The Road to Heaven

Happy Feast of the Resurrection of the Body (Happy Easter) :)

This is a synopsis of a conversation I had a few years ago about the steps in salvation - I ordered it thus:

1. Redemption: because, well . . . none of this discussion would be happening (in a Christian context) if it wasn't for the redemptive work of Jesus
2. Conversion: because once we encounter the living God we are convicted of our sinfulness and moved to change our lives and hearts
3. Forgiveness: because once we experience the loving embrace of our Creator we are seduced into giving and receiving forgiveness
4. Salvation: once we give and accept forgiveness we start on the road to salvation
5. Perfection: once we live in the new heaven and new earth we will live in the paradise conceived in the mind of God before the creation of the world; we will live in a perfected place as perfected people (saints)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Sanctuary

Please Note: I'm working on a paper at the moment, so my Wednesday blog will be brief and has nothing whatsoever to do with theology :)

My son and I have been playing World of Warcraft for almost two years now. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a Massively-Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, which means that when you log into the game (need to have an internet connection to play!) you're playing with hundreds of other people from all over the world. You can interact with them, chat with them, help them, or fight with them. There are over 11 million people playing, so it's a popular pastime :)

In the game you can group with different people to form a guild, a group of people who are pretty much available to you every time you log in. They can be helpful and provide a great way to learn the game and advance in the game (if it's a good guild), or they can take advantage of you and make your online time pretty miserable (if it's a not-so-good guild).

Our guild is named Sanctuary, and I think of it as a casual/social guild. We don't do hardcore end game raiding (playing the most difficult parts of the game over and over again for better equipment and bragging rights), we don't immerse ourselves into the story of the game by roleplaying (pretending you are your character and talking "in character" most of the time), and we don't focus on PvP (Player vs. Player combat - trying to defeat other players in different ways). We focus on helping new members learn the game, holding in-game events for our members (some just for fun, some to try the harder content without requiring attendance or a certain level of gear), and giving our members time to play as they'd like.

If any of you would like to try the game out, you can message me online (the toon I'm on the most is named Anarius) - and if you like it, you can join us on our adventures in Azeroth!

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo

Authority

Question: I would be interested to hear your convictions regarding what is to be the authority for the foundation of, and what or who has the final word in the matter of the practice of our faith.

I'm assuming (and forgive me if I'm wrong) that the reply you may be anticipating is that, for Catholics, the Pope has the final say in all matters regarding our religion. And you'd be sort of correct. But first, to the non-correct part. :-)

For Catholics, in all matters of faith and morals, the ultimate authority is each person's own conscience. Answers.com defines conscience thus:

1. The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong.
2. A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement.
3. Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct.

Each person has the responsibility and the blessing to follow what they think is good, right, moral, ethical, etc. However, the Church doesn’t leave it there. It should be a properly informed conscience that directs each person's actions. "Properly informed" then becomes a catch-phrase that includes the following (not necessarily in order of importance): reading Scripture, listening to the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church (the Pope and/or a collective body of Bishops), praying for guidance from the Spirit on particular matters, listening to the stories told of our saints, discussing matters with trusted clergy/family/friends, and looking for guidance from secular authorities as needed (doctors, lawyers, psychologists, etc.).

Once all avenues have been exhausted in trying to come to a decision over a particular matter/issue/decision, a persons' conscience becomes the ultimate court for deciding a certain course of action. The Church affirmed, in one of the documents from the Second Vatican Council, that we would be judged according to our properly informed conscience.

This leads some to say that anything is OK as long as you think it's OK. And some would say the Church irresponsibly advocates this position by teaching about conscience. But I think that if people are looking for excuses to commit sin, well . . . they'll find the excuses anywhere. The Church stresses a properly informed conscience because, come on! - once we've gone through that list of Six Things To Do Before Making A Decision, chances are really, really good that you'll make a God-delighting decision. :-)

However, if you're asking about the teaching authority of the Church (as the Catholic church sees it), then this is where the Pope and bishops come in. It's Catholic teaching that the Pope, in conjunction with the worldwide body of bishops, has ultimate authority to proscribe and define the moral/ethical and faith-related doctrine that the Church stands for.

In other words, if the Pope definitively gives a moral/ethical stance, then it is the moral/ethical stance of the Church, and by definition requires every Catholic to seriously study the meaning and implications of that message. A "properly informed conscience" requires that we give serious thought and prayer to the moral imperative handed down by our church's temporal leader. In practice, the Pope and the bishops (collectively called the Magisterium) don't often hand out definitive statements on faith and morals. Similarly, our church doesn't have many Scripture passages that have been definitively interpreted in one way or another - as Catholics we do have latitude in our interpretation of Scripture (St. Jerome used to talk about the many hidden levels of meaning in each word of Scripture, let alone each passage / section!) and in our practice of our faith. But if there ever is a debate on something, and a definitive answer has to be given on an issue of faith or morals, as Catholics we would look to our Pope and the teaching authority of the Catholic Church (the Magisterium).

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo

Adam & Eve

My brother asked me a question about this, so I'm endeavoring to answer. This may take a while :) The gist of the question: were Adam and Eve real, historical figures?

My short answer: no.

My longer answer starts with the way Catholics view Biblical Inspiration. We are not literalists who believe that every word and punctuation mark was dictated by God to a responsive person who wrote it down like a dutiful secretary. God would never destroy our free will by making us automatons who only wrote what he told us to write.

We also do not view Scripture as a purely man-made endeavor. We see Scripture being inspired by God, but the human authors working with God - using their God given free will - to craft sections of the Bible according to their intelligence, culture, and time. Hence any Catholic approach to Scripture will take into account different questions: who wrote it? why? for whom was it written? when? where? what references (cultural, religious, etc.) could the author take for granted and believe that his audience would also take for granted? We strive to put each book of Scripture into it's historical context so as not to read our own limited view of history into the Biblical account.

Coupled with this is the fact that our Bible is not written by one person but by many human authors writing in different ways. Just like a newspaper has different sections, our Bible (which is not one book, but a collection of books, poetry, and letters) has different literary genres. We can see history (many portions of the Old Testament, the Acts of the Apostles), poetry (Psalms, the Song of Songs), fiction (short stories like Job and Jonah), Gospel (a distinct literary style found in, of course, the gospels!), apocalyptic writing (Revelation, portions of the Old Testament), and many others.

One of the distinct literary styles is that of religious myth. Myth, in this Scriptural / theological context is not the same as fairy tale or lie. It is a fictional / ahistorical (or prehistorical) story that is the vehicle for religious truth. The first 11 chapter of Genesis fall into this primordial genre of myth - they are stories that cannot be traced historically, and that in fact are not intended to be read as historical documents.

Myths then are stories that pre-scientific peoples created to try and understand things that may now be better described by different branches of science. However, we view our Scripture as divinely inspired, so we believe that - fictional as it is - the creation stories in Genesis are there to teach us.

And what do they teach? They teach us that God is the ultimate force that sets the universe in motion. They teach us that God created everything out of nothing, and that if not for God's abiding presence everything would collapse back into nothingness. They teach us that God has ordered the universe in specific ways, and that we can discern these laws in the order of the universe. They teach us that we are lovingly handcrafted by God, and that God's own spirit/breath animates us and gives us life. They teach us that God loves us as individuals and as a human race. They teach us that at some point we as humans learned how to sin, and that this knowledge created a rift between us and God. They teach us that even as that rift began God already had a plan for sealing the rift in the future.

Just because the stories are not historically accurate does not mean that they are not religiously true. And that is why Adam and Eve do not have to be historical creatures for us to appreciate the revelation God has given us through them and the stories of creation.

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo

Salvation Continued

Same disclaimer as my previous two posts :)

Is there a basic assumption being made with your response? As I agree that the question in and of itself is to me very modern in it's approach and assumptions. What then allows one to make the choice to cross the threshold of Heaven? Is it JUST how we lived our life?

Hmmm . . . I think at that point it's less of a choice then my initial response would lead one to believe. I think that, once we've charted our course here on earth, at the moment of death and resurrection we are almost compelled to finish our course. If we lived lives of unrepentance, unforgiveness and hardness of heart, no matter how much the Light tries to shine in we'll find ways to block it out. So once we enter eternity, we no longer have that much of a choice - our lives have already prepared us either for an air-conditioned afterlife, or one that's decidedly . . . warmer. :-)

As a Catholic how does one get to heaven? What role does Jesus, Mary, and the Church play in all this?

Going with more traditional language, participating in the sacraments (which includes having an active prayer life) and leading a moral life (which includes acts of service to others) are the two main pillars that lead to salvation. Each sacramental celebration finds us basking in the presence of the Crucified and Risen Lord; hence, each sacrament is a moment of grace - we are touched by the life of God and immersed in his holy and sanctifying presence. The Church becomes a sacrament herself, being a sacrament of Jesus - the visible, tangible reality that points to the invisible, intangible presence of Christ in the world.

Mary, apart from some very strong devotional trends, is actually not as theologically central as many people paint her to be. We venerate and honor her as the Mother of God (theotokos) and the Mother of Jesus, and we believe in her perpetual virginity and assorted doctrines, but it's not necessary for salvation per se. Our salvation comes from the paschal mystery of Jesus - the incarnation, life, passion, death and resurrection that restored the cosmos to it's glory.

I see that God has thrown open the gates of Heaven and unworthy men have seized Heaven by God's Grace. I see when we see our self, our true self, we then deem if we are worthy of entering in the Goodness of God...(Heaven) or if we remain separated from God. I see without Christ... God's Judgement is ON us. I think this is why some Christians will not enter into Heaven.. as they have not forgiven.... though they have been forgiven with this realization they then make a choice of Whose righteousness they will depend on. I think this is why Jesus says to some I never knew you....

Yeah, that's the rub - Catholic theology affirms that we can never be sure of our salvation - because there's always that chance that Jesus will say "I do not know you." It's called presumption in Catholic theology - daring to say, with 100% assurance, "I will make it into heaven - no doubt about it!" We can not be sure - we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, to paraphrase Paul.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo