Dear Vicar:

In my past commentaries with a dear friend, who also is a dear friend of you, about the Anglican Clergy we discussed married versus unmarried Catholic priests. I told him of a theoretical scenario that appealed to me as a young lad for becoming a married Catholic priest. The scenario involved leaving my faith and going to an Anglican seminary. If I failed the seminary, I would repent and return to my faith. If I was ordained an Anglican priest, I would get married and after an appropriate time I would recant and seek to be accepted by the Catholic Church, bringing wife, family and many of my parishioners with me. Our mutual friend discussed my scenario with you. Your comment to my friend was that I must have been educated by the Jesuits.

Yes, I was educated by the Jesuits. I related this scenario to my friend as food for thought in your discussions. My plan for Catholic priesthood with a wife is partially completed by you. Now you need a strategy to lead your family and flock to “the promised land” by prodigally returning to our Father.

The time is ripe to initiate action. All non-catholic churches have been put on notice, once again, by the Pope. These churches are airing their views. Their members are well aware of the issues. Many members are likely very troubled by the Pope’s words: “The other communities "cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense" because they do not have apostolic succession - the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles - and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said.” Their concern for the validity of their clergy and the lack of the real presence of Christ in their churches probably will be a good opportunity for you to openly discuss with his members possible ways to achieve validity and “real presence”.

Christ said “Render to Caesar the things that are Ceasars and to God the things that are Gods!” We could say that Caesar is the Vatican bureaucracy and God is the persona of the Pope, God’s Vicar on earth. Administrative bureaucrats, the world over, have a habit of making policies and non-faith conclusions that good people object to. These bureaucratic institutions demand obedience even unto death. Many bureaucrats have an exorbitant high level of pomposity, arrogance and airs of personal infallibility. We are very grieved by this and our emotions are really churned to the degree we detest our bureaucrats with great anger. Often we use this as an excuse to betray Christ and “shake the dust” from our sandals and go it alone.

Many of us even go further and cease rendering to God the things (faith, morals and His Vicar on earth) that are Gods. What arrogance on our part! What pomposity on our part! Christ lectured Saint Faustina on the importance to Him of obedience to authority, even when it flies in the face of His will. God-oriented humility must be the essence of our nature. Imagine how Christ is seething at our emulations of the very evils we charge the Vatican bureaucracy with. Through obedience to God’s will we must render to the Vatican bureaucracy the things that are theirs. We also must complain loudly and often, as St. Faustina, to Christ’s Vicar on earth.

On this Friday, 13 2007, (St. Henry’s feast day) the Word of God by Jeremiah 2: 11, 13 is: “Does any other nation change its gods? --/ yet they are not gods at all!/ But my people have changed their glory/ for useless things./ Two evils have my people done:/ they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;/ They have dug themselves cisterns,/ broken cisterns, that hold no water.”

You need to heed this. You and others in similar situations must plot a course of actions for yourselves, families and congregations to return to our Father in God-oriented humility. It will take the heroism of St. Thomas More, martyred by King Henry VIII, to accomplish the rejection of his “vicar succession” and acclaim and subordinate oneself to God’s Vicar on earth, Pope Benedict XVI.

Agnus Dei miserere nobis!

Paulus

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Responses to: kearnsmusings@aol.com

July 13, 2007 ©

Musings on Medjugorda

Mary, the mother of God, has been appearing frequently to a specific group of children for years. Now they are adults. Many miracles and unexplainable events have happened over these years. Mary has given messages to these children for public dissemination or for private delivery to the Pope through the local Bishop.

One of these messages was that God had let the Devil have his way during the 20^th century. The Vatican treats this statement as a serious stain on the authenticity of Mary’s messages. They have forbidden their hierarchy to preach to the faithful on these messages, because this statement is incredulous to them.

Granted that the 20^th century was a time of great evil rife with wars, holocaust, atomic explosions, genocides, increased evil in the hearts of man along with hatred of God. Just this enormity of the sensual impact on the minds of man leads many to conclude that God couldn’t have permitted it.

We tend to think in an emotional way which adversely affects the quality of our reasoning. God created us with a free will which is truly free. God permits us to do evil. The message of Mary needs to be interpreted within this context. The life of man is strung with horrible events of evil from Adam to the present.

The sin of Adam was the most horrific. It set off this chain of evil events. God permitted Adam to choose with his free will the promptings of the Devil. Adam knew he was doing a very evil deed. God knew its terrible consequences, yet He didn’t prevent Adam’s use of his free will.

The Vatican would do more good if they used the statement of Mary to preach that evil is the fruit of using our free will to choose the promptings of the Devil Our personal obligation is to do good and avoid evil. In the “Our Father” we ask help from God in choosing good and avoiding evil. This obligation needs to be brought home by bishops and priests in a concrete way to themselves and to us.

Too much effort is spent in playing ‘king of the mountain” by the Vatican regarding new good news, than in planting the seeds of understanding in the souls of man. Most people are affronted by the Vatican reaction which has a continuing negative effect of people losing more and more respect for its authenticity and Christly representation.

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Responses to: kearnsmusings@aol.com

July 8, 2007 ©

Musings on Torture

The word “torture” is considered by many as an evil. The verb “to torture” does not automatically make those acts of torture evil. The question “Is torture evil?” can not be answered with a “yes” or “no”. Simply, it is pain inflicted on one’s spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical wellbeing.

“Torture”, torturing” need to be evaluated first in its relationship to God. God is all truth, all good, all justice, all loving, etc. Where did torture begin? Surely before Adam was created! God created the angels before Adam. He created them as immaterial beings with immortal souls in His image and likeness to know, love and serve Him and only Him. He gave each angel a free will. He did the same for humans but He embedded our immortal souls within an earthly mortal body.

Angels and humans have a relationship to God as servants, under specific orders to do good and avoid evil. Whether a good or evil deed is performed there are consequences – good and evil. Doers of good deeds merit rewards. Doers of evil deeds merit punishment. Why punish an evil doer? God’s being all just demands it as atonement. God sent His only Son, as a God-man, to atone for the sin of Adam who suffered and died in atonement.

God created hell as an eternal torture chamber, first for those angels who refused to do God’s will. Yet these evil angels, headed by Archangel Lucifer, were allowed by God to continue influencing other angels and eventually humans into temptation to do evil deeds. On the other hand, good angels continue to guide us in doing no evil, along with the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

So “torture” started with God for punishing evil angels. How can God be truly God if His Justice isn’t used? If Justice isn’t used then do-gooders and evil doers are treated equally. God has no contradictions. The act of God inflicting pain on evil doers is a good act.

In the “Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska”, (published in 2004 by The National Shrine of Divine Mercy, Eden Hill, Stockbridge, MA), the tortures of hell are described:

Very gruesome don’t you think? God’s choice of torture is His prerogative, therefore just.

However another attribute of God is His Divine Mercy, which St. Faustina elaborated on in her diaries. A great example of granting mercy to a very evil person occurred on Good Friday. One of the thieves, being crucified with Jesus by the Romans, spoke to Jesus. He said to Jesus, he believed Jesus was innocent and confessed he was guilty and subject to the torture of crucifixion. He asked Jesus for mercy when he asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into His kingdom. Jesus responded by promising this thief that he will be in Paradise that day. This thief trusted in Jesus, escaped the tortures of hell and ended up in the kingdom of God for eternity.

Human souls were created by God in His image and likeness which gives us the attributes of God but in an imperfect way. We are children of God and heirs of His kingdom. We received free will along with a list of do’s and don’ts which comprises the natural law for us to obey under pain of punishment by God and loss of our inheritance in His kingdom. Our souls are subject to promptings to do good or evil deeds. Our lives are sometimes like a mine field where we need to avoid a misstep that merits punishment. We have a conscience installed by God in our soul to guide us in our actions. Good actions produce elation. Evil actions produce shame.

Not all of our evil actions merit eternal torture. God did create another torture chamber called purgatory. Souls are purged through fire and remorse for their “misdemeanors” before “seeing” God. Every soul has true hope that his torture is temporary and not eternal. They willingly accept their torture because they know they deserve punishment for offending God whom they all love.

When each person is conceived, God creates their soul which is ‘embedded’ in their body. There is no person where there is no soul. Each of us is a child of God and a child of their natural parents. Each of us is subject to the laws of God and parents. Pain for us starts early. We suffer the pains of pregnancy and birth. Some of our pain is inflicted on us because of parental lifestyle or medical treatment. The soul feels all pain in the womb though the person is not consciously aware.

At birth we enter the world of pain, punishment and torture. Similar to God, parents make the rules of behavior after our birth. Obeying rules merit parental reward and disobeying rules merit parental punishment. Parents have a natural right to reward or punish. When does inflicting pain become an evil action? The spiritual, mental, emotional and physical well being of the person can be inflicted by pain from parents, by himself and others.

When is inflicting pain a good act? Obviously God’s inflictions of pain were good acts. Jesus suffered pain as atonement for the sins of humans against His Father. Jesus inflicted pain on Himself when He fasted for 40 days in the desert to prepare Himself for beginning His mission of atonement and redemption. Early in our life we start to inflict pain on ourselves in atonement for an offense against ourselves or others. God, at the same time, inflicts pains of shame spiritually through our conscience. So we have God, our parents and ourselves rightfully inflicting pain. Then society, including schools, local, state and national plus military inflicting pain whenever they think it is the right action.

If all of these earthly inflictors of pain were just, all “torture” would be justified.  However I, parents and others often inflict pain unjustly. We have no common standards of letting the “punishment fit the crime”. Where the pain is inflicted as a good act this same pain is an evil act when it is unjust. Clearly “justification” determines whether inflicting pain is good or evil. Are there pains, which are inflicted, always good or evil? Judging from the history of God’s actions, none of His acts of torture were evil.

We humans can unjustly inflict pain (torture) on ourselves, on other humans, on Jesus Christ and on animals. Injustice is the crime of disregarding rules of behavior from authorized authorities. Each person has a judgment function as a natural part of their conscience. Rules of behavior are ‘hard-wired’ by God and our conscience internally notifies us if an action to be taken is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Then we exercise our justifying function to determine if the action to be taken is justified. We then choose, using our free will, to do evil or not. Then our conscience notifies us of God’s approval or disapproval through creating feelings of joy or shame.

In our personal lives we inflict pain on ourselves to combat a disease, crimes of self-gratification, including food, drink, smoking, sex, drugs, arrogance, pomposity, hard-heartedness, soft-heartedness, etc. To cure ourselves from these unjust acts we need to inflict pain on our self by dieting, abstaining, detoxing, humbling, and practicing just love. Most people have difficulty in doing this suffering, yet we usually understand the justice in doing it. The word crime is appropriate when we enjoy over-doing, inspite of our conscience’s disapproval. We relish over-doing for the self pleasure we get even though we are inflicting pain on our humanity. These are evil acts of varying degrees of penalty to be atoned for. Even nagging, teasing, yelling, derision, etc. become evil acts when you relish doing them without fair justification.

A person has, if he has given an oath to a high civil authority, to obey rules to defend and protect against enemies who seek to attack, harm or injure people within this civil authority. Having qualms of conscience is normal for many people because of their personal “do no harm” principle. Other people who have a personal principle of “do no harm unless someone threatens or does harm to that person or his kith, kin or neighbor”. The principal of self-preservation is natural to humans. Most of us would feel suffering when we carry out orders to inflict pain on enemies. However, those who relish the inflicting of pain with or without justification are committing personal evil acts. Their superiors are not; but they often are punished for these acts because of lack of oversight.

For people with the authority to inflict pain as a punishment, the principle of “let the punishment fit the crime” is common. Who is to be the judge of that? People have as a yardstick used in judging the fairness of the punishment attitudes, ranging from “spare the rod and spoil the child” to “spoil the rod and spare the child”. This makes it impossible to have a standard for inflicting punishment. Punishment can affect the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical well being of the ‘sinner’ as well as you. Great care needs to be taken in avoiding the sin of self-gratification, which reduces your real authority to punish. There must always be the element of mercy to be used in your judgment of what punishment. Jesus bestowed Divine Mercy on one of the two thieves being crucified with Him, because this thief confessed to his guilt and ask Jesus for mercy. Jesus granted this thief Divine Mercy immediately.

Our bodies are called temples of the Holy Spirit because He dwells in our soul which He created. Not only does He influence our conscience to guide as to whether an act we want to do or did is good or evil, He provides within our soul promptings to do good and avoid evil. This is expressed in the Lord’s Prayer” through the words “lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil”. We get a lot of help and guidance to do good and avoid evil; but the bottom line is that we use our free will to ignore or obey. Every one is personally responsible for heeding the judgments of their conscience. As to spiritual promptings to take an action, one has to discern whether their conscience approves or not. The reason is that Satan has, only God knows why, the power to infiltrate our being to prompt one to do evil. Satan has the power to deliver a rationale for one to consider, to convince us to do evil, as he did to Adam and Eve. Each one goes through life with this battle of good versus evil being waged in our soul. God will judge us on our choices.

As our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, we have to respect the bodies of others as to their spiritual, mental, emotional and physical well-being. Deliberately inflicting pain on another needs valid justification, otherwise it is an evil act.

When we look at the world around us, we are bombarded by pictures and stories of man inflicting pain. We are appalled and sickened by these visual and mental images. Many of us have relatives and friends being the receivers or inflictors of pain. We often are so incensed that we want strike out in anger at others. Sometimes we get obsessed to the point that we actually inflict pain on others. Others take a spiritual attitude and offer prayers and their sufferings to God as their atonement for the crimes of others. Many are appalled at war deaths; but much less appalled about deaths due to drugs, alcohol, smoking which results in many, many more deaths than war.

Perspective and balance is needed in our making judgments. A historical view of God’s and man’s infliction of pain shows that God’s infliction of pain is harsher than ours. So what can we do? Do we just wring our hands, moan and groan? What we need to do is to treat others within our ambit with justice tempered with mercy. Within the Commandment of Love, “Thou shalt love the Lord …. and your neighbor as yourself” we have an obligation to our neighbor to perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy. We are also obliged our selves to act in accordance with the “beatitudes” given to us by Christ.

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Responses to: kearnsmusings@aol.com

June 18, 2007 ©

Musings on the 1st Beatitude

Dear ‘lukewarm’:

You keep calling yourself 'lukewarm'. You seem to think that improvement in your holiness is just too difficult, not worth the effort. Why expend the effort, if you often find yourself backsliding in your progress? As in the parable of “The Prodigal Son” returning to your spiritual father is both necessary and very difficult. I recommend you study other people, like St. Faustina and the “good thief”, who were successful in reaching God with great effort and enduring great pain. Though both are in heaven today, Faustina gave a lifetime of glory to God.

St. Faustina is a good example in the 20^th century of the meaning implied by the 1st Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will see God”. St. Faustina, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000, felt she was lukewarm. Jesus always was perking her up. How she whined that she was not good enough! How she loathed her continuing weakness in criticizing her fellow sisters! How often did Jesus chastise or threaten her for not doing His will? She persisted in yearning for holiness through submission of her free will to God’s totally.

To be “poor in spirit” you have to compare your goodness to that of God, and recognize the spiritual abyss separating you. If you wish to see God, you have to narrow the gap by steadily doing God’s will. St. Faustina is an excellent example to guide us.

Let’s meditate on the “good thief”. He pled guilty to crimes deserving crucifixion. He judged that Jesus was innocent and had a spiritual kingdom He was going to. He recognized the spiritual abyss separating him from Jesus. His confession, followed by his plea for Divine Mercy, was rewarded by Jesus assuring him that “this day you will be in Paradise. Here we have a person who led an evil life, yet had enough conscience to recognize holiness in another and aspire to attain a higher level. However, please do not wait until your hour of death to ask for Divine Mercy.

No matter how large the gap of goodness is, God rewards for effort. What we must do is stop whining over our present level of being lukewarm. This is why the daily examination of conscience is helpful. It gives you a reading on how you are really doing. You need to use the results to firmly amend your life daily to reduce the gap of holiness between you and Jesus. If we put effort to steadily improve, rather than collapse because it seems so hopeless, God will reward you with His graces.

Jesus dictated the following to St. Faustina regarding ‘lukewarm souls’: “These souls wound My Heart most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: ‘Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be your will.’ For them, the last hope of salvation is to flee to My mercy.” [Diary of St. Faustina, para. 1228 1937/08/10]

The “good’ thief was one who fled to His mercy and was granted Divine Mercy. Do you want to continue being lukewarm and rely on an opportunity in your hour of death to confess and ask for mercy?

So march on my friend! Strive to improve your worthiness. Thank God, that He rates our effort higher than our success.

Laus tibi, Paulus

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Sep 26, 2006 ©

Musings on Obedience

Dear Seamus:

I have no wish to be a ‘burr under your saddle blanket’ concerning the legitimacy of disobedience to the Vatican when you think their rules and regulations are wrong. Let us examine another view in critiquing actions of others within the context of obedience to legitimate authority. You emphasize the word ‘love’. Even though God created mankind out of love, the word ‘love’ does not appear in God’s commandment to Adam, or His “Ten Commandments” to Moses” or the “Our Father”, the Prayer that Jesus gave us. What it does contain are God the Father’s rules and regulation regarding our moral conduct. In the “Our Father” we are asked to “hallow His name”, “do His will on earth”, “forgive those who trespass against us”, to avoid temptation and evil.

Obedience is our basic responsibility because God created each one with a free will and in His image and likeness, to know, love and serve Him here so that we can be with Him eternally when we die. Thus, we are children of God and heirs to His kingdom. With our free will we can choose to disobey God and incur a penalty. “Serving” Him requires obedience. At death those sins of ours, not yet forgiven and atoned for when we die, will be judged by the God of Justice. We would suffer punishment for our sins either in Hell eternally or in Purgatory temporarily; unless Jesus Christ exercises His Divine Mercy. God’s Divine love brought about the creation of Adam, then Eve, the promise of a God-man to redeem us, the issuing of Commandments, Prayers. Jesus repeated the Commandments, taught us the “Our Father”, commanded we do spiritual and corporal works of mercy and wrapped these “commandments” within His “Divine Commandment of Love”.

Jesus was commanded by God the Father to be Our Redeemer for the crime of Adam which required much pain and suffering to atone for that crime, original sin. All sin has consequences, be it reparation, atonement, punishment; and someone has to do it, unless Divine Mercy “wipes the slate clean”.

In the Garden of Olives Jesus, the God-man, knowing the pain and suffering He was to endure, asked His Father to relieve Him of His Redemptive mission; but Jesus agreed to obey His Father with the words “… not My will but Your will be done!” This is the essence of “obedience”. Jesus had grievances against Herod who slew all boys around His age of 2 ~ no playmates. If, during His public life in the Jerusalem area when preaching to the crowds, He asked all men, born in the area to rise, and then asked those older than 33 or younger than 30 to sit down, who beside Himself would be standing? Who killed His cousin John? How many members of the House of David were killed by Romans, etc.? I think these are legitimate grievances. Did He rant and rave against these murderers? When He was on the Cross, did He deliver a polemic against the Jewish religious and civil leaders? Did He rant to Caesar to eliminate the death penalty? [If He did, neither the gospel writers nor others wrote about it.]

What did He do? He became subject to His parents after being “AWOL” in the temple. To the centurion, He praised him for being a good and obedient boss who demanded obedience from his subjects and was good to them. To the people He said “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, to God the things that are God’s”. Jesus thought Caesar had legitimacy as a ruler and subjects had an obligation to obey. He did not castigate Herod or Pilate. On the cross He asked God the Father to forgive His tormentors. When asked for mercy from a condemned thief, He granted that thief Divine Mercy. Evidently His Father’s promise to Adam, the first disobedient person, to redeem mankind for Adam’s crime had priority. Jesus focused on doing what He was obligated to do.

St. Faustina, Jesus’ Secretary and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000, promised Jesus that she would do His will. When her confessor, superior or Bishop thwarted her efforts, she would get angry or ‘wrapped around the axle’. She ‘ranted’ to Jesus about her inability to do what Jesus ordered. He lectured her to be always obedient to her superiors, her Confessor and her Superior. If she had a legitimate gripe she was to obey then complain to Him, so that He can decide how else to accomplish His plan. He reminding Her that her suffering was like a drop in the ocean compared to what He suffered for her on the Cross. He encouraged her to continue doing His will through her Confessor.

On Nov. 11, 1924, in St. Faustina’s Diary, para. 0534, Jesus said: “I have come to do My Father’s will. I obeyed My parents, I obeyed My tormentors and now I obey the priests.” In Mar.1936, [para. 0639], Jesus said: “My daughter, I desire that even in the smallest things, you rely on your confessor. Your greatest sacrifices do not please Me if you practice them without the confessor’s permission; on the other hand, the smallest sacrifice finds great value in My eyes, ... On Jan. 22, 1937 in St. Faustina’s Diary, [para. 0894], Jesus said: “My daughter, know that you give Me greater glory by a single act of obedience than by longer prayers and mortifications.”

King Henry VIII had serious grievances against the Vatican regarding refusal of annulment of his marriage and many other requests. Though he got the proverbial bureaucratic treatment in most of his dealings with the Vatican, King Henry VIII, under his mantra of the “divine right of kings”, (like Caesar), chose to disobey the Pope, Vicar of Jesus, in the area of moral rules and regulation. In fact he appointed himself and his heirs “vicar” and formed the Church of England [C.O.E.]. Roman Catholics were coerced into exchanging their obedience to the Pope to obedience to Henry to become English Catholics.

Henry VIII’s disobedience has it’s terrible evil consequences, still continuing to this day. Those, that refused, faced martyrdom, imprisonment, confiscation of property, and more. The obligation for obedience to Henry, who usurped the “faith and morals” authority of the Pope, is really binding on no one; but out of human concern for themselves, their families, and their status thousands obeyed Henry VIII and deserted Christ’s Vicar. These people were led by clerical authorities who had also deserted Christ and His church. Many people assumed that the priesthood of these clerics required their obedience even though they separated themselves from the dynamic role of Jesus in their daily life through Confession and Communion. The disobedience of members of the C. O. E. continues; but many clerics and parishes with many members are returning to papal obedience.

Martin Luther, a Prince of the Church, having taken a vow of obedience to God and the Pope, had, what he thought was legitimate grievances against the Pope and his staff. His civil ruling hierarchy also had grievances against the Pope, and they inveighed upon Martin Luther to do something about it. If he went up the chain of command to his “Confessor”, the Pope, requesting satisfaction, he received none. Martin Luther’s response is to be a “whistle-blower”. He ranted and raved in public against the Pope and his staff, which agitated the public who were put in a position to take sides, creating a rift. Breaking his vow of obedience to Christ and His Vicar was his answer. Unfortunately many members of his flock followed this bad shepherd. Obedience to God through the Pope, Christ’s Vicar, was forbidden. He was going to do things his way. He was going to create his own command structure, the Lutheran Church, with himself as their “vicar” backed by civil authority. He tried to placate some of his flock, by saying that whenever he decided that Rome had repented and reformed he would subordinate himself and them to the Pope, the Vicar of Christ. [If you don’t play ball my way, I’ll pick up my marbles and go home”!] He wasn’t going to do things God’s way. There was no humbling of self to continue performing in accordance to God’s will.

The above historical events show the horrendous results of direct disobedience to moral authority on others. In a synopsis of the book “Jesus of Nazareth”, which was written by Pope Benedict XVI, the following excerpt applies: To save humanity "He must recapitulate the whole of history from its beginnings" (Page 26), he must conquer the principal temptations that, in various forms, threaten men in all ages and, transforming them into obedience, reopen the road toward God (Chapter 2), toward the true Promised Land, which is the "Kingdom of God" (Page 44). , ROME, APRIL 15, 2007 (Zenit.org)

Obedience to the will of God within ourselves begins after birth, first to our parents and onward through life to people and organizations due our obedience. Some of us took Baptismal vows, Confirmation vows, reconciliation vows, Nuptial vows and Priestly vows.

Some also take vows of obedience to their country, “Caesar”, and to various organizations. Not many of us “grin and bear it’ when we don’t want to obey. Most of us do our own ranting and raving at authority. Many times our reasons are legitimate. In families, schools and other groups, as children, we are called “tattle tails”. In business and government we are called “whistle blowers”, sometimes “traitor” is used. Whatever the case we most always receive punishment in some form. As adults, penalties including firing, blackballing, jail, damage suits are awaiting us.

We are often conflicted with choices that would violate God’s will. For us to resolve moral conflicts, whether under King Henry VIII, Martin Luther, our parents or other legitimate authorities, we have to choose obedience to God’s will or theirs. At conception God gave us a moral conscience to discern between good and evil, which gives us feedback of shame, [when choosing evil] or honor, [when choosing good].

Can our personal disobedience to moral authority have terrible effects on others? Disobedience to parents can badly influence other siblings. If not corrected your disobedience likely will continue with school and civil authorities which spreads this ‘disease’ to others – and on it goes. A horrendous example is when one uses drugs, then influences others to use drugs, then sells drugs to purchase more drugs. Thus our drug culture has enslaved millions of people since the mid 1900’s, and resulted in millions of other crimes including theft, human assaults, and deaths.

Moral disobedience, whether by parents, clergy or religious to God or Vatican, influence children to do the same. This has a cascading effect. Today, less than 40% participation in Christian worship services, less than 10% in seeking direct reconciliation with God through clergy for forgiveness of their personal sins. In effect God has been exiled from our lives even though many still go through the religious motions for social and other reasons.

Obedience to God’s will is our life’s work. True success will be recognized through our corporal and spiritual works of mercy. These emphasize our love of God, ourself and our neighbor. This in turn has a cascading effect on others who are influenced to obey God’s will and do good works. The mantra, “know, love and serve God” acts like an eternal reciprocating engine propelling us to God’s kingdom through obedience.

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

May 4, 2007 ©

Musings on Judgment before the Divine Tribunal of Justice

In my last two musings on “pagans and heaven” and “limbo”, arising from an article by Fr. James Gilhooley; Source: National Catholic REGISTER – Nov. 26 – Dec. 2 2006, I would like to explore the elements likely to be present at our own Divine judgment of our soul when we die.

Propositions:

P1 - Our death occurs when God withdraws from our body the immortal soul which He created at our conception in His image and likeness to know, love and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next. God, motivated by love created us as “sons of God and heirs of heaven”

P2 - Our immortal soul is eternal and is our persona. Our soul will never die. At our death we, in the form of our soul, will be judged, as to merit hell or heaven, before the Divine Tribunal of Justice

P3 - Hell, created by God, is where the soul is tortured forever and ever. [My “Musings on Limbo” elaborate what hell is.]

P4 - Heaven is where the souls see God forever as God wants us to see Him. [My “Musings on Limbo” elaborate what heaven consists in, including purgatory where some souls have to have the stains of sin cleansed from their soul.]

P5 - At conception God gave us free will to choose to do good or evil deeds, which makes each one personally responsible and accountable for their actions.

Musings:

M1 – What is this Divine Tribunal of Justice? I think we only need to look at our court systems in developed civilizations. Basically a person is brought before a judge to answer to charges leveled against him by a prosecutor. In a general overview of the court procedure he prosecutor presents the facts in the case. The person is asked to plead – “What say you?” If the person pleads “guilty”, the judge asks if there is anything to say before judgment is passed. The person can ask for mercy or remain silent. The judge seeks recommendations from the prosecutor. The judge passes judgment and determines the punishment, if any. Case is closed. If the person pleads “not guilty” then a trial of facts begins –prosecutor versus defense attorney, then a verdict and so on.

M2 – How did humans arrive at such procedures as being respectful of the person? I think we unwittingly emulate a similar procedure instituted by God [see P1]. Somehow we are being guided and prompted in the interacting with God and our neighbor.

M3 – Maybe the Divine Tribunal of Justice works like this:

1. Tribunal is composed of 3 persons – Father [as Judge], -- Son [as Defender] – Holy Spirit [as Prosecutor].

2. A human soul [as defendant]

3. The Prosecutor, the Holy Spirit, displays the defendant’s life of deeds for all to see. This is where there are no lies, no alibis, etc. Just the facts are shown, including true intentions, true circumstances, etc. Even the true levels are shown of knowledge and understanding, etc. The truthfulness and clarity of the defendants good and bad deeds will be well understood by the defendant. The defendant understands himself for the first time and his degree of holiness with respect to his Creator.

4. The Prosecutor sums up the good and the bad, if any. If none, the Divine Tribunal welcomes this soul into heaven as a member of the Community of Saints.

5. If there are bad actions, the Judge asks the defendant how he pleads as to the bad.

6. The defendant can respond in several ways:

a. Admits guilt and sorrow with a plea for Divine Mercy

b. Admits guilt with no expression of sorrow

c. Rebukes the Tribunal with expressions of hatred

7. The Judge asks His Son, Jesus Christ, the Defender, if He has anything to say:

a. The Defender could respond – “I do not know this person!” but gives council to the Judge as to mercy.

b. The Defender would respond if the person was a baptized person who died in the “state of Grace” – I know this person and could recommend some degree of Divine Mercy.

8. The Judge issues His final judgment of the defendant:

a. Complete exoneration of guilt with direct access to the Community of Saints or

b. Guilty but with reduced time in Purgatory based on attitude of sorrow and good works in his life or

c. Guilty without mitigating time of punishment in Purgatory or

d. Guilty with an eternity of punishment in Hell.

M4 – Judgment is a very complex subject; but natural to do. God’s gift of a soul to us has the basic functional elements of judging. We are born with the basic cognitive ability to compare one thing with another thing. In the area of morality, where our activities have a moral aspect, we were given by God a set of rules, based on His moral law. Our souls are wired to normally compare actions, to be taken or being taken or yet to be taken, against these moral laws to determine the moral goodness or evil of them. This process is done naturally by our conscience.

Conscience is the functional means of our being accountable for our obedience to these rules. However, God gave each a free will to choose to do good or evil actions. This means that willful evil actions carry a penalty. We have a current quip, “If you do the crime you do the time.” Our worldly justice system embodies this mantra. God has communicated to us in many ways through many religions and more importantly through our own internal reaction when we commit an action. Evil deeds produce revulsion, while good deeds produce elation. Our actions are motivated by love, the same motivation that God has as our Creator, or by hatred, the same motivation that Satan has as our enemy. Both prompt us to do act using love. Love of God or love of self, Godless love, as the motivation. Therein is the difficulty for us to discern our true motivation, and then choose to do God’s will or the Devil’s will. [“The Screwtape Letters” by C. S. Lewis provide insights of insidious ways we should consider an evil action as good.]

Who has the right to judge? Well in the basic sense each of us has an obligation to judge our actions as good or evil. But do we have the right to judge the actions of others as being good or evil? Yes, in the sense that another’s action is in conformance or nonconformance with rules or laws, we use our judgments as a guide to determine our response. In the “Our Father” given to us by Christ the words “deliver us from evil and lead us not into temptation”, we ask for God’s help in doing His will. We are obligated to use these judgments to guide our own actions towards doing good and avoiding evil. With our free will, which God does not control, we receive, through our conscience, guidance on the morality of our actions from God, which we are free to use or ignore. This is each of us is accountable to God for our actions.

M5 – Forgiveness is a very important component in judgment. Offenses to other humans and to God incur punishment which must be addressed before we die or when we die. We often express sorrow and ask forgiveness for offenses against others and God, leaving the person offended the choice of forgiveness and at times a requirement for atonement. This process is evident at all levels of our civilization. It is well to remember that when Christ was hanging on His cross, He asked His Father in heaven “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!” Who is “them”? “Them” includes the chief priests of His Jewish people and others. We can be assured that no offense we commit will be worse than the crime of deicide. Our need is to confess to our guilt and express sorrow and ask for forgiveness; but this requires us to humble ourselves before the offended.

M6 – Mercy is also a very important component in judgment. Mercy is used by the one offended to remit all or part of the punishment due to our offenses. This is also frequently used by us, our parents, and other levels of civilization, including our court systems, when finding some redeeming aspects of our actions. It is also used by God. It is also well to remember that when Christ was hanging on His cross, one of the thieves being crucified confessed publicly to his guilt and to his belief that Christ was innocent. He turned to Christ and said “Remember me when you come into your kingdom!” Christ looked at him and said “This day you will be with Me in paradise!” Wow!! This thief had a death bed confession and received Divine Mercy which remitted all atonement and punishment. The thief recognized the goodness of the Lord and responded to Christ after he heard Christ asking His Father to forgive the Jewish leaders and others. Divine Mercy is available to all who recognize they have offended and confess.

M6 – The bottom line for us that gaining our inheritance in heaven is largely dependent on our actions being motivated by love of God, our Father, rather than love of self (self gratification). Trusting in God and freely submitting our will to the good promptings from God is our life long battle. We need to heed the promptings of the Holy Spirit to do good, much like the 3 Kings from the East who heeded promptings of the Holy Spirit and traveled from afar to pay homage in Bethlehem to Jesus Christ who restored our rights, forfeited by Adam, to our inheritance by His Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Musings on Limbo

In Fr. Gilhooley’s “Limbo” article: “How Long Will Limbo Be Limbo?”

By Fr. James Gilhooley; Source: National Catholic REGISTER – Nov. 26 – Dec. 2 2006

Limbo is a subject that the Catholic Church has wrestled with for centuries. There is so much dissension. Why not stir up the pot? My musings have the structure of some points of information which are grouped under Declarations, Heaven as a kingdom, Truths. Then I muse a bit and then I leave the reader with a group of Questions to meditate on and muse about themselves.

Declarations:

D1 – Aquinas etal, at Univ. of Paris in 15^th century, declared that pagan babies went to limbo, not to heaven. Souls ended up in heaven, limbo or hell.

D2 – Augustine etal, in 418, declared that pagan babies went to hell, because there was no other place to go. Baptized babies would go to heaven. Souls ended up in heaven or hell.

Heaven as a kingdom:

H1 – Jerusalem Temple had areas for Jews and Gentiles

H2 – In the parable about the virgins in courtyard awaiting the Bridegroom to open the gate to the mansion. 10 wise virgins with lit lanterns entered after the bridegroom; but 10 virgins with unlit lanterns were refused entry.

H3 – When invited to dine by the master of a house, on entry into the courtyard the guest was cleaned up and arrayed before being greeted by his host.

H4 - Jesus said My dominion has many mansions and rooms.

Truths:

T1 – Man is created in His image and likeness, to know, love and serve God in this life, and to be happy with Him in the next.

T2 – God’s punishment of souls resulted in eternal punishment in hell or temporary punishment in purgatory before meeting God.

T3 – God created 2 torture pits for punishment of unforgiven sins: hell which is eternal & purgatory, which might be temporary.

Musings:

M1 – Starting with first truths [T1 –T3]

1. Hell is a separate entity of God’s creation. Its denizens are angels and humans.

Recent revelations from Christ in Oct. 1936 to His Secretary, St. Faustina, during her 8 day retreat follow:

“Today I was led by an angel to the chasms of Hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: (1) the first torture that constitutes Hell is the loss of God; (2) the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; (3) the third is that one’s condition will never change; (4) the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it --- a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; (5) the fifth torture is continual darkness, and a terrible suffocating smell, and, despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; (6) the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; (7) the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. These are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no Hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like.” [Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 2000; para. 0741; Marian Press, Stockbridge, MA 01262]

This happened 1900 years after our Redemption. This scares the ‘hell’ out of me. How about you?

2. Purgatory is a separate entity of God’s creation. Its denizens are humans (maybe angels). It purges, through temporal punishment, a human’s soul in atonement of their sins. [“If you do the crime, you do the time!”]. Is it only a temporal place with no eternity?

Recent revelations from Christ in Aug. 1925 to His Secretary, St. Faustina, during her 8 day retreat follow:

“I saw my Guardian Angel, who ordered me to follow him. In a moment I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid. The flames which were burning them did not touch me at all. My Guardian Angel did not leave me for an instant. I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God. I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call her “The Star of the Sea.” She brings them refreshment. I wanted to talk with them some more, but my Guardian Angel beckoned me to leave. We went out of that prison of suffering. [God said to St. Faustina “My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it.”] ” [Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 2000; para. 0020; Marian Press, Stockbridge, MA 01262]

Purgatory allows visitors. It is a place of hope and a place of prayer. The Blessed Virgin Mary brings refreshments. It looks like a part of heaven to me. Would St. Augustine and St. Thomas change their declarations [D1 and D2 above]? I think so. Isn’t Purgatory similar to heavenly analogies [H1 and H3 above]? One could argue that purgatory is part of the estate of heaven. I think the “hell” that the crucified Christ descended into, from He rose, is analogous to H2 above.

M2 – Limbo, when discussed in light of Musing 1 (above), certainly appears to part of the estate of heaven. To all the people, who say baptized Catholics will see the Beatific Vision, I am convinced a more proper description, covering all who go to heaven, is that a soul will see God as He wants to be seen by that soul.

I’ll leave the reader with the following Questions. Maybe purgatory is eternal?

Questions:

Q1 – Is heaven a place of only bliss with no temporary punishment and “the skies are not cloudy all day”?

Q2 - Is there room for a discouraging word in heaven?

Q3 – Are the intellect and will inactive in heaven so that sinning is impossible?

Q4 – Did the angels rebel only once under Lucifer’s leadership or does it continue?

Q5 – Can angels sin in a minor way? Is purgatory their punishment?

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Dec. 15, 2006 ©

Musings on Pagans and Heaven

In Fr. Gilhooley’s “Limbo” article on the various Church teachings on unbaptized babies, he said St. Augustine's teaching was that pagans [including unbaptized babies] would end up in hell. This teaching was adopted by the Church Council of 418. Augustine’s teaching held sway with Catholic theologians until Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960’s. The Council fathers taught that that everyone, baptized Christians and the unbaptized, could achieve salvation. The sacrifice of Jesus, the Christ, on Calvary encompassed everyone for all time.

Christ did give the Vatican the power “to bind and loose”; but not the power to “veto” God’s plan as to creation. The Vatican has contradicted the will of God who, alone, creates humans “in His image and likeness, to know, love and serve God in this life, and to be happy with Him in the next”. Every human since Eve has begun life at conception with an immortal soul. They all belong to “God’s” religion before belonging to a particular creed. All are destined to be in heaven for they are “sons of God and heirs of heaven”, regardless of race color or creed. All are given a free will, which gives each human the right to choose good or evil, to claim or forfeit their heavenly inheritance. When each human is born, since Adam & Eve, the path back to God begins. Before Christ and after Christ the rules of God’s natural law, imbedded in each human soul, guide the human toward heaven. After Christ, those humans, who have not heard or comprehended the message of Christ through His ministers, have God’s natural law, His natural grace and His promptings to help them “do good and avoid evil”.

Did Christ give His ministers the right to veto God’s natural law? Some of the Doctors of Theology apparently think so. Even God’s natural law involving the movement of the planets was temporarily vetoed by many Doctors, who chose Copernicus’s finding – that the earth was the center of our galaxy and all planets revolved around it. Poor Galileo was hung out to twist in the wind until the Church recanted. Imagine the damage assessment report that could be made on the impact from over-reaching their Christ-given authority.

Were the Church do a thorough damage assessment of the ruling sponsored by St. Augustine in the 5^th century, the results would be horrific. Imagine the resentment and lack of respect toward the Church since the 418 by non-Catholics and Catholics [even among the chosen religious] growing wider over the last 15 centuries until Vatican II declared the truth of God’s purpose for all humans is the same.

I have met much enmity at the Church from many people for the last 60 years, based on a prevailing belief that St. Augustine’s ruling is still in play. Indeed, even today, some Benedictines harbor that belief. The results of a damage assessment should be proactive actions to repair the evil. Mere words in a Vatican II document or media reports are too little. The Church is obligated to do more publicly, with “mea cupla’s”, by preaching the truth themselves worldwide, and not just from their pulpits. Why should a human see Christ as the Good Shepherd in the Catholic Church, leading us on the path to heaven, when His chosen ministers put out the message that “heaven is only for Catholics in the state of grace?”

In the Letters of St. James, in the New Testament, he warns against creating a caste system where non-Catholics are treated openly as inferiors. Doing this would be in violation of Christ’s example and teaching. In fact, in August 1937, Christ personally dictated to St. Faustina the wording of His Divine Mercy Novena, which runs 9 days from Good Friday until Mercy Sunday. Each day of the Novena Christ singles out groups of people for His consideration for Divine Mercy. The 4^th day is dedicated to “the pagans and those who do not yet know Me”. [Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 2000;para. 1216; Marian Press, Stockbridge, MA 01262] St. Faustina was appointed by Christ to be His Secretary. Pope John Paul II canonized St. Faustina on May 30, 2000.

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Dec. 8, 2006 ©