Are You Saved?

29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." Acts 16:31

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” as Paul and Silas noted above, is a brief and practical response to the question, “What must I do to be saved?”

For the serious and anxious enquirer, who seeks a fuller answer to this question for the good of his/her eternal soul, please refer to this summary.

For professing Christians, we recognize the Holy Scriptures have more to say than simply the words of Acts 16:31—and the evidence is plain that not all Christians have agreed with the Catholic Church in its presentation of the truth regarding salvation.

Evangelical Christians have done an exceedingly effective job in forcing Catholics—many nominal, some not—to ask themselves whether such terminology applies to them. Often, Catholics will ask, “How should I respond to someone who asks me if I've been saved, or born again?”

It is hoped that Catholics might be ready to reply with a resounding, "Yes!" to those who ask them such a question.

Tell them that it is through Baptism that you were saved, just as the Bible says in 1 Peter 3:20-21 and that it is through Baptism, water and the Spirit, that you are "born again," just as the Bible says in John 3:5.

You see, many Protestants believe that they are saved by making one single act of faith at one single point in time in their lives. Nowhere does Scripture say such a thing. As Catholics, however, we believe that salvation is a process which begins with our Baptism and continues throughout our lifetimes, just as the Bible teaches us.

There are so many places in Scripture, which talk about how one is "saved", but not one of them says we are saved by one act of faith at just one point in time. As I just mentioned, 1 Peter 3:20 says we are saved by baptism. In Hebrews 12:14 it says that we will not see the Lord unless we are holy, and that we have to strive for this holiness. In Matthew 6:14-15, it says we must forgive others or we will not be forgiven. Can you attain salvation if God hasn't forgiven you? No! So, our forgiving others is necessary for our salvation.

1 Tim 2:15 says that woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness with modesty. John 6:54 says we will have eternal life by doing something...eating the flesh and drinking the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Matthew 19, verses 16 and 17, Jesus is asked directly what one must do to have eternal life. Did He say, Accept me into your heart once and that’s it? No! Jesus said to keep the commandments and you will have life.

Yes, as Catholics we are born again. And, as Catholics we believe that we were saved, as Paul says in Rom 8:24; that we are being saved, as Paul says in 1 Cor 1:18; and that we will be saved, as Paul says in Rom 5:9-10, provided we persevere and keep our eyes on the prize. Salvation is a process, just as Catholics believe, and just as the Bible clearly teaches.

John Martignoni of Christian Bible Society

There’s more on this subject in one of my former posts, found here.

The Renewal of Baptismal Promises

At Easter time in the Catholic Church, new Christians are baptized and received into the Church and the faithful renew their baptismal vows.

The vows are words which carry tremendous weight and serve as a powerful testimony of a heart turned (turning) to Christ. It is a formula leading to new life in Christ.

If you are outside the fold of Christ, the Good Shepherd, these are words which, when spoken—even silently—from the heart, will start you on a journey to Jesus, the God-Man and Saviour of the world.

I, [your name], who through the tender mercy of the Eternal Father was privileged to be baptized "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19, 5) and thus to share in the dignity of his divine Sonship, wish now in the presence of this same loving Father and of his only-begotten Son to renew in all sincerity the promises I solemnly made at the time of my holy Baptism.

I, therefore, now do once again renounce Satan; I renounce all his works; I renounce all his allurements.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born into this world and who suffered and died for my sins and rose again. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

Having been buried with Christ unto death and raised up with him unto a new life, I promise to live no longer for myself or for that world which is the enemy of God but for him who died for me and rose again, serving God, my heavenly Father, faithfully and unto death in the holy Catholic Church.

Taught by our Savior's command and formed by the word of God, I now dare to say:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

If you prayed this prayer for the first time and would like to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism, please visit a Catholic Church and meet with the priest who will guide you further.

May God bless you and keep you faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ for ever and ever.

Amen

P.S. Why not follow up this important posting with another?

4MYC Urges Canadians to Push Hard on Bills C-10 and C-484

A very important bit of work which the people at 4MYCanada are asking all Canadians to undertake has to do with two current bills before parliament.

1. CLEANING UP MORAL FILTH IN CANADA'S FILM INDUSTRY: C-10

2. CONTINUING TO WORK AT SEEING C-484 (Unborn Victims of Crime Bill) PASSED!

Please click through on this link to their latest ACTION email and do everything you possibly can in support of these urgent initiatives which will make Canada a safer, more just society for us and our children.

Ottawa Archbishop to Meet with Clergy and Laity in St. John’s, Newfoundland

For the benefit of fellow Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. John's
Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast has made the news recently with some bold comments. On April 15, the Archbishop will be meeting with clergy and laity in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

(St. John’s, NL) Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Archdiocese of Ottawa will be meeting with the clergy and laity of the Archdiocese of St. John’s in April to discuss the Catholic concept of Stewardship.

[snip]

Rene Estrada who is responsible for developing the Stewardship process in the Archdiocese of St. John’s described stewardship as “involving a spiritual relationship with God. “He continued Stewardship is not a program, but a way-of-life, based in Scripture. The four pillars of stewardship are hospitality, prayer, formation and service.

The one day presentation by Archbishop Prendergast is seen as an opportunity to invite and encourage clergy and parishioners to experience, witness and live the stewardship way of life in response to their baptismal call to discipleship.

Muslim Scholar Denounces Vatican Baptism as Deliberate and Provocative

UPDATE: see below

Deliberate? Apparently so. Provocative? Not if you know anything about Benedict XVI.

It was big news just a week ago when Benedict XVI baptized a prominent convert from Islam during Easter. There has been some fallout though, as predicted.

VATICAN CITY (AP) - A Muslim scholar who participated in recent Vatican talks to improve Catholic-Muslim relations criticized Pope Benedict XVI's Easter baptism of a prominent convert from Islam as a "provocative" act.

Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born TV and newspaper commentator who has denounced Islam as inherently violently, was baptized by the pope in a vigil service Saturday night in St. Peter's Basilica.

Aref Ali Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan, criticized what he called "the Vatican's deliberate and provocative act of baptizing Allam on such a special occasion and in such a spectacular way."

I thought it was very telling indeed that the Vatican newspaper admitted to the Pope’s desire to make an important statement about religious freedom, something which I had immediately pointed out.

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano denied that the baptism had been played up, saying it was kept secret until just before the ceremony. It described the baptism as a papal "gesture" to stress "in a gentle and clear way, religious freedom."

Not so gentle perhaps, but unequivocally clear.

UPDATE: Cautious Vatican response to Muslim critics on conversion

Are Catholic Beliefs Found in the Bible?

Catholics are often asked tough questions about their Catholic faith and its relationship to the Bible. Here are the ten most-asked questions and the answers, in admittedly brief format, which should help to satisfy the questioner.

Adapted from a pamphlet available from Our Sunday Visitor entitled “Top Ten Questions Catholics Are Asked” and written by Dave Armstrong, the ten most asked questions are as follows:

1. Are Catholic beliefs found in the Bible?
2. Why do you obey the Pope?
3. Why do you call your priest "Father"?
4. Why do you pray for the dead?
5. Why do you pray to idols (statues)?
6. Why do you confess your sins to a priest?
7. Why do you worship Mary?
8. Why do you worship wafers?
9. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?
10. Are you saved?

In this posting, I will deal with question #1. I will post on the other questions over the next few weeks.

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Are Catholic beliefs found in the Bible?

All Catholic beliefs can be found in the Bible in some form, whether plainly or by indirect indication. It is not necessary for everything to be absolutely clear in Scripture alone, because this is not the teaching of Scripture itself. Scripture also points to an authoritative Church and Tradition, as St. Paul points out in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians: "Stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" (2 Thess 2:15 -- See also 1 Cor 11:2; 2 Thess 3:6; 2 Tim 1:13-14; 2:2).

When the first Christians had a significant disagreement they didn't simply open their Bibles (they didn't even exist at that point) to decide who was right; they held a council, which made binding decrees (Acts 15:1-29). The very books of the Bible had to be determined by the Church, and that didn't happen until the late fourth century. Therefore, human tradition and authority were necessary for us to even have a Bible today. If you believe that the Bible is infallible then you should also believe that the Church that decided which books should be in the Bible is the Church that has the Truth and has kept it complete and whole for 2000 years (1 Tim 3:15).

[This pamphlet is also available online.]

C484: A Bill about Justice, Not Abortion

Published today in the editorial section of The Telegram, Newfoundland & Labrador's daily provincial paper.

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C484: A Bill about Justice, Not Abortion

by Eric Alcock

Lane Jr. was 27 weeks old, still in the womb, when his mother Olivia Talbot was fatally shot twice in the head in 2005 by a childhood friend. Baby Lane perished too. Olivia had been shot three times in the abdomen as well. No charges could be laid in Baby Lane’s death.

When Aysun Sesen, 25 and seven months pregnant, was brought to hospital in October 2007 with multiple and fatal stab wounds to her abdomen, her fetus still had a faint heartbeat but died shortly thereafter. Her husband was charged with her slaying. No charges could be laid in the unborn child’s death.

Five pregnant women have been murdered in Canada in the past three years. Unquestionably, the torment of the grieving families of the victims due to their double loss is compounded by the impossibility of securing justice for their newest family member. They say society refuses to recognize their loss. How profound their pain!

Bill C-484 brings justice to these unborn children and their families. C-484 is titled “Unborn Victims of Crime Act,” and will amend the Criminal Code to prosecute attackers who injure or kill an unborn child during the commission of a crime against the mother.

Thus far, the word “abortion” is as distant from the discussion as green cheese. Why? Because C-484 has nothing to do with abortion. The bill explicitly excludes abortion. Clear headed and fair minded Canadians obviously agree. An Angus-Reid poll showed 70% of Canadians support this legislation, with only 19% of women suspecting the government of a sneak attack on abortion rights.

Joyce Hancock of the Newfoundland and Labrador Feminist Coalition recently captured the attention of The Telegram by claiming the federal conservatives were using C-484 as a back door attack to outlaw abortion. Ask Hancock what she sees in the bill and she’ll tell you abortion.

But I’ll let you in on the secret here. What she really sees is a law that recognizes the fetus as a distinct entity, separate from the mother and worth something. And that scares her because radical feminists and abortion advocates have unceasingly drummed into Canadians that, in effect, the fetus does not exist until it’s born. That’s their justification for abortion, which, incidentally, happens to kill the fetus every time. But it’s no excuse for fear mongering and misrepresentation over C-484.

They’ll tell you the bill grants a “form of personhood” or legal status to the fetus. It plainly doesn’t. They’ll try to sidestep the fetus by saying the “real issue” is domestic violence, not losing an unborn child, or that it does nothing to stop violence against women. Perhaps they should check the title of the bill. It’s not a domestic violence bill. We have those already and if they’re ineffective, let them put their energies into improving them.

They’ll tell you the bill blunders through a loophole in favour of perpetrators of domestic violence or that double charges won’t change anything because criminals serve concurrent sentences anyway. False—they’re grasping at straws.

Liberal MP’s in our province voted against this bill. Provincial Opposition Leader Yvonne Jones immediately pledged support for Hancock but admitted she hasn’t even read the bill! How telling. Shame on them all!

Get fully informed about C-484. Visit MP Ken Epp’s website where you can examine the bill from every possible angle. Contact your own MP as soon as possible and urge support for this bill which corrects a serious flaw in our justice system.

Strictly Links in This Posting—For Better Than Average Reading

Here are some interesting, better than average stories and links farmed from my surfing. I don’t have time to blog about them but they’re worth passing along to you.

Help yourself.

A cafeteria Catholic’s confessions MAGGIE MARWAH

Canada orders ministry by Christians shut down

Into the Font, Into the Fold
Posting by Rocco Palmo on Easter baptisms and conversions to the Catholic Church

The Church needs priests who live authentic obedience, says Peruvian bishop

Staggering changes taking place in religion in Ontario's Bible belt

Immigrants fuelling church revival in London Ontario
But is it really a “revival” or is it simply an influx? This one I’d really like to look into deeper and put together a post—if only I had the time. Lots of good stats in this story.

How comic books ruined the nation
Comic Books Ruined Our Nation Too? In addition to contraception, of course. :)

Missionaries from Canada a dying breed

Pure Fashion is an outgrowth of Challenge Clubs, groups for girls in Catholic churches

Shocker: Pope urges students to have personal relationship with Christ
Just kidding. It’s not really so shocking at all. It’s authentic Catholicism at work.

Bush to Welcome Benedict XVI at Airport

Seventeen Percent of Americans have Never Heard of the Pope

This seems like a surprisingly high figure. I might have guessed 5% or something like that. I wonder what the figures would be for Canadians?

But the good news is that in the lead up to the Pope's visit to the US, most Americans are at least warm towards the Pope.

The survey results show that Americans have a generally positive opinion of the Pope and the Catholic Church. Most hope that during his visit Pope Benedict will address the place of spiritual values in ordinary life.

Fifty-eight percent of the United States residents polled have a “favorable” or “very favorable” opinion of Benedict XVI, while 13 percent have an “unfavorable” or “very unfavorable” opinion of the Pope.

The Void at the Center of the Church's Activity

A particularly pointed posting from Uncle Di at the CWN website summarizing the last five years worth of postings, all 4600 to be exact. I could be wrong but perhaps Diogenes has finally figured out himself the real reason for all those posts and now he’s officially gone on the record [pun intended] with it. It seems he is positively dumbstruck and in awe over the stark absence in ecclesiastical circles of a true concern for souls who stand in jeopardy of hellfire.

Imagine a mother whose toddlers crawl past her legs under the kitchen sink, open various bottles marked with the skull-and-crossbones, pour the contents into sippy-cups, and then trot off drinking the contents while she shakes her head in bemused resignation. Either the woman is criminally negligent, or she doesn't believe the marked bottles really contain poison. There is no third possibility.

The eerie but incontestable fact is that most Catholic pastors behave like this unnaturally nonchalant mother. The Church still labels certain bottles with the skull-and-crossbones -- i.e., she still professes a belief in mortal (soul-destroying) sins, but even those of her clergy who give verbal assent to Church doctrine seldom conduct their office in a way that is intelligible if the doctrine were true.

I think what Uncle Di says is not surprising—but admittedly rare to see it put so succinctly in print—but I suspect his observations would be lost on the majority of Catholics.

I think this is why Evangelical Christians have such a difficult time believing that the Catholic faith emphasizes conversion of the soul. The “born again” experience of Evangelicals is tied strongly to a solid belief in the spiritual realities of salvation, heaven and hell and for the most part helps the Evangelical to stay focused on a concern for his/her own soul as well as the souls of others.

This is why I believe they’ve been labeled “Bible thumpers.” It’s not that they “thump” with the Bible per se but they do believe the Bible warns a man of the dangers facing his soul and urges a right relationship with God through faith. This is pretty basic stuff and it’s why, generally, they engage in evangelism and why they are called “Evangelicals.”

What Uncle Di observes explains precisely why the rank and file Catholic is not likewise seen to be very cognizant of their spiritual need. Their spiritual leaders—with shockingly few exceptions—are insensitive or oblivious to spiritual dangers. There might be many angles to this phenomenon and therefore many explanations but I think a significant factor relates to the nature of Catholic teaching on the formation of conscience.

Put simply and briefly, I think the Catholic has little leeway with picking and choosing what he/she believes. That kind of attitude in itself is fatal to the faith and when it becomes an entrenched attitude in Bishops the result is what we see in our own Canadian society.

Stefan’s website is full of this kind of subject. Here’s a basic article with which to start. He’s a great fan of Uncle Di, by the way.

P.S. What I said about Evangelicals doesn’t place them on a level above Catholics. It may make some of them better practicing Christians and it likely means that shocking numbers of Catholics are unwittingly living in peril of their souls. But ALL Christians must return to the fold if they are to fulfill the will of Christ and impact the world as the visible Body of Christ, which is what Christ prayed in the Garden. (John 17:20-23)

The problem, in short, is not with the Catholic faith, which remains a true witness of Christ and His Truth. The problem is with unfaithful pastors.

P.P.S. One Evangelical blogger's current discussions on her journey into the Catholic Church.

A Blog Dedicated to the Reunion of all Christians

Have you heard of it? PrincipiumUnitatis.

A blog dedicated to the reunion of all Christians.

Now back up and running.

Let unity, the greatest good of all goods, be your preoccupation.
St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to Polycarp)

Autism and "The Many Shapes of Personhood"

I refer you to an extraordinary You Tube video produced by Amanda Baggs, a 27 year old autistic woman, and which is embedded in an article by Wired magazine. It’s entitled The Truth About Autism: Scientists Reconsider What They Think They Know.

The article is excellent background for the video. It’ll definitely make you think about the concept of personhood, which I think is Amanda’s goal.

h/t Mirror of Justice

Moral Arguments in Defense of the Unborn Too Rare

Posted on the Vote Life, Canada! blog under the same title.


Today is International Day of the Unborn Child 2008. For more blog postings related to this event please visit Big Blue Wave for reports.

I’ve chosen to post an article by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason. In this short article Greg shares his grave concern for the pro-life movement because of fairly recent trends which focus too much on the woman in the debate over abortion. He claims, and I believe rightly, that we are becoming more and more reluctant—and losing our ability—to advance moral arguments in the defense of the Unborn.

If our actions and our behaviour in general are not expected to be informed by sound reason or principles (did I hear someone mention “absolute truth?”) then on what will we base our lifestyle decisions?

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Abortion: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em?

Gregory Koukl

The last few years have witnessed a stunning development in the pro-life movement, one worth considering.

The problem: More and more pro-lifers refuse to discuss abortion. A new wave of pro-life leaders insist that victory will not be gained if the debate centers principally on the morality of killing the unborn.

Paul Swope calls it “a failure to communicate” when right-to-lifers focus primarily on the unborn instead of on the felt needs of women. “The pro-life movement must show that abortion is actually not in a woman’s own self-interest,” he says. Reframing the debate will enable the movement to “regain the moral high ground in the mind of the American public.” The message is clear: Focus on the life of the mother, not the death of the child.

But it’s hard to imagine how appealing to self-interest could be an effective general strategy. Here’s why: It’s almost always in a woman’s short-term self-interest to abort. This is precisely why the pro-abortion side has been effective. A focus on felt needs favors death, not life.

How can we “regain the moral high ground in the mind of the public” if we retreat from the moral debate? The whole point of an ethical argument is to turn people from selfish interests to what is right. Felt needs are the problem, not the solution.

This approach completely sabotages the pro-life position. Crisis pregnancy centers do not exist to handle pregnancy (hospitals and clinics do that). They handle crisis pregnancies, those that will likely end in abortion. They don’t exist for the woman, strictly speaking, but for the child whose life is in danger. Women should not have abortions precisely because abortion is a moral tragedy. If not, then why oppose it?

By contrast, this new tactic implicitly promotes the vice of selfishness instead of the virtue of sacrificial motherhood. Ideas have consequences, and this one may have, as Frank Beckwith observes, “the unfortunate consequence of increasing the number of people who think that unless their needs are pacified they are perfectly justified in performing homicide on the most vulnerable of our population.”

Shifting the focus away from the unborn is morally disastrous, undermining the legitimacy of the entire pro-life case. Our position just is a moral one, period. Abandoning the ethical foundation for a trendier message means the pro-life movement no longer has any reason to exist. Instead, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Our growing reluctance to advance moral arguments and instead focus on the self-interest of the mother is a tacit admission we either don’t have a moral case to offer or that it simply doesn’t matter because it’s irrelevant. In either instance, pro-lifers have not just abandoned the moral argument, they’ve abandoned the fight altogether. This we cannot do.

[Source]

Pope Benedict Baptizes Prominent Muslim Magdi Allam

UPDATED: see below

Expect fallout.

One can only assume from this that the Pope means what he says when he constantly reiterates that all peoples—including Muslims—must have the freedom to pursue truth and the religion which their conscience dictates.

But the price will be high. It was for the Christians in Rome. Obviously the Pope knows this.

The mass came some 12 hours after an Easter vigil service on Saturday night where, in a surprise move, the pope baptized Muslim-born convert Magdi Allam, 55, an outspoken journalist and fierce critic of Islamic extremism.

At the morning Mass, the pope read a prayer saying that after Christ's resurrection some 2,000 years ago "thousands and thousands of people converted to the Christian faith" and he added: "This is a miracle that still renews itself today."

The Egyptian-born Allam's conversion to Christianity -- he took the name "Christian" for his baptism -- was kept secret until the Vatican disclosed it in a statement less than an hour before the Saturday night service began.

 Slideshow here.

UPDATE: This is the sort of injustice which Benedict XVI has protested as a grave violation of religious freedom.

Also Magdi Allam Recounts His Path to Conversion

Also see this very amazing story reported today on Joel Rosenberg's blog.

Confession Makes the News in Canada’s National Post

Don’t expect to come away with any sense of understanding the Catholic sacrament of Confession from reading this article in the National Post. Misrepresentation runs from subtle to blatant.

For the sake of balance, try one of the summaries below:

The short (and scriptural) version on why Catholics confess their sins to a priest.

Protestants have a long list of objections to Catholic teaching regarding confession.

Here’s a very brief guide for the Catholic on the practice of confession.

Perhaps I Was Wrong About Michael Coren

A few days ago I lumped Michael Coren together with “conservative colleagues” and accused him of being a moral relativist.

It has been brought to my attention that I might be wrong about Coren. After considering the matter, I admit I need to at least substantiate my claim—or my suspicions. I would like to think otherwise about Coren, who, as I admitted in my posting, writes brilliantly and once again illustrated that fact over the last couple of days.

Perhaps I was too quick to pin the label on Coren but I did so at the time because of some existing impressions pertaining to Coren’s positions on sodomy, divorce and contraception. Also, I must now confess to a careless misreading of the quote [from the article by Coren] which appeared in my posting. At the time I thought Coren’s comment about perversion related to his views on homosexuality but upon closer examination it is clear he was speaking of polygamy.

In any case, I apologize for prematurely criticizing Coren without offering a reasonable case for the claim. I will look further into the matter and in the very near future post the results of my inquiry. I will also try to present a more detailed description of what I believe constitutes the label "moral relativist."

It would be a very pleasant outcome indeed to discover that I was wrong about Michael Coren.

Please stay tuned.

Alleluia! He is Risen! Alleluia!

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Romans 6:4-5

[Image source]

By Whose Stripes Ye Were Healed

Who, by his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.
I Peter 2:24

Artwork above:
Matthias Grunewald, "The Crucifixion", 1515 (140 Kb); Panel from the Isenheim altarpiece: oil on wood 269 x 307 cm (105 7/8 x 120 7/8 in); Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar

In Persona Christi: Holy Thursday, The Priest and Contraception

From Father Tom’s Spirit & Life Column at Human Life International.

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In Persona Christi: Holy Thursday, The Priest and Contraception

By John Mallon

In Persona Christi, the priest stands for the Bridegroom in ministering to His Bride, the Church. In bringing new life to the Bride in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, he acts in a husbanding role and as a father. He cultivates.

The marriage bed is the altar of the domestic Church. Just as the priest brings new life spiritually, (zoe), to the Bride on the altar, the husband brings new biological life, (bios), to his wife on the marriage bed. In confecting and administering the Eucharist the priest brings new life to the family of Heaven, and the husband brings new life to the family on earth. In each case God is directly involved. Only through the Holy Spirit at the hands of the priest can bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ; and in human intercourse, only God can create a soul through the union of husband and wife.

The more one meditates on this Bridal mysticism the more staggering and beautiful it becomes, and the more the horror of contraception comes into relief.

In Genesis, when God set about to create man He said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," (Gen 1:26a). He spoke in plural. God is not a lone male figure, but a family: the Trinity. He went on to say, "Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground," (Gen 1:26b), here also indicating man as family. Man as species, man complete as one flesh. He also shares His dominion with man.

In the image of God, man not only images what God the Holy Trinity is, a family, but also images what God does: love and give life.

Feminist ideology, which often counters our message, doesn't get this. It thinks in term of separateness, not unity. It is an ideology of despair, especially despairing of love; despair issuing from a failure of love - sin - the despair that comes from being sinned against, and taking refuge in more sin. It is despair buried under generational layers of abuse, exploitation and sin. Whereas, the Church holds up loving union; with love as its path.

Human sexuality and reproduction, as one of God's greatest gifts, was wrapped by Him in pleasure and love, but too many in our time merely play with the wrappings and throw away the gift, soon finding only emptiness among the shreds.

The priest is a soldier of love, a soldier of beauty, a soldier of truth - a soldier of life. Sin divides. Sin kills. Contraception divides sperm from egg, husband from wife and man from God. Abortifacient contraception divides the embryo from the womb and, in destroying it, divides the newly minted soul from its tiny body.

The priest is tasked with restoring all things in Christ. This is not easy, but soldiers are men who fight wars, get wounded, maimed and even killed in a cause greater than themselves. Those fallen in this war we call martyrs. In fighting this war you may be killed. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have both called for a willingness to be martyred on the part of clergy - and all Christians - in these hostile days.

One may not be physically killed, but standing with Christ on the truth of life and contraception may earn him the smaller deaths of ridicule, mockery, and ostracism - even from his brother priests, who may still be under the misapprehension that priesthood is a nice, comfortable and respectable life where they will be well-liked and popular.

It is plausible that on the first Holy Thursday, in Gethsemane, Jesus underwent another kind of death, or perhaps the beginning of the death He would suffer the next day: heartbreak. It is plausible that in that heartbreak he died for the sins of His friends, the Church throughout history, the betrayals and abandonment beginning that very night with Peter's denial and the slumber of His sleepy friends who could not stay awake and watch with Him.

It is He whom you serve. It is He in Whose place you stand. To be bland and uncontroversial is a very poor way to imitate Christ. They don't put you on the cross for mediocrity.

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This article can also be found at Humanae Vitae Priests.Org and on John Mallon's personal website http://johnmallon.net

More Relativism from Canada’s Culture Warriors

Yesterday, from recommended links at No Apologies

STD’s and Liberalism

There were some startling new stats released in the US last week on the rate of incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers, especially teenaged girls. The numbers are shocking. Today, we link to two columns which both essentially argue that the numbers are a direct result of liberal attitudes about sex education, and about sex in general. Great ammunition if you need to convince some of your liberal friends of the error of their ways.

My question?

Why single out liberals for the error of their ways over sex education when conservatives have been defending contraception—which is the root cause of our present crisis of deformed "safe-sex" mentality—for at least an entire generation?

When will I stop my alarmist rhetoric on this subject?

When would you stop yelling for help if you were drowning?

Furthermore, when will the moral relativists stop harping about homosex and Islam and start focussing on a strategy that will actually make a difference? We all know the problem is precisely the birthrate so why are we dragging our heels?