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God has made a Way, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by which we can walk straight towards Heaven, with His help. It is our duty to co-operate, in love, and to resist all temptations: all temptations to over-indulge in natural earthly pleasures, and temptations to indulge in perverted, evil actions and ways, hidden away in sin.
Satan's great desire is to wreck God's plan for family life. Satan reaches out of the depths of Hell - out of the Abyss - to encourage family breakdown, to help spouses to desert one another, to cause children to be rebellious, and women to have abortions, and young adults to neglect their aging parents. He is also undermining the principles of people in Government, to induce them to pass anti-family laws.
As surely as terrorists destroy buildings and human lives, Satan destroys families by his malice and his evil influence. Satan acts against the love and joy in family life, working to remove harmony, peace, kindness, faithfulness, forgiveness, sobriety and prayer. Those who attack the family are doing Satan's work; yet God is stronger than an angel, no matter how wicked the angel; and we must count on God's help.
As surely as terrorists destroy buildings and human lives, Satan destroys families by his malice and his evil influence. Satan acts against the love and joy in family life, working to remove harmony, peace, kindness, faithfulness, forgiveness, sobriety and prayer. Those who attack the family are doing Satan's work; yet God is stronger than an angel, no matter how wicked the angel; and we must count on God's help.
A woman's body, instincts, heart and mind are designed to enable her to cherish life within herself, should she conceive. A woman who seeks an abortion is seeking an evil act that will harm her as well as her baby. To have an abortion is to act against her own body, even if she persuades herself otherwise. Her heartache will begin.
Satan is at work, offering temptations and lies to the followers of Christ. Like the secret police of harshly-ruled countries, he persuades a person to agree to a minor act of betrayal, and then makes further demands until the person is trapped and must keep proving his loyalty to his new masters. Even some of the Clergy fall in with Satan's suggestions; by keeping silent on the subject of sin, they are half-way to contradicting Christ and His teachings.
No matter how Satan is portrayed in art, through the ages, nor how silly some of the depictions seem to be, the truth is that he is a very dangerous fallen angel, far more intelligent than most human beings, and determined, by any means, to draw us away from God. Yet God is stronger, and we must trust in Him, His Son, and His Holy Spirit.
It is only too easy for weak human beings to put themselves under Satan's influence, first, by some little sins which then lead to serious sins. He becomes their chief guide, and leader, instead of Christ. The only way of escape is through complete repentance of all sin, and then adherence to God and His laws. People in trouble deserve to hear this.
We are right to defend human rights. Each person has been given life by God. However, there are no human rights, if the right to life is ignored. There are no human rights to fight for, if the right to life is ignored. So when Catholics write about such issues, they must first protest about the evil practice of abortion, before defending, for example, a right to food, shelter, a just wage, and other matters.
People who are in grave sin, engrossed in their evil ways, are spiritually dead - though only God can judge souls and know who these are. Yet for as long as people persist in such sins they resemble dead people, walking, making their way, bit by bit, underground, on the road that ends in Hell.
It is not irrational, to conclude from what we see and know, that there is a Divine Creator of all that exists. We can look at the order in the whole universe, and the wondrous development of an embryonic human being who becomes a fully-grown adult, who thinks and reasons - and who can choose, guided by his 'in-built' conscience, to do good or evil.
Christ asks us to accept the tragic truth about atheism: that a person who does not believe in God does not pray, never thanks God for anything, never asks for forgiveness from God, never prays for other people, never asks to be delivered from evil in this life, and never prays to be saved and brought to Heaven. Every atheist is in desperate need of the prayers of the faithful, no matter how good a life he seems to lead.
Whenever a politician dies, he or she appears before the great Lord Who creates all creatures, and judges all people: the holy One, Who will say: "What have you done with all your power? Have you helped your fellow creatures, and saved lives? Or have you extinguished helpless innocent human lives through supporting or extending evil laws about abortion?" Every politician will have to account for his sins, as we all must.
There are still many people who have not yet heard the Gospel preached. It is true, as the Church teaches, that it is possible for a person not baptised to be saved. However, this is far less likely than many people suppose, for the simple reason that many non-Christians have committed grave sins - as Christians have - but have never repented. Many have refused to join the Church, or mocked her, or mocked her priests; and of the rest, how many have followed the promptings of their conscience, for a life-time, until death, to do good and to avoid what everyone should know is evil? Only God knows.
There is a tremendous need for intercessary prayer. It is possible for the non-baptised to be saved, if they have never heard the Gospel but have persevered until death in doing good and avoiding evil; but many non-Christians have refused to believe in Christ. Others have committed grave sin and refused to repent. Others have mocked the Church or mocked her priests. Others have ignored the call of conscience, and followed selfish ways, knowing these were wrong. Thousands fall into Hell, everyday, alongside unrepentant Christians.
There are people who search vast areas of Europe to discover the massive graves of the war-dead, to bring evil-doers to justice; yet a similar evil continues even today, as hundreds of thousands of babies are torn from the womb by doctors, at the request of the mothers, as nurses assist. It's as though, today, there are new 'war-dead': infants slaughtered in the war against life.
The evil one is at work, to plant weeds on our path: to spoil our hopes and plans by his malicious acts and deceits, all in order to make us lose trust in God, or to grow fearful. But God is powerful, like a gardener who, with one movement of His foot can crush the poisonous weeds and then clear the pathway.
It can sometimes seem as if the small number of Parliamentarians who want to do God's Will in opposing laws which permit abortion, and the killing of the sick or the elderly, cannot possibly succeed. Yet Christians do not work for good all alone. Just as an army of Angels accompanied the brave men who once crossed the Channel to defeat an evil regime, so armies of angels and Saints are ready to help any 'child of God' who calls for their aid and has confidence in their communion with him, 'in Christ'.
Satan cannot bear to see Christ's faithful people happy and hopeful. When he cannot cause faithful people to break God's laws he stirs up discontent, or bouts of jealousy or anger, resentment and injured pride, to destroy the peace which is Christ's gift to His friends.
God looks from Heaven upon the Earth, and sees the long line of Popes whom He has appointed to be leaders of the other Bishops and of the Church. He sees that although all have been faithful to the Tradition, some have been silent when they should have spoken and allowed evil to flourish. Jesus is the model for all Popes: gentle with the weak but bold in correcting serious faults or misunderstandings.
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