The Holy Eucharist - You don't have to wait for the second coming.! ! !

For fifteen hundred years there was no conflict when it came to the Holy Eucharist.  The Church believed that it was the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. Some of the "reformers" took issue with this, notably not the prototype heretic Luther who maintained that it was a sacramental union between Jesus and man.  Other reformers such as Calvin and others believed it was only a symbolic memorial.  The Council of Trent at that time confirmed what everyone up until that time believed:

 Christ “instituted this Sacrament, in which He poured forth as it were the riches of divine love towards man” so that the Eucharist would be:

1.       A remembrance, “to venerate His memory” and “show forth His death until He comes to judge the world.”

2.       the “spiritual food of souls, whereby” He feeds and strengthens “those who live with His life.”

3.       An “antidote, whereby we may be freed from daily faults [venial sins] and be preserved from mortal sins.”

4.       a “pledge of our glory to come, and everlasting happiness”

5.       a “symbol of that one body whereof He is the head, and to which He would fain have us as members be united by the closest bond of faith, hope, and charity…   Source: Laura McAlister

The Council of Trent like many councils was a reactionary council called to combat issues that came to because of the rebellion of Luther and the others.  Contrary to what some critics of the Church say the Council of Trent did not invent transubstantiation but rather codified what up until that time had been believed by everyone, everywhere.  I can see why today's Protestants would have trouble with the concepts codified by Trent.  The Council rightly defined the Eucharist as the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.  This position taken to its logical end proves the Catholic point and thus was bitterly contested by the "reformers."  But for the sake of this blog let us suspend the tenants of the Council of Trent and go to what the "reformers" claim is the only source of Christian Doctrine, the Bible itself.  Let us also restrict ourselves to what the founder of the Catholic Church, Jesus, Himself said about the Eucharist.  (Please supply quotation marks where you think they should go,,,)

While they were at super, Jesus took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave to his disciples and said; Take and eat. This is My Body, And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them saying: Take and drink this.  For this is My Blood of the New Testament which shall be shed for many unto the remission of sins.  (John 26: 26-28)

Amen, Amen, I say to you; Moses gave you not bread form Heaven, but my Father gives you the true Bread from Heaven.  For the Bread of God is that which comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.

John 6:32, 33

I Am the Bread of life: He that comes to me shall not hunger and he that believes in Me shall never thirst.

John 6:35

I Am the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert and are dead. This is the Bread which comes down from Heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die.  I Am the living bread which came down from Heaven.  If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.

John 6: 48 - 52

Amen, Amen I say unto you: Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you.  He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.

John 6: 54-55

For my Flesh is food indeed and my Blood is drink indeed.  He that eats my Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I in Him.  As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats me, the same shall live by Me. This is the Bread that came down from Heaven. Not as your Fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eats this Bread, shall live for ever.

John 6:56-59

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him.

John 14:23

From the above we can see that Jesus considered the gift of His Body and Blood essential to salvation. The Doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a hard thing for some people to believe. It was hard for the people in the time of Jesus.  In John chapter 6 verse 60 we read: " After hearing it, many of his followers said, 'This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?' Jesus does not say that He is only kidding, or what he said before should be taken as a symbol.  When he refuses to compromise or place a spin on what he said, the saddest moment of His life up until that time occurred because the people turned away and John says " After this, many of his disciples went away and accompanied him no more."  (John 6: 66) This too is what the "reformers" did.  They rejected the great gift of Jesus and just walked away,

So, there you have it. The Blessed Sacrament is a gift that is misunderstood by some, laughed at by others, seen as a symbol, seen as a rite of passage, seen as something "you do."  The Blessed Sacrament is the union of Jesus and the recipient. You cannot get closer to God in this life than by receiving Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity into yourself.  If God can create the world in seven days from nothing, can He not also give us Himself in the form which appears to our senses as being bread and wine?  Does He not have the power and the will to do this?  If you say no then your God is too small.

I welcome questions about the Catholic Faith from anyone.  No question is too simple or hard for me to answer.  You can leave your question as a comment or if you would prefer a private answer you can email me at michaeljspoula@outlook.com   All questions will be responded to. Hate mail will be deleted without being read. I will pray for all.

May the Light of Christ shine brightly in your life today.  God Bless.

What Will Become Of Us ?

Your Room Is Ready...

There is no doubt that none of us will be leaving this world alive, in the classical sense of the word.  Our bodies will tire and wear out and eventually we will begin the dying process.  From the reading I have done, the process is about the same for all people.  As the time approaches we will reach out and try to mend fences, finish things that need to be finished, and eventually start to take leave of the things we can see relate to using our five senses.  Trudy Harris a registered nurse who has worked many years in hospice has seen the drama played out time and time again.  One thing that seems to permeate the process is that God spends some time preparing you.

He does not leave you to face it alone. Some who have been to the brink and have returned report different things.  They may find loved one who had died before waiting to escort them, some speak of a light at the end of a tunnel, some say Jesus or an angel is there. But in the end, life as we know it ends and the true life we are meant for begins. 

God is all good, all powerful, and especially all loving.  He has endowed his beloved humans with free will to love Him back or to reject him.  While we are on earth, the way we live our life will lead us to choose what path to take once we die.  I believe that God leaves it up to us. When presented with the ultimate love of God for us the sins we have committed, those things where during our life we turned away from him will cause us great pain because we will finally understand how very much God has loved us. For some of us we will have spent our lives very much apart from God, giving Him no thought or care.  Our lives would have been spent indulging ourselves to the maximum.  We would not have cared about those around us.  We may have preyed on the weak and vulnerable making their lives miserable.  We might have taken a life or lives.  For those who rejected God, living their life without Him, they will feel the pain of their failure and will choose to turn away from God.  God is a loving God and He will allow them their desires and these souls will choose Hell and be there forever. 

Some of us will have invested their lives in helping others, being absolutely selfless and doing the work of God not in the hope of any reward but because we have turned our whole soul and being towards the Father and His Son and followed the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  When people who have loved God their whole life and have done His will selflessly using their lives to better others, when their moment of decision comes, they will choose to go to God and the bliss of heaven.

This leaves us with the rest of us.  We are neither deserving of hell nor are we ready for heaven.  We have lived good lives, but our wills sometimes were turned away from God and we committed sins. But unlike those who threw their lives away we loved God and tried to do the things that Jesus asked us to do.  But we missed the mark.  We may have attachments to things of this earth or we may have unresolved conflicts with others where we have held onto jealousy, or bitterness, or perhaps we need to forgive the unforgivable wrong that was done to us.  Heaven is a place of bliss.  It is a place where love and only love is permitted.  There is no discord or disharmony among the souls there so for many of us who do not deserve hell there is a place, or process or whatever you want to call it called purgatory.  It is there that we will choose to go if we have any of the imperfections mentioned above.  You can liken it to cleaning yourself up before meeting a great personage.  You would not meet royalty here on earth wearing clothes that are tattered, a face that is smudged with dirt, or needing a shower would you?  Then how much more would you want to make sure you are presentable to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?  

Some say that purgatory does not exist, that it is a Catholic invention.  But there is Scripture that shows that God in His mercy has prepared a place or process for his children.  In later posts I will go over these passages.  You may want to review them yourself so I will list them here: 

• Matthew 12:32
• 1 Cor 3:15
• Rev 21:27
• Rom 6 : 3-5
• Heb 12:11

When I was a boy I was playing baseball one day and I hit a ball and it crashed through a neighbors window.  My friends vanished quickly as I stood there with my bat. I wish some of them ran as fast during our ballgames!  The resident of the house came out and to make a long story short he forgave me for breaking the window.  So he did not harbor a grudge for the accident but he still had to deal with the broken window.  I was forgiven but I had to repair the damage I did.  I went home which was right across the street from the field we were playing and my father gave me money to give to the neighbor who went to the hardware store, bought glass and made the repair.   So it is with sin.  Jesus by dying on the cross was able to secure forgiveness for the action but every sin, even those committed in secret, leave damage that needs to be repaired.  These repairs can be made in life by doing penance to repair the damage that was done.  If we do not make things right here, we will want to do so after death and we will choose Purgatory.  

Please watch this blog for more about purgatory.  I think at the end you will join me in thanking our most loving Father for it. Remember, I will answer any question about the Catholic Faith, Catholic Church or Christianity in general.  Hate mail will go unanswered.  God Bless you and yours and may Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God light your way today.  Amen. 

 

 

  

Once Saved - Always Saved - A Lie Exposed ! ! !

Jesus is our Shepherd, our leader, our protector.  He is not like a simple hireling, no, he laid down his life for us.  He went through the agony of death on the Cross and He redeemed us, curing the sins of our late great ancestors Adam and Eve. 

What does Jesus expect from us?  To hear some people talk he expects not much from us.  Some say that by simply saying the "sinners prayer" that we merit heaven.  These same people say that the Bible is the source of all knowledge we have about God and heaven.  Yet, they cannot tell me where it says in the Bible to pray the sinner's prayer.  The notion of once saved always saved does not make sense in the natural world nor does it in the Kingdom of God.  What if I am "saved" when I say the sinner's prayer on day one.  I live the next ten years of my life blamelessly, promoting the Kingdom, leading dozens of others in praying the sinner's prayer - saving them all - alleluia !  Then after ten years of faithful service and psalm singing I take up a new career and become a bank robber, killing indiscriminately if someone resists and I then embrace another religion such as Islam. Are you telling me that if I died with these sins on my soul I would go to heaven because "once saved, always saved" is the rule?  Sorry, that defies logic and worse than that it defies what is revealed to us in the Bible.  Recall the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 25 beginning at verse 31. "

"When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory.  All nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from goats.  He will place the sheep on His right hand and the goats on the the left.  Then the King will say to those on his right hand. "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. 

For when I was hungry you gave me food, thirsty you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome.  Lacking clothes you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison you cam to see me.

The upright will say to him in reply Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  When did we see you as a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to see you?

And the king will answer "In truth I tell you in so far as you did this for one of the least of these brothers of mind, you did it to me. 

Then he will say to those on his left hand "Go away from me, with your curse upon you to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 

For when I was hungry you gave me no food, thirsty you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you never made me welcome.  Lacking clothes you did not clothe me, sick and or, in prison you never came to see me.

Then it will be their turn to ask, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison and did not come to your help?"

Then he will answer "In truth I tell you in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these you neglected to do it to me." 

And they will go away to eternal punishment and the upright to eternal life. "

So it is evident from this one story told by Jesus that simply saying the sinner's prayer is not enough to guarantee ones space in heaven.  What Jesus wants from us is more, much more.  He gave His all on the Cross, teaching us that God's love has no limits.  He lived his life not for Himself, but for our sake. He withheld nothing.  He calls us to imitate Him and to help our brothers and sisters.  

Do we have to do the heroic things? Heavens no!  In Mark Jesus tells us, "If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you he will most certainly not lose his reward."  A cup of water is a small thing but it is a great mercy to a thirsty man.  Look for the things you can do for someone else in the course of your day to day life.  Every mercy you extend you extend to Jesus. 

Please think very carefully about the "once saved, always saved" lie that the "reformers" came up with.  It has sent many to places where they did not think that they would end up. By the way we live our whole life will determine our choice of our eternal home. In order to be placed among the sheep when Jesus returns we must put our faith into action.  Believing is certainly a good first step. Studying the Bible and learning about salvation is also commendable.  We must guard against knowing more about God than loving God.  We must have knowledge of God but we must demonstrate our love by choosing to do the right for His glory and to do so expecting no reward. 

Remember, I will answer any question about the Catholic Church, her beliefs or Christianity in general.  I will not respond to hate mail.  May God bless you and light your path today.  Amen

Calming The Storm - Trusting

The sky was gray and flashes of lightning lit up the sky and thunder rolled and made its bold proclamation. A small band of men were half way between where they were coming from and where they were going.  Waves lashed their small boat and the rolling thunder seemingly laughed at their puny efforts to control nature. Real fear welled up inside them and they cried out to their true captain for help. He stood and raising his hands he calmed the storm. They were amazed at what he could do. 

We have all had storms in our life. Sickness, disputes between family members, loss of a job, restlessness, feeling guilty for something you did or failed to do, and other things of the same ilk. 

I know for certain that until that day I arrive in heaven that storms are inevitable. It is not a question of "if" but rather "when."*  We have to be ready for the storms and we have to learn to trust in the Captain of our very Soul. 

In Matthew 8:23-27 we read;

He got into a boat and his disciples followed him.

24 Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so

that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. 25 They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" 26 He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?"  Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,

and there was great calm. 27 The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?"   (Matt 8: 23-27)

I think it is telling that the disciples found the Master sleeping.  A person who is worried does not sleep. The disciples could not understand how He could be sleeping when all around them the world was in chaos.  They woke Him up and He asked them why they had such little faith.  When I put myself in the place that the apostles found themselves in I can certainly sympathize with them.  It appeared that they were going to perish.  In reality Jesus had everything under control even though they could not see that with their mortal eyes. 

I too have that tendency to panic when a storm hits my life. I don't think I am unique in this.  What I have to tell myself is that the storm is a passing thing and that Jesus, the Captain of my Soul has everything under control.  

*Quote from Matthew Kelly
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