I'm just a dumb old country boy, but I believe what you just told me more or less is...we ain't all that bad.
“So Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theology does not use “sinful nature” for this is rooted in one of Calvin's 5 points called “Totally Depraved” or man is totally evil. Rather, Catholic’s see a man as wounded by original sin and fallen from the original stature that he had in Genesis 1, but not totally sinful and not totally depraved.”
You can put a little salve on a wound and it will heal, but our problem demanded that the Son of Glory come into this world and die a horrible death on the cross. And I'm not referring to the beatings and the ridicule, I'm talking about the transference of sins from us to him and then the justice of a Holy God being poured out on Him. Imagine, billions and billions of eternities in hell being poured out on him. He, who knew no sin was made sin for us.
Have you ever contemplated the cross? If we had not been “totally sinful” and not “Totally Depraved”...
...wouldn't that have required less of a sacrifice?
Markos33:
I am a commmitted Catholic, yet I do recognize that at least with confessional Protestants, at least the ones who embrace the Creeds of the Church, have much in common with me, as an orthodox Catholic, with respect to Christology, etc, and on the moral questions of the day are many times natural allies in the cultural battles, than say some of my dissident Catholic brethren, who I still love by the way, but they need to turn away from their liberation liberal theology nonsense.
Again, my point here was to only point out the Catholic Doctrine is not rooted in “works of the law”, which over and over again, some folks here interested in polemics continue to say, but works in the context that I cited above rooted in Love of God and Neighbor, which are part of and due to faith, and both are because of God’s Grace.
So yes, you all ain’t all that bad. Also, are you a Southerner and perhaps an SEC football fan.
Excellent, Markos.
“”Have you ever contemplated the cross?””
You should be willing to live it as well.
Today just so happens to be the feast day of Blessed Saint Maria Goretti that shows such an example of this
Here is her story
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=78
Born in Corinaldo, Ancona, Italy, on October 16 1890; her farmworker father moved his family to Ferrier di Conca, near Anzio. Her father died of malaria and her mother had to struggle to feed her children.
In 1902 an eighteen-year-old neighbor, Alexander, grabbed her from her steps and tried to rape her. When Maria said that she would rather died than submit, Alexander began stabbing her with a knife.
As she lay in the hospital, she forgave Alexander before she died. Her death didn’t end her forgivness, however.
Alexander was captured and sentenced to thirty years. He was unrepentant until he had a dream that he was in a garden. Maria was there and gave him flowers. When he woke, he was a changed man, repenting of his crime and living a reformed life. When he was released after 27 years he went directly to Maria’s mother to beg her forgiveness, which she gave. “If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withold forgiveness,” she said.
When Maria was declared a saint in 1950, Alexander was there in the St. Peter’s crowd to celebrate her canonization. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950 for her purity as model for youth.
She is called a martyr because she fought against Alexander’s attempts at sexual assault. However, the most important aspect of her story is her forgiveness of her attacker — her concern for her enemy extending even beyond death. Her feast day is July 6. St. Maria Goretti is the patroness of youth and for the victims of rape.