This blog is based on references in the Bible to fear. God wills that we “BE NOT AFRAID”. Many theologians state that the eighth deadly sin is fear. It is fear and its natural animal reaction to fight or flight that is the root cause of our failings to create a Kingdom of God on earth. By “the power of the Holy Spirit” we can be witnesses and “communicators” of a new and redeemed humanity “even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7 8). This blog is dedicated to Mary the Mother of God.
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Thursday, September 7, 2017
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“Those who
listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.” -Proverbs
1:33
Psalm 36, verse 2
Sin directs the heart of the wicked man; his eyes are closed to the fear of God.
An inclination to sin is
part of our nature just as love and mercy is the nature of God. “See, now is
the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor. 6:28) If you awoke
today-you have another chance to begin again. Get thee to confession! Fast; avoid
evil, pray! You are responsible, yes, there my be circustances beyond your
control that put impediments in your path, have faith and find out how to get around
the barriers to living a Holy life. Secret Hint: Take it to Mary! She will
guide us to salvation.
The mechanic at the repair shop explained to the frustrated vehicle owner
that the wheels of his car were out of alignment. The mechanic asked if
the driver had recently driven through a pothole or perhaps had hit a curb. He
explained that this could be sufficient to have forced the wheels out of
alignment. All the driver knew was that it took a lot of work to drive straight
down the highway with the car constantly pulling off center. Without constant
attention and constant adjustment of the steering wheel, the car tended to
drift off the road. “One big pothole can do that,” the mechanic informed the
puzzled driver, “and after that, it’s almost impossible to go straight without
constant correction.”
What’s true for an automobile is, in this sense, also true of the human
soul.
Theologians have long attempted to explain humanity’s tendency to veer off
course: one big sin (that of our first parents in the garden) and it’s almost
impossible to go straight without constant correction. Keeping in mind that the
New Testament word for sin is hamartia, a Greek word that literally means to
miss the mark or to veer off course, we might say that after original sin it’s
nearly impossible to stay on the “straight and narrow.”Theologians call this
tendency to sin “concupiscence.” The word concupiscence is defined as a strong
desire, a tendency or attraction, usually arising from lust or sensual desires.
It is, morally speaking, the tendency to go off course. Concupiscence is
understood as an effect of original sin that remains after baptism. The waters
of baptism cleanse us of original sin itself, but concupiscence remains as a
lingering effect. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “certain
temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering,
illness, death … as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls
concupiscence”
1264 Yet certain temporal consequences of sin remain
in the baptized, such as suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent
in life as weaknesses of character, and so on, as well as an inclination to sin
that Tradition calls concupiscence, or
metaphorically, "the tinder for sin" (fomes peccati); since concupiscence "is left for us to wrestle with, it
cannot harm those who do not consent but manfully resist it by the grace of
Jesus Christ." Indeed, "an athlete is not crowned unless he competes
according to the rules."
To use another analogy, medical research cautions that a severe sunburn
early in life will render a person more susceptible to dangerous skin cancer
throughout life. That early sunburn may heal fairly quickly, but its effects
last through life, increasing vulnerability to cancer. Precautions must be
taken to shield the skin from the damaging effects of the sun’s radiation,
since there is a greater susceptibility to skin damage after that major
sunburn.
Original Sin
Original sin — passed down through the generations of humanity — brought to
our first parents the alienation from paradise and with it all the effects of
mortality: pain, illness, suffering, aging, death and decay. Original sin
caused a rupture, or break, in the harmony between body and soul that was part
of God’s creation of man. In the original innocence of our first parents, there
was perfect harmony: harmony with God, harmony with the surrounding world,
harmony with one’s self. The decision to break away from God’s will also broke
the original harmony in creation, and there has been tension ever since. The
first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis reveal the growth of tension and
discord: starting with the perfect harmony of the garden, through the first
sin, then the sin of brother against brother, and it ends with the tower of
Babel — a point in human history where no two persons could understand each
other. In the original innocence of our human nature, there was perfect harmony
between body and soul. Since death entered the world as a consequence of sin,
the separation of the soul from the body at death is a consequence of original
sin. We profess our belief in the resurrection of the body, at which time soul
and body will be restored to the perfect harmony that existed before original
sin. Concupiscence is a symptom of the disharmony between soul and body, since
the body and its appetites, or desires, wants to pull us a certain way, and the
soul wants to cling to the higher things of God and grace. In heaven, the harmony between body and soul will be restored, as will the
harmony with God and the world around us. Sin will be no more. The Sacrament of
Baptism washes away original sin, yet there remain the effects of original sin.
One of them is an innate tendency to be vulnerable to temptation, to be
inclined to sin, to be predisposed to desires that do no honor to the grace of
God. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) taught that concupiscence “comes from sin
and induces to sin.” Yet, concupiscence is not itself sin. Concupiscence makes
us vulnerable to sin, but susceptibility to temptation is not sin. How we act
in response to the temptation determines the rightness or wrongness — the sin.
With constant attention, or more accurately with the acceptance of God’s
constant outpouring of grace, the human person can be unaffected by this
tendency to drift off course. A driver who is attentive to the path ahead can
constantly adjust for a misalignment in the car’s front end, keeping the car
moving toward the goal of the driver. Indeed, the Council of Trent noted that
concupiscence “cannot harm those who do not consent but manfully resist it by
the grace of Jesus Christ” (Catechism, No. 1264). It is prevenient grace that
precedes our thoughts and actions, waiting for us when we are tempted by
concupiscence to go off course. By availing ourselves of that grace, we are
enabled by God to resist the tendency to sin and instead to stay on the morally
proper course.
How Do We Respond?
The story is told of the priest who asked a man in the confessional, “My
son, do you entertain evil thoughts?” The penitent quickly responded, “Oh no,
Father, they entertain me!” It is concupiscence that makes our minds more
vulnerable to thoughts that incline us to sin and to sinful actions, but
neither concupiscence nor those thoughts are sinful in themselves. The morality
is determined by what we do in response: to beg God’s grace to turn away from
thoughts of sin is meritorious, but to offer no resistance and give in to
immoral or disordered acts is the very definition of sin itself. Concupiscence
corrupts the will to the point that we are tempted to conclude that something
less than God will ultimately satisfy.
St. Thomas Aquinas taught clearly that concupiscence is a consequence of
original sin. Once human beings made the decision to be unbound from the will
of God, the harmony within human nature also became unbound. Desires and
appetites were no longer in harmony with the intellect or reason, and the two —
desire and reason — fought against one another. St. Paul understood this, and
described it in his Letter to the Romans: “I see in my members another
principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin
that dwells in my members” (7:23). As a result, St. Paul could write, “I do not
do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want” (Rom 7:19). Even Jesus
observed concupiscence in action when He said, “The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak” (Mt 26:41; see also Mk 14:38). The prophets of the Old Testament
understood this interior tension. Jeremiah asked the piercing question, “More
tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand
it?” (Jer 17:9). Jeremiah understood human nature and spoke often of the
stubbornness of their evil hearts (see 3:17 and many other passages), “evil
thoughts” (4:14, RSV), and humanity’s “stubborn and rebellious heart” (5:23,
RSV). The psalms of David offer lament for sins committed as well as
penetrating insight into the lived dichotomy between weakness and grace, the
lusts of the flesh and the longing for holiness. “Sin directs the heart of the
wicked man; his eyes are closed to the fear of God” (Ps 36:2). In a plaintive
cry for God’s mercy, the psalmist acknowledges the dueling desires within him,
and acknowledges, “I have been mortally afflicted since youth” (Ps 88:16).
Staying on Course
From the earliest reflection on life lived in relationship to God — the Book
of Genesis — to the present day, the tension between good and evil is
well-known. Whether presented, as a life or death struggle in the psalms; or a
comedic conversation with an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other;
it is innately understood that we all experience concupiscence on a daily
basis. Have you noticed that the temptation to eat meat seems to be the
strongest on a Friday in Lent? That’s concupiscence at work, the body at war
against the soul, each pulling in a different direction. Whether we entertain
evil thoughts or they entertain us, that’s also concupiscence at work: the
desires of the flesh are not in harmony with the desires of the soul. While we
cannot vanquish concupiscence in this life, we can open our lives to the grace
of God that provides the strength to resist the weakness of our fallen nature. Despite
the choice of our first parents to “throw off the yoke of God’s will,” as St.
Thomas Aquinas described it, we can today choose to take upon ourselves a yoke
that is easy and a burden that is light (see Mt 11:30). The grace of God that
goes before us and anticipates our weakness — prevenient grace — is
ours if we but open ourselves to it when concupiscence tempts us off course. Modern
highways help drivers stay on course with painted lines and with a rumble strip
when they veer out of the lane. In the moral life, prevenient grace and our
free will to do what is right perform for us the same function, and if we veer
off course, the rumble of conscience will gently prod us back.
Jesus
said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
Judith, Chapter 10, Verse 16 When you stand before him, have no fear in your heart; give him the report you have given us, and he will treat you well.” Judith prepares for war with prayer and by the enhancement of her beauty. She is so strikingly beautiful that in this verse one of the guards of the Assyrian camp advises her to be confident in the presence of Holofernes. Beauty and the Beast [1] After bathing (during a drought) she uses all the human arts available to her to make herself beautiful and captivating: perfumed ointment, hair, clothing and jewelry. She understands the goodness of her body. She knows physical beauty is good and comes from God. She also knows that the power of her beauty comes from within her, from her holiness, from her faithfulness to God. Since both her exterior and interior beauty come from God, her beauty must be devoted to the service of God. God intends to use her beauty as a weapon to liberate the people. She will wield the weapon t
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