Faith . Hope . Love

2026-10-13T18:57:09.506+08:00

- The central emphasis of Jesus' teaching is the kingdom of God -

In Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is understood or refer to the third person of the Holy Trinity, co-equal with God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. - Matthew 28:19 - In Hebrew and Greek terms; the word for spirit comes from 'ruach' in Hebrew and 'pneuma' in Greek. Thus, creation and sustaining life. - Genesis 1:2 - and life to creation - Psalms 104:30 - The Holy Spirit - 2 Peter 1:21 - Holy Spirit is also referred to 'the Helper' and 'the Comforter' - John 14:16 - The Paraclete, a helper, counselor, advocate to guide and comfort disciples, followers and believers. The Holy Spirit lives inside them - 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 -

Let me put it like this: If you are led by the Holy Spirit, you will be in no danger of yielding self-indulgence since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is totally against such a thing and it is precisely because the two are so opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions. If you are led by the Holy Spirit no law can touch you. But when self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, truthfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires.

Since the Holy Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Holy Spirit. We must stop being conceited and envious. - Galatians 5:16-26 -

Let me put it like this: if you are guided by the Holy Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Holy Spirit.

Creation and sustaining life. The Holy Spirit in - Genesis 1:2 - hovering over the waters and is described as the agent that brings order, beauty in life to creation. - Psalms 104:30 - The specific roles of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament, there are three major emphases may be identified, that is, the Holy Spirit as an agent in creation. This is the representation of the Holy Spirit by which the power of God is depicted - Genesis 1:2 - Psalms 33:6 - Ezekiel 37:1-10 - The second is the Holy Spirit as a source of life, inspiration, power and the Holy Spirit becomes a vehicle of God's revelation. - Isaiah 42 - in fact, all receive their gifts of wisdom, power, courage and power from the possession of God's Spirit. Thus, they speak and act with an authority and power on God's behalf. In this connection, it should be noted that the 'Spirit' can be conveyed from one person to another as with Moses, Joshua, Samson, Saul (Paul) David, Elijah, Elisha.... the emphasis is the the Holy Spirit as God's presence in and connected with eschatological of Israel - Ezekiel 11 and 36 - In the New Testament, a more diverse range of meaning - it is the Spirit of God that endows Jesus with the power as the Messiah that empowers the Church for its mission, the close relationship of Jesus to God (the incarnation) expands and significantly transforms the understanding of the Holy Spirit in Christianity.

The "Synoptic" Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and the Gospel of John are universally recognized as standing in a close literary relationship. It is generally recognized that the 4 New Testaments Gospels were written, intended for the believing 'Christian' community' and understood Jesus of Nazareth to be their Lord and the Son of God.

The conquests of Alexander the Great (332-323 B.C.) had the effect of exposing almost the entire Mediterranean basin (as well as the region east of it to the borders of India) to some degree to Greek culture and more importantly, to the Greek language. Their Sacred Scripture were available in Greek well before the time of Christ Jesus and hence the earliest documents of the Christian movement were compose in Greek. In addition, however, Jews also retained (to varying degrees, in various places) the use of Aramaic and (especially for the reading of the Sacred Scriptures) Hebrew, Jewish inhabitants of rural areas with a less cosmopolitan culture probably spoke almost entirely Aramaic and used Greek at most for limited, possibly commercial purposes. Latin, which became the official language of the Roman Empire shortly before Jesus' birth, was hardly known in many far-flung areas and almost certainly did not affect the places of Jesus' ministry.

This explains the fact that although Jesus and practically all of his earliest disciples almost certainly spoke Aramaic rather than Greek and the traditions about Jesus at first circulated in Aramaic, these traditions gradually increase to be known primarily in Greek forms.

The Beginning of Jesus' Public Ministry: Jesus probably began his public ministry during the early years of Pontius Pilate's prefecture - A.D. 26-36 - Luke 3:1-3; Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:7; Matthew 3:14; Luke 1:43-44; John 1:29-34 - Mark 2:28; Matthew 11:2 - Matthew 10:24; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13 -Luke 22:30; Matthew 19:28 - Romans 16 -

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function, so the body grows until it has built itself up, in love. - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

2026-10-05T11:42:06.224+08:00

HUMILITY has been regarded by the Saints as the basis and guardian of all virtues. - Saint Alphonsus Liguori - 1696-1787 -

THERE is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in the knowledge in the world. - Saint Teresa of Avila - 1515-1582 -

YOU and I aspire to great things? Begin with little ones. You desire to erect a very high building? Think first of the foundation of humility. The higher one intends it, the deeper must the foundations be laid. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - 354-430 -

HUMILITY - THE key which opens all the treasures of God. - Saint Mary Euphrasia Pelletier - 1796-1868 -

THE only virtue no devil or the evil one can imitate. If pride made demons out of angels, there is no doubt that humility could make angels out of demons. - Saint John Climacus (d. 649) -

- Even the possession of every virtue is of no avail if we have not acquire humility -

IF we possessed every virtue but lacked humility, those virtues would be without root and would not last. - Saint Vincent de Paul - 1580-1660 -

We must never glance at what is good in ourselves, much less ponder over it but we should search out what is wrong and what is lacking. This is an excellent way of remaining humble. - Saint Vincent de Paul - 1580-1660 -

BELIEVE that others are better than you in the depths of their souls, although outwardly you may appear better than they. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - 354-430 -

IN truth, the soul can possess no better insight for knowledge than to perceive its own nothingness. - Saint Angela of Foligno - d. 1312 -

We must never glance at what is good in ourselves, much less ponder over it, but we should search out what is wrong and what is lacking. This is an excellent way of remaining humble. - Saint Vincent de Paul - 1580 -1660 -

BELIEVE that others are better than you in the depths of their souls, although outwardly you may appear better than they. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - 354-430 -

WE must never glance at what is good in ourselves, much less ponder over it, but we should search out what is wrong and what is lacking. - Saint Vincent de Paul - 1580-1660 -

We often say that we are nothing. But we would be very sorry if anyone should take us at our word. We pretend to retire and hide ourselves, so that the world may run after us and seek us out. True humility does not make a show of herself or use many humble words; for she desires not only to conceal all other virtues but most of all to conceal herself. - Saint Francis de Sales - 1567-1622 -

THAT person is truly humble who converts humiliation into humility. - Saint Bernard - 1090-1153 -

HOWEVER great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he/she must not indulge in self-satisfaction. He/She ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself/herself merely as a tool which God has made use of. - Saint Vincent de Paul 1580-1660 -

CERTAINLY nothing can so effectually humble us before the mercy of God as the multitude of His benefits. Nor can anything so much humble us before His justice as the enormity of our innumerable offences. Let us consider what He has done for us and what we have done against Him. - Saint Francis de Sales - 1567-1622 -

REMEMBER that Jesus Christ, referring to the humility of the publican, said that his prayer was heard. If this was said of a man whose life was evil, what may we not hope for if we are really humble? - Saint Vincent de Paul - 1580-1660 -

- Our Lord Jesus Christ manifests His Truth only to the humble -

A SOUL which exalts itself abases God; but a soul which abases itself exalts God. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - 354-430 -

PRIDE is an illusion, a lie and a theft. Since it is a truth of faith that we are nothing, he/she who esteems himself/herself and thinks that he/she is someone is a seducer who deceives himself/herself. - Saint John Eudes - 1601-1680 -

PRIDE make us forgetful of our eternal interests. It causes us to neglect totally the care of our soul. - Saint John Baptist de la Salle - 1651-1719 -

YOU must ask God to give you power to fight against this sin of pride which is your greatest enemy - the root of all that is evil. The failure of all that is good. For God resists the proud. - Saint Vincent de Paul - 1580-1660 -

It is by humility that the Lord Jesus allows Himself to be conquered, so that He will do all we ask of Him. - Saint Teresa of Avila - 1515-1582 -

To be plunged in humility is to plunged in God - Blessed John Ruysbroeck - 1293-1381 -

THERE is something in humility that strangely exalts the heart. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - 354-430 -

LET us not deceive ourselves. If we have not got humility, we have nothing. - Saint Vincent de Paul - 1580-1660 -

JESUS is the teacher of holiness. I go to Him because I want Him to teach me how to become a Saint. Of what use to me is all I learn in school if I do not become holy? - Saint Francis de Sales (in boyhood) - 1567-1622 -

A young Saint expressed the same thought after her first Holy Communion - I CAN no longer live without Jesus. How soon shall I receive Him again? - Saint Maria Goretti - 1890-1902 -

- The following were the resolutions of Saint Dominic Savio when he was barely twelve years of age -

WHEN I want something important, I go to Holy Mass/Holy Communion, where I receive the same Body that our Lord Jesus offered up for us on the Cross, together with His Precious Blood, His Soul and His Divinity. What more is wanting to complete my happiness until the day when I shall see face to face Him whom I now see on our altars only with the eye of faith? - Saint Dominic Savio - 1842-1857 -

WHEN I am at all worried, I go to my confessor who shows me what is God's Will; for Jesus Christ Himself assures us that he speaks with the Voice of God. - Saint Dominic Savio - 1842-1857 -

I WILL go to Confession and to Holy Communion often. I will keep holy the feast days. Jesus will be my best friend. And I will rather die than commit sin. - Saint Dominic Savio - 1842-1857 -

IF I do not become a Saint, I am doing nothing. - Saint Dominic Savio - 1842-1857 -

- Holiness and happiness go hand in hand, as Saint Dominic Savio discovered -

OUR Lord needs from us neither extraordinary deeds, nor exaggerated thoughts. Neither false talents and intelligence. He cherishes simplicity. - Saint Therese of Lisieux - 1837-1897 -

HAVE love in your hearts but repress the tendency to appear devout. - Saint Mary Mazzarello - 1837-1881 -

I Do not mean by this that you should be occupied from morning till night without some creation. You should be able to find enjoyment in useful hobbies and also take pleasure in the study of history and geography, the arts and science too. - Saint John Bosco - 1815-1888 -

KEEP this well in mind. Never read books, internet news and information that you are not sure about or those which are not really suitable for your age. Even supposing these bad books/internet are very well written from a literary point of view, let me ask you this: would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup? - Saint John Bosco - 1815-1888 -

No matter how good food is, if poison is mixed with it, it may cause the death of him/her who eats it. So it is with conversation/reading. A single bad or nasty word/sentence, an evil action, an unbecoming joke, is often enough to harm one or more young listeners and adults alike, and may later on, cause them to lose God's grace. - Saint John Bosco - 1815-1888 -

- Scandal is something that should be avoided at all costs. -

HE gives scandal who by word or deed gives occasion to others to offend God. Scandal is a terrible sin, because it robs God of the souls which He created for Heaven, and redeemed with the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ: and it delivers them into the hands of the devil. Guard yourself well from this danger and run away from it as you would run away from the devil himself. - Saint John Bosco - 1815-1888 -

Saint Dominic Savio did not hesitate to rebuke his companions, to snatch away the indecent papers from their hands to hurry them away from the man/woman who was trying to corrupt them. "Let him be your inspiration, realizing that you have the same means to make you courageous in doing good as he had." - Saint John Bosco - 1815-1888 -

CONQUER yourself and the world lies at your feet. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - 354-430 -

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 -

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -

2026-09-28T12:23:25.998+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- Of the beatific visions -

And now let us consider with such ability as God may vouchsafe, how the Saints shall be employed when they are clothed in immortal and spiritual bodies and when the flesh shall live no longer in a fleshly but a spiritual fashion. And indeed, to tell the truth, I am at a loss to understand the nature of that employment or shall I rather say repose and ease for it has never come within the range of my bodily senses. If I should speak of my mind or understanding what is our understanding in comparison of its excellence? For then shall be that "peace of God which" as the apostle says: "passed all understanding" - Philippians iv. 7 - that is to say all human and perhaps, all angelic understanding but certainly not the divine. That is passed ours, there is no doubt; but if it passed that of the angels - and he who says "all understanding" seems to make no exception in their favour - then we must understand him to mean that neither we nor the angels can understand as God understands, the peace which God Himself enjoys. Doubtless, this passeth all understanding but His own. As we shall one day be made to participate, according to our slender capacity, in His peace, both in ourselves and with our neighbour and with God our chief, good in this respect the angels understand the peace of God in their own measure, and men too, though now far behind them, whatever spiritual advance they have made. For we must remember how great a man he was who said, "We know in part and we prophesy in part, until that which is perfect is come;" - 1 Corinthians xiii. 9-10 - and "Now we see through a glass, darkly but then face to face." - 1 Corinthians xiii 12 -

Such also is now the vision of the holy angels who are also called our angels because we being rescued out of the power, darkness and receiving the earnest of the Spirit are translated into the kingdom of Christ and already begin to belong to those angels with whom we shall enjoy that holy and most delightful city of God of which we have written so much. Thus, then, the angels of God are our angels as Christ is God's and also ours. They are God's because they have not abandoned Him; they are ours because we are their fellow citizens. The Lord Jesus also said: "See that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you. That in heaven their angels do always see the face of my Father which is in heaven." - Matthew xviii. 10 - Then, they see, so shall we also see; but not yet do we thus see, Wherefore the apostle uses the words cites a little ago." "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face." This vision is reserved as the reward of our faith and of it the Apostle John also says, "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." - 1 John iii. 2 - By "the face" of God we are to understand His manifestation and not a part of the body similar to that which in our bodies we call by that name.

And so, when I am asked how the saints shall be employed in that spiritual body, I do not say what I see but I say what I believe, according to that which I read in the psalm: "I believed, therefore have I spoken." - Psalms cxvi. 10 - I say, then they shall in the body see God; but whether they shall see Him by means of the body as now we see the sun, moon, stars, sea, earth and all that is in it, that is a difficult question. For it is hard to say that the saints shall then have such bodies that they shall not be able to shut and open their eyes as they please; while it is harder still to say that everyone who shuts his eyes shall lose the vision of God. For if the prophet Elisha, though at a distance, saw his servant Gehazi, who thought that his wickedness would escape his master's observation and accepted gifts from Naaman the Syrian, whom the prophet had cleansed from his foul leprosy, how much more shall the saints in the spiritual body see all things, not only though their eyes be shut but thought they themselves be at a great distance? For then shall be "that which is perfect" of which the apostle says: "We know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." Then, that he may illustrate as well as possible, by a smile, how superior the future life is to the life now lived, not only by ordinary men but even by the foremost of the saints, he says" When I was a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." - 1 Corinthians xiii. 11-12 - If, then, even in this life, in which the prophetic of remarkable men is no more worthy to be compared to the vision of the future life than childhood is to manhood, Elisha, though distant from his servant, saw him accepting gifts, shall we say that when that which is perfect is come and the corruptible body no longer oppresses the soul, but is incorruptible and offers no impediment to it, the saints shall need bodily eyes to see, though Elisha had no need of them to see his servant? For, following the Septuagint version, these are the prophet's words: "Did not my heart go with thee, when the man came out of his chariot to meet thee and thou tookedst his gifts?" - 2 Kings v.26 - Or, as the presbyter Jerome rendered it from the Hebrew, "Was not my heart present when the man turned from his chariot to meet thee?"

The prophet said that he saw this with his heart, miraculously aided by God, as no one can doubt. But how much more abundantly shall be the saints enjoy this gift when God shall be all in all? Nevertheless the bodily eyes also shall have their office and their place, and shall be used by the spirit through the spiritual body. For the prophet did not forego the use of his eyes for seeing what was before them, though he did not need them to see his absent servant and though he could have seen these present objects in spirit and with his eyes shut, as he saw things far distant in a place where he himself was not. Far be it, then, from us to say that in the life to come the saints shall not see God when their eyes are shut since they shall always see Him with the spirit.

But the question arises, whether when their eyes are open, they shall see Him with the bodily eye? If the eyes of the spiritual body have no more power than the eyes which we now possess, manifestly God cannot be seen with them. They must be of a very different power if they can look upon that incorporeal nature which is not contained in any place, but is all in every place. For though we say that God is in heaven and on earth, as Himself says by the prophet, "I fill heaven and earth," - Jeremiah xxiii 24 - we do not mean that there is one part of God in heaven and another part on earth; but He is all in heaven and all on earth, not at alternate intervals of time, but both at once, as no bodily nature can be. The eye, then, shall have a vastly superior power - the power not pf keen sight, such as is ascribed to serpents or eagles, for however keenly these animals see, they can discern nothing but bodily substances - but the power of seeing things incorporeal. Possibly it was this great power of vision which was temporarily communicated to the eyes of the holy Job while yet in this mortal body, when he says to God: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor myself and melt away and count myself dust and ashes." - Job xlii. 5-6 - although there is no reason why we should not understand this of the eye of the heart, of which the apostle says: "Having the eyes of your heart illuminated." - Ephesians : i. 18 - But that God shall be seen with these eyes no Christian doubts who believingly accepts what our God and Master says, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." - Matthew v. 8 - But whether in the future life God shall also be seen with the bodily eye, this is now our question.

The expression of Sacred Scripture, "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God" - Luke iii. 6 - may without difficulty be understood as if it were said, "And every man shall see the Christ of God." And He certainly was seen in the body and shall be seen in the body when He judge quick and dead. And that Christ is the salvation of God, many other passages of Sacred Scripture witness, but especially the words of the venerable Simeon, who, when he had received into his hands the infant Christ Jesus, said: "Now lettest Thou Thy depart in peace, as according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." - Luke ii. 29-30 - As for the words of the above mentioned Job, as they are found in the Hebrew manuscripts" And in my flesh I shall see God" - Job xix. 26 - No doubt they were a prophecy of the resurrection of the flesh; yet he does not say "by the flesh." And indeed, if he had said this, it would still be possible that Christ Jesus was meant by "God" for Christ shall be seen by the flesh in the flesh. But even understanding it to God, it is only equivalent to saying, I shall be in the flesh when I see God. Then the apostle's expression, "face to face" - 1 Corinthians xiii. 12 - does not oblige us to believe that we shall see God by the bodily face in which are the eyes of the body, for we shall see Him without intermission in spirit. And if the apostle had not referred to the face of the inner man, he would not have said: "But we, with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." - 2 Corinthians iii. 18 - In the same sense we understand what the Psalmist sings. "Draw near unto Him and be enlightened; and your faces shall not be ashamed." - Psalms xxxiv. 5 - For it is by faith and work that we draw near to God, and faith is an act of the spirit, not of the body. But as we do not know what degree of perfection the spiritual body shall attain - for here we speak of a matter of which we have no experience and upon which the authority of sacred Scripture does not definitely pronounce - it is necessary - it is necessary that the words of the Book of Wisdom be illustrated in us: "The thoughts of mortal men are timid and our fore-castings uncertain." - Wisdom ix. 14 -

For if that reasoning of the philosophers by which they attempt to make out that intelligible or mental objects are so seen by the mind and sensible or bodily objects so seen by the body that the former cannot be discerned by the mind through the body, nor the latter by the mind itself without the body - if this reasoning were trustworthy, then it would certainly follow that God could not be seen by the eye even of a spiritual body. But this reasoning is exploded both by true reason and by prophetic authority. For who is so little acquainted with the truth as to say that God has no cognisance of sensible objects? Has He therefore a body, the eyes of which give Him this knowledge? Moreover, what we have just been relating of the prophet Elisha, does this not sufficiently show that bodily things can be discerned by the spirit without the help of the body? For when that servant received the gifts, certainly this was a bodily or material transaction, yet the prophet saw it not by the body but by the spirit. As, therefore, it is agreed that bodies are seen by the spirit, what if the power of the spiritual body shall be so great that spirit also is seen by the body? For God is a spirit. Besides, each man recognises his own life - that life by which he now lives in the body and which vivifies these earthly members and causes them to grow - by an interior sense and not by his bodily eye; but the life of other men, though it is invisible, he sees with the bodily eye. For how do we distinguish between living and dead bodies, except by seeing at once both the body and the life which we cannot see save by the eye? But a life without a body we cannot see thus.

Wherefore it may very well be and it is thoroughly credible that we shall in the future world see the material forms of the new heavens and new earth in such a way that we shall most distinctly recognise God everywhere present and governing all things, material as well as spiritual, and shall see Him, not as now we understand the invisible things of God, by the things which are made - Romans i. 20 - and see Him darkly, as in a mirror and in part, and rather by faith than by bodily vision of material appearances but by means of the bodies we shall wear and which we shall see wherever we turn our eyes. As we do not believe, but see that the living men around us who are exercising vital functions are alive, though we cannot see their life without their bodies but see it most distinctly by means of their bodies, so, wherever we shall then, too, by means of bodily substances behold God, though a spirit, ruling all things. Either, therefore the eyes shall possess some quality similar to that of the mind, by which they may be able to discern spiritual things and among these God - a supposition for which it is difficult or even impossible to find any support in Scripture - or which is more easy to comprehend, God will be so known by us, and shall be so much before us that we shall see Him by the spirit in ourselves in one another, in Himself, in the new heavens and the new earth, in every created thing which shall then exist; and also by the body we shall see Him in everybody which the keen vision of the eye of the spiritual body shall reach. Our thoughts also shall be visible to all, for then shall be fulfilled the words of the apostle: "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart and then shall everyone have praise of God." - 1 Corinthians iv. 5 -

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

2026-09-23T23:48:47.468+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- That Rome made its founder Romulus a god because it loved him; but the Church loved Christ because it believed Him to be God -

Let us here recite the passage in which Tully expresses his astonishment that the apotheosis of Romulus should have been credited. I shall insert his words as they stand: "it is most worthy of remark in Romulus that other men who are said to have become gods lived in educated ages, when there was a greater propensity to the fabulous and when the uninstructed were easily persuaded to believe anything. But the age of Romulus was barely six hundred years old and already literature and science had dispelled the errors that attach to an uncultured age." And a little after he says of the same Romulus words to this effect: "From this we may perceive that Homer had flourished long before Romulus and that there was now so much learning in individuals and so generally diffused an enlightenment, that scarcely any room was left for fable. For antiquity admitted fables and sometimes even very clumsy ones; but this age [of Romulus] was sufficiently enlightened to reject whatever had not the air of truth." Thus one of the most learned men and certainly the most eloquent, M. Tullius Cicero, says that it is surprising that the divinity of Romulus was believed in because the times were already so enlightened that they would not accept a fabulous fiction. But who believed that Romulus was a god except Rome which was itself small and in its infancy?

Then afterwards it was necessary that succeeding generations should preserve the tradition of their ancestors; that drinking in this superstition with their mother's milk, the state might grow and come to such power that it might dictate this belief, as from a point of vantage to all the nations over whom its sway extended. These nations, though they might not believe that Romulus was a god, at least said so that they might not give offence to their sovereign state by refusing to give its founder that title which was given him by Rome which had adopted this belief not by a love of error, but an error of love. Though Christ Jesus is the founder of the heavenly and eternal city, yet it did not believe Him to be God because it was founded by Him but rather it is founded by Him in virtue of its belief. Rome, after it had been built and dedicated, worshipped its founder in a temple as a god; but this Jerusalem laid Christ Jesus, its God, as its foundation, that the building and dedication might proceed. The former city loved its founder and therefore believed him to be a god; the latter believed Christ to be God and therefore loved Him. There was an antecedent cause for the love of the former city and for its believing that even a false dignity attached to the object of its love; so there was an antecedent cause for the belief of the latter and for its loving the true dignity which a proper faith, not a rash surmise, ascribed to its object. For not to mention the multitude of very striking miracles which proved that Christ Jesus is God, there were also divine prophecies heralding Him, prophecies most worthy of belief which being already accomplished, we have not, like the fathers, to wait for their verification. As for or as of Romulus, on the other hand and of his building Rome and reigning in it, we read or hear the narrative of what did take place, not prediction which beforehand said that such things should be and so far as his reception among the gods is concerned. History only records that this was believed and does not state it as fact; for no miraculous signs testified to the truth of this. For as to that wolf which is said to have nursed the twin brothers and which is considered a great marvel, how does this prove him to have been divine?

For even supposing that this nurse was a real wolf and not a mere courtezan, yet she nursed both brothers and Remus is not reckoned a god. Besides, what was there to hinder anyone from asserting that Romulus or Hercules or any such man, was a god? Or who would rather choose to die than profess belief in his divinity? Did a single nation worship Romulus among its gods, unless it were forced through fear of the Roman name? Who can number the multitudes who have chosen death in the most cruel shapes rather than deny the divinity of Christ? Thus, the dread of some slight indignation which it was supposed, perhaps, groundlessly, might exists in the mind of the Romans, constrained some states who were subject to Rome to worship Romulus as a god; whereas the dread, not of a slight mental shock, but of severe and various punishments and of death itself, the most formidable of all, could not prevent an immense multitude of martyrs throughout the world from not merely worshipping but also confessing Jesus Christ as Son of the living God. City of Christ which although as yet a stranger upon earth had countless hosts of citizens, did not make war upon its godless persecutors for the sake of temporal security but preferred to win eternal salvation by abstaining from war. They were bound, imprisoned, beaten, tortured, burned, torn in pieces, massacred, and yet they multiplied. It was not given to them to fight for their eternal salvation except by despising their temporal salvation for their Savior's sake.

I am aware that Cicero, in the third book of his De Republica, if I mistake not, argues that a first-rate power will not engage in war except either for honour or for safety. What he has to say about the question of safety and what he means by safety, he explains in another place, saying: "Private persons frequently evade, by a speedy death, destitution, exile, bonds, the scourge and the other pains which even the most insensible feel. But to states, death which seems to emancipate individuals from all punishments is itself a punishment; for a state should be so constituted as to be eternal. Thus, death is not natural to a republic as to man, to whom death is not necessary but often even desirable. When a state is destroyed, obliterated, annihilated, it is as if (to compare great things with small) this whole world perished and collapsed." Cicero said this because he, with the Platonists, believed that the world would not perish. It is therefore agreed that, according to Cicero, a state should engage in war for the safety which preserves the state permanently in existence, though its citizens change; as the foliage of an olive or laurel or any tree of this kind, is perennial, the old leaves being replaced by fresh ones.

For death, as he says, is no punishment to individuals but rather delivers them from all other punishments but it is a punishment to the state. Therefore, it is reasonably asked whether the Saguntines did right when they chose that their whole state should perish rather that they should break faith with the Roman republic; for this deed of theirs is applauded by the citizens of the earthly republic. I do not see how they could follow the advise of Cicero who tells us that no war is to be undertaken save for safety or for honour; neither does he say which of these two is to be preferred, if a case should occur in which the one could not be preserved without the loss of the other. For manifestly, if the Saguntines chose safety, they must break faith; if they kept faith, they must reject safety; as also it fell out. But the safety of the city of God is such that it can be retained or rather acquired by and with faith and love; but if faith and love be abandoned, no one can attain it. It is this thought of a most steadfast and patient spirit that has made so many noble martyrs while Romulus has not had, and could not have, so much as one to die for his divinity.

- That the world's belief in Christ Jesus is the result of divine power, not of human persuasion -

It is thoroughly ridiculous to make mention of the false divinity of Romulus as any way comparable to that of Christ Jesus. Nevertheless, if Romulus lived about six hundred years before Cicero, in an age which already was so enlightened that it rejected all impossibilities, how much more, in an age which certainly was more enlightened, being six hundred years later, the age of Cicero himself and of the emperors Augustus and years later, the age of Cicero himself, and of the emperors Augustus and Tiberius would the human mind have refused to listen to or believe in the resurrection of Christ's body and its ascension into heaven and have scouted it as an impossibility, had not the divinity of truth itself or the truth of the divinity and corroborating miraculous signs, proved that it could had happened? Through of these testimonies and notwithstanding the opposition and terror of so many cruel persecutions, the resurrection and immortality of the flesh, first in Christ Jesus and subsequently in all the new world, was believed and was intrepidly proclaimed and was sown over the whole world, to be fertilized richly with the blood of the martyrs. For the predictions of the prophets that had preceded the events were read, they were corroborated by powerful signs and the truths was seen to be not contradictory to reason, but only different from customary ideas, so that at length the world embraced the faith it had furiously persecuted.

- Of the miracles which were wrought that the world might believe in Christ Jesus and which have not ceased since the world believed -

Why, they say, are those miracles which you affirm were wrought formerly, wrought no longer? I might, indeed, reply that miracles were necessary before the world believed, in order that it might believe. And whoever now-a-days demands to see prodigies that he/she may believe, is himself/herself a great prodigy because he/she does not believe, though the whole world does. But they make these objections for the sole purpose of insinuating that even those former miracles were never wrought. How, then, is it that everywhere Christ Jesus is celebrated with such firm belief in His resurrection and ascension? How is it that in enlightened times, in His resurrection and ascension? How is it that in enlightened times, in which every impossibility is rejected, the world has, without any miracles, believed things marvellously incredible? Or will they say that these things were credible and therefore were credited? Why then do they themselves not believe? Our argument, therefore, is a summary one - either incredible things which were not witnessed have caused the world to believe other incredible things which both occurred and were witnessed or this matter was so credible that it needed no miracles in proof of it and therefore convicts these unbelievers of unpardonable scepticism. This I might say for the sake of refuting these most frivolous objections. But we cannot deny that many miracles were wrought to confirm that one grand and health giving miracle of Christ's ascension to heaven with the flesh in which He rose. For these most trustworthy books of ours contain in one narrative both the miracles that were wrought and the creed which they were wrought to confirm. The miracles were published that they might produce faith and the faith which they produced brought them into greater prominence.

For they are read in congregations that they may be believed and yet they would not be so read unless they were believed. For even now miracles are wrought in the name of Christ Jesus, whether by His sacraments or by the prayers or relics of His saints; but they are not so brilliant and conspicuous as to cause them to be published with such glory as accompanied the former miracles. For the canon of the sacred writings which behoved to be closed - Another reading has diflamatum, "published." - causes those to be everywhere recited and to sink into the memory of all the congregations; but these modern miracles are scarcely known even to the whole population in the midst of which they are wrought and at the best are confined to one spot. For frequently they are known only to a very few persons, while all the rest are ignorant of them, especially if the state is a large one; and when they are reported to other persons in other localities, there is no sufficient authority to give them prompt and unwavering credence, although they are reported to the faithful by the faithful.

The miracle which was wrought at Milan when I was there and by which a blind man was restored to sight, could come to the knowledge of many; for not only is the city a large one, but also the emperor was there at the time and the occurrence was witnessed by an immense concourse of people that had gathered to the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius which had long lain concealed and unknown but were now made known to the bishop Ambrose in a dream and discovered by him. By virtue of these remains the darkness of that blind man was scattered and he saw the light of day. - A somewhat fuller account of this miracle is given by Saint Augustine in the Confessions, ix. 16. See also Serm. 286 and Saint Ambrose , Ep. 22. A translation of this epistle in full is given in Isaac Taylor's Ancient Christianity, ii 242, where this miracle is taken as a specimen of the so-called miracles of that age and submitted to a detailed examination. The result arrived at will be gathered from the following sentence: "In the Nicene Church, so lax were the notions of common morality and in so feeble a manner did the fear of God influence the conduct of leading men, that, on occasions when the Church was to be served and her assailants to be confounded, they did not scruple to take upon themselves the contrivance and execution of the most degrading impostures." - Psalms 270 - It is to be observed, however, that Saint Augustine was, at least in this instance, one of the deceived. -

But who but a very small number are aware of the cure which was wrought upon Innocentius, ex-advocate of the deputy prefecture, a cure wrought at Carthage, in my presence and under my own eyes? For when I and my brother Alypius....... - Page One -

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2026-09-14T14:59:09.982+08:00

- Open Mind, Faithful Heart - BY HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS - JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO -

- Sardis - Restoring Self-Respect - Reflection on Following Jesus -

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: "I know your works; you have a name of being alive but are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your work perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; obey it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches." - Revelation 3:1-6 -

THE DISTRESS in the Church of Sardis is that of a community that has sinned grievously by negotiating the faith. She has kept "the name of being alive" but inwardly she is dead. - Symbols of the Lord's Majesty: The Seven Spirits and the Seven Stars - The Lord consoles Sardis by revealing himself as the one who holds the seven spirits and the seven stars. These spirits and stars are the churches themselves, whose luminous spiritual reality is in the hands of the Lord. Appealing to their sense of belonging, the Lord reminds them of the hour of dead, judgement and of the word that was preached to them. He asks them to follow in the footsteps of those who have remained faithful and he promises to remain faithful himself. The Lord discerns the embers beneath the ashes in the Christian heart and he does not quench the smoldering coals.

- Reviving the Sense of Belonging: Being Aware of Our Death - "Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death...[for] I will come like a thief" - Revelation 3:2-3 - these words remind us of the eschatological parables of Jesus. "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet... If the owner of the house had known the wedding banquet... If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" - Luke 12:35-40; Matthew 24:42-44 -

- Making Judgment a Present Reality -

The Lord urges us to examine our works in reality and not just be appearances - "You have a name of being alive but you are dead... I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God" - Revelation 3:1-2 - The Lord is our advocate before the Father and will take our part, but he needs to be able to point to works of charity that weigh in our favor: "For I was hungry and you gave me food" - Matthew 25:35 - "Remember what you received and heard" - Revelation 3:3 - This command recalls Paul's letter to Timothy: "I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands... Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you... Remember Jesus Christ - raised from the dead." - 2 Timothy 1:6,13-14; 2:8 -

- Returning to the Faithful -

When we are unfaithful, we usually betray not just ideas but concrete persons. We take leave of those who taught us the faith, those who trained us well, those who remain faithful to the Lord. Sometimes we not only take leave of them but fight fiercely against them, discharging onto them the guilt we have no heart to bear ourselves. The Lord declares that there are in Sardis a few who have kept the coal of faith alive and have not stained their baptismal garments; they continue to walk with him, dressed in white - Revelation 3:4 - This is the same immaculate raiment that is destined also for the "remnant of Israel" God's faithful people as a whole and their holy representatives. "One of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, robed in white and where have they come from?' I said to them, 'Sir, you are the one that knows.' Then he said to me, 'These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robed and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." - Revelation 7:13-17 -

- Restoring Respect -

Recovering a sense of belonging and for our own history means restoring respect. Sardis has lost its self-respect and is the most unworthy of the seven churches. Perhaps mediating awhile on the meaning of respect can help us understand how we as priests can mature wisely and become "presbyters" - that is, elders - without losing our youthfulness or not or our joy in ministering. The word "respect" comes from the Latin re-spicere, meaning to "look back" or "take a second look." It can describe the attitude that the faithful have toward the priests when they take a second look at him, that is, when they take note of his presence, when they seek him out for counsel, when they imitate him. It can also describe the priest's attitude toward himself, toward others, toward things and toward God.

"Respectful" person take a second look before speaking and acting; they deliberate, they persevere, they are not carried away by emotion. Respect is the opposite of the attitude that would belittle older folk as "senile" or as caught up in their own little world, completely at the mercy of their changing moods. But respect is also contrary to some attitudes we see in older people that bring respect itself into disrepute. I am thinking of the attitudes of those who continue to get involved in power struggles, of those who speak ill of everybody and of those who take risks only for their own benefit. And there are many people who adopt a pose of respectability but interiorly have succumbed to the spiritual temptations. Of all such persons, the Lord declares: "You have a name of being alive but you are dead. - Revelation 3:1 -

Let us focus now on respect for others, looking especially at our attitude toward the young since it is the parent - child or our attitude toward the young since it is the parent - child or grandparent - grandchild relation that best reveals whether the older person has mastered a crisis or has fled from it.

It is easy to fool others regarding the relation we have with God. A pious bearing, a liturgy celebrated with devout charm, a breviary open in our hands when someone enters our room - these are acquired postures, marks that we worn so convincingly that even we come to believe that we are pious and worthy pf respect.

We may have a dignified air about us as we manage our affairs. We moderate our appetites often not out of virtue but because of fear of illness or hypochondriacal adherence to medical advice. Meanwhile, we sublimate and exquisitely refine our sensuality so as to caress souls instead of bodies, giving the whole seductive process the name of spiritual direction. We may even learn to disguise the petulance of old age with elegance, modulating our manners and refraining from any show of emotion that might reveal our mood. A dispassionate spirit can also be a mask or even a shell: not only does it protect us from others, but it quells every torment within us before it can even arise.

With young people and our children, however, it is hard to fake "respectability" The young have a sort of sixth sense with regard to older folk. They respect some of them and feel close to them: they treat them with affection, seek them out and as their advice: they open their hearts to them in confession and enjoy sharing a meal with them. Some older folk, on the other hand ate ignored or scorned by the young. Youngster would never think of approaching them of their own accord; their respect for them is only formal. They may not say so in so many words, but the young draw close to their elders or shy away from them as if by instinct.

We are "caught out" when we refuse to let go of the rudder, when our main concern is our image, when even in personal conversation we take no risks and hide our inner selves, when we are selfish or untruthful, when we say "yes" to everyone in order not to get burned, though in reality we are singed to a crisp within. Those "caught out" are basically persons who have no desire to transmit any legacy because they really don't have one to transmit. Having administered a personal legacy to their own advantage, they have none to transmit to others. When they cease to be administrators, they are left with nothing. Such is the case of those in the Apocalypse who think themselves are alive but in reality are dead. God has not been interiorized in their hearts. They continue to have a small-minded view of God as someone out there who will forgive their "sins" or peccadilloes - which we all have - but they have not discovered the God who lays claim to their hearts.

In his relationship to the youthful Timothy, Paul is the prototype of the admirable older person, "already being poured out as an offering" - 2 Timothy 4:6 - He knows how to leave the younger man with a legacy. In writing to Timothy, Paul fondly remembers their parting in Ephesus: "Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy" - 2 Timothy 1:4 - Paul is now an old man in the autumn of his life, a life full of struggle and persecutions but he keeps two things before his eyes: his vocation, for his faith in the One who called him to announce the promise of life in Christ Jesus, is unshakeable and his paternity, for Timothy is his beloved son whom he remembers day and night in his prayers and whom he encourages to remain faithful.

Joy is the sign that our hearts have found what is good for them. But the ultimate good for our hearts does not consist in our domination of any situation; it does not consist in controlling what is done or said around us or even what happens within us. Our ultimate good lies in our love for concrete persons: for our neighbours, for our Lady, for our Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Over and above these concrete persons, there exists no ideal realm of values that merits our zealous efforts. Therefore, when we question ourselves about our joy in ministering, we should not pose the question in terms of efficiency or asceticism or quantities; rather we should at the true sources of joy which are human hearts. And the questions we might ask ourselves are these: Are we ready to be "poured out as an offering"? Are we being converted into the pure and holy host worthy of entering into our God? Are we taking good care of our legacy, the children we have been given and preparing them to receive the torch? Amen!

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2026-09-01T11:28:16.736+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

What it is to have Christ for a foundation and who they are to whom salvation as by fire is promised -

But, say they, the Catholic Christians have Christ Jesus for a foundation and they have not fallen away from union with Him, no matter how depraved a life they have built on this foundation, as wool, hay, stubble; and accordingly the well-directed faith by which Christ Jesus is their foundation will suffice to deliver them some time from the continuance of that fire, though it be with loss, since those things they have built on it shall be burned. Let the Apostle James summarily reply to them: "If any man say he has faith and have not works, can faith save them?" - James ii. 14 - And who then is it, they ask, of whom the Apostle Paul says, "But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire? - 1 Corinthians iii. 15 - let us join them in their inquiry; and one thing is very certain, that is not he of whom James speaks, else we should make the two apostles contradict one another, if the one says, "Though a man's works be evil, his faith will save him as by fire," while the other says, "If he have not good works, can his faith save them?"

We shall then ascertain who it is who can be saved by fire, if we first discover what it is to have Christ Jesus for a foundation. And this is we may very readily learn from the image itself. In a building the foundation is first. Whoever, then, has Christ Jesus in his heart, so that no earthly or temporal things - not even those that are legitimate and allowed - are preferred to Him, has Christ Jesus as a foundation. But if these things be preferred, then even though a man seem to have faith in Christ, yet Christ is not the foundation to that man; and much more if he, in contempt of wholesome precepts, seek forbidden gratifications, is he clearly convicted of putting Christ Jesus not first but last, since he despised Him as his ruler and has preferred to fulfil his own wicked lusts, in contempt of Christ's commands and allowances. Accordingly, if any Christian man loves harlot and attaching himself to her, becomes one body, he has not now Christ Jesus for a foundation. But if anyone loves his own wife, and loves her as Christ would have him love her, who can doubt that he has Christ Jesus for a foundation? But if he loves her in a world fashion, carnally, as the disease of lust prompts him and as the Gentiles love who know not God, even this the apostle or rather Christ by the apostle, allows as a venial fault. And therefore even such a man may have Christ for a foundation. For so long as he does not prefer such an affection or pleasure to Christ Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ is his foundation, though on it he builds wood, hay, stubble; and therefore he shall be saved as by fire. For the fire of affliction shall burn such luxurious pleasures and earthly loves, though they be not damnable because enjoyed in lawful wedlock.

And of this fire the fuel is bereavement and all those calamities which consume these joys. Consequently, the superstructure will be loss to him who has built it, for he shall not retain it but shall be agonized by the loss of those things in the enjoyment of which he found pleasure. But by this fire he shall be saved through virtue of the foundation because even if a persecutor demanded whether he would retain Christ Jesus or these things, he would prefer Christ Jesus. Would you hear, in the apostle's own words, who he is who builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones? "He that is unmarried," he says, "care for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord - 1 Corinthians vii. 32 - Would you hear who he is that build wood, hay, stubble? "But he that is married care for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife." - 1 Corinthians vii. 33 - "Every man's work shall be mad manifest: for the day shall "it shall be revealed by fire." - 1 Corinthians iii. 13 - He calls tribulation fire, just as it is elsewhere said, "The furnace proves the vessels of the potter and the work of affliction righteous men." - Ecclesiasticus / Sirach xxvii. 5-6 - And "The fire shall try every man work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide." - for a man's care for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord, abides - "which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward" - that is, he shall reap the fruit of his care. "But if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss" - for what he loved he shall not retain: - "but he himself shall be saved" - for no tribulation shall have moved him from that stable foundation - "yet so as by fire - 1 Corinthians iii. 14-15 - for that which he possessed with the sweetness of love he does not lose without the sharp sting of pain. here, then, as sees to me, we have a fire which destroys neither, but enriches the one, brings loss to the other, proves both.

But if this passage [of Corinthians] is to interpret that fire of which the Lord shall say to those on His left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire" - Matthew xxx. 41 - so that among these we are to believe there are those who build on the foundation wood, hay, stubble and that they, through virtue of the good foundation, shall after a time be liberated from the fire that is the award of their evil deserts, what then shall we think of those on the right hand, to whom it shall be said: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you" - Matthew xxv. 34 - unless that they are those who have built on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones? But if the fire of which our Lord Jesus Christ speaks is the same as that of which the apostle says: "Yet so as by fire," then both - that is to say, both those on the right as well as those on the left - are to be cast into it. For that fire is to try both, since it is said: For the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is" - 1 Corinthians iii. 13 - If, therefore, the fire shall try both, in order that if any man's work abide, that is, if the superstructure be not consumed by the fire - he may receive a reward and that if his work is burned he may suffer loss, certainly that fire is not the eternal fire itself. For into this latter fire only those on the left hand shall be cast and that with final and everlasting doom; but that former fire proves those on the right hand. But some of them it so proves that it does not burn and consume the structure which is found to have been built by them on Christ as the foundation; while others of them it proves in another fashion, so as to burn what they have built up and thus cause them to suffer loss, while they themselves are saved because they have retained Christ Jesus, who was laid as their sure foundation and have loved Him above all. But if they are saved, then certainly they shall stand at the right hand and shall with the rest hear the sentence, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you;" and not at the left hand where those shall be who shall not be saved and shall therefore hear the doom." "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." For from that fire no man shall be saved, because they all shall go away into eternal punishment, where their worms shall not die, nor their fire be quenched, in which they shall be tormented day and night for ever.

But if it be said that in the interval of time between the death of this body and that last day of judgement and retribution which shall follow the resurrection, the bodies of the dead shall be exposed to a fire of such a nature that it shall not affect those who have not in this life indulged in such pleasures and pursuits as shall be consumed like wood, structures of that kind; if it be said that such worldliness, being venial, shall be consumed in the fire of tribulation either here only, or here and hereafter both or here that it may not be hereafter - this I do not contradict because possibly it is true. For perhaps even the death of the body is itself a part of this tribulation, for it results from the first transgression so that the time which follows death takes its color in each case from the nature of the man's building. The persecutions, too. which have crowned the martyrs and which Christians of all kinds suffer, try both buildings like a fire, consuming some, along with the builders themselves, if Christ Jesus is not found in them as their foundation, while others they consume without the builders because Christ is found in them and they are saved, though with loss; and other buildings till they do not consume because such materials as abide for ever are found in them.

In the end of the world there shall be in the time of Antichrist tribulation such as has never before been. How many edifices there shall then be, of gold or of hay, built on the best foundation, Christ Jesus, which that fire shall prove, bringing joy to some, loss to others, but without destroying either sort because of this stable foundation! Buy whosoever prefers, I do not say his wife, with whom he lives for carnal pleasure, but any of those relatives who afford no delight of such a kind, and whom it is right to love - whoever prefers these to Christ Jesus and loves them after a human and carnal fashion, has not Christ Jesus as a foundation and will therefore not be saved by fire, nor indeed at all; for he shall not possibly dwell with the Saviour/The Almighty God, who says very explicitly concerning the very matter: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." - Matthew x. 37 - But he who loves his relations carnally and yet so that he does not prefer them to Christ Jesus, but would rather want them than Christ if he were to put to the test/proof, shall be saved by fire because it is necessary that by the loss of these relations he suffer pain in proportion to his love. And he who loves father, mother, sons, daughters, according to Christ Jesus, so that he aids them in obtaining His kingdom and cleaving to Him or loves them because they are members of the Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid that this love should be consumed as wood, hay, stubble and not rather be reckoned a structure of gold, silver, precious stones. For how can a man love those more than the Lord Jesus Christ whom he loves only for Christ's sake?

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If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

2026-08-24T23:58:52.298+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- Of the creation of angels and men -

As we promised in the immediately preceding book, this, the last of the whole work, shall contain a discussion of the eternal blessedness of the city of God. This blessedness is named eternal, not because it shall endure for many ages, though at last it shall come to an end but because according to the words of the gospel, "of His kingdom there shall be no end." - Luke i. 33 - Neither shall it enjoy the mere appearance of perpetuity which is maintained by the rise of fresh generation to occupy the place of those that have died out, as in an evergreen the same freshness seems to continue permanently and the same appearance of dense foliage is preserved by the growth of fresh leaves in the room of those that have withered and fallen; but in that city all the citizens shall be immortal, men/women now for the first time enjoying what the holy angels have never lost. And this shall be accomplished by God, the most almighty Founder of the city. For He has promised and cannot lie, and has already performed many of His promises and has done many un-promised kindness to those whom He now asks to believe that He will do this also.

For it is He who in the beginning created the world full of all visible and intelligible beings, among which He created nothing better than those spirits whom He endowed with intelligence and made capable of contemplating and enjoying Him, and united in our society which we call the holy and heavenly city in which the material of their sustenance and blessedness is God Himself, as if it were their common food and nourishment. It is He who gave to this intellectual nature free will of such kind, that if he wished to forsake God his blessedness, misery should forthwith result. It is He who, when He foreknew that certain angels would in their pride desire to suffice for their own blessedness and would forsake their great good, did not deprive them of this power, deeming it to be more befitting His power and goodness to bring good out of evil than to prevent the evil from coming into existence. Indeed, evil had never had not the mutable nature - mutable, though good and created by the most high God and immutable Good, who created all things good - brought evil upon itself by sin and this its sin is itself proof that its nature was originally good. For had it not been very good, though not equal to its Creator, the desertion of God as its light could not have been an evil to it. For as blindness is a vice of the eye and this very fact indicates that the eye was created to see the light and as consequently, vice itself proves that the eye is more excellent that the other members because it is capable of light ( for on no other supposition would it be a vice of the eye to want light), so the nature which once enjoyed God teaches, even by its very vice, that it was created the best of all, since it is now miserable because it does not enjoy God. It is He who with very just punishment doomed the angels who voluntarily fell to everlasting misery and rewarded those who continued in their attachment to the supreme good with the assurance of endless stability as the meed of their fidelity. It is He who made also man himself upright with the same freedom of will - an earthly animal, indeed, but fit for heaven if he/she remained faithful to his/her Creator, but destined to the misery appropriate to such a nature if he/she forsook Him. It is He who, when He foreknew that man would in his/her turn to sin by abandoning God and breaking His law, did not deprive him of the power of free-will because He at the same time foresaw what good He Himself would bring out of the evil and how from this mortal race, deservedly and justly condemned, He would by His grace collect, as of now, He does, a people so numerous that He thus fills up and repairs the blank made by the fallen angels and that thus, that beloved and heavenly city is not defrauded of the full number of its citizens, but perhaps, may even rejoice in a still more overflowing population.

- Of the eternal and unchangeable will of God -

It is true that wicked men do many things contrary to God's will; but so great is His wisdom and power, that all things which seem adverse to His purpose do still tend towards those just and good ends and issues which He Himself has foreknown and consequently, when God is said to change His will, as when, for example, He becomes angry with those to whom He was gentle, it is rather they than He who are changed and they find Him changed in so far as their experience of suffering at His hand is new, as the sun is changed to injured eyes and becomes as it were fierce from being mild and hurtful from being delightful, though in itself it remains the same as it was. That also is called the will of God which He does in the hearts of those who obey His commandments; and of this the apostle says, "For it is God that worketh in you both to will." - Philippians ii. 13 - As God's "righteousness" is used not only of the righteousness wherewith He Himself is righteous but also of that which He produces in the man whom He justifies, so also that is called His law which though given by God, is rather the law of men. For certainly they were men to whom Jesus said, "It is written in your law" - John viii. 17 - though in another place we read "The law of his God is in his heart." - Psalms xxxvii. 31 - According to this will which God works in men. He is said also to will what He Himself does not will but causes His people to will; as He is said to know what He has caused those to know were ignorant of it. For when the apostle says: "But now, after that ye have known God or rather are known of God" - Galatians iv. 9 - we cannot suppose that God there for the first time knew those who were foreknown by Him before the foundation of the world; but He is said to have known them then because then He caused them to know. But I remember that I discussed these modes of expression in the preceding books. According to this will, then, by which we say that God wills what He causes to be willed by others, from whom the future is hidden, He wills many things which He does not perform.

Thus His saints, inspired by His holy will, desire many things which never happen. They pray, for example, for certain individuals - they pray in a pious and holy manner - but what they request He does not perform though He Himself by His own Holy Spirit has wrought in them this will to pray. And consequently, when the saints in conformity with God's mind, will and pray that all men be saved, we can use this mode of expression: God wills and does not perform - meaning that He who causes them to will these things Himself wills them. But if we speak of that will of His which is eternal as His foreknowledge, certainly He has already done all things in heaven and on earth that He has willed - not only past and present things but even things that is, still future. But before the arrival of that time in which He has willed the occurrence of what He foreknew and arranged before all time, we say, It will happen when God wills. But if we are ignorant not only of the time in which it is to be, but even whether it shall be at all, we say, It will happen if God wills - not because God will then have a new will which He had not before, but because that event which from eternity has been prepared in His unchangeable will, shall then come to pass.

- Of the promise of eternal blessedness to the saints and everlasting punishment to the wicked -

Wherefore not to mention many other instances besides, as we now see in Christ the fulfilment of that which God promised to Abraham when He said: "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed" - Genesis xxii. 18 - shall be fulfilled which He promised to the same race, when He said by the prophet, "They that are in their sepulchres shall rise again" - Isaiah xxvi 19 - and also "There shall be a new heaven and earth: and the former shall not be mentioned nor come into mind but they shall find joy and rejoicing in it: for I will make Jerusalem a rejoicing and my people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her." - Isaiah 1xv. 17-19 - And by another prophet He uttered the same prediction: "At that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust" (or as some interpret it, "in the mound") "of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt." - Daniel xii. 1, 2 - And in another place by the same prophet: "The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and shall possess the kingdom forever, even for ever and ever." - Daniel vii. 18 - And a little after he says, "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." - Daniel vii 27 - Other prophecies referring to the same subject I have advanced in the twentieth book and others still which I have not advanced are found written in the same Sacred Scripture; and these predictions shall be fulfilled, as those also have been which unbelieving men supposed would be frustrate. For it is the same God who promised both and predicted that both would come to pass - the God whom the pagan deities tremble before, as even Porphyry, the noblest of pagan philosophers, testifies.

- Against the wise men of the world, who fancy that the earthly bodies of men cannot be transferred to a heavenly habitation -

But men who use their learning and intellectual ability to resist the force of that great authority which in fulfilment of what was so long before predicted, has converted all races of men to faith and hope in its promises, seem to themselves to argue acutely against the resurrection of the body while they cite what Cicero mentions in the third book De Republica. For when he was asserting the apotheosis of Hercules and Romulus, he says: "Whose bodies were not taken up into heaven; for nature would not permit a body of earth to exist anywhere except upon earth." This, forsooth, is the profound reasoning of the wise men whose thoughts God knows that they are vain. For if we were only souls, that is, spirits without any body and if we dwelt in heaven and had no knowledge of earthly animals and were told that we should be bound to earthly bodies by some wonderful bond of union and should animate them, should we not much more vigorously refuse to believe this and maintain that nature would not permit an incorporeal substance to be held by a corporeal bond? And yet the earth is full of living spirits, to which terrestrial bodies are bound, and with which they are in a wonderful way implicated. If then, the same God who has created such beings wills this also, what is to hinder the earthly body from being raised to a heavenly body, since a spirit which is more excellent than all bodies and consequently than even a heavenly body has been tied to an earthly body? If so small an earthly particle has been able to hold in union with itself something better than a heavenly body, so as to receive sensation and life, will heaven disdain to receive or at least to retain, this sentient and living particle which derives its life and sensation from a substance more excellent than any heavenly body? If this does not happen now, it is because the time is not yet come which has been determined by Him who has already done a much more marvelous thing than that which these men refuse to believe. For why do we not more intensely wonder that incorporeal souls, which are of higher rank than heavenly bodies, are bound to earthly bodies, rather than that bodies, although earthly, are exalted to an abode which though heavenly, is yet corporeal, except because we have been accustomed to see this and indeed are this, while we are not as yet that other marvel, nor have as yet ever seen it? Certainly, if we consult sober reason, the more wonderful of the two divine works is found to be to attach somehow corporeal things to incorporeal and not to connect earthly things with heavenly, which though diverse, are yet both of them corporeal.

- Of the resurrection of the flesh which some refuse to believe, though the world at large believes it -

But granting that this was once incredible, behold now, the world has come to the belief that the earthly body of Christ was received up into heaven. Already both the learned and unlearned have believed in the resurrection of the flesh and its ascension to the heavenly places, while only a very few either of the educated or uneducated are still staggered by it. If this is a credible thing which is believed, then let those who do not believe see how stolid they are; and if it is incredible, then this also is an incredible thing, that what is incredible should have received such credit. Here then we have two incredible - to wit, the resurrection of our body to eternity and that the world should believe so incredible a thing; and both these incredible the same God predicted should come to pass before either had as yet occurred. We see that already one of the two has come to pass, for the world has believed what was incredible; why should we despair that the remaining one shall also come to pass and that this which the world believed, through it was incredible, shall itself occur? For already that which was equally incredible has come to pass, in the world's believing an incredible thing. Both were incredible: the one we see accomplished, the other we believe shall be; for both were predicted in those same Sacred Scriptures by means of which the world believed. And the very manner in which the world's faith was won is found to be even more incredible, if we consider it.

Men uninstructed in any branch of a liberal education without any of the refinement of heathen, unskilled in grammar, not armed with dialectic, not adorned with rhetoric but plain fishermen and very few in number - these were the men whom Christ Jesus sent with the nets of faith to the sea of this world and thus took out of every race so many fishes and even the philosophers themselves, wonderful as they are rare. Let us add, if you please or because you ought to be pleased, this third incredible thing to the two former. And now we have three incredible, all of which have yet come to pass. It is incredible that Jesus Christ should have risen in the flesh and ascended with flesh into heaven; it is incredible that the world should have believed so incredible a thing; it is incredible that very few men of mean birth and the lowest rank and with no education, should have been able to so effectually to persuade the world and even its learned men of so incredible a thing. Of these three incredible, the parties with whom we are debating refuse to believe the first; they cannot refuse to see the second which they are unable to account for if they do not believe the third. It is indubitable that the resurrection of Christ and His ascension into heaven with the flesh in which He rose, is already preached and believed in the whole world.

If it is not credible, how is it that it has already received credence in the whole world? If a number of noble, exalted and learned men had said that they had witnessed it and had been at pains to publish what they had witnessed, it were not wonderful that the world should have believed it, but it were very stubborn to refuse credence; but if, as is true, the world has believed a few obscure, inconsiderable, uneducated persons, who state and write that they witnessed it, is it not unreasonable that a handful of wrong-headed men should oppose themselves to the creed of the whole world and refuse their belief? And if the world has put faith in a small number of men of mean birth and the lowest rank, and no education, it is because the divinity of the thing itself appeared all the more manifestly in such contemptible witnesses. The eloquence, indeed, which lent persuasion to their message, consisted of wonderful works, not words. For they who had not seen Christ Jesus risen in the flesh, nor ascending into heaven with His risen body, believed those who related how they had seen these things and who testified not only with words but wonderful signs. For men whom they knew to be acquainted with only one or at most two languages, they marveled to hear speaking in the tongues of all nations. They saw a man, lame from his mother's womb, after forty years stand up sound at their word in the name of Christ; that handkerchiefs taken from their bodies had virtue to heal the sick; that countless persons, sick of various diseases, were laid in a row in the road where they were pass, that their shadow might fall on them as they walked and that they forthwith received health; that many other stupendous miracles were wrought by them in the name of Jesus Christ; and finally, that they even raised the dead. If it be admitted that these things occurred as they are related, then we have a multitude of incredible things to add to those three incredible. That the one incredibility of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ may be believed, we accumulate the testimonies of countless incredible miracles, but even so we do not bend the frightful obstinacy of these sceptics. But if they do not believe that these miracles were wrought by Christ's apostles to gain credence to their preaching of His resurrection and ascension, this one guard miracle suffices for us, that the whole world has believed without any miracles.

- That Rome made its founder Romulus a god because it loved him; but the Church loved Christ because it believed Him to be God -

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-08-17T11:02:22.255+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

Not only is the theology of the sacrament of reconciliation rooted in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, but its practice can be traced back through history, that is, from the early Church to the 21st Century Church. The Lord Jesus Christ, who promised to be with His Church to the end of the world, could not have gone back on His words. It was in the 16th century that the Protestant Reformation changed it. Christ Jesus could not have left His Church in error for many more centuries over such an essential aspect of Christian life. If we said that He did, we would be accusing the Lord of being a liar.

Psychological Dimension

From the psychological view point, the sacrament of reconciliation is very therapeutic. Let us start with a simple example. When we have something bothering us, we will feel much more relieved if we could confide it to someone. When we have sins, we will be ashamed to tell them to another person. In practice, we seldom tell another our personal sins. Yet we need to "unload" this guilt. As psychologists will tell us, guilt is one of the stumbling blocks to our growth as human beings.

The Lord Jesus Christ knows our psychological need and has provided us, in the Church, with a means by which we can get rid of our guilt feelings so that we can grow to be better human beings. When we go to the priest, representative of Christ Jesus and the Church, and confess our sins, we meet the Lord Jesus Christ in His Church. We express in a concrete human way our desire to mend the "strained or broken" relationships between God and us between you (Community) and us and between us and ourselves. When the priest absolves us with Christ's authority in the ministry of His Church, by the power of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Christ's love is poured into us we we open the gate and we feel His forgiveness and the forgiveness of the Church. We come out not only feeling relieved but also filled with new vigour - the strength of Christ's love, to live a new life. When the priest utters the words of Christ and His Church's forgiveness, as he lifts his hand to make the sign of the cross, we feel the confirmation of forgiveness. Human beings need an outward sign of an inward reality. You may know that I love you. But when I say to you: "I love you" and express it in a concrete way by embracing you, you not only know but feel confirmed about it. You feel much happier. How is a person confirmed as a Christian and as a member of Christ's Body? He and She is so confirmed when he/she is baptized by a human person in the name of the triune God. Our sacrament of reconciliation is not only psychological; it is basically spiritual. It is a spiritual healing that flows into our psychological make-up. Psychological help remains psychological. Spiritual healing goes deep into our inner being, changes us and affects our psychological make-up.

Conclusion - From my treatment of the sacrament of reconciliation above, it can be seen that our sacrament has its basis not only in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible and in the history of the Church but also in the nature of human beings. The priest is there as a representative of the body of Christ, the Church and the Head, Christ Jesus. He is there not to judge but to dispense God's infinite love in forgiveness and in strengthening. Through this act, a Catholic Christian can go forth strengthened to build stronger bridges of relationship.

Objection - Did not confession as practiced by the Catholic Church lead to abuses in the Middle Ages - the indulgence scandal?

Response - Yes. Facts are facts. Truth must be faced squarely. The Irish Missionary Monks worked out a sort of "price list" or "Tariff" of penances for different sins. Herewith I listed a few examples: (1) for murder - three years exile on bread and water, plus three more years as servant to the victim's family. (2) for drunkenness - three weeks on bread and water, etc... In the later part of the Middle Ages, the custom of offering prayers instead of doing physical penances became popular. Then an offering was given to a priest for prayers in Mass. Money given to build Churches was practiced as a penance. Here is where the abuse came in. The rich began to pay others to do their penance. For instance, a man with a penance for seven years on bread and water would pay 12 men to fast three days plus 120 men to fast three days, but 7 times: [(12X3) + (120X7X3)] = 2,556 days = 7 years. Such abuses and related questions on indulgences and other causes brought the Reformation.

The Church knew about it and tried to eradicate it but it took quite a long time before she succeeded. the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 already condemned the abuses. Although the Council of Trent enacted the disciplinary measures to correct abuses, they were not eradicated. Finally, in 1567 His Holiness Pope St. Pius V, seeing the ineffectiveness of the disciplinary measures of the Council of Trent struck at the root of the abuses by abrogating every indulgence that had a monetary abused. This killed the abuses. Anything good can be abused. This is due to the perverted mind of human beings or to ignorance. love is good. Yet, how many people make use of it to commit adultery, to steal other people's wives and to smother the growth of others (especially children?) The abuse of a thing does not make the thing bad. It is the abuse that is evil. A knife is good if I employ it to cut things - for examples: vegetables for food - for the use of Man. But a knife becomes bad if I use it to kill another person. A car is good because it is a means of transportation. Just because some people abuse it by driving recklessly and killing themselves and others, it does not mean that we must scrap the car. the Sacrament of Reconciliation is good if it is not abused. Even religion which teaches good, can be utilized for evil ends - to split people to gain votes, etc.

Objection - The priest is only a human being and he is also sinful and therefore unworthy.

Response - Of course he is only a human being and he is sinful. But who is worthy? Jesus Christ chose Saint Peter who denied Him thrice to be the leader of His Church - Luke 22:31-32 - Worthiness comes basically from being chosen by God and from His power. Saint Paul says: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us" - 2 Corinthians 4:7 - A priest represent not himself but Christ and His Church. Who baptizes and cleanses us from sin? A man chosen by God to be a leader (priest) of His people. Can anyone who baptizes say that he is worthy? No. He does it in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is, God uses him as an instrument of His power.

Objection - You Catholics go to confession and come out committing the same sins. It looks as if you use the confessional to salve your guilty conscience only so that you can go and commit more sins.

Response - This accusation comes from an ignorance of what is the sacrament of reconciliation and what it is to be human. (1) Catholics who go to the sacrament of reconciliation without a firm desire and resolution to change, have not the right disposition to receive the sacrament. The Church has always laid this down as a necessary condition for the reception of the sacrament. How can a person who goes to meet God, Christ Jesus in the sacrament tell a lie? On the one hand he says, "Lord forgive me. I am sorry for my sins," and on the other hand harbours in his/her heart the determination to sin again. This means that he/she is saying sorry and not really being sorry. In other words: It is a lie. (2) Everyone knows, unless he or she is a liar, that in spite of all the goodwill, all of us fall again because "the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak." Therefore "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." - Matthew 26:41 - The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a watchfulness and a prayer. It is hoped that, gradually, through constant examination of our conscience and a determination to change (The Sacrament of Reconciliation) we will slowly change, with the Lord Jesus Christ help and ourselves.

Indeed, from my priestly experience, those who come to the 'Sacrament' frequently are generally those who are better or holier people. This is not a hypothesis. It is a fact. You cannot being see yourself ugly and do nothing about it. It is just not human. - P A G E T H R E E -

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If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

2026-07-29T17:10:55.057+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

The Lord Jesus Christ, who made us and knew our need, gave us the sacrament of Reconciliation (traditionally called "Confession") a concrete confirmation, in a way that we poor humans can understand it, of the healing of the three "broken" relationships.

Jesus, although God, as a human being forgave sins to the scandal of the Pharisees. He gave this authority to forgive sins to Peter when He said, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." - Matthew 16:19 - To His other disciples Jesus also said the same thing - Matthew 18:18 - After His resurrection Jesus appeared to His apostles and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." - John 20:22-23 -

The forgiveness of God is always there for us. Christ Jesus forgives us even before we ask Him for it. In the story of the Prodigal Son, - Luke 15:11-32 - the loving father, as soon as he saw his son, "yet at a distance..., he ran and embraced him and kissed him," even before the prodigal son could open his mouth and apologize. Does this not show that our Father in heaven has forgiven us even before we ask Him? When the prodigal son confessed his sins, the loving father did not seem to hear it at all. he said immediately to His servants, "Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his right hand and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry,..." Not only does our Father in Heaven seem not to hear our strings of sins. He appears in a hurry to "make merry". God not only has forgiven us from eternity. He waits for us to "make merry": a forgiveness that has been eternally granted with willingness and joy because it comes from Love Himself. How different God is from us!

If God has already forgiven us, why ask for forgiveness or go to the the sacrament of reconciliation? Because forgiveness is not for God; it is for us. We have freely broken the relationships with Him, it is for us. We have freely broken the relationships with Him, with others and with ourselves. And it is up to our free will to decide if we want to mend the relationships or not. I can walk out of the house of my parents and my parents can long for me to come back but if I do not want to come back, not even my parents' longing can make me come back. The sacrament reconciliation is not for God, our Father. It is for us sinners. This eternal forgiveness of God, because He is love, must be expressed in a way that we poor humans, so tied down to 'matter' that can be understand. And so, His Son Jesus Christ died for us to show us how much He loves us and that we are forgiven. To show us His unlimited love, Jesus not only died for us, He gave us His own life in the Holy Eucharist to strengthen us so that we can live like true human beings for which He has made us.

It is in the context of this external love and forgiveness of God, our Father, that we must look at the sacrament of reconciliation. The Lord Jesus Christ knows that as humans we need at all times some "material expressions" of our sorrow and our desire to change. Hence, Jesus gave first to His Church (for all who are believers, in Him) the authority to accept our human expression of sorrow and desire to mend the broken relationships. Jesus said to His disciples: "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." - Matthew 18:18 -

Before we discuss the specific Sacrament of Reconciliation, it is appropriate to mention that the Church is conscious of the constant presence of God's forgiveness in her. The early Christians were aware of God's forgiveness in baptism, anointing of the sick, martyrdom, the Eucharist, reading of the Scriptures, fraternal correction, charity that covers a multitude of sins, alms, works of piety, vigils, pilgrimages, etc. All these are concrete human experiences of sorrow and of God's forgiveness. There is a specific human expression of forgiveness mentioned in Saint James. He encouraged his apostles to "confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." - John 5:16 - But again the confession of my sin to the person against whom I have sinned takes into account only one aspect of the "broken relationship": my relationship with the person whom I have wronged. How about the relationships with the Church, the Body of Christ and with God?

It is because the Lord Jesus knew this that He gave Saint Peter and his apostles a special authority to forgive sins because they are concrete leaders or representatives on earth, or concrete leader of His Church. To Saint Peter, whom Jesus had just appointed as leader of His Church - Matthew 16:18 - He said "I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whatever you bound in heaven. - Matthew 16:19 - After the Lord Jesus resurrection, He appeared to the frightened Apostles hiding in a closed room and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." - John 20:22-23 - This "confession of sins" is not only a continuation but also a perfecting of the confession of sins (John the Baptist (although a prophet, he was still a man) just as the Baptism in Christ is not only a continuation but also a perfection of John the Baptist's baptism in the Jordan - Matthew 3:6 - Whether they want it or not, a group of people will always have someone to represent them. Call him/her by whatever name you want, the fact remains. Socialists will confirm this statement. The Apostles picked and chose their successors. In Saint Paul's letter to the Philippians, he referred to episcopois (bishops) and diakonois (deacons) - Philippians 1:1 -

At this period, perhaps the distinction of roles was not too clear. But a little later, in Saint Paul's Pastoral Letters, the distinction became clearer. He spoke of deacons - 1 Timothy 3:8 - of elders (also in the plural) and of bishops (in the singular, 1 Timothy 1:7, 11; 1 Timothy 3:1 - The bishop became the representative of the community. Timothy, whom Saint Paul chose, was reminded by Paul of the gift of being a bishop which 1 Timothy received when the council of the elders laid their hands upon him - 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6 -). "At this stage, in the sharing of the apostolic ministry, the phenomenon designated by 'apostolic ministry, the phenomenon designated by 'apostolic succession' was present in all but name.' - Lutheran and Catholics in Dialogue IV: Eucharist and Ministry, U.S. Catholic Conference, Washington, D.C., 1970 - Not only did the Apostles choose their successors to represent the community; they also manifested it through a visible sign - the laying of hands on the chosen. To these successors of theirs, the Apostles handed over the powers they had, of which forgiveness of sins was one.

The earliest forms of a visible sign of forgiveness practiced by the first Christians were baptism and the anointing of the sick - James 5:14-15 - But some apostatized (denied their faith). Afterward, many were sorry and wanted to be readmitted into the Church. Since they could not be re-baptized, a ceremony of forgiveness came into practice. Public confession of three basic community sins - murder, apostasy and adultery - were told to the bishops. The bishops imposed long and severe public penances like fasting, wearing of sackcloth and ashes, etc. After the term of their penances ended, the bishop would officially go out of the "Church" to receive the penitents back into the fold. The Didache or Instructions of the Apostles (in the early Church) speaks of confessing one's sin in the Church. In the writing of Tertullian (A.D. 249-258) we find evidence of a period of mortification and prayer before reconciliation to the Church. Saint Ambrose (A.D. 340-407) said that the Church "possesses both water and tears; the water of baptism and the tears of repentance." Saint Gregory (A.D. 329-389) calls confession "a baptism of tears." Why did the early Church emphasize public confession to a bishop and penances? The Church was aware of Saint Paul's teaching that sin hurts the whole body of Christ, the Church. So the penitent went to the representative of the Church and of Christ, the bishop, to confess publicly (to the whole Church) his/her sin. After he/she had made reparation for his/her sin with public penances , he/she was officially brought back into Communion with the Church.

But this practice was too severe. His Holiness Pope St. Leo (A.D 459) recognized it by saying that it was "a custom that cannot be approved." People feared going to confession. Some even postponed their baptism till at death bed. Saint Augustine (4th Century) urged young people not to receive the sacrament. As a consequence, many people put baptism off till death was imminent. The sacrament almost died out.

Then the early middle ages, the Irish monks introduced a new form of private confession. When it was brought to Europe in the 8th Century, many bishops condemned it. The popularity of this private confession grew, in spite of the censures, until the bishops just could not ignore it any longer. The Fourth Lateran Council in the 13th Century finally approved it. Again, history showed that human beings who believed in the teachings of Christ needed to express in a visible human way of their sorrow for their sins which harmed the Church, themselves and indirectly, God . It was this human need that triumphed over the condemnation of private confession. This private confession was a kind of mixture of "spiritual guidance" and confession. The penitent told either a bishop or a priest his/her sins, not only serious ones: like murder, adultery, apostasy, but also less serious sins (traditionally termed as venial). Absolution was given, followed by a penance for the penitent and we have inherited this form of expression of "sorrow" for sins" and of forgiveness, what we now called the sacrament of reconciliation.

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

2026-07-15T11:47:23.358+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

This belief of Saint Cyril's sounds like a paraphrase of Saint John's and Saint Paul's teaching on the Sacrament of The Holy Eucharist. Saint John's chapter 6 is also a refutation of the docetists' denial of the reality of Christ's human body. It starts with the multiplication of the loaves which has two meanings: (a) nothing is impossible for God to do and (b) symbolic reference to Christ feeding a multitude with His own body and blood.

Why do Catholic Christians receive only the bread when the Lord Jesus Christ told us to eat his body and drink his blood?

If we think of Christ's body and blood either in the cannibalistic way or in a symbolic way, then we will have a problem. But if we think of of the body and blood of Christ as the life of Christ given to us (and explained, as the Real Presence of Christ) then there is no question of splitting the Life of Christ or the Resurrected Lord into "body" and "blood" as if the "body" or the "blood" by itself does not contain the totality of Christ. The Risen Christ cannot be split. His life is totally present in the bread" as well in the "wine". This was why the early Church could send Christians out carrying only the "host" or "body" of Christ Jesus in their bosom to give it to other Christians. This is another proof that our present Catholic understanding is correct.

This does not mean that Catholics are not allowed to partake of the body and blood. In a small community and when it does not become a complicated affair, we are not only allowed but encouraged to partake of both.

- Sacrifice of the Holy Mass -

Why do you Catholics believe in the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass/Holy Eucharistic celebration? The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible says that Christ Jesus was the only acceptable sacrifice offered once and for all for our sins /our iniquity. All other sacrifices are of no use. Hebrews 9:26 says: Christ Jesus "has appeared once and for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Again, Hebrews 10:11-12 says: "And every priests stands at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifice which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God..." Question like: Your Catholic priests offer Holy Mass as a sacrifice. Is it valid? Does your sacrifice take away sins as Christ Jesus sacrifice did once and for all? But even if your Holy Mass is the sacrifice of The Lord Jesus Christ, are you not repeating Christ's sacrifice which was once and for all time? If the Holy Mass is the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ would have to die again and again. This is absurd: The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible says that Christ Jesus died and took away our sins once and for all.

It is wrong to take one or two passages out of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible context and use them to defend one's view and attack an other's position. The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible must be treated with great respect and care. It must be interpreted in the textual context in which it is found and it must also be taken as a whole otherwise we distort the message. First and foremost, the texts Hebrews 9:26; 10:11-12 quoted to attack the Catholic Christian position are taken out of its textual context. The author of Hebrews is comparing the sacrifices offered in the Old Testament (the Jewish sacrifices) with the sacrifice of Christ Jesus - Hebrews 9:26 - says "Nor was it to offer himself (Christ) repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world." Obviously, Saint/Apostle Paul compares Christ Jesus to the Old Testament high priest who entered the Holy of holies once a year to offer sacrifice for sins committed by the Jew. - Hebrews 10:1 - says: "For since the laws (Torah) has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near." Again it is a reference to the Jewish high priest who entered the holy of holies once a year to offer sacrifice for sins committed by the Jewish people. Therefore Jesus abolishes the first (Old Testament sacrifice) in order to establish the second - Hebrews 10:9 - Then come the two lines quoted above - Hebrews 10:11-12 - It is evident, Saint Paul is not speaking of Christian sacrifice of the Holy Mass.

Besides, those who attack us do not know what we understand by the sacrifice of the Holy Mass. Our meaning comes from the same text of Hebrews which speaks of Christ's sacrifice. The meaning of Christ's sacrifice in the same textual context is not only Jesus Christ death at Calvary but His whole life in humble obedience to God's will. - Hebrews 10:5-7 -

Christ Jesus sacrifice is the total commitment to do God's will in His life leading even to the Cross. Jesus sacrifice is not only a taking away of our sins but also a total self-giving to do God's will as always. It is not in "sin offerings" - Hebrews 10:6 - but in the offering of His total life to do God's will which led to the forgiveness of sins.

We, being the Body of Christ, share all that the Head is: Christ the High Priest, Prophet and King of Kings - 1 Timothy 6;15 - If the body does not share in/with the Head, it is no longer part of the body. Because we are members of His body, we "are a chosen race, a royal priesthood... - 1 Peter 2:9 - The Book of Revelation said that the Lord Jesus "hast made them (Christians) a Kingdom and priests to our God" - Revelation 5:10 - Our sharing in Christ's sacrifice (priesthood) is, therefore, our total daily life given to do God's will in everything. It is this understanding of sacrifice that permits Saint Paul to say - "I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies (whole person) as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship." - Romans 12:1 - How to offer ourselves as a sacrifice? To "walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." - Ephesians 5:2 - Sacrifice, therefore, in the New Testament is the offering of our entire life to God in obedience to do His will, that is, to do as God loves us.

This sharing in the mystery of Christ's priesthood must be expressed externally because we are human beings and not pure spirits (chapter 1). This is expressed in the sacrifice of the Holy Mass - our sharing in Christ's sacrifice. For this reason the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church tells us that the Holy Mass (not only the priest's) participation in Christ's priesthood. The priest at the altar represents our priesthood in Christ, the High Priest and Christ's priesthood poured into us, His body. Unless we actively participate in the Holy Mass, offering our whole life to God the Father through Christ or the Holy Mass becomes meaningless to us. Unless we try in our daily life to follow God's will (obedience) to love as He loves us, if not, our participation in the Holy Mass will becomes meaningless too. It is because of this understanding of sacrifice that Saint Peter can exhort us: "Come to Him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight: chosen and precious: and like living stones, to be yourselves that built into a spiritual house and to be a holy priesthood: to offer spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.- 1 Peter 2:4-5 -

Just as Christ Jesus summed up his sacrifice in the human expression of dying on the cross, so we sum up our sharing in His sacrifice in the human expression of the Holy Mass. The author or Hebrews, like Saint Peter says: "Through Christ then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God." - Hebrews 13:15 - Holy Eucharist or holy Mass in Greek means praise. The continual offering up of a sacrifice of praise, our entire life of sacrifice, is expressed by Catholic Christians in the Holy Eucharist or Holy Mass. It is indeed, a sacrificial offering of praise to God because it is not an empty symbolic gesture through the offering of the blood of animals and other holocausts which have nothing to do with our real lives but it is an actual offering of our whole lives to God in union with the sacrifice of Christ Himself. By this we all share Christ's priesthood.

But we know that we do not fully live up to "doing God's will by loving as He loves us." So we attend and come to Holy Mass/Eucharist to ask (1) for God's and the Christian community's forgiveness and (2) for God's strength (love) to do better His will. It is making "my own" the power that Christ Jesus has gained for me through His eternal sacrifice. It is not a repetition of Christ's sacrifice which is once and for all. It is, rather and appropriating the fruits of Christ's sacrifice.

Remember what I have just stated about the Holy Eucharist/Holy Mass. When Christ Jesus said, "Do this in memory (anamnesis) of me", he meant us to relive in faith the memory of His life, death and resurrection in such a way that the power of His sacrifice of Himself becomes present to us here and now. In other words, it is appropriating in our lives the power of His "once-and-for-all-sacrifice." It is a sharing in His eternal sacrifice. What is the use of Christ's sacrifice if we do not claim it for ourselves? We are free. God made us so. God will not force His sacrifice on us. We have to accept it freely. The Lord Jesus Christ sacrifice is like a power station waiting to be tapped. We have to tap it for it to become effective. It is in making Christ's sacrifice of Himself efficacious in our lives that we proclaim Him. Hence, Saint Paul tells us, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ death until he comes." - 1 Corinthians 11:26 - This is the Catholic Christian meaning of the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass which Saint Peter and Saint Paul exhort us to offer continually.

- Sacrament of Reconciliation -

All of us who have received Baptism still feel the need for forgiveness because we know that we are still sinful. Although we have renounced "Satan" or Evil and turned to Christ Jesus at our baptism, we still keep falling into sins because we are weak. Hence, we need continually the forgiveness of God. (See the chapter on Sin and Love) Saint/Apostle John in his letter to his Christians said, "If we say we have no sins, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us... but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;" - 1 John 1:8; 2:1 - Saint/Apostle James also aware of sins committed after Baptism. He exhorted his Christians, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another" - James -5:16 - Why is it that the Old Testament and the New Testament are filled with the awareness of Man's sinfulness? It is because we fall short of God's love. Therefore, we can always say before God, "Lord, forgive me for I am a sinner." There is no real dispute on this point. All of us, if we are truthful, recognize this fact.

The bone of contention is rather "confession to a priest." As someone asked me, "Why can't I confess directly to God? Why must I go to a priest; after all he is only a man like you and I? It is God who forgives, not Man."

To this man, let us call him Mr. X, I will tell him that he has failed to understand what it is to be human, what is the meaning of sin and what it is to be a Christian. At the back of the question posed by Mr. X is the presupposition that sin hurts God: Sin as a direct offence against God, demand a direct forgiveness from Him whom we have hurt. Thus, asking for forgiveness is directed straight at God whom we have hurt and He forgive us directly. There is no need of an intermediary, a priest. But can God be hurt? If He, who is Almighty, Infinite, could be hurt by me with a small dot that disappears practically into nothingness in the Universe, then, He would no longer be Almighty or Infinite - He would be a figment of my own imagination. The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible rightly says: "Is it I whom they provoke? says the Lord. Is it not themselves to their own confusion?" - Jeremiah 7:19 - Elihu says, "If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him/God? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him/God?... Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself..." - Jobs 35:6-8 - If God is not hurt by my sin, whom does it hurt? It hurts me and my neighbour, as Elihu says. It hurts not only the person whom I have wronged; it hurts also the whole human community. Saint/Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians expressed this idea through the analogy of the human body. This can be understood only in the context of the notion of solidarity (Cf. chapter 1) Because the Body is a unity of many parts, if one part, for example, my hand is hurt, the whole body feels it. And if one part, for example, my heart, is in good conditioned, the whole body profits from it. Since we are all united in the one life of Christ, in His Body, if one of us sins, he/she hurts the whole body of Christ. "If one member is honoured, all rejoice together." - 1 Corinthians 12:26 -

If sin is a refusal to love and by nature I am made to love, sin hurts first and foremost, myself. G. K. Chesterton rightly said that sin is "that whatever I am, I am not myself." - Orthodoxy. Union Books, Sheed & Ward, 1939, p. 273 - Then again, it hurts the person whom I have offended. This has its repercussions and the whole Body of Christ, the Church, is hurt. And only indirectly is God hurt because He who creates us loves us and is "sad" speaking in human terms, that we harm each other. From another point of view, God is indirectly hurt because He is the Source of life, the love that brings forth life and sustains it, any destruction of it affects Him. Sin is a destruction of life. Through my sin, I harm the relationship between me and myself, between the community and me and between God and I.

Reconciliation is precisely the mending or healing of the "strained" or "broken" relationships. If I were to confess my sorrow directly to God, I would take into account only my relationship with God. How about my relationship to the Christian community? Saint /Apostle John said: "If anyone says, 'I love God', and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." - 1 John 4:20 - Logically, Saint/Apostle John could have continued and said as well, "If anyone says, 'God has forgiven me because I have asked God for forgiveness' and fails to ask for forgiveness of his brother whom he has hurt, he is a liar; for he who sins against his brother and asks not for forgiveness, cannot ask for forgiveness from God whom he has not seen nor hurt directly." Reconciliation taken in its full sense, is the restoration of the three "broken" relationships because Christian love is a three dimensional relationship: God and I, others and I, myself and I. To express fully this sorrow for my sins in a human way, it is necessary to go through a material form (Cf. chapter 1) that takes into account all the three relationships. The Lord Jesus Christ, who made us and knew our need, gave us the sacrament of Reconciliation (traditionally called "Confession") a concrete confirmation, in a way that we poor human can understand it, of the healing of the three "broken" relationships.

Jesus, although God, as a human being forgive sins to the scandal of the Pharisees. He gave this authority to forgive sins to Peter when He said: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." - Matthew 16:19 - To his other disciples Jesus Christ also said the same thing. - Matthew 18:18 - After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His apostles and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." - John 20:22-23 -........ - P A G E O N E -

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

2026-07-05T17:01:00.270+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO - "HERE is a book that written over fifteen hundred years ago by a mystic in North Africa. Yet to those who have ears to hear, it has a great deal to say to many of us who are mystic, today in America... THE CITY OF GOD is the autobiography of the Church written by the most CATHOLIC of her GREAT SAINTS....... THE CITY OF GOD, FOR THOSE WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT CONTAINS THE SECRET OF DEATH AND LIFE, WAR AND PEACE, HEAVEN AND EARTH." -

- Whether those who received heretical baptism, and have afterwards fallen away to wickedness of life; or those who have received catholic baptism but have afterwards passed over to heresy and schism; or those who have remained in the catholic Church in which they were baptised but have continued to live immorally - may hope through the virtue of the sacraments for the remission of eternal punishment - P A G E 7 -

But let us now reply to those who promise deliverance from eternal fire, not to the devil and his angels (as neither do they of whom we have been speaking) nor even to all men whatever but only to those who have been washed by the baptism of Christ and have become partakers of His body and blood, no matter how they have lived, no matter what heresy or impiety they have fallen into. But they are contradicted by the apostle, where he says, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft hatred, variances, emulations, wraths, strife, heresies, envy, drunkenness, revellings and the like: of the which I tell you before, shall not inherit the kingdom of God." - Galatians 19:21 - Certainly this sentence of the apostle is false, if such person shall be delivered after any lapse of time and shall then inherit the kingdom of God. But as it is not false, they shall certainly never inherit the kingdom of God. And if they shall never enter that kingdom, then they shall always be retained in eternal punishment; for there is no middle place where he/she may live unpunished who has not been admitted into that kingdom.

And therefore we may reasonably inquire how we are to understand these words of the Lord Jesus: "This is the bread which come down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man/woman eat of this bread, he/she shall live forever." - John 6:50-51 - And those indeed, whom we are now answering, are refuted in their interpretation of this passage by whom we are shortly to answer and who do not promise this deliverance to all who have received the sacraments of baptism and the Lord Jesus Christ body but only to the Catholics, however, wickedly they live; for these, say they, have eaten the Lord Jesus body not only sacramentally but really, being constituted members of His body of which the apostle says, "We being many are one bread, one body." - 1 Corinthians 10:17 - He/She then who is in the unity of Christ's body (that is to say, in the Catholic Christian membership) of which body the faithful have been wont to receive the sacrament at the altar, that person is truly said to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. Consequently, heretics and schismatics being separate from the unity of this body are able to receive the same sacrament but with no profit to themselves - nay, rather to their own hurt, so that they are rather more severely judged than liberated after sometime. For they are not in that bond of peace which is symbolized by that 'Sacrament.'

But again, even those who sufficiently understand that he/she who is not in the body of Christ Jesus cannot be said to eat the body of Christ, are in error when they promise liberation from the fire of eternal punishment to persons who fall away from the unity of that body into heresy or even into heathenish superstition. For in the first place, they ought to consider how intolerable it is and how discordant with sound doctrine, to suppose that many, indeed, or almost all, who have forsaken the Universal/Catholic Church and have originated impious heresies and become heresiarchs, should enjoy a destiny superior to those who never were Catholics but have fallen into the snares of these others; that is to say, if the fact of their Catholic baptism and original reception of the sacrament of the body of Christ in the true body of Christ Jesus is sufficient to deliver these heresiarchs from eternal punishment. For certainly he/she who deserts the faith and from a deserted becomes an assailant, is worse than he/she who has not deserted the faith he/she never held. And in the second place, they are contradicted by the apostle, who after enumerating the works of the flesh, says with reference to heresies, "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

And therefore neither ought such persons as lead an abandoned and damnable life to be confident of salvation, though they persevere to the end in the communion of the Catholic Church and comfort themselves with the words: "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." By the iniquity of their life they abandon that very righteousness of life which Christ Jesus is to them, whether it be by fornication or by perpetrating in their body the other unclean which the apostle would not so much as mention or by a dissolute luxury or by doing anyone of those things of which he says: "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Consequently, they who do such things shall not exist anywhere but in eternal punishment since they cannot be in the kingdom of God. While they continue in such things to the very end of life, they cannot be said to abide in Christ Jesus to the end; for to abide in Him is to abide in the faith of Christ Jesus. And this faith, according to the apostle's definition of it - Galatians 5:6 - And "love" as he elsewhere says: do no evil. - Romans 13:10 - Neither can these persons be said to eat the body of Christ, for they cannot even be reckoned among His members. For not to mention other reasons, they cannot be at once the members of Christ and the members of a harlot. In fine, He Himself, when He says: He/She who eat my flesh and drink my blood, dwell in me and I in him/her. - John 6:56 - Accordingly, they who are not baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in other words: They who make themselves members of a harlot, are not members of Christ unless they have penitently abandoned that evil and have returned to this good and to be reconciled to God.

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-06-15T10:11:07.263+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

--- S A C R A M E N T S ---

This belief of Saint Cyril's sounds like a paraphrase of Saint John's and Saint Paul's teaching on the Eucharist. Saint John's chapter 6 is also a refutation of the docetists' denial of the reality of Christ's human body. It starts with the multiplication of the loaves which has two meanings: (a) nothing is impossible for God to do and (b) symbolic reference to Christ feeding a multitude with His own body and blood.

After this, came the miracle of Christ's walking on the waters ( Saint John chapter 6 - vv. 16-21) which to the Jews, was a proof of divine power. Then comes the central message. Christ compared himself to the ancient "manna from heaven" which fed the Jews in the desert, asserting that He is the true bread which comes from God and give live - John 6:33 - The ancestors of the Jews ate "manna in the wilderness and they died" but those who eat the bread from heaven will never die. It is in this context, gradually leading His disciples that Jesus Christ asserted that He is "the bread which came down from heaven" - John 6:41 - Immediately the Jews murmured in protest. Jesus repeated in strong terms, "and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh" - John 6:51 - The Jews became impatient and disputed among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" The Jews were scandalized because the Mosaic Law forbade the drinking of blood. They obviously took Jesus at His words - that Jesus was not speaking in a parable or figuratively. At this point, Jesus did not try to correct them by saying that he was only speaking symbolically or metaphorically. On the contrary, Jesus went much further and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you..." - John 6:53f - Now the Jews took offence - John 6:61 - and Jesus knew it. Still Jesus did not withdraw what He had said. Jesus continued in the same strain and "many of his disciples left him and no longer went about with Him" - John 6:66 - Jesus turned to his Apostles, the closest to him and asked: "Do you wish also to go away?" Jesus did not wave down his assertion. Instead Jesus challenged his closest associates to believe in what He had said. Peter Simon taking the lead among the Apostles said: "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" - John 6:68 - This was also the confession of faith of Saint John and His disciples. They believed in the true presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in their "breaking of the bread" (the Eucharist).

Saint Paul also believed in the presence and the real communion of Christ Jesus. "Is not the chalice of benediction which we bless, the communion of the blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Is not the bread we break the partaking of the body of Our Lord Jesus?" - 1 Corinthians 10:16 - Only this belief could justify the severity of Saint Paul's warning: "Whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. For he/she who eats and drinks unworthily without discerning (discovering) the body, eats and drinks judgement to himself/herself" - 1 Corinthians 11:27, 29 - To make it more real, Saint Paul compared the Christian Sacrifice and meal to those of the Jews and pagans. Both the Jews and pagans offered real sacrificial victims and shared in the divinity. The Christians were forbid-doing, they shared in the divinity. The Christians were forbidden to participate in the Jewish and pagan sacrifices because they held the one true sacrifice, Christ, which was acceptable to God. There is no evidence that Paul believed in the symbolic presence. If there is any evidence, it is proof to the contrary: the Real communion with the body and blood of Christ.

Besides this, the background to the whole Passover of Christ or as Saint Paul puts it, the New Pasch - 1 Corinthians 10:14, 21 - is the Jewish "Passover" which they celebrate in such a way that God's past saving action becomes present to them here and now. - See article: "Do this in Memory of Me" by Monsignor Peter Coughlan, IF, 1981 - Saint/Apostle Paul chose the Greek word anamnesis to express this reality - 1 Corinthians 11:24, 26 - Unfortunately we do have an equivalent word that captures all the nuances of anamnesis. Hence it is translated as "Do this in memory of me, or in memorial of me". Anamnesis is a Greek word taken from a stage play. When a play is acted out on stage, it becomes alive so much so that the audience seem to live the play. They become so involved emotionally in the play that, at the end, they experience a "purging of their emotions" (Katharsis) and become better people. Of course, when St. Paul used the word anamnesis his background was Jewish rather than Greek. Yet, this was the closest Greek word that he could find to bring out the reality of what Jesus meant. When Jesus said: "Do this in anamnesis of me," he meant to tell us to relive his death and resurrection in the Eucharistic meal. (The Last Supper) in such a way that He/Jesus is present in the bread and wine, that His past saving power is present here and now in the bread and wine, so that we, who go with faith, to receive Him will experience His saving power (making it our own, the power that is His). How are we to translate the richness of the meaning behind the word anamnesis into English?

I, therefore, personally believe that the Catholic understanding of Christ's true presence in the bread and wine is the correct interpretation because it can trace its Tradition right back into the earliest Church, to the New Testament. What other guarantee is there? Anyone can take a passage from the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible and interpret it the way he/she sees it? There are many interpretations. Who is to say which is the right interpretation? Even non-Christians use scriptural texts to attack Christians. Where is the truth if not in the interpretation that can be traced right back into history to the early Church to the New Testament.

There is a further theological point I would like to add. Those Christians who claim that Christ is only symbolically or nominally present have failed to understand the full meaning of God's unlimited love. As I have explained in the previous chapter on the Triune God, God has done the impossible for love of us because He is Infinite (All Powerful) and He is Love. Out of Love for us, He gave His life by dying for us. "No greater love has a man than to lay down his life for us." But we Catholic Christians claim that after laying down His life, He was not satisfied because of his infinite love. He gives, the last that He has of Himself - His own life, his body and blood given to us as food so that we are nourished, then, we will stand up and walk as true human beings for which He has created us. It is the ultimately impossibility: God the Infinite gives His life for us as food. He knows that we as poor humans are weak. So He gives us His very life in order that we may be nourished and be strengthened to live a life worthy of our name as humans. Beyond giving His own life to be eaten by us, there is nothing left. His infinite love for us is completed. His Love is equal to His infinite Power............. --- P A G E T W O ---

............. This belief of Saint Cyril's sounds like a paraphrase of Saint John's and Saint Paul's teaching on the Eucharist. Saint John's chapter 6 is also a refutation of the docetists' denial of the reality of Christ's human body. It starts with the multiplication of the loaves which has two meanings: (a) nothing is impossible for God to do and (b) symbolic reference to Christ feeding a multitude with His own body and blood. --- P A G E O N E ---

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-06-05T15:42:09.307+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

--- S A C R A M E N T S ---

All Creation as an expression of God's Love is a sacrament. It is the outward sign of an inner reality The outward sign is all creation. The inward grace (or reality) is God's love which we cannot see, touch, hear, taste or smell. Yet through our senses as the Universe unfolds itself before us, our intellect is capable of leading the soul to affirm the existence of its Creator, God: and for us Christians, (Catholic Christian) of God's love. Through sin, Man/Human Being destroys the basis of existence itself - love. Therefore God, whose infinite love cannot be thwarted, came in a visible form that Human being can understand: Incarnation, God-made-man. The Lord Jesus Christ, came to show us the unconditional or limitlessness of God's love by His life which led to His death, killed by sinful men. "God loves us so much that He sent His Son to us." He taught us love by laying down His life for us - 1 John 3:16 - Therefore the fullest expression of the infinite love of God in visible form that we can see and touch, is the Son of God made Man, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is, in the fullest sense, the Sacrament.

Before Jesus left this world, He knew that we who come after Him still need a concrete sign of God's love. Hence, He formed around Him a group of Apostles and disciples, the Church, to carry on this message of His Father's love. The Church (Christians who believe in Christ and who live and speak of His love) becomes a continuing sign and agent of God's love for all people ("Dogmatic Constitution of the Church", Vatican Council II). The Church is the continuing sacrament coming from the Chief Sacrament, Jesus Christ. She draws her sacramental life from the Lord who lives in her and promises to be with her till the end of the world so that the "gates of hell shall not prevail against" her - Matthew 16:18; 28:20 - The concrete experience of the Lord's presence in the gathering of the first Christian community was the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost. Filled with the Holy Spirit, fear left the Apostles and they went out to preach and to bear witness to the Lord. If we read the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles we will be struck by the constant awareness of the presence of the Lord's Spirit in the Church. In Saint Paul's Epistles the parallel between the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus is a unique feature. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church is the guarantee of the Lord's presence. The experience of the Holy Spirit is an internal reality that breaks forth into the exterior life of Christians. It is a movement from the inward (Spiritual reality) to the outward (life).

But human beings also have and need the other movement - from the outward to the inward. As explained in chapter 1, it is through matter that we get to know about things and move to the Spiritual plane of values and meanings. The Lord Jesus Christ knows that we need some physical expression of His infinite Love for us so that through it our soul will rise up to the spiritual reality of His love. The physical expression through which we can move to the reality of Christ's love are the seven Canonical Sacraments - "Canonical" is used in the sense that they are officially recognized by the teaching of the Catholic Church as such as (Sacraments.) I will not go into the "dispute" on whether or not there can be more than seven sacraments. - They take their existence from the Church, the Sacrament, the Body of Christ - 1 Corinthians 12 - the continuing presence of the Risen Lord Jesus, the CHIEF Sacrament. Hence each Sacrament must have the following elements: (1) the communal aspect (the Church) (2) the physical or tangible aspect, for examples: water in Baptism (3) faith of the Church in which an individual Christian shares and (4) the Spiritual reality of Christ's love.

- A - In fact, all the Seven Canonical Sacraments take their existence from the Sacrament of the Church, the Body of Christ. Hence, the communal aspect of each Sacrament is essential. Like the Eucharist, the other canonical Sacraments express the life of the Church which comes from Christ Jesus and nourish her members. - They all share in the three dimensional relationships - I and myself, I and others (Church) and I and God - in an indivisible unity of love which has its roots in the perfect communion of Love in the Triune God Himself. A Christian is not a person who has only a direct line to God: the "I and God" relationship without other lines of relationship. A Christian does not work out his/her salvation alone. ( This is not Christian ). His/her own salvation is inextricably linked to that of others. At Baptism, it is not only a turning to God alone but also a turning to his people, the Church. This is why at Baptism, a Christian is received into the Church. In the Eucharistic Celebration, when I go to receive the Lord Jesus, I do not assimilate Christ Jesus into me - the "I and Christ" relationship alone - but Christ assimilates me deeper into the mystery of His Body, the Church: - It is Saint Augustine who said this - I, in relationship with others (Body of Christ) in the Lord (Head of the Body). In the Sacrament of reconciliation, I do not go straight to God alone and be reconciled to Him alone. I go and meet Christ (God) in His Body, the Church, and with myself. We cannot separate the Head (Christ Jesus) from His Body. (More of this later).

- B - As explained in chapter 1, I, a human being is spirit rooted in matter in such a way that we cannot know without the mediation of matter and we cannot express ourselves without going through matter. This is how God has made us. Jesus, who is God, knew and knows us for what we are. So He chose human beings, His disciples, to continue His spiritual work. In His life, He also made use of matter to communicate His power. Water was one of the material objects used. After Jesus was baptized in water by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit came/descended upon Jesus - Mark 1:9-11 - All Christians use water in baptism as a sign of cleansing and a turning to Christ. Jesus often touched people when He healed them. In Mark 8:22-26 - Jesus spat on the eyes of a blind man, laid his hands upon him and cured him. Jesus breathed upon the Apostles to give them the Holy Spirit - John 20:22 - Under the form of bread and wine, Jesus gave to His disciples his own body and blood. The Church is only following Christ Jesus when she uses material things as signs of God's saving love or power. The immediate disciples of the Lord after Christ's ascension also employed matter. They anointed the sick with oil - James 5:14 - They laid hands on people and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit - Acts 6:3-6 - And of course they made use of bread and wine for the "breaking of bread" - (The Holy Eucharist).

- C - The Sacrament is no magic. It is not a recitation of a magic formula and a performing of a ritual. It depends on the faith of the Universal Church and of those who partake of the sacrament. Without faith, the ritual is meaningless.

- D - This faith should lead one to meet Christ Jesus and of those who partake of the sacrament. It is after all the spiritual reality of Christ's saving love that is most essential. Without "experiencing in one way or other" the saving power of Christ, there is no sacrament.

- Objection - The word "Sacrament", say some Christians, is not found in the Sacred Scripture / Holy Bible. Hence the Catholic Christian Sacraments are man-made. It is not from Christ, they say.

- Response - It is a wild and stupid objection that does not really deserve an answer. What is a word? It is a human symbol pointing to some reality. The word "tree" as I have said in chapter 1, points to a reality that is communicated to me through my senses. What is important is not the word but the reality as such. I can use another symbol "arbre" to mean the same reality as "tree". Besides, if we take the objection seriously, we should be using the Greek language of the original New Testament, not English since none of the English words are found in the original Greek New Testament.

Can any Christian deny the reality of Christ as the fullest expression of God's love through matter - God made man? This is what we mean by Sacrament: the spiritual reality behind the material symbol. And it is this that is important. To confuse the reality with the symbol that signifies it, is a fault of thinking. It is to confuse the accidentals with the essentials. The accidentals are, so to say, the trimmings. There are many types, shapes and colours of human beings, yet they are all human beings. It is the "humanness" in all of us that makes us human beings, not our different colours or shapes. It is a failure to think clearly that has led a number of people into superficial objections.

- The Holy Eucharist -

People accuse us Catholics of being cannibals, eating the "body" and drinking the "blood" of the Lord Jesus Christ. - The Holy Eucharist is so rich that one can write volumes on it. Here I am only dealing with one aspect of it that has been attacked by non-Catholics: the "REAL PRESENCE" of Christ Jesus under the form of bread and wine. Fearing that they might be accused of cannibalism, they believe that the bread and wine are mere symbols or signs. A rose representing my love is not my love; it is only a symbol of my love.

We, Catholics do not believe that we eat the "body" and drink the "blood" of Christ, as we eat the roasted flesh of an animal or drink its blood (as some people do.) The wine still tastes of wine and the bread of bread. We do believe, however, that, after consecration, when we take the bread and the wine, we partake of something if that something is not actually there? Hence, Christ Jesus is truly present under the form of bread and wine. He is not symbolically present as my love is symbolically represented in the rose. He is not there in physical flesh and blood as an animal that has just been killed. He, as the resurrected Lord, is there in a spiritual way.

Our belief in the "Real Presence" of Christ under the form of bread and wine goes right back in the faith of the Church into the Apostolic Tradition of the early Universal Church to the New Testament. The change in belief that Christ Jesus is truly present in the bread and wine came about in the 16th Century with the Protestant Reformation. Martin Lurther himself believed in the real presence and argued against Calvinist and Zwingli who taught that Christ Jesus was only nominally present. He condemned them saying, "You are of the devil." Do you think the Lord Jesus who promised to be with His Church till the end of the world would allow His Church to go wrong on such a crucial point of faith? If so, the Lord Jesus would have told a lie; or rather, we would be accusing the Lord Jesus of being a liar.

It was this belief in the true presence of the Lord Jesus that made many Christians risk their lives carrying the "Consecrated bread" in their bosom to distribute the "Lord" to other Christians. This was during the time of great persecution under the Roman Empire when Christians live in catacombs to hide from persecution. In fact, a young boy called Saint Tarcisius was stoned to death by his peers because he refused to give up to them the "Lord" whom he was carrying in his bosom.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch (c.110 A.D), who came immediately after the Apostles, believed in the "real presence" of the Lord Jesus. He attacked the Docetists - Docetists believed that matter is evil. How could God who was all good came through evil (matter)? Therefore, to them, Christ Jesus who was God, came not in matter (human body) but in an illusion of a human body - who "hold aloof from the Eucharist and prayers because they do not believe that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour, Jesus Christ", (Letter to the Smyrneans 7:1; Quasten Mon E336). Saint Cyrill of Jerusalem (d.c. 386) said, "Since He (Christ) has said and asserted 'this is my body,' who dares doubt that it is His blood? Christ Jesus once changed water into wine which is akin to blood. Shall we not therefore believe, when He changes wine into blood?

....... And so we continue these with perfect certainty that they are the body and blood of Christ Jesus, since under the appearance of bread the body is given to us, and the blood under the appearance of wine; so that when you have taken the body and blood of Christ, you become participants in His very Body and Blood." (Mystagogical Catechesis 401-3;F.L. Cross, St. Cyril of Jerusalem's lectures on the Christian Sacraments, London 1951.) - Taken from New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5, 1967 Ed., p. 604 -

This belief of Saint Cyril's sounds like a paraphrase of Saint John's and Saint Paul's teaching on the Eucharist. Saint John's chapter 6 is also a refutation of the docetists' denial of the reality of Christ's human body. It starts with the multiplication of the loaves which has two meanings: (a) nothing is impossible for God to do and (b) symbolic reference to Christ feeding a multitude with His own body and blood. --- P A G E O N E ---

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-05-24T15:31:39.556+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- Against those who are of opinion that the punishment neither of the devil nor of wicked men shall be eternal - P A G E 6 -

First of all, it behoves us to inquire and to recognise why the Church has not been able to tolerate the idea that promises cleansing or indulgence to the devil even after the most severe and protracted punishment. For so many holy men, imbued with the spirit of the Old and New Testament did not grudge to angels of any rank or character that they should enjoy the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom after being cleansed by suffering but rather they perceived that they could not invalidate nor evacuate the divine sentence which the Lord predicted that He would pronounce in the judgement, saying, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." - Matthew xxv. 41 - For here it is evident that the devil and his angels shall burn in everlasting fire. And there is also that declaration in the Apocalypse, "The devil their deceiver was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also are the beast and the false prophet. And they shall be tormented day and night for ever." - Revelation xx. 10 - In the former passage "everlasting" is used, in the latter "for ever" and by these words Sacred Scripture is wont to mean nothing else than endless duration. And therefore no other reason, no reason more obvious and just, can be found for holding it as the fixed and immovable belief of the truest piety, that the devil and his angels shall never return to the justice and life of the saints, than that Scripture, which deceives no man, says that God spared them not, and that they were condemned beforehand by Him and cast into prisons of darkness in hell - 2 Peter ii. 4 - being reserved to the judgement of the last day, when eternal fire shall receive them, in which they shall be tormented world without end. And if this be so, how can it be believed that all men or even some, shall be withdrawn from the endurance of punishment after some time has been spent in it? How can this be believed without enervating our faith in the eternal punishment of the devils? For if all or some of those to whom it shall be said, "Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" - Matthew xxv. 41 - are not to be always in that fire, then what reason is there for believing that the devil and his angels shall always be there? Or is perhaps the sentence of God which is to be pronounced on wicked men and angels alike, to be true in the case of the angels, false in that of men? Plainly it will be so if the conjectures of men are to weigh more than the word of God. But because this is absurd, they who desire to be rid of eternal punishment ought to abstain from arguing against God, and rather, while yet there is opportunity, obey the divine commands.

Then what a fond fancy is it to suppose that eternal punishment means long-continued punishment, while eternal life means life without end, since Christ in the very same passage spoke of both in similar terms in one and the same sentence, "These shall go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life! - Matthew xxv. 46 - If both destinies are "eternal," then we must either understand both as long-continued but as last terminating, or both as endless. For they are correlative - on the one hand, punishment eternal, on the other hand, life eternal. And to say in one and the same sense life eternal shall be endless, punishment eternal shall come to an end, is the height of absurdity. Wherefore, as the eternal life of the saints shall be endless, so too the eternal punishment of those who are doomed to it shall have no end.

- Against those who fancy that in the judgement of God all the accused will be spared in virtue of the prayers of the saints -

And this reasoning is equally conclusive against those who, in their own interest but under the guise of a greater tenderness of spirit, attempt to invalidate the words of God and who assert that these words are not true, not because men shall suffer those things which are threatened by God, but because they deserve to suffer them. For God, they say, will yield them to the prayers of His saints, who will then the more earnestly pray for their enemies, as they shall be more perfect in holiness and whose prayer will be the more efficacious and the more worthy of God's ear because now purged from all sin whatsoever. Why then, if in that perfected holiness their prayers be so pure and all-availing will they not use them on behalf of the angels for whom eternal fire is prepared, that God may mitigate His sentence and alter it and extricate them from that fire? Or will there, perhaps, be more one hardy enough to affirm that even the holy angels will make common cause with holy men (then become the equals of God's angels) and will intercede for the guilty, both men and angels that mercy may spare them the punishment which truth has pronounced them to deserve? But this has been asserted by no one sound in the faith nor will be. Otherwise there is no reason why the Church should not even now pray for the devil and his angels, since God her Master has ordered her to pray for her enemies. The reason, then, which prevents the Church from now praying for the wicked angels whom she knows to be her enemies, is the identical reason which shall prevent her, however, perfected in holiness, from praying at the last judgment for those men who are to be punished in eternal fire. At present, she prays for her enemies among men because they have yet opportunity for fruitful repentance. For what does she especially beg for them but that "God would grant them repentance," as the apostle says, "that they may return to soberness out of the snare of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will?" - 2 Timothy 2:25-26 -

But if the Church were certified who those are, who, though they are still abiding in this life are yet predestined to go with the devil into eternal fire, then for them she could no more pray than for him. But since she has this certainty regarding no man, she prays for all her enemies who yet live in this world; and yet she is not heard in behalf of all. But she is heard in the case of those only who though they oppose the Church, are yet predestined to become her son through her intercession. But if any retain an impenitent heart until death and are not converted from enemies into sons, does the Church continue to pray for them, for the spirits, that is, of such persons deceased? And why does she cease to pray for them, unless because the man who was not translated into Christ's kingdom while he was in the body, is now judged to be of Satan's following?

It is then, I say the same reason which prevents the Church at anytime from praying for the wicked angels which prevents her from praying hereafter for those men who are to be punished in eternal fire; and this also is the reason why though she prays even for the wicked so long as they live, she yet does not even in this world pray for the unbelieving and godless who are dead. For some of the dead, indeed, the prayer of the Church or pious individuals is heard; but it is for those who, having been regenerated in Christ, did not spend their life so wickedly that they can be judged unworthy of such compassion, nor so well that they can be considered to have no need of it. As also, after the resurrection, there will be some of the dead to whom, after they have endured the pains proper to the spirits of the dead, mercy shall be accorded and acquittal from the punishment of eternal life. For were there not some whose sins, though not remitted in this life, shall be remitted in that which is to come, it could not be truly said, "They shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in that which is to come." - Matthew 12:32 - But when the Judge of quick and dead has said, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," and to those on the other side, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels," and "These shall go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life" - Matthew 25:34, 41, 46 - it were excessively presumptuous to say that the punishment of any of those who God has said shall go away into eternal punishment shall not be eternal and so bring either despair or doubt upon the corresponding promise of life eternal.

Let no man then so understand the words of the Palmist, "Shall God forget to be gracious? shall He shut up His anger His tender mercies?" - Psalms 1xxvii. 9 - as if the sentence of God were true of good men, false of bad men or more true of good men and wicked angels but false of bad men. For the Psalmist's words refer to the vessels of mercy and the children of the promise of whom the prophet himself was one; for when he said, "Shall God forget to be gracious? shall He shut up His anger His tender mercies?" and then immediately subjoins." And I said, Now I begin: this is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High" - Psalms 1xxvii. 10 - he manifestly explained what he meant by the words, "Shall He shut up in His anger His tender mercies?" For God's anger is this mortal life in which man is made like to vanity and his days pass as a shadow. - Psalms cxliv. 4 - Yet in this anger God does not forget to be gracious, causing His sun to shine and His rain to descend on the just and the unjust; - Matthew v. 45 - and thus He does not in His anger cut short His tender mercies and especially in what the Psalmist speaks of in the words, "Now I begin: this change is from the right hand of the Most High;" for He changes for the better the vessels of mercy, even while they are still in this most wretched life which is God's anger and even while His anger is manifesting itself in this miserable corruption; for "in His anger He does not shut up His tender mercies." And since the truth of this divine canticle is quite satisfied by this application of it, there is no need to give it a reference to that place in which those who do not belong to the city of God are punished in eternal fire. But if any persist in extending its application to the torments of the wicked, let them at least understand it so that the anger of God which has threatened the wicked with eternal punishment, shall abide but shall be mixed with mercy to the extend of alleviating the torments which might justly be inflicted; so that the wicked shall neither wholly escape, nor only for a time endure these threatened pains but shall be less severe and more endurable than they deserve. Thus the anger of God shall continue and at the same time He will not in this anger shut up His tender mercies. But even this hypothesis I am not to be supposed to affirm because I do not positively oppose it." - It is the theory which Chrysostom adopts -

As for those who find an empty threat rather than a truth in such passages as these: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire:" and "These shall go away into eternal punishment;" - Matthew xxv. 41, 46 - and "They shall be tormented for ever and ever; " - Revelation xx. 10 - and "Their worm shall not die and their fire shall not quenched" - Isaiah 1xvi. 24 - such persons, I say, are most emphatically and abundantly refuted, not by me so much as by the divine Scripture itself. For the men of Nineveh repented in this life and therefore their repentant was fruitful, inasmuch as they sowed in that field which the Lord meant to be sown in tears that it might afterwards be reaped in joy. And yet who will deny that God's prediction was fulfilled in their case, if at least he observes that God destroys sinners not only in anger but also in compassion? For sinners are destroyed in two ways - either, like the Sodomites, the men themselves are punished for their sins or like the Ninevites, the men's sins are destroy by repentance. God's prediction, therefore, was fulfilled - the wicked Nineveh was overthrown and a good Nineveh built up. For its wall and houses remained standing; the city was overthrown in its depraved manners. And thus, though the prophet was provoked that the destruction which the inhabitants dreaded because of his prediction, it did not take place, yet that which God's foreknowledge had predicted, it did take place, for He is foretold the destruction knew how it should be fulfilled in a less calamitous sense.

But that these perversely compassionate persons may see what is the purport of these words, "How great is the abundance of Thy sweetness, Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee" - Psalms xxxi. 19 - let them read what follows: "And Thou hast perfected it for them that hope in Thee." For what means, "Thou hast hidden it for them that fear Thee," "Thou hast perfected it for them that hope in Thee" unless this, that to those who through fear of punishment seek to establish their own righteousness by the law, the righteousness of God is not sweet, because they are ignorant of it? They have not tasted it. For they hope in themselves not in Him; and therefore God's abundant sweetness is hidden from them. They fear God, indeed, but it is with that servile fear "which is not in love; for perfect love casteth out fear." - 1 John iv. 18 - Therefore to them that hope in Him He perfecteth His sweetness, inspiring them with His own love, so that with a holy fear, which love does not cast out but which endureth forever, they may, when thy glory , glory in the Lord. For the righteousness of God is Christ, "who is of God made unto us," as the apostle says, "wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption: it is written. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." - 1 Corinthians i. 30-31 - This righteousness of God which is the gift of grace without merits, is not known by those who go about to establish their own righteousness and are therefore not subject to the righteousness of God which is Christ. - Romans x. 3 - But it is in this righteousness that we find the great abundance of God's sweetness of which the psalm says, "Taste and see how sweet the Lord is." - Psalms xxxiv. 8 -And these we rather taste than partake of to satiety in this our pilgrimage. We hunger and thirst for it now, that hereafter we may be satisfied with it when we see Him as He is and that is fulfilled which is written, "I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall be manifested." - Psalms xvii 15 - It is thus that Christ perfects the great abundance of His sweetness to them that hope in Him. But if God conceals His sweetness to them that hope in Him. But if God conceals His sweetness from them that fear Him in the sense that these our objectors fancy, so that men ignorance of His purpose of mercy towards the wicked may lead them to fear Him and live better, and so that there may be prayer made for those who are not living as they ought, how then does He perfect His sweetness to them that hope in Him, since if their dreams be true, it is this very sweetness which will prevent Him from punishing those who do not hope in Him? Let us then seek that sweetness of His, which He perfects to them that hope in Him, not that which He is supposed to perfect to those who despise and blaspheme Him; for in vain after this life, does a man seek for what he has neglected to provide while in this life.

Then, as the saying of the apostles, "For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all," - Romans xi. 32 - it does not mean that He will condemn no one; but the foregoing context shows what is meant. The apostle composed the epistle for the Gentiles who were already believers; and when he was speaking to them of the Jews who were yet to believe, he says, "For as ye in times past believed not God, yet have now obtained mercy through their belief; even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy." Then he added the words in question with which these persons beguile themselves: "For God concluded all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all." All whom, if not all those of whom he was speaking, just as if he had said, "Both you and them?" God then concluded all those in unbelief, both Jews and Gentiles whom He foreknew and predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that they might be confounded by the bitterness of unbelief and might repent and believingly turn to sweetness of God's mercy and might take up that exclamation of the psalm, "How great is the abundance of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee, but hast perfected to them that hope," not in themselves but "in Thee." He has mercy, then, on all the vessels of mercy. And what means "all?" Both those of the Gentiles and those of the Jews whom He predestinated, called, justified, glorified: none of these will be condemned by Him; but we cannot say none of all men whatever.

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-05-11T17:27:00.000+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- Of those who fancy that, on account of the saint's intercession, no man shall be damned in the last judgment - P A G E 5 -

There are others, again with whose opinions I have become acquainted in conversation who though they seem to reverence the holy Scriptures, are yet of reprehensible life and who accordingly in their own interest, attribute to God a still greater compassion towards men. For they acknowledge that is truly predicted in the divine word that the wicked and unbelieving are worthy of punishment, but they assert that when the judgement comes, mercy will prevail. For they said, God having compassion on them, will give them up to the prayers and intercessions of His saints. For if the saints used to pray for them when they suffered from their cruel hatred, how much more will they do so when they see them prostate and humble suppliants? For we cannot, they say, believe that the saints shall lose their bowels of compassion when they have attained the most perfect and complete holiness; so that they who, when still sinners, prayed for their enemies, should now, when they are freed from sin, withhold from interceding for their suppliants. Or shall God refuse to listen to so many of His beloved children when their holiness has purged their prayers of all hindrance to His answering them? And the passage of the psalms which is cited by those who admit that wicked men and infidels shall be punished for a long time, though in the end delivered from all sufferings, is claimed also by the persons, we are now speaking of as making much more for them. The verse runs: "Shall God forget to be gracious? Shall He in anger shut up His tender mercies?" - Psalms 1xxvii. 9 - His anger, they say, would condemn all that are unworthy of everlasting happiness to endless punishment. But if He suffer them to be punished for a long time or even at all, must He not shut up His tender mercies which the Psalmist implies He will not do? For he does not say, Shall He in anger shut up His tender mercies for a long period? but he implies that He will not shut them up at all.

And they deny that thus God's threat of judgement is proved to be false even though He condemn no man, anymore than we can say that His threat to overthrow Nineveh was false, though the destruction which was absolutely predicted was not accomplished. For He did not say: "Nineveh shall be overthrown if they do not repent and amend their ways," but without any shall condition He foretold that the city should be overthrown. And this prediction, they maintain was true because God predicted the punishment which they deserved, although He was not to inflict it. For though He spared them on their repentance, yet He was certainly aware that they would repent and not withstanding, absolutely and definitely predicted that the city should be overthrown. This was true, they say, in the truth of severity because they were worthy of it; but in respect of the compassion which checked His anger, so that He spared the suppliants with which He had threatened the rebellious, it was not true. If then, He spared those whom His own holy prophet was provoked at His sparing, how much more shall He spare those more wretched supplicants for whom all His saints shall intercede? And they suppose that this conjecture of theirs is not hinted at in Scripture, for the sake of stimulating many to reformation of life through fear of very protracted or eternal sufferings and of stimulating others to pray for those who have not reformed. However, they think that the divine oracles are not altogether silent on this point; for they ask to what purpose is it said, "How great is Thy goodness which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee," - Psalms xxxi. 19 - if it be not to teach us that the great and hidden sweetness of God' mercy is concealed in order that men may fear? To the same purpose they think the apostle said, "For God hath concluded all men in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all," - Romans xi. 32 - signifying that no one should be condemned by God. And yet they who hold this opinion do not extend it to the acquittal or liberation of the devil and his angels. Their human tenderness is moved only towards men, and they plead chiefly their own cause, holding out false hopes of impunity to their own depraved lives by means of this quasi compassion of God to the whole race. Consequently, they who promise this impunity even to the prince of the devils and his satellites make a still fuller exhibition of the mercy of God.

- Of those who promise impunity from all sins even to heretics, through virtue of their participation of the body of Christ. -

So, too, there are others who promise this deliverance from eternal punishment, not, indeed, to all men, but only to those who have been washed in Christian baptism and who become partakers of the body of Christ, no matter how they have lived or what heresy or impiety they have fallen into. They ground this opinion on the saying of Jesus, "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that if any man eat thereof, he shall not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If a man eat of this bread, he shall live forever." - John vi. 50-51 - Therefore, say they, it follows that these persons must be delivered from death and at one time or other be introduced to everlasting life.

- Of those who promise this indulgence not at all, but only to those who have been baptized as Catholic, though afterwards they have broken out into many crimes and heresies -

There are others still who make this promise not even to all who have received the sacraments of the baptism of Christ and of His body, but only to the Catholics, however, badly they have lived. For these have eaten the body of Christ, not only sacramentally but really being incorporated in His body as the apostle says, "We, being many, are one bread, one body;" - 1 Corinthians x. 17 - so that, though they have afterwards lapsed into some heresy or even into heathenism and idolatry, yet by virtue of this one thing, that they received the baptism of Christ and eaten the body of Christ, in the body of Christ, that is to say, in the Catholic Church, they shall not die eternally but at one time or other obtain eternal life; and all that wickedness of theirs shall not avail to make their punishment eternal, but only proportionately long and severe.

- Of those who assert that all Catholics who continue in the faith, even though by the depravity of their lives they have merited hell fire, shall be saved on account of the "foundation" of their faith and work -

There are some, too, who found upon the expression of Scripture, "He that endure to the end shall be saved," - Matthew xxiv. 13 - and who promise salvation only to those who continue in the Catholic Church / Universal Church and though such persons have lived badly, yet, say they, they shall be saved as by fire through virtue of the foundation of which the apostle says, "For other foundation hath no man laid than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day of the Lord shall declare it, for it shall be revealed by fire; and each man's work shall be proved of what sort it is. If any man's work shall endure which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. But if any man's work shall be burned , he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." - 1 Corinthians iii. 11-15 - They say, accordingly, that the Catholic Christian, no matter what his life be, has Christ as his foundation while this foundation is not possessed by any heresy which is separated from the unity of His body. And therefore, through virtue of this foundation, even though the Catholic Christian by the inconsistency of his life has been as one building up wood, hay, stubble, upon it, they believe that he shall be saved by fire, in other words, that he shall be delivered after tasting the pain of that fire to which the wicked shall be condemned at the last judgment.

- Of those who fancy that the sins which are intermingled with alms-deeds shall not be charged at the day of judgement -

I have also met with some who are of opinion that such only as neglect to cover their sins with alms-deeds shall be punished in everlasting fire; and they cite the words of the Apostle James, "He shall have judgement without mercy who hath shown no mercy." - James ii. 13 - Therefore, say they, he who has not amended his ways but yet has intermingled his profligate and wicked actions with works of mercy, shall receive mercy in the judgement, so that he shall either quite escape condemnation or shall be liberated from his doom after some time shorter or longer. They suppose that this was the reason why the Judge Himself of quick and declined to mentioned anything else than works of mercy done or omitted, when awarding to those on His right hand life eternal and to those on His left everlasting punishment. - Matthew xxv. 3 - To the same propose, they say, is the daily petition we make in the Lord's prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." - Matthew vi. 12 - For, no doubt, whoever pardons the person who has wronged by the Lord Himself that He says, "For if ye forgive men trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." - Matthew vi. 14-15 - And so it is to this kind of alms-deeds that the saying of the Apostle James refers, "He shall have judgement without mercy that hath shown no mercy." And our Lord, they say, made no distinction of great and small sins, but "Your Father will forgive your sins, if ye forgive men theirs." Consequently they conclude that, though a man has led an abandoned life up to the last day of it, yet whatsoever his sins have been, they are all remitted by virtue of this daily prayer, if only he has been mindful to attend to this one thing, that when they who have done him any injury ask his pardon, he forgive them form his heart.

When, by God's help, I have replied to all these errors, I shall conclude this (twenty-first) book.

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- Against those who are of opinion that the punishment neither of the devil nor of wicked men shall be eternal - P A G E 6 -

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-05-05T20:23:00.000+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- That everything which the grace of God does in the way of rescuing us from the inveterate evils in which we are sunk, pertains to the future world, in which all things are made new - - P A G E 4 -

Nevertheless, in the "heavy yoke that is laid upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's womb to the day that they return to the mother of all things" there is found an admirable though painful monitor teaching us to be sober-minded, and convincing us that this life has become penal in consequence of that outrageous wickedness which was perpetrated in Paradise, and that all to which the New Testament invites belongs to that future inheritance which awaits us in the world to come and is offered for our acceptance, as the earnest that we may in its own due time, obtain that of which it is the pledge. Now, therefore let us walk in hope, and let us by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh and so make progress from day to day. For "the Lord know them that are His" - 2 Timothy 2:19 - and "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God" - Romans 8:14 - but the grace, not by nature. For there is but one Son of God by nature, who in His compassion became Son of Man for our sakes that we by nature sons of men, might by grace become through Him sons of God. For he, abiding unchangeable, took upon Him our nature, that thereby He might take us to Himself; and holding fast His own divinity, He became partaker of our infinity, that we, being changed into some better thing, might by participating in His righteousness and immortality, lose our own properties of sin and mortality, and preserve whatever good quality He had implanted in our nature, perfected now by sharing in the goodness of His nature. For as by the sin of one man we have fallen into a misery so deplorable, so by the righteousness of one Man, who also is God, shall we come to a blessedness inconceivably exalted. Nor ought anyone to trust that he has passed from the one man to the other until he shall have reached that place where there is no temptation and have entered into the peace which he seeks in the many and various conflicts of this war, in which "the flesh lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh."

Now such a war as this would have had no existence, if human nature had, in the exercise of free will, continued steadfast, in the uprightness in which it was created. But now in its misery it makes war upon itself, because in its blessedness it would not continue at peace with God; and this, though it be miserable calamity, is better than the earlier stages of this life which do not recognise that a war is to be maintained. For better is it to contend with vices than without conflict to be subdued by them. Better, I say, is war with the hope of peace everlasting than captivity without any thought of deliverance. We long, indeed, for the cessation of this war, and kindled by the flame of divine love, we burn for entrance on that well-ordered peace in which whatever is inferior is forever subordinated to what is above it. But if (which God forbid) there had been no hope of so blessed a consummation, we should still have preferred to endure the hardness of this conflict, rather than, by our non-resistance, to yield ourselves to the dominion of vice.

- The laws of grace, which extend to all the epochs of the life of the regenerate -

But such is God's mercy towards the vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory, that even the first age of man, that is, infancy, which submits without any resistance to the flesh, and the second age which is called boyhood and which has not yet understanding enough to undertake this warfare, and therefore yields to almost every vicious pleasure (became though this age has the power of speech - "Fari." - and may therefore seem to have passed infancy, the mind is still too weak to comprehend the commandment) yet if either of these ages has received the sacraments of the Mediator. then, although the present life be immediately brought to an end, the child, having been translated from the power of darkness to the kingdom of Christ, shall not only be saved from eternal punishments, but shall not even suffer purgatorial torments after death. For spiritual regeneration of itself suffices to prevent any evil consequences resulting after death from the connection with death which carnal generation forms. - Aug. Ep. 98, ad Bonifacium - But when we reach that age which can now comprehend the commandment and submit to the dominion of law, we must declare war upon vices, and wage this war keenly, lest we be landed in damnable sins. And if vices have not gathered strength by habitual victory they are more easily overcome and subdued; but if they have been used to conquer and rule, it is only with difficulty and labour they are mastered. And indeed this victory cannot be sincerely and truly gained but by delighting in true righteousness and it is faith in Christ that gives this. For if the law be present with its command, and the Spirit be absent with His help, the presence of the prohibition serves only to increase the desire sin and adds the guilt of transgression. Sometimes, indeed, patent vices are overcome by other and hidden vices, which are reckoned virtues, though pride and a kind of ruinous self-sufficiency are their informing principles. According vices are then only to be considered overcome when they are conquered by the love of God, which God Himself alone gives and which He gives only through the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who became a partaker of our mortally that He might make us partakers of His divinity. But few indeed are they who are so happy as to have passed their youth without committing any damnable sins, either by dissolute or violent conduct, or by following some godless and unlawful opinions, but have subdued by their greatness of soul everything in them which could make them the slaves of carnal pleasures. The greater number having first become transgressors of the law that they have received and having allowed vice to have the ascendency in them, then flee to grace for help, and so by a penitence more bitter and a struggle more violent than it would otherwise have been, they subdue the soul to God, and thus give it its lawful authority over the flesh and become victors. Whoever, therefore, desires to escape eternal punishment, let him not only be baptised, but also justified in Christ, and so let him in truth pass from the devil to Christ. And let him not fancy that there are any purgatorial pains except before that final and dreadful judgement. We must not, however, deny that even the eternal fire will be proportioned to the deserts of the wicked, so that to some it will be more and to others less painful, whether this result be accomplished by a variation in the temperature of the fire itself, graduated according to everyone merit, or whether it be that the heat remains the same but that all do not feel it with equal intensity of torment.

- Of those who fancy that no men shall be punished eternally -

I must now, I see the lists of amicable controversy with those tender-hearted Christians who decline to believe that any or that all of those whom the infallibly just Judge may pronounce worthy of the punishment of hell, shall suffer eternally and who suppose that they shall be delivered after a fixed term of punishment, longer or shorter according to the amount of each man's sin. In respect of this matter, Origen was even more indulgent; for he believed that even the devil himself and his angels, after suffering those more severe and prolonged pains which their sins deserved, should be delivered from their torments and associated with the body angels. But the Church, not without reason, condemned him for this and other errors, especially for his theory of the ceaseless alternation of happiness and misery, and the interminable transitions from the one state to the other at fixed periods of ages; for in this theory he lost even the credit of being merciful, by allotting to the saints real miseries for the expiation of their sins, and false happiness which brought them no true and secure joy, that is, no fearless assurance of eternal blessedness. Very different, however, is the error we speak of which is dictated by the tenderness of these Christians who suppose that the sufferings of those who are condemned in the judgement will be temporary, while blessedness of all who are sooner or later set free will be eternal. Which opinion, if it is good and true in proportion as it becomes more merciful. let, then, this fountain of mercy be extended and flow forth even to the lost angels, and let them also be set free, at least after as many and long ages as seem fit! Why does this stream of mercy flow to all the human race, and dry up as soon as it reaches the angelic? And yet they dare not extend their pity further and propose the deliverance of the devil himself. Or if anyone is bold enough to do so, he does indeed put to shame their charity, but is himself convicted of error that is more unsightly and a wresting of God's truth that is more perverse, in proportion as his clemency of sentiment seems to be greater. -

- Of those who fancy that, on account of the saint's intercession, no man shall be damned in the last judgment - P A G E 5 -

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-04-23T17:39:00.000+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

SEARCH FOR MEANING

- P A G E - 2 -

- Why is there evil? A Christian response -

God created us through Love and for Love. To love, then, is the nature of being human. But love is free ........ ............ - P A G E 1 - In the light of what has been said, perhaps we Christians should ask ourselves about our attitude towards suffering. Do we consider suffering as evil? If so, we would try either to escape from suffering or to submit to it as the inevitable that comes from God.

- P A G E - 2 -

- Christian Meaning to Suffering -

We hear some Christians say that suffering is a punishment from God. An elderly woman in anguish came to me and said, "I have been praying hard and yet I still suffer. A Christian told me that it is due to my sins. I told him that I have confessed to God my guilt that I am sorry and that I will not sin again. He replied that I have secret sins of which I am unaware because if I were sinless, I would experience peace, joy and no suffering." The good-intentioned Christian was completely wrong. He should have found out first the kind of suffering the lady had. If it were a physical suffering, for example, arthritis, he should have said that this was the cause of some natural phenomenon - say, perhaps she slept with the fan blasting at her. He should then add that she should pray for a cure and seek medical help but more important she should learn how to bear the suffering in a Christian way thus giving praise to God and edifying other people. If the poor woman was suffering from some psychological problem, she should be helped psychologically. And it were some spiritual suffering, she should be helped spiritually, exhorting her to patience in the words of Saint Paul: "More than that, we rejoice in our suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." - Romans 5:3-5 -

Obviously, this good-intentioned Christian took all suffering to be evil. He did not know the difference between evil and suffering. If suffering is the consequence of evil only, as suggested by the good-intentioned Christian, how is it that Our Lord Jesus Christ who is sinless (without sin) also suffered and died on the cross? Furthermore, Our Lord Jesus did promise us not only reward but also persecution (suffering). "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you." - Matthew 5:11-12 - Surely, belief in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible tells us that suffering is also a Christian vocation. The Apostles were persecuted and some put to death, for example, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. After the Apostles, the early Church suffered 10 waves of persecution. The Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse was written during one of these persecutions to encourage Christians to persevere in their faith in spite of suffering imposed upon them by evil people. Christians today are still being harassed and unfairly treated in Communist countries especially and in other countries as well. Not only do we suffer persecution and false accusations from without the Christian Church but also from within. Tracts and pamphlets, attacking the Catholic Christian from Christians, as well as from non-Christians abound. - Many examples are available: by speech and writing -

Most of the time, this anti-Catholic Christian literature is full of half-truths which is worse than outright lies. Lies and slandering can be recognized. Half-truths are insidious because most Catholics, who are not well versed in the understanding of their faith, fall prey to these half-truths. take a simple example: A certain B.F. Brewer in his pamphlets says, "The Holy Bible teaches that 'Faith' secures the remission of sins - Acts 10:43 - while Roman Catholicism teaches that the "Sacraments" (in addition to faith) do. - Brewer, Bartholomew F. (Ph.D) "Scriptural Truths for Roman Catholics". He is supposed to have been a former Roman Catholic Priest. If he were, then he must have purposely distorted Catholic teachings to suit his anti-Catholic stance. This would make him more guilty. - THE FIRST DECEITFUL TWIST IN Brewer's statement is the putting into brackets "in addition to faith." If he were to leave this out, it would have been an obvious lie. As it stands, it is a half-truth because he is saying that Catholics do speak of faith that brings "remission of sins" but they do not pay much attention to it, rather they say that it is the Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and this is our faith. Sacraments are aids to help us live out that faith in Christ Jesus in our daily lives. We, who are weak, constantly need Christ's grace. Sacraments is one of the means to obtain Christ's help. To go to the sacraments without faith is meaningless and useless. This is our belief. Now, we see how Brewer has stealthily distorted our teaching - a "quarter truth", if I may be permitted to coin a phrase, to put Catholics down. We should not be surprised at all these anti-Catholic lies and half-truths. The Apostles themselves complained that their teachings were distorted. hence Paul warned his disciples. "So Brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us either by word of mouth or by letter." - 2 Thessalonians 2:15 - Again Saint/Apostle Paul warned "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own liking and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths." - 2 Timothy 4:3-4 - Saint /Apostle Peter says, "There are something in them (Paul's epistles) hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do to the other Sacred Scriptures." - 2 Peter 3:16 - In the face of these campaigns against us, let the words of the Lord console us: "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you..." Indeed, not only the Gospels but also the history of Christianity attest that the Christian vocation is charged with suffering.

There is floating around in Malaysia and other countries, a wrong and false teaching that goes against the Gospels and reality. It denies not only that any good can come from suffering but also that all sufferings are evil. It may be that these good intentioned Christians are misled by a trend to emphasis only the joy of the Spirit of the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ to the exclusion of the Cross of Christ. There is no Christianity without the Cross or the Resurrection (joy of the Spirit). Our faith in consonance with the reality of suffering as coming from the limitedness of Man as explained above, tell us that suffering can be turned into a source of salvation for mankind. Suffering is then endured with joy in the Spirit. Our Lord Jesus on the Cross is the supreme example.

The question Christians should ask is not how we can escape from suffering but how we can bring meaning into suffering. The Christian philosopher Paul Claudel said, "Jesus has not come to take away suffering. he has come to fill it with his presence."

Keeping in mind what I have said about suffering and evil from the Christian point of view, I would like to share with you how I see meaning in suffering. - You may say that I inject meaning into suffering. It is not what the meaning truly is of suffering. Hence, it is subjective. My answer is that all meaning are injected into things and events by human beings. Without human beings, there is no such thing as a meaning. - First I try to avoid inflicting suffering on others and causing myself to suffer. When suffering does come my way, either from the natural causes of nature, for example, cancer that I have contracted or from an intentional evil act by a human being, I accept it with faith and love, offering cheerfully my suffering with Christ Jesus for the salvation of mankind, saying with Saint/Apostle Paul: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church." - Colossians 1:24 - With this attitude of faith and love, I can turn what is meaningless suffering into what is meaningful power of salvation. I can change what is bitter in itself to what is joyful pain for the salvation of others. It will lighten my burden in suffering. This is for me is what Jesus meant when He said: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:29-30 - This will also help me to be more compassionate with those who suffer. I will grow spiritually - Romans 5:3-5 - and become a better human being. Christ himself was made perfect through suffering - Hebrews 2:10 - How much more do we need to go through suffering to become more human, we who are so sinful?

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-04-13T18:42:00.007+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

- Why is there evil? - - A Christian response -

God created us through Love and for Love. To love, then, is the nature of being human. But love is free. I cannot force you to love me. You must freely respond to my invitation of love before there is love between you and I. If you refuse to love me, even if I go down on my knees or lock you up in my house, I will not be able to force you to love me. Love and freedom are two sides of the same coin. Love that is forced is not love. Because I can love, I have freedom; or rather because I have freedom, I can love. Ironically, though, precisely because I am free, I can go against love. When I go against love, I go against myself and against the nature of human relationships, and therefore bring evil upon myself and others. This for us, Christian, is sin because evil or sin is the refusal to love for which we have been made. Evil destroys. Love creates. Hence the whole history of salvation hinges on God's call to us to love as He loves us. "This is my Commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you," says Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.

- The Buddhist-Hindu response -

The Buddhists and the Hindus have one common root in their different traditions. They believe in karma and in reincarnation: They believe that the cause of all sufferings or evil is in human desire and craving. They do not make a distinction between evil or suffering.

- Buddhism -

Human beings are born into a world of suffering (dukkha) because of the illusory nature of things in this world. The cause of 'suffering' is 'craving' or sometimes translated as 'desire' (Tanha). Hence it is the craving after the unreal or illusory nature of things in this world that brings about dukkha, "suffering". The path to end suffering is to "dig up the very roots of Tanha." - (Dhammapada verse 337 found in the Significance of the Four Noble Truths, by V.C. Gunaratne, the Wheel Publication, No. 123; Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka 1973 p. 21) To be able to dig up the root of Tanha, craving in Man, he must be enlightened that all is transitory or illusion. "It is by reason of this reproductive power of thought, that the will to love makes man re-live or as Dalhke puts it, "We live eternally through our lust to live". - op.cit,. p. 26-27 - The Way to this enlightenment is the famous eightfold Path: through right Understanding, right Thought, right Speech, right Action, Livelihood, Effort, Mindfulness and Concentration. It is a programme of purification of thought, word and deed leading to cessation of craving. the total "extinction" of craving is the bliss of Nibbana or Nirvana.

- Hinduism -

Hindus also believe that the world of which one is aware is illusory (maya) in the sense that it is like a veil concealing the Absolute Reality (Brahman) or God who is One with everything, so much so that there is no longer and distinction between God and the whole of nature. Man, therefore, in his depth, his soul, Atman is Braham. The unenlightened Man craves for life in its illusory form as he is aware of it, not realizing that beyond the :illusion", God is all and all is God. The root of existence, then, is craving or desire which is suffering. Hence, to be released or liberated from the fatal chain of reincarnation into life, all desires must be extinguished. To achieve this, different paths are proposed, some better than others - the path of action with strict observance of rites, pilgrimages and prayers, the path of asceticism, etc. Yoga are practical methods of this spiritual training. living the spiritual experience revealed by the Veda can help one reach enlightenment where he, in ecstatic state, experiences the Oneness of Atman (his soul) and Brahman.

- My personal view -

As can be seen, there is a common parenthood in Buddhism and Hinduism. All suffering or evil comes from craving or desire. The path of salvation lies in the extinction of all human cravings for this earthly life. The differences lie in their dissimilar concepts of the "Ultimate Reality" its relation to Man and the paths to achieve Salvation.

Although I believe that there are beautiful truths in both Buddhism and Hinduism, I cannot accept certain ideas. To me, existence is not all suffering. There are joys as well as sufferings. There is good and bad. God, who is all Good, all Wise, all beautiful, etc. cannot create evil. Creation as it is, is not evil It is good, although imperfect. Evil come from Man himself or from the Evil Force. - I will not go into a discussion of what this Evil Force is - If we say that life is all suffering or evil, and that the only happiness is the release from this earthly life, we are saying that God has created an evil world. That which is all Good cannot create evil. It is a contradiction. I personally think that the only sensible and coherent answer is what I have said earlier: to distinguish between evil and suffering, to distinguish suffering that is a consequence of an evil deed and suffering that is the result of the limitedness or finiteness of creatures, and to see that suffering in itself is not evil; it is our reaction to suffering that brings evil or good. I do not believe either that all desires or cravings are evil. I do not see how my desire or even craving for bad things that is evil.

- The Islamic response -

The official orthodox view of Muslims is that everything even good and evil comes from God. "A Muslim should believe in his heart and confess with his tongue that the most exalted God hath decreed all things; so that nothing can happen in the world, whether it respects the conditions and operations of things, or good or evil, or obedience or disobedience, or sickness or health, or riches or poverty, of life or death which is not contained in the written tablet of the decrees of God." - Caesar E. Farah, Islam, Barron's Educational Series, Inc., United States, 1970, p. 120 -

There are many Quranic verses which support this. To give a few: (1) "Naught befalleth us save that which Allah hath decreed for us." (S.5:9, v. 51)- (2) "All things have been created after a fixed decree." (S.5:54, v. 49) - (3) "He whom Allah leadeth, he indeed is led aright while they whom Allah sendeth astray, they indeed are losers." (S.7, v. 178).

Since everything, even one's final destiny either in heaven or in hell, is ordained by God, one can only say in everything "if God wills," or In Sha Allah.

On the other hand, Prophet Muhammad also insisted that one should do good. "lo! Allah enjoins justice and good deeds and that ye be kind to kinfolk as He condemns indecency, illicit deeds and all wrongs?" (S.16, v. 90)

Hence the ensuing debate followed after Muhammad's death: the Jabrite theologians taught that Man had no freedom of choice while the Qadrites taught that evil is the result of Man's own free choice. The Ash'arites tried to harmonize the contradiction by saying that although God decreed what a man should do, He also gives Man the choice to do it. Although some educated Muslims today tend to place more emphasis on Man's responsibility for his actions, the general tendency is still to stress God's inflexible decree. Thus Caesar E. Farah says: "Man is not cognizant of what he was predestined to do until the act is committed by his own choice and free will, of which he is quite conscious. It is then and only then that he realizes that the act committed was preordained. By such an argument, faith in divine predestination can neither require denial of human consciousness or freedom of will, nor eliminate the factor of individual responsibility from human conduct.' - Caesar E. Farah, op. cit. p. 121 -

- My personal views -

Whether or not Man is conscious or not of his action as free, he is still ultimately determined by God. The contradiction still exists. In the final analysis, suffering and evil for the Muslims come from God. This is also why Muslims must submit totally to God in good or evil, in suffering or in joy. And this is the meaning of Islam or Total Submission.

My above argument for a clear distinction between evil and suffering, and a distinction to be made between the different causes of suffering, also holds for this section.

- Christian view on freedom and predestination -

I would like to go a step further to show why I hold my viewpoint by giving the Christian viewpoint on freedom and predestination.

We distinguish between God's passive and active will. His passive will would be the existing Universe with its natural laws which He holds in existence. His passive will allow Nature to function according to its laws. Since man's nature is to be free to choose love or not to choose, God's passive will allow Man to act according to his nature. Hence Man responsible for his own action be it good or bad, without God's preordained decree. God does not force Man to do this or that. God's active will is when He intervenes and goes against the laws of Nature which He has created, for example in a true miracle. He seldom does this because it would put in question His creation. Why then did He create such a laws if He were to break it all the time? But, no one can limit God case, who is to say that He should not? An analogy may help to clarify the passive and active will of God. I build a two storey house with a staircase. The laws that govern going up and down the staircase are there. By this, I do not intend or will that my son will fall down the steps. The passive will of God is similar to allowing my son to climb up and down the stairs that has certain laws which govern the climbing up and down. One day my son, defying these laws, jumps from the top of the stairs. To prevent my son from falling, I say, "Stop in the air". Let us suppose I have miraculous powers. Thus, my son stops falling and hovers in the air. This willing of mine goes against the laws that govern climbing up and down the steps. God's active will is similar to this. I know that all analogies limp. So does this one.

This does not take away God's omniscience or All Knowing. To know and to will are two different acts. I can know something, yet I need not will to act upon it. I can know what you will do in a certain circumstance, that is, if I have a good knowledge of you, without making you do it. Suppose I know you well enough and that you have a craze for coca cola drink. When all the different kinds of drinks are there for you, I know that you will opt for coca cola. My knowledge of you does not force you. You choose coca cola yourself. God Knows from eternity all that I will do (Knowledge) without forcing me to do it (Will).

Why then does God not prevent me from doing evil since He knows it? I have already implicitly given the answer above. God created through Love and for Love which by its very nature entails freedom. To take away my freedom is to take away Love. This means that I would not have been created. It contradicts the essence of the creation of Man.

A last word on this subject. God's Knowledge is not like ours at all. Our knowledge is limited by time - past, present and future. God, the Eternal has no time. His Knowledge has no past, present and future. When we post the question of why God does not prevent our evil deeds, we have placed God's Knowledge into time. He knows what we will do tomorrow (future) so now (present) He should prevent us from doing it. If we do this, God's Knowledge becomes no longer God's Knowledge but the projection of our human knowledge into God's. It would be then, a figment of our imagination.

In a brief comparison, this is the difference between the Islamic and the Christian concepts of evil. The general orthodox Islamic belief is that God has decreed eternally everything, even Man's actions. Therefore, good and evil come from God. Allah has decreed from eternity whether a man will go to Paradise or Hell (S. 7, vv. 178-179). Christians believe that God's passive will holds all the laws of His creation in existence without His active interference (active will). Hence, Man is free to choose good or bad (love or sin) Although God Knows eternally what each man will do (Psalms 139; Isaiah 46; Hebrews 4:13). Evil comes from Man or the Evil Force. Good comes from God. And God says that He does not want any man to perish but that all should repent and be saved ( 2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4).

In summary, my tremendous respect and love for Muslims as well as for the Hindus and Buddhists, and my acknowledgement of the good in their beliefs, does not prevent me from believing that the Christian explanation of suffering and evil is more coherent to me personally.

- Christian Meaning to Suffering -

In the light of what has been said, perhaps we Christians should ask ourselves about our attitude towards suffering. Do we consider suffering as evil? If so, we would try either to escape from suffering or to submit to it as the inevitable that comes from God.

We hear some Christians say..............

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

2026-04-07T18:37:00.000+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- Whether it is just that the punishments of sins last longer than the sins themselves lasted - Page Three -

Some, however, of those against whom we are defending the city of God think it unjust that any man/woman be doomed to an eternal punishment for sins which no matter how great they were, were perpetrated in a brief space of time; as if any law ever regulated the duration of the punishment by the duration of the offence punished! Cicero tells us that the laws recognise eight kinds of penalty - damages, imprisonment, scourging, reparation - "Talio," that is, the rendering of like for like, the punishment being exactly similar to the injury sustained. - disgrace, exile, death, slavery. Is there anyone of these which may be compressed into a brevity proportioned to the rapid commission of the offence, so that no longer time may be spent in its punishment than in its perpetration, unless, perhaps, reparation? For this requires the offender suffer what he did, as that clause of the law says, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth." - Exodus 21:24 - For certainly it is possible for an offender to lose his eye by the severity of legal retaliation in as brief a time as he deprived another of his eye by the cruelty of his own lawlessness. But if scourging be a reasonable penalty for kissing another man's wife, is not the fault of an instant visited with long hours of atonement and the momentary delight punished with lasting pain? What shall we say of imprisonment? Must the criminal be confined only for so long a time as he spent on the offence for which he is committed? or is not a penalty of many years' confinement imposed on the slave who has provoked his master with a word, or struck him a blow that is quickly over? And as to damages, disgrace, exile, slavery, which are commonly inflicted so as to admit of no relaxation or pardon, do not these resemble eternal punishments in so far as this short life allows a resemblance? For they are not eternal only because the life in which they are endured is not eternal; and yet the crimes which are punished with these most protracted sufferings are perpetrated in a very brief space of time. Nor is there anyone who would suppose that the pains of punishment should occupy as short a time as the offence; or that murder, adultery, sacrilege or any other crime, should be measured not by the enormity of the injury or wickedness, but by the length of time spent in its perpetration. Then as to the award of death for any great crime, do the laws reckon the punishment to consist in the brief moment in which death is inflicted or in this, that the offender is eternally banished from the society of the living? And just as the punishment of the first death cuts men off from this present mortal city, so does the punishment of the second death cut men off from that future immortal city. For as the laws of this present city do not provide for the executed criminal's return to it, so neither is he who is condemned to the second death recalled again to life everlasting. But if temporal sin is visited with eternal punishment, how, then, they say, is that true which your Christ says, "With the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again?" - Luke 6:38 - and they do not observe that "the same measure" refers, not to an equal space of time, but to the retribution of evil, or in other words, to the law by which he who has done evil suffers evil. Besides, these words could be appropriately understood as referring to the matter of which our Lord was speaking when He used them, viz. judgements and condemnation. Thus, if he who unjustly judges and condemns is himself justly judged and condemned, he receives "with the same measure" though not the same thing as he gave. For judgement he gave and judgement he receives, though the judgement he gave was unjust, the judgement he receives just.

- Of the greatness of the first transgression, on account of which eternal punishment is due to all who are not within the pale of the Saviour's grace -

But eternal punishment seem hard and and unjust to human perceptions because in the weakness of our mortal condition there is wanting that highest and purest wisdom which it can be perceived how great a wickedness was committed in that first transgression. the more enjoyment man found in God, the greater was his wickedness in abandoning Him; and he who destroyed in himself a good which might have been eternal because worthy of eternal evil. Hence the whole mass of the human race is condemned; for he who at first gave entrance to sin has been punished with all his posterity who were in him as in a root, so that no one is exempt from this just and due punishment, unless delivered by mercy and undeserved grace; and the human race is so apportioned that in some is displayed the efficacy of merciful grace, in the rest the efficacy of just retribution. For both could not be displayed in all; for if all had remained - Remanerent. But Augustine constantly uses the imp. for the pulp, subjunctive. - under the punishment of just condemnation, there would have been seen in no one the mercy of redeeming grace. And on the other hand, if all had been transferred from darkness to light, the severity of retribution would have been manifested in none. But many more are left under punishment than are delivered from it, in order that it may thus be shown what was due to all. And had it been inflicted on all, no one could justly have found fault with the justice of Him who taketh vengeance; whereas, in the deliverance of so many from that just award, there is cause to render the most cordial thanks to the gratuitous bounty of Him who delivers.

- Against the opinions of those who think that the punishments of the wicked after death are purgatorial -

The Platonists, indeed, while they maintain that no sins are unpunished, suppose that all punishment is administered for remedial purposes, - Plato's own theory was that punishment had a two fold purpose, to reform and to deter. No one punishes an offender on account of the past offence, and simply because he has done wrong, but for the sake of the future, that the offence may not be again committed, either by the same person or by anyone who has seen him punished." See the Protagoras, 324, b, and Grote's Plato, ii 41. - be it inflicted by human or divine law, in this life or after death; for a man may be scathless here, or, though punished, may yet not amend. hence that passage of Virgil, where, when he had said of our earthly bodies and mortal members, that our souls derive -

"Hence wild desires and grovelling fears, And human laughter, human tears; Immured in dungeon-seeming night, They took abroad, yet see no light," goes on to say: "Nay, when at last the life has fled, And left the body cold and dead, Even then there passes not away, The painful heritage of clay; Full many a long-contracted stain, Perforce must linger deep in grain. So penal sufferings they endure, For ancient crime, to make them pure; Some hang aloft in open view, For winds to pierce them through and through, While others purge their guilt deep-dyed. In burning fire or whelming tide." - AEneid, vi. 733 -

They who are of this opinion would have all punishments after death to be purgatorial; and as the elements of air, fire, and water are superior to earth, one or other of these may be the instrument of expiating and purging away the stain contracted by the contagion of earth. So Virgil hints at the air in the words, "Some hang aloft for winds to pierce;" at the water in "whelming tide;" and the fire in the expression "in burning fire." For our part, we recognise that even in this life some punishments are purgatorial - not, indeed, to those whose life is none the better, but rather the worse for them, but to those who are constrained by them to amend their life. All the punishments, whether temporal or eternal, inflicted as they are on everyone by divine providence, are sent either on account of past sins, or of sins presently allowed in the life, or to exercise and reveal a man's graces. They may be inflicted by the instrumentality of bad men and angels as well as of the good. For even if anyone suffers some hurt through another's wickedness or mistake, the man indeed sins whose ignorance or injustice does the harm; but God, why by His just though hidden judgement permits it to be done, sins not. But temporary punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by others after death, by others both now and then; but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But of those who suffer temporary punishments after death, all are not doomed to those everlasting pains which are to follow that judgment; for to some, as we have already said, what is not remitted in this world is remitted in the next, that is, they are not punished with the eternal punishment of the world to come.

- Of the temporary punishment of this life to which the human condition is subject -

Quite exceptional are those who are not punished in this life, but only afterwards. Yet that there have been some who have reached the decrepitude of age without experiencing even the slightest sickness and who have had uninterrupted enjoyment of life, I know both from report and from my own observation. However, the very life we mortals lead is itself all punishment, for it is all temptation, as the Sacred Scripture declares, where it is written, "Is not the life of man upon earth a temptation?" - Job 7:1 - For ignorance is itself no slight punishment, or want of culture which it is with justice thought so necessary to escape, that boys are compelled under pain of severe punishment, to learn trades or letters; and the learning to which they are driven by punishment is itself so much of a punishment to them, that they sometimes prefer the pain that drives them to the pain to which they are driven by it. And so would not shrink from the alternative and elect to die, if it were proposed to him either to suffer death or to be again an infant? Our infancy, indeed, introducing us to this life not with laughter but with tears, seems unconsciously to predict the ills we are to encounter. - Compare Goldsmith's saying, "We begin life in tears and everyday tells us why." Zoroaster alone is said to have laughed when he was born and that unnatural omen portended no good to him. For he is said to have been the inventor of magical arts, though indeed they were unable to secure to him even the poor felicity of this present life against the assaults of his enemies. For, himself king of the Bactrians, he was conquered by Ninus king of the Assyrians. In short, the words of Scripture, "An heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day they go out of their mother's womb till the day that they return to the mother of all things," - Ecclesiastes 11:1 - these words till the day that they return to the mother of all things," - 2 Timothy 2:19 - these words so inffallibly find fulfilment that even the little ones, who by the laver of regeneration have been freed from the bond of original sin in which alone they were held, yet suffer many ills and in some instances are even exposed to the assaults of evil spirits. But let us not for a moment suppose that this suffering is prejudicial to their future happiness, even though it has so increased as to sever soul from body, and to terminate their life in that early age.

- That everything which the grace of God does in the way of rescuing us from the inveterate evils in which we are sunk, pertains to the future world, in which all things are made new -

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2026-03-27T13:21:00.000+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

SEARCH FOR MEANING

Since the dawn of consciousness, human beings have been plagued with two questions: (1) Why is there suffering; and related to this is why is there evil? (2) Why am I here? Or what is the meaning of Creation? It was really to these basic questions of life that human beings developed religions, perhaps in the beginning intuitively and later in a more rational way.

Why Creation?

Some so-called scientists say that it was fear that made Man concoct the notion of God: fear of thunder, lightning, floods, earthquakes, etc... Fear may be one of the factors that stirred in Man a questioning of his own fragile existence. And why not? Everything in the Universe, in fact, prods Man to ask questions. I believe human awareness is much richer than just fear. As man/woman sat and watched the splendour of sunset, for example, he/she was filled with an awe which in turn posed to him/her a question of his/her own smallness. Watchers of monkeys, especially of a higher species, tell us that some monkeys sit for hours watching the sunset, as if mystified by its glory. How much more are human beings endowed with consciousness? It was not only fear but everything in Life itself that set Man's mind into operation. Life still moves us to wonder. Who am I? What is this thing call life - the trees, birds, animals, sky, water, stars, etc. And I am only one among so many of my own kind. In the midst of all creation, I am only a drop which disappears practically into nothingness. It is natural when one comes to grips with the reality of one's smallest to think of "Something greater", the Cause of this changing finite existence. Some call this infinitely greater "Something" God; other the Absolute, etc. Call "It" whatever it might be, the Reality is there. Aristotle, through his reasoning on the principle of course and effect came to his belief in the "Absolute-Uncaused-Cause." The process to this Ultimate Reality between Aristotle and the primitive Man is the same. The difference lies in the degree of intellection: the former through a very sophisticated logical reasoning, the latter through a more intuitive grasp. But why must this "Absolute-Infinite Reality" create a finite Universe? I am not asking the question: why am I created. Rather, why is there creation at all?

Christian perspective

It seems to me that only Christianity answers the question satisfactorily. All other religions seem to accept creation as a fact. Perhaps I do not know other religions well enough. Up to the present, as far as my knowledge goes, there are creation stories in all religions. However, creation stories answer the question of how, not why. Only Christianity answers to my satisfaction the "why". And it is not found in the creation story in Genesis. It is found in the Life and teaching of Christ. Saint Paul sums up beautifully Jesus Christ's life in his letter to the Philippians, chapter 2, verses 6-8.

"though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be

grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness

of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto

death, even death on a cross."

This captures neatly Christ's life of love. Love is the ability to get out of my own world ( just as Christ got out of his divine world ) to enter into the world of the other ( just as Christ entered our human world ) and to come to serve the real - (Real need: I use the word "real" because we often think "what I think is good for the other is really good for him," which in fact may not be the real good for other.) need of the other (just as Christ came to save us from sin), to the extent of laying down my life for the other. - John 15:13 -

When someone is in love, he/she wants to share first what he/she possesses with his/her beloved. Hence he/she gives to his/her beloved a gift or gifts - a sharing of what he/she has. If the love goes deeper, then he desires to share himself with her. And so, they get married and lived together, sharing what they have and what they are. God who is Love - John 4:8, 16 - cannot but share what He is. This sharing of Himself is creation. It is Love that creates.

Why Suffering?

A Christian response

If the Source of creation is Love, whence comes evil and suffering in creation? before I tackle evil in the world, I would like to make a distinction between: suffering as the effect of evil and suffering that is not the effect of evil. For me, evil means, "the harm brought upon Man through malicious intent" which always entails suffering. All evils bring suffering but not all sufferings are the consequences of evil.

Three categories of suffering

It is here that we must be clear on the different types of suffering. There are three main categories of suffering. The first, I have already mentioned: suffering as an effect of an evil deed. If I maliciously and falsely accuse you of being corrupt to destroy your reputation, you suffer because of my evil words. In anger, I hit you over the head with a chair. You suffer because of my evil deed. Wars are waged because of man's evil intentions - greed, envy, desire for power and glory, etc. In wars, many innocent lives are taken but it is a consequence of man's evil deeds. Often we conveniently blame God saying, "Why can't God stop the wars since He is all powerful?" If God were to stop all the evils that we human beings do, we would be robots, not human beings with free wills. As mentioned, free will is an essential part of being human.

The second is suffering that comes from the nature of creation itself; that is, earthquakes, floods, diseases, etc. The third, is a mixture of the first and the second. I lead an immoral life, say I womanize, and contract a sexual disease. This can affect the child that I will produce. My child, born defective or with any hereditary disease, is suffering because of my sins (evil) and because of the laws of nature in procreation the child inherits the parent's genes. It is easy to understand suffering as coming from Man's evil deeds directly or indirectly. It is difficult to understand innocent people suffering because of natural disasters. The question that one is forced to ask ultimately if one pursues this problem tenaciously is: Why must there be natural disasters which bring about suffering in human beings? Nature has its laws. If it rains very heavily and continuously for a long period, and if the water cannot be channelled fast enough into the sea, low lying areas will be flooded (the law of gravity). If a virus attacks my body and I am not healthy enough to resist that type of virus, I will fall sick. In spite of the fact that the laws of Nature keep the universe in order or in harmony, they do sometimes cause suffering to human beings independent of Man's will. This is what we call finiteness or limitedness or imperfection in Nature itself.

Why cannot God create a perfect Universe where there is no natural disaster, you might ask? What is perfect in the absolute sense is infinite, without limitation and only God is perfect. What is without limit or infinite cannot reproduce itself. Two infinites would be a contradiction. "Without limit" cannot have "something" outside itself because, if it were so, it would be limited; it would not be "without limit". A fortiori "Without limit" or Perfection cannot reproduce itself. God cannot create Himself or create Perfection because he is Perfection. Hence, God's creation, by its very nature, must be limited or imperfect. This is as far as our imperfect intellect can go. However, I must admit that ultimately I do not know why God created the universe as He did. How can I, a small drop that disappears practically into nothingness in the immensity of the universe, understand the Creator of this universe? How can the finite mind grasp totally the Infinite. The distance between the finite and the infinite is infinite! By this argument, I am not trying to escape grappling with the problem. All I am saying is that I must admit this reality; but at the same time, I must also try with my very limited intellect to understand it.

The right question to pose in the reality of the infiniteness of nature is: What is the meaning of my existence in the suffering caused by natural phenomenon? It seems to me that suffering in itself is neither good or bad. It is how I react to it that causes good or bad. If there is a flood and many are made homeless, our response or non-response to this causes good or bad. When, moved by the disaster, I go to help the poor people, my action is good. A suffering situation has elicited good out of me and I become a better and a greater person. However, if I turn my back on the suffering of these poor people, my action is bad because it has degraded me and nothing constructive has been done to help the situation. In the same way, if I am one of the victims of the flood, I can react in either a positive or a negative way. I can curse and swear, and do nothing about my situation. Then I would have allowed the natural catastrophe to crush me as a human person. This is bad. Or I can be challenged by it to help others and myself. Let us say, I use my sampan/boat to go and pick up stranded people, forgetful of my own safety. My heroic action will make me a greater person. This, ultimately, what is important , isn't it? It is no use crying over a disaster. It would not improve the situation. But it is important that I take up the challenge to my humanity to help others and the situation of suffering.

There is another dimension to the meaning of being in a finite world. God has given us an intellect. We can make use of this intellect to do a scientific research into the laws of nature so as to find solutions to prevent disasters. The building of dams and dikes is a great human achievement. Scientist in observatories who can predict earthquakes and typhoons, can help to eliminate or at least, diminish human sufferings. God have given us an intellect and a will and placed us in a limited world of nature, tame it and channel it for the building up of a true human society where there is concern and care for one another; in short, where there is love. This, as I have said as above, is the purpose of God's creation: Love.

Again, this principle of love can even be applied to suffering brought about by evil intentions of human beings. If, I maliciously and falsely accuse you of being corrupt to destroy your reputation, you can react to this in different ways. You feel the hurt (suffering) and you nurse the hurt till bitterness and hatred take root in you. Who does it destroy, if not you? You have no peace of mind because of this bitterness. Often this bitterness expresses itself in retaliation: You speak badly about me, and I am hurt. And this could go on till we tear at each other. Evil has brought on more evil and therefore, more suffering. This is the principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" which our Lord Jesus condemns. It will only bring destruction and more suffering.

Happily, there is another way that you can react to the situation: the way of Love. Although feeling hurt, you can say to yourself, "I am not corrupt, so does it really matter? I am what I am. People will find out the truth. Well, he does this to me because he is jealous of my success. Jealousy is a spirited sickness. One should not hurt a sick person. Understanding this, I should not feel hurt. Rather, I should feel sympathy for him." This sympathy will overcome the hurt in me. It is forgiveness that the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible speaks of. You will, then, not retaliate. And because you can see concerned for me. You care that I grow out of it and learn to accept myself. You will praise my good performance and good points. This affirmation of me will produce good results in me - a sense of my own worth. If it does not take away all my sense of insecurity, it will at least diminish it. The general reaction in me and in all human beings when we are praised, is that I react positively. So, I begin to like you and speak good about you. So evil is overcome by good. This is what Saint Paul says, "overcome evil with good. It is a concrete application of Jesus' command - "Love your enemies". If we analyse the above case, we will see that it is true love because you are able to get out of your own "hurt feelings", enter into my world to understand my insecurity and come to my aid.

From the above examples, it can be seen that true love not only overcomes situations of suffering caused by natural disaster but it also heals wounds brought about by evil intentions in human beings. In summary, for Christians, suffering is neither good nor evil. It is Man's/Human beings reaction to suffering that is good or evil.

- Why is there evil? A Christian response -

God created us through Love and for Love. To love, then, is the nature of being human. But love is free.......

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

2026-03-19T12:28:00.000+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

- Of hell, and the nature of eternal punishment - Page Two -

So then what God by His prophet has said of the everlasting punishment of the damned shall come to pass - shall without fail come to pass - "their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." - Romans 8:13 - In order to impress this upon us most forcibly, the Lord Jesus Himself, when ordering us to cut off our members of his body, says, "It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm die not and their fire is not quenched." Similarly of the foot: "It is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm die not, and the fire is not quenched." So, too, of the eye: "it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire; where their worm die not, and the fire is not quenched." - Mark 9:43-48 - He did not shrink from using the same words three times over in one passage. And who is not terrified by this repetition and by the threat of that punishment uttered so vehemently by the lips of the Lord Himself?

Now they who would refer both the fire and the worm to the spirit, and not to the body, affirm that the wicked, who are separated from the kingdom of God, shall be burned, as it were, by the anguish of a spirit repenting too late and fruitlessly; and they contend that fire is therefore not inappropriately used to express this burning torment, as when the apostle exclaims, "Who is offended and I burn not?" - 2 Corinthians 11:9 - The worm, too, they think, is to be similarly understood. For it is written, they say, "As the moth consumes the garment and the worm and wood, so does grief consume the heart of a man." - Isaiah 2:8 -

But they who make no doubt that in the future punishment both the body and soul shall suffer, affirm that the body shall be burned with fire, while the soul shall be, as it were, gnawed by a worm of anguish. Though this view is more reasonable - for it is absurd to suppose that either body or soul will escape pain in the future punishment - yet, for my own part, I find it easier to understand both as referring to the body than to suppose that neither does; and I think that Sacred Scripture is silent regarding the spiritual pain of the damned because, though not expressed, it is necessarily understood that in a body thus tormented the soul also is tortured with a fruitless repentance. For we read in the ancient Scriptures: "The vengeance of the flesh of the ungodly is fire and worms." - Ecclesiastes 7:17-19 - It might have been more briefly said, "The vengeance of the ungodly." Why, then, was it said, "The flesh of the ungodly," unless because both the fire and the worm are to be the punishment of the flesh? Or if the object of the writer in saying, "The vengeance of the flesh" was to indicate that this shall be the punishment of those who live after the flesh (for this leads to the second death, as the apostle intimated when he said: "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die") - Romans 8:13 - let each one make his/her own choice, either assigning the fire to the body and the worm to the soul - the one figuratively, the other really - or assigning both really to the body. For I have already sufficiently made out that animals can live in the fire, in burning without being consumed, in pain without dying, by a miracle of the most omnipotent Creator, to whom no one can deny that this is possible, if he/she be not ignorant by whom has been made all that is wonderful in all nature. For it is God Himself who has wrought all these miracles, great and small, in this world which I have mentioned and incomparably more which I have omitted, and who has enclosed these marvels in this world, itself the greatest miracle of all. Let each man/woman, then choose which he/she will, whether he/she thinks that the worms is real and pertains to the body, or that spiritual things are meant by bodily representations and that it belongs to the soul. But which of these is true will be more readily discovered by the facts themselves, when there shall be in the saints such knowledge as shall not require that their experience teach them the nature of these punishments, but as shall, by its own fullness and perfection, suffice to instruct them in this matter. For "now we know in part, until that which is perfect is come" - 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 - this we believe about those future bodies that they shall be such as shall certainly be painted by the fire.

- Whether the fire of hell, if it be material fire, can burn the wicked spirits, that is to say, devils, who are immortal -

Here arises the question: If the fire is not to be immaterial, analogous to the pain of the soul, by material, burning by contact, so that bodies may be tormented in it, how can evil spirits be punished in it? For it is undoubtedly the same fire which is to serve for the punishment of men and of devils, according to the words of Christ Jesus: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." - Matthew 25:41-46 - unless, perhaps, as learned men/women have thought, the devils have a kind of body made of that dense and humid air which we feel strikes us when the wind is blowing. And if this kind of substance could not be affected by fire, it could not burn when heated in the baths. For in order to burn, it is first burned and affects other things as itself is affected. But if any one maintains that the devils have no bodies, this is not a matter either to be laboriously investigated or to be debated with keenness. For why we're not assert that even immaterial spirits may, in some extraordinary way, yet really be pained by the punishment of material fire, if the spirits of men which also are certainly immaterial are both now contained in material members of the body and in the world to come shall be indissolubly united to their own bodies? Therefore, though the devils have no bodies, yet their spirits, that is, the devils themselves shall be brought into thorough contact with the material fires, to be tormented by them; not that the fires themselves with which they are brought into contact shall be animated by their connection with these spirit and become animals composed of body and spirit but as I said, this junction will be effected in a wonderful and ineffable way, so that they shall receive pain from the fires, but give no life to them. In truth, this other mode of union, by which bodies and spirits are bound together and become animals, is thoroughly marvellous and beyond the comprehension of man/human being, though this is which is man.

I would indeed say that these spirits will burn without anybody of their own, as that rich man was burning in hell when he exclaimed, "I am tormented in the flame" - Luke 16:24 - were I not aware that it is aptly said in reply, that the flame was of the same nature as the eyes raised and fixed on Lazarus, as the tongue on which he entreated that a little cooling water might be dropped or as the finger of Lazarus, with which he asked this might be done - all of which took place where souls exist without bodies. Thus, both that flame in which he burned and that drop he begged were immaterial and resembled the visions of sleepers or persons in an ecstasy, to whom immaterial objects appear in a bodily form. For the man, himself who is in such a state, though it be in spirit only, not in body, yet sees himself so like to his own body that he cannot discern any difference whatever. But that hell, which also is called a lake of fire and brimstone, - Revelation 20:10 - will be material fire and will torment the bodies of the damned, whether men or devils - the solid bodies of the one, aerial bodies of the others; or if only men/human beings have bodies as well as souls, yet the evil spirits, though without bodies, shall be so connected with the bodily fires as to receive pain without imparting life. One fire certainly shall be the lot of both, for thus the truth has declared.

- Whether it is just that the punishments of sins last longer than the sins themselves lasted - Page Three -

2026-03-05T12:29:00.009+08:00

- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -

That the ultimate reason for believing miracles is the omnipotence of the Creator

Why, then, cannot God effect both that the bodies of the dead shall rise, and that the bodies of the damned shall be tormented in everlasting fire - God, who made the world full of countless miracles in sky, earth, air and waters, while itself is a miracle unquestionably greater and more admirable than all the marvels it is filled with? But those with whom or against whom we are arguing, who believe both that there is a God who made the world and that there are gods created by Him who administer the world's laws as His vicegerents - our adversaries, I say, who, so far from denying emphatically, assert that there are powers in the world which effect marvellous results (whether of their own accord, or because they are invoked by some rite or prayer, or in some magical way) when we lay before them the wonderful properties of other things which are neither rational animals nor rational spirits, but such material objects as those we have just cited, are in the habit of replying. This is their natural property, their nature; these are the powers naturally belonging to them. Thus the whole reason why Agrigentine salt dissolves in fire and crackles in water is that this is its nature. Yet this seems rather contrary to nature, which has given not to fire but to water the power of melting salt, and the power of scorching it not to water but to fire. But this, they say, is the natural property of this salt, to shows effects contrary to these. The same reason, therefore, is assigned to account for that Garamantian fountain, of which one and the same runlet is chill by day and boiling by night, so that in either extreme it cannot be touched. So also of that other fountain which though it is cold to the touch, and though it, like other fountains, extinguishes a lighted torch, yet, unlike other fountains and in a surprising manner, kindles an extinguished torch. So of the asbestos stone, which though it has no heat of its own, yet when kindled by fire applied to it, cannot be extinguished. And so of the rest, which I am weary of reciting and in which, though there seems to be an extraordinary property contrary to nature - a brief reason is given for them than this, that this is their nature - a brief reason truly and I own a satisfactory reply. But since God is the author of all natures, how is it that our adversaries, when they refuse to believe what we affirm, on the ground that it is impossible, are unwilling to accept from us a better explanation than their own, viz. that this is the will of Almighty God - for certainly He is called Almighty only because He is mighty to do all He will - He who was able to create so many marvels, not only unknown, but very well ascertained, as I have been showing, and which, were they not under our own observation, or reported by recent and credible witnesses, would certainly be pronounced impossible? For as for those marvels which have no other testimony that the writers in whose books we read them and who wrote without being divinely instructed and are therefore liable to human error, we cannot justly blame anyone who declines to believe them.

For my own part, I do not wish all the marvels I have cited to be rashly accepted, for I do not myself believe them implicitly, save those which have either come under my own observation or which anyone can readily - such as the lime which is heated by water and cooled by oil; the magnet which by its mysterious and insensible suction attracts the iron, but has no effect on a straw; the peacock's flesh which triumphs over the corruption from which not the flesh of Plato is exempt; the chaff so chilling that it prevents snow from melting, so heating that it forces apple to ripen; the glowing fire, which in accordance with its glowing appearance, whitens the stones it bakes, while, contrary to its glowing appearance, it begrimes most things it burns (just as dirty stains are made by oil, however pure it be, and as the lines drawn by white silver are black); the charcoal too, which by the action of fire is so completely changed from its original, that a finely market piece of wood becomes hideous, the tough becomes brittle, the decaying incorruptible. Some of these things I know in common with many other persons, some of them in common with all men; and there are many others which I have no room to insert in this book. But of those which I have cited, though I have not myself seen, but only read about them, I have been unable to find trustworthy witnesses from whom I could ascertain whether they are facts, except in the case of that fountain in which burning torches are extinguished and extinguished torches lit and of the apples of Sodom which are ripe to appearance, but are filled with dust. And indeed I have not met with any who said they had seen that fountain in Epirus, but with some who knew there was a similar fountain in Gaul not far from Grenoble. The fruit of the trees of Sodom, however, is not only spoken of in books worthy of credit, but so many persons say that they have seen it that I cannot doubt the fact. But the rest of prodigies I receive without definitely affirming or denying them; and I have cited them because I read them in the authors of our adversaries and that I might prove how many things among themselves believe, because there are written in the works of their own literary men, though no rational explanation of them is given, and yet they scorn to believe us when we assert that Almighty God will do what is beyond their experience and observation; and this they do even though we assign a reason for His work. For what better and stronger reason for such things can be given than to say that the Almighty is able to bring them to pass, and will bring them to pass, having predicted them in those books in which many other marvels which have already come to pass were predicted? Those things which are regarded as impossible will be accomplished according to the word, and by the power of that God who predicted and effected that the incredulous nations should believe incredible wonders.

- That it is not contrary to nature that in an object whose nature is known, there should be discovered an alteration of the properties which have been known as its natural properties -

But if they reply that their reason for not believing us when we say that human bodies will always burn and never die, is that the nature of human bodies is known to be quite otherwise constituted; if they said that this miracle we cannot give the reason which was valid in the case of those natural miracles, viz. that this is the natural property, the nature of the thing - for we know that this is not the nature of human flesh - we find our answer in the sacred writings, that even this human flesh was constituted in one fashion before there was sin - was constituted, in fact, so that it could not die - and in another fashion after sin, being made such as we see it in this miserable state of mortality, unable to retain enduring life. And so in the resurrection of the dead shall it be constituted differently from its present well-known condition. But as they do not believe these writings of ours, in which we read what nature man/woman had in paradise, and how remote he was from the necessity of death - and indeed, if they did believe them, we should of course have little trouble in debating with them the future punishment of the damned - we must produce from the writings of their own most learned authorities some instances to show that it is possible for a thing to become different from what it was formerly known characteristically to be. From the book of Marcus Varro, entitled, Of the Race of the Roman People, I cite word for word the following instance: "There occurred a remarkable celestial portent; for Castor records that is, in the brilliant star Venus, called Vesperugo by Plautus and the lovely Hesperus by Homer, there occurred so strange a prodigy, that it changed its colour, size, form, course, which never happened before nor since. Adrastus of Cyzicus and Dion of Naples, famous mathematicians, said that this occurred in the reign of Ogyges." So great an author as Varro would certainly not have called this a portent had it not seemed to be contrary to nature. For we say that all portents are contrary to nature; but they are not so. For how is that contrary to nature which happens by the will of God, since the will of so mighty a Creator is certainly the nature of each created thing? A portent, therefore, happens not contrary to nature, but contrary to what we know as nature. But who can number the multitude of portents recorded in profane histories? Let us then at present fix our attention on this one only which concerns the matter in hand. What is there so arranged by the Author of the nature of heaven and earth as the exactly ordered course of the stars? What is there established by laws so sure and inflexible? And yet, when it pleased Him who with sovereignty and supreme power regulates all He has created, a star conspicuous among the rest by its size and splendour changed its colour, size, form and most wonderful of all, the order and law of its course! Certainly that phenomenon disturbed the canons of the astronomers, if there were any then, by which they tabulate, as by unerring computation, the past and future movements of the stars, so as to take upon them to affirm that this which happened to the morning star (Venus) never happened before nor since. But we read in the divine books that even the sun itself stood still when a holy man, Joshua the son of Nun, had begged this from God until victory should finish the battle he had begun; and that it even went back, that the promise of fifteen years added to the life of king Hezekiah might be sealed by this additional prodigy. But these miracles, which were vouchsafed to the merits of holy men, even when our adversaries believe them, they attribute to magical arts; so Virgil, in the lines I quoted above, ascribes to magic the power to "Turn rivers backward to their source, And make the stars forget their course."

For in our sacred books we read that this also happened, that a river "turned backward," was stayed above while the lower part flowed on, when the people passed over under the above-mentioned leader, Joshua the son of Nun; and also when Elias the prophet crossed; and afterwards, when his disciple Elisha passed through it: and we have just mentioned how, in the case of king Hezekiah, the greatest of the "stars forgot its course." But what happened to Venus, according to Varro, was not said by him to have happened in answer to any man's prayer.

Let not the sceptics then benight themselves in this knowledge of the nature of things, as if divine power cannot bring to pass in an object anything else than what their own experience has shown them to be in its nature. Even the very things which are most commonly known as natural would not be less wonderful nor less effectual to excite surprise in all who beheld them, if men were not accustomed to admire nothing but what is rare. For who that, thoughtfully observes the countless multitude of men, and their similarity of nature, can fail to remark with surprise and admiration the individuality of each man's appearance, suggesting to us, as it does, unless men were like one another, they would not be distinguished from the rest of the animals; while unless, on the other hand, they were unlike, they could not be distinguished from one another, so that those whom we declare to be like, we also find to be unlike? And the unlikeness is the more wonderful consideration of the two; for a common nature seems rather to require similarity. And yet, because the very rarity of things is that which makes them wonderful, we are filled with much greater wonder when we are introduced to two men so like, that we either always or frequently mistake in endeavouring to distinguish between them.

But possibly, though Varro is a heathen historian, and a very learned one, they may disbelieve that what I have cited from him truly occurred; or they may say the example is invalid, because the star did not for any length of time continue to follow its new course, but returned to its ordinary orbit. There is, then, another phenomenon at present open to their observation, and which, in my opinion, ought to be sufficient to convince them that, though they have observed and ascertained some natural law, they ought not on that account to prescribe to God, as if He could not change and turn it into something very different from what they have observed. The land of Sodom was not always as it now is: but once it had the appearance of the other lands, and enjoyed equal if not richer fertility; for, in the divine narrative, it was compared to the paradise of God. But after it was touched [by fire] from heaven, as even pagan history testifies, and as it now witnessed by those who visit the spot, it became unnaturally and horribly sooty in appearance; and its apples, under a deceitful appearance of ripeness, contain ashes within. here is a thing which was of one kind, and is of another. You see how it nature was converted by the wonderful transmutation wrought by the Creator of all natures into so very disgusting a diversity - an alteration which after so long a time took place, and after so long a time still continues.

As therefore, it was not impossible to God to create such natures as He pleased, so it is not impossible to Him to change these natures of His own creation into whatever He pleases, and thus spread abroad multitude of those marvels which are called monsters, portents, prodigies, phenomena, - See the same collocation of words in Cic. Nat. deor. ii. 3 - and which if I were minded to cite and record, what end would there be to this work? They say that they are called "monsters," because they demonstrate or signify something; "portents," because they portend something; and so forth. - The etymologies given here by Augustine are, "monstra," a monstrando; "ostenta," ab ostendendo; "portenta," a portendendo, i.e. preostendendo; "proligia," quod porro dicant, i.e. futura predicant. - But let their diviners see how they are either deceived, or even when they do predict true things, it is because they are inspired by spirits, who are intent upon entangling the minds of men (worthy, indeed, of such a fate) in the meshes of a hurtful curiosity, or how they light now and then upon some truth, because they make so many predictions. yet, for our part, these things which happen contrary to nature, and are said to be contrary to nature (as the apostle, speaking after the manner of men, says, that to graff the wild olive into the good olive, and to partake of its fatness, is contrary to nature), and are called monsters, phenomena, portents, prodigies, ought to demonstrate, portend, predict that God will bring to pass what He has foretold regarding the bodies of men, no difficulty preventing Him, no law of nature prescribing to Him His limit. How He has foretold what He is to do, I think I have sufficiently shown in the preceding book, culling from the sacred Scriptures, both of the New and Old Testaments, not, indeed, all the passages that relate to this, but as many as I judged to suffice for this work. - Page One -

- Of hell, and the nature of eternal punishment - Page Two -

2026-02-25T10:32:00.000+08:00

- Temptations to Goodness - By Venerable Fulton J. Sheen -

Tactically all the nourishment the earth gives to man/woman comes from the top four inches of soil. But in the depths of the earth are hidden gold, diamonds and other precious things. So it is with persons; we judge through our commerce with them on the surface; the way they seem to act, the manner of speech and the ephemeral judgements based on the common hearing of the judgements based on the common hearing of the hourly newscast. As a result, most humans are thought to be very superficial, when the truth is that those who seem to have no depth at all to careless eyes really contain treasures of surpassing worth. What is often interpreted as shallowness in others is really a hiding of tragic forces, which only in great storms are brought to the surface.

A young divorced woman who seemed to be lost in the whirl of fashion took into her home on weekends a young victim of leprosy whom society disdained. I said to her: "I know why I have him in my home; it is because he stands for Christ Who bore in His Body all the sins and leprosy of the world. But why do you have him in your home:" She answered: "For the same reason." One would never suspected such deep fountains of sympathy and compassion.

What is true of the depths in others is also true of ourselves. It has been said that every atheist is afraid in the dark. Herod, who did not believe in a future life, nevertheless believed that Our Lord was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Communists, who deny religion, talk much about it. There is a buried life in every soul awaiting resurrection. As J. Hunter put it:

Yet still, from time to time, vague and forlorn,

From the soul's subterranean depth upborne

As from an infinitely distant land,

Come airs, and floating echoes and convey

A melancholy into all our day.

A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast

And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.

The eye sinks inward and the heart lies plain.

In the subconscious depths of the soul come inspirations which are too noble to be of our making; the mud and slime which sink down to our subconscious mind cannot suddenly shoot forth flowers and blossoms. There is some other force from the outside which completely changes the direction of our lives. Travelling in the pathways of triviality, it takes some alien Power from the outside to divert us into the Highway of the King. The old theologians used to call these motivations to goodness, "Actual Graces". A better wording would be temptations to goodness.

Why is it that we practically always use the word "temptation" to imply an inclination to evil? Actually, every soul has more temptations to be good than it does to be evil. And we turn down more temptations to virtue than we do to vice. It is, therefore, quite wrong to think of our subconscious mind as a snake pit of rottenness and corruption. There may be some snakes of our hatching, but there are many more visitations of the angels or holy inspirations prompting us to realize the potentialities of our being.

The famous Psalm which begins with the words: "Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord" is a poetic expression of this truth. There are two kinds of despair: the hellish despair which comes from a man relying solely on his own resources, and the creative despair which makes one cry to God, from Whom saving experiences come. The surface of life seems to say one thing to us, and it often is hopelessness and despair; but the depths cry out to something else that is not of our own making.

Selfishness always rides on the thin ice of the soul, but true peace of mind comes from the fountains of the deep in which there is a cry to connect oneself with the invisible and eternal source of truth and love. If a man/woman could ever escape from himself/herself he/she could escape from God, but even when he/she lands on the moon he/she brings himself/herself with him/her. The pendulum has no sense apart from the clock, nor the carbon without the original, nor the shadow without the light. All escapes are vain, as Francis Thompson found when he wrote: "I fled Him down the nights and down the days... but ever and anon came on the Voice: Lo, naught contents thee who contents not Me."

2026-02-13T18:43:00.004+08:00

- Straight to Catholics - Why I believe in What I believe -

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.

- Jesus Christ the Mediator and other mediations - P A G E 2 -

However, all this does not take away from Christ Jesus . His unique role as the sole Mediator between God and Man. It is through Him that all go to the Father: "No one goes to the Father except through me", says Christ. (John 14:6) There is also the famous text of Saint Paul "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as random for all". The Catholic Church has always taught that there is only One Mediator: Christ. Vatican Council II says: "We have but one Mediator..." (LG. "Constitution on the Church", No. 60). The meaning of "Mediator" as applied to Christ in the New Testament is more than a "Go-between" or a "representative of" two parties. Christ himself is the "meeting point" between the divine and the human. He is, therefore, at the same time the "High Priest" and the "Victim" of the sacrifice (Letter to the Hebrews). He is the Only High Priest and the Only Mediator.

Objection - If Christ is the only Mediator, why do Catholics call the Virgin Mary, "Mediatrix."?

Response: Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, is mediatrix not in the sense that she replaces Christ as the sole Mediator. Her mediation takes its meaning and activity from Christ's unique Mediatorship.

The Church or "people of God continues the salvific work of Christ in the world. Hence, all we Christians, by virtue of our baptism share in the priesthood of Christ (Vatican Council II, L.G. No.10). The Book of Revelation (Apocalypse) says: "To Him (Christ) who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom and priests to Our God..." (Revelation 5:10). - See section on "Sacrifice of the Mass." Because we share in his priesthood, we also share in his mediatorship as instrument to carry out Christ saving activity in the world. For this reason, Saint Paul can logically speak of two other kinds of mediation which spring from the unique and irreplaceable Mediatorship of Christ: (a) mediation through intercessory prayer to which all are obliged and (b) mediation through the special ministry of the Apostles.

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all men, may lead a quite and peaceable life and respectful in every way,... For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony to which was borne at the prayer time. For this, I was appointed a preacher and apostle..." (1 Timothy 2:1-7).

Paul go even further and speaks of filling up in one's own flesh what was wanting in the sufferings of Christ (Colossians 1:24). Is not Saint Paul sharing in Christ's suffering (Christ's sacrifice) a participation in the mediatorship of Christ? Christ's suffering is the consequence of His priesthood which is Mediatorship between God and Man. Since all of us in this sense share, as instruments, Christ's Mediatorship, surely the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, the most perfect of created creatures must share in a special way Christ's saving activity in the world. It was through her that God the Son came into the world. It was through her that God the Son came into the world. She was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Angel Gabriel the Holy Spirit. Angel Gabriel said, "the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35f). This was the result of her great faith in God. She is for us Catholics a model of faith. She is also a model of true discipleship (as presented by Saint Luke and Saint John). - _, Mary in the New Testament, ed. by Raymond E. Brown, K.P. Donfried, J.A. Fitzmyer, J. Reumann; Theological Theological Publications in India, Bangalore, 1981.- She followed her son from the beginning of His public Life, (John 2:1-12) the feast at Cana. It was here that Jesus performed His first miracle through her intercession. She was at the foot of the cross, at the end of her Son's public ministry, when Jesus gave her to be the mother of His "beloved disciple", symbol of all of us who are Jesus' disciples.

After Jesus' ascension, she was with the Apostles, the first Christian community who "devoted themselves to constant prayer" (Acts 1:14). From all these, the early Church fathers naturally gave her a special place of honour. Therefore, in a specific way, she shares the Mediatorship of Christ, the source of all graces. It is in this sense, that the Eastern Church applied this term mediatrix to the Blessed Virgin. It is difficult to give the exact date when the term was applied. The first writer in whose work the usage of this term can be proved with certainty is Saint Andrew of Crete (740). In the Latin Church, the term was popularized by Saint Bernard (12th century).

As can be seen, this practice goes right back to a very early Tradition which is based on sound theology which comes from the sacred Scriptures. Further more the whole understanding of Mary's mediation, the saints' mediation and our mediation is rooted in the creed "we believe in the communion of saints" which I have already briefly explained before. It seems to me that those who accuse Catholics of calling Mary the "mediatrix", are caught up more with the superficial appearance of the word rather than with the true meaning of the word. I personally do not mind if we do not apply the word "mediatrix" to the Virgin Mary if that would make our accusers happy. But I do mind if they were to ask me to reject the idea of Mary and Christians sharing in Christ's Mediatorship. I would not for anything discard the truth and reality of my faith.

Objection - Why do Catholics call Mary the "Mother of God"? She is the mother of the humanity of Jesus, not of His divinity. Therefore, she should be called the mother of Jesus.

Response: The title "Mother of God" can only be understood in the historical context of the controversy over Jesus' divinity and humanity. Right from the beginning of the Church, there were discussions and controversies over who Jesus was. Was He really God equal to God the Father? If so, was He really man like us: human beings? How can divinity and humanity exist in the one person? In the process of debate, a number of heresies emerged and they were condemned (see the section on triune God).

The Greek word for "Mother of God" is theotokos (God bearer or Mother of God). The earliest written record of this term that we now have (it could have been used earlier, though we have no record of this) is from Alexander of Alexandria (II) m 325 A.D.. but in subtuum papyrus, in the John Rylands library, it is put back to 270 A.D. If this is correct, then it is the earliest record of the term. By the time of Saint Athanasius (293-373 A.D.),. the usage of the term was common. Saint Gregory Nazianzen (324-389 A.D.) said, "If anyone does not accept the holy Mary as theotokos, he/she is without the Godhead.' In the West or Latin world, Saint Ambrose (340-397 A.D.) was the first to use "mother of God." But it was Saint John Damascene (680-690 A.D.) who developed a theology of the divine motherhood.

Of course, the root of this is found in the Gospel where Mary was the mother of the Son of God (Galatians 4:4; Luke 1:32,35); when Elizabeth calls Mary "the mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:43). The word :Lord" equals to God as can be seen from the same passage in Luke. Elizabeth said, "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." And Mary replied, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour." (Luke 1:45-46).

The early Church had to fight against: (1) Docetism that believed that Christ's body was a mere phantom - that is, Christ Jesus was not truly Man. (2) Valentinus who taught that Christ's real body was a celestial body that merely passed through Mary, that is, a denial of Mary's real motherhood of Christ, the divine, and therefore of Christ's humanity. (3) Marcion who taught that Christ appeared from nowhere as a full-grown man, that is, again a denial of Christ's humanity and hence Mary's motherhood. (4) Fautius of Mileve, a champion of Manichaeism, who taught that the Holy Spirit overshadowed the earth (the Virgin) and not Mary (the person) and that Jesus became divine only when he was baptized in the Jordan. (5) Arius who denied Christ's divinity and hence Mary's divine motherhood, that is, Mary was only the Mother of Christ, the man. (6) Nestorius who taught that Mary was only the "mother of Christ" not the "mother of God' because this world confuse the divine and human aspects of Jesus, that is, there are practically two persons in Christ.

It was in this heated argument about Christ's divinity and humanity that Mary's motherhood was brought in to affirm either Christ's divinity or Christ's humanity, or both. The Church's answer to the confusion was that to deny Mary's divine motherhood was to deny Christ's divinity. This is a logical argument.

Jesus is God.

Mary is the mother of Jesus.

Therefore Mary is the mother of God.

Hence, to deny that "Mary is the mother of God, is to deny the premise "Jesus is God." This was what the bishops at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. declared, "If anyone does not confess that God is truly Emmanuel, and that on this account the holy virgin is the mother of God (for according to the flesh she gave birth to the Word of God become flesh by birth), let him/her be anathema (condemned)." - Quoted by Alan Schreck in Catholic and Christian. op. cit., page 176. - When Catholics use the term "mother of God", it is, in fact, a defense of the divinity and humanity in the one person of Christ.

"But why cannot we simply say that Mary is the mother of Jesus?" you may retort. Surely, we can say that Mary is the mother of Jesus. But why cannot we say also that she is the mother of God as explained above? If the refusal to say "Mother of God" comes from wanting to confine Mary to the humanity of Christ without denying His divinity, my answer is that we cannot split Christ into two separate persons. He is One who is both divine and human. There were no two Jesus in the Gospel. there was only One.

Objection - Why do we say that Mary is sinless? The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible says that only Christ is sinless. By making Mary sinless, are you not making her a God?

Response: Every statement about Mary is always related to the person of Christ. The dogma on Mary's immaculate conception like the term "Mother of God" is a defense of Christ's divinity.

Early Christians were divided on this issue. Origin, for example, did not believe in this. Even Saint Thomas Aquinas did not. But Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine did. The basic reason for the controversy resided in the fear that if Mary was sinless, then she did not need Christ's saving grace. This would be a denial of the Gospel. However, Duns Scotus' reasoning that God applied to Mary Christ's saving grace before the birth of Christ helped the Church in her reflections. This means that Mary was also saved by Christ. As theological reflections continued, the belief in the "Immaculate Conception" became almost universal in the Catholic Church. Then, in 1854 His Holiness Pope Pius IX proclaimed it to be an infallible belief of the Catholic Church.

If Christ is God, then, He is also timeless and spaceless, eternal. This means that every act of His although in space and time (His death and resurrection) is eternal (without time nor space). This is how Mary could be saved and preserved from sin by God before the salvific act of Christ in space and time. Her sinlessness did not come from herself, as Christ is sinless by nature of being what He is. God saved her through Christ's grace and preserved her from sin for a special purpose: to bear forth His Son who is sinless and never sinned. He cannot become part of sin, otherwise He would not be God, without being sinless. Hence, God prepared a special person to bear His Son who is God - Mary. As can be seen, this statement of Mary's immaculate conception is another defence of Christ's divinity. - Alan Schreck, op. cit., pp. 276-279 -

Objection - Why do Catholics believe that Mary was taken to heaven "body and soul"?

Response: This is again related to Christ. The dogma of the Assumption of Mary pronounced by His Holiness Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, was in fact at the petition of "113 Cardinals, 150 Bishops, 32,00 Priests and Religious Brothers, 50,000 Religious Sisters and 8 million lay people". - op. cit., p.180 - The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible tells us that death is the consequence of sin. Since Mary was preserved from sin by God, she did not have to undergo death. The Assumption, therefore, means that because Mary shares the fullness of Christ's redemption - preserved from sin, she also shared immediately the resurrection of Christ: immediate union of her whole being (body and soul) with God at the end of her earthly life. She, as a creature of God, becomes for us than a sign of hope that all who are saved by Christ will also sure in Christ's resurrection on the last day. It is indeed an affirmation that Christ is truly resurrected and shares His resurrection with all who want Him.

Objection - But all these are not found in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible? Where in the Bible can one find Mary as "mediatrix", Mary as "Immaculate Conception", or Mary as "assumed into heaven"?

Response: True, these terms or even the present understanding of these term are not found explicitly in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. But to say that they are not found even implicitly in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible is false. Is the term "Christ is God" found explicitly in the Holy Bible? No. Why? Because the term of our clearer understanding of the identity of Christ is already in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. The early Christians reflected upon Christ and His teachings and came up with many clearer statements of two Christ is and of what He teaches us. This is what I have been trying to show throughout this book.

Everything in this world either grows or dies. Only dead things do not grow. Man is no exception. Not only does he/she grow physically but also emotionally, psychologically, intellectually and spiritually. History proves that humanity as a whole has progressed not only materially but in knowledge. Spiritually, this should also be true. Hence our growth in understanding our faith is not only a must for it to be living but a reality. Christ our Lord knows what He has created. So, before He left us He sent His Holy Spirit to teach us more of His truth: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth;" (John 16:13).

Consequently, clinging to death. Our God is the God of the living, not of the dead, says the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.

Objection - Why must we go through the Virgin Mary or the saints? Did not the Gospel tell us that Jesus Christ is the only mediator? Why cannot we go directly to Christ?

Response: This objection is more or less answered by what I have explained above. First and foremost, no one said that we must go through Our Lady or the saints to Christ Jesus. We can go straight to Him. However, human beings, being what we are, spirit in matter, social, etc., need a certain amount of "mediation" - through things, through events and through people. Is not going to temples or mosques or churches a human expression of the need of material and social mediation to God? A temple, mosque or Church is material, located in a certain place. The gathering of believers in a place is social. Some people are brought back to God through a disaster or a beautiful happening in their lives - mediation through events. No orthodox Catholic will deny that Christ is the only Mediator. As I have tried to prove this uniqueness of Christ's mediation in no way cuts off all secondary mediations because the latter arises from the former. All Christians living and dead but alive in Christ share in Christ's Mediatorship and it is through us that Christ carries on His salvific activity in the world. Is not the commission of Christ to us all go out and preach His Good News a gift to share in His salvific work, Mediatorship? The whole Body of Christ - living and dead but alive in Christ - shares in the work of the Head: Jesus Christ.

To insist always to go directly to God shows a lack of understanding of:

- What is meant to be a human being - spirit in matter, a social being, an emotional and intellectual being. -

- God's way. If He has made us as we are - spirit in matter, social, emotional, etc. - it would be illogical of God to insist or wish that we be otherwise. It would be an absurdity.

- The Body of Christ or "communion of saints".

Perhaps, latent with this desire to go directly to God and not through anyone or anything is pride. If God, who created not through anyone or anything is pride. If God, who created all things, works through all - human being, things, events, nature - to draw Man to Him, who are we to spurn them all and say: "We must only go to God directly?" Who are we to limit God's power? This was what Saint Peter meant when he defended himself before the Jewish Christians for baptizing Gentiles, saying: "If then God gave the gift to them (Cornelius and his family) as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?" (Acts 11:17). Is not there a subtle pride in wanting to limit God's power by demanding that we always go directly to God when God himself ordains otherwise? Could it not become a subtle form of wanting to be equal to God?

It is perhaps precisely for this - to keep us humble - that God often works through people and things to draw us to Him. If this is God's way, surely we too can go through things and people (living and dead but alive in Christ) to God. It is also to remind us that we Christians (living and dead but alive in Christ) are united so intimately as to form one Body of Christ. This bring us to the next objection.

Objection - Why do you have images? Did not the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible forbids us to make images: "Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth"?

Response : This text is taken from Exodus 20:4 (cf. Deuteronomy 5:8). Taken out of its context, it appears that God forbids making of images. But can a verse be taken out of context without distortion of its real meaning? We do not need a scholar to tell us that. Any ordinary person, man/woman in the street can tell you that it is very unfair to quote another man's words out of context in which he uttered them.

What is the context of this verse 4 of Exodus 20? It is God's claim that no one should worship anything besides Him: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me." (vv. 2-3) and hence the punch line, verse 5, "You shall not bow down to them or serve them." In other words, nothing should replace God as the centre of our life. We do not have to have images to worship idols. If a man/woman makes "mammon" money as the centre of his/her life he/she is already an idolater. He/She has replaced God as the centre of his/her life with mammon" (money) as the centre of his/her life with mammon. It is not the outward act but the inward intention that makes a man/woman an idolater.

If it were true that God would be contradicting Himself for, five chapters later, Exodus 25:18-22, He commands the Israelites to make two cherubim of gold to be put on the two ends of the "mercy seat". Where "I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you of all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel" (Exodus 25:22). The "mercy seat" was in the "holy of holies" of the temple where no one could go in except the high priest once a year because God, the "Holy of holies", was there present in a special way. Furthermore, this God, in the Book of Numbers 21:8-9, commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and get the people to look on this serpent to be saved. Are not the cherubim of gold and the bronze serpent images? The conclusion is clear, either God is a fool because He contradicts Himself or we are fools because we have misinterpreted the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. I prefer to think that it is we who are fools. It is not that God forbids images as such but that He forbids any attempt on our part to replace Him, the centre of our life, with something or some persons.

Why do we have statues and images in Church? Man/Woman is not pure spirit. He is both spirit and matter, as I have said. He express himself through matter. The body is matter. and more often than not it is through matter - sight, hearing, touch, etc. - that he moves to a deeper meaning (spiritual) of things. Therefore the common phenomenon of representation. The hero of a country is represented by a statue or a picture to remind the people of the greatness of this national hero. No one thinks that we worship the hero. We place on our tables the pictures of our loved ones - be it our mother or father or wife or husband or lover. As Man/Woman is also a matter, he/she needs these material things to remind him/her of certain persons whom he/she respects and loves. His/Her memory also is weak. Material objects or pictures help his/her memory. Some people even kiss the picture or bow before the picture. Does this make them idolaters because they do this most human act? Certainly not. Our statues and images in the Church are to remind us of the persons represented - either Jesus or Mary or Saint John, etc.. We do not believe that these persons are really present in them. They are like photographs of people we love which we place on our table. Neither do we worship them. We worship only the One true God.

The washing before entering a mosque, the bowing of the head and joining of hands and other postures taken when praying, etc. - these are all material meditations. Do not tell me that the washing or bowing of the head is not a material expression of something spiritual? Extend this a little more and you will find that the using of images belong to this category of the need of Man/Woman for material expression of something spiritual. To condone one and deny the other is illogical and inconsistent.

Objection - But why then do you people kneel before them?

Response: A human gesture can signify many different attitudes of the mind. A hand shake does not always mean friendship. It could mean just that; but it could also mean something else. A common experience is a handshake with someone to whom we have just been introduced. It signifies an acknowledgement of the person, not friendship. Even when we dislike a particular person, we will still shake his/her hand in public because of social norms, making this gesture meaningless in terms of friendship. In traditional China, on a person's birthday, the children were obliged to kneel before the parent knocking their heads three times on the floor. This was certainly not worship. It was a sign of filial piety. Books of sign language or body language show that people of different cultures have different gestures to signify the same thing. An example is the vulgar sign of a G.I. It is American and not Chinese or Spanish. The original sign in Spain for the same thing is quite different. (It is true, however, that this G.I. vulgar sign has become almost universal because of the American influence.) Desmond Morris, an acclaimed scientist on human behaviour said, "Just as one gesture can have many different meanings, so can many different gestures have the same meaning." - Desmond Morris, Manwatching, triad, Granada, 1982, p.41 -

The meaning of gesture depends on the attitude of the mind and the intention of the person and not on the gesture itself. We must learn to go deeper into the meaning of things and not remain on the superficial level. This is the case with kneeling before a statue or an image. It all depends on the attitude of the mind and the intention of the person. For us, Catholics kneeling before the statue of Jesus Christ is an act of worship, not the statue which reminds us of Jesus Christ, but of Jesus Christ who is God. Kneeling before the statue of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, or the saints is not worship of them but an attitude of reverence for these great people of God. We ask these saints to pray for us.

In conclusion, I would like to say that those who attack us on this issue have failed to understand the following points:

- Man - both spirit and matter - expresses himself through matter and through matter moves upward to spiritual reality.

- Therefore, representation by images is a common phenomenon at all levels.

- Every human gesture carries with it a variety of attitudes of the mind or intentions. It is the intention which determines the meaning of the gesture and not vice versa.

Conclusion - Devotions as practiced by Catholics are not only human but are also based on solid theology found in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. Nevertheless, like all good things they can be distorted and become superstitious, sentimental and self-gratifying. Let us, then, be on our guard against abuse or exaggeration. Let us keep in mind that all devotions should and must lead us closer to God.

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

2026-02-05T15:28:00.006+08:00

- Open Mind, Faithful Heart - BY HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS - JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO -

Called Despite Our Fears - Reflection on Following Jesus - Page 2 -

We may continue this meditation by contemplating the different ways in which Jesus describes "the happiness of belonging to this kingdom - a paradoxical happiness that is made up of things that the world rejects (Matthew 5:3-12)" We may further consider "the demands of the kingdom and its Magna Carta (Matthew 5-7), the heralds of the kingdom (Matthew 10), its mysteries (Matthew 13), its children (Matthew 18), the vigilance and fidelity demanded of whoever awaits its definitive coming (Matthew 24-25)" (Evangelii Nuntiandi,8). The Lord establishes us in his kingdom. His Spirit makes us experience the delight of belonging to the kingdom, which constitutes the mystery of our identity.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heavens.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who are hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12)

JESUS ESTABLISHES A COMMUNITY that is both evangelized and evangelizing: "Those who sincerely accept the Good News through the power of this acceptance of shared faith gather together in Jesus' name in order to seek together the kingdom, build it up, and live it. They make up a community that is in turn evangelizing. The command to the Twelve to go out and proclaim the Good News is also valid for all Christians, though in a different way. It is precisely for this reason that Peter calls Christians 'a people set apart to sing the praises of God' (1Peter 2:9) (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 13), "The task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of his death and glorious resurrection" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14).

By virtue of our vocation and our identity as an evangelizing community, we allow ourselves to be summoned "to proclaim with authority the Word of God, to assemble the scattered People of God, to feed this People with the signs of the action of Christ which are the sacraments, to set this People on the road to salvation, to maintain it in that unity of which we are, at different levels, active and living instruments, and unceasingly to keep this community gathered around Christ faithful to its deepest vocation" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 68).

Our mission, the - the mission that frightens us and makes us offer excuses like the ones we hear from the lips of the reluctant prophets in the scriptures - is to evangelize, to shepherd the faithful people of God. And that mission establishes us in our vocation. In calling us to that mission, Jesus gives us solidity in the depths of our hearts: he establishes us a pastors and makes that our identity. In our visits to the sick, in our administration of the sacraments, in our teaching of the catechism, and all the rest of our priestly activity, we are collaborating with Christ in establishing Christian hearts. At the same time and by that same means, that is, by the work we do, the Lord is establishing and rooting our hearts in his own.

THIS COMMUNITY that Jesus establishes "places human beings objectively in relation with the plan of God, with his living presence and with his action; the Church thus causes an encounter with the mystery of divine paternity that bends down toward humanity. In other words, our religion effectively establishes with God an authentic and living relationship" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 53). A vital element for our task of establishing Christian hearts is the anointing that comes from direct experience of the faithfulness of the Lord of history. If our theology is to establish by the Lord, then it must be devout, but not with the kind of devotion that results from superficial attitudes born of prior reflection or study. No, the devotion to which I refer is a basic element for results from superficial attitudes born of prior reflection of study. No, the devotion to which I refer is a basic element for understanding our theology and what we teach. It is life. When we feel the presence of God in our daily life, we cannot help but say, "God is here," and when we feel God present, the first thing we must do is get down on our knees. Then the human intellect tries to understand and explain how God is present - that is the meaning of fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding. And consider the stories we've heard of those saints who studied theology on their knees. We may be helped also by the Pope's reasoning when he states that true evangelization includes "the preaching of the mystery of evil and of the active search of good. It likewise includes the preaching - and this is always urgent - of search for God himself through prayer which is principally that of adoration and thanksgiving, but also through communion with the visible sign of the encounter with God which is the Church of Jesus Christ; and this communion is in turn expressed by the application of those other signs of Christ living and acting in the Church which are the sacraments." In sum, we must not forget either the nature of what we're called to establish or the foundation on which we let ourselves be established by the Lord: "For in its totality, evangelization - over and above the preaching of a message - consists in the implantation of the Church, which does not exist without the driving force which is the sacramental life culminating in the Eucharist" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 28).

IN SPEAKING OF what are called base communities, Paul VI outlines the criteria that Jesus wants for establishing his Church. These criteria can provide us light for our reflection today and help us examine our conscience. The basic foundational attitude involves being formed in the Church. What Jesus wants men and women: 1) "who seek their nourishment in the Word of God and do not allow themselves to be ensnared by political polarization or fashionable ideologies, which are ready to exploit their immense human potential" 2) "who avoid the ever present temptation of systematic protest and a hypercritical attitude, under the pretext of authenticity and a spirit of collaboration" 3) "who remain firmly attached to the local Church in which they are inserted and to the universal Church, avoiding the very real danger of becoming isolated within themselves, then of believing themselves to be the only authentic Church of Christ, and hence of condemning the other ecclesial communities (and persons)" 4) "whom maintain a sincere communion with the pastors whom the Lord gives to his Church, and with the magisterium which the Spirit of Christ has entrusted to these pastors" 5) "who never look on themselves as the sole beneficiaries or sole agents of evangelization - or even the only depositaries of the Gospel - but, being aware that the Church is much more vast and diversified, accept the fact that this Church becomes incarnate in other ways than through themselves" 6) "who constantly grow in missionary consciousness, fervor, commitment and zeal" 7) "who show themselves to be universal in all things and never sectarian" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 58).

THE LORD WHO ESTABLISHES us evokes in us the image of Deus semper maior, God always greater. Let us meditate and pray today on letting ourselves be established by the Lord. Let us meditate also, as the pastors we're going to be, on how God helps us in this mission we have been given of establishing Christian hearts. Let us recover the memory of the many zealous priests we've known who have seen the face of Christ. This memory will "strengthen our hearts and keep us from being "carried away by all kinds of strange teachings" (Hebrews 13:9). Those doctrines establish nothing; rather they undermine the reflections of Dante: "Christ did not say, 'Go and preach nonsense to the world,' to his first gathering, but gave them the true foundation. That, and only that, was on their lip so that they made the Gospel lance and shield in their fight to enkindle the faith." Instead of being a shield and a lance, these seductive and disruptive doctrines starve the hearts of God's holy and faithful people, for "the sheep, knowing nothing, return from the pasture fed on air."

For Prayer and Reflection - Let us strengthen our spirits by recalling the many pastors who have preceded us. To this end, it will help us to read again that exhortation from the letter to the Hebrews: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood" (Hebrews 12:1-4).

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -