K
KathleenGee
Guest
The Vatican II documents are not invalidating the Council of Trent which was needed to redefine Church, its nature and mission, certain parameters of authority, but re-assert its God given authority as truly the Church Christ founded…especially now in light of the fracturing of Christianity.
The other is that the Church is a living being, like a living sacrament. Faith and science go together. I remark on the great progress of social sciences in the past 40 years and how it has greatly helped people overcome personal problems, which prior seemed hopeless. The Church draws on science.
The Bible and Church are to bring us to union with God, to have faith and morals. But we are also to study and grow intellectually in the study of science. We are being exposed to all kinds of different people in the world, we are all on different levels even in every Catholic parish. Faith is mystery. We cannot judge other people, but we can judge people’s fruits, whether they are of the Spirit or not.
We have no right to condemn other people. We may see an action that is bad…but the person is living, and we are not seeing at the same time perhaps, that person’s conscience speaking to them that what they just did was bad, so stop…and the person is processing this right in front of us, and deciding not to do it again,…but we don’t see that, we see just the outward action…but we don’t see the person being ‘convicted’ and deciding right there not to repeat the action.
What happens in cases like these, we, the observer, get stuck on what we just witnessed in that person and then condemn them. If they continue, it is time to pray for them and help redirect them, but if they don’t listen, and you see something continue that is sinful, then you move away from the sin…but keep the person in prayer.
Vatican II is telling us we cannot judge, we know how hard it is for many people today with its demands, to understand the fullness of the Catholic faith. It is very deep and broad, and with so countless charisms of different kinds of peoples and cultures within it. We have seen the witness of non-Catholic Christians lay down their lives for Christ in other parts of the world, who witness to the Word of God.
So instead, we have to be thankful He has given us grace to understand our faith. And just continue to live it out and share it with others and not to be discouraged in these ‘last days’. We cannot even judge ourselves.
We have to keep on living in Christ and grow in Him.
The other is that the Church is a living being, like a living sacrament. Faith and science go together. I remark on the great progress of social sciences in the past 40 years and how it has greatly helped people overcome personal problems, which prior seemed hopeless. The Church draws on science.
The Bible and Church are to bring us to union with God, to have faith and morals. But we are also to study and grow intellectually in the study of science. We are being exposed to all kinds of different people in the world, we are all on different levels even in every Catholic parish. Faith is mystery. We cannot judge other people, but we can judge people’s fruits, whether they are of the Spirit or not.
We have no right to condemn other people. We may see an action that is bad…but the person is living, and we are not seeing at the same time perhaps, that person’s conscience speaking to them that what they just did was bad, so stop…and the person is processing this right in front of us, and deciding not to do it again,…but we don’t see that, we see just the outward action…but we don’t see the person being ‘convicted’ and deciding right there not to repeat the action.
What happens in cases like these, we, the observer, get stuck on what we just witnessed in that person and then condemn them. If they continue, it is time to pray for them and help redirect them, but if they don’t listen, and you see something continue that is sinful, then you move away from the sin…but keep the person in prayer.
Vatican II is telling us we cannot judge, we know how hard it is for many people today with its demands, to understand the fullness of the Catholic faith. It is very deep and broad, and with so countless charisms of different kinds of peoples and cultures within it. We have seen the witness of non-Catholic Christians lay down their lives for Christ in other parts of the world, who witness to the Word of God.
So instead, we have to be thankful He has given us grace to understand our faith. And just continue to live it out and share it with others and not to be discouraged in these ‘last days’. We cannot even judge ourselves.
We have to keep on living in Christ and grow in Him.
