “law”, from the fear of our “Disciplinarian” (Galatians 3:24-25) punishing us… well, in the beginning of our conversion towards Life… yes, we will obey out of fear of punishment (servile fear), because we lack the grace to do any better.
It takes much grace to think selflessly and be willing to do what it takes to leave our sins (to come to truly hate our sins we have been spending our life time loving) from only being concerned with the fact that our sins offend God (by having faith/desire to love God). Having the fear Our Lord will say to us, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire” (Matthew 51:41), since we never obtained true contrition for our sin, is our initial motivation.
But to be saved, we must GROW IN FAITH to obey the “law” because we desire to perfectly love God… to not offend Him again (finial fear)… our self-concern over God must leave. It will take time to come to truly hate what we have been spending our life time loving (sin).
“For those who desire Eternal Life, a pure love… is necessary, for it is not enough for eternal life to fly sin [leave sin] from fear of punishment [servile fear/attrition], or to embrace virtue from the motive of one’s own advantage [to experience God’s love/to feel like we are good people (build up our pride)/mercenary love].
Sin should be abandoned because it is displeasing to Me, and virtue should be loved for My sake [to LOVE GOD/filial fear/true contrition].”
–God the Father to St. Catherine of Sienna, (A Treatise of Discretion)
Again, we aren’t obeying just a “law”, we are obeying Christ, who is The Law, Our Savior–“The Word [who] became flesh” (John 1:14)… not just some “rules” from fear if we don’t obey we will perish. No, we are obeying Christ since, The Law is Christ.
Therefore, we live the Law of love, from having FAITH in God’s Word (Jesus), knowing that by persevering in striving for perfect obedience to God–following His Word (our directions to Life)– that He can save us. We trust that Jesus can change our hearts, which have spent our lives:
- Loving ourselves over Him (doing what we want and not what God wants),
- Loving our sins instead of loving Him (habitually committing sin without seeking Mercy for strength nor working to change), and
- Loving/desiring the world’s pleasures for happiness (our idols) instead of finding our happiness in loving God…
…all of which have been rejecting Him–into hearts of true hatred for sin, which desire Him alone. We know when we allow Jesus to do this for us, we will have true love for God – a saving faith- which can embrace His saving forgiving mercy He died to give us.
Yes, this is true faith in Jesus… not all of the other lies that are preached… and certainly not believing Christ can save/forgive us if we just “say” we are sorry for our sins when we still lack true sorrow. That is a lie that is damning us. But rather true faith is believing that Christ can, at least at the hour of our death, give us a saving faith/true sorrow IF we sincerely work hard to amend our lives and follow Him (live His Word). This is what we hope for and what is explained in this article.
Yes, those who are saved have “purified your souls by your obedience to the truth [Christ/The Word]” (1 Peter 1:22).
It is our faith in Christ, not only believing that He is Lord, but believing that–living His Word–saves: changes our hearts into hearts of TRUE contrition. By striving to live The Word (obey Christ), as we seek God for mercy (strength), God can remove our great desire to sin, so we can come to truly hate to offend God–which gives us a heart that can accept His saving mercy so we can Live. Praise God!
“If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments [the entire Word]” (Matthew 19:17).
If we follow another lukewarm doctrine and don’t follow The True Way that the saints traveled to Heaven, we will die. Please don’t be deceived. “There are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ [don’t follow them]” (Galatians 1:7). God wants you in Heaven.
“Ah! A great many persons live constantly in the state of damnation [but don’t even know it]!
–St. Vincent De Paul (Voice of the Saints)
I Don’t Commit Mortal Sin–Surely I’m Saved?
A lot of people won’t believe we are one of the damned, because we think we sincerely hate our venial sins and don’t commit any mortal sins–we think we have a saving faith/true contrition–which is understandable since most have lived our lives being so greatly deceived. Mortal sins are hard to understand. But “the majority of men [whether we see our mortal sins or not] will not [see God]” as St. Justin speaks about in his dialogue with Trypho, (Ch. 4).
Yes, mortal sin–sins that reject Heaven for Hell–are in the “majority of men” but most can’t see them. This is mostly because of our pride. We don’t really want to see; we don’t want to know we error… well, at least not that greatly, since we pride ourselves as being good.
Therefore, to not be deceived, so we may correctly/humbly seek Mercy to enlighten us, let’s please look with humility for where we are going wrong–knowing we are sinners, who are far from perfect and can greatly error. Please don’t assume we are without sin… that pride will blind us. “If we say, ‘We are without sin,’ we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
We must know, even if we feel God’s love, even if He has changed our lives, even if He has given us purpose and meaning and now, we believe we live for Him and are hardly sinning, sadly, most still haven’t grown enough in our faith… not into a true SAVING FAITH and our unknown mortal sins are rejecting Him. This is the truth as will be explained. Please don’t be deceived.
Oh, if we only knew how few are the remnant of sheep that are left, who sincerely love God and haven’t fallen into idols, we would “faint away from grief.”
Truly, the saints aren’t lying. But I know this can be hard to believe, yet not only are those, who don’t even try to live the faith–who are committing what we see as grave sins–walking blindly to their doom, but horribly so many of us–who consider ourselves greatly faithful, who pray bounds of prayers and have great knowledge and gifts from God, who have even given their lives in a most beautiful way to serving Our Lord and others–have been greatly deceived into thinking we have a saving faith–TRUE belief in Christ/true contrition for our sin–when we still don’t.
The horrible reality is, even though we think we have fantastic faith and knowledge and are living for God’s will, we have been so terribly deceived into putting our hearts and eyes on ourselves, on sin and on the world… and not on God and His will, but we just can’t see it. Yet, as a result….
we think we truly love God, but we are blind.
“That person is blind [doesn’t know his sins or how to obtain Heaven] who has knowledge… He seems to have his eyes on God but he does not, [he has been deceived] for his eyes are on the world and he has turned his back to God.”
–Jesus to St. Bridget of Sweden, (Revelations, Ch. 14)
Yes, our knowledge and faith might seem great, but it just isn’t true (much deception lives in us)… as is explained in this article and web-site. So, please be open to what the saints teach our reality is or we will never see and die. Truly, we must become honest with ourselves or we will blindly/proudly reject God for sin like so many have suffered before us.
Sure, we want be good people and do the right thing. We “believe” in Jesus and think we are saved. But the saints are telling us that we have been greatly deceived, and the faith we think we have simply isn’t enough to be true. It won’t save us.
“The pride of your heart has deceived you.” –St. Ambrose, (Obadiah 1)
The Humble Know They Need to Be Saved
Once we presume we are saved–presume we are in a state of grace–we know the devil has us, and we are drowning in pride. Tragically, Christians are suffering fantastically from presumption of salvation… I’m not talking about assuming we are saved by our own power. Well, I mean… yes, I do mean that, but to really understand what that means, what I’m really taking about is “presuming we are saved”– declaring that we can read the contrition of our own souls–that we know if our sorrow for our sins is true or not.
How could we ever know that? We can’t read our souls! Once we obtain the age of reason (which isn’t an actual “age” but a state of awareness, which varies from person to person) and begin sinning, we can never presume we are in a state of grace (saved). There can always be a moment when we don’t sincerely hate our sins and aren’t truly resolved/working hard to amend them (lack true contrition), since our sinful flesh (human nature) is inclined to sin–and desires sin greatly, which makes us in great need for Our Savior.
Until we realize we need Our Savior–to help us die to sin–to remove our great desire for sin and replace it with a great desire to love Him, we will remain in mortal sin.
Please know, even the true saints didn’t presume they had such a great faith—that they were saved–despite any relationship they had with God or works they were doing. They were humble.
“O God! my soul was in the state of grace [at my Baptism], it was Thy friend; but by sin it became that slave of the devil, and Thine enemy….O my God! am I in Thy grace or not?
I certainly know that at one time I had lost it [when I desired my first sin and didn’t desire to amend–when I lacked true sorrow for my first crime], and who knows whether I have regained it [if I have gained true sorrow for ALL of my sins so to be in the state of grace again]?
O Lord! I love Thee, and am sorry for having offended Thee; make haste to pardon me…I hope I have arisen from my unhappy condition, but if I have not, hasten, O Jesus! to rescue me from it [give me truly contrite heart so to be in Thy state of grace and united with Thee again].”
–St. Alphonosus, Doctor of the Church, (The Way of Salvation and Perfection, Med. 96)
The saints knew they couldn’t read their souls. That judgement belongs to God alone. “I do not even judge myself [St. Paul said]. I am not aware of anything against myself [any mortal sin still left in me], but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Corinthians 4:4).
Instead of presuming they were saved, the saints HOPED for it, IF they continued to live The Word.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [trusting God can save us if we give ourselves to Him/living His Word], so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
So, believing in this hope for Eternal Life (for themselves and their neighbor), the saints toiled and toiled daily to more perfectly live for God’s will–to come to understand more and more about their sinfulness… to leave more and more sins and attachments (idols)…. to suffer and sacrifice more and more, as they strove to become perfect saints… knowing it is by living the faith, striving to do it perfectly so to Love God, that God can remove their great inclination/desire for sin and give them true contrition/hatred for their life time of offences against Him.
If we refuse to obey God then “why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? (Luke 6:46). Is Our Lord really our God… the One who can save us? Or is it really ourselves, as we do what we want–our will–idolizing ourselves? Who knows the way to a saving faith? Us or God? What kind of faith do we really have? Now is the time to change! We must live the faith–do God’s will–to be saved by the faith.
Yes, the saints focused on what they could do to love God and save souls, as they begged God over and over again for a greater hatred for sin… a greater desire to leave everything that was keeping them from perfectly loving Him, so they would live for His will and never offend Him again. We need to do the same.
Love to be Nothing
Oh, but we hate to see our sins. “Don’t be negative” we say… “focus on the positive.” And sure if are just bashing ourselves looking for self pity, we don’t want to do that; we need to learn how to live for God… But the saints focused on their misery and how much they needed their Savior… not how “great” they are, because they knew they aren’t. They were humble.
One of the reasons we go to church is to feel like we are good people, all to cover our sinfulness, since we thrive off our pride: wanting to be good, not accepting who we are, sinners in need of Christ to save us/change us. We want to have a false smile on our faces thinking nothing of our sins.
Yet, “I [Jesus] have come to call… sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32), not into making Christians cover their sinfulness with their pride.
“In his pride the wicked says: “He [God] will not punish”… His path is ever untroubled [he thinks nothing of his sins]; your judgement is far from his mind [he thinks he is saved]” (Psalm 10: ).
Tragically, we are quick to point out those we see (or think we see) with greater faults than ourselves and sure some have great faults and maybe even bigger than ours, but this–focusing on others sins–is keep us from seeing our own deadly sins.
One of the greatest problems in the Church is that it is full of proud souls, who think we are so much better than another because we have left some of our sins and now attend Church. We say, “Oh, look at my relative, or my neighbor, or my colleague, or that politician, or that guy over there, etc… they are living in sin, aborting their children, hating others, on drugs, not going to Church, rejecting God’s Word, doing wrong, believing some false religion,” and bounds of other things we declare, thinking we are so much better.
“What is more unjust than to justify yourself in that wherein you condemn another, whilst you yourself are committing worse offences?”
–St. Ambrose (On the Mysteries and On Repentance, Ch. 8)
Well, we aren’t “better.” We are a miserable sinner, lacking grace, just as much in need of a Savior as anyone else. If anything, from all of the grace we have received and have rejected or used poorly, we are worse. The devil has just blinded us through our pride.
“Do nothing from… conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3).
Now, from our pride, instead of having pity/mercy on those we see with sin or who offend us, praying greatly for them, knowing we are the same, we don’t forgive them (not truly). We bash them, chastise them and want to prove we are right; we might even try to gang up others to condemn and hate those we see in error. We love slandering others.
We aren’t really seeking to help them, even though we might “think” we are. We just can’t see the ulterior motives of our hearts, since our pride has blinded us to why we really do what we do.
Sadly, we lack tolerance, understanding and love for the sinner or even someone who makes a mistake, since we don’t really see ourselves as the same (just with different mistakes, sins or even the same). We aren’t focused on loving others, trying to save them, like we ourselves desire and need to be saved. Our hearts don’t love like that.
No, from our pride, we think, because we didn’t do what they have done or since we have a calm demeanor and/or good works, we are the sheep on God’s right. When, from not knowing who we are (being blind), we are actually the goats on His left. “He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left… And these [on the left] will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:32-33; 46). To learn more please read, “What Makes Someone a Saint.”
Oh, our pride has us boasting how much greater we are… thinking low of others, when we should be focusing on ourselves–thinking low of ourselves–a miserable sinner in need of Mercy to save us, so we can constantly turn our hearts towards God to give us the grace we need to do everything, so our lives won’t be shrouded with sin.
“For who sees anything different in you [aren’t you like everyone else… a sinner]? What have you [that is good] that you did not receive [from God]? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
Truly, if there is anything good in us, it surely isn’t of our own… but yet, we give credit to ourselves, look for complements and attention to boost our pride as we really put down others. “Oh, don’t I look great… sing great… speak great?” “Do you see how smart and successful I am?” “Look at the talents I have.” “I am just so nice.”
Why are we boasting to ourselves or to others? Please ask ourselves, who do we think gave us our looks and talents? Yes, perhaps we worked hard to acquire a skill, but who gave us the ability to learn it… who gave us our life to even be able to do anything at all? God. They are His. We are His.
“God has created you and is your owner, and of all there is in you, so that every affection which is not direct to Him, every word that is not to His praise, every deed that is not done for love of Him, is a theft and an injustice [against God].”
–St. Anthony Mary Claret (The Golden Key to Heaven, Med. 2)
We should never be using His gifts to sin against Him, but using them for His honor and glory… doing His will, not building up our pride. Yet, despite what gifts we have, we are all sinners, just in different ways… all in need of a Savior.
But sadly, many of us still mock and ridicule others, who don’t agree with us, who appear less than us, who we see as a greater sinner than us. Honestly, who do we put down and think poorly of… who do we lack pity for? Truly, we are no better than them.
I know it is hard to see what we do, when we have spent our entire lives not looking. But please, if we want to see, we must look. If we still just don’t see it, then perhaps look at how we respond to politics… don’t we lack mercy, understanding and love for our opponent–neglecting to see that our opponent’s sin (if we can even judge correctly–know right from wrong) is from a great lack of grace and see their need for our help (prayers and sacrifices) so they can change… just like we lack grace, which has caused our sins and need for help. Yet, we pray a billion prayers for the politician we like and none for the one we don’t. What are we doing? We aren’t loving like Christ. To learn more please read, “Right from Wrong– I Don’t Know Any More.”
Tragically, we pride ourselves as being better, but in God’s eyes we proud “faithful” are far worse. It is time to humble ourselves. To learn more please read, “Who Suffers The Most In Hell.”
“He [Christ] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous [thought they could read their own souls and were righteous] and regarded others with contempt [whom seemed more sinful than them].”
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself [not looking for his sinfulness], was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income. [obviously I’m saved/righteous]’
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner! [God, help save my soul… strengthen me to leave my sins… I’m a sinner]’. I tell you, this man went down to his home justified [forgiven of his sins, since he had true sorrow for them and knew He needed His Savior’s mercy (help/forgiveness)] rather than the other [who presumed he was saved/righteous… left with nothing/no grace]; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).
Truly, we can be considered the most faithful in our Church, who is so nice and generous, with bounds of accomplishments, knowledge, talents, and blessings, which others praise us as “holy” because of them, but they won’t merit us a thing, if our hearts aren’t humble: knowing we are great sinners in need of Our Savior to change us from following our own will (desiring sin), into desiring God to do everything through us… to give us a saving faith and then to move us towards perfection (to perfectly love God). Yes, all of our great works will be in vain if we don’t gain humility.
Sadly, “you justify yourselves in the sight of others [since you view pride as holy], but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem [since we are nothing] is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). Yes, we do so much “good” but tragically, from our horrid pride, it is an abomination in the sight of God.
If we do happen to see a failure, instead of allowing it to humble us—to accept our sinfulness/gain self-knowledge, so we can turn to Our Savior to change us with true humility, we live in denial, become angry, wallow in self-pity and/or depression, since we find happiness through our pride (needing to be successful/without fault). To learn more please read, “How to Find True Happiness.”
Then we live unhappy lives looking for someone or something to boost our pride/happiness with a lie… we seek out someone to tell us our sins aren’t so bad… that is just part of life… be kind to yourself… that we aren’t great sinners and are really wonderful people, which is killing us. This is destroying our ability to obtain true humility and blinding us to our doom.
I tell you, we are not wonderful people. Our entire beings–our flesh–is that of desiring sin… remember, “the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit” (Galatians 5:17). But we simply don’t understand. But please know, unless we allow God to move us–our thoughts, words, and actions–all we do is full of sin, even if what we do appears “good”; it isn’t.
“For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness [desiring sin/self-love], resulting in further lawlessness, so now [that you know how to seek God for grace] present your body’s parts as slaves to righteousness [desiring to love God], resulting in sanctification.” (Romans 6:9).
Honestly, we are slaves to impurity and sin… a misery of sin, who can’t do anything truly good, without having God moving our everything. It is GOD, who is good… not us. We must humble ourselves, and learn how to really accept His grace so something truly good can be done through us.
“O good Jesus, thank You for the great grace of making known to me what I am of myself: misery and sin, and nothing more. I can do only one thing of myself, and that is to offend You, O my God, because misery can do no more of itself than offend You, O infinite Goodness!”
–St. Faustina, (Diary #363).
St. Faustina isn’t with low self-esteem bashing herself (since she prides herself on being good). No, she is loving who she is NOTHING, which makes GOD everything. She isn’t trying to be who she isn’t filling her pride with lies to find happiness. No. Her happiness is found in God alone… by seeing His great love for her despite her misery and working hard to LOVE HIM (to surrender Her will for His) so He can do all through her.
We MUST come to accept our great sinfulness too… like the saints… not just saying “we are sinners.” Everyone says that, but we must gain an absolute HORROR for our sins… a horror that drives us to want to see our sins and work hard to leave them.
We need to come to love our nothingness… and stop trying to be who we aren’t and accept who we are. Then we can allow God to make us who He wants us to be.
Oh, we need to seek God to make us truly good. Then He will be wonderful through us, giving all credit to Him, knowing and believing we are truly nothing but sin. When we have this humility, we won’t be crushed into despair when we fail or bad happens nor will we be over joyed (prided/loving our will) when we have success or things go well. We will be content with whatever God wills.
Our joy will be found in God and His will–all He allows: our sins and successes, the bad and the good– knowing God intends to use it all to help us to LOVE HIM more perfectly for the salvation of our and other’s souls.
But sadly, the devil convinces many of us, who are miles away from even understanding The Way from suffering with much blindness to The Truth, that we are working towards sanctity, since we have outward signs of being pious (devoutly religious). When the only thing we are truly working towards is growing in greater blinding pride like the Pharisees and Sadducees, who thought they were “holy” too, by the “good” they were doing. When they were nothing but a misery of blinding pride and didn’t want to see nor leave their sins. This is why they died.
Reject Self-Righteous Praise
When we read God’s Word, pray or do any good work, and we do it from a heart that presumes we are saved (thinks we are in a state of grace), our pride is REFUSING HELP from Our Savior (rejecting His transforming grace). We are telling God that we don’t need Him to save us: to send us grace to change our self-loving hearts, so we can amend our ways and gain true contrition for our sins, so we can come to perfectly love Him. We are telling Him we are self-reliant. That we are already saved.
Those prayers are from proud hearts of self-righteousness, which don’t make us “holy” nor please God, nor do they help us obtain Life. Frankly, that praise wounds God’s Heart.
“That praise wounds My Heart because [real] love has been banished.”
–Jesus to St. Faustina (Diary #1702)
Even if we pray asking God to help us in our works and to make us saints, but we presume we are saved, those prayers are still full of pride. Sure, from our prayers, works and efforts, we can still grow in a life of prayer, gain good habits and do many works, but prideful prayers and works–not knowing our sinfulness and need for Mercy–are full of self-love, which are without real love for Our Lord. They will merit us nothing in the end.
However, God will still tolerate them and continue to bless us and try to save us (move us towards true contrition for our sins) with whatever amount of faith we do have (unless our sins turn His face from us). But until we obtain a sincere desire to leave all of our sins–knowing we are great sinners in need of a Savior–they are all done in vain.
Tell me, who in the Church doesn’t think they are already saved or at least saved enough to go to Purgatory? Is there a single soul who isn’t self-righteous (humble), or is everyone deceived, presuming we are saved, thinking we can read our souls and knows the contrition of our hearts?
Is there a single soul who is humble and HOPES for salvation–that “we might become heirs” (Titus 3:7)–by living the faith and doesn’t proudly presume we already have it? Tragic!
“[To be saved] prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves [to stop sinning/live for God’s will]; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you [to help you, when you humbly seek Him and strive to live His Word]” (1 Peter 1:13).
The Dead and Dying Robbed of Grace
The last thing we want to do is refuse the help of God at our deaths. We need Christ to save us. But tragically, we see this dreadful presumption of salvation–that rejects God’s help–when we counsel the dying and at endless funerals.
Oh, what is more important for a soul than to learn how to obtain and be moved into true contrition during the hour of our death? This is the only hour we have left to obtain a saving faith: a faith that sincerely hates all of the sins we have spent our life time loving. Eternity is about to begin. But from being so deceived, we counsel souls with lies, right to their eternal doom.
“But you who are a sinner, while you pretend to be just [saved], are fleeing from the remedy of eternal salvation.”
–St. Bonaventure, (Tree of Life #5)
Tragically, if the dying were blessed to obtain a fear of going to Hell, instead of helping to move them into obtaining true contrition for their sins, the anti-Christ, through our misguided love, quickly robs them of that gift with the presumption of salvation. We tell them to trust in Jesus, even though they are probably riddled with unrepentant sin and rejecting Him. Tragic! To help souls obtain true contrition please read the Lifting Our Values book, “Perfect Contrition.”
For others, who feel they are ready to die, since they presume they are saved–perhaps because they do so many wonderful works, or pray so many prayers, or from their great love of God etc.–we leave them in the dark and don’t teach them humility or how to save their souls–as if their souls are well prepared and full of contrition. Oh, what kind of soul will they “appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10) with, when they have no humility and probably haven’t even sought Him at all to gain true contrition and are far from a saving faith? To learn more please read, “How Can I Save the Souls of Someone Dying”
“For if we believe [with TRUE faith] that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
Pretending the dying are saved and have true faith, when they are most likely lost, isn’t helping to save them, but is killing them. Devastating!
Sure, it is very hard to obtain such a saving faith at the moment of our death after a life time of being lost, but it is possible. Yet, we are never even given the chance–never told the truth so our pride can be crushed–so to seek Mercy to change us and give us a truly humble contrite heart for our life-time of offences against Him (our life-time of not becoming saints). Tragic!
Horribly, we are comforting the dying right to their doom, since we want to avoid conflict (care about ourselves more) and/or only seek their momentary happiness, not their Eternal Life or we don’t even know how to save souls–how to help someone to grow into true contrition at the moment of their death, thinking perhaps the sacrament of the anointing is going to do it all, but please don’t be deceived, it won’t. To learn more please read, “Will Anointing of the Sick Forgive Mortal Sin.”
Oh, we see this same horrific problem is with the Catholic funeral too. What is supposed to help save souls is helping to condemn them instead.
Since God isn’t of time and space–He “inhabits eternity” (Isaiah 57:15)–our prayers prayed for the dead can go back in time to help them at the moment of their death. But instead of the blessed funeral Mass motivating us to bring heart felt humble prayers, crying out to Christ to save the dead–to move them into having at least true faith/true contrition (at the moment of their death)–from our Hope in Him, we are proudly presuming the dead are saved and neglect to help them. Yet, we can’t read their souls.
Sadly, from our lack of humility, we don’t even understand The Word or the prayers of the funeral Mass, and we pray them poorly, if at all, for the dead.
“Those who are led by the Spirit of God [and not by the desires of the flesh] are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery [from God] to fall back into fear [from still desiring sin], but you received a spirit of adoption [since you left your nature of sin, for your true desire–God], through which we cry, Abba, “Father!”
The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit [seeing the truth of our love] that we are children of God [since we have left sin for Christ], and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him [on earth to purify our souls] so that we may [hope to] also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:14-18).
When our loved one dies, we should be inspired to change our lives and live it in atonement for the sins of the dead (our loved ones), so they can be moved into having at least a saving faith at the hour of their death, for the salvation of their soul. But we aren’t being encouraged to live such an act of charity, since we don’t know how to love (not like the saints and Christ loved us). Sadly, from being deceived, we do nothing to help make atonement for the dead that they might be delivered from their sins.
“Noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection… [as] a sin offering… Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Maccabees 12:42-45).
Oh, what are we doing for the dead? Many don’t even understand the prayers of the Mass are to help move the dead into Heaven, if they are one of the very few who, at the moment of their death, had enough grace to enter into Purgatory, and we certainly don’t understand the dead probably greatly need Christ’s Mercy at their moment of death to help save them, so they can at least go to Purgatory, from our heartfelt prayers at the funeral Mass, so to move them towards a saving faith of true contrition.
As a result, from our lack of comprehension of The Way, we pray prayers–if we are even doing that–from proud/blind hearts presuming the dead are saved, obtaining for them little, if any grace at all.
Yes, we–from our great sinfulness–have neglected to care for the dead and have made the funeral all about trying to make ourselves, the grieving, feel better with a lie… allowing our loved ones to die. Absolutely tragic! To learn more please read, “How Can I Console Someone Grieving.”
Oh, the Church is drowning in pride, which has greatly blinded us to our love of sin and stripped us of correct knowledge of The Way to Heaven and how to love others. No wonder we are in the time of great darkness (as explained later), everyone presumes we are saved. We have no humility!
“Then he [Jesus] began to reproach [correct] the cities [Churches] in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you… For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in [the world]… they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes [with penance]. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for… [the world] than for you [in the Church]… Will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades'”(Matthew 11:20-24).
Yes, Hades… and a horrible place there awaits us, if we don’t change into a saving faith of true contrition for every sin. Sure some of us have changed perhaps once when we first found Christ but now we have gone lukewarm (we are not growing) and lack contrition for many sins, or perhaps we are growing (losing some of the sins we love) but it is so slow, we will never obtain the goal (a saving faith), since we don’t even know we should have such a goal (we have no motivation). We don’t know we are dying and need Our Savior. We have no sincere plea for help.
Yet, it is by humbly persevering in seeking Our Savior for grace, which transforms (removes our great desire for sin) and saves, that we can have any real hope for salvation. Yes, “by your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Luke 21:19)… like the saints have done… NOT by proudly declaring we are saved, but by constantly seeking Christ to save us… to make us perfect saints.
“He guides the humble in righteousness [a saving faith], and teaches the humble his way” (Psalm 25:9).
Our Kindness is Killing Others
We might not think saying the truth is “kind” but it is the truth, which saves. “The truthful witness saves lives, but whoever utters lies is a betrayer” (Proverbs 14:25).
Yes, this truth, if we speak, it can be a cause for concern… actually, it should cause us fear. If it doesn’t then we are not speaking clearly enough or the ones we are speaking to are dreadfully blind. The Truth, which we must preach, is intended to motivate us to change. If it doesn’t something is wrong.
Today, like was mentioned, God is giving us a very clear truth we can preach, since we are so greatly blind and need such clarity. Unlike the times of old, when a veiled Word was preached, so only the humble can see “even though our gospel is veiled, it is veiled for those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 4:3)–now from God’s mercy–He is extending comprehension of His Truth to even be understood by the greatly blind (the proud), or really what I should say is that God is using His Word, to humble the proud, so they can have hope to learn The Way. Praise God! But we must preach it and share this book.
Please tell me, is keeping souls blind, complementing them to build up their pride, saying what they want to hear, as we watch them stay in their unrepentant unchanged sins, doing nothing to help move them towards Life, as they walk blindly into an eternity of torment, “kind”? Of course not. What is worse than that?
It is a crime against humanity to not tell God’s children we are dying… to give us no knowledge that we need to seek Our Savior–the Physician–to heal us (to change us–to give us a saving faith) so we don’t perish forever. How can we do that?
“[If] every violation and act of disobedience received a just punishment, how will we escape [Hell] if we neglect [[to seek Mercy for help to obtain] so great a salvation.” (Hebrews 2:2-3)
But this is what has happened. We have lost what is most important–seeking salvation–since our pride has deceived us so greatly.
We want friends and success. We want to be the kind, smart or cleaver Christian (preacher, servant)… trying to impress someone… not a Christian concerned with the salvation of souls. Really, “for am I now seeking the favor of people, or of God?” (Galatians 1:10). Honestly, what are we really doing?
Frankly, we have been so vastly deceived as to what is really “kind”, we are unable or afraid to preach the truth that saves… if we even choose to recognize it. We either don’t want others upset with us or we don’t want to see people with guilt, for that makes us feel bad. Then we do and say nothing or we “help” with a lie.
If we see someone feeling badly, from our nature, we want to make them feel better, since that makes us feel good. But again, since we lack so much grace, we seek to make others happy with lies, telling them how great they are… leading them way from understanding that it is their sins which is causing so much pain, instead of leading them to confession and change… to Christ whom can make them really great, which their sins have pushed away.
Of course, I’m not saying we need to go around spending our time criticizing others, even though sometimes God wills that but other times He doesn’t. And of course, I’m not suggesting we complain from any jealousies or weaknesses we might have. That isn’t love. Nor should we speak the truth without gentleness, especially if we are speaking directly with another, unless it proves ineffectual. If that is the case, then we must use stronger words, if it is God’s will, always following the example of Our Lord in The Word, since sometimes, Christ and the apostles knew they needed to “use stronger remedies to effect their cure” as Jesus teaches St. Gertrude the Great (Life and Revelations, Ch. 63).
But, regardless of how we speak, if we do correct someone, it needs to be done from a heart that greatly seeks the salvation of another, not from a proud heart of conceit. But from a heart of true love. Yet, sadly, we aren’t doing this, since our intention are all wrong, and we are really helping to kill souls not to save them.
“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first [live pure and truly faithful lives]. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand [the light of truth] from its place [in the Church]” (Revelations 2:5).
Sadly our light has been so removed–all seven lampstands (knowledge of The Way) are now gone–and we don’t understand how to obtain Eternal Life anymore. We don’t even want people to think we are great sinners, especially not those in the Church, nor do we want others to be in distress/concerned that their unrepentant/unchanged sins will damn them, especially if we frequent the Mass. We want them to think their prayers and works will save them. The devil wants us blind and happy.
Now, to do that, we have recreated another politically correct version of The Truth, which is a LIE. “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate [false] teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
All of which is causing God’s children to live lost and indifferent to those who are perishing. But most are so deceived, we don’t even know we are doing this. Unless you do something about it and preach the truth.
Yes, if you can hear, now is the time to change and follow Christ, not the deceived world which wants to strip us of all concern for our salvation to make us feel “good.” Therefore, let’s preach the truth which SAVES… not with cold hearts, condemning others, but with hearts of true love, which has great concern for the salvation of our neighbors. Eternity is everything! Let’s tell the sheep, “We must seek Christ to change us; we are dying! We need Our Savior to remove our great desire for sin… to save us. We are rejecting Him from our great complacency with offending Him!”
Now, I’m not necessarily suggesting everyone should go out on the street corners telling everyone we are damning ourselves, even though that might be God’s will for some. But, God has a correct way, a unique way for each person and situation in which He wants to use us to help save souls.
To do God’s will, we must seek Mercy for grace to come to know what that is and keep our hearts and minds focused on loving GOD and SAVING SOULS, or we will do things while being self-serving. To learn more please read, “How to Preach the Truth and Save Souls”
“If then my people… humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Even the Mother of God–Our Lady of Fatima–has begged us to change. “I am the Lady of the Rosary, [the Mother of God exclaims] I have come to WARN THE FAITHFUL to amend their lives and ask for pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it every day [with humble hearts for my help].”
Yes, the mother of God tells us why she has come–“I have come to warn the faithful“–but we, faithful, are just too proud. We think she is speaking about someone else. Yet, she has specifically told us she has come for “the faithful.” She is trying to give us Fear of the Lord (fear of sinning), but our pride won’t allow us to hear.
The evil one has even deceived many of us into believing if we have a fear going to Hell, we lack faith in Jesus, since The Word says, “perfect love casts out all fear [of Hell]” (1 John 4:18).
Of course, perfect love casts out all fear of going to Hell, but do we have perfect love of God? Do we no longer sin? Have we received so much of Jesus’ transforming grace that God’s love has removed our ability to offend Him? No. We still sin. Therefore, we don’t perfectly love God, and we very much have something to fear.
The fear of sin and its consequences–fear of the Lord–must live in us. We can damn ourselves from a single unrepentant trespass. Yes, we should fear damnation and take caution to avoid sin and repent of them all. His mercy can’t save us if WE REJECT HIM for sin.
Having a fear of going to Hell isn’t having a lack of faith, it is having WISDOM… what the devil doesn’t want us to have and has stolen from our lives. Oh, how many of the “faithful” have no fear of going to Hell? When “we lose the faith… we do not fear Hell” (St. John Vianey, The Little Catechism, On Lust, Chpt. 8). Just horrible!
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge [of how to obtain salvation]; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 9:10; 1:7).
Oh, we are fools. No wonder hardly anyone goes to church. We don’t think it is necessary.
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)… oh, we don’t really understand what that means. We have no wisdom.
If we do go to church… that is good, but tragically, we still go and seek Mercy for the wrong reasons. Sadly, we go to get God’s help for us in this life, or out of obligation, or to become holy (for self-benefit, to feel God’s love/mercenary love… not to truly love God/to stop offending Him/to really save souls). Or, perhaps we go to have friends or to do “good” because we like being “good”, making a difference or feeling like we are doing God’s will. I mean none of those reasons are “bad” but if we don’t change, those reasons won’t bring us to Eternal Life.
“Tell me, for what kind of mercy do you pray for…” He answered: “I pray for the mercy of her soul and body, so that she may amend for all her sins in this world and so that none of her sins may come before your judgment.”’
–An angel’s response to Jesus in the Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden (Ch. 36)
And if we already consider our lives as good enough (don’t see our need for God), why would we even bother spending our time going to church… If we don’t realize we need God to SAVE US… to change our hearts and give us a true hatred for sin/a saving faith or we will choose to be cast into the “place of torment” (Luke 16:28) for eternity, why would we make such an effort to change.
Truly, if we want people to go to church (for the right reason–to love God) and do what is necessary to amend our lives so to obtain a saving faith, we need to PREACH THE TRUTH. We need to know we need to be saved. We need to know we need God to remove our great liking for sin or we will be damned forever.
Oh, what has the devil done? He has stolen our faith, removed our hatred of sin, killed our love of God, destroyed our comprehension of sin and our sinfulness, blinded us to The Way, and tainted our understanding of our need for mercy (help and forgiveness). He has greatly confused us.
If the whole world knew how guilty we are of sin and how much we need Jesus to save us--to remove our desire for sin... so we can desire God alone and be saved--we wouldn't be living the lives we live. Praise God for any guilt and fear of sin we have. It is a good thing. We have offended God, and we need His mercy (help to change). And if we run to Him, no matter how sinful we are, He will save us, if we allow Him.
But tragically, as St. Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, in his Summa Theologica I (q.23, art.7), teaches us “those who are saved are in the minority… very many in accordance with the common course [of life] and tendency of nature [follow our desire for sin and] fall short [of salvation]”…even though God sends us so much mercy to help us and wants us all in Heaven.
We simply refuse His help, mostly from not understanding our sinfulness, the seriousness of sin and from our lack of fear of God; we just don’t seek Him correctly (humbly). We don’t know of our NEED to be saved. We pridefully assume we are. Then we choose our sins instead of Him and die.
“They will not amend their ways. They have no fear of God [fear of sinning against Him]” (Psalm 55:20).
Please don’t ignore God’s servants. As Pope St. John Paul II taught us, “become a saint and do so quickly [you don’t know when your hour will come].” We must teach people fear of the Lord and our need for Mercy–our need to be saved–or we will all be lost forever!
“They [the lost] dishonor Him [Jesus] when He warns them through His servants, [by] ignoring the warnings and doing what they want.
–The Queen of Heaven to St. Bridget of Sweden, (Revelations, Ch. 37)
Please don’t be deceived. The Mother of God is speaking to YOU. You must repent and change. Yes, even if you are one of God’s beloved most blessed shepherds, with fantastic talents, blessings and power. You too have fallen for the devil’s traps and must amend your life. Yes, this is true!
Please listen to Our Lady of La Salette, “[Now,] there are no more generous souls, there is no one [priest] left worthy of offering a spotless sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world….[This is true,] Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from hell [which has occurred]; they will put an end to [the true] faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God [won’t know The Way]. They will blind them…” Wow! Yes, this has really happened. Everyone is proud and blind. This is why we don’t know The Way to Heaven.
Tragically, now, from having a lack of true shepherds to guide us, we ALL live in the time of great darkness.
“After this first shepherd, that is, after these friends of mine, who used to be in my Church in days of old, other unrighteous shepherds came [the one’s who fell into the trap of the evil one]”… my Spirit is absent from them, since they do not care about the perdition of the sheep…[But you, who have ears that can hear] run with me to the sheep that still have a breath of life and let us lift them up and refresh them! [Teach them The True Way].
Have compassion on me, for I bought them at a very high price!… O my friends [who can hear], I love these sheep so dearly [I can’t bear for them to die]… That is why I cry out to my friends with all my heart… do not spare yourself in working for me since I endured such things out of love for you. Work manfully and bring help to all my sheep in distress [and bring them to Life].”
–Jesus to St. Bridget of Sweden, (Revelations Ch. 59)
Oh, God wants us saved, but we need more warnings. We aren’t hearing. We are all dying.
Our Lord is in a perpetual sadness over the loss of His beloved children, crying out to us, who can hear to help save them. Who could laugh and be happy, when your very children, that you died for, that you love so tenderly are rejecting you and rushing to their eternal doom?
If you want to bring some joy to God’s crushed heart, then see what you have done wrong and repent… decide you never want to offend Him again and do all you can to truly change. Yes, there is a long road ahead of you, since there is just so much you have been darkened to but can’t see. It will take a while to uncover all of the lies and learn the truth, so we can see the sins we love and come to true repentance.
But after you learn The Way correctly and are living it–have removed many of your planks from your eyes and are becoming a saint… have proof you understand it, so to not lead another astray–work hard to teach others how to save their and others souls. God wants us all in Heaven.
“For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments [the entire Word]. And his commandments are not burdensome [if we hate sin and love God]” (1 John 5:3).
Nothing is More Tragic
Tell me, what is more tragic than a person, who thought they gave their life to God, who thought they had a great relationship with Our Lord, who believed they were ready to die and go to Jesus, to only come to find out, upon judgement, that their faith they thought was great, was only a lie?
Oh, the eternity they thought they had, IS LOST all because they were deceived into believing bounds of lies (many more of which we still need to learn) that have lead them to their eternal doom. Horribly, after their life of presuming they were saved, they aren’t with Our Lord; they have rejected Him forever. Utterly devastating!
When we go before God the Almighty at judgement, we won’t be able to lie to ourselves any more. We will stand there with the naked truth of our great rejection of God (our guilt). “Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments [clean/without unrepentant sin] that he may not go naked and be seen exposed [with vast sin at judgement]!” (Revelation 16:15).
Yes, at judgement, our great love of ourselves, love of sin and love of the world (hatred for God) will be blaringly present. What we refused to see before, will now never leave us. “For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed [made known]; nor is anything secret, except to come to light [for all to see]” (Mark 4:22). Yes, we and everyone else will really know what we have done to God, others and ourselves, and this horrible reality will stay with us for all eternity as we are tormented for rejecting God for the devil (sin).
“Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you [your faith was a lie]. Depart from me, you evildoers [who still desire yourselves, sin and the world instead of Me.]” (Matthew 7:22-23).
Oh, we can’t allow this to occur again. We must do all we can to prevent one more soul from dying.
But, who today is warning us of our impending doom, telling us if we stay complacent with any of our sins we are rejecting Heaven for Hell? Christians are supposed to be saving souls. But we aren’t. Who is teaching us The Way?
Who is giving us Fear of the Lord? This is the singular ingredient that if the devil removes from our understanding, we are dead.
What has happened? Oh, the evil one, who “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), lured us into believing him with many words of love and truth… Oh, he preached The Way correctly one minute, telling us things we wanted to hear, so we would think he was guiding us properly. Then, when we weren’t looking (trusted him), he robbed us of our fear of sin and then stripped us of bounds of other truths as well. Now, we won’t know The Way, and we are even teaching this confusion to others. To learn more please read, “What Does Evil Look Like?”
Please know, the devil doesn’t have to make us into monsters for us to be damned, all he needs to do is remove our fear of God, then we belong to him.
True contrition, true humility and true love of God are all founded on having Fear of the Lord. As was said, praying and trying to live The Word without having at least some amount of Fear of the Lord (some fear of sin and its consequences) won’t lead to Life… all of it will be in vain. “If anyone fears the Lord he will show him the path he should choose.” (Psalm 25). We must come to understand this. Yet, who today really fears they could go to Hell because of their sins?
Oh, is anyone trying to give us this blessed fear and/or helping us grow in humility and contrition, so it can become true enough to accept God’s forgiving saving mercy… is anyone trying to save us? No. We are all lost and dying! To learn more please read, “What is Fear of the Lord?”
“I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things [commit mortal sin] will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:21).
Yes, The Word and the saints of the past have warned us… but who today? Where are the people and the priests trying to save the lost? There is no one, because nobody can see.
Darkness Has Come
Yes, the time we have read about in The Bible–that we knew was coming–has finally arrived; “For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness [over] the peoples (Isaiah 60:2). Only someone with a special grace would be able to see in such a time, which is why I am re-sending the warnings of the saints and speaking so clearly.
Please know, “a third of their [the Church’s] light [of knowledge] was darkened” (Revelations 8:12) some time ago, and now, the rest of the light has been stamped out. We are suffering from great darkness over the entire Church… as prophesied: “[we have been] plunged into [total] darkness” (Revelations 16:10).… and now we don’t know how to obtain Eternal Life.
But of course we don’t know we are living in this reality, because of the very darkness we are living in. Most tragically, many think we are vastly “holy”, when sadly, we are dead and don’t even understand the first step towards Life (fear of the Lord). It is tragic! Yet, now God’s mercy is giving us a chance to see, so we can flee from the sins we are living in and come to live the true faith, before it is too late. Praise God… let’s open our eyes.
“Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her [don’t follow the lost of My Church], my people so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues [die]; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities [her sins aren’t forgiven/her punishment will be great!]'” (Revelation 18:2-5).
Yes, we must leave the lost and follow the saints or we will die. But to open our eyes, so we can see and change, we need to fully understand, the “darkness” The Word speaks about in Revelations isn’t a “literal” darkness (no sun) like some have been deceived into believing but a vast spiritual darkness, with all sorts of plagues/illness being spread–spiritual lies–that are killing us.
These prophecies of the darkness to come were never meant to be taken in a perfect literal sense, which is why nobody could understand or see them. But many of them have already come true. If you now have wisdom, you can see.
“There shall come over the whole earth an intense darkness lasting three days and three nights [what The Father considers three days, which is not long considering the span of humanity]. Nothing can be seen [nobody will know The Way], and the air will be laden with pestilence [lies of how to obtain happiness will be everywhere]…. It will be impossible to use any man-made lighting during this darkness [no man will see], except blessed candles [someone with a special grace].
He, who out of curiosity [over the sin others are partaking in], opens his window to look out [see’s the sin], or leaves his home [to partake in the sin], will fall dead on the spot [will reject God for the sin like everyone else]… priests massacred Churches [Churches destroyed by the priests] shall be closed [from Covid], but only for a short time.”
–St. Anna-Maria Taigi (Catholic Prophecy, Yves Dupont, Paragraph 48)
Yes, we are in the time of great darkness; these lies have tricked us–the shepherd and the sheep alike– into loving sin, desiring/lusting for the pleasures of the world and living for ourselves (not God and the salvation of others). We have been “led astray to idols” (1 Corinthians 12:2) and our hearts are torn… we don’t seek God alone. We have many idols that we run to for happiness instead of Our Lord and Savior (as explained later).
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts [desires] of their hearts to impurity [all they wanted that wasn’t God and the world became dark]… because they exchanged the truth about God [being the true source of happiness] for a lie [believing sin or some created thing will satisfy the longings of the heart]” (Romans 1:24-2).
Horribly, now we are infested with illness (false understanding/false love/false faith), since we went out and partook in the lies, and now we are very ill and don’t know The Way to Heaven. It will take much medicine (grace) to even enlighten us to how sick we are, never mind cure us.
Yes, as foreshadowed from of old, there is a “mortal, prophesy against the shepherds” (Ezekiel 34:2)… all of the shepherds and the sheep (for the most part) are living as dead. We have been killed by the lies.
“[From their rejection of the True Faith for idols], He [God] will destroy the glory of his forest [His Church] and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body, And it will be as when a sick person wastes away [slowly looses understanding of The Truth until it is all gone]. And the rest of the trees of his forest [His sheep who didn’t fall away to idols] will be so small in number that a child could write them down”…
Now on that day [when the Light of Israel/The True Faith is shown] the remnant of Israel [the sheep left who didn’t fall away to idols], and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped [who repented for their idol worship and sought to live The Truth], will no longer rely on the one who struck them [the prideful deceived leaders of the faith], but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 10:18-19).
Now, please don’t think someone outside of the Catholic Church (the only Church Christ Himself founded) is doing any better. No. Others abandonment of the true faith, since they were deceived from their pride into believing another way is better (suffer from much deception), which won’t lead them to Life but death.
Please know, the other churches don’t have the vast means we need to receive the GRACE necessary to sincerely come to hate sin (to save us). They don’t have the sacraments of God’s Church (confession, Mass, etc.) that send fantastic grace to help us. They don’t have the Mother of God’s help directly from Heaven, nor the saints (examples, teachings), nor the traditions from the apostles (showing us what we should be doing), nor The Catechism (The Directions to Life authored by the saints… but only the correct Latin version–since false interpretation exists in at least the English version) all of which leads to a saving faith, if we live it correctly.
PLEASE don’t be deceived. Eternity is forever. God’s Church is The Way… but we simply can’t follow the lost of the Church; we must follow its saints.
To learn more please read, “How to Save Souls.” and “The Time of Great Darkness” because The Word and the prophets have clearly spoken about this truth (darkness coming). We should have known.
“Prepare to live three days in total darkness. These three days [when nobody knows The Way] are very close [and has now arrived]… And in these days they will remain as dead [without saving grace] without eating or drinking [without receiving grace from the Body and Blood of Christ]. Then the light [of true knowledge] will return. But many will be the men who will not see it anymore [still won’t be able to see/understand The Way].”
–St. Padrie Pio (Letter to Superior 1959)
But to keep us living in the dark, the evil one–who’s goal is to deceive us–will have us come up with a jillion reasons why this just isn’t true. Not only will he pride us into believing we are too holy and knowledgeable to have such a lack of faith… to be so deceived, He will also have us misinterpret The Bible and the saints all to keep us blind so we can’t repent and change.
He will convince us, we aren’t one of the damned, so we can remain dead and even remove our fear for others, so we won’t be concerned with our or others salvation and neglect going to God correctly for help to save us (to change our hearts).
Oh, perhaps he might trick us into procrastinating thinking we have tomorrow to change, but then tomorrow never comes, since we ruined too many tomorrows and now the time that was allotted for us to change is gone. Then we’ll be banished into Hell for all eternity. Please don’t be deceived from our pride. “The time is fulfilled [your end is coming], and the kingdom of God [Judgement] is at hand [He is speaking to you]; repent, and believe in the gospel [live the faith that saves… leave your sins for Christ]” (Mark 1:15).
Oh, Our Lord wants to save us, the shepherd and the sheep alike…“The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you [just open your eyes to see Him]” (Isaiah 60:2).
Now, please don’t go and think the end of the world is now upon us… that simply isn’t true. After this prophecy in Revelation is fulfilled, which is when the lie is crushed (the truth is brought to the Light) and all those leaders of the faith living the lie are in shame from their mighty power has fallen, which happens in “one hour [according to The Father, which is very fast]” (Revelation 18:10), then afterwards, “a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse [A new humble Holy Spirit guided Vicar of Christ]” (Isaiah 11:1) will come, and the light of truth in The Church will be restored (Revelations 19:6-8).
“Then it will happen on that day that the Lord Will again recover with His hand [His Church] the second time” (Isaiah 11:11).
Next, as Revelations 20 tells us, “He [an angel] seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years [1000 years according to The Father, which is a long time].” Wow, there will be many years when people actually love God, since the devil will be out of the picture for those years, and these people will be the “great multitude” of saves souls Revelations 7:9 speaks about. But tragically, we won’t be able to see it during our time on earth, since that is much in the future.
But, the end of time (which isn’t even what we think it is) is far from now. So the only thing we need to concern ourselves with is our own end and that of our neighbor’s, which is rapidly approaching. If you have ears that can hear, now is the time to repent and change and follow Christ to Heaven. Your eternity is going to begin soon… very soon. Where is it going to be?
“Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart” (Psalm 90:)
What Makes a Sin Deadly?
So, let’s get back to the whole reason why we are damning our souls… we aren’t truly repenting of our deadly sins, mostly because we refuse to see them. “There is such a thing as deadly sin” (1 John 5:16). But the reason we are so deceived and don’t think we have deadly sin on our souls is because we don’t really understand what the deadly sins are nor what makes a sin deadly. To learn more please read, “What Are Mortal Sins?”
Yet, dying with any unrepentant mortal sin on our souls damns us forever. It is a rejection of God for sin. We need to learn what these are.
“Mortal sin… results in the loss of charity and the privation [loss] of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell” (CCC # 1861).
To prevent us from dying with unrepentant mortal sins that we can’t see, even though we should know what they are since “what the law requires is written on their hearts” (Romans 2:15), so please don’t think we are without guilt if we don’t “know”, but to help us who have blocked out much knowledge of the truth from our hearts, God clearly tells us what some of our deadly sins are:
“Be sure of this, that no fornicator [sexual relations outside of marriage] or impure person [thinking, watching, wearing or doing anything impure], or one who is greedy, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Ephesians 5:5).
“Do you not know that [unrepentant] wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters [those who desire the world and its pleasures for happiness instead of God], adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites [homosexuals], thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers [those who argue], robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9:10).
Okay, if we can see that we commit any of these sins, then it is easy to see some of the places we are going wrong. But if we don’t, it is much harder to know some of our failures, because we can’t see our mortal offences against God.
Now, some people want to argue that some of those sins are sometimes only venial and that is true. If we commit any of them and it isn’t a grave matter, then it is not mortal.
But we need to fully understand, that any sin mortal or venial that we ignore, that we don’t think is a big deal and we don’t seek/desire to amend, no matter how slight it is, that sin is now mortal. Yes, any sin we think lightly of is mortal…
This is because, as was said before, it is a mortal sin–an abomination of love–to be complacent with offending God with any sin, even the slightest, and we should know this (God wrote it in our hearts). Yes, we must truly HATE SIN…ALL sin. Please don’t be deceived. “[I] detest the smallest sin” Jesus told to St. Faustina (Diary #1728). We need to too.
Therefore, how much sorrow for a sin do we have if without reservation we habitually commit it?…not much, if any…diffidently not true sorrow. So our unrestrained habitual sins need to leave.
“If you are a habitual sinner [who isn’t working hard to amend them]…You are very ill; you are one of those invalids who, as St. Thomas of Villanova says, are seldom cured [by your or others prayers]; you are on the brink of perdition [Hell].”
—St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, (Preparation for Death, Habit of Sin)
Oh, Lord, we need someone to teach us these truths. We have been greatly deceived and have been driven to complacency with our life of sin! Come to our rescue.
Well, God is helping us. Yet, even though God is coming to our rescue through this article/web-site, sadly some of us still won’t be able to see that we need help or where we are going wrong. It might seem impossible to us, who can see, how someone else can’t. But the entire reason we can see and another can’t is because we have accepted God’s grace and they haven’t.
Perhaps God hasn’t sent it to them yet or they have rejected it. But sadly, for some there is just nothing we can do; they will refuse to see at all or not well enough to be able (motivated enough) to change. Many very proud blind souls, even after God shows them they are lost, will still believe they have some kind of correct understanding, when their illness is very great. From that same very blinding pride, they will still obey themselves, follow the instruction of the lost and/or misinterpret The Way, just to stay in their sinful ways, not obeying the wisdom of the saints and the messengers that God has sent to warn and guide us. Tragic!
But, nonetheless, if we can see at least some of what is damning us, praise God. It is God’s grace who is giving us eyes that can see. Even seeing just a little is better than living completely blind to the Truth. Later, our sins of omission (what we should have done but didn’t do) will be spoken about, which should open anyone’s eyes, even those greatly struggling to see.
But if we can see, we MUST RUN to MERCY to LEARN and CHANGE. We don’t want to lose any desire from a lack of action… God might not come to us again. Truly, we can’t cling to our sins… not even our venial ones. We must start living for Eternal Life and seek Mercy to teach and strengthen us, to remove our great will/desire to sin, instead of seeking all the nonsense we have spent our lives dreaming of.
We need to start seeking grace. Every hour of our lives is precious… use it to do God’s will, which is what we need to do to grow into a saving faith. These hours can’t ever be given back to you again.
Truly, our prideful, lukewarm living must end. “Those whose sins still cling to them like a goatskin will stand on His left hand [who are cast into Hell]” (St. Cyril). Let’s leave behind the darkness of sin and come to the Light of Truth. Every hour counts… seek The Lord. “Seek the Lord, that you may live” (Amos 5:6).
But don’t fret, grace can change us. “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Ephesians 2:8). BELIEVE! It is only by God’s great mercy that we can be saved. Therefore, go to God; He is waiting for you.
“Turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they [we] may obtain forgiveness of sins and an inheritance [of Eternal Life]” (Acts 26:18).
We Can’t Hate What We Refuse to See
Oh, how hard it is to truly hate sin, since we have grown so accustomed to our offences against God. Many of them are an acceptable part of our life… so acceptable that most of our sins we actually REFUSE TO SEE. This is true. Please don’t be deceived.
“How greatly man deceives himself.”
–God the Father to St. Catherine of Siena, (Treatise on Discretion)
Above, you were shown a VERY FEW of the sins we don’t tend to recognize that we continue in, but with those sins most are able to see them, if someone were to point them out. Yet, believe it or not, most of our sins we don’t care about amending and therefore ignore.
For may of us, coming to see our sins we have spent our life time hiding is VERY HARD to do… since we want to think of ourselves as without error and we hate change. Even if someone were to directly tell us what we are doing wrong, many will still refuse to admit the truth.
“Oh, getting my nails painted isn’t sinful” we tell ourselves “God wants me happy.” But does God want us happy running to the world as our source of happiness (seeking idols). Isn’t God alone supposed to be all we desire for happiness? Isn’t “the one who is self-indulgent… dead ” (1 Timothy 5:6)?
Sadly, we have become so good at ignoring our sins or declairing them as not sinful that now we don’t even recognize them as sins, since we have been spending our lives justifying them as acceptable. Horribly, we can’t even see many of them, even if we were to try. This is the truth. Yet, justifying just one of them as not sinful, makes that sin mortal and kills us.
Yes, the devil has tricked us into believing many of our sins are not even sinful… so we will live in denial and cover them and die without having true repentance… even though the truth–the knowledge of their sinfulness is written in our hearts. We just don’t (really) want to see, since our pride and passion for these sins is just so great.
“[Man is] blinded by passion, which does not permit him to acknowledge his fault nor profit by the correction.”
–St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, (Reflections useful for Bishops that then man govern well their churches; Ch. 2 #9)
We will have to implore Mercy for much grace, to give us a true desire to see, to even begin to see what we refuse to acknowledge. Our desire to see ourselves as who we aren’t (a good person/doing what is right) is just too great, because that is the only way we know how to be happy… through lies. Haven’t we been thriving off our talents and accomplishments our whole life…. wanting complements and affirmation, but what happens if we don’t have what we think we should have? We are a mess. We are thriving off of our pride. Tragic!
Sadly, how many of us even live depressed because we don’t like who we are? To be happy, we resort to so many things… some to even substances or for others perhaps we are just waiting for someone to complement us to build us up… to build up our pride, self-love, false happiness… when happiness comes from loving God… that alone is true happiness.
When, what we really need is for someone to help change our focus… and make it that of striving to love God… not wishing we were someone we aren’t, chasing after complements, etc.. We need someone to help us remove our pride, jealousies and envies, so we can sincerely desire to see our sins and not pretend like we don’t have them; so we can accept ourselves for who we are. Then to encourage us to work hard to amend what is not conformable to Christ. That way God can make us the beautiful saint He desires us to be. Then we will be loving Him and wonderfully happy.
But thriving off loving God is going to take time to develop within us, since we have many things we need to reject first… things that are keeping us from whole heartedly wanting to love God, like trying to maintain our friends and image. But regardless of how far we are from living to love God, we must understand, “no one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
Therefore, we simply can’t pretend like any of our sins are acceptable. They aren’t. Yet, many are deceived into thinking living as a homosexual is not sinful, even though The Word over and over again clearly says it is. “Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire“ (Jude 1:7).
Living a life as a homosexual is far from the life of purity and sanctity we must desire to have Eternal Life. Well, what I really mean is, being tempted to act as a homosexual isn’t sinful, but acting upon that temptation is and if we don’t repent and change, it merits us horrific tortures (the consequences we choose) in Hell for all eternity based on the sins we have committed but never repented of with true contrition.
“God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity”(Romans 1:26-27).
I know it might be hard to avoid those temptations if we suffer from them–some of which we suffer from because of our own sins and others from the sins of our ancestors, since God is “inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5), but that still doesn’t justify any sin as okay to commit. That means we need to seek Mercy more greatly to change or avoid that sin.
Plenty of sins are very hard to avoid, but they are still sins. All sin hurts God, whom we should be seeking to perfectly love. And acting homosexual is a grave sin (mortal); it greatly rejects God’s grace and severely offends Him. We must gain a great hatred for it. We must be willing to suffer rather than offend God. We must love Him over ourselves if we wish to be saved.
Also, please know, it doesn’t matter if we were born with those temptations. Many people are born with vast sins we desire and are tempted into committing. We must still work hard to leave them.
If we have had children, we know each one is given different virtues (qualities of Christ) and different vices (desires for sin). Some children are inclined to be selfish and others perhaps are easily angered. Regardless, even though they were born with those sinful desires (dispositions) and fall into those temptations, that doesn’t mean we ignore our child’s selfishness and/or anger and tell them those behaviors are good. They aren’t. They are sinful and offend God, whether they were born inclined towards them or not.
When we see our children sinning or desiring a sin, we need to teach them what the correct, non-sinful behavior is. We need to give them coping mechanisms (resolutions) to avoid the sin and teach them how to pray and visit the sacraments, so to seek God’s assistance in removing those sins/desires for sin from our lives.
Perhaps, we will have to exercise discipline and restraint our entire lives to not fall into those sins, if the temptations continue, which is what we need to do to not offend God. Yet, one shouldn’t expect that. Once we learn how to reject temptation, besides a test now and then, the devil should eventually leave us alone. But regardless, sodomy or any un-natural sex is still horribly offensives against God. And if ignored or justified it as good, we will perish into eternal suffering from desiring those sins over loving God. Please don’t be deceived. Remember, we don’t have to have sex to Live, but we do have to love God (truly hate our sins and sincerely never want to commit them again).
But there are many other sins we don’t want to acknowledge too. We see this refusal to see our sins often when someone criticizes/corrects us. Instead of humbly looking into ourselves to see if we did wrong, apologizing and admitting our error, we become offended, angered and refuse to admit our wrongs. Yikes! From our love of sin and pride we habitually cover our sins, since we don’t want to see them, which is damning our souls. We need to change this.
“Those who disregard discipline [ignore correction] hate themselves [from their pride, hate their weakness/don’t want to see their failures], but those who heed reproof [follow correction] acquire understanding [accept themselves and others for who they/we are (sinners) and understand our need for Mercy… and have hope for salvation].” (Proverbs 15:32).
When we aren’t living for our pride and want to know our wrongs, so we can correct them, not only do we daily look into ourselves to see our errors, we welcome criticism/correction from others as an opportunity to hopefully see our wrongs, so we can repent and change. They don’t anger or depress us. We aren’t quick to run in to defend ourselves; we listen to see if God is speaking to us, so we can change.
However, for many of us, even if we want to see our sinfulness, our desire much of the time is only half-hearted, so we continue to remain blind. We simply don’t want to see ourselves for who we really are. Our pride won’t allow us.
Most deny the truth. Perhaps we want to be the teacher, not the one being taught. We lack humility. This must end. We must come to see and admit our sins! To learn more please read, “How Does Our Pride Kill Us.” If we don’t learn how to “bring to light what is hidden in darkness” (1 Corinthians 4:5), so we can truly repent, we will perish into Hell.
“No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses [with true sorrow] and forsakes them [gives them up] will obtain mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
But to help us gain a small understanding of a big problem, here is an example of how we love our sins and others around us promote them too: “Oh, you deserve better, so taking that is fine; he doesn’t pay you what you are worth anyway”, our friend tells us, to condone our theft, so we will think she supports us. “Oh, she did you so wrong; you have every right to be angry at her”, our spouse tells us, justifying our lack of forgiveness, so we will think he understands us. “Oh, you can’t help your passions of the flesh; you have the right to happiness”, our pastor tells us, to support our life of sin, so we can feel like He cares about us.
Wow, people want to love us and we want to love others so greatly but the devil tricks us into justifying our sins as loving someone, when guiding someone away from sin is true love (caring for the salvation of their souls). But most sadly, today, from the illness we suffer, we don’t know what is sinful and what isn’t anymore. We don’t know how to love.
We are suffering from such deception that not only do we deceive ourselves into justifying sin, we misguided others left and right, right to their doom as well. Yet, all along thinking we are loving/supporting others with these lies. We are so confused, and this confusion is meaning our and others eternal life. We aren’t loving others, we are killing them. Because if we try to cover/justify just ONE sin as acceptable, we are damning our souls. Please don’t be deceived.
“Beware of…hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known… I will warn you whom to fear: fear him [God] who… has power to cast into hell [and come to true repentance before it is too late]” (Luke 12:1-5).
Sadly, whether we want to believe this or not, we love sin and we love to offend God, so much our happiness, much of the time, if not all of the time is founded on sin.
But if we ever want to come to see the sins we love, we must humbly seek Mercy to enlighten us to the offences we desire–to open our eyes so we may see all the sins we hide… that we don’t truly hate and lack true contrition for–if we are ever going to truly repent of them and follow Jesus to Heaven. Then one by one, if we keep on seeking God, He will enlighten us all the way to Life.
“’Lord, let our eyes be opened.’ Moved with pity, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight, and followed Him” (Matthew 20:33).
Yes, at first God will enlighten us well enough for us to begin to follow Him, like through reading this article. Then little by little, according to our desire and God’s will, we will be enlightened to more and more of the vast sins we desire (gaining self-knowledge), so we can grow in humility and with a humble heart seek God for the strength to remove that misery (liking of our sin) from our souls (as explained later).
Of course we won’t ever see all of our sins. That is known to God alone. But we don’t need to see them all to obtain true contrition for every sin. But we do need to come to see and repent of the sins we refuse to see and love.
Nonetheless, whether we want to see our sins or not, reality is, we habitually commit bounds of offences from having a great desire/liking for them. We greatly need Jesus to save us... to open our eyes and remove our will to sin, so we can desire God alone and be saved. To learn more please read, “How Can I See My Sins?”
“There is no attaining to God without self-knowledge [knowledge of our sinfulness]; for from such knowledge alone come humility and the fear of God, which is the beginning of salvation [the beginning of growing towards a saving faith].”
–St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church (His Last Work)
But since we have been tricked by the evil one, many, from our pride, will either think we don’t conceal our sins and already have great contrition or from our lack of understanding, we won’t even know we can’t ignore our sins and need to grow in faith to obtain a truly “contrite, humbled heart” (Psalm 51:19) for all of our offences against God to be saved.
Sins of Omission
Oh, but there is more… our sins of omission: the things we should have done but didn’t do, are many of the vast sins we refuse to see. If we can come to understand what these are, they can greatly help us obtain true self-knowledge: the knowledge of our sinfulness that we need to obtain true humility and Eternal Life.
As we know, some of us were given much grace at birth and have rather calm dispositions. We don’t really complain, or worry, or argue. We are rather cheerful, agreeable and content. We didn’t have to work hard to abandon our life of sin by seeking God’s mercy to become so much like Christ, since God bestowed such blessings upon us at our birth.
But please don’t be deceived, we are still with much sin, from not allowing God to make us into saints. Whatever it is that has prevented us from becoming true self-sacrificing saints, which are most likely from our sins of omission, are what we need to work hard to amend. Those are our mortal sins.
Therefore, now that we know, not working hard to stop any sin makes it mortal, because we lack contrition for that sin, we also need to fully understand neglecting (omitting) to live any of The Word makes anything we don’t do that Christ would have done, mortal as well. Of course, that is, if it is a repeated neglect (lack of desire to follow any part of Christ), not just a one time fall (unless it is a grave matter or we don’t care that we sinned; then it is mortal as well).
“The soul that follows and imitates Him more and more becomes more and more like Him… In imitation of the Son of God, the God-Man, the children of God are to work away at their salvation [lose their desire for sin so to gain a saving faith].”
–St. Maximilian Kolbe, (Will to Love, Christ Transforms Us)
To help us understand the difference between the sins of omission (what we should have done but didn’t) and the sins of commission (what we did but shouldn’t have done) here are a few examples: I might have not robbed a bank (sin of commission), but I didn’t give true charity to the poor and just ignored them (sin of omission). I might have not lied, but I didn’t say the truth someone needed to hear. I might have not missed Church on Sunday, but I didn’t answer God’s call and become a priest/nun. I might have not gotten angry with my neighbor, but I didn’t deny myself of what I wanted and/or picked up my cross, so God could use my sacrifice to send grace to help save the soul of my neighbor.
Yes, what we didn’t do is a great sin. Oh, sin is a lot more than we thought. Here is a simple list of just a few of our more unknown mortal sins: venial sins of commission and omission that most ignore and habitually commit:
- Not doing EVERYTHING to love God through loving our neighbor: To love/care for the earthly and spiritual needs of others… to desire what is truly good for others and the salvation of their souls (according to God’s will), like we desire the same for ourselves, is the essence of our faith. Yes, everything we do should be to care for and save the soul of our neighbor (as explained later). This is how we love God (don’t sin). This is what the entire Bible teaches us to do “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-19). This is The Way to Life.
- Not surrendering any of our will (any moment) for God’s will: We must realize we can’t do anything truly good or correct for ourselves or others without God’s grace moving us. If we follow the way of the world and only do what we desire, we must know that most of our desires aren’t being moved by grace and are being moved by our desire for sin. Therefore, every second of our lives we need to seek God, so we can do His will, so God/His grace can guide us to live how He wishes (which is His perfect plan for us to obtain Heaven) and strengthen us to do it. “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind [through God’s grace], that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2). This is how we will know how to obtain Life.
- Not being self-less: Nothing we do should be to please ourselves (which is complete opposed to our sinful nature/self-love), but to love God through loving others. We need to love others how God loves us, not loving how the world loves with complements and gifts, making others even more attached to the world; not that complements and gifts are all bad, but that isn’t how we love like Christ. How many complements and gifts did Christ give? Complements were rare (don’t be deceived), and they were used as encouragement and motivation, not pride building so we can walk around thinking great about ourselves… tangible gifts (outside of food) were never given. The true way we love is by praying, preaching/living the truth and suffering and sacrificing what we want (our will, for the cross). Then God can send grace from our sacrifice–to help save another’s soul. We need to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, like Christ was for us, for God’s children. The is The True Way. “No man should seek his own interest [but what is best for another]” (1 Corinthians 10:24).
- Doing something from seeking out self-gratification/self-pleasure: Our calling in life is to follow Christ, who did all to help save us. He sought no pleasure for Himself, but did all with the goal of loving/obeying The Father, which was done by helping to save our souls (since God wants us all in Heaven). Therefore, since fantastic grace comes from the cross (really that is the only way to Heaven for us or others), we need to stop loving ourselves and beginning living like true Christians which is that of living for the cross (sacrifice/self-denial) to love God and save the souls of our His children. “For people will be lovers of themselves… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:2-4).
- Doing something for self-glory: When we do something to show someone we are good, talented, wise, knowledgeable, etc., we are rejecting our nothingness and seeking praise, adoration, and reward. This is a huge problem with everyone but especially with people who do “good works”. Oh, we might not think we do this, but again, this is because we are still blind to our sinfulness. Yet, trust me this is a constant plague that lives in us, which needs much grace to see and fully remove. “Do everything for the glory of God ” (1 Corinthians 10).
- Not praying all of the time: “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Yes, this is possible. When we humbly pray at all moments, this will be what will enable us to receive most of the grace needed to see the sin, stop the sin, live The Word (His will) and grow into saints, but that doesn’t mean we will be rattling off prayers and devotions all day long, even though many prayers are prayed. To learn more please read, “How to Pray Humbly”
- Not doing everything to the best of our ability for God: All that we do needs to be done to love God and save His children but that can’t happen if we are lazy or if we seek to please another above God. Our work even if it isn’t directly to save souls like, teaching, preaching, missionary work, etc., all can still be done for the love of God and the salvation of souls. We can make everything a cross and do it against our natural desires of self love (procrastination, laziness, self-seeking, our will), and do all according to God’s priorities, quality and care… for Our Lord and the salvation of souls. Then much grace will be sent to save our neighbor and also ourselves with whatever we do. “Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being. Do it for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23).
- Not giving thanks to God for everything (the good and the bad) knowing it is His perfect will for us: Some of us have a hard time being thankful for the good (our minds are negative and full of complaints) and we have an even harder time being grateful for the bad. However, if we are ever going to obtain a saving faith, we need to trust that all God allows He intends to use for our good, that is, if we can “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you [trust in Him]” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Then we will stop with our frantic prayers seeking our will and being crazy over joyed when things go as we desire. We will be a peace with the bad and have the same peace with the good. We won’t demand our will and be crushed when we don’t get it.
- Being greedy: Greed comes in various forms. We can be greed with our money, time and talents… pretty much anything. When we have made those things an idol, what we need for happiness, we tend to not share them as Christ says we must. Having money isn’t the problem, what we do with it is. Most hardly think of the poor. We think “I can’t feed the world”, and that is true, but we can feed those God puts into our lives. Do we give more to ourselves than is needed when someone we work with, we drive by, or we know is living without the basics? Like we need another outfit or pair of shoes… really, that is a crime against the poor. I’m not saying we give away everything without thinking to someone who will use it for drugs or squander it… and I’m not saying we are to go out and rashly judge everyone either, but we need to use our minds and resources to love others not ourselves. Also, are we lazy and won’t give of our time, since we don’t want to work hard? Oh, we will work, but not too hard, since we love our rest and “free” time and/or only want to do our fair share or what we enjoy. We don’t really live to serve, doing all for God or do we only work when it is convenient. Also, God gives us different talents, but do we use them for self-glory, self-benefit, not to love God and save souls… missing our entire purpose for our life… hoarding them for ourselves. “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed” (Luke 12:15).
- Not forgiving everyone/holding grudges: A lot of people will say, “I can forgive, but I will never forget.” Well, if that is the case then you haven’t really forgiven. Please don’t be deceived. Now, I’m not saying we are going to have amnesia, but true forgiveness doesn’t remember the sins of others. It simply isn’t in the forefront of our conscience, sure we can dig it up if we needed to, but it simply isn’t thought about. When we have true forgiveness and see someone who has hurt us or others, we aren’t thinking of or reliving the wrong he/she has done… thinking of how he/she is just a horrible person. That isn’t forgiveness. True forgiveness forgets “I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25) and this forgiveness wants to help/do good for those who have done wrong (not for self-benefit)… like Christ constantly does for us sinful souls. “If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:15).
So to obtain true sorrow for these sins (commission and omission), we must become firmly resolved to no longer commit them again. Then in time, as we work hard to change our lives, lessening the sin and then leaving the sin all together, one sin after another, we will begin to truly LIVE GOD’S WORD. Then, God will give us more and more grace to come truly hate all of our trespasses.
This we must trust: that God can remove our liking for sin… take them away (give us a saving faith of true hatred for sin)… but we must also know if we lie to ourselves or go lax, we will die (from not really caring that we are offending God). This is The Way to Heaven. Please don’t be deceived. So, the goal is to seek Mercy to remove all which is bad so to do all which is good… so all of our sins and especially our habitual sins leave.
Please know, God doesn’t demand our success; He demands our effort… then if our desire is true, success will eventually follow. But know, if we don’t produce fruits–qualities of Christ– we will die.
Therefore, please don’t be deceived, no moment must be willfully given to sin, and we must be growing, not so much in greater works, even though works are good and true followers of Christ have works, but even athiests can have fantastic works (that proves nothing), but we must be GROWING into saints– losing sin, gaining virtue. If we aren’t then we are not on the path to Life.
Plus, we should also know, the more serious the sins are that we commit, the more we reject God–His grace–for that sin–which keeps us from growing into the image of Christ and can cause us to loose even more grace, then from being weakened we commit even more and more sin. Oh, it is a vicious cycle. Therefore, our most grave sins, we want to leave first (if we have the strength to do so, since sometimes lesser sins will need to be removed to obtain the strength for the greater). But, for the most part, we want to let go our most serious sins first, since they are so damaging.
“It [life and judgement] will be as when a man who was going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents [much grace to serve God and grow into the image of Christ]; to another, two; to a third, one—to each according to his ability [the task God created them to do].
Then he went away…. [He came back to see what became of His grace] ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person… so out of fear [lacking courage to do what You willed/lacking trust.. I worried I might fail] I went off and buried your talent in the ground [so I won’t lose it all]. Here it is back.’ His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant [who did nothing truly good with the grace I sent Him]!… throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’” (Matthew 25:14-30)
Therefore, as we can see, we must produce fruit. Please don’t allow a lack of courage or laziness prevent us from do God’s will… and gaining the fruit He expects, so our neglect doesn’t lose it all.
Oh, there is much more to sin than just what we do wrong; as we now know, what we didn’t do that we should have done is a HUGE portion of our life of rejecting God… and those concepts are dynamic. Yet, both prevent us from living the faith, gaining a saving faith and becoming like Jesus…The One we should be following. Yet, God’s unfathomable mercy is waiting to transform us… go to Him.
Works of Mercy
As we can see, we must be becoming like Christ. Not growing and obtaining Jesus’ characteristics “fruits of the Spirit” is from our great sin of omission: not repenting, seeking Mercy and changing so God can give them to us.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
But not only do true followers of Christ, who truly hate their sins or even one day desire to truly hate their sins, obtain His fruits of the Holy Spirit, they also obtain the rest of the qualities of Christ as well, some of which were touched on. But the major quality that Jesus has that we must be growing into obtaining is His “mercy.”
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7).
Everyone knows Christ is merciful. If we want to be treated with mercy, we need to be merciful like Him. But, what is being merciful? Most will say forgiving someone is merciful. And yes, that is true. That is a great part of mercy; for, like was said, if we “do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15).
Now, please remember, we aren’t saved by all of the times we do forgive. We aren’t saved by what we do. God’s mercy alone saves. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
But we are damning ourselves by the ONE time we don’t truly forgive: hold a grudge, harbor anger towards another, want revenge, want to give someone a piece of our mind, turn a cold shoulder… won’t love, be kind, patient, or helpful towards someone because of what they have done, etc. and lack true repentance for that sin.
Yes, when we lack mercy and don’t repent of that offence against God, that rejects it all. We MUST truly forgive… and like was said before, true forgiveness forgets and loves. To learn more please read, “What is True Forgiveness.”
But being merciful is much more than just forgiving others. Being merciful is also how we love and care for the corporal (bodily/earthly) and spiritual needs of others. How can we be a true Christian and not care for the needs of Christ, who is in each one of us? We can’t. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).
“For I [Jesus] was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me… just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:35;40)
I try to downplay our works of mercy, not because they aren’t important; they are. But I try to not put the focus on them because this is one of the main reasons we are damning ourselves and suffering greatly from presumption of salvation. We think we are saved by our works. Oh, we do some act of charity and bam, we think we are righteous. Our pride just goes wild.
This is why it is so important that we do our works of mercy without anyone knowing we are doing them (if that is possible/is best for the salvation of others)… or without even ourselves knowing we are doing them. “Do not let your left hand know what your right is doing” (Matthew 6:3).
What I means is, if we do a good work, we are not to look at it to see how “great” it is so to impress ourselves or others, so to not become puffed up, giving/seeking self-praise, which becomes our source of joy (an idol). Just because we are doing good with one hand, doesn’t mean we need to be praising ourselves with the other… any praise must go to God alone. We are nothing.
“He that loves God despises and renounces everything that does not help him to love God; and in all the good works that he does, in his penitential acts and his labors for the glory of God, he seeks not consolations and sweetnesses of spirit; it is enough for him to know that he pleases God. In a word, he ever strives in all things to deny himself, renouncing every pleasure of his own; and then he boasts of nothing and is puffed up with nothing; but calls himself an unprofitable servant, and, setting himself in the lowest place, he abandons himself to the divine will and mercy”
–St. Alphonosus, Doctor of the Church (The Way of Salvation and Perfection Med. 11)
Since we are in the time of great darkness, we haven’t learned how to renounce all that keeps us from God and we seek much self-praise/self-love. The problem with this praise is that the craving for it is hidden deep in our hearts… and until we LEARN HOW TO SEE, we won’t realize that we seek/give this–self-praise/self-love–all of the time.
Sadly, we are just dying to be good at something, so we can find value (happiness) with ourselves, since God alone isn’t our source of happiness; we are. We don’t want to be nothing so God can be everything. Oh, it will take much grace and effort to amend this crime against God, since, until we seek Mercy to eradicate it from our lives, this is what we feed off of to find joy.
And, of course, we definitely shouldn’t look to be noticed or to receive a pat on our backs for anything we do (more self-praise). That ruins any possible merit that could have been gained from the works, offends God and makes much of what we do about seeking self-love–self-glory. “All our good deeds are like polluted rags” (Isaiah 64:6); they aren’t really “good.” This is a very frequent and extremely easy trap we fall into; yet, most just never see it either.
“Take care not to practice your righteousness [prayers or works of mercy] in the sight of people, to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1).
To avoid this trap, we need to take ourselves out of the picture and make everything about God, who gave us every gift and talent we have… remove our name, remove our picture and replace it with God. Self-glory is deadly. It is wrapped up in everything we do, and it will take time to learn where it is in our life. But just remember, success or even wanting success in our works kills, if we aren’t incredibly careful with what we are thinking and why we are doing what we do. Beware!
Look at All of the Good I Do — Surely I’m Saved
What happens is, much of the time, we will read a Bible verse about how we need to be kind or do something good, etc., then the devil deceives us into focusing on all of the times we have done “good,” convincing us that by those acts, we are living the faith.
Now we don’t realize how sinful we still really are, since we didn’t really look for when we weren’t doing good–when we weren’t living the faith. We were boasting of our goodness and as a result live blind to our true sinfulness.
When we don’t know our sinfulness–lack humility–and someone asks us if we are faithful to Christ, we will pridefully look at the good we do and say “yes.” But, we should be humbly looking for how we aren’t really living the faith nor loving God and say, “No; I am not faithful to God much of the time.” But since we have only been taught how to boost our blinding pride by looking at our “good”, we don’t know the reality of our hearts and how greatly sinful we really are, causing us to have a strong lack humility.
Tragically, many have been deceived into thinking that God is going to judge and welcome us into Heaven based upon how many great works we have done. But that just isn’t true. I tell you, there is ONE thing alone, which saves our souls and that is having true contrition in our hearts for every sin. No amount of works saves.
Yes, our good works, or should I say, everything we do, is going to be judged–“all the dead were judged according to their deeds” (Revelations 20:13)—and we will receive a reward and/or punishment at judgement and during this life for that matter, which could help us towards obtaining a saving faith… “[Jesus] will repay everyone according to his works” (Romans 2:6). Yes, God is supposed to be sending us great grace–a reward–from our works or anything “good” we do to help us grow more in Love with God, so we won’t only become saved but become a perfect saint. Yes, our good works help us out at our moment of death.
But what kind of reward will we receive? Did we do anything good? Did we even know God has very specific works of mercy He desires for us to be doing? And if we have done something, what was the reasoning behind why we did what we did? That is what God reads and rewards or punishes. Please don’t be deceived.
“I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings” (Jeremiah 17:10).
Perhaps, you gave a homeless man a dollar because you felt guilty to just do nothing. Maybe, you gave gifts to needy children during Christmas, since you didn’t want children to be without toys. Well, those are good things to do, but did you know athiests give money to the poor out of guilt and gifts to needy children too from the basic humanity that lives in all of us, since we like to be “good” people and to see others happy, since if feels good to do good? Yet, those motives are actually driven from selfishness. Therefore, was there really anything to reward in those “good” works? Was there anything truly done from a heart that wants to LOVE GOD from our desire to be nothing (humility), do all for God’s glory to serve Him, which can be rewardable?
But if we were patient with and helped let’s say a homeless man, who was nagging and disrespectful, so to show Him Christ’s love and tolerance of us, then there is reward in that. Or perhaps we gave gifts to children, since we saw Christ in them and didn’t want the children (who need to play) to be without their basic needs. Then there is reward in that too… that is, if we don’t boast (seek to be noticed or complemented, etc.) and lose our reward.
“Beware of practicing your piety [faith practices] before others in order to be seen by them [to be esteemed]; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).
However, frankly, if we had wisdom and knew how to understand some of the intentions of our hearts, which again, is what God reads and rewards (that we will never truly understand) but if we could judge correctly, we would see our reasoning for why we do what we do is shrouded with much sin and needs great mercy to purify.
Sadly, after our lifetime of good works, most won’t receive even the smallest reward at judgement, since all of our great works were done from proud hearts, presuming we were saved or from any other number of prideful misconceptions we might have (which is discussed later).
But, even if we did works of mercy from hearts of true love, they still don’t determine our Eternal Life… only if we grow to become humble and contrite enough to accept God’s forgiving saving mercy does.
I can’t tell you how many souls have fallen head first into the pit of eternal destruction from the pride they have because of their works. It is tragic! We see people with grand works and we run off saying “Wow, look at all that they are doing! They are saints.” And perhaps they are but perhaps they aren’t.
However, we must know, one’s sanctity isn’t determined by how many fantastic works we do. Please don’t be deceived. It is determined on our love for God—our HUMBLE CONTRITION—we have in our hearts for our sins.
“I beg Thee, O my Saviour, to imprint in my heart the hatred and horror and fear of sin, which is greater than all the evils in the world. Grant that I may die rather than offend Thee willfully.”
–St. John Eudes (The Kingdom of Jesus, Morning Exercise VI)
This contrition that saves–which is defined later–produces TRUE LOVE in our hearts for God and for His children, which moves us to do these great acts of love for the RIGHT reasons, which is what most of us don’t do. To learn more please read, “What Are the Requirements of Salvation?”
Yes, sadly, we could have given our lives to serve the poor in the streets Africa and still be far from a saving faith. So sad. We need to be taught The Way so we can rid the lies of the devil and seek Mercy to change our hearts.
However, a saving faith and sanctity is shown most clearly by our willingness to suffer so to love God: so to not sin and to save the souls of others, of course all being done according to God’s will. Now I’m not saying just because we are willing to suffer, we have proof of sanctity, since many suffer and sacrifice, who aren’t even close to finding The Way. They do it for all of the wrong reasons.
But this faith, we want that causes us to desire to die rather than sin, to choose many crosses (choose to suffer) rather than pleasure and to offer up the crosses/suffering we do have (sickness, difficulties, etc.) so to happily love God by Way of the Cross is mostly hidden in the truly faithful.
Someone might think I’m a saint because of all of the wisdom I have, but I tell you, this gift of wisdom I have was NOT given to me because of any faith I have. God gives many of us great gifts and calls us to do great works for Him, not because we are “holy”, but so they can, if we allow them, make us holy and these gifts are to be used for the salvation of others (to be used for God’s will).
How many of us have fantastic gifts from God, we have made great sacrifices to do His will and even have God working miracles through us, but sadly, we are still living in the dark and far from even knowing The Way. Those things don’t prove faith.
It is our pride that takes God’s gifts and callings, our works and accomplishments and makes them into something to boast about, and then we use His gifts for self-glory causing us to do them with much sin, which is another great reason we are so blind/full of pride.
Even though God can reward each one of us with personal knowledge, wisdom and gifts depending upon how close we are to Him (how much sin we have rejected/how humble we are), according to God’s will, so we can know and serve Him more perfectly… which is why the saints had much knowledge, wisdom and/or gifts.
But this particular wisdom I am writing with, unlike personal wisdom, isn’t of my own. It is not based on my “faith”, which is intermingled with my own opinion… tainted with sin, even though it does require learning (accepting of truth) and required much learning to get to this point (to push out the lies/opinions). But it is from God alone as an unmerited gift (not based on my faith) to be used in service of Him.
Frankly, I know I still don’t have a saving faith, even with all of this wisdom, since sadly, my willingness to suffer rather than offend God isn’t at the point of what it should be for someone to have true contrition/true love for God (as explained later)… and I surely don’t have such a love for God that would atone for all of my sins (a wonderful willingness to suffer so to save the souls of His children) so to become a saint; sadly, much self-love sadly still lives in me. Even if others can’t see it, I know it is there (at least now, while I’m writing this).
Yet, I hope to not remain in this deplorable condition. Surely, if I don’t take this wisdom God has given me and use it to grow into a saint, what a dreadful servant would I be and what a miserable place of suffering I would choose for eternity.
Therefore, when we have this love/contrition in our hearts, we don’t only love (do good for others) just because we see Christ in those we serve, even though this is very important. But we also do it, because we want to show them God’s love to help save them. Yes, those who truly love God spend their day seeking the salvation of souls.
That way those we care for may, God willing, be moved into seeing Christ’s love for them and want to truly turn away from their sins with a humble contrite heart that saves (even though sometimes we aren’t conscience of this understanding). Yet, this is why God performed[s] every act of love for us. He wants to move us into a saving faith! And this is why the true saints did every act of love for another too. To learn more please read, “How Can I Save Souls.”
“He inspired me with so tender a love for the poor that I would gladly have conversed with no other persons. He also impressed upon me such deep feelings of compassion for their miseries that, had it been in my power, I would have retained nothing for myself; therefore when I had any money, I gave it to poor children to induce them to come to me, that I might TEACH THEM THEIR CATHECHISM and THEIR PRAYERS.”
–St. Margret Mary Alacoque (The Life of St. Margret Mary, #21)
Please know, God doesn’t help us just to bring us comfort in our lives on earth. No. Jesus did and does ALL for the salvation of our souls (so we can obtain true contrition for our sins and become perfect saints).
Sure some of us will say we are doing our works for the salvation of souls, but because we are so deceived, we don’t really know what that is. Perhaps we think if others just accept Christ as Lord or if they come back to God and gain a personal relationship with Him, they will be saved, but as we now know that just isn’t true.
“After the birth of Antichrist [when the unity of the Church was destroyed because lies about the way to salvation/happiness came about and were believed] heretics will preach their false doctrines undisturbed, resulting in Christians having doubts about their holy Catholic faith [which began happening some time ago]…
When he [the Antichrist] has grown to full manhood he will publicly announce a hostile doctrine on religion. He will lure and attract the people to himself [through false teaching of Christianity] by granting them complete exemption from the observance of all divine and ecclesiastical commandments [telling them they don’t have to strive for perfection], by forgiving them their sins and requiring of them only their belief in his divinity [when forgiveness comes from having true contrition in our hearts for all of our offences].”
–St. Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church (Book 3-The History of Salvation, Vision 11)
Horrifyingly, as we can now see, this has all occurred, but when we truly have God’s grace guiding us, we won’t believe the lies, and we will do all for the salvation of another, seeking for them to gain true love for God and contrition for their sins. To learn more please read, “What Doe Evil Look Like?”
Truly, what does it matter if someone has food, if we still perish into Hell for having a lack of faith? We need to give the needy food and faith. Our focus, as we do our works of mercy, must be on loving God and saving His children. That is what God did for us!
But I promise you, we can feed the word, save all of the babies and even bring everyone to a saving faith, but we aren’t saved by any or all of those acts of love—only God’s mercy saves. However, if we don’t help those God puts in our path, who He calls us to love, for the right reason, then the ONE time we neglect to love our neighbor (help with their corporal and/or spiritual needs) and don’t truly repent of that sin, that damns us forever. This is the truth.
Truly, we are not saved by our works or anything we do; we are saved by God’s saving mercy alone. And we damn ourselves into the eternal fire prepared for the devil if we don’t seek God’s mercy (forgiveness) for our great lack of love. Yes, the lack of contrition for one sin kills. Please don’t be deceived. To learn more please read, “How Can Our Good Works Damn Us.”
“You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me” (Matthew 25:42-43).
The reason we are so confused and don’t know The Way, have no contrition for our sins and are dying is because we have SO MANY IDOLS. We are attached to countless pleasures of the world, in which “the god[s] of this world [our idols]… [have] blinded…[our] minds” (2 Corinthians 4:4) to The Way to Heaven, but sadly, most don’t see them. But these idols are reeking havoc in our lives and have caused us to not understand the faith. I tell you, we have been so deceived; we are so far from The Way; we have so much to change. We love so many sins (lack contrition for so many sins).
“I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, “Turn now every one of you from your evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them [spend your time seeking and pleasing them]… But you did not incline your ear or obey me.” (Jeremiah 35:15).
Tragically, we just aren’t listening to God or His servants, and the world is corrupt. The Blessed Mother in Heaven is crying. God the Father sends His only begotten Son to redeem us and show us the way to Heaven, and we want the world instead of Him. It is just so horrible; words can’t express what we have done.
“Those deceived by idols are in the power of perdition [Hell], and through idols the unbelievers [deceived Christians] forsake the honor of their Creator, entangling themselves in the traps of the devil and carrying out his works according to his will.”
–St. Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church (Book 3-The History of Salvation, Vision 1, #14)
We are being manipulated by the devil and don’t even know it. Sadly, this wonderful world that God made, instead of us using it to love God, we–like our ancestors–use it to satisfy ourselves. And the Cure we need to put an end to this misery, we reject. Horrible!
From the fall of Adam and Eve, we have a great inclination for sin–a great desire for idols. What should be good for us (the world), we have made into poison. Therefore, if we want to gain true love for God (a saving faith), we need to hear God and turn our affection from the world to Him.
What I have already explained to you about our “sins” is only part of the problem. The real problem is our idols. Yes, idolatry is really what is damning us. As said before, an idol is anything we seek for happiness that isn’t God or His will.
“I am the Lord your God… You shall not have other gods beside me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
Yes, the first command encompasses all of the others, when we habitually commit them. And the reason we commit any of them is because we idolize ourselves: from our pride, we seek to make ourselves happy and not God. Sadly, we suffer from much self-love… not love of God. Therefore, violating the first commandment is what makes us guilty of all of them.
You see, all of these sins that we cling to (habitually commit/are attached to), we do so since we think they are going to bring us some kind of happiness, but all they really do is lead to our doom. They are our idols.
An idol can be a false deity, a sin, or a worldly pleasure. Again, it is anything we desire for happiness that isn’t God or His will. But no matter what it is, they all have the same end, if we don’t repent and change.
This is such a huge problem. Our fallen nature rejects God through idolatry in bound of ways. Therefore, we are supposed to be spending our lives seeking Mercy to help us rid our innate desire for idols, which are also known as our attachments, but sadly, we aren’t.
“Rid ourselves of every burden [attachment] and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race [to Life] that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus [who will rid our liking for sin and the world and save us, if we allow Him]” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Please don’t get me wrong, an idol isn’t something that makes us happy. It is what we need or desire for happiness. They are two different things. Some things that make us happy are good, like attending a beautiful Mass, and they help us to better know, love and serve God. And others are neutral, like a pretty sunset. They don’t lead us towards or away from God. But other things that make us happy can be bad, like yummy food, which can lead us into sin (gluttony–more yummy things… give me more yummy things) and/or idolatry (seeking it for happiness)… but then sometimes yummy food can mean nothing to us at all.
Plus, if we want something for happiness that isn’t God or His will and we do it only once, then it is a regular sin, but if we repeatedly/habitually seek it, then it is an idol (our source or need for happiness).
Here is an example most can relate to: When our kids are doing well, behaving and loving us that makes us happy, which can be either, good, bad or neutral. Now, if our children do poorly and treat us badly, of course we will be sad or even angry over their wrong choices. God is saddened and sometimes angry over our wrongs too.
But if we don’t need our children to behave to be happy, their poor choices won’t disturb our overall happiness/peace. That sadness and/or anger will only be over their loss or to help them make good choices but it won’t linger… nor will it be driven from self-pity, wishing we had no cross/didn’t have to deal with their bad behavior. Nor will it be from worrying, from having a lack trust in God’s will.
No matter what happens, we will be in peace, regardless of what they do, since not only are they not our source of happiness, but we also trust all God allows –the good and the bad–as what we need to bear, so to grow into a saving faith. Therefore, our will isn’t our source of happiness, God’s is. So our peace/happiness will remain regardless of what occurs. Yet, if the opposite occurs, we know we have a problem. We know our children are our source of happiness, and we don’t trust in God.
But that is only one of many types of idolatry. But all the devil needs to do to damn us is to get us to not see and idol as an idol and justify it as something good or neutral, so we can’t repent of it, and then we die. So, please be very careful as we try to examine our lives to see all we desire for happiness that isn’t God or His will.
Please know, we won’t be able to see all of our idols at once, but if we keep on seeking God, we trust He will enlighten us to all of them so we can repent and hopefully change before our death. But as for now, let’s at least learn what an idol is.. or at least some of them.
“Either an eternity of delights, or an eternity of torments, a life of happiness, or a life of misery. What folly therefore must it be, for the sake of a wretched momentary pleasure in this life, to run the risk of making an evil end, and beginning a life of misery which will never terminate!”
–St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, (The Way of Salvation and Perfection, Med. 45)
Yes, it is extremely important we learn what our idols are and how deadly “pleasure” is (as explained later).
What do you need for happiness? Some need complements to be happy, without them we feel unappreciated… some need a big piggy bank to be happy, without it we feel insecure or unsuccessful… some need to be the best at something to be happy, or we feel like a failure… some need to gossip to be happy, or we feel unimportant or lacking superiority… some need to be sexually attractive to be happy, or we don’t feel valuable/desired… some need more things to be happy or we feel boredom with the same old thing and don’t have the hi from getting something new… some need to make a great find (get a bargain/sale), to feel successful/accomplished to be happy… some need to be constantly stimulated with an electronic device to be happy or our minds don’t know what to do with ourselves…
Oh, some need to be in control to be happy or we feel weak, without power… some need sports to be happy or we are without our passion… some need to be smart to be happy or we feel like we are stupid (and we don’t want to be less than others/what God wills)… some need things to go well (no cross) to be happy, because we don’t want to suffer (carry the cross of Christ)… some need sex to be happy, because we don’t want to restrain ourselves or go without what we desire, since it feels so good to be gratified and so bad to deny ourselves… some need a good cup of coffee to be happy… Oh, really there are endless things we seek for happiness. What do you need?
I can tell you, I have needed all of them for happiness except for perhaps needing electronics, sports or coffee.. but all of the rest and much more, before God’s grace removed many of them, I sought them all for happiness… and today, I’m still working on amending some.
Okay, perhaps now we can see some of what we are attached to (an idol). But reality is, our hearts are constantly on fire for something in the world, whether it is a sin or some created thing… we are always running from one attraction to another, looking for happiness. Without seeking great grace, this is how we live. We are far from content with God alone… the source of true happiness. To learn more please read, “How to Find True Happiness.”
Yes, we are a mess. God wants to do so much with our lives, but we are so busy seeking the world for happiness, we are missing our entire purpose of our existence. Even if I were to watch some of us and see what we run to for happiness and say what our idols are, most would still make excuses how they aren’t really idols just to remain in them, since we love them so greatly.
We just don’t want to leave them to desire/love God alone. This is true. But I tell you, none of them will be in Hell for you to delight in. Let them go!
“You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be LOVERS OF THEMSELVES, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, LOVERS OF PLEASURE rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power [looking pious but it is a facade]. Avoid them!” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
Yes, tragically, we might look holy, but we are far from it. We are lovers of ourselves and lovers of pleasure, who desire bounds of things to bring us happiness that aren’t God or His will, and we don’t want to let them go, which has blinded and damned us.
This all came about because we didn’t strive to Live the Word when we first came to believe. You see, once we first really believed that Christ was God–our source of true happiness and we wanted to follow Him/do His will–we should have worked hard to “put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires [of sin and the world for happiness], and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self [desiring God alone], created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). But we didn’t.
Now, instead of learning The Way and becoming saints (knowing that is God’s will), we maybe left a couple of “bad” life choices, learned how to perhaps pray and/or do some good works, but the majority of our being still clings to our old self… declaring we are Christian’s when we are far from TRUE Christians–saints–since we have countless desires for sin and passions and lusts for the world… and we live complacent with these sins, making them mortal.
“When we look around today on the masses of Christian people, we marvel that such can belong to the chosen race… except for… [a] few practices, there is no difference between a Christian and a pagan: neither greater decency in dress nor more frugality in food nor more reserve in speech nor more love of God nor less attachment to the goods and pleasures of this world. … [He] paid so great a price [for His children only] to have so poor a return.”
–St. Claude De La Colombiere (Spiritual Direction, On Christians Who Lack Christianity)
Therefore, we might “say” we believe God is our happiness, but we prove it is our sins, our pride, our will, our friends, family, food, success, money, social media, sports, TV, internet, shopping, vacations, sex, vanity, fashion, technology, relaxation, entertainment, our phone, etc… oh, there are endless things we desire, since that is what we habitually run to or need for happiness.
The world is only supposed to be used to help us better know, love and serve God… not to keep us from Him. Everything we do is supposed to be done for His glory, not to love ourselves. Yet, “through pleasures and luxuries, [we] have bound the world’s burden upon them[our]selves” as St. Ambrose (Christian faith, Ch. 13 #84) explains… and now we are under a blinding spell walking by the “power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) to our doom.
“[Jesus] Himself complains most bitterly and sorrowfully about the small number of souls in His grace, who are willing to renounce whatever the observance of His laws requires of them [so to love Him].”
–Sr. Lucia of Fatima
Honestly, if we are capable of being honest with ourselves (which sadly most aren’t even close to accepting the truth), but if we can at least have some degree of honesty, please ask ourselves questions to see the reality of our hearts.
For example: if God were to take away our nice clothes and give us homely clothing, would we still be happy or embarrassed, since we pride ourselves on our looks? “Test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Wear shabby unstylish clothing for a week and see how we feel. Will you even do it? Don’t you know Christ didn’t wear fine clothing? Who are we following?
“Christian ladies [and men] should consider how contrary to the spirit of Jesus Christ are the luxuries and vanities which surround them [vast indulgences and what we do to improve our image]; and that the costly apparel, the necklaces and bracelets with which they adorn themselves, correspond but poorly with the robe of infamy with which our Savior was clothed.”
–St. Francis Borgia (Second Treaties, Part II)
Is our image so important, our pride so great, that we can’t humble ourselves in our clothing to even do that once? How much self love do we really have (idolize ourselves)? If we want to know ourselves, test ourselves. We don’t have to live blind and doomed. Then repent and change at the rate in which Grace will allow you.
“But if we judged ourselves truly [looked to see our real sinfulness], we should not be judged [found guilty and judgement]” (1 Corinthians 11:31).
Truly, we aren’t going to see sin unless we look for it… we have spent our lives covering it. Again, if God were to lets say take away our nice car and give us an old beat up one, would you still be happy or yet again, embarrassed, since we pride ourselves on being “cool” stylish, or at least like others etc.? Again, test yourself. Rent an plain ordinary car… the worst they have, then allow all of your friends to see you… drive in your ordinary car to where the elite hang out and see how inferior you feel. Is your pride being crushed? Do you really want to be nothing or does your heart crave to be someone? Do we need nice things to be happy? How many idols do we really have?
Yes, don’t remain blind… “examine yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5). How about, if God were to take away our success and give us failure, would we still be happy or unhappy? Do we need our will/success for happiness? What if God were to take away our pleasant spouse and give us a grumpy one, would we still be happy or would we be full of complaints, since our happiness found on the kindness of others? Do we see the pattern here? If we want to see our illness, remove the pleasure… see our reaction, then see our idols/sin (what we need for happiness). We will clearly see many ways it isn’t God or His will.
Really, we can clearly see our idols or our any sin every time we are unhappy/lacking peace… all we have to do is LOOK into why we feel unhappy/outside of peace–that is our idol/sin. Yes, our happiness is destroyed by our idolatry.
I mean sure nobody should be “happy” with sin (ours or others)… God isn’t happy with our sinfulness either, but, when we lose our idols and gain trust in God, we will still be in peace happily trusting in all God allows, as being His holy will, and what we must bear/go through to grow into a saving faith/perfection. So sure being dissatisfied with the sin will always occur but the self-pity towards ourselves for having to carry a cross because of it will leave. We will be in peace.
Oh, the perfect happiness that God has waiting for us, sadly, we are rejecting… and for what? …some momentary fleeting pleasure? So sad. To learn more please read, “How to Find True Happiness.”
However, when we grow in faith and come to truly believe God is our source of happiness, we simply won’t want sin, our will, things or the creatures of the world that we used to run to and need for happiness. All of the pleasures we once loved, we won’t desire them anymore. Our hearts will have found Our True Love.
I’m Attached to My Family and Friends
Yikes! How many of us are greatly attached to our family and friends. How many are searching for someone to love all because we feel unloved and lonely inside… all because God isn’t our source of true happiness.
“Oh, how much the disordered love of creatures interferes with this pure, divine love!
–St. Mary Magdalene De Pazzi (Life and Works, Section 2)
Do we want this pure Divine Love? Are we willing to do what the saints say, “attach yourself not to human consolations and friendships…” as St. Francis de Sales warns us in a letter to a friend so he can obtain true friendship with God?
This is the wisdom of the saints. But are we listening to them; are we now that we know the truth willing to change so to listen to them? Will we obey others or only the desires of our hearts, since we think we have correct wisdom?
Well, I tell you, if we want to Live, we must humble ourselves. We know nothing… we have been vastly deceived. Obey and follow the saints. They have correct wisdom and know The Way.
Friends and family, for many, are our greatest attachment–our greatest idol. How many people say, “family is everything.” Oh, we are greatly deceived. Family and friends are supposed to help save each other’s souls, but the devil has our family and friends damning our souls… moving us into greater and greater blindness… from being more and more attached to them.
Yes, we love running to our friends and family especially when we feel bad or are board… but that is stripping ourselves of the relationship with God we should have. But if we can now hear, are we really willing to give up seeking out our family and friends–for comfort and happiness–and set our hearts on loving God?
“If any one comes to Me without hating [what] his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life [has done to our friendship with God, since we clinging to them and not God], he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26)
If we have left our idols, we will still have a family and love them, but we won’t need or want them for happiness. They can treat us horribly and reject us, and we will still be perfectly content, since God and whatever He wills is our source of happiness. And we will maybe have friends (if they desire sanctity too)… but we won’t need their conversion for happiness, since God alone is our source of happiness.
And of course all of the other stuff we used to idolize (seek for happiness) we won’t desire. Sure, we will still rest, exercise and eat food for health/nourishment, but we won’t run to them as something we “need” for happiness or “crave” doing it for reasons of vanity or in excess looking for something delightful to do or eat… and all of the rest of the stuff…TV, shopping, fashion, technology, success, praise, etc… we just won’t desire at all. In fact we will run from it, if possible.
Of course it is fine to seek our family and friends for help (corporal mercy) or to guide us to Life (spiritual mercy), if they know how to do that correctly and it doesn’t hinder us from going to God, but not because we desire their affection and attention for happiness. We must stamp out that great idol.
And of course it is okay to give affection and attention, if it is good, that is, it helps move others towards Life, since some people are so far from God without it they will die (such idols must be removed slowly). But not if we are attached to making others happy (our source of happiness is bringing smiles to others faces). We must try to find other means of helping, if that is possible, like doing what we don’t like hidden from others.
When we have banished our idols, we might use something or someone to help us better know, love and serve God, but we certainly won’t crave them nor look for the next best thing nor desire to partake in anything that distracts us from unceasing prayer with God. God and His will will be everything.
I Can’t Hear
Oh, there are many reasons we are blind and dying. Not being able to hear God is one of them also. When God is our everything, we will be content with God alone in SILENCE, since God speaks to us in the silence of our hearts.
“If your desire and aim is to reach the destination of the path and home of true happiness [Heaven]… then earnestly apply your mind to seek constant purity of heart, charity of mind and calm of the sense. Gather up your heart’s desire and fix it continually on the Lord God above.
To do so you must withdraw yourself so far as you can from friends and from everyone else, and from the activities that hinder you from such a purpose. Grasp every opportunity when you can find the place, time and means to devote yourself to silence and contemplation…avoid the restless agitation of the noisy world.”
–St. Albert the Great, (On Cleaving to God, Ch. 6)
But silence isn’t what we like. We feel lonely and board, since we don’t know how to be content with God. The saints ran to silence, but we feel depressed or like we are going crazy if we are in it for any period of time.
Our source of true happiness simply has been pushed away by bounds of worldly desires, and we don’t know how to live without them. Oh, we want the TV on, or our cell phone, or a video game, or the internet, or perhaps an audio book, or talk radio or we will be chattering with a friend… really there are endless things that pull our hearts and minds off of God… that make our lives so noisy we can never really focus on God nor come to desire Him alone.
Yes, oh, what about all of this music, which is mostly sexually stimulating, enticing us to sin through impurity and all sorts of idolatry. Even “Christian” music doesn’t really lead us to God, some of which the lyrics are even lies that keep us from the Truth. Oh, the noise of this world! Remove the noise, find God.
Of course singing during Mass and in some prayers is good… but the problem is our minds are never silent which prevents us from truly knowing God or living His will.
How about those of us, who can’t hear God because we are inclined to frequent talking, when God wants us silent, with Him much of the time….
“When words are many, transgression is not lacking [sins are many], but the prudent are restrained in speech.” (Proverbs 10:19).
Yes our words are keeping us from God. But to make excuses why we must speak, as we set out on our quest for companionship and idol chatter–instead of God–we will say, “Didn’t God say, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone'” (Genesis 2:18). And yes, God did say that, but not because God wants us to make each other our god’s (what we need for happiness).
But God clearly tells us why we are to have each other; we are to be each others, “helper[s]” (Genesis 2:18), since “we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us” (Romans 12:6) to help each other live for God’s honor and glory. But we don’t understand this, and we make each other our gods’… as we long for others as our source of happiness, rejecting God for the very helpers He sent us.
Oh, the sins our mouths cause… if we only really knew, most would take a vow of silence, if we could.
“Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers”(James 3:6-10).
Yes, if we only really knew what we are really saying, we would be ashamed. But, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36). Practice silence.
What about our minds quest for knowledge, which is another way we push out God because of our pride. Oh, we might have an appearance that we desire to learn, so to know, love and serve God, but if we could know the truth of our intentions, we would see much of our desire is strictly because we pride ourselves with being knowledgeable. We want to be smart. Who wants to be stupid? Frankly we shouldn’t want either. We must learn how to want NOTHING… only God and whatever He wills should be all we desire.
Oh, if we really knew the intentions of our hearts, we would see much of it, if not all of it, is for self-love (pride). Tragic! We need Mercy to change us.
Sadly, our minds are never silent listening to God speak to us; they are on the world.
But, when God has finally become our everything, He will fill our every need beyond anything the world could offer. We just won’t want any of it anymore… only God and His will.
“None beside you delights me on earth” (Psalm 73:25).
I know this is hard to believe, since we love the world so much, but it is true. Frankly, we will “hate” what all these idols have done to our relationship with God; we will see how we really don’t know God at all.
When we finally let go of it all, we will only want to do what God wants… seeking God’s will, prayer and saving souls as our pleasure. And we will LOVE it, since God’s love is filling us. Nothing of the world will attract us anymore. Our idols will be gone. God will be our everything.
“‘You are my God. My happiness lies in you alone’ (v. 2)… the Psalmist radically rejects the temptation of idolatry [seeking happiness from the world]”
–Pope St. John Paul II, (General Audience, Wed., 28 July 2004)
But to get to this kind faith takes a lot of work, since we have countless habits of self-love that will take much grace to see and remove. And if we haven’t even begun to remove our idols, we have a long way to go. It is hard to truly hate, what we have spent our life time loving. But with grace, it is possible.
But the real question is, are we willing to give up everything we do that isn’t to better know, love and serve God… all of our sins/idols? If we are then there is hope. “Whoever seeks to preserve his life [keep his pleasures] will lose it, but whoever loses it [chooses God instead] will save it” (Luke 17:33). The rest of this article and web-site will help us do just that.
Sadly, like was said, most want the world’s pleasures so badly we will talk ourselves into justifying everything as not sinful or something we need to help us love God–just to continue to do or get what we wish without feeling guilty. Beware!
But please know, God, who sees the honest truth of our hearts, knows what we do much of the time, if not all of the time, is from a great longing for for happiness with everything but Him. We just refuse to see it. Remember, if we lie to ourselves, we die. Admitting our guilt is the first step to change.
“If they believed in the eternal joy of Heaven and in the horrific torments of hell, they would DESIRE NOTHING but me…they would hate the world…[But they don’t so] their hope [for salvation] is vain, because they hope that their sin will be forgiven without justice and a right judgment…
And therefore, when they cry out to me and say ‘O God, have mercy on me’, they do not deserve to be heard or to enter into my glory since they did not want to follow their Lord in suffering [lose what they love to obtain the greater Love], and, therefore, they should not follow him to the glory.”
–Jesus to St. Bridget of Sweden, (Revelations Ch. 39)
On top of that, we need to be aware that sadly, countless things of pleasure that we seek are not only idols, but they lead us into even greater sin. Many of them are impure delights, which we seek as entertainment, comfort or to pride ourselves with… that stem from what we think and say, to what we hear, wear, watch and do.
For example: We love to be sexy and look at what is sexy. But we don’t want to see it as sinful…”oh, there is worse” we will say to ourselves… to justify our sins… as we wear the tight clothes, checking out our butt in the mirror to see how good we look. Or we watch others walking by to see how good or not so good they look. Perhaps, we watch that show/news with the “attractive” actors, as we tantalize our sensuality (think impurely). But would a saint do that? No. Therefore, it is a sin… a sin we ignore… a mortal sin. They offend God. We are hurting God–His Sacred Heart of Love and increasing His passion on the cross–each and every time we commit one of those offences. Horrible! We must stop!
The purity we need to obtain life begins in the closet. What I mean is, we can’t be pure if we aren’t dressing pure. So, the next time you get ready in the morning, look at what are you wearing and what are you thinking? Are you being modest and simple trying to not sin in your own mind and not cause anyone else to fall into lust or envy through your appearance? Or are you wanting to look good to boost your pride and are really with much vanity/self-love… seeking self-glory for happiness?
Therefore, don’t seek to look good… just seek to look presentable… so you can decrease and God can increase… so you can become simple and humble just wanting stobe know and seen by the Lord for our heart of love for Him. Beware, “be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
“Immorality and all impurity or covetousness [wanting what others have] must not even be named among you” (Ephesians 5:3).
Reality is, there are endless impure things we do, which a true saint wouldn’t, since we aren’t sincerely trying to be perfectly pure. Some of it we justify as acceptable… from desiring to be attractive (self-glory/vanity), all the way to fornication (sexual relations out side of marriage) and worse. Yes, we declare so many sins as no big deal or not even sins making them all mortal.
But I tell you, even lust within a marriage is wrong; sure it is better than lusting over our neighbor, but it is still a sin that, if we don’t sincerely work hard (become resolved) to leave, will damn us… Yes, we are a mass of impurity, but most don’t see it, since it is an acceptable part of our lives. To learn more, please read, “What is God’s Plan for Marriage.” It isn’t immorality and self-gratification.
Now, we can neglect to honestly look into our conscience to see where we aren’t living lives as saints, so to pretend like we are doing nothing wrong. Then we can stay in our sins and avoid feeling embarrassed or guilty, but we will die in our unrepentant sins, as sadly, many do, since many of us are “pure in their own eyes, yet not cleansed of their filth.” (Proverbs 30:12). But please remember ONE sin, which we lack true contrition for keeps our wedding garment soiled and rejects Eternal Life.
However, if we want Eternal Life, we can seek Mercy for the grace to see and admit our offences against God (confess them), and then seek help to “keep yourself pure” (1 Timothy 5:22). That way we can become perfectly pure, not just of sexual immorality but of all sin, and then we will be pleasing to God. To learn more please read, “Sexual Immorality.
Yes, our source of happiness is a mess, but it needs to become God. We need to find our happiness in loving God… God alone needs to be what we seek/need. He must be our only God. But we aren’t seeking Him and falling to our doom. Now is the time to change. Let’s run to Christ to change us.
“Who are you? A soul divided in the service of God [loves God one minute and then the world the next]? A soul embarrassed by a multitude of human affections [need our family, friends, etc. to make us happy]? You have now to detach your heart from creatures [but you still seek the affection of others to satisfy you]… Who are you? A soul given to worldly pleasures?…“Return, you transgressors, to the heart [of God]” (Is. 46:8)…. Who are you? A soul struggling with long and violent temptations… You need strength to resist…. Who are you? Lastly, are you a guilty soul? [humble yourself, admit who you are]… Ah! You require nothing less than all the grace of God…[let’s learn how to obtain it].”
–St. Ignatius of Loyola, (Spiritual Exercises, First consideration)
Until we humble ourselves and want to see our vast idols, we will remain blind to them rejecting God’s grace. And yes, there is a lot.
This passion/desires for sin and the world is what has caused the great fall of the Church… Yes, whole Church lost sight of The Way, committed vast sin and led it’s faithful astray to their doom all because of its great lusts for the pleasures of the world (idolatry).
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great [The Catholic Church]! For all the nations [all people] have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication [suffer because they followed her sin/lusts for the world’s pleasures]… As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously [proudly boasted and lived with bounds of worldly delights], so give her a like measure of torment and grief” (Revelation 18:1-7).
Oh, some of us want to think the Book of Revelations is speaking about the fall of Rome or the leaders of the world, but that is the misconception of the evil one. Sure some of the prophecies of old, do speak of the fall of Rome/leaders, but many of them actually foretell of the fall of the Church today–this time of great darkness we are living in. But Revelations only speaks of the fall of the Church and the rise of The Truth (re-building of the Church) and then the destruction of death (sin). Please don’t be deceived.
“For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep… I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness [when nobody knows The Way]” (Ezekiel 34:12).
Therefore, if we want to escape this horrible trap of the devil that is killing us, we need to seek Mercy–for God will rescue us–for the strength to see, admit and then work to abandon all our idolatry, or they are mortal sins, which will kill us. This is a HUGE problem that we are blind too, that is keeping us from Our Savior.
“Adulterers [partaking in another love… not God]! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4-5).
Why do we think the saints lived the way they lived, choosing poverty (if they could)… sacrificing the world’s pleasures? Because God wills us to live by way of the cross; because that is how lose our idols, love God and save souls (ours and others), as will be explained. Yes, mortal sin is much more than we understand. Please don’t be deceived.
“The man who has once chose pleasure in this life, and has not cured his inconsiderateness by repentance, places the land of the good [Heaven] beyond his own reach.”
–St. Gregory of Nyssa (On the Soul and the Resurrection)
What a joy poverty is… to not have the pleasures of the world to constantly pull our hearts off of God… to live the cross. Wow! What a shame to be in blessed poverty and wish you weren’t. Tragic!
Of course we don’t want to live without our “needs” being met (unless that is God’s will), but to live above what our basic needs are, with the finer things in life, is a shame.
As we can see it is hard to understand right from wrong–if what we do is or isn’t truly to better know, love and serve God… for His will and not our own–when we are suffering from much blinding pride. But if we don’t even seek such knowledge, we will never find The Way… and then we will stay complacent with offending God and die. To learn more please read, “How to Become Attached to God and Not the World?”
“No, my friends, do not let us deceive ourselves. Let us flee [from the world’s pleasures], or else we may run the danger of being lost. All our saints have fled and despised the world all their lives. Those who were obliged to live in it lived as if they were not in it. How many of the real great ones have left this world to live in solitude [to obtain Life]!… [They understood] how difficult it was to obtain salvation in this world!”
–St. John Vianney, (Sermon, 23rd Sunday after Pentecost)
I know this is a hard concept to understand, when we are living in the world… but trust the saints. We have many idols we need to leave, if we want to Live and they are deadly. Ask God to give you the grace to see. Please know, you don’t need to see them all at once (God won’t allow it anyway), but you do need to see something and then, confess it and seek Mercy for strength… make resolutions, implement them and remove them, one idol at a time.
Sure, it can be hard to remove certain idols, much of the time, because another sin needs to be removed first or because we need to do God’s will (which we are refusing to do), which is blocking God’s grace from giving us the strength to amend. To learn more please read, “How to Stop Sinning.” But with God’s help, we can do this, if we are willing to consistently seek Him for help, changing what doesn’t work… and never quitting.
But we need to know, that once we obtain true contrition (true sorrow) for our sins, it won’t be hard to leave the world’s pleasures (even though if we aren’t careful, we could fall). We simply won’t want to indulge in pleasures anymore, not only because we have lost our idols but also because we won’t want to reward our sinful behavior with pleasure after pleasure anymore. We will want to be punished to make up for all the wrongs we have done. This is true. We will want to live a life of penance–“sackcloth and ashes” (Luke 10:13) in atonement for our sins. To learn more please read, “What is Penance.”
“The more repugnance you feel for something, the more willing you should be to do it” –St. John Baptist de La Salle (Letter to Brother Robert, March 1709)
When we have true contrition for our sins, if we are forced/have to live in a house of pleasures (like if we are married or live under our parents), we won’t want that any more and if we can leave that life style, if it is God’s will, we will easily run away to the cross. That sacrifice will be easy to make, again, not just because we hate that our idols have pulled our hearts from God, that they are greatly harming our relationship with Our Lord (wounding His Sacred Heart and increasing His suffering at His crucifixion)–but also because we want to atone for our sins from the great contrition in our hearts.
“[When we embrace forgiving grace], you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses [sins], and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you [one that desires God and not sin]; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh [true love]” (Ezekiel 36:25-26).
Humble Penance Saves
Like was said, when we have true contrition, we want to live a life of penance to atone for our sins so to love God. It makes rejecting pleasure–losing our idols–easy.
An atonement is repairing a wrongdoing. Christ is the atonement for all of our sins.
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world [for all who accept it]” (1 John 2:2).
But since we rejected God’s perfect atonement (His sacrifice) when we commit our first sin we after our baptism, God from His mercy is allowing us to atone for all of our sins committed after our baptism through love… so we can still obtain Eternal Life.
“Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
This love that atones (covers) our sins isn’t an equal atonement for our offences committed, since that isn’t possible. Christ has done that for us, once and for all. He is the perfect sacrifice, which perfects us beyond anything we can achieve on earth or in purgatory, which we need for Eternal Life, and we accept when we become saints on our way to Heaven.
“For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14).
Yes, the transformation from Earth to Heaven is fantastic… even the least holy saint in Heaven is more perfect than the most holy perfect saint that there ever was on earth. This atonement that we accept of Christ purifies us beyond our understanding. It is fantastic!
“Amen, I say to you, among those born of women [with original sin] there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11).
“John the Baptist never sinned and was sanctified in his mother’s womb” (St. Catherine of Sienna, Dialogue, A Treatise of Prayer)… Oh, the greatest man on Earth, who received the fullness of the Holy Spirit during the “Visitation,” is nothing compared someone in Heaven. The purification that a soul goes through, who embraces Jesus’ atonement, as he leaves earth and enters into the Kingdom of Heaven, is fantastic!
Therefore, please know, no atonement we make can ever love that greatly, since there is an infinite offence committed against our infinitely perfect Lord from the slightest transgression, which is why Christ has to atone for our sins, so we can be welcomed into Heaven.
But this love that we need to have that covers/atones for our sins committed after our baptism, enough to become sanctified, which Mercy is allowing to purify us even though we have rejected Christ’s original gift, is a love just like Christ loved us…. not a love like the world, who loves with idol conversations, gifts and similes of approval… but a love like Christ loves, which is loving through the CROSS–PENANCE.
You see, by nature God created our bodies to seek pleasure. Before Adam and Eve’s first sin, we sought pleasure through loving God, but after sin entered into the world, we all suffer from the desire to seek pleasure by loving ourselves (desiring sin), instead of loving God. Idolizing ourselves.
So the cure for the ailment of loving ourselves is its opposite, which is denying ourselves of pleasures for the cross (suffering), which is why Christ suffered to atone for our sins.
“Suffering must serve for conversion [penance/to change into a greater likeness of Christ], that is, for the rebuilding of goodness [to stop sinning/removing our desire for sin] in the subject [the person suffering], who can recognize the divine mercy in this call to repentance.
–St. Pope John Paul II (Salvifici Doloris par.12)
Christ only had to suffer the smallest infraction to purify us of our enormity of offences, since His love is perfect and can cover all of our sin. He suffered in such a great way to teach us what love is, show us how we can atone for our sins and to prove His love for us. He did everything to help save us.
Even though we have a great desire to love ourselves (self-love/pride), the desire to love God is still with in us. But it is drowned out because of our strong inclination to sin. It is only through God’s grace that our hard hearts, which love ourselves more than God, can be transformed… and the only way to transform us, like was said, is through LOVE… true love… giving up of what we want to love another/suffering… like Christ did for us. Penance! We need to do the same.
“I beg you through the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice [denying yourself of pleasure, making yourself] holy and acceptable to God.” (Romans 12:1)
Yes, PENANCE IS WHAT SAVES, but only if done by obedience to God’s will with a humble contrite heart of love. From our suffering God will send grace–transforming grace–to help remove our desire for sin and save our souls… as Christ’s example has clearly shown us. God wants to destroy death–sin–by our acts of penance.
“Consider how very necessary it is for you to set your face against yourself [do what you don’t like, since we like sin/our will], and walk in the way of penance [surrendering our will for God’s/choose the cross]… if any one tempts you with lax opinions, and should even confirm them by miracles, trust him not: but rely rather upon penance and perfect detachment from creatures.
–St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, (Spiritual Maximus #338)
Penance is a two part gift… it pays the price for our sin (atones, makes us saints) but it only does that if we are already in a state of grace. However, if we aren’t in a state of grace, penance sends fantastic grace to help us come to truly hate our sins… to grow into a state of grace.
Therefore, “do not conform yourselves to this age [of pleasure seekers] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind [by God’s grace into seeking to love God], so that you may judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:12:2).
But if we perform a penance full of pride, it obtains us nothing.
No Reward (Help to Obtain Heaven) is Given Through Pride
Everything we do has a reward or punishment. God will literally judge everything–every second we think, every word we utter, every action we make—and reward and punish us during our lives, at the moment of our death and during judgement for it all. “I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give every man according to his ways” (Jeremiah 17:10). To learn more please read “Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.”
If we do anything good through a humble contrite heart–even if it isn’t through a truly humble contrite heart –as long as there is some real humility and contrition, our act is considered “good” in the eyes of God, which has a benefit for the salvation of our souls. But, what I should say is, the “part” of our thoughts, words or deeds that has real humility and contrition in it, is the “good” part, which will benefit us, depending on how much humble contrition and real charity (LOVE) we have in our hearts.
Sadly, all of our actions are tainted with some amount of evil. Until we obtain perfection, every action has some “good” and some “evil” in it. But all of the “good”, if there is any, is rewarded with grace to help us atone… or move into true hatred for our sins. Praise God!
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Now, our goal is to strive to do all for the love of God, from a humble (knows of our sinfulness and need for Mercy) contrite (sorrow for our sins because we have offended God) heart… then mercy–transforming grace that changes the heart–will come from all we do. Our life can become a life of penance (as explained later).
However, reality is, until we obtain fear of the Lord, there is actually not the smallest portion of “good” in any good work, prayer or penance we have ever done. Even if it was the most fantastic act of sacrificial love, tragically, it was done from a proud heart.
God can still send grace and/or gifts or blessings from whatever good works, prayers or penances we have done, to help us hopefully find fear of the Lord (the first step towards a saving faith) so we can become more Christ like and hopefully lose our pride so to become saved, even if everything was done from proud hearts. And we might accept some of that grace. But that grace, won’t be transforming grace. It simply can’t help move us towards a saving faith without having some amount to real humility and contrition.
Without fear of the Lord (fearing sin and its consequences) and not presuming we are saved (hoping for it if we live the faith)–nothing we do, no matter how great it is, can move us towards Life, nor can it provide us a reward/help at the hour of our death, nor during judgement. This is the truth. We must be humble!
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
However, if someone, who has some fear of the Lord (wisdom) and humility, were to perform an act of penance, or a prayer or a good work for another, grace could go from those acts towards helping to move a soul towards a saving faith or better. This the the minimum faith requirement we needed to help save souls.
But without wisdom and humility, like was said, God can only use us to send superficial grace (help with this world, healings, guidance, etc.), if anything at all, from our prayers/works, not transforming grace, which doesn’t lead to Life. Hopefully, with that superficial grace (grace that does NOT penetrate the soul nor change hearts), God can use it to help move us towards obtaining wisdom and humility, but without us having humility and wisdom first, our prayers, etc. will merit others and ourselves nothing in the end.
Anyone, even a wicked person can call on the name of the Lord, and His power can be sent (if God wills)… but it doesn’t help save (unless the wicked person is a priest, and the power is coming from him in the sacraments–through the Church… then they can still help save).
But please know all of these Rosaries we pray, full of pride–presuming we are saved/having no fear of sin–thinking they are going to help us at the hour of our death, which is one of the reasons we feel so assured of salvation (suffer from presumption), won’t help us at all. Please don’t be deceived. Proud prayers and works, no matter how many billions we have performed, only end in doom.
“I [Jesus] will allow convents and churches to be destroyed. I [St. Faustina] answered, ‘Jesus, but there are so many souls praising You in convents.’ The Lord answered, That praise wounds My Heart because love has been banished from convents [and churches].
Souls without [true] love and without [true] devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls [who have no fear of sin, who aren’t growing towards perfection] who have just enough warmth to keep them alive: My Heart cannot bear this. All the graces that I pour out upon them flow off them as off the face of a rock [onto the floor]…
And if they do not repent and become enkindled by their first love [God, not the world], I will deliver them over to the fate of this world. How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world?
There is neither PENANCE nor ATONEMENT… O heart especially chosen by Me [the faithful], were you chosen for this, give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through.”
–Jesus to St. Faustian Diary (#1702)
Now, do we understand why “scarcely anyone is saved” as St. Alphonsus tried to explain to us? Our pride has killed us! Until we come to understand that we are DYING, and need Jesus to save us, no matter how close to the truth we preach, or how many prayers we pray, or how much good we do, we will remain proud, blind and dead. Do you hear how clearly I’m preaching? If there is to be any hope for anyone to hear and Live, we must preach with the same clarity too… we are too proud to hear any other way or we will all will stay blind. We are too ill; our sickness is too great.
But today, if you now have fear of the Lord from reading this, and you no longer proudly presume you are saved (know you need Christ to change you), you can begin to gain grace that will help move you towards Eternal Life from your thoughts, words and deeds, if you do them for the love of God (with charity). Then please go out and save souls too. Alleluia!
How Much Love Do We Have?
Let’s go back to this saving penance (our crosses), that God wants to use to cure us of our great illness: our desire for sin from our great pride. The amount of help during this life, at our death and at judgement that will help move us towards Heaven that we receive from God through our penances (and really anything else we do) depends on our heart. The more love (like Christ) we have, the more help we receive from our penances. How much LOVE–sorrow for our sins, humility, the desire to suffer, and real charity–do we have living in us?
Have you ever done something really wrong to another. I mean something really bad. You feel so horrible about it. You can’t sleep; you just want to take away the sin. You wish you’d never committed it. You try to do all you can to make it all better. Perhaps you and someone else lost their job because of your wrongdoing, and now you are hated… you know you deserve it. You are guilty.
“Lord, pardon my guilt, though it is great… Look upon my affliction and suffering [consequences of my sins]; take away all my sins [through my contrition and this penance]. (Psalm 25:11-12)
When such a horrible thing happens, you don’t want to go out and get a big ice cream and go shopping for a new outfit to reward yourself for ruining everything. You feel horrible. From your remorse, you try to figure out how you can make things better again, and you’re willing to do anything to make up for it.
You actually feel worse for the innocent person you hurt than yourself, and you know your sorrow is true/selfless since you surely would rather die than do that again. So you humbly apologize with all of your heart and try to atone for your sins (do all sorts of good, no matter if it is humiliating), hoping the sin can be forgiven and your jobs can be returned or at least some good can come out of it from the contrition you truly have.
People with true contrition for their sins against God have a similar type of guilt and reaction. They don’t want to indulge… they know they don’t deserve anything good and feel horrible about their sins. They don’t just say they are sorry, and then go on their merry way as if they have done nothing wrong. No. They understand the horror of a single offence against Perfect Goodness.
They want to change their lives, and are even will to be made a fool of, have other be angry with them and even be hated, if it is necessary, to do it. Yes, they are willing to suffer to make their sins right and start doing good. They care more about stopping their sins than loving themselves. They really believe in God and want to choose Him/His will over their sins. They truly never want to commit their sins again, and choose to live a life seeking to atone for their life time of offences against God.
Sure they don’t live depressed, since they know God’s mercy is waiting to help them change. But sinning isn’t just something that happens and is ignored; it is something they burn to stop and desire to make it right (as best they can).
When we finally come to realize what we have really done with our lives, what we have really done to God (how much we have hurt Him): the one who truly love us and gave us everything, who is trying to save us… when we finally realize how proud, blind and lost we are… that all of our time, talents and blessings were supposed to have been used to become saints and save souls… but we went so wrong… oh, how we messed up so badly that we and others are now suffering because of our sins, we won’t want to live the “good life” with pleasure after pleasure anymore. We will want to live a life of penance too.
“Daughter of my people, dress in sackcloth [lose your comfort], roll in the ashes [humiliate yourself for you are nothing]. Mourn as for an only child with bitter wailing [cry over your sins for you are losing God]: “How suddenly the destroyer comes upon us!” [now, we are dying]” (Jeremiah 4:8).
As we can see once we realize what we have done, losing our idols–all we seek for happiness–will be much easier when we have true contrition for our sins or even when come to really see/understand our failure to love God.
“The Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve… Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you, because the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God [doesn’t tolerate idolatry]. The anger of the Lord your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth”(Deuteronomy 6:12-16).
Yes, when we finally fear what we have done, we will desire to live a life of penance by accepting, admitting and taking full responsibility for our wrongs… then we will try to make it right by seeking to reverse any damage our sins has caused by correcting our mistakes and by rejecting as much pleasure as we can for the cross (according to God’s will)–wearing our “sackcloth” (Revelations 11:3)—choosing a cross–especially if there is no other way to correct our error.
When we desire to have true contrition and amend our life, we will work hard to change our lives… not trying to pretend like we really were doing it right all along. That isn’t the humility: the confession we need to be making that transforms our souls. Admitting our guilt and apologizing to God through the priest in confession and to those we have wronged (if it is God’s will), is NECESSARY for our hearts to become humbled. We need the penance. Don’t run from it; it transforms our hearts.
“God, you know my folly; my faults are not hidden from you…. [now I seek to change, and to help me change you have given me this pain] For it is on your account I bear insult, that disgrace covers my face [as a penance for me]. I have become an outcast to my kindred, a stranger to my mother’s children. Because zeal for your house has consumed me [I tried to sway others from sin], I am scorned [seen as worthless] by those who scorn you.
When I humbled my spirit with fasting, this led only to scorn [more healing crosses]. When I clothed myself in sackcloth [as a penance for my sins]; I became a byword for them. Those who sit in the gate gossip about me; drunkards make me the butt of songs. [but I will happily endure all this for you oh, Lord] But I will pray to you, Lord, at a favorable time. God, in your abundant kindness, answer me with your sure deliverance [so this penance doesn’t crush me but helps me to grow strong in faith]” (Psalm 39:6-14).
Once we realize how we NEED our suffering, to send grace to reverse our love for sin, we will embrace any penance (suffering) that God allows to occur in our lives, knowing God intends to use it to help us Live. Being willing to carry any cross God wills us to bear proves we have grown to understand our sinfulness and gained a horror for sin–a horror for Offending God–and want to make right our incredible wrongs (atone for our and the sins). This proves we trust that God can do it (change our hearts) through our suffering.
Then from that fear (servile fear)–the reason we began to change–from the grace we received through our obedience and accepting our penances, we will grow in faith and love for God and then begin to do all to LOVE GOD and to save souls (finial love). Our self-love will vanish.
Frankly, the greatest penance we can have is the surrendering of our will–trusting all God wants us to do and allows (the good and the bad), Our Lord desires to use to lead/change us towards Eternal Life–fully knowing it is needed and good for the salvation of our souls. Performing any penance without trusting and wanting to do God’s will, only makes us hippocrates. We must surrender to God’s will that is The Way to Life.
“Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in.” These are offered according to the [old] law [done from a heart of fear that if we don’t we will die].
Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first [law/servile love/fear of death from disobedience] to establish the second [finial love/willingness to suffer for the love of God so He can save us].
By this “will,” [seeking to do all according to God’s will for love of Him] we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all [since following/obeying Him is how He brings us to a saving faith so we can embrace His saving mercy]” (Hebrews 10:8-10).
I know it can be really confusing what to do. The deceive is just so cleaver as he tries hard to get us to do bad thinking it is good, but to not be led to our doom through his tricks… just follow the saints. They are our guides. “We wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us [the saints]” (2 Thessalonians 3:9).
Sure perhaps we can’t all do the “big” sacrifices/penances they have done; but just seek to do God’s will and He will show you The Way. He will show you exactly what penances are needed for you.
But please know when God comes to us and gives us such a blessing of self-knowledge and knowledge of our need for Mercy, so we don’t perish, we must repent and CHANGE. We can’t just think about our impending doom. He wants to save us, now lets do something about it (as explained later). Don’t allow this knowledge go to waste.
“This Blood [The Bleeding Heart of Christ on the cross for you] teaches the truth to him, who, by self-knowledge [gains knowledge of his sinfulness/obtains humility], dissipates the cloud of self-love [stops thinking he is great], and in no other way can he learn [how to embrace Mercy to Live].”
–God the Father to St. Catherine of Sienna (A Treatise of Divine Providence)
From this gift from God, our entire lives should change, to where those around us question why we look and act so different; why we have changed so much. We can’t just change a few words we say, trying to not look guilty. We are supposed to change our ENTIRE LIVES, since all of it is shrouded in sin. We need to change our entire lives to where we become saints. Yes, we might become outcasts to some… it is ok. It is most good, because if we were just like everyone else, we would be dead.
If people ask us why we are changing everything, we are to tell them the TRUTH, but not to the point to where we are arguing to defend ourselves… that is our pride at work. Yes, some will think all of the changes are wrong or extreme, since they don’t know The Way; we must suffer this as it is good and needed to obtain Life.
Yet, we can see easily how we are FAR from having a truly penitent heart nor are we even striving to obtain one, since we lack those qualities and WE HAVE NO PENANCE… no real desire to love God through the cross–rejecting worldly pleasure/indulgences–from having sorrow for our sins, with either crosses we find/look for or with the crosses God allows us to bear. This needs to change.
However, if we are relying on the priest in the confessional to give us an adequate penance that isn’t going to happen. Remember, we live in a time of great darkness, the poor priest can’t give us a correct penance, he doesn’t have the wisdom to do so. Our hearts need to do that. Our hearts should want to do that.
But we don’t. We must live a life of penance.
Sure, I can tell you to live a life of penance, but for most, unless God has moved us into great contrition, our hearts won’t really desire it. Hopefully, we do have enough desire to do something. But a passion for penance takes much grace and contrition. Therefore, before we have true sorrow for our sins, or a sincere desire to amend, or a love of suffering (desire to save souls), we will have to “force” ourselves to make such sacrifices, but they will still benefit us.
However, if our hearts have no desire (no amount of sadness/sorrow for our sins), then there is no need to perform any penance. We and others won’t obtain any grace from our act. However, it could develop good habits that if our conscience some day moves us to want to perform a penance for the right reason, we will know what to do, which is one of the reasons why the Church has us fasting during Lent.
But if we have some real desire to atone for our sins, from some amount of real sadness for our sins, then from the desire in our hearts, grace will be sent to assist us and others from that act of love. Then our love will grow and grow… and one day, God willing will it will become true. To learn the difference in between real sorrow and false sorrow please read, “What is True Sorrow?”
What Penances Can I Do?
There are endless ways we can reject pleasure for the cross to live a life of penance. There are two kinds of crosses we can choose to carry. One is a cross God allows us to carry and the other is one we find for ourselves. The one God sends/allows is the most important, as that is perfectly catered for us with the cure we need to be saved, which is one of the reasons why suffering in our lives and especially before our death is such a wonderful gift… Oh, if we only knew how to accept the grace God wants to send us from our crosses through every moment of inconvenience, disappointment, difficulty, sickness, tragedy, etc. we would all be saints by now. To learn more please read, “How to Love the Cross.”
Wonderfully, even if God doesn’t allow us to have much suffering in our life, if we want a transforming /healing cross there is a cross to carry around every corner if we look for it.
First of all, I should say, the first penances we should take is to avoid sin… yes, to avoid the sins we love (deny ourselves of those pleasures). You know, the arguing we partake in, the smart aleck words we say, the flatteries we give ourselves, the glances at impurity we make, etc.
On top of that, there are bounds of other penances we can do. For example: if you get a headache don’t run for the pain killers… just, “accept and bear with resignation the sufferings that God may send you” as the angel said to the Fatima children, as we silently and if possible make no notice to another of our discomfort (of course if it seems like a serious medical condition it is fine to consult a doctor) and offer it up “in atonement for our sin and those of the whole world” (Jesus to St. Faustina Diary # ).
Let’s say you’re in the store buying food. You see the food you like but instead of choosing what you like choose something less or what you don’t even like at all and offer it to God as a penance. Let’s say, you are comfortable in your house at 75° then change the temperature to 77°.
When you go to dress don’t ware what makes you look most attractive, but what makes you look most simple and invisible (according to God’s will). Of course, don’t not care for yourself… God wants us clean and presentable… most of the time. Unless you suffer from fantastic vanity that could be a good cure for your ailment, again, if it is God’s will (most spouses and jobs won’t desire us to present ourselves that way… even if it is to leave sin… and we must relent our will for theirs).
“On that day the Lord, the God of hosts, called for weeping and mourning [over our sinfulness], for shaving the head and wearing sackcloth [removing all beauty and comfort]” (Isaiah 22:12).
Nonetheless, our penances don’t need to be great, unless that is where our contrition pulls us… little crosses atone and save souls too… when done from a heart of great love.
As we can see, penances can and should also be chosen to help remove our desire for sin. Yes, our penances have so many blessings… directly leading us away from our sins by doing the opposite of the sin, is another one of them. This is the kind of penance-suffering: doing what you don’t want to amend a sin–we should be receiving mostly in confession from the priest, but tragically we aren’t. So, let’s choose it ourselves.
However, no matter if we carry a big cross or a small one… one that God gives us or one that we impose upon ourselves, the amount of grace God can send to a soul is based upon not the size of the sacrifice, but again, form the love in our hearts. How much real humble affection do we have for God? That is how the measure of grace is dispensed. It is in the amount of love we give, which is the love we receive. “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Luke 6:38).
Please know, we can make a huge sacrifice… rejecting vast pleasures, just as quest, seeking to accomplish some big challenge, and sure that brings some kind of earthly pleasure… but even athiests have done that. There is no reward from God. This sacrifice must be done from a humble heart of love for God/sorrow for our sins or it merits nothing. Please be alert; the devil might try to get us to do great sacrifices (to deceive us) when our love doesn’t match the sacrifice… then it will be in vain.
Also, please know, even with all of the sacrifices the saints made, they didn’t believe for a moment, their horribly sinful beings, were saved because they were doing all of those pious things. They knew they needed Jesus to save them through the cross… that was the means God needed to us to transform their hearts into true love. Plus, they didn’t perform the sacrifices for themselves (directly) but from the great humble love in their hearts for God and the salvation of God’s children.
Jesus only becomes Our Savior if we allow His helping mercy–His actual grace–to transform our "hearts hardened" (Mark 8:17) of self-love, that are attached to many sins and worldly pleasures, into a "new heart, and a new spirit" (Ezekiel 36:26) that truly hates all sin, all pleasures of the world, and even our sinful self and desires God and His will alone so we can embrace God’s saving mercy He died to give us, for the salvation of our and others souls. This is our faith!
Yes, God–His grace–makes the saints holy. The saints are not holy… just a misery of sin… just like we all are. The saints fully understood their nothingness and great need for God’s mercy (grace)… but they knew God’s grace that transforms their hearts, which makes them holy, comes through embracing the cross (living a penitent life).
All Christians Are Supposed Spend Our Days Saving Souls
This penance that saves our souls shouldn’t be sought through a selfish heart seeking anything for ourselves… even though at first we will move out of fear of our own doom. But from there our hearts will grow in love and we will “do nothing out of selfishness” (Philippians 2:3). When we perform acts of penance whether it is for our sins or for others sins, it needs to be done to love God and save our neighbor. Then God will greatly bless us.
You see, denying ourselves of pleasure for the cross doesn’t only reject our idols, avoid possible idolatry, and directly helps us to stop sinning, perform penances for our sins out of contrition… that kind of love–surrendering what we love/enjoy (choosing a cross)–also allows God to sends fantastic grace to our neighbor, from our sacrifice, to help save the souls of God’s children (us included)… it moves souls towards a saving faith and then perfection. Just beautiful!
“ABOVE ALL, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers [atones] a multitude of sins [for ourselves and our neighbors… it saves souls]” (1 Peter 4:8).
Yes, THE CROSS IS THE WAY TO CHRIST for us sinners. This is really what Christ did for us. Without hesitation, He became a servant taking upon His body infirmity after infirmity and suffered willingly for the love of us. This is the real life of a Christian… suffering/sacrificing what brings us worldly pleasure/comfort/fun (what isn’t God or His will) to love/save our neighbor.
Really, this is the entire purpose of God’s mission–why Jesus descended from Heaven–was to SAVE SOULS. If we are to follow Him… to be His true disciples, we must be saving souls too by way of the cross.
“Christians MUST imitate Christ’s sufferings, not set their hearts on pleasures.”
–St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, (On Pastors, Sermon 46)
Jesus didn’t come to teach us how to have a great life on earth. He came to teach us how to love Him (stop sinning)… how to preach, pray, suffer and sacrifice the world’s pleasures to send grace for the salvation of our neighbor, so they could be moved by grace to repent and change… and it was all done through obedience to The Father through the cross. This is what all of the true saints and the apostles have taught us to do, and what we need to do too. Please don’t be deceived.
“We are afflicted in every way… always carrying about in the [our] body the dying of Jesus [dying to sin through suffering]… So death [to the world/sin] is at work in us, but life [grace, because of our cross] in you… Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving [gratitude for salvation] to overflow for the glory of God [from our suffering].” (2 Corinthians 4:12-15)
The neglect to truly do this is why the Church is so dead. Instead of living a life of self-denial, to love its sheep and guide the world to Heaven, the Church chose to perhaps deny themselves of a few things but then went and indulged in many others… gaining more and more idols. Not having concern for the salvation of its sheep but for more pleasure for themselves. Then fear of the Lord was lost and darkness came.
“The light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light” (John 3:19).
Sadly, this self-love -self-indulgent life–has spread to everyone. We are so proud; our hearts are so cold. We make one sacrifice and think we are wonderful people… thinking we are saved by our works… when our hearts don’t even DESIRE to sacrifice what we want for the salvation of others. We are just filling ourselves up with pride from our works. We are blind to The Way. We don’t have the heart of Christ living in us.
We don’t want to live a constant cross for the salvation of God’s children. Tragically, we don’t know how to LOVE. We want to pretend like we are sacrificing… and sure we might be making some sacrifices—but isn’t our sacrifices that are rejecting God, it is our indulgences… well, some sacrifices are done purely from a heart of pride and they reject Him too, but truly it is our indulgences that are killing us. We love ourselves and not God.
“The one who is self-indulgent is dead” (1 Timothy 5:6).
If we really had contrition for our sins and love for our neighbor, we wouldn’t want to indulge in anything… we would do what is needed and helps us to know, love and serve God… we would want to do everything to love God and our neighbor. They are dying!
But we are dead. We love ourselves over the salvation of our neighbor… we are NOT TRUE CHRISTIANS. This life of self-denial–as an act of love–simply isn’t in our lives. Oh, this life of rejection of the cross to live a life of pleasure has wounded God in ways we can never comprehend. This is the whole of Christianity and we have rejected it to love ourselves.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he MUST deny himself [of his will–pleasure for the cross] and take up his cross daily [don’t complain about suffering–trust in God’s will and offer it up for souls] and follow me [live The Word]. (Luke 9:23).
Tragically today, because we are in the time of great darkness, we are neither preaching, praying nor suffering/sacrificing correctly, and bounds of souls are dying.
Yes, not only should we be running from pleasure to leave our idols and because they can easily become an idol, but we MUST also flee from pleasure since choosing the cross sends grace for the salvation of souls (ours and others), which is want living a life of penance is all about.
As our neighbor is dying, instead of desiring to save them, we say, “Oh, another glass of good wine please, and a cigar and a steak too.” or say, “How about a movie and our favorite dinner tonight?” or perhaps, “We can just sit home with some good ice cream and play some video games.”… Okay, I don’t know what you do with your free time, but I know it isn’t looking for ways you can suffer and sacrifice what your selfish wants are to be like Christ and the saints, with the intention of loving God by removing/avoiding your idols, or atoning for your sins/helping to save souls. Who does this anymore?
“Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High… Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners.”
–Our Lady of Fatima
“Oh, but I need to rest and relax” we say. Okay, after we have served God well and can truly do no more, rest is fine. But why are we resting with indulgences or with the things we like most (what we desire of the world), when we should be choosing less (the cross) for the salvation of our neighbors. Just because we need rest doesn’t mean we need to indulge. Rest with sleep and prayer… and only do what will truly help us to better know, love and serve God for the salvation of souls. Sure we won’t be able to give up everything we do for self-love over night, and sure some things of the world we need…but if we want to leave our mortal sins, seek to become a true Christian… someone who lives to save souls through THE CROSS, we will daily work to leave it all.
Saving souls is the entire purpose of being a Christian, and it is LOST. Incredibly, our neighbors are dying (going to Hell for eternity), because of our failure to live the faith. Tragically, we just ignore them and satisfy whatever fleshly desires we have instead preaching, praying and of denying ourselves so we can send grace to help SAVE HIS SOUL. Tragic!
Sure our bodies can only do so much… and some of the things we might want to do won’t be God’s Will… not everyone is called to live extreme crosses. But we are called to live with some crosses… choosing them DAILY to love others. Sure, with in this act of love there needs to be moderation. We can go overboard with anything. But we don’t have to worry about that now. We have no passion to temper; we do nothing! Where is our exploding passion for the salvation of souls? It doesn’t exist.
Today, what pleasures have you INTENTIONALLY turned from out of contrition for your and your neighbors sins to love God and send grace for the salvation of souls? Did you do anything? Truly, we have lost the faith.
“Alas ! does he [the condemned] exclaim, for a few moments of indulgence in poisonous pleasures, which I did but just taste, I must forever suffer, lament, and despair in this fiery furnace, abandoned by all, as long as God shall be God.”
–St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, (The Way of Salvation and Perfection, Med. 77)
God’s Word is clear, but we don’t live it… not correctly and souls are dying. “Pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices for them” is what Our Lady of Fatima has pleaded for us to do. But, we have a thousand excuses why this isn’t necessary… as we selfishly seek out the world’s pleasures to make us happy.
If we do happen to have less of something (suffer a cross), we just tolerate it; we don’t intentionally, with a sincere heart of love for other’s souls, offer it to God on their behalf as we praise God for the cross to suffer for them. We just deal with it, or complain about it, or try to run from it. Oh, the souls that could have been saved through our suffering/sacrifices, but weren’t! Just tragic!
Sadly, instead of loving to suffer, knowing all the good it brings, we love to indulge in the finer things in life–from food, to drink, to clothes, to cars, to vacations, to entertainment, to social gatherings, to collections of various things… oh, its something different for everyone. Look in our driveways, look in our closets, look in our houses, look at what we put in our stomachs, look at what we do in our spare time? How many indulgences do we have and partake in? Also, if for some reason we can’t indulge, most wish we could… which makes our hearts just as guilty. We don’t know how to save souls; we know how to love ourselves. To learn more please read, “How to Save Souls.” The devil has deceived us.
Yes, the devil has us, we aren’t concerned with our salvation or that of our neighbors. The only thing we are concerned with is making our or others lives great on earth, as if this is where we are going to spend our eternity. Our entire purpose of life is lost. Tragic!
Oh “the joys of this world lead to eternal misery” as St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church, teaches in his letter to the Philippians, we simply must believe him.
“Be imitators of me [St. Paul]… Unfortunately, many go about in a way which shows them to be enemies of the cross of Christ [as they run from sacrifice/suffering to the world for its pleasures]… such as these will end in disaster!… I am talking about those who are set upon the things of this world [family, friends, success, things…etc. to make them happy].” (Philippians 3:17-19).
Horribly, the devil has us, and we live for the world. Our god is our belly? The idol chatter we have with others…is another god? Oh, the bounds of other things we do just because we want them to make us happy are killing us? Oh, we love to converse and eat out, to entertain and be entertained… not “to preach and to teach” (Matthew 11:1) the gospel, for the salvation of souls, like Christ. Our minds are not like His….no, we love it for the pleasure it brings us (honors, indulgences, attention, comfort, satisfaction).
Oh, “you have lived on the earth…in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter” (James 5:5).
We Are Haters of The Cross
Tragically, we have been so mislead, “many live as enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18). What God has sent to save us–to remove our liking for sin/idols and help save our neighbors souls–we hate.
We don’t trust in the cross; we complain about it and do all we can to leave it. The illnesses, inconveniences, problems and challenges in life aren’t making us more like Christ; they are making us more selfish and self-centered as we worry, and complain, whishing we had what we want.
We aren’t rejoicing in them, so we have a cross to offer up for the salvation of another. No, we are wishing they were gone. We don’t want to be true Christians.
Oh, how many of us have spent our entire lives praying for what we want-to remove our cross…never really TRUSTING in what God has allowed to occur as meant for our good: what we need to grow closer to Christ…into a saving faith and a life of peace? So, sad. Oh, the cross is the way to Christ, but we are rejecting/hate it.
Horribly, we are so deceived, we even think suffering and sacrificing pleasure for the cross–being a true Christian–makes a miserable life, when it brings greater joy than any self-loving pleasure could bring.
“Is there greater joy than suffering for the love of You?…I could not have believed one could bear so much and can explain it only by my great desire to save souls.”
–St. Teresa de Lisieux (Story of a Soul. Intro., epilogue)
Once we grow into true love with God, we will grace to suffer and sacrifice. This is true. We will longs to save His children from their doom. But we don’t understand this. The only joy we know of is the false joy the world brings, so we seek a great life in this world. But if we want eternal life, we need to die to this word (lose our desire for this world) or we won’t have the next.
“Those who lose their life [leave all the joys of world] for my sake will find it [eternal joys]” (Matthew 10:39).
Oh, how confused are we! Do we really believe if we hate the world–and the incredible pleasure it brings–we will see God? Or, have we been deceived, through various justifications, into believing God wants us happy with the world’s pleasures…when He wants us happy in this world…LOVING HIM. Are we willing to give up what we love (what we seek for happiness), so we can love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and save our neighbor from eternal doom?
“No, my dear friends, do no let us deceive ourselves. We must sacrifice the world for Jesus Christ.”
–St. John Vianney (Sermon, 23 Sunday after Pentecost)
If we don’t believe grace comes from the cross… then we will stay the same and live for the world and its pleasure… thinking we love God, because that is what we have convinced ourselves. But God, who reads the truth of the heart, knows that simply isn’t true…well, we don’t love with a saving love. Our love is mostly a lie (based on self-love).
And, yes, if we give our hearts to the world, seeking that for pleasure, we can have an abundance of worldly joy, but we won’t have an abundance of God’s love. We will lose it all. We can’t love both God and the world…we will either hate the one and love the other.
What do you want…the world or God? You can’t have both. If our hearts long for anything in the world…we reject God. Only God can be our idol…or that is a mortal sin (making something out of nothing). Yes, we will reject The Creator and Savior of All from desiring some created thing, instead of Our Creator. Horrible!
“The idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur” (Revelation 21:8).
As a result, we don’t how to truly love God or man …we don’t understand the joy God sends when we surrender all to love Him–to save the souls of His children. Most don’t even know God uses our sufferings and sacrifices of love to help others…sadly, even if we were taught this, from our great lack of grace, we won’t really care. We will be focused on ourselves instead.
But if we really knew how many souls are dying…what eternal suffering really is and how much souls need our assistance, we would gladly pour out great tears begging God to help them and give all we enjoy (according to God’s will) to love our dying neighbor. But we don’t…even though The Word and the saints say so many are perishing. Yet, only God truly knows how many souls are lost despite His bitter passion, but the quantity is so great, it caused Jesus to sweat blood in utter anguish over the loss of so many of His children.
Today too, Our Lord is still suffering and suffering because of the loss of endless souls. And yet, most still don’t really believe…not enough do so something about it. Absolutely tragic! “They do not wish to hear My call [to seek My Mercy, so to repent and change and help save souls], but proceed into the abyss of hell. The loss of these souls plunges Me into deadly sorrow.” as Jesus told St. Faustina (Diary # 580). Oh, Our Lord is suffering…daily anguish. But, preaching, prayer and suffering/sacrificing can help alleviate His pain by helping to saves souls…Believe!
Please know, we aren’t in a state of grace/righteousness or even working our way towards righteousness if we aren’t truly and I mean truly striving to become like Christ by way of the cross. “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38).
Our Lord loved the cross, not because He liked to suffer. Who likes that? But He loved the cross because His sacrifice and suffering was what we needed to become saved. He descended from Heaven as God and became His own creation…taking the form of a slave to love us and suffered and suffered… He tried and tried to show us The Way… even when we just wouldn’t listen (understand or truly believe), He persisted. Oh, every moment after our (Adam and Eve’s) fall, God has existed in suffering over the love of us.
He loves us so much that He wasn’t only willing to suffer but was filled with joy to suffer for our benefit. This is why He found joy in suffering; it was because He was loving us.
“For the sake of the joy [the grace sent for the salvation of souls through the cross] that was set before him he endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).
Oh, if we only really followed Christ, we would be becoming true Christians, who love the cross, who really loved others and were willing to suffer to help save them. But we are so self-absorbed; we don’t want to suffer and beg God for mercy…we want to walk around with a false smile on our faces, when our neighbors are DYING.
We have been so deceived; we aren’t caring about our neighbor…trying to save them from eternal torment, constantly seeking Mercy to send them grace. Sadly, we are trying to give ourselves a great life with worldly pleasure–which is the opposite of what God did.
Tragically, we don’t want to “make all we can a sacrifice” as the Mother of God, in Fatima, tells us we must do to love God and save our neighbor, whom God wants in Heaven. No; we don’t obey, nor do we understand that is how we save souls and love God…since we are living in darkness. We are looking to love ourselves.
But if now we can hear, if we want to learn how to become a real Christian, so to truly love God and our neighbor, we need to learn how to joyfully sacrifice pleasure and suffer for the love of them. And with every sacrifice we make for God/another, God sends grace to help save us too. To help us love God and neighbor, Lifting Our Values has “Piacular Beads” (sacrificial beads of love) to motivate us to make sacrifices throughout our day. Please try them. St. Teresa of Lisieux used something similar…and grew into having a fantastic joy to suffer.
“The Christian vocation is one of sacrifice, penance, expiation. We must make reparation for our sins…We must try to imitate Christ, “always carrying about in our body the dying of Christ,” his abnegation [of sin], his suffering on the the cross, “so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies [for the salvation of souls].”
–St. Josemaria Escriva, (Christ is Passing By, The Season of Mortification)
Love Through the Cross
So please ask ourselves, how can we work away at our salvation–strive to obtain a saving faith–by follow Christ if we aren’t leaving our sins, living for His will and growing in imitation of Him… if we aren’t working hard to leave every pleasure of the world that our hearts desire that isn’t God and His will (our idols)… seeking the cross so we can help save souls (penance), like all of the saint have done? We can’t.
I’m not saying we can’t have any worldly pleasures. There are many which are needed to help us better, know, love and serve God. Plus, our bodies are weak and need rest, exercise and play (on occasion based on health and age). But we simply can’t seek them for self-glory, self-gratification, or self-indulgence etc. or desire them (set our heart on wanting them for happiness). And if we can, we need to sacrifice the pleasure for the cross to love our neighbor…like all the saints before us.
For example: Let’s say, you have a family member, who doesn’t understand the joy of the cross and they feel loved and happy with the world. Without it, they are a misery…for the love of God still isn’t their happiness. So, you see they are suffering and very unhappy. You want to help them; so you pray for them, but you know they are rejecting so much grace. Your prayers aren’t helping them too much right now. They are still so depressed. But you know ice cream and a movie always helps to cheer them up (that is their source of happiness).
Therefore, since they don’t have God, it is perfectly fine to go out and get them an ice cream. There is nothing sinful with eating ice cream. You should avoid the movie however; what movie isn’t filled with immorality (something to tantalize our sensuality) or at least is so captivating you won’t be able to pray unceasingly and it’s images will most likely stay with your mind far after the movie keeping you from having your mind on God alone? Then partaking in that movie would surely cause us to offend God. That is what we want to avoid at all costs–sin.
If polite, you can only buy them the ice cream, so you don’t enjoy the pleasure that will come from it. Then you can offer that sacrifice for souls…but if the person you are with is offended and insists you have some too, then eating ice cream isn’t sinful at all. But if taking another for an ice cream will lead them into greater and greater attachment to the world, then we should avoid that if that is the greatest good, for the salvation of their soul, which only wisdom can help us understand that. To learn more please read, “How to Save Souls.”
So as we can see…we can hate the world and how it keeps our hearts and minds from Jesus and still live in it. But it isn’t easy, since one partake in a pleasure can leave our hearts longing for more. Then we are right back to desiring the world all over again.
We need to focus on doing God’s will and making sacrifices when we can…as we carry our crosses with Our Lord for the salvation of souls. Please know what Our Lord will’s for each of us is quite different, we should seek to learn what that is. For follow His will, is God’s perfect plan He created for us to obtain Eternal Life. To learn more please read, “What is God’s Will?”
So now, if we understand some of what God expects of us, it is the time to seek God for grace, so we can begin to Live The Word and come to love our crosses…not just the pleasures we reject to love God and our neighbor, but also all of the suffering/hardships/losses (crosses) God allows in our lives.
We need to learn how embrace them all, so we can “rejoice in my[our] sufferings” (Colossians 1:24) knowing we are learning from them (what are our sins), changing because of them (so to suffer because of our sins) and growing closer to Christ (His imitation) through them, instead of letting them crush us. To learn more please read, “Why Does God Allow Suffering and Punishment”
“We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance [strength/grace to continue the race], and endurance produces character [becoming like Christ], and character produces hope [for salvation]” (Romans 5:3-4).
Oh, the cross is The Way to a saving faith, sanctity, and perfection. Focus on the cross. The cross is supposed to pull our hearts and eyes off of the world and place them on God–Our Savior, who alone can lead us to Heaven.
Truly, we don’t understand how much our hearts are attached to the world and not God. As a general rule, we need the opposite of what we, sinful self-loving beings desire (our will/self-pleasure)–for the cross, as a penance, to move towards Life.
But the devil destroyed our understanding of the cross and instead of embracing it, and following Christ through it, we run from it? We surely don’t seek out crosses to carry (do what we don’t like) so God can send grace from our sacrifice for the salvation of souls (ours and others)…we live to please ourselves…we live for the world and it’s pleasures instead…we live for the success, friends, complements…our pride!
Tragically, we don’t want to be nothing (lose our self-glory) as we silently carry our cross for the salvation of souls…like Christ and the saints have done…living a life of penance for our sin and the sin of the world. We don’t even know what penance is. To learn more please read, “What is Penance?” Tragically, we want to be someone and have everything. But if we don’t change in the end, we will lose it all.
Oh, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
If we don’t love God this much, we still need much more grace from God, so we can first obtain enough belief (fear of the Lord) to really desire to change, so we can do what is necessary to leave everything that is preventing us from becoming a saint and then grow in faith to obtain this saving faith (sincere hatred for every sin/true love for God), and then sanctity (true love for God, which grows and atoned for all of our sins committed after our baptisms).
But once we obtain true sorrow for our sins, this won’t be hard at all…we will burn to do it, as explained later. To learn more please read, “What is Penance?” But until then, it will be a challenge to crush the head of the serpent, who seeks in to keep us in our selfish ways. To learn more please read, “How to Love the Cross.” But like was said, there is even more to true sorrow that we still don’t understand, which is explained later…so please continue to read. Eternity is forever!
There is only one way to lose all of our idols, gain a heart of contrition and obtain a saving faith and that is by seeking God’s will. He knows how to do it. Our entire purpose in life is to seek His will, so He can change us and guide us to Heaven.
God doesn’t will us to desire sin or the world for happiness, so we reject Him. No. He wills us to do only what is truly good, that will lead to Life, which only He truly knows. His ways, which are perfect and exactly what we need to obtain Life, are so beyond our understanding, since our ways are tainted with sin and are greatly lacking in intellect and wisdom.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).
Once we start thinking our way is better than God’s, we are an arrogant fool, and if we don’t see our proud foolish behavior… this following of our will, will lead to the path of disaster.
Therefore, unless grace (God) is moving us (His will), everything we desire (since our flesh is against the Spirit) is opposed to obtaining Heaven. So our goal is not to follow our natural desires but to learn how to want NOTHING but what God wants.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
The hard part is to learn what are ‘”good” desires (have some of God’s grace leading us) and what are “bad” desires (are all derived from self-love), and how to allow God to consume and move our every desire. Yet, if we don’t know we are supposed to be seeking Christ to move our every thought, word, and deed, we will simply respond to our fleshly desires, which won’t lead to anything but our doom.
God created mankind with hearts of love, like Him. Therefore, even the ashiest can have great acts of charity from this natural grace that lives within us, even though none of it will be done for the love of God. But when God comes to us and inspires us to do something–when He lets us know His will–we need to realize that, sadly, only a small fraction of what we actually do is being moved by grace, unless we allow God to move us.
Until we allow God to move our everything (every facet of our being), what might have started to do something by an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sadly is most likely flourishing from ones own drive and ambition, being moved by our pride. Sure, there can still be some grace intermingled with that pride, helping to move us along, that is if we seek Mercy for help or from the prayers of others, but again without having God’s grace move ALL of our being, we are being directed by sin (what ever part isn’t being moved by God).
And for most of us, since we aren’t even striving at all for God to consume our everything, our pride is moving almost all of what we do… no matter how much “good” we are doing, even with all of the talents God has given us, our pride is sadly the motive for why we do what we do.
Yes, we could be feeding the world, but if we don’t know–really know–we need for God to do all through us …if we aren’t literally learning how to pray unceasingly, learning how to desire nothing so to surrender our sinful will perfectly for God’s, then, we must know most everything is being moved by evil. Sadly, this is true.
But we need to know, this will of God that saves us, is dynamic. When we think of God’s will, most only think of what He desires us to do during big decisions or what “job” or special task He has created/planned for us to do to serve Him: love His children for the salvation of souls. No. Our Lord literally has a desire for our every thought we should be thinking and every action we should be making, and everything in-between. He has the perfect plan for us to lose all our love for sin and obtain perfection…to become perfect saints. (as explained later).
But to get to that goal, we need to desire to become perfect.
Yes, as saint in the beginning of this article, to obtain Life, we need to desire/work hard to become perfect. Our goal need to banish the fear of death by becoming perfect (unable to sin), so we can be assured of salvation… but until then, we must “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
“This solid foundation… Christian perfection, without which we are in continual danger of falling [is what removes our desire for sin and keeps us from sinning].” –St Francis Borgia (Second Treatise, Part III)
Think about it, how can we ever love God, with a saving love and live the faith that saves, if we ignore any of our offences against Him–our sins of commission and omission, if we won’t work hard to love/obey any of The Word (Christ, The Word made flesh)… if we aren’t becoming self-less like Him? How can we truly love God if we aren’t striving to become “perfect, just as our heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), as He commands? We can’t.
Sadly, we don’t know we have to die to sin–to loose our liking for sin (gain true contrition for it)–so we can no longer live in it (desire it) to have eternal life. We don’t know The Way.
“How can we who died to sin [at baptism] yet live in it [still desire it]? Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?… For if we have GROWN into union with him through a death like his [dying to sin/removing our liking for sin by WAY OF THE CROSS], we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.” (Romans 6:5).
As a result, from not knowing The Way, we aren’t growing through the cross towards sanctity. We are staying the same. We aren’t denying ourselves of what we want so to not sin and becoming like Christ; we are doing what we want… ignoring and disobeying countless laws of God from our great love for sin and great lack of love for Our Lord and His Word… thinking Mercy will save us, when we are rejecting Mercy from our great will for sin. Tragically, we don’t know The Way; we don’t know how to love God.
The Dreaded Lukewarm
Reality is, today, because we are living in the time of great darkness, we Christians live lukewarm lives….still indulging in the world’s pleasures…still complaining and running from our crosses…still staying in our sins. We aren’t really growing into perfect saints. Oh, how many preach becoming perfect (unable to sin) isn’t even possible? Tragic!
Yet, being lukewarm is the most dreadful of conditions.
“Because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).
As the saints say, “it [being lukewarm] is an evil almost without remedy. Few surmount it.” as St. Claude de la Colombiere explained in his letter to a sister. Those who have a dead faith, not really living the faith, but rather living in much sin, have a far greater chance of true conversion towards a saving faith. Many can humbly hear and be willing to take the humbling medicine needed to change. Those rarest of few, who are on fire with love for God, will grow into a greater inferno, but those who though these words of enlightnment. But those of us who believed we were “holy” but now realize we aren’t… are in the most terrifying of condition.
Most of the greatly lukewarm, simply won’t humble ourselves to do what is necessary to change, even with words of truth so clearly spoken. We will continue to obey our very ill desires of our hearts and not run to the humbling cure. This is the truth.
The remedy for our illness that is on this web-site but it simply won’t be followed. What we don’t like or agree with, simply won’t be done. The cross won’t be carried. The cure will be desired, but not enough to take the medicine necessary to remedy the illness… some or all of it will be omitted… leaving them doomed.
“This evil of tepidity [lukewarm] is only too common. Religious houses are full of people who keep the rule: rise, go to Mass, meditation, confession and communion…. without any [true] interior devotion…or desire to please God [to stop sinning]…they deliberately resolve not to bother about little things or about advancing in perfection.”
–St. Claude de la Combrie, (Spiritual Direction, letter 4, 1676)
It takes receiving FANTASTIC grace to move the truly lukewarm soul. Plus, the greater our state of lukewarmness–the more “holy” we think we are from our prayers and works, but aren’t– the more greatly we scourge Our Lord and the greater our punishment in the eternal fire will be. Also, it is even harder for the greatly lukewarm to even hear of our great need to repent and change and if they do hear… from their fantastic pride, the harder it will be to accept the humble cure.
Oh, there is greater hope to convert a dying athiest (who is guided correctly) on his death bed than it is for the greatly lukewarm who prays many prayers and does many vast works. This is beyond tragic! To learn more please read, “Who are the Dreaded Lukewarm?” and “Who Suffers the Most in Hell?”
Frankly, the reason I’m writing so clearly is so the greatly prideful… the dreaded lukewarm can hear and have a chance to repent. God has sent me first to convert the dreaded lukewarm of the Church especially the leaders… but will they?
Sadly, I have seen little conversion of the religious but great conversion for the sinner. Who are you? The sinner who will do what is necessary to convert or the religious who either can’t really hear or see or has limits and just won’t change. Are you able to break the statistics and change or die as one of them? Are you able to humble yourself so to accept God’s grace and Live… or will you reject the cross and die?
“So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2).
Oh, what the devil has done! “Because you are lukewarm [not growing into a saint], and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth [because of all of the grace you have rejected]” (Revelations 3:16). Tragic! To learn more please read, “How to Find TRUE Happiness.” It isn’t found with a lie.
“This is what we [the ones who correctly know The Way] pray for, that you may become PERFECT” (2 Corinthians 13:9).
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars” (1 Timothy 4:1-2), please don’t believe the deception of the evil one…follow the saints. They made it to Heaven. To learn more please read, “What Does Evil Look Like?”
Horribly, the devil has us believing his lies, living them and preaching them. Now, what we need to obtain salvation–a heart that sincerely wants to never offend God again…a heart that wants to perfectly love God–we don’t even believe is possible to obtain. No wonder so many are perishing.
“Everything depends on our having true light [desire] to keep the law of God perfectly.“
–St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, (The Way of Perfection, Ch. 5).
“Sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires [we must seek Mercy to remove our desire for sin]…[you must] present yourselves to God as…weapons for righteousness”(Romans 6:12-13) if we want Eternal Life.
But since the devil has us so confused, we don’t really “hunger and thirst for righteousness [a saving faith]” (Matthew 5:6), since we think we are already righteous/saved… now, we aren’t striving for perfection and have become complacent with who we are… when we need much mercy because we are far from a saving faith. ALL of our knowledge is tainted with lies.
How to Leave the Darkness of Sin
To begin to leave darkness and come to the Light, by way of perfection, there certain steps we will go through in order to leave sin. Before, we desired to leave sin, we lived lives without concern for our sins. We hardly saw any sins or temptations. But now after we have come to see the Light and we want to change, things will be much different. Yes, just a little bit of Light will change everything.
“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn [Light] from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78-79).
The follow are the 10 general steps one goes through, as we gain Light, to leave a life of sin for Jesus:
- Gains a desire to change
- Wants to see our sins
- Learns what sins are
- Able to see some sins we commit, if we look
- Able to see what tempts us, if we look
- Able to come up with resolutions to avoid sin
- Begins to see our sins right after we commit them
- Begins to feel/see the temptation right before we sin
- Able, with much effort, to implement our resolutions and reject the temptation so to not sin
- Can easily turn from sin and do good
At first, before God enlightened us, we were blind and clueless as to how far from God we were. But when God’s blessed Light is shown upon us, we will see that the faith we thought we had is just a lie. Sins we never knew were sins, will be blaringly present and understood… temptations we just overlooked, will eventually be seen right before our eyes. And this enlightening, if we continue to seek it, will grow and grow. Then the ability to reject the temptation, if we seek Mercy for strength, as we suffer to restrain ourselves from sin, will be possible. Finally, as more grace is obtained, we will easily be able to turn from sin and do good.
So, please don’t feel depressed if, at first, we can’t instantly stop one or all of our sins… sometimes we still need much more grace to obtain that goal. But I tell you, if we make the slightest efforts, we should see grace at work.
From the beginning of this article up until this point, what was written was to first help give us a desire to change. Then a desire to see our sins and grow in some knowledge of what a few sins are. Now from here, we need to learn how to seek God for the strength to continue to gain self-knowledge (humility/knowing our sinfulness) and the ability to stop our sins so to live for God’s will. That way we can gain the humility need to obtain True Contrition for our sins and become perfect saints.
We Are So Far From Understanding The Way
If we want to have any real hope for salvation, we need to gain HUMILITY. Truly, we aren’t just suffering from what I have explained above but from so much deception; it is unbelievable. The knowledge we think we have is all tainted with lies. It is unfathomably scary. And if we are ever going to be able to see we must HUMBLE ourselves. Why do we think John the Baptist called the priests/teachers of the faith a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 23:33)? Was he wanting to anger them… make a fight.. do them harm? No, he loved them. He wanted to save them.
He called them a brood of vipers because he knew exactly what they needed to hear/know, if they were going to have any hope to obtain the humility needed to come to true repentance. He knew they needed to know they were a group of teachers/leaders poisoning God’s children (with lies), who were trying to find Him. He knew if they don’t open their eyes to see their great sinfulness and repent and change there will be no hope for them.
And just like in the times of old, our leaders/teacher are the same–sadly actually–they are worse then before Christ.
Therefore, we need to stop building ourselves us up with lies thinking that is the way to happiness. It isn’t. Knowing our true sinfulness and misery… our nothingness and need for Mercy (help) is the only way. We are not true followers of Christ, we are not working to become real saints, we are not living the faith and saving souls like God has called us to live. We need to stop justifying our lack of perfection as something acceptable. It isn’t. Our pride is blinding and killing us.
We need to admit who we really are, “I am a viper and have poisoned God’s sheep with lies… I have caused the death of countless souls, with my lies… and lead bounds of souls astray. Oh, Lord, I need Your Mercy to change me. Help me Jesus.” Yes, if we want any hope for eternal Life, we need to HUMBLE ourselves and coated ourselves with the truth and humility. Then we when we seek Our Savior for mercy, we can receive it. Covering our sins by pretending we are something great when we aren’t is a direct ticket to our doom.
We must stop thinking we are holy and righteous even though we are so far from following the true saints… Our happiness simply can’t be found on justifying our sinfulness anymore. Our happiness must be found on leaving our sins and LOVING GOD… doing everything for the salvation of His Children. Then little by little He will make us into true perfect saints.
But this can’t happen until we obtain true self-knowledge of just how sinful we really a. This is the only way to the humility we need for God to change us. Yes, God has a great plan for our lives, but we will never obtain it if we can’t humble ourselves so we can truly do His will.
“Growing, and exercising herself in the light of self-knowledge [trying to see her sinfulness], she conceives displeasure at herself [comes to know her misery] and finally perfect self-hatred [her pride is finally crushed… she sees there is nothing good in her].
From this she draws true knowledge of My goodness [knowing how much God loves her despite such a life of wretchedness] with a fire of love [her love for God inflames], and she begins [from hatred for her sins and love for God] to unite herself to Me, and to conform her will to Mine [leaves sin to love God] and so to feel joy and compassion [that she once blocked out by her crimes against God/pride].
Joy in herself through the affection of [God’s] love, and compassion for her neighbor [understanding it is his great lack of grace which has caused his horrible sin/blindness/lack of contrition/lack of true love for God… wanting to help].”
–God the Father to St. Catherine of Sienna (A Treatise of Prayer)
Trust in God
Yes, leaving the multitude of sins and pleasures we love, so to live a life like Christ and cling to Him is hard. We have countless bad selfish habits that are hard even see, never mind to break them, since we are clinging so tightly to them. We have thousands of desires of the flesh that we are attached to, that we don’t know exist too, in which only grace can abolish, so we can desire God alone. And to lose our desire for them of all…takes much MUCH MERCY.
We aren’t going to do this by our own power…so if we feel overwhelmed and now have despair, that is because we are thinking we need to do this by our strength, which isn’t possible. To learn more please read, “How to Over Come Despair Against Hope for Salvation?”
“When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:25-27).
Therefore, we will need to learn how to let go of control and allow God to save us. And that is done by seeking HIS WILL. For God, who loves us immensely, has created a perfect plan for how we are to leave our desire for sin so we can come to truly love Him. Yes, that is only done by seeking to follow HIS WILL. His will for us, is how we will obtain Life. Believe! When we truly work hard to follow His will, by learning, changing and growing, from all moments He allows, He will save us (remove our desire for sins/give us a true hatred for sin, so we can desire him alone/truly love Him). This we must believe. We must learn how to TRUST IN GOD.
I know this might seem scary, and it should be. We are talking about eternity. But don’t let the evil one put doubt in your mind that God can’t give you a saving faith. “Do not doubt that this is possible” as St. Cyril of Jerusalem, reminds us. It is possible for any soul… even the most sinful soul… even at the moment of our death, which is why we still try to convert souls even at the hour of their death. Sure, it is rare (since our desire for sin is so great), but it is most certainly possible. Believe! We can gain a true belief in Christ. If you really want this, it will be yours. God wants YOU in Heaven.
But of course, we will need to “work.” God isn’t going to move the lazy and fearful, who don’t want to work and/or suffer to change. Oh, there will be lots of work and suffering. If we don’t want to work or lack courage, we can’t do this. So, if we lack those qualities…seek them first. But, regardless, we will be able to change by His grace that is what will give us the real power to change.
Please know, we can’t talk ourselves into having true contrition for our sins. Sure our contemplation of our sinfulness and of God’s passion (and other things) can help move us into a state of true contrition, but TRUE contrition is only obtained by grace. It is a gift from God.
To obtain this grace we will need to learn how God dispenses His grace (not that we can force God to do anything) and how to accept it. Wonderfully though, through the only Church Jesus founded–the Catholic Church–there are bounds of ways to obtain much grace….especially through participating in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the Eucharist (if worthy) and confession. To learn more please read, “What is God’s Mercy and How Can I Obtain It?”
But the only way we are going to obtain a saving faith–the grace needed to save our souls–and come to truly hate our sins is if we make a TRUE COMMITMENT to become a perfect saint. Nothing less will do. To help us do this step by step please read the Lifting Our Values book, “How Can I Obtain a Saving Faith?” and many of the books the saints have authored to help lead us to Life.
Hopefully, we can see we greatly need Our Savior to save us…but I do want us to know this true hatred/true contrition we need for our sins is still much more than we think. Yes, believe it or not there is even more to learn in this article.
We want to know the depths of what TRUE sorrow really is and what are the signs that we might have it, since true sorrow is what we need to be saved. So please continue to read the rest of this article…there is much we are still confused about.
Yes, this road to Eternal Life is hard…God wasn’t kidding when He said, “The road is Hard that leads to Life.” But if we decide we really want to do this and are willing to change, one step at a time, then we should TRUST IN GOD to save us (to change our hearts into one of true love/true contrition for our sins). Yes, we will have to work at this every day…frankly every moment of every day, with persistence, never quitting when we suffer or fail, but carrying our crosses and learning from our failures. Then we will win the crown of Life.
“Do not fear what you are about to suffer… Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10).
But if we don’t seek this path, with Christ, then we will be lost forever. Please don’t be deceived.
Tragically, from being deceived, we have been rejecting much of Our Lord’s grace that was meant to transform us into a saving faith…since our pride has deceived us into believing we are already saved. Oh, there is MUCH we don’t have correct understand about as explained later in this article and throughout this web-site, which is keeping us from the grace of God.
True faith in Jesus is NOT believing He will save us (forgive us) for just "saying" we are sorry, even if we lack true sorrow for our sins (that is a lie that kills). TRUE FAITH IN JESUS is believing that God can save us (give us a truly humble contrite heart), IF we sincerely seek Him for grace and are truly resolved/willing to work hard to change: to give up little by little what we love, to love God...saying, "Lord, 'I believe [enough to want to change] but help my unbelief [give me a true desire to change--true hatred for sin--so I can do it]" (Mark 9:24)...one sin at a time (according to Your will) towards perfection.
Now, if we have been humbled (know we aren’t “saved”) and have some fear of the Lord, then must work hard to obtain a saving faith/salvation…we must, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)...we must always keep fear in the for front of our conscience, so we don’t become lax.
From reading this, many will hear enough to believe we aren’t saved, but our faith won’t be enough to move us to really do what is truly necessary to Live. So tragic! If this is you, then never stop trying to obtain a faith that can at least get you to move towards Life. Hopefully, you will accept enough grace to gain the courage to do what is necessary for you to change (to do God’s will), or all will be lost.
But if we have enough faith to begin the journey towards Life, no matter how far we are from it, God wants you in heaven, and will provide the means for you to obtain it, if we continue on the course. And to do that, we must BE ALERT, someone or some thing will always try to get us to become cold or lukewarm again.
Oh, many begin well, but end in disaster.
“You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:7). Don’t listen to the lies…follow the cross of Christ. Follow Christ through the preaching of the true saints. To learn more please see “Books Written by Saints.”
All we need is one stumbling block, and we lost the race. We could have grown so wonderfully, but if we allow one thing to prevent us from continuing to grow towards perfection, we reject it all. Yes, we must always be growing up until our death (if we wish to Live), or we have gone complacent with sin all over again. Sure sometimes it might seem like one step forward and two steps back, but the burning effort to love God (to change) will be there.
“The one who perseveres to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13).