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rev_kevin
Guest
What would your answer be to God if He asked you,
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE IN MY NAME?”
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE IN MY NAME?”
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josephdaniel29
Guest
Great question for the beginning of Great Lent.
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Nine_Two
Guest
Great question.
I wish I had an answer right off the top of my head - which probably says something about how I would answer it.
I wish I had an answer right off the top of my head - which probably says something about how I would answer it.
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Tantum_ergo
Guest
This is a terrific question in light of today’s Gospel reading.
For Jesus says, "Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. but the one who does the will of the Father . . and the people will say, "but Lord, we cast out demons in your name and did all kinds of deeds in your name, But He will say, “I never knew you; depart from me you evildoers.”
So. . .“in the name of Jesus” we can do good. . .or we can do evil.
Let us pray that what we are doing 'in his name" is just what He asks us to do –The will of the Father in Heaven.
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Rightlydivide
Guest
My best works are as filthy rags Lord.
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regression
Guest
I guess that is better than having no rags at all
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John7
Guest
I pray in His name
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Lapey
Guest
My answer would be two fold:
1.) I have tried to love You, God, with all my heart, mind and soul. I was successfull more later than earlier in my life.
2.) I have tried to love my neighbor as myself. Again I am found being more succesful later in life than early.
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rev_kevin
Guest
Is this all you can tell God, I pray in your name?
How far would you go to do something in God’s name?
Would you be like the poor widow who gave everything she had to live on , her last 2 lepta
or would you give 1 lepta and keep the other lepta for yourself?
Would you give the last dollar you had to help someone in need?
When you give or help someone in need are you doing it for self-satifaction?
What have you done in God’s name?
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josephdaniel29
Guest
That reminds me of the life of St Peter the Merciful.I guess that is better than having no rags at all
In the time of Emperor Justinian, the chief imperial tax collector in Africa was a certain Peter, a very wealthy but very hard and merciless man. The beggars grumbled among themselves, that not one of them had ever received alms from Peter. Then, one of them bet that he would succeed in getting alms from Peter. He persistently begged alms of the miser until Peter, in a rage, hit him with a loaf of bread, since he had nothing else close at hand. Joyfully the beggar took the bread and fled. Immediately after this Peter became seriously ill and had this vision: He was being interrogated by demons in the other world. There was a scale, and on one side of it, the demons heaped Peter’s sins, making that side extremely heavy. On the other side-which was empty-angels stood, sorrowing that they had not even one good deed in Peter’s life to help balance the scale. One of them said:
We have nothing to place on the scale except one loaf of bread, with which he struck a beggar the day before yesterday.'' The angels placed this one loaf of bread on the empty side of the scale, and that loaf of bread outweighed the other side of the scale, laden with all of Peter's sins. When the vision was over Peter said to himself: Indeed, this was not an apparition but the living truth, for I saw all my sins from my youth. And when I can be helped so much by one loaf of bread that I threw at a beggar, how much help would I receive from many deeds of almsgiving, performed from the heart and with humility?’’ And from that time, Peter became the most compassionate man in his town. He distributed all of his possessions to the poor, and when he had finished distributing his possessions, he sold himself into slavery for thirty gold pieces and distributed even his own price as a slave to the poor as alms in the name of Christ. He was, thereafter, called Peter the Merciful.Link
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Tantum_ergo
Guest
What if you do a lot in God’s name. . .but it’s purely what you want to do, for selfish reasons?
Just like the people in Scripture, do you do things 'in His name" but never the will of the Father? What will He tell you?
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rev_kevin
Guest
No matter how much you do in his name, it if is purely for shelfish reasons then it really wasn’t done in his name.
What is the will of the Father?
“But she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.” She has done the will of God. She did not do it for personal satifaction.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, 2 walked by the beaten man without lifting a finger to help him but the Samaritan stoped and helped. The Samaritan has done the will of God.
For I was hungry, and you fed me.
I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink.
I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.
I was naked, and you gave me close.
I was sick, and you cared for me.
I was in prison, and you visited me.
I assure you, when you refuse to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me. I assure you, when you refuse to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you are refusing to do the will of God.
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wisdomseeker
Guest
What does the CC tells us to do?
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Publisher
Guest
I have not done nearly enough…I have not loved enough…cared enough…prayed enough…all I have to lay at Your feet are as “filthy rags”…I trust in your Son and Him alone…He has done it all…what have I done? Nothing…what has He done? Everything.
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rev_kevin
Guest
I don’t know. Can you tell me?
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hazcompat
Guest
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guanophore
Guest
YOU are suffering from a deficient understanding of good works, Rightly. The works the OP is asking about are those done in his Name. that means they are done through His authority, and his identity. Such works are not ours, but His.
Phil 2:12-13
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Only works of the flesh are filthy in His sight. Good works are those that are produced in and through us by the Holy Spirit. It is these good works that are to give testimony to His life in us.
1 Peter 3:1-2
Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives’ conduct, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.
Do you think wives will win anyone by filthy rags?
Would the Apostle enjoin us toward “filthy rags”?
Titus 3:13-14
14 And let people learn to devote themselves to good works in order to meet urgent needs, so that they may not be unproductive.
Should we produce “filthy rags” as a role model?
Titus 2:6-7
7 Show yourself in all respects a model of good works,
The holy (good) works that we produce by the grace of the HS in us are not in any way “filthy rags”.
Eph 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Instead they are to be our way of life.
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guanophore
Guest
1 Peter 4:7-9
8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining.
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guanophore
Guest
This is another good example of the lack of appropriate reverence for good works.
If He had “done it all” then He would not have prepared good works that we should do!
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guanophore
Guest
Mercy as it is here contemplated is said to be a virtue influencing one’s will to have compassion for, and, if possible, to alleviate another’s misfortune. It is the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas that although mercy is as it were the spontaneous product of charity, yet it is to be reckoned a special virtue adequately distinguishable from this latter. In fact the Scholastics in cataloguing it consider it to be referable to the quality of justice mainly because, like justice, it controls relations between distinct persons. It is as they say ad alterum. Its motive is the misery which one discerns in another, particularly in so far as this condition is deemed to be, in some sense at least, involuntary. Obviously the necessity which is to be succoured can be either of body or soul. Hence it is customary to enumerate both corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The traditional enumeration of the corporal works of mercy is as follows:
•To feed the hungry;
•To give drink to the thirsty;
•To clothe the naked;
•To harbour the harbourless;
•To visit the sick;
•To ransom the captive;
•To bury the dead.
The spiritual works of mercy are:
•To instruct the ignorant;
•To counsel the doubtful;
•To admonish sinners;
•To bear wrongs patiently;
•To forgive offences willingly;
•To comfort the afflicted;
•To pray for the living and the dead.
It will be seen from these divisions that the works of mercy practically coincide with the various forms of almsgiving. It is thus that St. Thomas regards them. The word alms of course is a corruption of the Greek elenmosyne (mercy). The doing of works of mercy is not merely a matter of exalted counsel; there is as well a strict precept imposed both by the natural and the positive Divine law enjoining their performance. That the natural law enjoins works of mercy is based upon the principle that we are to do to others as we would have them do to us.
The Divine command is set forth in the most stringent terms by Christ, and the failure to comply with it is visited with the supreme penalty of eternal damnation (Matthew 25:41): “Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, in everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me not in; naked, and you covered me not; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me”, etc. Here it is true there is mention directly and explicitly of only the corporal works of mercy. As, however, the spiritual works of mercy deal with a distress whose relief is even more imperative as well as more effective for the grand purpose of man’s creation, the injunction must be supposed to extend to them also. Besides there are the plain references of Christ to such works as fraternal correction (Matthew 18:15) as well as the forgiveness of injuries (Matthew 6:14). It has to be remembered however that the precept is an affirmative one, that is, it is of the sort which is always binding but not always operative, for lack of matter or occasion or fitting circumstances. It obliges, as the theologians say, semper sed non pro semper. Thus in general it may be said that the determination of its actual obligatory force in a given case depends largely on the degree of distress to be aided, and the capacity or condition of the one whose duty in the matter is in question. There are easily recognizable limitations which the precept undergoes in practice so far as the performance of the corporal works of mercy are concerned. These are treated in the article on Alms and Almsgiving. Likewise the law imposing spiritual works of mercy is subject in individual instances to important reservations. For example, it may easily happen that an altogether special measure of tact and prudence, or, at any rate, some definite superiority is required for the discharge of the oftentimes difficult task of fraternal correction. Similarly to instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, and console the sorrowing is not always within the competency of every one. To bear wrongs patiently, to forgive offences willingly, and to pray for the living and the dead are things from which on due occasion no one may dispense himself on the pleas that he has not some special array of gifts required for their observance. They are evidently within the reach of all. It must not be forgotten that the works of mercy demand more than a humanitarian basis if they are to serve as instruments in bringing about our eternal salvation. The proper motive is indispensable and this must be one drawn from the supernatural order.
Catholic Encyclopedia
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