Why do we say that money is evil

 

Money in itself is not evil, it is a necessity.

It is what it does to a man's heart, to a person 

who is not aware of it's inherent danger.

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go 

through the eye of a needle than for someone 

who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God"

Matthew 19:24 

Here it must be said straight away that it is not 

always the actual wealth of the person per say 

that is the obstacle, because a relatively poor 

person can also be motivated by money, have 

money as "a treasure in his heart", and it is an 

equally big spiritual obstacle for that person. 

Having said that, there is a good chance that a 

person who has spent his life and time by amassing 

great wealth, is very much 

plugged in to money.

 

Awareness is key; 

"Keep your heart with all vigilance,for from it flow 

the springs of life." 

Proverbs 4: 23 

"For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil 

thoughts come - sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 

greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, 

blasphemy, pride and folly. 

All these evils come from inside and defile a person."

Mark 7:21-23 

   

Our heart; our centre; our soul; our spirit, is what 

animates our body, decides our actions.

If this place is first and foremost preoccupied with money,

greed, selfishness, secrecy and lies easily comes with it, 

and it can soon become a cause of division and betrayal. 

Judas Iscariot, who we all know as one of Jesus's chosen 

apostles, fell into this trap. He was the accountant in charge 

of the money, and when he realised what he had done to Jesus

he went away and hung himself.

Even though Jesus Himself knew beforehand what Judas was

going to do, He announced it during the Last Supper, He

would have instantly forgiven Judas for his betrayal, but

the problem was that Judas did not forgive himself, and he

did not think that forgiveness was possible. 

We talk a lot about mental health today, and we believe that 

we are better equipped to maintain it in a good state by 

constantly talking about our feelings.

But what about our conscience? Our conscience is where 

God resides, it is where He talks to us, gives us feedback. 

We hear His voice. 

God is light, and this light illuminates our conscience, 

if we are still in good mentally and psychologically health.

A guilty conscience is painful, we are heavy,

we are not happy. We might try to chase it away, but that

does not work.

It is a bit like the nerves in our bodies that signals to our brain

when we have pain somewhere, we feel the pain and we take

action to deal with it, we go to the doctor.

But many people do nothing about their guilty conscience.

And here is why we as Catholics know without any shadow 

of a doubt that we have the fullness of Faith, because we have

a Sacrament that forgives our sins, the Sacrament of 

Reconciliation, The Sacrament of Confession, where we are 

forgiven, our sin is wiped away, forgotten, we are reconciled to God. 

It is so incredibly beautiful, because it is true. 

But now, imagine what a wrongdoing, or even an imagined 

wrongdoing, will do to our mental health if we keep it to ourself,

because we dare not even give voice to it, we are horrified and

ashamed, we shut it down.

But this does not go away, it does not disappear, it is felt by the

person but after some time it is often outside of the person's 

awareness; but the mind feels it, the body feels it too. 

There are consequences, because it is being left untreated. 

The longer it festers, the graver the consequences.

Herein many mental health problems and psychiatric illnesses 

have their origins and roots.

Due to the mind's astounding capacity for twisting and rewriting 

events, to justify itself, it can be covered up, 

but the light of the conscience never lies. 

 A person can appear to be "functioning" in society, and at the 

same time be spiritually insane, in which case he is no longer 

" a rational, embodied soul - a "subsistent" union of a body and 

soul" (Thomas Aquinas definition)

He can appear more or less "normal", and even nice, and at

the same time be filled by hatred, desire for revenge, or a guilty 

conscience in constant fight mode to suppress, which 

outwardly can manifest itself in aggressive behaviour against 

the victim, or perceived victim. 

He will not hesitate to use whatever he has at hand, he 

might use even his own children. 

The union of body and soul is broken, even the 

physical bodily pain alert signals to 

sickness, is not received or reacted on. 

 

 

 

God came to US

 

Relativism and the false idea that all religions are 

equal, came out of a misunderstanding of the concepts

of  respect and tolerance. 

Respect for other religions that are not the true religion: 

the Catholic religion, 

is a given, because other religions are commendable and 

noble attempts to reach God, but to make the leap from 

there to thinking that there are several different ways to 

attain God, is wrong.

Catholicism is not about trying to attain God.

God already came to us,

we are in the after-event, God has already reached 

down to us, 2026 years ago,  

He revealed Himself to us. 

He lowered Himself to join humanity; in order to 

raise us up.

God became Man so that Man might become God, 

to restore us to the original way He made us in the 

beginning: like Him, in His own image.

It is up to man if he wants to respond to God or not.

Being Catholic is proclaiming and living the historical 

fact that God came down to raise us up to life in Him.

But for man to become God, isn't that precisly the original 

sin of pride that made man fall from grace and loose his 

status with God?

 

No, it is exactly the opposite, because it is not we who are 

making ourselves into God, rather, we let ourselves be 

transformed by God, He is doing the transformation, 

we humble ourselves and let Him do the work in us. 

Jesus Christ was True God and True Man, He came so that 

Man does not remain only in his humanity, but also come 

into a new higher Life, Divine Life, life with God. 

This new life starts here on earth.

Every time we Catholics receive Holy Communion, 

God literally joins with us physically, in order to make 

us like Him.  

End of life and Final judgement

                                                 The fate of the soul

Death is a metaphysical reality; 

"meta" means "what goes beyond the physical"

in greek. 

Man consists of a body and a soul, a substantial union to form 

one being, one substance, who exists by one existence.

Death breaks this substantial essential union, the existential 

union between the two is broken, the body and the soul separates.

Death is a surprising event, it shocks us and we have often 

difficulties in coming to terms with it. 

 

The separation can be compared with the chemical

separation between two atoms: hydrogen and oxygen, 

which combined together makes water;  

an everyday product which everybody knows, and this most 

common product can also be separated and divided in two. 

The soul of man is made to be in a physical body, to exercise

with and in the physical body and the physical world, to achieve 

spiritual quality and refinement, but the soul itself is 

immortal, spiritual, eternal, indestructible.

According to our Christian faith, God did not want for 

man to die, it was the fall of man; the sin of Man,

which created death. 

We should always live in readiness to die. 

Because; 

"Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner 

of the house will come back- whether in the evening or at midnight, 

or when the rooster crows, or at dawn; If he come suddenly, do not 

let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: 

"Watch"

Mark 13:35

We do not belong to ourselves, we belong to God, who made us 

in His own image, He is the owner of the house.

Jesus spoke a lot about death, He knew very well that we are all going 

to die, and be confronted with Him; He who is the judge of the living 

and the dead. 

Death it is mentioned throughout the Bible, and a man who never thinks 

about his death is a man without intelligence. 

Nevertheless we are indeed created to live; both here and eternally, 

but the moment of our death is the big appointment with God and our 

eternal fate that we must not miss, we must be ready.

But humans do not want to think about it, they want to forget it,

so they distract themselves with other things that  helps them 

forget. 

Immediately after the separation of the soul from the body 

follows the particular judgement.  

We are judged individually, according to our 

personal merits and personal sins.

Immediately after death there is an illumination of conscience;

we are confronted with the truth, the holiness of God, the light of God.

Those who love God will be attracted to the Light, they will go

towards the Light, and those who do not love God, will not be able to 

tolerate the Light, and it is them themselves who flee from God.

It is Jesus Christ Himself who communicates this Light, He is 

the judge of the living and the dead.

 

A person who lives in mortal sin; who has refused God in 

his life, who has mocked God, 

who has neglected God, who has offended God, and never 

asked pardon from God, goes down to Hell.

 

Jesus spoke about the existence of Hell 45 times in the Gospels.

Very few people wants to talk about Hell today, and many "Catholics"

say that they do not "believe" in it, and that simply means that they 

are not Catholics, if they contradict the word of Jesus.

In the Scriptures it is written that in Hell there is an eternal fire.

Humans understand the pain of fire. 

 

We can think of the two criminals who was crucified on each 

side of Jesus. 

One asked Jesus forgiveness for his sins, he was forgiven, 

and Jesus took him with Him. The other was lost to Hell.

If we die in a state of grace, we either go to Heaven or to 

Purgatory. 

We might live and be in a state of grace, but as long as we have

committed venial sins, we need to purge the penalties, pay our debt; 

we need to suffer the consequences of our sins, to become pure for Heaven.

Purgatory is where the righteous will go to be purified.

Purgatory implies suffering, but not torment. 

We need to distinguish between the two.

In suffering there is a usefulness, we could say "a profit", there

is a redeeming quality in suffering, suffering is something that 

for a christian can be, and ought to be, seized and used, for the 

Glory of God, during his earthly life as well.

The suffering in Purgatory is charged with Hope, it is salutary.

Those who think that there is no Hell and not even Purgatory, and 

who seems to think that everybody is at the level of holiness to go

directly to Heaven, express a ridiculous level of presumptuousness.

 

It is heretical to deny the existence of Purgatory and of Hell.

The souls in Purgatory constitutes the Suffering Church.

Those who has turned away from God, who has declined walking

God's path, has turned away from Him, has replaced Him 

with idolatry of one sort or another. They have invested themselves 

in human beings, they have put their trust in humans, and they worship 

the works of human's hands instead.

However in Hell, as opposed to Purgatory, there is no hope,

there is torments; no usefulness in suffering. It is vindictive. 

The souls are damned, for-ever separated from God, tormented 

by the fire of Hell.

It is curious too, that in all the pagan civilisations and old mythologies,

they all believed in the existence of hell, a place for the souls without 

hope, likewise described by fire. Very interesting. 

They too understood that a man cannot escape the consequences of his 

actions and the refusal of truth; and for us the inescapable truth of 

Galatians 6:7-8:

" Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sows, 

that shall he also reap.

For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he 

that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

Eternal suffering  ;  "eternity" means "outside time".

We live in time now, but afterwards with God, there is no time. 

Heaven is difficult to define,  eternal happiness to be able to see 

God, to live in His presence. 

Heaven ; where God wants us to come. 

The search for God is engraved in our heart, it is the great thirst 

and the great hunger that motivates the human intelligence to 

be able to see God. 

We continue seeking until we find, because nothing else,

not even all the good and legitimate things of this world, can satisfy.

To seek Him, letting go of all concepts and intellectual representations,

to be in the special disposition to find Him, to live in His presence, 

here on earth, and afterwards, when we pass over, for eternity. 

Heaven is the direct vision of God's essence. 

When we die, we are no longer in time.

 

In regard to the end of the world itself, as long as the world has not 

finished, time continues, so there is a chronology.

The end of the world:

1. The Parousia; Jesus comes back.

Jesus came into the world 2026 years ago to save humanity, 

the second time, He comes to judge.

 

2. The resurrection of all bodies from their graves, they will all 

hear the voice of the Son of God, and they will come out from 

their graves, to resurrection to life those who have done good, 

and to resurrection to death those who have done bad. 

 

3. The general judgement. It is Our Saviour Jesus Christ who 

is Judge, He is judging as Man. 

He will put the sheep to the right, and the goat to the left; 

the good will be separated from the bad. 

Those who are good will go to eternal life, those who are bad will go 

to eternal fire. 

4. A new heaven and a new world

 

5. A public hearing to punish offenders and recompense the victims of 

their sins.

 

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

"I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. 

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

(Luke 18:8)

Many people, including many Catholics, think that the Christian

faith is summed up in charitable work and a general kindness.

And it is true that all the spiritual gifts and practises within

our faith are worthless without love;

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love,

 

I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift

 

of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if

 

I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am

 

nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body

 

to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." 

( 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3)

Love has only goodness itself at heart.

                                   But what about faith?

The reality is that due to the ceasing of transmission of the 

authentic and integral doctrine of the Catholic Church; 

the Deposit of Faith,

the understanding of the faith is heavily diminished and sometimes

reduced to the practice of charitable work.

While charitable work is good in itself, and God knows that there 

are no other worldly organisation that comes close to the Catholic 

Church when it comes to charitable work, but this charity grew out 

from; was founded on, personal knowledge of God, who is love.

There are many kind atheists in the world too, who also perform

acts of charity. It might be because it makes them feel good; 

they get something out of it for themselves. 

Are we just like atheists?

The Catholic Faith is codified, in order for it to

 

even enter our understanding it has to be delivered pedagogically 

correctly, and in the right order, to shine light on the subtle nuances,

because it is precise.

We are called to evangelise others, it is inherent in our Faith.

But that is complicated for those who do not know

the faith well, as they do not have the confidence necessary

to evangelise others, because they know in their heart that they do 

not really know it themselves.

A way out for them is to be "good" all the time.

But true love tells the truth:

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth."

(1 Corinthians 13; 6 )

In spite of the clarity of the New Testament regarding the truth:

"Jesus said to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through me." 

(John 14:6)

we have unfortunately Catholics today who can not distinguish

between the "god" of islam ( the devil) and our God; 

they say ; "sure anyway there is only one god" and they leave it 

at that, not reflecting any deeper, revealing that they do not have 

a grasp of the catholic faith. Which is not their fault! 

Nobody taught them, but nevertheless not good, as sometimes they 

have prominent roles in the Church.

Because how do we know anything, about any subject at all, 

if nobody tells us, shows us, explains things to us, educate us?

And how can they do that, when they haven't themselves been

taught, when they do not know themselves?

The Christian message becomes vague and blurred, and soft to 

the point of melting and disappearing in a fuzzy haze.

(sure there's only one God....)

The truth of our faith often comes in revelations; a personal

experience where God reveals Himself, but it must not stop there,

because whether we have been properly catechised (not many have),

or whether God's Power has been revealed to us personally, we are 

obliged, as baptised Catholics, to continue to grow in faith, to 

learn more, to understand more. 

Living Faith does this naturally, it is in accordance with it's nature.

I have strong faith, but I am not impressed when 

other Catholics seems to be in admiration of my faith, as if they

are trying to flatter me. Sometimes I hear: " Oh your faith is so strong,

I wish mine were as strong as yours." or "Oh you are so great, so 

courageous", etc etc. 

It is a way of taking away responsibility from

themselves, take themselves off the hook.

My faith is strong because I continue to deepen it, to know more,

to learn more, to understand more, to love more. 

To put the faith into practise, to actually forgive those who hurt 

me, to keep trusting in God, no matter what.

You have to wonder when frequent Mass goers, maybe even 

daily Mass goers, are not sufficiently spiritually nourished 

and enlightened by it to direct them in regard to their lives as 

citizens, because what is the point then?

When you have catholics who vote for abortion and same sex

 

"marriage", or who vote for government representants who are

 

for those things? Or those who did not even question it when 

the exprimental covid "vaccine" made from stem-cells 

of aborted babies, even alive babies, were pressured on them.

What is the point of Christianity and what is the point of the 

message of  Jesus Christ; True God and True Man?

It is to sanctify us, but He needs our cooperation.

 

For example, what is the point, in an apostolate of the Church, 

of having a handbook that has to be strictly followed and adhered to, 

when it is read from every week, and not being followed? 

When it explains in detail why it is important to be on time for

the meetings, and without fail there are always those who are late,

and on top of that, when they arrive they disturb the prayers that has 

commenced, by chatting!! even when it is the priest who is praying,

and then they are told that "it doesn't matter", and they are 

instead thanked for turning up at all??

It is what we do in small things that matter. 

Like respecting time schedules, it is easily within human 

capacities.

If we can not manage to do small things well, we will not 

be able to do great things.

Saint Therese emphasised this by saying that we must do small

things with great love, it elevates.

In opposition to regularly arriving late for Mass; what 

does that say about our heart? 

That we actually think that it is not that important, we

elevate ourselves, making ourselves more important than the 

presence of God. It is pride. 

Because we are always on time for what we really personally 

deem important.

God wants to give us Eternal Life, to share in His Glory.

We can not be like everybody else, we can not blend in with the 

world, we are a people set apart; we are the Children Of God. 

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal 

of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, 

what is good and acceptable and perfect."

(Romans 12:2)

The Catholic Church is not a social club, it is not a place to go

 

to make friends, to gossip and do some charitable work to pass 

the time;

The Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus Christ founded

when He said to Peter; 

"And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock 

I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 

against it" 

(Matthew 16:18)

  

God can not be modified

 

So the controversy; the fight, continues, and it will as long 

as the situation is not regularized.

It could be done at any time, in an instant, but ever since 

the situation arose, it is the one and same sin that prevents 

that from taking place:

Pride.  

They don't call pride the deadliest of all sins for nothing.

The Catholic Church is the guardian of the deposit of faith; 

she holds the truth about us humans and about God.

Despite humans being finite, limited, restricted, by our 

humanness, in contrast to God who is All Powerful, 

without limit, obstructed by nothing,

the Catholic Church offers by the means of the 

Sacraments, for us to have a close relationship with Him, through 

His Only Son Jesus Christ. 

Even though I grew up in a post christian (protestant) country

and am a convert to Catholisism, I remember the absolute outrage,

even in my country of origin, 

when the New Mass was introduced, because it was reported in 

the media.

In the 50 years since then, I have progressivly learnt more

of the faith, because there was much unclarity, a lack of guidelines, 

this hinders progression and true knowledge.

I wanted to learn more, driven by a desire to dig deeper, to truly 

understand, so I could implement it in my daily life.

Integrating the teaching in myself,  which implies obviously to 

step outside the comfort zone, 

taking risks and a complete trust in God. 

It implies not being afraid 

of being ridiculed and rejected, and to not be afraid of death.

Those who today are pejoratively called "intégrists" or 

"fundamentalists", judged with contempt, while

in reality they are rather the logical result of taking abord the 

message of Christ without modifying it to suit personal 

whims and desires, are regarded with suspicion.  

What Archbishop Lefebvre did was the exact opposite to 

rebellion, it was a heroic sacrificial act with disregard to 

himself, in order to save the Church; the true treasures of 

the Church. With the new mass; the novus ordo, the 

deconstruction of the Chuch was set in motion. 

From then on subjective relativism replaced primordial 

Catholic teaching; even the Decalogue, (written in stone..)

(And ever since, those who still holds fast to the new mass, 

are unable to understand why there is less and less 

people going to that mass.)

Monseigneur Lefebvre's situation was akin to a firechief 

looking at a building containing everlasting value, which 

had been set alight, in order to burn it down. He had 

spent his whole life in service of propagating it, he had 

been elevated  to Archbishop of Dakar and Superior 

General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, by the Catholic Church.

He was a 100% faithful servant of the Holy Catholic Church, 

and never a renegade.

Then, due to the Second Vatican Council, he was faced 

with the wilful dismanteling and destruction of the Church, 

to be carried out from within, the impoverished new Liturgy 

replacing the Liturgy of all times, the same Liturgy which 

had produced thousands of known Saints and an unknown 

number of unknown saintly ordinary men, women and children. 

Lefebvre absolutely had to react, he was not disobedient, 

on the contrary; he was obedient to the last; 

obedient to God the Father.

When you are the Chief of a firebrigade, would it be normal

to stand there without reacting, looking at the building that has 

been set fire to?

If Lefebvre had not founded the SSPX, the authentic Catholic 

Church would have ceased to exist today, it was an absolutely 

necessary act in order to preserve it.  

Because he consecrated bishops without having obtained the formal 

permission from the Pope who just wanted Lefebvre to toe the line

and stop making a fuss about the Faith being destroyed, and agree

to submit to Vatican 2.

Since that was not possible, he was ready to die rather than do that,

the ordinations went ahead.  

He knew full well that he would be excommunicated, this is why his

actions were of sacrificual nature, he sacrified himself in order to save

the Church.

 

Even though this act has been called "schismatic", it has not, not up 

until now anyway, been declared that SSPX are in actual schism, it is 

much more ambigous than that. 

They have, since the ordinations of  the 4 bishops in 

1988 been left in limbo, due to the Vatican's lack of willingness to

regularize them; declaring them to be in full communion with Rome.

I don't even put this down to the individual Popes we have had since 

then, the diabolical powers of the world which have infiltrated the 

Church are at play. 

It is a question of punishment, they are being punished, for not 

submitting to the order of accepting the unacceptible. (Vatican 2)

Similarly to the doctors who refused to inject their patients with the 

covid "vaccine", which the manufacturers admitted were, 

unlike other vaccines, not properly tested , therefore by definition 

"experimental",  based on the hippocratic oath they had 

made and their own moral compass, they were struck off the register

and prevented from practising their profession/vocation.

It boils down to the power of authority. Not about right or wrong, 

or the common good, but pure power.

I cannot help but to make the analogue with family. 

Parents have the authority over their children, however that does 

not prevent mistakes, bad judgement and sometimes cruelty and 

abuse from parents even toward a good and well behaved child.

Sometimes it is simply the parent who is wrong, nevertheless they

have the upper hand of authority over the child.

What does the child do then? 

 

But thanks to the good and saintly Archbishop, we have today 

in full communion with The Holy See; 

Traditional Roman Catholic Societies of Apostolic life like 

Christ the King Sovereign Priest ( established in 1990), and the 

Institute of the Good Shepherd,( 2006)

who continues to teach, transmit, educate the true authentic Faith. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Who do we follow?

 

"Jesus said: My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, 

my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish 

leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."

John 18:36

Jesus is challenged by Pilate in regard to his use of the word

"kingdom", interpreted by Pilate as if Jesus is declaring himself 

to be a wordly king, that being the only concept of kingship

he understood. 

But Jesus said that He came into the world to testify to the Truth,

and that everyone on the side of truth listens to Him.

We then have Pilate asking the famous question;

"what is the truth,"

and we know that what followed is that he didn't want to be 

bothered by this case anymore, he himself was not Jewish, 

his role was to govern this part of the Roman Empire.

He couldn't find any fault with Jesus, but as he felt the pressure 

to make a descision, he caved in, he washed 

his hands off the entire affaire and let them decide what to do 

with Jesus, and they wanted Jesus dead.

It is surprising how little discernment there often is among 

many Catholics in regard to wordly matters.

The power of the world and the power of God are  

opposing each other, 

they can not be "reconciled", 

no compromise can be made, 

they can only be managed by us as best we can, and that is 

sometimes like a walk on a tightrope.

We should be able to distinguish between the two.

For the moment we live in this world, but we are not supposed 

to live according to the world. 

One thing is certain; Christians who truly live according to the 

Word of God is hated by the world.

They are sure to be ridiculed, misunderstood and rejected.

We must be awake, to be able to capture nuances in what 

is being said, and to reflect.

It is frightening for example to see Catholics having full confidence 

in the Government, without any discernment, there seems to be the 

automatic assumption that whatever comes from the governement

must be more or less morally sound, because it is the government. 

Such a wrong assumption, forgetting that there is pressure on the 

government. 

We must be obedient to God, and at the same time we should not

break any civil law. This is often a tight rope walk; the right line.

Many examples comes to mind: 

The corona vaccine being the most recent; an admittedly 

experimental vaccine where the risks, evalued objectivly, 

without the elements of pressure and fear, seemed too high

in proportion to the relative minor discomfort of the corona flu 

virus.

People die every day, sometimes it can be just a flu that kills an 

already weak and fragile body, but it was repeated again and

again that it was a flu, which any normal immune system can

deal with. 

Yet, because of the governement and the hand-in-hand media

blew it up out of all proportion, leading a fear campaign, many

Catholics got themselves injected with an experimental vaccine 

that had unknown side effects, despite many leading experts in 

the field of immunology and vaccines warning against it, stating

that it will it will cause heart problems and cancer.

Reflect on the moral aspect; considering the fact that the 

vaccines are made from stem-cells of aborted babies, taken when 

the babies are still alive, as many aborted babies stays alive for a 

a certain period of time after having being extracted from their 

mother's body.

The forces of this world are diabolic, if we are not aware

of this fact, we will fall victim to it.  

In this case, you might have thought that common sense and prudence; 

erring on the side of caution, would have prevailed.

But no; a people who voted for abortion 

(because "all the other countries are doing it" being the argument),

who voted for same sex "marriage" (the only country who 

actually had a referendum on it, the governement of other countries 

simply just brought it into law),

do not have a perspective of common sense and personal 

reasoning, facts are discarded; they just go with the crowd, 

the same crowd that demanded the crucifixion of Jesus.

Jesus came to testify to the truth, and Pilate famously answered;

"what is truth?"

Today people talk about "my truth" and "your truth", everybody

"their own truth", and this is also prevalent in the Church today.

Ever since the Second Vatican Council, which aimed for spiritual 

renewal in the Church, the exact opposite has occured, and 

quite logically so;

in proportion to the Church's "opening up to the world" and 

aligning herself with the world, the objective Truth of which 

the Catholic Church is guardian, has been obscured, 

truth has become relative and subjective.

Never to forget that the Church is made up of sinful and weak 

men and women, 

who regularly gets lost and goes away from the Truth. 

The Catholic Church is Holy, because Jesus Christ, who is God,

is her Head, we her members; all faithful, including Priests, Bishops, 

Cardinals, Popes, are all sinners. 

"Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save".

Psalm 146;3

 

"Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is 

in the Lord their God"

Psalm 146;5

Who and what is Man

 Psalm 8: 4-8:

"What is man that you are mindful of him, 

and the son of man that you visit him?

For you have made him a little lower than the angels, 

and you have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works 

of your hands, 

You have put all things under his feet, 

All sheep and oxen- even the beasts of the field, 

the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass 

through the paths of the seas." 

Secularism and paganism denies  

the reality that human beings possess a supernatural 

prerogative.

Although we are created beings, we are above animals 

and everything else in creation.

Why is that? 

Because we have capacities that are particular only to us,

which animals do not have.

There is in nature perfect organisation; trees, flowers, 

bees etc., everything is adjusted and arranged in a perfect

harmonic form, and in regard to animals; their senses and instincts 

are usually well superior to man's. 

So it is not any of those things that sets us apart and above.

It is our intelligence, our ability to create concepts and ideas 

in our minds.

Concepts and ideas are not physical matter.

Thanks to our intelligence we have the capacity to 

conceptualise, 

which is a spiritual faculty. 

All of us; we do this continually, 

we are so used to it that we do not even realise that 

we are doing it.

Think of new inventions for example; they were first 

conceptualised in their inventor's mind.

The intelligence is by definition spiritual; 

as it is completly non-material.

Man is the transporter of the non-material; the spiritual,

due to his intelligence.

The material; from matter, is specific,

The spiritual is universal.  

 

Human beings live at the junction between earth

and heaven, above us we have the pure spirits of angels, 

who unlike us, have no body.

Man is the meeting place between soul and body, the soul 

is a spirit created by God, in order to be one with the body.

We sometimes hear people say that everything that happens, 

happens first of all in the mind.

Based on that, we can see the importance of being aware

of what is going on in our minds.

Think of numbers; 1, 2, 4,10, 200, etc, they are little characters; 

visible signs, 

but the reality behind them are concepts, as is arithmetic and 

all mathematics; e.g. 2+2=4 is a concept, a spiritual manipulation.

For example we can look at a cat in front of us, then the cat goes 

away, but we have then internalised the concept of a cat, and 

that concept is not material.

Man's intelligence captures intangible realities, we are repositories

and devices of spiritual things which do not derive from matter. 

If it does not come from matter, where does it come from? 

It has to have it's origin in something, 

it is the effect of a cause. 

Man is composed of a soul; a spirit, and a body. 

The word "soul" in French is "âme", derived from  

the latin word "anima" translated: "which gives life to", 

our soul which comes from God is ONE with the body.

We are not just our body, and we are not just our soul, 

we are a composition of the two; to form one substance. 

If we were principally only soul, we would be the owner 

of our bodies and we could dispose them if we wanted, 

but we cant, because WE ARE our bodies.

 

The French philosopher Descartes thought that the spirit and

the body were two separate entities; he compared the soul to a 

captain of a ship (the ship being the body), a bad comparison, 

since a captain of a ship can get off and onboard the ship when

he wants, whereas we can't get in and out of our bodies as we like.

 

Our soul; possessing qualities that does not originate from matter,

is intellectual, spiritual. It internalises realities that are totally 

non-material: ideas and concepts, to bring into the soul by it's 

intellectual knowledge, completely non-material realities. 

Man's other great capacity which set him apart is his ability to 

love non-material things; e.g; 

Justice,  Truth, The Common Good.

 

We need to know ourselves; we are in the process of 

salvation; by the Mystery of The Incarnation and the 

Mystery of The Redemption, we need to know our true 

state, this is  continuous work.

Our soul is sensory, it is constantly stirred and agitated,

our way of reacting to events takes place in the soul.

As we know the register of emotions can range from 

the extreme euphoric to the most desperate pessimistic. 

 

Both the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and the 

great theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas

divided the human passions/emotions 

(which we have in common with animals) in two main categories; 

the Concupiscible and Irascible.

 

The Concupiscible side is pretty uncomplicated; it seeks fulfillment 

of desires, it avoids pain, they are reactions of the soul.

The Irascible side is more challenging; it deals with strong reactions

such as anger, fear, despair, but also courage and hope.

There is an inter-actional relationship between the two sides;

the Irascible helps out the Concupiscible in order to attain the 

desired goal. 

The manner in which we react when our passions are triggered

depends on the disposition of our heart.

The Christian virtues are the spiritual supernatural dispositions;

 "the settings" which goes further, they are added on top of  what is 

already there, they elevate the intelligence of the human heart. 

The great Theological virtue of FAITH is a virtue of the intelligence.

It allows us to know truths to which we would otherwise have no 

access to, only by God's authority.

The virtue of PRUDENCE is a virtue of the intelligence.

It allows us to calculate and deliberate our actions.

All the moral virtues are located in the willpower;

restraint in regard to the passions of the Concupisibles, and 

strenght confronted with the Irascibles.

The two groups cooperate; for example if we 

can moderate our appetite for food, we will find it easier

to control our anger. 

"Morals" then, is about man's behaviour regarding, and 

confronting, the passions, they need to be held in check. 

Keeping in mind that all the passions are good in themselves,

since as everything else it is God who created them, we just need to

train ourselves to become masters of them. 

Our 5 physical senses; sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch detect

external stimuli, and the information derived is transmitted into 

our brain, where they are interpreted by each person individually.

This is where it gets interesting, because the individual 

interpretation depends on the person's personal history and 

imagination; the personal filter the data is processed through.

We can think of an investigation after an accident for example;

there might have been 5 witnesses; it is not uncommon that each 

one has different versions of what happened. 

 

We are plugged in to the world around us through the 

5 senses, we communicate with others through them, 

but the actual exchange itself; 

what is being communicated, is non-material.

All matter is dividable; capable of being dissolved 

or split into pieces.

Water can be split into it's two components of hydrogen 

and oxygen.

Bodies degrade and in the end they decompose.

But the human spirit does not come from matter, it comes 

from God, it is by it's nature elevated over the material, 

it is immortal, eternal, indestructible.