Comments for Random Tragedy to Loving Sacrifice at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 7 out of 7 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sat, 25 May 2013 20:49:22 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/random-tragedy-to-loving-sacrifice.html#comment-9369 to quote St. Therese, "i believe in Love." amen. yes, He makes ALL the difference every day of my life. Love does not require that we (adult people) "cope with the truth". as a matter of Scripture, i believe He said we must become as children. children of the Father. children who trust that Love will be each person's personal Judge. Love who created each person and knows each heart. no, we are not any different in nature than those born far before the Incarnation. but let us hope that we ARE different in response since Emmanuel has come! and as we have been told, "God is no longer above us, God is no longer against us, God is WITH us. with US." (loosely paraphrased From Blessed Aelred's epilogue Sermo in Annuntiatione translated by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis) we no longer need live with an "us against them" world-view. we can choose to live in union with Emmanuel. but then, that does require that we love our neighbor and not look down on them.....those we suppose cannot cope. could it be that they are wounded and we have not offered the remedy? my New Year's resolution: i pray i "take a bullet" for the one standing next to me who cannot take another blow, that his or her cross will be lighter for the love God grants thru me, that Jesus comes to the rescue using my life if He so chooses. and i will continue to pray for a man named Grump that i cannot wait to meet in Heaven one day. thank you for this article Randall. and your response as well Tony. - debby Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:18:50 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/random-tragedy-to-loving-sacrifice.html#comment-9364 The author replies and asks again: If you had reason to believe that someone loved you so much that he had died for you, would it change the way you live your life? If you had reason to believe that this man who had given his life for you was God incarnate, would it change the way you look at the world? If so, how? Has it actually changed your life? All I'm asking is that we not get so caught up in stating "positions" that we forget to ask the fundamental questions; such as "What difference would this make if the Gospel message were ACTUALLY true?" And in a related vein, there is this: "If the authorities in my country were executing Christians for their faith, would there be sufficient evidence for anyone to put me on trial?" Or would my friends easily be able to save me by saying in all honesty: "No, no, he's not a Christian; he just talks that way to annoy people." - Randall B. Smith Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:33:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/random-tragedy-to-loving-sacrifice.html#comment-9360 We must bear in mind that Christ, as God, is a Divine Person with Divine and human natures. Therefore, He knew BEFORE THE EARTH WAS CREATED who would be saved and who would be condemned. His apostles, disciples were disapppointed and shocked at His execution. Christ wasn't as He knew how it would turn out. Read again the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, and the Parable of the Sower. I don't see anything honky-dory there, do you? The Three Groups who hear the Word of God and eventually abandon It while one group flourished? The Tares thrown into the fire at the End of the World are the souls of the condemned. Catholicism is truly for adult people as only they can cope with the Truth of It. That is why there are so many problems today, viz. Modern Man is "different" from the Man who was Catholic during the previous 2,000 years. Nonsense. - Manfred Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:03:21 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/random-tragedy-to-loving-sacrifice.html#comment-9359 Thanks, Tony, for a sliver of enlightenment. Indeed, Jesus was a unique individual. - Grump Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:43:27 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/random-tragedy-to-loving-sacrifice.html#comment-9354 Hi Grump, Aye, but Sydney Carton is Dickens' hero "recalled to life," as the book puts it. It's an Easter novel. It all builds up to the stunning authorial interruption at the end: "I am the Resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, even though he die, yet shall he live." The sacrifice of Jesus is not like the sacrifice of other men in similar circumstances. Or, to put it more precisely, the sacrifice of other men in similar circumstances is like, in a shadowy and imperfect way, the sacrifice of Christ. The differences -- and I'm speaking from the point of view of Christian theology, naturally: Jesus was innocent of all sin; Jesus was abandoned by the very people whom he came to call; Jesus spoke with moral authority, calling all men to a complete transformation, in his own name; Jesus made himself entirely vulnerable, in the open wound of love -- and as much as I admire Socrates, there is nothing in Jesus of any aloof sense of superiority over his persecutors -- "aloof" is entirely wrong, since he is dying for love of them, and says, "Father, forgive them,for they know not what they do." Jesus entered into the abyss of dereliction, of godforsakenness, as no mere man ever has, or ever could ... And the world has and has not been transformed. Jesus Himself said, "When the Son of Man comes again, will He find any faith on earth?" There is no sense in the NT that the spread of the Church would turn everything into roses. It rather says that the battle will continue, and even sharpen. And yet -- since the first Easter, the world HAS seen things it had never seen before, things that to this day it does not see except where the word of Christ has spread. This is one of those things that are too big and too near to see ... - Tony Esolen Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:11:19 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/random-tragedy-to-loving-sacrifice.html#comment-9352 Sidney Carton gave up his life for Charles Darnay in the fictional Tale of Two Cities; others have done so in real life wars and other circumstances. Thus, while I understand your parable, I cannot understand it fully, i.e., that Christ sacrificed himself for all of mankind. He claimed to do so, and his followers claimed it. But evil still exists in the world and man has not changed one iota from his sinful nature. And, yes, I've read the "explanation" in Romans numerous times and the logic eludes me. - Grump Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:07:23 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/random-tragedy-to-loving-sacrifice.html#comment-9331 "Cute story". The reason I am Catholic is because the God-man said to me through the Church which He founded that He gave his life for me so that I have been given the opportunity to either share in His Eternal Life or reject it. Through His Grace, the choice of eternity in either Heaven or Hell is mine. His death on the Cross won that dichotomy. P.S. Pope Benedict has said that one reason we know the Church is Divine is that It has survived millions of Sunday sermons. - Manfred Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:36:34 +0100