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Each person on earth, scarred by original sin, is invited to share the life of the Three Divine Persons, One God, who live in infinite joy and radiance.
Each person on earth, scarred by original sin, is invited to share the life of the Three Divine Persons, One God, who live in infinite joy and radiance.
God's love never ceases towards us, as it never ceased towards our first parents on the occasion of the Original Sin. Yet they damaged their relationship with God, and needed reconciliation and healing.
God has permitted capital punishment at certain times, for grave crimes. Yet the human race has been in such a dire state of sinfulness, since the Original Sin, that in whatever era of history Christ might have come to earth to speak the truth about sin and salvation, He would have been persecuted, and then killed by whatever method was usual at the time, despite His innocence.
The purpose of Holy Communion is to restore to human beings the joy of intimate union with their Divine Creator: a joy known by the first man and woman but lost through Original Sin. It brings bliss, consolation and peace to those who come to Christ with purified hearts.
The purpose of Holy Communion, in which we receive Christ our God, is to restore to human beings the joy, and the intimacy with God, which was enjoyed by our first parents, before they sinned: before the 'fall' from grace.
When I addressed Christ, on His Mother's feast day, as the "Immaculate son of an Immaculate Mother", he said: "She is privileged beyond compare" - He meant, on her being conceived free from original sin. "But I am fortunate to have such a mother". In this way he showed His deep love and affection for Mary.
Christ sees all people trapped in original sin, except those who have repented and put their trust in Him. Christ said that each person who believes and is baptised can be saved, but the one who refuses to believe, is lost. This refusal includes the culpable refusal to be baptised, when baptism is the way we put our trust in Christ's saving power and receive His Spirit.
Just as the Titanic was lost, with many hundreds of lives, because of the decisions and actions of a small number of people, so the human race was 'lost' - deprived of supernatural life - because of the decisions and actions of a small number, who were our first parents. Yet Christ came to save us. The Father could not allow mankind to sink in hopelessness and sin.
In the whole universe, or the whole of eternity, there is only one Heaven, which people can reach who follow Christ's Way, made by Him to overcome the alienation which followed the Original Sin. There is no alternative to Heaven, for those who refuse to love God, but only a great fall into the depths of the Abyss.
All over the world are people in spiritual darkness, caused by original sin. Parents require the grace of God in order to bring up their child to have the right attitudes and beliefs, and so become holy; and they also need grace in order to love one another always with a love that is pure, fruitful and faithful.
Mankind has travelled a long road, since our first parents sinned, and turned a corner, exiled from God's presence. Another corner was turned when God made a Covenant with Abraham, and taught His People, and promised a Saviour. Another corner was turned with the arrival of Jesus, God and man, Saviour, Who died for our sins, to bring forgiveness, and union with the Father for all believers. To ignore Jesus and to prefer inter-faith prayer, in which He is not mentioned, is to deny the Christian faith; it says, in effect, that for union with God, and salvation,
There was a disaster, long ago, which affected the whole of nature. From the time of the Original Sin of our first parents, the natural world has been full of danger, with the savagery of beasts and birds, despite their beauty, and the menace of poisonous creatures, as well as tidal waves and electric storms.
It was necessary, in God's sight, that the Virgin Mary be conceived Immaculate - free from Original Sin, and then from personal sin, so that at her consent she could be a fit mother for the Son of God, as she taught and guided Him in His childhood, developing His human faculties.
God created, in the beginning, a beautiful world, as a beautiful setting for the people He would make. He wanted the families of the earth to flourish, to reproduce, and to find joy in earthly life, in His presence; but human beings rebelled; and Satan is still at work, today, working to draw people away from God.
The Catholic Church is like a rescue ship which appears out of the darkness, to rescue those willing to be rescued from their disastrous state of alienation from God, trapped in their sins: a state caused by the sin of the first human beings: the Original sin. The good news we can share is that sins can be forgiven and sinners put on the road to Heaven.
When the first human beings said "No" to God, the all-good, beautiful and holy, it was as if that cry of disobedience reverberated round the whole universe, so shocking was their pride and hard-heartedness. The whole of nature was damaged by the consequences of that Original Sin, at what we call 'the Fall'; and suffering entered our world.
Whether we are Christian or non-Christian, we cannot be saved if we are guilty of grave sin and refuse to repent. God gives constant helps to human beings, including those who do not know His Son Jesus, to help them to do good. Though minds have been darkened by original sin, all people can realise, through reflection, and use of their conscience, if they are willing, that certain things are wrong: stealing, murder, rape, slander, betrayal, and much more.
By our Baptism we leap over a wall, it seems, that separates the holy from the unholy, no longer being stained by original sin. But the city beyond the wall represents earthly life, through which we should travel without being enslaved by sin. Heaven lies ahead, for the faithful, hence the importance of good preaching, as the clergy urge people not to grow weary, and never to betray Christ. Only the holy can enter Heaven.
Only the holy can share God's holiness in Heaven, in perfect joy and peace. There are people who say - 'I'm not a bad person. I try to be good, but I don't need all that advice about prayer and Church-going'. They reveal the depth of their ignorance by such words, and on their state of soul. It's as if, within them, is a labyrinth of blocked passages and alley-ways: of unchristian attitudes, prejudices, unused spiritual faculties, a dark conscience locked in a cul-de-sac, and the gloom caused by Original Sin.
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