Replies

You will never believe this. I am saying it because I know saints and angels will rejoice at it.

When I give it all to my wife, we not only have a baby, but together we raise her, and carry her through deathly illness to health, and see her become a strong warrior for Jesus in her own right. Giving it all to each other meant we had more to give to each other and more to give to our daughter.

Giving it all to Jesus has meant having more to give. Giving that more to Mary, has mean having more to give to Jesus. And more to give, period. Giving some, in my case, to Dominic -- and lately Blessed Margaret of Castello and Blessed Jordan and Saxony have come to my attention -- ends up with a stronger passion to give all to Jesus, so that my hourly prayer to Him is that he take my heart and fill it with himself.

Sure, on PAPER, with a bean-counter spirituality, it would seem that to spend love here would mean less love to spend there. I can understand the thinking. But God is Love, so to Love there is no end. So transfinite arithmetic will do far better than the cold and parsimonious love which counts love spent here as love lost there.

This is not the zero-sum mathematics that leads to talents wrapped in a napkin and buried. This is the arithmetic of talents traded and doubled that the master who has everything will have more, and will share that more with all.

Thank you for sharing your testimony, dear brother in Christ, and thank you for your insights!

I do not see the question as a matter of spiritual mathematics but rather, a matter of Spiritual priorities.

If we love any thing or any one equal to or more than God - if only for a moment - then that thing or that one is for us an idol. And that could be a wife, a child, an idea, a church, self, possessions, etc.

But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. - Matt 16:23-25

And again,

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.- Luke 16:13

And again,

If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:26

And again,

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. - Mark 10:21

And it doesn't even need to be pleasant. If we are wallowing in self-pity or anger or if we stub our toe, then for as long as that emotion possesses us, it is an idol to us.

It's "about" surrendering all to God. All.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? - I Corinthians 6:19

There is only One Great Commandment and if we don't get that right, we are in deep Spiritual peril:

Then one of them, [which was] a lawyer, asked [him a question], tempting him, and saying, Master, which [is] the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all [Greek word holos] thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. – Matthew 22:35-40

God's Name is I AM.

This is not the zero-sum mathematics that leads to talents wrapped in a napkin and buried. This is the arithmetic of talents traded and doubled...

This is language. And words mean something.

Rome is forever telling us ridiculous things and then furiously trying to explain away the clear and simple meaning of those words.

Men are not an "alter Christus," no matter how Rome would like to finagle the definition. There is no Christ but Jesus and He is in heaven, not on any alter.

And men are not instructed to "give their all to Mary." God forbid.

RC apologists should flee any person or organization that encourages that kind of anti-Scriptural, anti-Christian thinking. It may feel all warm and cozy and familial, but sentimental idolatry often feels good to our fallen hearts.

Resist it. Christ alone is worthy of our "all."

"For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house." -- Hebrews 3:3