Meditation On Hell

I write this mediation on hell on Easter Sunday. This would not normally be the time to think about hell. Easter Sunday is the most joyous day of the year. Today we celebrate Jesus Christ gaining victory over sin, death and hell. Because of the great sacrifice and resurrection by God Himself, we sinful human beings, deserving only of death, have now had the Gates of Heaven flung open to us. There is nothing we can do to merit this. It is a free gift given to us by a Loving God. All we need to do is admit our sinfulness and accept the Love of Jesus Christ and allow that Love to grow within us. We gave death to God, and He gives us Eternal Life. And it is Eternal Life filled with such complete happiness and joy that our mortal human minds cannot begin to comprehend it.

God dying for man? It is absurd to our human minds. In all of man's religions, human beings must constantly strive to please their god, and be happy for any crumbs that may fall their way. No pagan gods ever did anything to save those who worshipped them. On the contrary, the Christian God knows how incapable we are of ever doing anything on our own that would be remotely pleasing to Him. So He came to earth as one of us, lived in our miserable sinful world as one of the lowliest of the low, and then allowed us to crucify Him as a common criminal in payment for our sins. In human terms, God's Way makes no sense at all. But as we are told in Isaiah 55:8, God's ways are not our ways. God's Way is Love - ultimate, totally giving, unselfish love of which no human being of and by himself is capable.

No To The Gospel of No

Father John Zuhlsdorf did a post a couple of months ago in which he stated, "Looked at from one point of view, the main job of the priest is to say, 'No.'"  This statement sums up the entire problem with the traditionalists / opponents of the post Vatican II Church, and most especially, of the critics and opponents of Pope Francis.

Preaching At People Will Never Convert Anyone

I try to do a fair amount of spiritual reading (not near as much as I probably should), mostly writings of the saints, in a quest to understand how people become saints.  Pope Francis has said saints are ordinary people who followed God “with all their heart.”  In a sermon given on the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 2013, Pope Francis said:

They are like us, they are like each of us, they are people who before reaching the glory of heaven lived a normal life, with joys and griefs, struggles and hopes.

So what drove them to rise above being an ordinary person like me to become a saint?  From Pope Francis:

[T]hey recognized the love of God, they followed him with all their heart, without conditions and hypocrisies. 

Meditation For the Day: God Draws Us With Love

There was an excellent meditation in today's Magnificat magazine which explained, in clear and simple language, God's way of salvation, gradually bringing those trapped by sin to repentance and acceptance of Divine love and mercy.  It was from a Jewish convert named Ronda Chervin, Below is a screen shot of this meditation.  

DAY BY DAY

Do Not Be Afraid

Christ gives himself to his people gradually. He knows that they have the rebellious divided spirit of adolescents—full of longing for genuine love, yet plagued with disappointment, despair, and doubt. He treats them somewhat like an older and experienced man might win the confidence of a wild young girl. Slowly Christ gathers them to himself by the magnetic attraction of his grace. He wins them by deeds of love, healing them of their miseries, curing their lepers, exorcising their demons. Only when he sees that they are ready does he begin to reveal more intimate mysteries of his love, such as his desire to become one body with his followers and the eventual unity they will achieve with him in eternity.

He knows that many of their ways are unloving, but instead of reproaching them directly, he begins by telling them parables, letting them discover for themselves how far short their own lives are from the new ideal.

Gradually his disciples begin to respond to Christ’s self-giving.

Ronda Chervin

Ronda Chervin is a convert from Judaism, professor of philosophy and theology, and author of over fifty books.