Posted on 11/27/2015 5:58:45 AM PST by Salvation
As November winds down and Advent approaches, the traditional meditation we make on the four last things (death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell) is still operative. A classic writing by St. Cyprian comes to mind. It is a meditation on the fundamental human struggle to be free of undue attachment to this world and to have God (and the things awaiting us in Heaven) as our highest priority.
In writing this meditation, St. Cyprian had in mind the Book of James and the Epistle of St. John. Yes, surely these dramatic texts were present in his mind as he wrote. Hence, before pondering St. Cyprian's writing, it may be good to reference these forceful and uncompromising texts:
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God … Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded (James 4:4, 8).
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:15-17).
And remember the words of the Lord Jesus:
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (Matt 6:24).
Nothing is perhaps more difficult to imagine, especially for us moderns, than being wholly free of the enticements of the world. These texts, so adamant and uncompromising, shock us with their sweeping condemnation of “the world.” For who can really say that he has no love for the world?
We may, however, be able to find temporary refuge in making a distinction. The adulterous love of attachment and the preference for the world over its creator is certainly to be condemned. Yet surely the love for what is good, true, and beautiful in the world is proper. St. Paul speaks of those things “which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim 4:3-5).
This distinction, though proper, cannot provide most of us with full cover, since we also know that the adulterous love of this world is still aplenty in our soul, however much noble love we also have. And the lust of the world is more than willing to sacrifice the good, the true, and the beautiful (not to mention God Himself) for baser pleasures.
Only God can free us. And while some are gifted to achieve remarkable poverty of spirit before departing this life, most of us are not ultimately freed from the lust of this world until God uses the dying process itself to free us. Slowly, we die to this world as we see our appearance, skills, and strengths begin to fade with age. As old age sets in we say farewell to friends, perhaps our spouse, and maybe our home as well. Our eyesight, hearing, and general health begin to suffer many and lasting assaults; complications begin to set in.
For those who are faithful (and I have made this journey with many an older parishioner as well as some of my family members), it begins to become clear that what matters most is not here in this world, that our true treasure is in Heaven with God. A gentle longing for what is above grows. For those who are faithful, the lust of this world slowly dies as we let God do His work.
Yet too many, even among those who believe, resist this work of God's. While a natural fear of death is to be expected, too many live in open denial of and resistance to what is inevitable. Our many medicines and creature comforts help maintain the illusion that we can hold on to this world, and some people try to tighten their grip on it. A natural fear of death is supplanted by a grasping, clinging fear, rooted in a lack of faith and desire for God.
And this is where we pick up with St. Cyprian:
How unreasonable it is to pray that God's will be done, and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world!
Instead we struggle and resist [death] like self-willed slaves and are brought into the Lord’s presence with sorrow and lamentation, not freely consenting to our departure, but constrained by necessity.
And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by him to whom we come against our will! Why then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us? What is the point of praying so often for its early arrival if we should rather serve the devil here, than reign with Christ?
The world hates Christians, so why give your love to it instead of following Christ, who loves you and has redeemed you?
John is most urgent in his epistle when he tells us not to love the world by yielding to sensual desires. Never give your love to the world, he warns, or to anything in it. A man cannot love the Father and love the world at the same time. All that the world offers is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and earthly ambition. The world and its allurements will pass away, but the man who has done the will of God shall live forever.
Our part, my dear brothers, is to be single-minded, firm in faith, and steadfast in courage, ready for God's will, whatever it may be.
Banish the fear of death and think of the eternal life that follows. That will show people that we really live our faith.
We ought never to forget, beloved, that we have renounced the world. We are living here now as aliens and only for a time. When the day of our homecoming puts an end to our exile, frees us from the bonds of the world, and restores us to paradise and to a kingdom, we should welcome it.
What man, stationed in a foreign land, would not want to return to his own country as soon as possible? Well, we look upon paradise as our country, and a great crowd of our loved ones awaits us there, a countless throng of parents, brothers and children longs for us to join them. Assured though they are of their own salvation, they are still concerned about ours. What joy both for them and for us to see one another and embrace! O the delight of that heavenly kingdom where there is no fear of death! O the supreme and endless bliss of everlasting life!
There is the glorious band of apostles, there, the exultant assembly of prophets, there, the innumerable host of martyrs, crowned for their glorious victory in combat and in death. There, in triumph, are the virgins who subdued their passions by the strength of continence. There the merciful are rewarded, those who fulfilled the demands of justice by providing for the poor. In obedience to the Lord’s command, they turned their earthly patrimony into heavenly treasure.
My dear brothers, let all our longing be to join them as soon as we may. May God see our desire, may Christ see this resolve that springs from faith, for he will give the rewards of his love more abundantly to those who have longed for him more fervently (Treatise on Mortality: Cap 18:24, 26: CSEL 3, 308, 312-314).
Amen.
As November ends and Advent begins, remember the four last things: death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. Prepare to meet God eagerly. Run toward Him with joy and confidence, calling on Him who made you for Himself. Death will surely come. Why not let it find you joyful, victorious, and confident -- eager to meet God?
Monsignor Pope Ping!
I always kind of thought that the fear of pain fuels the fear of death. At least for most people.
So is pain a worldly thing? We want to enjoy the modern world and pain doesn’t allow us to do that.
In heaven there will no longer be pain.
When I listen to something like this on Youtube I never understand how anyone could give it a thumbs down.
I’m old enough to have witnessed a few of the older generation passing. They are all gone now. My mother had what we call a good death. She was placed in hospice and told she had at most three months, she lasted just over a year. During that year she suffered from what was basically the failure of the largest organ in our body, the skin. She suffered a great deal of pain. She said that she wasn’t going to have to go to Purgatory because she had suffered on earth (she converted at the age of 76) and I believe that she was right. Her last words were, “Open up this door, I’m coming in.”
Maybe this could be why there is so much interest in “near death experiences.
Correction: “near death experiences.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, after spending many years in a Soviet prison, wrote of the inherent weakness of man. He observed that those who become accustomed to living in comfort shy away from the troubles of others, and will compromise in all areas to preserve their pleasures. He also observed that those who had been stripped of all comforts and essentials, would lose their lives rather than compromise their morals and ideals.
“In heaven there will no longer be pain.”
There is no pain here if you stay focused on Heaven.
A few years ago I ripped my knee up really bad when I fell on a rock while rounding up two of my rams that had hopped the fence on my farm pasture. It was a hot mucky day and I was angry at them as every time I got close enough to rope them, off they would run through the woods. The U-shaped gash was about 4 inches long and filled with the mulch from the woods.
I cleaned it up as best I could and finished my chores. Two days later I went to the Dr’s office and they tried to send me to the emergency room. I said no, as I had no insurance. I asked for some Betadine solution and a brush to clean it out. I ended up opening the wound myself in their office, poured on the solution and scrubbed the raw flesh to remove the embedded mulch. At one point I used a scalpel to cut some of the mangled flesh and adipose tissue away. By the time I finished there were two MD’s, a nurse and a physician’s assistant watching me clean the wound. The entire time I felt zero pain! (No brain = No pain!!!)
No seriously, prayer allows you to raise your consciousness above the level of perceiving pain.
Just as allowing myself to get angry at the sheep set me up for the wound, forgiveness and prayer allowed me to rise above it. I now do quite a bit of work with stage 4 cancer patients. The first thing I do is to teach them to pray. I’ve had people die from multiple inoperable brain tumors and massive cancer in their body while taking no pain killers (AND) experiencing no pain. This is not hypnosis, but pure prayer.
Our perception of our reality is totally a function of the level of consciousness from which we perceive it. Prayer allows us to raise our consciousness to a higher frequency.
I did a lecture/presentation on prayer for a group of nurses during which I purposely stuck my hand into a 6 inch double spring coyote trap and continued the lecture for about 15 more minutes with the trap on my hand. I felt no pain. The only trick is to pray, pray, pray and stay in a prayerful mind the entire time. It’s not about me or what I can do, it’s about the power of God.
An unusual thing happens in that at the higher prayerful levels of consciousness my perception of reality changes to the point where other people’s thoughts become physical to my senses. What I am sharing is the tip of the proverbial iceberg of experiencing Jesus’s teachings.
Because Jesus did.
The world hated Him and yet He gave His life for it. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son....
God did not call us out of this world. On the contrary, Jesus sent us INTO the world to preach the gospel. The only way the world is going to hear is if we go out into it.
We were never commanded to build edifices called churches and expect people to come into it to get saved.
God made this world for us to live upon. I fear Him more so that I should fear all else less. Though I hope to live with my wife and live long enough to watch our granddaughter grow to her estate. I have contributed to and desire a world of Freedom and Liberty in order for her to do so.
God willing I may achieve more of these things, and less the trappings of the world.
Those taken to the Father’s House will be rid of the sin nature, by God eradicating it, nit by striving to master the world the flesh and the devil.
I have always wondered if that was the same as the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
Pain is a “worldly thing” only in the sense that it is a consequence of the fall. The WHOLE world groans awaiting the return of Christ to redeem creation. Jesus certainly didn’t welcome the pain he endured for our salvation but he experienced it none the less. He also healed many who suffered to the glory of God. Pain serves a purpose.
Wanting to avoid or be relieved of pain by those who suffer is a human - and really ALL creatures - thing. It’s a natural inclination God instilled in his creation to ensure survival. Thanks be to God that in heaven there will no longer be pain or tears or loss for all things will become new.
**And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by him to whom we come against our will! Why then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us? What is the point of praying so often for its early arrival if we should rather serve the devil here, than reign with Christ?**
“And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by him to whom we come against our will!” That may be one of the most twisted thoughts I’ve read from a Catholic apologist at FR. Is it original with you, or are you quoting someone else?
We pray for deliverance from the World the flesh and the devcil because we are assured by the Word of The Lord that when He transforms us, we will no longer have a sin nature. Won’t that be astonishing?
You're ignoring the word "instead" in the quotation to which you're responding. Loving the world in imitation of Christ is fine. Loving the world *instead* of Christ is idolatry.
Read his bio here and then get back to us when you feel like you're worthy to judge him and condemn him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.