Happy Birthday to you my Jesus....

The word Advent derives from the Latin word meaning coming. The Lord is coming. We may reflect that every year at this time we celebrate his coming , so that in a sense we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been robbed of much of the true meaning of this season.

During Advent we recall the history of God's people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This gives us a background for the present. Today we can reflect on the past track record of God and so begin to understand what it means to us now for the sake of what is to come, in our own future and that of our world.

© Liguori Publications Excerpt from Advent - A Quality Storecupboard The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer

Stages of Sin from St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Fasten Your Seatbelt!

By: Msgr. Charles Pope

There are just times when a saint speaks and one is stunned by the insight, the piercing analysis, like a surgeon’s scalpel dividing diseased from healthy tissue. Such is the case with a quote I read recently from St. Bernard that Ralph Martin references in his Book “The Fulfillment of all desires.”

In this quote Bernard analyzes the descent into the increasing darkness of sin experienced by those who do not turn back, who refuse to hear the call to repent. And not individuals only, but, I would argue, cultures too.

St. Bernard’s quote is long enough that I can only make brief comments. But consider it first in toto, and then in stages. Here is the full quote:

If this cold once penetrates the soul when (as so often happens) the soul is neglectful and the spirit asleep and if no one (God forbid) is there to curb it, then it reaches into the soul’s interior, descends to the depths of the heart and the recesses of the mind, paralyzes the affections, obstructs the paths of counsel, unsteadies the light of judgment, fetters the liberty of the spirit, and soon – as appears to bodies sick with fever – a rigor of the mind takes over: vigor slackens, energies grow languid, repugnance for austerity increases, fear of poverty disquiets, the soul shrivels, grace is withdrawn, time means boredom, reason is lulled to sleep, the spirit is quenched, the fresh fervor wanes away, a fastidious lukewarmness weighs down, brotherly love grows cold, pleasure attracts, security is a trap, old habits return. Can I say more? The law is cheated, justice is rejected, what is right is outlawed, the fear of the Lord is abandoned. Shamelessness finally gets free rein. There comes that rash leap, so dishonorable, so disgraceful, so full of ignominy and confusion; a leap from the heights into the abyss, from the court-yard to the dung-heap, from the throne to the sewer, from heaven to the mud, from the cloister to the world, from paradise to hell. (sermon 63.6b on the Song of Songs, The Fox in the Vineyard).

And now consider the stages, with brief comments by me to  them along the way. Fasten your Seat belts, turbulence ahead.

1. If this cold once penetrates the soul when (as so often happens) the soul is neglectful and the spirit asleep - For it too easily happens that we are morally or spiritually asleep. And this provides doorways for the evil one, for the world, the flesh, and the devil. Jesus warns, Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt 26:41). And yet we love to sleep. We also love to anesthetize ourselves with alcohol, drugs, and other diversions. Jesus says in one of the parables that he sowed good seed in his field, But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away (Matt 13:25). We love to sleep. Bad stuff happens when we are spiritually and morally asleep.

2. and if no one (God forbid) is there to curb it, then it reaches into the soul’s interior, descends to the depths of the heart and the recesses of the mind - If we are smart, we walk in spiritual company with the Church, and with close spiritual friends and spiritual leaders in the Church. Even if, at times we get sleepy, they rouse us and warn us. But too many do not do this and if they pray at all they are lone rangers and many drift from or discount the voice of the Church and family members. Thus, in our weakness there is no one, by our own fault, to warn us, or if some one does, we ignore or ridicule them. Thus the darkness of sin reaches deeper into our interior.

3. paralyzes the affections, - our desires being to go awry first. Our desire for spiritual things is shutting down.

4. obstructs the paths of counsel, The darkness of sin makes good counsel seem difficult at first, obnoxious later. For example, one may begin to wonder, “Why does it matter if I go to Mass or not? What’s the big deal….Why is looking at a little porn so bad….why is the Church so “uptight” about stuff?”

5. unsteadies the light of judgment - Severed from good counsel our judgments become poor and self serving.

6. fetters the liberty of the spirit - The (human) spirit is that part of us that opens us to God, that delights in the truth and in goodness. But as the flesh begins to dominate, the spirit’s influence is diminished and its “liberty” to move within us to draw us to the good, true and beautiful, is hindered.

7. and soon – as appears to bodies sick with fever – a rigor of the mind takes over: – Our thoughts become distorted, stinking thinking begins to masquerade as sensible. As St. Paul says of the Gentiles of his time that, having suppressed the truth, they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools (Rom 1:21-22)

8. vigor slackens - What was once virtuous, i.e. a good habit and easy to do, now seems hard and one lacks strength or vigor to do good.

9. energies grow languid - Without the enthusiasm of an alive spirit infused with grace we begin to lack the energy to do what is good and right. It all seems so much harder, so much effort!

10. repugnance for austerity increases - As the spirit goes more into a coma and the flesh becomes more demanding, any limits to pleasure make us wince and get angry. It is almost like a gluttony wherein  the stomach is stretched and must have a bigger meal each time to satisfy. Never, satisfied, the flesh demands more and more, and any notion of limits causes anger and avoidance.

11. fear of poverty disquiets – The more we get, the more we have to lose and the less secure we feel. The world and the flesh now have in their grip through fear. Poverty is freeing, but wealth enslaves. You can’t steal from a man who has nothing to lose, you can’t intimidate him. But a rich person, a person rooted in the world has too much to lose and is thus disquieted by even the most benign of threats. The laborer’s sleep is sweet, whether he has eaten little or much; but the rich man’s wealth will not let him sleep at all. (Eccles  4:11)

12. the soul shrivels - Just as any part of the body which is underused begins to atrophy (weaken and shrink) so too the soul and its faculties, increasingly unused, recede, grow weak and go dormant.

13. grace is withdrawn - as sin grows serious, now mortal sin robs the soul of graces.

14. time means boredom - without spiritual insight, boredom is sure to follow. Nothing has real meaning. Even the delights of the flesh, now so demanded, fail to satisfy. Scripture says regarding a soul in this state: All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun (Eccles 1:8-9)

15. reason is lulled to sleep - foolish thinking is not seen for what it is. One cannot follow the path of simple logic or reason because the flesh feel threatened by it. Sins of the flesh are not the most serious of sins (sins of the spirit are) but they are the most disgraceful because of their capacity to cloud the mind.

16. the spirit is quenched - The human spirit becomes increasingly dead.

17. the fresh fervor wanes away - Even good days, spiritually speaking are fewer and fewer.

18. a fastidious lukewarmness weighs down - one actually begins to cultivate mediocrity, compromise and to celebrate it as open-minded, tolerant and avoiding “extremes.”

19. brotherly love grows cold - Was it Camus or Sartre who said, “Hell is other people.” Yes, sin is growing very deep now, the world is closing in on an increasingly petty object: “Me.”

20. pleasure attracts - It always has, but now inordinately and with greater and greater power.

21. security is a trap - In other words it is a lie. This world is a thief. It takes back everything, no matter what the John Hancock Insurance Co. says. But increasingly the sinful soul prefers lies to truth, even knowing deep down that they are lies.

22. old habits return - If one had made progress in virtue, now it erodes.

23. Can I say more? The law is cheated – In other words, legalism and minimalism becomes a tactic. One seeks the “least expensive” interpretation of everything, parses words, and uses every trick to see how the clearly manifest will of God is either not clear, does not apply or how it can be observed in the most perfunctory of ways. One will often collect experts to tickle their ears. Whatever it takes to cheat the law, skirt the edges and reinterpret clear norms.

24. justice is rejected – After cheating the law the next step down is just to reject it outright. The person does not care what God says. They now begin to exult the imperial autonomous self saying in effect that they will do what they want and they will decide if it is right or wrong.

25. what is right is outlawed, - next comes trying to outlaw others from proclaiming the truth. Call what they say “hate speech” fine them, arrest them make them answer in court. Banish the truth from schools and the public square. Demonize and criminalize all possible ways of proclaiming the truth.

26. the fear of the Lord is abandoned - The delusion that one will never face consequences of judgement for what they do is embraced. They will answer to God, but they deny it and are permitted a very deep delusion that they will never have to answer for what they do.

27. Shamelessness finally gets free rein Things that ought to cause shame, and used to do so are now celebrated. Scripture laments them saying, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Rom 1:32). The celebration of sin, even the exultation of it as virtue shows that the darkness is now complete, the fall reaches as cracking and crushing thud. St Bernard describes it this way:

There [has come] that rash leap, so dishonorable, so disgraceful, so full of ignominy and confusion; a leap from the heights into the abyss, from the court-yard to the dung-heap, from the throne to the sewer, from heaven to the mud, from the cloister to the world, from paradise to hell.

Pay attention to what the Saints say. There are some who will no doubt dismiss this post as negative etc. I am more concerned if it is true, rather than negative (or positive). My own experience as Pastor, teacher, disciple, sinner and denizen of the world, is that St. Bernard is right on target and has given us a kind of diagnostic manual of the progression of the disease know as sin. Read this, ponder it, consider your own life, and consider too the lives of people you love.

Disease unattended has a way of moving deeper in stages to become grave if we do not soberly assess its presence and power and use the medicines of the Prayer, Scripture, Sacraments, and Fellowship with the Church (cf Acts 2:42).

Are you praying with me?? Listen to St. Bernard of Clairvaux

The Devil’s War on Silence

by Dan Burke Tuesday, October 01, 2013 7:03 PM Comments (73)

There are key strategies of indirect attack that the enemy of our souls uses to significantly disrupt our spiritual progress. One is the corruption of human sexuality. As the analogy of holy spousal love is one of the most effective in understanding divine intimacy, the enemy desires to corrupt human sexuality in order to further obscure what it means to understand the possibilities of union with God. 

Similarly, there is another indirect attack that wreaks havoc on the soul’s ability grow in intimacy with God — noise. In our culture, noise is everywhere. Day after day, our peace is invaded by television screens at gas pumps screaming ads and programming at us, music in stores, and thousands of television, internet and radio encounters that pump this poison into our souls.

Recently, I spent some time with a relative who appears to be spiritually dead. Her daily routine looks something like this: Rise, turn on the TV and get ready. Leave the TV on until daily activities take her from home — time to get in the car and turn on the radio to listen to music or talk radio or to make phone calls. Once back home, turn on the TV again until it is time to go to sleep (or sleep with it on). When I asked if she ever allowed for silence (as she reports that she prays often and is “spiritual”), she guffawed as if I were suggesting she enjoy a bowl of dry oatmeal.

I wish this were different with some of my Catholic friends (who I am sure I will be in trouble with once they read this). I am thinking of one, in particular, who is faithful and who does have a desire to know the Lord. However, she can’t seem to make the time (or exercise the will) to incorporate silence into her life in order to listen, hear and learn the voice of God. She will complain from time to time that she never seems to hear from God, but any suggestion of the need to cultivate silence is met with an irritated glance.

Sometimes we are simply afraid to stop and listen. Coming out of a disastrous youth myself, I had a great deal of emotional pain to deal with. My own thought life was out of control, and once any emotional event invaded my life, those thoughts often ran a torturous course throughout the coming hours, days and nights. Many people suffer these same challenges, such that silence becomes a threat. It becomes a place where we are confronted with those things that God desires to heal — a healing we often resist. For me, the enemy tormented me through the sins of others, then I compounded these sins with my own, and then the master musician of deception proposed a solution that I took hook, line and sinker — noise, distraction, and lots of it. With no silence in my life, I couldn’t hear God’s voice calling and leading me out of the pain. Cycle complete.

Here’s an insightful rant from C.S. Lewis, through the character of the senior demon in his masterpiece, The Screwtape Letters:

Those who understand the realities of how God works and speaks to us know that silence is critical for the health of our souls and to develop any degree of intimacy with God. We must cultivate times of silence daily if we are to learn to hear his voice. If the Lord seems a mere distant reality to you, maybe it’s because the enemy has sucked you into his plan of noisy distraction. He is working overtime to ensure that God’s voice never makes it past the noise you have allowed into your life: the noise of busy-ness, the noise of entertainment, the noise of news, the noise of music (even Christian music), and even the noise of a prayer life limited to vocal prayer (yup).

So maybe it is time to choose to face the silence, even if it means a bit of spiritual surgery. I have never met anyone who has taken this challenge and has regretted it.

We must be still to know that God is, and to find the healing and fulfillment that can only come through a living relationship with him. Ironically, it is when we are surrounded by silence that we can hear the most.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/dan-burke/the-devils-war-on-silence#ixzz2hCYiOAN5

Happy Birthday to you Mother Mary....We will always love U and honor U...

Padro Pio: All they needed was a miracle

... and two people desperately ill in hospital in Belfast say they got just that thanks to the Italian saint. In exclusive extracts from a new book by Colm Keane they tell their extraordinary stories

'I was deteriorating ... I wasn't responding'

Charlene, from Co Londonderry, tells of her revival from a brain tumour, thanks to Padre Pio. The event dates back to 2003. She says:

On the day before my 11th birthday, I felt unwell. I was sick and had a sore head. I'd been out playing, but I came in and told mummy and daddy how I felt. I had a lie-down and I ended up sleeping for a few hours. When I woke up, I felt just as bad. The left-hand side of my face had dropped. I couldn't open my left eye and my speech was quite slurred. I also had a very bad headache.

My parents took me for a check-up. After examining me, the doctors thought it might be a case of Bell's palsy, which is a form of facial paralysis. Although they were letting me go home, mummy knew there wasn't something right, so she asked them to send me to the hospital, which they did.

At this stage, I was deteriorating. I was spaced out and I wasn't interacting. Whenever someone asked me a question, it was taking me about 10 minutes to answer. The doctor did some tests and I wasn't responding.

She noticed that my symptoms were on my left side, so she put a pen on my left side and said: "Charlene, can you lift that pen?" I reached across with my right hand to lift it. She knew then that it had something to do with my brain. They kept me in the hospital that night. On the next day – my 11th birthday – I can remember some things that happened. I can particularly remember the doctor coming in and taking my mummy and daddy away. They came back about 30 minutes later. I noticed that their faces were blotchy and there were tears in their eyes. I knew something was wrong.

 

They told me I had a brain tumour. As I was just 11, I didn't know what a brain tumour was and I was asking them about it. The tumour was the size of a man's fist and was in the middle of my brain. The doctors told my family to prepare for the worst. They even thought I might die that night.

Then, because the hospital didn't have the facilities to care for me, I was driven by ambulance in the middle of the night to the children's hospital in Belfast.

After a day or two, a brain surgeon came in to see me. He sat down beside my bed. He said he had taken my files home the night before. He believed he had something to offer me that others couldn't offer.

Apparently, nobody else felt that they could take my case on because of the severity of what was wrong. I had only a 20% chance of survival. However, he said he would do the surgery.

Two nights before the operation, a man came in with the mitt of Padre Pio. My mummy and daddy had arranged for him to see me. I was lying in my bed and my family were around me. The man told me to lift my head up, as I was very weak at the time. I felt really tired and closed my eyes. Everyone then started saying the Rosary and prayed to Padre Pio to intercede for me.

While my eyes were still closed, I could feel this pressure at the top of my head. I wasn't sure what was causing it, but I thought it was the man pushing on my head. I didn't open my eyes, but I felt this pushing and pushing. There were tears coming out of my eyes and I felt a sensation coming over my body, right down to my stomach.

The whole thing lasted only about five minutes and then the man left. I said to mummy, "Why was that man pushing so hard against my head?" She said, "Charlene, he wasn't. He was with us at the bottom of the bed; there was no-one at the top of the bed."

All we could think of was that the pressure I felt had something to do with Padre Pio.

Two days later, I had my operation. They had to open up my skull and the operation lasted eight-and-a-half hours. It was hard on me, but it was even harder on my family who didn't know what was going on.

We later heard that they had removed most of the tumour. Only a very small fraction was left behind. They then analysed what they had taken out and it was benign.

They first told my mummy and daddy that it was benign and it was they who told me. We were all so relieved. It also hadn't spread through my body.

They also told us that what was left of the tumour would never change. They said it would never get smaller, but it would either stay the same or, God forbid, it might grow. However, contrary to what they said, the tumour has actually shrunk over time.

The doctors were astounded at how well everything had gone. They couldn't believe it. From the first night I entered hospital, they thought I wouldn't survive. After the operation, I even got home early. They expected me to be in hospital for a month at least; however, I was home six days later. So I really believe what happened was a miracle.

I'm fine now and every day I wake up and I am so thankful. I also am devoted to Padre Pio. I have no doubt he interceded for me and looked after me. I believe I am here now because of the power of prayer and through his intercession. As a result, I love him dearly and regard him as a very good friend."

'How my dad had his hands blessed by man who became a saint'

John Coyle, from Co Down, recollects his father's early visit to San Giovanni Rotondo to see Padre Pio. He says:

My dad Sean, who was born in 1917, and his sister Gabrielle, who was older than him, travelled to San Giovanni in the mid-1950s. My dad had studied the piano from a very early age and was a full-time musician. He was a concert pianist of some repute and used to give recitals and performances in Belfast.

My dad and his sister got the ferry to England and worked their way down to Dover. They eventually got the train from France to Italy and then made their way from Rome to Foggia and on to San Giovanni. It would have been a tough trip.

When they got to San Giovanni, they stayed in the only hotel that was there at the time. Dad's musical ability soon came to people's attention. At dinner, one day, he was given a piano-keyed accordion and was asked to play a couple of tunes. He did this and it seems they liked it. Afterwards, every time he would come into the restaurant the Italian owners would say: "The musical maestro!"

Eventually, my dad received Holy Communion from Padre Pio. The occasion is recorded in a black-and-white photo. You can see dad in a heavy coat and wearing a scarf and a white shirt, with dark, neat hair and his mouth open, receiving the communion on his tongue. In the photo, Padre Pio is distributing it with his right hand and you can make out the mitten quite clearly.

Gabrielle is kneeling on dad's left. She is wearing a hat with a veil and is looking very devout. There is an extraordinary look of love on her face. However, the centrepiece of the photo is Padre Pio, who looks very peaceful and compassionate. We still have the photo to this day.

My dad also went to confession with Padre Pio. He was given a sheet with a list of misdemeanours or sins on it and he had to tick off what applied to him. This was apparently because Padre Pio didn't speak English, although he understood it. When he was in confession, the padre listened intently to him and then gave him a sort of a tap on the jaw. It was a light, gentle tap, probably implying: "You bold boy!" My aunt Gabrielle also went to confession with him. She said that he was harder on the women than on the men. In addition, dad had his hands blessed by Padre Pio. He really had a remarkable touch with his hands and they meant a lot to him. He was, after all, a concert pianist and he taught piano as well.

When I got older, I also developed devotion to Padre Pio. I then decided I should go to San Giovanni, probably to make the same journey my dad had made. I suppose I wanted the next generation to keep the connection between our family and Padre Pio. I wanted to maintain our link with his story and his mysticism and his intense holiness. But it was also partly for me.

Unfortunately, that time, I never saw Padre Pio's body. On the day I arrived, they had closed the place where he was to go on display, in order to do renovations. I also went back in 2011, for a second pilgrimage, and I didn't see the body then either because it was no longer on view; it had been reinterred in a sealed casket.

On that second trip, my brother Patrick was with me. He is also a concert pianist, just like my dad was. When we were there, in our hotel, some of the pilgrims we were with knew of his musical talent. They asked him if he would play the piano for them. That's what he did. He gave an impromptu recital in the lounge, to the delight of the pilgrims and hotel staff. It was reminiscent of what had happened with my father all those years before.

I was a bit disappointed that I never saw Padre Pio, but maybe he had a reason why that should have been. However, my dad's visit is still recalled in our family."

'Our son was critically ill, now he's back at work'

Pat, from Co Donegal, explains the role of Padre Pio in his son's rehabilitation from a brain injury. He was cared for at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He says:

It all happened on October 26, 2003. That day, my son played Gaelic football for his team. He was 19. They won the match and went for a few beers afterwards. The whole town was out as it was a big event. They had won the league and were promoted and it was a big celebration. I was there, too, giving my cousin a hand behind the bar.

My son's drink spilled over and he decided to go home and get changed before they all went elsewhere. It was around 10 o'clock at night. I said, "I'll leave you home." He said, "No, no, stay where you are." It was a good, clear night, not too dark or anything. So off he went, on his own, to home, which was just over a bridge and a turn to the left.

He walked over the bridge and he either stopped to make or receive a phone call. A car was coming and it hit him. He was only about two steps from safety when he was knocked down. He got a bad laceration on the back of his leg, but the main thing was head injuries. His skull was fractured and he had swelling of the brain. He was unconscious. He was in a very bad way.

I was still in the bar, but I heard that somebody had been killed at the bridge. I walked over, not realising what had taken place. I didn't hear it was my son until I was nearly there. Having been told that somebody had been killed, I feared the worst. But I then heard he was alive and that gave me hope.

By the time I got there, my son was wrapped in tinfoil and was being put into the back of an ambulance. It was clear that things were bad. There was blood coming from his nose and his ears and wherever. His head was badly swollen. He was rushed to the local hospital and we followed by car. Once they got there, he was brought into intensive care. They immediately put him on a life-support machine and started to work on him. It was made clear to us that things were very serious and if there were any family members away, get them home.

My wife's mother was there and was very determined to get my son to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Eventually, they sent two ambulances and a team down from the Royal and took him to Belfast. He was still in a deep coma when he got there. We were again told he was critical and very sick.

His brain was still swelling badly. It wasn't coming down and it was getting worse if anything. They had to use drains. They were considering operating on him to remove a piece of the skull, which would let the brain swell freely. We were very worried about that.

I'm not sure who contacted Bill McLaughlin, the man who had the Padre Pio relic. He arrived about a week after the accident. I have no idea how Bill got to see my son. Although we were always there, Bill got in and out without anyone seeing him. We must have gone for tea or something. He phoned me afterwards to tell me he had been and gone. He said he had brought in the mitten and prayed. He also said, "Your son will be grand. He'll be fine. Don't worry."

Almost immediately, things improved. The swelling on my son's brain started to come down. His coma scale began to rise. The scale measures the level of coma a person is in. My son had been running at three, as deep into a coma as you can get. He started rising slowly. Initially, he didn't come up far, although he came up enough to be moved from intensive care to high dependency.

We could see the first signs that things were improving. He opened his eyes every now and again. He had finger movement. His body would start moving at certain times. We still didn't know what the outcome would be and we worried that he might never properly recover. It was also being stressed that it would all take time. The good news, however, was that with the swelling coming down, the operation never took place.

After two weeks in Belfast, where my son was cared for brilliantly, he was moved back to a hospital closer to home. He was still in a coma and it took four weeks, all told, for him to emerge from it. But he improved all the time. He is now absolutely grand. He is married, with a son. His mobility is fine, he can walk and talk and is back at work.

I attribute the turning point – the bringing down of the swelling – to Padre Pio.

That was critical. As regards the rest of it, my wife worked hard with him. But I will always believe that the day Bill came in and the swelling stopped was the defining moment. It was my son's turning point.

Something definitely happened and everything changed right after."

Are most Catholics in America going to hell?

by Jimmy Akin Thursday, June 20, 2013 10:37 PM Comments (288)

Are most American Catholics going to hell?

When you look around society today, it doesn’t look good.
Even in the Church, people are committing abortion and contraception.
They are sleeping together outside of marriage, using porn, and doing a host of other things that can endanger their souls.
It can be tempting to conclude that most Catholics in America today are going to go to hell.
Is the situation that bleak?

A Question from a Reader

A reader writes:

I belong to a great parish, full of wonderful people who love God and neighbor.

However, I can't help but be aware that at least from an objective viewpoint, most of them seem to be in a state of mortal sin per the Church's teaching. 

The most common one is the use of contraception, but there are plenty of others, including cohabitation prior to marriage, remarriage outside the Church, etc. 

The Church views all these things as mortal sins, although it's clear these people don't view them that way. 

Our society at this moment makes it really difficult for people, especially young people, to do what the Church expects. 

I also know that most of these people genuinely and sincerely do not believe they are sinning.  They continue to pray, to attend Mass, and have faith in Christ, which indicates to me that they don't desire to cut themselves off from God.  

Is it truly likely that the vast majority of American Catholics will end up in hell?

What can we say here?

What Mortal Sin Is

Although Catholics sometimes say things like “contraception is a mortal sin” or “sleeping together outside of marriage is a mortal sin,” this is a form of shorthand.
For a person to truly commit a mortal sin, more than a mere act of contraception or a mere act of fornication is needed.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”

Let’s look at those three conditions

Grave Matter

If a married couple contracepts or if an unmarried couple has sexual relations, this fulfills the first of the three conditions: They have committed a “sin whose object is grave matter.”
But the other two conditions must also be fulfilled for the sin to be a mortal one.
In our shorthand way of speaking, we’re warning people against doing these things, because if the additional two conditions are fulfilled, it will be a mortal sin, but if they are not fulfilled then it won’t be.

Full Knowledge

The second condition involves having “full knowledge,” and here is where the reader’s remarks about society come into play.
The reader acknowledges that society makes it difficult for people to do what the Church teaches.
One of the ways it does that is by feeding them a constant narrative—through the media, through social interactions—that contradicts the Church’s teaching.
Even within the Church, there have been many people (priests, nuns, catechists) who have undermined the Church’s teaching in recent years.
We’ve had really bad catechesis for the last 40 years, as well as an assault on Church teaching by society and the media in general.
The result, as the reader notes, is that many people committing acts that are objectively gravely sinful do not believe that this is what they are doing.
As a result, for many of these people, the second condition needed for mortal sin may simply be lacking. On this point, the Catechism notes:

1859 Mortal sin . . . presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law.

1860 Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense.

This is likely the case with a large number of people who have been the victims of bad catechesis and the constant subversion of the Church’s teaching by society and the media.
On the other hand, if someone has a kind of willful blindness, that won’t let them off the hook:

1859 Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.

How many people fall into this latter category? See below.

Deliberate Consent

The third condition is that of deliberate consent. According to the Catechism:

1859 Mortal sin . . . implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice.

1860 The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.

This means that the brief thoughts that flit through your mind and that you try to get rid of swiftly are not mortally sinful. You are not deliberately consenting to them.
You’re only doing that if you purposefully dwell on and foster them.
In the same way, “the prompting of feelings and passions”—to which young people in particular are subject—“can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense.”
So can “external pressures” and “pathological disorders.”
So even when people have committed a sin with grave matter and done so with full knowledge of its sinfulness, there are a number of things that could keep the third condition from being fulfilled and thus keep it from being a mortal sin.

The State of American Catholics

Given the factors mentioned above, the situation for American Catholics does not look quite as bleak.
While it is true that many of them are committing sins that have grave matter, between poor catechesis in Church, society’s constant assault on Church teaching, and the various factors that diminish the voluntary and free character of a sin, quite a number of them likely do not have all three conditions fulfilled.
Also, even when all three conditions are fulfilled and a sin is mortal, that does not mean a person will be damned.
It means that they would be damned if they died right now without repenting, but God is patient and gives us time to repent, and many people do before they die.
Thus, for example, St. Paul tells Timothy:

So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart [2 Tim. 2:22].

And the Psalmist says:

Remember not the sins of my youth, or my transgressions [Ps.  25:7].

These passages acknowledge that young people in particular are subject to certain temptations and sins but, as they age, they tend to drop these and often repent, regretting what they did in their youth.
This is another sign of hope.
Now let’s look at the reader’s fundamental question . . .

 

How Many People Go To Hell?

We can’t really know this.
Different figures in Church history have had different viewpoints on the question, and the Church itself does not have a teaching on the matter.
Some passages of Scripture seem to have a pessimistic tone but others seem to have an optimistic tone.
We also should be careful in taking the pessimistic ones and applying them directly to our own age, because they were written in and about an age in which the world was swallowed in pagan darkness and the knowledge of the true God and his Son was severely limited compared to today.
For its part, the Church teaches the real possibility of dying in mortal sin and of eternal damnation, but it does not teach how many people experience this in practice.
It is worth looking, however, at a recent statement of former Pope Benedict’s . . .

Pope Benedict on Christian Hope

In his encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict noted:

45. With death, our life-choice becomes definitive—our life stands before the judge. Our choice, which in the course of an entire life takes on a certain shape, can have a variety of forms.

There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred and have suppressed all love within themselves.

This is a terrifying thought, but alarming profiles of this type can be seen in certain figures of our own history.

In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word Hell.

On the other hand there can be people who are utterly pure, completely permeated by God, and thus fully open to their neighbours—people for whom communion with God even now gives direction to their entire being and whose journey towards God only brings to fulfilment what they already are.

46. Yet we know from experience that neither case is normal in human life.

For the great majority of people—we may suppose—there remains in the depths of their being an ultimate interior openness to truth, to love, to God.

In the concrete choices of life, however, it is covered over by ever new compromises with evil—much filth covers purity, but the thirst for purity remains and it still constantly re-emerges from all that is base and remains present in the soul.

Pope Benedict then goes on to discuss how these people, in the middle group, experience purgatory so that they can be purified and enter the full glory of heaven.
Pope Benedict thus seems to take a somewhat optimistic view of individual salvation. He suggests that, based on experience, “we may suppose” that “the great majority of people” do not fall into the category of those who have “totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love.”
They fall, instead, into the category of those who “in the depths of their being” have “an ultimate interior openness to truth, to love, to God,” and who thus will be saved once they have been purified of the “filth” and “compromises with evil” that have covered over their openness to God “in the concrete choices of life.”

Finding Peace

Pope Benedict does not impose this view as a matter of Church teaching. He says that it is something “we may suppose” regarding the majority of people, but when you have a pope saying this—particularly in an encyclical—it’s a position that we need to take seriously.
Doing so can be a component of finding peace amid the sins we see others around us committing.
Another part of finding peace is this: God loves them even more than we do and can work with them over time and in ways that are invisible to us.
What we are fundamentally responsible for is the salvation of our own souls. We need to make sure that we respond to God’s grace.
We want to do what we can for other people, but they are ultimately in God’s hands, not ours, and that is where we should leave them.
When we have the opportunity, we should invite them to grow closer to God and to abandon the sins that may be ensnaring them. We should pray for them, but we should not let their situation destroy our own peace.
Instead, we should entrust them to the loving and merciful God who gave his own Son to die on a Cross so that they might be saved.
That’s how much he loves them.

What Now?

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Lust, Language, and the Un-Level Playing Field

By Randall Smith

Thursday, 20 June 2013

I suggested in a previous column ( “Robot Sex”) that contraception has changed the way people think about sex. Instead of a conjugal union between a man and woman open to new life, the word “sex” now often signifies any sort of sexual stimulation, even self-stimulation. Using this new parlance, you can, for example, say you had “virtual sex” with a “virtual woman.” Speaking this way, however, bends the language beyond recognition; it makes no more sense than saying I used my virtual hammer to drive a virtual nail. Try getting a job as a carpenter with that on your resume.   When a person using a “virtual” hammer on “virtual” nails insists he is “building a house,” then he and an actual carpenter won’t be using the same language anymore. They won’t, for example, be able to sit down and share stories about “building things” the way, say, two carpenters, one who builds houses and another who builds furniture, will. The latter two understand two different sorts of “building”; the computer guy understands only a pale simulacrum of the actual thing.   So too with what many people today consider to be “sex.” It’s merely an odd simulacrum of actual, full-bodied sex. I swing my little toy hammer, and I call it “hammering.” Is it? A real carpenter would say, “Get yourself some nails, kid, and then start building something.  That’s hammering.” Hammering, for a real carpenter, isn’t an end unto itself; it’s a means to some other end: to making something, like a house or a table. In a similar way, you can imagine an adult who’s had real sex, upon listening to the descriptions of what young people today often call sex – that sterile, contraceptive activity – saying: “That’s not sex, any more than play hammering is hammering. Use some actual nails, kid, and make something!”    Modern people say odd things like: “What? Children? Why would they be involved in sex?” But that’s a little like saying: “What? Nails? Building something? Why would those be involved in hammering?” The actual carpenter could only scratch his head: “What are they teaching kids these days?” I teach theology, and the questions I get asked most often have to do with Church teachings on sex. One often hears the criticism that the Catholic Church is “obsessed” with sex to the detriment of its other moral teachings. I teach social justice, and I would love to be asked about the Church’s teachings on private property and the universal destination of the earth’s resources. But students don’t.   The Church isn’t obsessed with sex – it has a vast and rich moral tradition that covers everything from politics to the powers of the soul. It’s Americans who are obsessed. Indeed, “sex ed” is the only class any of my students have been given to prepare them for adulthood. There are no classes on “marital ed,” or how to finance a house, or get insurance. Naturally, the only thing my students think adults think about is sex: how to do it, when to do, and why can’t they do it when and where and with whom they want to do it.            Bratz dolls: marketed to  “over-8s” Most of the students (and plenty of adults for that matter) who ask me about the Church’s teaching aren’t exactly looking for moral guidance; they usually want to know how the Church can teach the crazy things she teaches. Not about the Trinity or the Incarnation or the Sacraments, of course – in such matters, people are permitted to believe in any crazy thing they want, whether it’s angels, Hindu gods, or UFOs.   No, my questioners want to know how we Catholics can hold such outrageous ideas about abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage, and about these things they are much less tolerant of what they consider to be aberrant views. Tell people you believe in the plant god Vege-Nu, and you’re fine. Inform them calmly you think contraception isn’t helpful to a marriage, and you’ll be thought a dangerous lunatic in need of confinement and medical care. When I’m asked such questions, I’m not exactly operating on a level playing field. On the opposing team, we have the big “front four” running interference: the constant spur of adolescent passion; constant media bombardment with images of easy-going, uncommitted sex;  the never-ending, relentless force of peer pressure; and a cultural environment that finds any and all expression of “moral” boundaries “uncool” and “unacceptable. And on the other side, me, with about four or five minutes before the attention wanders. And I’m supposed to keep these kids from scoring?   Let’s be clear what we’re up against here: a well-funded intellectual and corporate juggernaut dedicated to making billions selling things to our children by detaching them from the boundaries and limits that families and wisdom traditions have traditionally imparted, so that they can goad their passions into uncontrolled bouts of purchasing life-style items that these young people are convinced will give them a certain sense of belonging within the largely “rootless” and “homeless” culture in which they currently reside. If parents want teachers to be able to compete against the forces that threaten the welfare of their children, they’re going to have to level that playing field a bit. There’s very little chance of the Church getting even the most basic sort of hearing from adolescents who have never been required to curb their passions, have little or no experience of the real joys of civilized “adult” companionship, and whose minds and passions have been systematically skewed in favor of certain powerful, intellectual, and corporate interests insisting that, in the end, it all comes down to this:  People want what they want; why shouldn’t they have it? Next time I’ll suggest why this is not the right question to ask, and why it’s a mistake to try to answer it.                         Randall B. Smith is Professor at the University of St. Thomas, where he has recently been appointed to the Scanlan Chair in Theology.   © 2013 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org