Don’t Be a Liar

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 01-03-19 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[Salvation]

Don’t Be a Liar

Msgr. Charles Pope • January 3, 2019 •

Rest on Flight to Egypt, by Caravaggio (1597)

At Christmas we celebrate the Word becoming Flesh, but what does this mean for us today? Fundamentally, it means that our faith is about things that are tangible. As human beings, we have bodies. We have a soul that is spiritual, but it is joined with a body that is physical and material. Hence, it is never enough for our faith to be only about thoughts, philosophies, concepts, or ideas. Their truth must touch the physical part of who we are. Our faith must become flesh; it has to influence our behavior. If that is not the case, then the Holy Spirit, speaking through John, has something to call us: liars!

Therefore, away with sophistry, rationalizations, and intentions. Our faith must become flesh in the way we act and move. God’s love for us in not just a theory or idea. It is a flesh and blood reality that can be seen, heard, and touched. The Word of God and our faith cannot simply remain on the pages of a book or in the recesses of our intellect. They must leap off the pages of the Bible and the Catechism and become flesh in the way we live our life, in the decisions we make, and in the way we use our body, mind, intellect, and will.

Consider the following passage from the liturgy of the Christmas Octave:

The way we may be sure that we know Jesus is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked (1 John 2:3ff).

Note some teachings that follow from it:

Faith is incarnational. What a practical man John is! Faith is not an abstraction; it is not merely about theories and words on a page. It is about a transformed life; it is about truly loving God and making His commandments manifest in the way we live. It is about loving our neighbor. True faith is incarnational. That is to say, it takes on flesh in our very “body.”

Too many people spout the phrase, “I’ll be with you in spirit.” Perhaps an occasional absence is understandable but after a while the phrase rings hollow. Showing up physically and doing what we say is an essential demonstration of our sincerity. We are body persons and our faith must include a physical, flesh-and-blood dimension.

Keeping the commandments is a sure sign. John said that The way we may be sure that we know Jesus is to keep his commandments. Now be careful of the logic here. The keeping of the commandments is not the cause of faith; it is the fruit of it. It is not the cause of love; it is its fruit.

In Scripture, “knowing” refers to than an intellectual understanding. It refers to deep, intimate, personal experience of the thing or person. It is one thing to know about God; it is quite to “know the Lord.”

In this passage, John is saying that in order to be sure we have deep, intimate, personal experience of God, we must change the way we live. An authentic faith, an authentic knowing of the Lord, will change our behavior in such a way that we keep the commandments as a fruit of that authentic faith and relationship with Him. It means that our faith becomes flesh in us. Theory becomes practice and experience. It changes the way we live and move and have our being.

For a human being, faith cannot be a mere abstraction. In order to be authentic, it must become flesh and blood. In a later passage, John uses the image of walking: This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked (1 John 2:6). Although walking is a physical activity, it is also symbolic. The very place we take our body is physical, but it is also indicative of what we value, what we think.

Liars – John went on to say, Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar. This is strong language! Either we believe and thus keep the commandments, or we are lying about really knowing the Lord and we fail to keep the commandments.

Don’t all of us struggle to keep the commandments fully? John seems so “all or nothing” in his words, but his point is clear. To know the Lord fully is never to sin (cf 1 John 3:9). If we know him imperfectly, we still experience sin. Hence, the more we know him (remember the definition of “know”) the less we sin. If we still sin, it is a sign that we do not know Him enough.

It is not really John who speaks too absolutely; it is we who do so. We say things like “I have faith,” “I am a believer,” “I love the Lord,” and “I know the Lord.” Perhaps we would be more accurate if we said, “I am growing in faith,” “I am striving to be a better believer,” or “I’m learning to love and know the Lord better and better.” If we do not, then we risk lying. Faith is something we grow in.

Many in the Protestant tradition reduce faith to an event such as answering an altar call or accepting Christ as “personal Lord and savior.” We Catholics do it too. Many Catholics think that all they need to do is be baptized; they don’t bother to attend Mass faithfully as time goes on. Others claim to be “loyal” even “devout” Catholics yet dissent from important Church teachings. Faith is about more than membership. It is about the way we walk, the decisions we make.

Without this harmony between faith and action, we live a lie. We lie to ourselves and to others. The bottom line is that if we really come to know the Lord more and more perfectly, we will grow in holiness, keep the commandments, and be of the mind of Christ. We will walk just as Jesus walked and our claim to have faith will be the truth, not a lie.

Faith and works cannot be separated. This passage does not claim that salvation is by works alone. The keeping of the commandments is not the cause of saving or of real faith. Properly understood, the keeping of the commandments is the result of saving faith actively present and working within us. It indicates that the Lord is saving us from sin and its effects.

The Protestant tradition erred in dividing faith and works. In the 16^th century, Protestants claimed that we are saved by “faith alone.” Faith is never alone. It always brings effects with it.

Our brains can get in the way here and tempt us to think that just because we can distinguish or divide something in our mind we can do so in reality, but that is not always the case.

Consider, for a moment, a flame. It has the qualities of heat and light. We can separate the two in our mind but not in reality. I could never take a knife and divide the heat of the flame from its light. They are so interrelated as to be one reality. Yes, heat and light in a flame are distinguishable theoretically, but they are always together in reality.

This is how it is with faith and works. Faith and works are distinguishable theoretically, but the works of true faith and faith itself are always together in reality. We are not saved by works alone or by faith alone; they are together. John teaches here that knowing the Lord by living faith is always accompanied by keeping the commandments and walking as Jesus did.

Therefore, faith is incarnational. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, really and physically. Similarly, our own faith must become flesh in us, in our actual behavior.

Enjoy this incarnational Christmas carol:

Verbum caro factum est The Word was made flesh
Porque todos hos salveis. for the salvation of you all.

Y la Virgen le dezia: And the Virgin said unto him:
‘Vida de la vida mia, ‘Life of my life,
Hijo mio, ¿que os haria, what would I [not] do for you, my Son?
Que no tengo en que os echeis?’ Yet I have nothing on which to lay you down.’

O riquezas terrenales, O worldly riches,
¿No dareis unos pañales will you not give some swaddling clothes
A Jesu que entre animals to Jesus who is born among the animals
Es nasçido segun veis? as you can see?

[Elsie]

Elsie - while I agree with you (I think!!??), you are always so cryptic.

I suppose it's because I think way faster than I type; so a lot of the stuff that link the pieces together gets lost in the shuffle.

[Elsie]

...which he hath built thereupon,...

And what do Catholics build upon?

[af_vet_1981]

Such have been "enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come," (Hebrews 6:4-5. KJV) and are accepted in the Beloved, and seated with Him in Heaven, and have immediate direct access into the holy of holies ijn Heaven to meet with God. (Eph. 1:6; 2:6; Heb. 10:19)

And such will be realize the full experience of their salvation if they "hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Hebrews 3:6. KJV)



It looks like there is concurrence that "those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come," will only realize the full experience of their salvation upon persevering until their death or the Messiah's return.

Christians are saved but can fall away and be lost, per that reference to Hebrews.

[Elsie]

Christians are saved but can fall away and be lost, per that reference to Hebrews.

I'll agree with the premise here.

After all THIS verse CLEARLY says your name CAN be removed from the BoL!!

---

Revelation 3:5
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

[af_vet_1981]

Agree there will be different levels of punishment in hell, yet that was not the point. The one in charge, who mistreated others, would be cut in two and assigned his portion with unbelievers, and his infraction was the worst in the passage. Those with stripes were not assigned a portion with the unbelievers in the actual scriptural text. The point was, given the depth of agony of suffering in hell, whether there could be a relatively mild punishment (stripes) for relatively mild infractions then followed by utter agony for all eternity. That does not make sense. God is the God of mercy and justice.

Since the punishment is eternal it makes sense there are different levels of eternal punishment in hell, but not "few stripes." That leads to hell being but a punishment of "few stripes" for those who did not know the LORD's will and broke His laws, and "many stripes" for those that knew, but did not prepare and obey. Thus hell would not be torment and agony for those disciples who fell short, but something far less than that dependent on one's works while supposed to be on duty watching as it were.

For example, we read the various levels of punishment amongst the brethren (from minor punishment to danger of hell), a brother can go to some place of prison and yet be released after payment (and this is not about shekels):

• Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
• For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
• Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
• For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
• Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
• But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
• Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
• Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
• Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
• Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Matthew, Catholic chapter five, Protestant verses seventeen to twenty six ,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

[aMorePerfectUnion]

RVG Placemarker.

[af_vet_1981]

Wrong, for the context is future, and you can lose something that is yours to take if you fulfil the conditions, thus the warning "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." (Revelation 3:11. KJV) And as shown, fruit such as the Philippians were Paul's “joy and crown” (Phil. 4:1) but which crowns are not given until the Lord comes. But by your logic, no man could take their crown since they had not yet received it.

"which thou hast" is not in the future, and the crown of life does not sound like an optional reward, but the sign of eternal life, which goes back to the discussion of whether being saved is in the present or in the future.

Thus the suffering of loss refers to what he would have at the judgment, that just as fruit such as the Philippians would mean the obtaining of a reward, losing this work (which is also suffering loss) meant losing the reward.

Except that is not what the Messiah said when using that word for suffering loss all three times. Here is another example of the reference to not watching (same word as in Luke passage being discussed), and it sounds much more ominous than the loss of an optional reward.

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Revelation, Catholic chapter three, Protestant verse three,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

[daniel1212]

You are being ignored as one vainly flailing against the obvious Like a man who has lost both legs and arms, you have nothing new (and crowns are given when the Lord returns) to even gain a foothold (which is all you try for) against the insurmountable wall of evidence against your argument Those who want to see why can can look, by the grace of God.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=107#107
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=128#128
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=147#147
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=238#238
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=256#256
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=257#257
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=284#284
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=290#290
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=293#293
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=294#294
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=337#337
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=339#339
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3717315/posts?page=340#340

Its over. May God peradventure grant you “repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:25)

[af_vet_1981]

You are being ignored as one vainly flailing against the obvious Like a man who has lost both legs and arms, ...



When the law is on your side, argue the law.
When the facts are on your side, argue the facts.
When neither the facts nor the law are on your side,
make an ad hominem attack.
-- Old Adage

The demeanor of the poster says more about his own confession than the post says about yours. When he is being rude or mean it drives people away from his confession and towards yours. That is of course if you can resist the urge to meet fire with fire, in which case neither confession is appealing to the lurkers. The poster who “turns the other cheek” wins every single time.

If the other guy is throwing spitwads at you on an “open” thread it probably means he has run out of ammunition. Take it as a backhanded compliment. You won, walk away.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

x

[Mark17]

Didn’t you mean a RVG placemaker? 😁☝️

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Yes, ... or did I????