Even St. Paul struggled

[BarbaraTherese]

Friday 26th. October First Reading is a particularly consoling one I think for the failures and offences of life - even St. Paul was involved in a struggle with himself. It is a Reading I am particularly endeared towards. The prime remedy for our struggles of course is Confession, which is the Gift of God’s Mercy. In Confession we are restored to that state that was prior to whatever we may have confessed - and this is another an awesome matter. We are also granted Grace to avoid sin in the future.
There may be some temporary only punishment in Justice accrued by our sin confessed and this is why Purgatory too is a very consoling thought.
It is such a wondrous gift to be called to be Catholic. It is also a responsibility and accountability as a recent previous Gospel states “to whom much is given, much is expected”.
“No one lights a light to put it under a bushel”. “You must let your light shine before men that they will give Glory to Your Father in Heaven”. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is a particular example of this in wanting all her writings destroyed in case any glory fell on her and not on God. Much secular media has misinterpreted her writings rather and because of her sufferings and struggles and this has become an opportunity for The Church through Catholic sources to speak out on something not often drawn into the light of the media. I digress
Reading 1
Rom 7:18-25a

Brothers and sisters:
I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh.
The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.
For I do not do the good I want,
but I do the evil I do not want.
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it,
but sin that dwells in me.
So, then, I discover the principle
that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.
For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,
but I see in my members another principle
at war with the law of my mind,
taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Miserable one that I am!
Who will deliver me from this mortal body?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

[Melo]

“to whom much is given, much is expected”.
“No one lights a light to put it under a bushel”. “You must let your light shine before men that they will give Glory to Your Father in Heaven”. Rom 7:18-25a

I loves these verses and always think of them when I think about needing to be a better Catholic and letting people see my love of the Christ and the Church. I try to be a light to others to bring them into (or back to) the Church.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

I loves these verses and always think of them when I think about needing to be a better Catholic and letting people see my love of the Christ and the Church. I try to be a light to others to bring them into (or back to) the Church.

Hi Melo…probably the most common way a person can suffer rejection and detraction, slurs on character etc.,nowadays (although it has been all through our history with our saints) is to have something interpreted completely wrongly. Good motives absolutely in something done for good and sound motives assigned all the wrong motives. “Man judges by appearances, but God sees the heart” Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake". It can make things very difficult I know.

Keep up the good work!

Blessings…Peace with Joy…Barb

 

[ncjohn]

Hi Barb,

I think these readings from Romans are the only thing that has been keeping me going lately.

Earlier there were the puzzling verses about being dead to sin and that we would no longer sin after dying with Christ. And since we all know that we continue to sin, figuring out what he meant in those verses was not the easiest thing.

But then we come to these most beautiful and hopeful of verses. That yes, we are all going to give in to th evil at hand and do what we know deep down we shouldn’t. And not do the good we know deep down that we should. So Paul is acknowledging that it is not our true selves that is doing these things, but the “flesh”–the false self–which seeks gratification from the world.

And further that in spite of thes failings we are still being held in the hand of God, in His infinite mercy, which will save that true self in spite of the false self if we can keep our eyes and desire on Him.

As Paul says earlier on, this does not give us a license to sin, as the true self, indwelt by God will do no such thing. But it does acknowledge that in our humaness we will fail. And that in turning to God we will see, as Peter did after denying Jesus, the eyes of compassion and mercy.

For in the end it is probably only in our failings and our inability to be what we wish to be that we come to the realization that we are incapable of doing it on our own. It is only in this that we can finally say “I’m tired of this God; I’m putting it all in your hands” and finally surrender our will to His.

I fear that many never truly discover this and thus keep themselves bound by “the Law”, and try to bind others in the same way. But once one has been blessed to just fall into the merciful arms of God, one will hardly ever allow themselves to be so bound again, and will do their best to help others find that blessing where judgment and condemnation of others is no longer in play. Where the “God loves me better” game just wouldn’t occur to one any more and we can truly seek the good for one and all.

Thank you Barb, for just the right words at the right time.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Hi John and really good to catch up with you on the rounds of the Forums. I know that place where it seems that I am hanging on only by a thread and that only a strand is keeping me connected…I’ll be keeping you in prayer, please keep me in yours. I think that any kind of adversity not so much tests us as strengthens. God has no need of testing since He knows all things at all times, but it is perhaps only adversity in the human sense that strengthens virtue. It aint easy to hang on and keep going at times.
Something popped into my mind the other night and one of those things that when it becomes conscious, I wonder why it had never occured to me before and I think we all have this experience. If I ask God for His Mercy and it is granted - The Lord gives His Mercy to me and it becomes then something that I actually “have”, then God’s Mercy lives in me and I will be totally merciful to others and with the Mercy of God Himself. If the mercy I have received does not flow outwards to others (and the nature of God’s selfhood) then I am smothering the Mercy God has granted to me. I just saw it with a new clarity. And when I am not as merciful to others as God has been to me gifting me with His Mercy, then that old sinful self and as you pointed out, the false self, is battling for supremacy.

I have no idea where I read that St. Francis of Assisi, your great patron, said that pride dies 10 minutes after we do. And on a first read my heart went to my boots thinking of struggling for the rest of my life - but then it became comfort to me too considering that even a St. Francis of Assisi struggled. Often the writings and/orlives of our saints are “touched up” in order to make them totally edifying to us…and can rob them of their total humanity.
That encouragement to never give up - as they did not even in the face of their own humanity and the struggle on some level or other. We no sooner “arrive” than to depart. Truly life is journey. We are in transit and transition, transformation. As mystically blest as St. Francis was indeed…he is the totally human saint.
Over and above that there is religion or religiosity rather and then there is spiritual. I think The Law, condemning and judging others belongs to religion or more correctly religiosity and Mercy and Love to the spiritual which is rather obvious. Religion is a group or community boneded by common belief to my own definition. The Law will do nothing but condemn and judge since we are totally unable to live up to its demands, while the spiritual is just that, the spirit that lives in us. The spirit of Mercy or of a Loving disposition, of kindess, concern and compassion etc. Of course the opposite could live in a person and that is of the spirit too and of a negative spiritual disposition and belongs to that false and sinful self. The Gifts and Fruits of The Holy Spirit are beautiful.
I have been thinking about St. Paul too and the passage stating that sin is not to have any claim “over you” - yet I find that despite my good intentions and hope, I keep on failing. I think it is then that sin looses its claim over us when we are sorry and try to amend and/or attend Confession. I may sin, but it has no lasting claim “over” me.
Without God’s Grace and the source of all good great or small, nothing of good would live anywhere at all least of all somewhere at times in me.
I am a great fan of St. Paul - a great fan. So much of what he has written is of great comfort and consolation and no little source of insight into the teachings of Jesus. Of the Great Mercy and Love of God. I am totally grateful and thankful for the gift of St. Paul and can (jesting here ) totally forgive him for his problems with women…these so called “problems” I dont think were problems at all. St. Paul was simply a man of his times.

Good to catch up with again, John, and as always, we dwell on that same wavelength. God bless and with Peace and Joy…Barb