Posts

Showing posts from April, 2022

Yoked to Jesus

Image
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” †  Mathew 11: 28-30  What is the labour and burden that Jesus is asking me to deal with? Perhaps I have to let go of the compulsive burden (or is it a sort of entitlement?) that my spouse and children should choose a spiritual path that I know to be right. Jesus accompanied Judas Iscariot to the very end but never deprived him of his freedom to choose his own destiny. Jesus on the other hand, uninterrupted by Judas's choice to reject him, continues to accomplish his mission. He does become a victim of Judas's betrayal but he seldom takes on the victim's identity. In divine wisdom, Jesus chooses to die in our place (and that of Judas) in a redeeming act of love. Rather than being compelled to fix those whom God has entrusted to my headship by m

Salvation and Purgatory

Image
Can an unbaptised remain in his religion and still enter heaven when he dies if he lives well and does good to the best of his abilities? Who could fathom the mind of God? Yet when we think about it, we know what baptism does to a person and how it helps us grow in love and makes us capable of doing good in the divine sense. Left to himself man of concupiscence is limited and his best is not best enough. He reaches his true potential only in relationship with God. We need divine grace for supernatural love, courage and goodness. Baptism begets us the merits of Jesus's passion, death and resurrection. We are purchased for a ransom (God's own life - substitution) and freed from the dominion of sin and death. Jesus reminds us that unless the Son of man sets you free you are not free. Salvation is not merely saving us from falling into hell but healing us from the tyranny of sin (from a state of eternal separation to eternal union with God) so that we become truly free and live lif