What I heard was that death itself was not the worst. Torture and abominable cruelty is the worst. It is diametrically opposed to God’s desires that we love one another even strangers, that we treat the body that is created in the image of Christ with respect, and that we shalt not kill. This example of the worst of mankind is unfortunately far too common in Church history and in our own time.
It has been said, quite truthfully, that the blood of Martyrs, such as these, strengthens the Roman Catholic Church, and so the one, holy, catholic & Apostolic Church still prevails as Christ said after 2000 years of unending attacks and persecutions by the agents of satan. During our age we have priests just as heroic, men maligned for the acts of the degenerate pedophile priests that satan used to cause many souls to leave the source of their salvation and follow instead heretics. The thousands of good and dedicated priests who endure the lies that attempt to link them and the one true church to the degenerate priests is one of the satanic attacks of our time. Pray for our priests everyday.
I too believe in a rational faith. If christianity had failed to deliver what it promised, my faith would have waned and died (which it did at one point) and thanks to the grace of God, I gave it another crack and learned from my selfish mistakes. My faith is richer and deeper and the joy that comes from it is like "water on tap." With atheists its always the same. Its your own Self-God that prevents you from experiening God. You have the wrong mentality and so cannot respond to Gods grace.
Christianity does postulate the existence of a paradoxical God, which is both personal and communal in nature. It states that existence for this God is proven on a personal spiritual level and can be shown to have a cogent philosophy and theology. The relationship rests on trust, and self denial. Atheism postulates the non-existence of any other god than the "self". There is no OTHER god. It states that there is no empirical evidence for such a being. Because their OWN God is in the way.
Science deals with proximal causation. Theology deals with teleological causation. You can make a teleological statement about something which is understood in proximal terms, but not the other way around. There is no proximal evidence for anything christianitiy teaches is true. You either acknoledge it as self-evident or you dont. God is rational, and logical, but not empirical. I am explaining christian teaching. Not offering proof.
A person dying is real, yes. Your mentality is naturally not disposed towards understanding Christianity is based on gratitude. God sustains everything by his law. Everything has its being through him. God is Goodness. That is not to say that God is just good, but that Goodness is what God is. We know Goodness through common grace an so when the parent helps the child its is God working through her, just as with all love, compassion, justice, obedience.
Unless the parent was selfish in nature and was not a good parent. Some parents would act. You cannot say all would, because we have many occurances of infatacide. The problem with the buddist/tibetan philosophy is that it ignores the truth about human nature. It ofloads moral responsibility onto the universes shoulders (karma) and the indiviual becomes amoral and does not have to worry about it.
Also your view of God is too small, and scope is too limited. All being comes through him. So while nature is real and our life is real. God is the only thing that is REALLY real. We have our being through him. He sustains the universe thought his Will. The universe is ordered by his will and authority. These laws do not alter and cannot be circumvented. When you cure a disease you are not circumventing natural law you are cooperating with Gods nature (charity) through use of his natural law.
But thats not the only thing we can do with it. We can choose with our free will to NOT sin, by listening and hearing the good news. Sin is like a cancer. If you want to be free of it, your surgeon must take out all of it. Any left behind will come back with avengeance. Like a parent, God is not harmed by our sin, but is saddened by our destruction of our relationship with him. To do Good is to orient our being towards God, either directly (by doing good in Gods name) or indirectly.
Thats a common christian heresy, and is very understandable. Matter is not evil, our human nature is good. That which God created and said was Very Good, was perverted by our will (our choice). It is not our human nature that is evil, it is the perversion of our human nature that is evil. Sin comes from the hebrew word "hatar" which means "missing the mark". We move towards goals that promise happiness and that which is good, but it misses and fails to deliver. That is what sin is.
I disagree, if people dont accept the concept of original sin, its because they dont understand it. Original sin means we are incomplete and incapable of functioning without erring either through limited intellect or experience or will. Everyone who is rational accepts they have faults and failings. That is what sin is. We inherit a flawed nature that we cannot get aways from and will rule our lives unless we learn and are helped to (to a certain degree) deny our based flawed nature.
Excellent! You make a good point. When I was a good-doing atheist I used to wonder how such a horror as what happened during WWII could have happened. I had no explanation other than, "Well, sometimes people do bad things" or there's the sociological "mob mentality" theory. But even then I was left asking, "But how?". Coming to understand the world in light of the Truth, it really does make sense. God bless your work, Father!
We Irish Catholics still keep the Head of the most Blessed Oliver Plunkett,Archbishop of Armagh in the Church at Drogheda in lreland. He was also a Victim of the Wars of Religion which divided and devastated the Christian Population of Europe. A great man and a Saint that l will pray for today as l will pray for all members of the Clergy,both past and present who nurture us Spiritually every day and for whom we are most grateful.
Fr. Barron, This video is a prime example of why I always look forward to what you have to say. To take our faith and put it into such context of the world around us is wonderful. Furthermore, to do it in such terms that just about anyone can understand is always appreciated. I always learn something new when metaphysics is brought into the discussion. Keep up the fantastic work. God bless.
Part 2.... I am saying that the Queen was not acting off a whim, but was responding, however well or poorly, to the very real threat that the Catholic Church presented to her person and her state.
I agree that the consequences to Pius' issuance were brutal, but his allegiance wasn't to Elizabeth. His duty was to defend the Catholic faith, not uphold her heretical reign: if he hadn't taken the measure he did he would've compromised the faith of all Catholics, not just those in England. The only other option for him was to become her lackey. It was her political manipulations of faith that made traitors of her own subjects, not the Pope's.
I usually agree with you, and do to some degree in this case, however I feel it should be pointed out the Pope at that time not only condoned but encouraged the killing of Queen Elizabeth I. In this case, the Pope turned the great Catholic faith in to a political weapon. I am not arguing that the cruelty inflicted on these men was justified.
Father if your impressed with skulls of people killed for been catholic come to Ireland we have thousands of them. The English had it as a hobby in Ireland.
Actually atheism relies on faith too. All belief, even the belief in the non-existence of The Godhead, is based on first principles that cannot be proven. If they were provable they would in turn have been based on principles which could not be proven. Also why should a man live in the darkness of materialism when religion, specifically christianity would answer his questions fully? It seems, respectfully, that you have great faith in materialism.
What we perceive as chaos. And they are governed by laws whichare more complex than those presented on a higher level. But an electron remains an electron, dispite the "supposed" chaos that lies underneath. And it only ever does what an electron is supposed to do. That in itself is a miracle of joy and awe to the eyes of a christian. Any wonder christianity was uniquely the foundation for mordern science?
That was a great story. I slightly disagree however, on the worst of the human condition. I could think of fates much worse, horrifying atrocities experienced as children with years of anguish and nightmares ahead. They were dark times, and the death of a young man for speaking his beliefs is a tragedy. But I don't think it's the "worst" we've seen .. or realistically will see for that matter.
Absolutely not. However, I would add that it is not a political issue, but a moral one. Which while not making the violence condonable, does make it understandable. If someone takes a life intentionally, that is murder and should be punished with the full weight of the law. But in a perfect world that should also includes the doctors performing abortions, and the mothers who have them.
That is only viable where the scope is limited to a natural meta-physucal philosophy. Christianity adheirs to a supernatural philosophy. I would have said reasoning cannot be expressed without the firing of neurons. Christianity maintains that the physical universe is the means by which we share in what is known as "common grace". Even though we have separated out souls from god, we still have life, and being (incl. rationality) through this common grace of physical life (and its our brain).
I did say "might be". millions of extra tax payers can over a sixty year period make a big difference. I am not republican. Oh please your last comment is beneath contempt. Anyone who attacks their armed forces should be done for treason. Treason should either be a death penalty or complete exile - ya leave with your life and nothing else which you got from the country you betrayed. Dont assume you know how I stand on anything beyond church dogma.
People can use anything to justify their actions. That is not ther perview of religion but humanity as a whole. Religion just happens to be a very powerful thing that can be abused in such a manner. You are absolutely right on one thing. Christianity is not be an individual thing. The protestant denominations concentrate too much on the individual relationship with christ, and ignore the communal relationship. Christ is many and one. His church should be many and one, without contention.
Yes you are right, from your perspective. I would prefer to put it in a slightly different way. The supernatural realm rest on the presupposition of Christianity. However to date, the supernatural philosophy of christianity is the only philisiohy that can be lived and applied to reality in its entirity. Both naturalism and non-naturalism falls short in many areas.
He should have stayed in France was it really worth going through that? That's a pretty big gamble for a no guarantees payoff. (I guess that makes me a coward, perhaps but there are more cowards alive then heroes...Save yourself that is the best you can do in a life that's "nasty brutal and short")
+Mike zucker fear not those who can take your life, but not grant eternal life. For their suffering, these martyrs spend never ending eternity in paradise with God. Those who trusted in the Anglican heresy invented by the murderous tyrant Henry the eighth burn in hell, they were the perpetrators of these crimes. I'll take the martyrs role anytime over that.
