It is the Mark of a True Christian to Love Our Enemies

What does it mean to hate the sin, but love the sinner. This is a hard teaching; who can understand it. Yet with God all things are possible.

As Catholics we are hated by all. Now where is this more evident than in the political realm.

Those on the left hate us, because we are pro-life, and although we do not condemn homosexuals, we are not ready to raise the practice of homosexuality to normalcy.

Those on the right hate us for the same reasons -- we are pro-life all of life. Certainly of the conceived, but also of those who are already born. They also hate us because although we do not sanction homosexual acts, we love the homosexual.

And we love the poor and the immigrant.

And how do we show our love, by standing up for them.

Many Catholics cannot stand up for the homosexual, lest we be seen as sanctioning their activity.  Yet, none of us are without sin, and none of us have actually witnessed their sin.

Is Caitlin Jenner a sinner? Sick? Misguided? Confused?

What is sin? For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent." CC 1857

Does the homosexual know he/she is committing sin? The abolitionist? The Catholic politician who supports choice? The Christian politician who opposes choice, and yet votes against supporting the born?

Who am I to say? Am I Jesus? Do I know, can I see a persons heart? Can I read their mind?

It is hard to love my enemies, and who are my enemies, save those who have sinned against me. But what of those who have not sinned against me personally, but whom I judge for having sinned against God. 

If I love people, I have no time to love them -- St. Theresa of Calcutta.

Who am I to judge? -- Pope Francis I

I consider myself to be a member of Democrats for Life of America http://www.democratsforlife.org/. I am pro-life for the whole life. 

To love my enemies, do I sit quietly while fellow Catholics vote for abortion and it's expansion, or, hold strong to the belief, one which I once held -- it is not up to me. for me now this view which once made so much sense and seemed perfectly right and justified seems so foreign. There is a child in the womb at conception, a child which is entitled to all the rights I have -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The child in the womb's mother and father is also entitled to these rights, but our rule of law encompasses the idea that we are not entitled to excersize our rights at the expense of another's. Even in the womb the child is entitled to the same rights of the mother. who is the enemy in this situation, who is the enemy that I must love, in order to be a follower of Christ and have my soul saved for eternity.

Do I deny my love to the abortionist, to the parents of and aborted child. Do I deny my love to myself, for insisting that my then wife abort our child? Do I let myself off the hook, by holding fast to the lie that it was ultimately her choice? And how do I mend this sin? 

Ultimately do I deny my love to others, because they have sinned in the same way I have?

Do I deny my love to the self described homosexual, even though I have never witnessed their activity? To the poor? To the homeless? The convicted murderer, whether guilty or not? Do I deny my love to the child molester, because I was molested? I find justification for this in Mathew 18. Do I deny my love to those who insist on stopping abortion, but excersize no political responsibility for caring for the poor?

In the end to I justify my behavior, because of the sins of others, or will I be judged by my love even to those I feel enmity for? Or will I be judged by my love for them, my charity to them?

Is there evil int he world. Most assuredly there is. I publish a website http://www.stmichaelgodsknight.com, the basis of which is explaining my faith, but love triumphs over faith. For in the end in the final analysis, when I am judged by Jesus without a lawyer, will it be righteousness upon which i will be judged, or the extent of the love in my heart. There is evil in the world, Jesus testified to this when he saw Lucifer being cast from the sky. He and his follows roam the earth looking and tempting souls to be devoured. Will I be judged by righteousness, or the love in my heart?

Do I love that person in the oval office, with whom I disagree, and judge on a daily basis? How do I fight for righteousness and justice, with a heart containing only love? How do I follow Christ?

Is my heart sick, full of righteousness, justification, justice and judgement, so that the love is overshadowed.

Did I love even my own family, when I pursued employment and material success, rather than time with them? Did I spend my time disciplining and judging them and not loving them? Do I fool my self my justifying my duty to provide ahead of by love for them, confusing provision with love? Do I delude myself with the false justification that discipline is really a form of love?. 

As I approach cancer surgery, these are the questions I wrestle with, as wrestling with the devil until I tire and give in to love of all, including those who perpetrated me, in who's face I refuse to see Christ.

Will the man in the oval office allow my surgery? Does this uncertainty illicit love in my heart or bitterness and judgement? 

From the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta, I hear that there is not room in my heart for love and judgment. 

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

.  

http://www.fredcelio.com

http://stmichaelgodsknight.blogspot.com/2015/02/an-abused-childs-prayer.html

http://stmichaelgodsknight.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-daily-prayer-that-never-fails-and.html

Are we trading Justice for Tolerance?

I was recently asked the following question

When Jesus rescued the woman taken in adultery (John 8), did he tell us not to judge whether adultery is wrong?

As for me I have enough trouble with the plank in my own eye. Jesus said, is there no on left to condemn you? nor do I condemn you, go and sin no more. In these few words, there is a great deal to mediate on. First, only God can condemn (period). This is why as Catholics holders an guardians and evangelizers of the truth, while we canonize those we know to be in heaven, we do not say that anyone is in hell -- for we don't know. God's ways are not our ways.

Our initial judgment is based on the state of our soul when we die, how far God's mercy extends at this point is not for us to say, except we are to avoid both sin and judgment. God saved St. Dismas from the cross. While it is true that the grace sufficient for a death bed conversion is extremely rare, there are occasions, as with St. Dismas. According to his grandson who is a priest in Los Angeles, John Wayne the actor received this grace.

We are to be kind and loving even to our enemies. This means we avoid gossip even discussing the sin of another with other people is a sin on us.

As Mother Teresa said, "If I judge people, I have no time to love them"?
As human beings we are not qualified to judge others. We do not know their hearts, we judge by what we think we know -- behvior. We are to love and be kind even to those who exhibit sinful behavior.

So I am not completely certain what your point is. You seem to be looking for a loophole where we can be free to condemn those we believe to be sinners. This is not Catholic doctrine, otherwise we would have a process similar to canonization, but in the reverse whereby we say so and so we know to be in hell. This determination is reserved to God alone. It is not our role. We ask God to forgive our sins as we forgive the sins of others. Our attitude as stated by Christ in matt 25:31-46 should be one of loving kindness to all.
Jesus forgave the adultery of this woman in the same way we are forgiven in confession and told her as we are told to sin no more. Yet if you are anything like me, we return again and again to confession. Sometimes struggling to overcome the same sin.

As Catholics with the fullness of the truth and the responsibility to evangelize we know that adultery is wrong, and we do not engage in it. We advise others to avoid it. If we know that someone has committed adultery do we tell them what we know? Well yes. Our approach must be one of loving kindness though and not from a place of judgment and condemnation. If they are receptive, then great we can offer our help. If their hearts are hardened, we certainly do not agree with them that what they have done is ok, but nor do we continually point out their flaws or their missing the mark, which is the definition of sin. These people we pray for, even after death.

I know personally of a woman who admittedly had affairs and multiple abortions. I could not change her, as she got involved with an organization called Christ unity, which I believe to be satanic. She ended up having cancer and opted to go to Oregon for an assisted suicide. I continue to pray for her soul, and ask for God's mercy. I cannot judge her one way or the other, but only provide hopeful prayer.

In a sense your question is silly. Of course adultery is wrong and every Catholic knows that, but so is judging others. As far as condemning the sin and not the sinner, I have to laugh when I hear this fundie slogan. For without the grace that comes from regularly taking the sacraments; it is impossible to love the sinner, while condemning the sin.
I personally have been counseled by fundie pastors and know this to be true. Without the grace of the sacraments they simply cannot separate the sinner from the sin, and thus, end up doing more harm then good, by condemning the sinner.

Now does any of what I have said mean we are to support the government sanction of divorce or homosexuality. No. of course not. Both our wrong. We are to treat people in each group with loving kindness. We as sinners are in no position to stone anyone. Hence, the Catholic doctrine on life, which includes doctrine against capital punishment. We are fallible, as are our institutions. Recent DNA evidence has indicated a systemic practice in the US of executing the innocent. Fully 1/3 of those executed in this country are later proved to be innocent of their conviction by DNA evidence. This makes the state guilty of murder.

The government sanction of homosexuality by making it legal for homosexuals to marry those of the same sex is clearly wrong, and as Catholics we cannot support it. It is based on dubious evidence which includes a perceived genetic predisposition and the fact that the APA since 1974 has said that homosexuality is only a disorder, if the practitioner of the homosexual activity is disturbed by his or her activity. This point of view is imprecise scientifically, and has provided the homosexual community with license, and denied them help for their disorder. The government has based on this action by the APA and in response to hate toward homosexuals. Responded by extending rights to practicing homosexuals. This sanction by both the APA and the government has stiflied further research and given license to disordered behavior while denying those with the disorder the help that they need. The government and the APA are trading tolerance for justice. We cannot have one without the other. When I use the word justice, I use it in it’s platonic sense of an appropriately reasoned response to the facts. The APA should not have changed it’s definition of homosexuality as a disorder simply because there is not enough information. A genetic predisposition does not support the view that homosexuality is natural. And if a homosexual is not disturbed by the behavior Psychologists should be asking the question why are they not disturbed? The answer to that question probably lies in the genetic predisposition. But this should give psychologists a new approach to treatment not a reason to sanction the behavior. The wrong thinking and poor science involved in the APA decisions, the homosexual movement, government sanctioning of homosexual behavior, and the feelings of repugnance that many have when we contemplate homosexual behavior does not give us license to stone homosexuals. Unfortunately many who call themselves followers of Christ have resorted to hateful and violent behavior as a consequence of their feelings. Many have treated practicing homosexuals in a manner that Jesus taught us was wrong when he put a stop to the stoning of the adulteress woman.

We also know that abortion is murder. Life as born out by the scientific evidence we now have begins at conception, but does this give us license to stone abortionists or those who have had an abortion? No. We are to treat them with loving kindness, while working to convince those who would consider abortion not to go through with it, and at the same time working to overturn the unjust court decision and laws that permit abortion. The law is unjust in that the unborn are conceived with civil rights. The first of which being the right to life. This is the most salient issue of our time. And one that puts the Church clearly at the head of a progressive and just civil rights movement.

It is in this areas of judgment and condemnation of both abortionists and those who have had abortions that the pro-life movement has gotten off base and become fanatical. This is not doctrinal nor is it Christ like. We do have a right and a duty to speak out and act in accordance with doctrine, but that doctrine includes loving all including our enemies. This is a hard teaching of our Lord, but he clearly commanded us to love even our enemies. We must also remember that the measure we use to judge others will be the measure that is used to judge us. Therefore how can I live a life where I am free to judge other sinners. I cannot. The fanaticism of the pro-life movement has in fact caused many to harden their hearts. This is not good evangelism. Justice – an appropriately reasoned response based on the facts is good evangelism. The Church has learned of many errors and it’s members have throughout history made mistakes. These mistakes have sometimes gotten to the point of scandal. But let the tares grow among the wheat for they will be eliminated at harvest time, if not by before by our bishops and the magistirium before the harvest. Loving kindness is the way of the Lord, and he exemplified this in the story of the adulteress found to be in the very act of adultery.

A deeper learning and understanding of Catholic doctrine brings us the dual realization of doctrinal perfection and our own inadequacies as individual members.
So, yes if you are perfect in your judgment then cast the first stone.
As for me and my house we will follow the Lord.

http://www.stmichaelgodsknight.com

copyright 2010 Fred Celio