Posted on 04/05/2008 10:47:56 PM PDT by Judith Anne
FRiends, tonight I went to mass with my family, and one of the scriptures was the story of "The Road to Emmaus." The monsignor's sermon was on that topic, and it was excellent. He started out by asking why Jesus would allow the disciples not to recognize Him until He broke bread for them, and his thought was that Christ wanted us to look for Him everywhere, to remember that He said "Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me" so that we would realize though we may not recognize Him at first, He is there.
This excellent sermon led me to thinking about another crucial teaching; when Christ was asked, "Who is my neighbor?" He gave the example of the Good Samaritan. This has to be a familiar parable to every Christian, so I won't repeat it here.
I am sure that anyone who has been reading active religion threads lately has wondered about the second commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." There has been a remarkable lack of kindness therein. I have been a part of that unkindness.
I will not speak of doctrinal differences here. I only want to say that I am sorry, to all who have been on the religion threads, for unkind remarks, for arguing. I have certainly not turned the other cheek, nor have I acted in a charitable way.
Because I am a Catholic, and accustomed to self-examination in the light of the teachings of Christ, I am ashamed of myself. This is not how I want to be toward other Christians, and certainly is not how I act in real life, for I have many dear Protestant friends and family members.
I had a moment of feeble self-justification as I prayed this evening, that I was provoked into anger. But we aren't to give in to that temptation, and I blame no one for my anger except my own faults. After all, when I stand before God, He will not want to know why I didn't improve a certain other poster's behavior, He will want an accounting from me as to why I didn't improve my own.
So this represents a step in that direction: I am off the religious threads. Because I am human, fallible, and love my Church, I would be tempted to defend it and thus fall into my old ways. Truthfully, the Catholic Church does not need me to fight on an internet forum for its honor.
Again, I am sorry, and I ask your forgiveness. Christ told us that when we want to bring an offering, we should FIRST make peace with our brother, THEN bring our offerings. I should not have added to the already considerable acrimony. I remedy that now, and ask those who think the way I do to join me in praying for all of us conservatives for something much more important: the will of Christ Almighty be done in our lives and in our country.
And may He bless us all.
You are so precious!
I left "the church" (in this case, Southern Baptist), to be a part of "the church" - all true believers and followers of Jesus Christ.
My walk with Christ is a personal walk, which He admosishes each of us to have. He is ever faithful and my joy is now 24/7, since I quit living religiously for a few hours each Sunday.
I hope you find peace and contentment, without condemnation, through a closer relationship with Christ. My true hope and prayer is that you will simply know the joy of living loved.
Unforunate that's too long for the sig line, isn't it?
Unbelievable. Really.
Thanks.
I thought for a while that I was the only one.
Thank you oh so very much for sharing your testimony, dear brother in Christ!
In fact, the anti-Catholic viciousness has abated considerably since the caucus threads have been established. I enjoyed your posts, but if you are temperamentally not suited for threads that are ecumenical in nature, perhaps you should look for those with Catholic or Orthodox-Catholic designation. In fact, it would be good if you or anyone started more caucus threads, as there is no shortage of inspiring material on the Internet.
The caucus rules are simple: avoid topics or posts where a non-caucus confession (typically, Protestants) would legitimately want to post rebuttals. If you avoid the ecumenical issues you can have a pleasant and constructive atmosphere.
We are blessed to have a Church that is hated so. “Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake”.
It's not a matter of being not suited, temperamentally; I can handle myself quite well. The fact that I can mud-wrestle doesn't mean it's God's will for me, today, to do that.
I'm taking a break, so I won't be posting any caucus threads (or non-caucuse religion threads).
Just read most of the thread here, very humbling. I’d recommend going to confession if you haven’t already. I don’t say that to be insulting; it’s a good way to get closure on something though.
I do not plan to take a break, however, this thread has made me realize I owe each of you an apology for my rash, rude, arrogant and stubborn behavior to each of you. I ask for your forgiveness, and any others who may feel I have treated them unkindly, but have forgotten to apologize to specifically at this time.
You are Certainly wholeheartedly forgiven.
Likewise for any perceived or real such sins from me to you. Not aware of any but want the slate clear. Feel free to inform at any time of any glitch in the relationship.
I don’t happen to think that believers have to have cloned agreement to have a viable Godly relationship.
Actually, I don’t recall any deliberate lies about the RC institution hereon.
None.
I do recall a lot of blindness on the RC reps side—a seeming incapacity to admit obvious overt objective truth in case after case.
And, I see a LOT of RC reps accusing Prottys of lying. I don’t see much, if any, of that from the Protty side.
Curious, that.
Kind of like I was pondering above . . . why the utter chronic blindness on the RC institution’s side to the Christian-wide problem of the “CHURCHIANITY SAVES” mentality?
And why such endemic arrogance about OUR IN-GROUP IS PURE, 100% ACCURATE AND HOLY and YOUR OUTGROUP is from hell?
Do RC’s actually believe God would have had ANYTHING to do with such a mentality?
Thank you for demonstrating my points so forcefully.
You are quite welcome to
THE TRUTH
most any time.
I get it at my Catholic Church every Sunday.
Whats the prob? I’m too holy to post to anyone else on FR as well. But I do it anyway out of my love for my fellow man. :-)
The Homily I heard on Saturday at Mass was about the same event-—His appearance on the road to the travelers.
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