WORD

Revised January 31, 2012

In the beginning was the Word;
The Word was, is, shall be God.
Father-consubstantial, the Word
Is Spirit-filled Son of God.
But, to be God, Satan desired,
Even to be overlord.
Due to him, Adam-Eve got fired
From Paradise, barred by sword.

And as the Lord sows His One Word
On this love-starved smorgasbord,
Satan implants many a seed
Devised only to mislead.
Sweet juicy flesh of devil’s pits
Appear to meet every need;
But all the devourer’s habits,
By genetics breed with speed.

Feelings, thoughts, beliefs, opinions,
Fair fields for vile suggestions
Are his for underhand damage
Without awareness vantage.
Hence we must remain vigilant
Every time every instant,
Against the devil’s fiery dart
Conjured to confuse and thwart.

Impossible, you say, griping;
Doomed to failure, you’re thinking:
Having sinful predilections
’Midst enthralling temptations.
But for, in, with and thru the Lord,
Everything is possible!
So let’s resolve by the Bible
To keep our eyes on The Word.

When St. Peter walked on water
Seeing strong wind and breaker,
He doubted and started sinking,
“Help me Lord!” he said, crying.
Consequently, when we obey
We look to Christ without doubt.
Scripture study should mark our way,
To wield His Words in each bout.

As the devil fell by his pride
He gets us through our conceit.
In humility let’s abide
Thus temptations we defeat.
Self-knowledge is necessary
To grow to the love of God,
Who, if we are truly sorry,
Grants mercy on us, the sod.

Since the enemy does not stop
So incessantly alert
We must pray for, to be on top
Of ploys disguised as inert.
And ask St. Michael and angels,
To bind Satan and devils
From obstructing our own accord
And unity with the Lord.

The Lord gives favor and mercy
If, His Word, we hear-obey
Who, by death-rising-ascension,
Guaranteed our salvation.
Obedience in true faith and love
Is what we must do, to have:
At-one-ment with Almighty Lord,
Holy Spirit and The Word.

FAITH AND WORKS

St. James wrote: "faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead", James 2:17; "faith without works is useless", James 2:20; "(f)or just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead", James 2:26. (NABRE)

St. Paul on the other hand, asserted:  “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access [by faith] to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2; “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins previously committed, through the forbearance of God—to prove his righteousness in the present time, that he might be righteous and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26; “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (NABRE, underlinings supplied).

From these apparently contradictory statements of St. James and St. Paul, there is supposedly a big contrast between works and faith. Presumably ‘works’ proceed from law (the Ten Commandments plus traditional Jewish religious tenets) and ‘faith’ from the grace and mercy brought forth by Jesus.

Might this not be a false contrast?

For from the heart comes most every manner of human behavior. Reasons and passions stew in the heart of mind and the mind of heart, and steam forth or manifest as actions or works.

So, would this contrast not be a contradistinction of (a) basis, cause, origin or source [faith, belief] against (b) consequence, effect, outcome, product, result or upshot [actions, works]?

Why not compare and contrast beliefs, expectations, intentions and motivations? That is: cause vs. cause, not cause vs. effect?

Are we not really making the following distinction?

On one hand, one might believe and have faith that he, by himself alone, relying solely on his own reason and mental power, can do right things and actions, and thus generate desired results and outcomes, even including to be like or more than God, without the help and favor of any deity. Isn’t this the presupposed doctrine of works?

On the other hand, another might believe and have faith that he, by himself alone, while able to take right actions even as he must eat by the sweat of his brow, cannot really generate right things without God’s grace or unmerited favor, like a builder building in vain or a farmer planting fruitlessly, and therefore he must do works in alignment with and based on faith in God’s grace, word and light, and doing so, expect the best results. Isn’t this the declared law of grace?

The first, observing cause and effect principles, puts into action the established predictable causes to bring about predictable results, as experience, knowledge, reason and science would tell him; in dealing with the unpredictable, the first prepares for all the future scenarios he can possibly conceive and leaves it at that.

The second, initially looks at situations and problems from known predictable factors, then goes beyond them, beyond what nature appears to warrant and, in faith, speaks the promises of God to the conditions then acts in congruence with those promises; in dealing with the unexpected, while also preparing for eventualities using both predictabilities and divine promises, the second readily concedes that all scenarios cannot really be envisaged and so, concomitantly, prays for, and keeps his hopes high in the belief of, unmerited favor (or grace) from the Almighty.

In the end, I submit, the contradiction might be re-framed in terms of effect vs. effect, manifestation vs. manifestation. This can also be stated as a contrast between: “works based on belief in reason alone, excluding God or His Grace” versus “works based not only on faith in reason as a gift of God but more importantly on faith in God Himself, His Promises and His Grace”.

Another way of re-framing the apparent opposition is in terms of cause vs. cause, belief vs. belief. Thus: “belief that one can reach heaven by simply following the letters of the law” vs “belief that one can reach heaven by faith in the grace (unmerited favor) of God, through faith in Jesus the Supreme Sacrifice who, in unity with the Holy Spirit, enables us to obey the law of love.”

This tension can be settled only by the gift of free will or our power to choose. Exercise it (elect to do things with or without God) and then just do the things you choose (by your lonesome self or in, with, and through God!)

OUR FATHER AMPLIFIED

Revised March 13,2012

Our Father Almighty, Supreme Lord, Most High God, Holy Ancient One, Holy Immortal One, Thou Who art in Heaven: Your Name is hallowed, Your Kingdom is come, Your Will is done. All three continue to be, for eternity, constantly being made holy, being brought to reality and being accomplished in obedience, by the once and for all saving sacrifice of Your Only Begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank You, Father, for Your loving kindness set forth in Christ Jesus, according to Your purpose so that we humans might, in love, be holy and blameless before You…

Thank You, Father, that by the waters of Baptism, we have been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Baptism and in Confirmation, we die to our sins and get born again in the Spirit. As such, we express our gratitude for the chance to ask and claim that Your Name be hallowed not only in us through our actions, but also in others whom Your grace still awaits, so that we may pray for everyone, even our enemies.

Thank You, Father, that Your Kingdom has been coming since the Last Supper, is in our midst in the Eucharist, and will come in glory when Christ in the Second Coming finally hands it over to You, O Glory Omnipotent! We gratefully appreciate, Lord, that Your Kingdom is embodied in Christ Himself, the Emmanuel, God within each of us. Every day, we desire Him to come again to the world at large, and we wish His coming to be manifested quickly to us. As He is our resurrection, since in Him we rise, we also understand Him to be the Kingdom of God, as in Him we reign.

Thank You, Father, that Your Kingdom is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. By discernment according to the Spirit, we can understand our vocation to eternal life as not suppressing, but actually reinforcing our duty to apply the energies and means received from You, Almighty Creator and Provider, to plans and actions that serve, promote and protect justice and peace in this world.

Thank You, Father, that You made known to us the mystery of Your Will, according to Your good pleasure set forth in Christ. This mystery is to gather up all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. We gratefully appreciate that Jesus Christ, in his agony, totally consented to Your will, saying "not My will, but Yours be done". In this obedient manner Jesus gave Himself up, to deliver us from our sins and from the present evil age. And this offering of His Body and shedding of His Blood sanctified us once for all.

Thank You, Father, that You allow our wills to be united with Your Son's, to fulfill Your Will or Your plan of salvation for the life of the world. By ourselves, we are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can surrender our wills to Him and decide to choose what Jesus has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to You, Almighty Father.

Thank You, Father, that by prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it. We gratefully recall and obey the teaching of Jesus that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by merely speaking words, but by actually doing the will of His Father in heaven. Indeed, if any one worships You, O Lord, and does Your Will, You will listen to him, O Holy, Mighty Father.

Thank You, Father, that You give to all the living their food in due season, regardless of righteousness or lack thereof. This generosity only points to how good You are beyond all goodness. O, Father God, since we recognize and trust You as the Father of all, in solidarity with each and every one’s needs and sufferings, with the understanding that You don’t invite us to idleness, but only want to relieve us of worry and preoccupation, we pray to You, for all of us: give us this day our daily bread.

Thank You, Father, that “this day” refers not only to our mortal chronological time, but also to Your ever-present "today" as you used it in “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”. Therefore "today" is when Christ rises, to satisfy both our physical and spiritual hunger, as verily “man does not live by bread alone, but… by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. With this understanding, we take to heart our responsibilities as stewards of the earth’s resources to keep it productive and as sharers of Your bounty with our neighbors, in equity, so that no one might starve.

Thank You, Father, that “daily bread” confirms to us in trust without reservation, the everyday availability of what is necessary for life and, more broadly, every good thing sufficient for subsistence. More importantly, however, we are truly grateful that it authenticates the accessibility of the very “Bread of Life”, the Body of Christ, the "medicine of immortality", without Whom we have no true life within us.

Thank You, Father, that everyday You allow us, in Your mercy, to confess our failings and faults. Even though already clothed with baptismal garments, we still do not cease to sin and to turn away from You, O Loving, Eternally Patient Lord. We gratefully acknowledge this never-ending indebtedness to You, O Father, because Your Infinite Mercy continues to give us the chance, despite our recurring sinfulness, to yet reach out to firm Hope: that in Jesus, Your Son, we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.

Thank You, Father that in Your Mercy, Love as the Body of Christ, is indivisible. We cannot love You, Lord God, Whom we cannot see, if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. If we refuse to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to Your merciful love. But in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to Your grace. So please, Father: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Thank You, Father, that You allow the unity of forgiveness to become possible through the Holy Spirit. It is in and by the Holy Spirit that we live, and through Him we can transform our minds into the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. In Reconciliation and in the Eucharist we re-experience dying to our sins and resurrecting in the Spirit. With this transformation, we can find ourselves forgiving one another, as You, Father God, forgave us in Christ. We gratefully appreciate that You gave permission for everything to be bound and loosed "in the depths of our hearts". For, although it is not in our own power not to feel or not to forget an offense, the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit, in unity with Him, turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory by transforming the hurt into intercession.

Thank You, Father, that You favor us with this capacity for forgiveness, which is an indispensable condition for the reconciliation of Your children with You, Almighty Father, and for human beings, with one another. We gratefully accept Your reminders: (a) that we are always debtors yet ought to owe no one anything, except to love one another; (b) that You, Lord God, do not accept the prayer offerings of any one who sows disunion and discord, but You command that he depart from the altar so that he may first be reconciled with his brother, for You, O Source of All Peace, can be appeased only by prayers that spring from and make peace; and (c) that the better offering to You, O Lord, is peace, brotherly concord, and a people made one in the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Thank You, Father, that You want to set us free from evil, in the context of our being in this realm engaged in the protracted battle between flesh and spirit saddled with a handicap. This hindrance is the propensity to simply, out of habit and/or without thought of eternal implications, succumb to surrounding and continuing temptations. These “tasty lures” are typically packaged as adulating, beautifying, delicious, elegant, elevating, exhilarating, flattering, fulfilling, great, powerful, relaxing, releasing, satisfying, sweet, verboten and as whatever else that could trigger raging lust for pleasure and/or desire for possession. Thus the road to sin is easy, sweet and wide. We genuinely welcome, Lord God, the on-going opportunity to beseech You not to allow us to actively enter into temptation nor to let us yield to enticements nor to surrender to slippery slopes down to sin. And so, humbly imploring You, O Lord, for Your Spirit of discernment and strength, we pray: lead us not into temptation, O Father God.

Thank You, Father, that You do not want to impose the good on us; You only want us to be free beings. From that loving intention we could, in a way, apprehend some usefulness from temptation. And it is: that temptation could reveal more of what our souls have received from You, O Father, for we ourselves do not really know all Your gifts to us. Temptation could teach us to know ourselves better. In the hidden throes of what might appear and feel on surface to be irresistible lures and enticements, we can discover our evil inclinations together with lurking snares and traps around, atop, behind, below, beside, in front and/or inside, the bait. With eyes opened by such revelation, we can then seize the chance to give thanks for the goods that temptation reveals to us. We also sincerely appreciate, Father God: (a) the concomitant strength You give us at times of temptation, since no testing has ever overtaken us that is not common to man and (b) Your faithfulness, O Lord God, in not letting us be tempted beyond our strength and in providing us as well the way of escape when tempted so that we might be able to endure it.

Thank You, Father, that the Lord Jesus Christ unites us to His battle and His agony urging us to vigilance of the heart in communion with His Own. This vigilance means "custody of the heart", for which Jesus prays to You, Father, to keep us in Your Name. The Holy Spirit as well constantly seeks to awaken us to stay watchful over this heart safekeeping. Jesus emphasized the importance of having custody, care and protection of one’s heart when He said: “But what comes out of the man that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” Shine Your Light within us, O Lord, to dry up and dispel these dark and evil thoughts, and keep our hearts in custody. We are grateful, Lord, for the reminder from Jesus Christ that there shall yet be the last temptation in our earthly battle. With this in mind, we pray for final perseverance with the Holy Spirit in guarding against and in being awake to temptation at all times, because Jesus said He is returning at an unexpected time and blessed is the one who is awake.

Thank You, Father, that You heard and granted the prayer of Jesus asking You not to take us out of this world but only to protect us from the evil one. And so, against the backdrop of the inter-dependent drama of sin and death, for the deliverance of our respective families and of the whole human family, in spiritual union with the whole Church, as a solidarity in the Body of Christ and in communion with the Saints, we pray: keep us delivered from evil, O Lord God.

We are absolutely grateful, Father, that (a) You not only took away our sins and pardoned our faults, in, with and through Jesus Christ, based upon our acceptance of Jesus as our Redeemer and our repentance of our sins; and (b) You also, by the Holy Spirit, protect us and keep us from the wiles of our adversary the devil, so that this enemy, who is adept at dissembling and accustomed to leading us into sin, may not surprise us any more. As we entrust ourselves to dwell in Your Secret Citadel and to abide in the shadow of Your Mighty Wings, O Most High God, our blinders and distorting prisms fall, and we dread the devil no more! Truly, if You, Lord, God of All in All, are for us, no one can ever be effectively against us.

And thus, finally, we implore, You, O Father God: (a) please accept our undying gratitude for Your Grace, Love and Mercy from the depths of and with all our hearts, minds, wills and bodies; and (b) please grant our humble and hopeful entreaties for continued deliverance from every evil and for unceasing grant of peace in our days. In this way, aided by Your Mercy, O Loving Father, we gratefully receive from You, and abide in the state of, freedom from sin and protection from all anxiety, as we await in blessed and joyful Hope, in unity with the Holy Spirit, the return of our King, our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. So it is, according to Your Will, O Loving Father. Amen, amen and amen!

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*Source and Reference: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2803 - 2854;
Part Four, Christian Prayer; Section Two, The Lord's Prayer, "Our Father!"
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s2a3.htm