August 07, 2006
Was Jesus just a Historical Event?
From the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen:
[People] have heard preachers without end preaching, "Go to Christ!" But what does that mean? Go back two thousand years? If so, then have they not a right to doubt the divinity of Him who could not project Himself through time?
Look up to Heaven? If so, then what has become of His blessing, His forgiveness of sinners, His Truth that He said would endure unto the end of time? Where is His authority? His power? His life now? If it is not someplace on earth, then why did He come to earth? To leave only the echo of His words, the record of His deeds, and then to slip away leaving us only a history and its teachers?
Somewhere on earth today is His truth: "He that heareth you, heareth me." Somewhere on earth is His power: "Behold, I have given you power . . ." Somewhere on earth is His life: "The bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." Where to find it?
There is an institution on the face of the earth that claims to posess all these things, and to those who have knocked at its portals and have asked for a drink has come the elixir of divine life and, with it, the peace that comes to those who drink and never thirst again, and eat and never hunger again.
To each and every one of us, inside and outside the Church, our Lord asks, "Will you accept the cup of my love?"
Thanks be to God that Jesus founded the Catholic Church and promised that it will never perish or err. And thanks even more that He has given us His flesh in the Eucharist. You are, after all, what you eat.
For more read Victory over Vice, which is an excellent book by Archbishop Fulton Sheen (it's even on sale at the time of this post).
God bless,
Jay
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Jay, thanks for the lengthy Sheen quote - keep the good stuff coming.
I think Sheen says much better what I was trying to get at in another thread where I talked about Puddleglum and the Emerald Witch.
Reading Sheen's thoughts convinces me even more than the Roman Catholic Church makes by far the best promises among all religions. Granted, the sincere seeker should prudently remain outside the Roman Catholic Church until they are convinced it can deliver on its promises.
But at the same time, if no other religion makes the kind of promises the Catholic Church does then the sincere seeker should prudently focus primarily on the the Roman Catholic Church until convinced that it cannot deliver on its promises.
Does it then follow that if someone (even a Catholic) believes that another faith contains better (but untrue) promises - then they do not understand the Roman Catholic faith.
For example, take "mortal sin vs once-saved-always-saved". I've sometimes heard Catholics (including myslef) say "I wish once-saved-always-saved were true but unfortunately it is not". I'm beginning to think that this reflects a poor understanding of the Roman Catholic faith.
Conversely, I have heard Protestants say "I wish transubstantiation were true but unfortunately it is not". I would say this reflects a good understanding of the Roman Catholic faith.
One wonders why the devil doesn't make false promises which actually exceed (rather than only appear to exceed) the beauty of the promises made by the Roman Catholic Church in order to lead people astray. Perhaps because such a thing is impossible?
Posted by: Burnt Marshwiggle at August 8, 2006 11:31 AM
