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Christ is the Saviour Who appeared on earth, to deliver us from our sins and from the fear of death. His arrival has been greeted by many who recognise their plight, just as a man in a small boat would be welcomed by people on a doomed ship such as the Titanic.
The human race is doomed, without Christ. It would sink into utter hopelessness and vice. Christ alone has the power to free us and make us worthy of Heaven: holy and happy.
Christ is the only one who can cut the bars of sin in which we are imprisoned, like passengers on a doomed liner. Some people, however, do not want to change, and are not pleased to be approached by Christ or His followers.
Many people allow Christ to rescue them from captivity in their sins. Some people - as if turning away from a rescuer beside their doomed ship - want to persist in their sinful activities. They will all drown, unlike those who bravely plunge into the water, to reach Christ. "THOSE WHO REFUSE BAPTISM ARE LOST", if they understand what baptism truly means.
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.
People who persist in sin, and 'drown', are doomed souls 'lost' in the ocean, and utterly lacking the grace of God which is life. Yet they will rise up at the end of time, for the Last Judgement, when the justice of God will be revealed, as well as His marvellous work of salvation.
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.
For as long as life on earth endures there will always be demons gibbering in the darkness, trying to drag souls into sin. Whoever calls out to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, Mary, and asks for her prayers, will receive grace from God and be drawn towards the light of Heaven.
If we are tempted to be proud or self-satisfied, seeing the good work we achieve for God, we need only remember Christ's Passion, by which He won for us all the graces we enjoy, and the blessings of the spiritual life, and we shall be able to serve Him as He deserves, in humility and gratitude.
We must remove from ourselves and our lives whatever prevents us from entering the small 'doorway' to a life of humility, joy, spiritual beauty; that is, remove our sins and foolish attachments.
A sure proof of devotion to God and the Saints is the keeping of a calendar or diary of the Church's year, when a Catholic looks up the feasts and seasons, prepares for them, and prays sincere and appropriate prayers.
A firm and mistaken private judgement about a moral issue is like a boulder in the heart of someone who claims to have examined Catholic claims and found them inadequate. A private opinion that abortion is a right, for example, prevents sincere and fruitful exploration about the Catholic Church.
Bishops and priests who fail to teach the Faith in its fullness, rarely or never speaking against contraception or abortion, send a wrong message not just to Catholics but also to other Christians who notice what they say, and conclude that these are matters of little importance. Such things, objectively, (such as contraception, abortion, so-called 're-marriage' and other practices) are serious sins.
Someone who persists in sin but who says to himself that his sin is not serious, or who tells himself that he will give up his sin later on, is like a man who has let himself down into the lift-shaft of an old mine, pretending that there is no danger from fire, flood, or a frayed rope.
Christ sees everything that human beings do. Human life is like a long, dimly-lit corridor; yet though people act in dark corners or behind closed doors, He sees and understands everything people do, whether in hidden areas, behind locked doors, in bright chambers or dark rooms - or in cellars deep underground. He loves sinners, but loathes sin; and so He encourages us all to repent, and He longs for everyone to change.
Jesus is willing to say, today, to each person who goes to Him, repenting of sin, what He once said to the adulterous, sorrowful woman: "Neither do I condemn you. Go away and don't sin anymore". This is true, even for people guilty of those sins which are particularly repulsive to virtuous people.
A person who ends his life in Hell is trapped, and hopeless. He had one life on earth, and countless opportunities in which to do good, to love God and his neighbour and to make wise choices. But in freely choosing to do evil, right to the end, he chose to live in Satan's Kingdom, from which there is no escape.
Christ died, to conquer sin and death; yet He would have done so, to save a single person from going to Hell. Millions, however, are in danger of condemning themselves to Hell because they lead hard-hearted and sinful lives. Each of us needs to repent, by the grace of Christ, before we die.
When we ask Our Lady to intercede for us, God responds to her prayer by raising up the lost soul, out of the cloud which obscured the view, to show him a path, that leads to the main road to Heaven. It is always worthwhile to ask Our Lady, and to other Saints, and the Angels, for their prayers
The sacrificial prayer of Christ at Mass, to which we unite out prayers and praises, infallibly pierces the cloud between earth and Heaven and arrives at the throne of the Father, Who delights in pleasing His obedient Son.
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