Our Mission Series, The Coming of Jesus is the Good News of Joy and Hope/Chapter 6: The Call to the Kingdom, Christ's Call to Holiness

Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Truly God’s call for his people to enter his Kingdom is his same call to us for holiness. This Kingdom of Christ is actually his mystical Body, the Church. Thus the call to the Kingdom is a call to become united with Christ as members of his body. In order to become, again thus, Christ-like we have to share in what he is or what he does accordingly as he has commanded us to commemorate his deeds and actually unite with him. Jesus said he is the “Way”, the “Truth”, and the “Life”. Thus, in order to become holy we need to bear witness to his way, his truth, and his life. As we attempt to explain Jesus’ identifying of himself thus, please be aware all three descriptions of the Lord of himself are mutually inter-related in so far as we are talking about one Person, the One Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, although our wish is to emphasize each way what the Lord wanted himself seen and preached; nonetheless surely the Lord would not want us to dichotomize his person and to diminish the totality of what he means to his believers and followers as well as who he is authentically being the Savior of the world sent by the Father in heaven. All throughout this discussion, thus, we would be switching back and forth the concepts pertaining to either one of the words Way, Truth, or Life as we try to explain what Jesus would have wanted focused upon each time he referred to himself as the Way, the Truth, or the Life. 

With respect to God’s revelation of and about himself which he has spoken to his believers and followers, Christ said such revelations, like the above phrases from Scriptures, are precisely only understandable to whom God has chosen to understand them. He declared, “What you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the lowliest children.” Jesus clearly said here that the wisdom by way of education and the resources of wealth is by no means the medium to knowing God and his secret ways. Rather it has been the sole disposition of God and his Son that it is made known to whom God and his Son have chosen to know God and about God. And included among the chosen ones, and blessed ones to know God were Jesus’ disciples, whom Jesus said were surely more blessed many times over than “...prophets and Kings, who longed to see and hear what the disciples..” and the blessed, the children of God, “..Have been privileged to hear and see.” That this wisdom to know God is indeed something that does not reflect the common worldly wisdom is radically formulated as opposed to the language of the world by the Lord. 

Part One

Jesus, the Way 

At the very outset, whereas he has pointed to himself as man’s “Way”, we have the following verses where as he invited the disciples to become his followers; he posited a very tough condition how they could meet his standards. In Matthew 16:24-25 “... Jesus said to his disciples: If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. If you want to save your life you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me you will find it.” All of the above statements of Jesus though the words sound negative really express a very positive meaning. These words are actually the equivalent of the first of the Ten Commandments: the loving of God with all our heart, mind, and body. Love only God best, and no one else. This is very much the description of fidelity in romance. There’s only one object of preoccupation in the heart and mind of the lover, and that is his/her only love. To look away even for a second from the gaze, “adoration” of the beloved is an act of romantic betrayal. The same thing takes place about the supposed love between God and his human creatures. Because God is a “jealous lover” he doesn’t settle for anything less than all of our being, i.e. the meaning of the first commandment. In the process in order to have a clean slate in our heart for God, for Jesus whom we want to follow, we logically and consequently turn away from everything that stands in the way of a perfect following of Jesus. This process will necessarily involve giving up all unholy or un-Jesus-like ways of living. Or put another way, the process means abdicating all opportunities and rights to the Kingdom of the world, but embracing instead right now and right here the Kingdom of God. The two are diametrically opposed. We cannot have two masters, two Kings; we can only have one King, and we can only belong to one Kingdom. This is to the point such that towards the end of the paragraph quoted here Jesus makes the allusion that:”... What will you gain if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? What would you give to get back your soul?” (Matthew 16:26) In the Beatitudes, the Lord repeatedly stated that to the poor and everyone in very poor estate, especially the persecuted, belong the Kingdom of God. The poor of heart already has the Kingdom of God, not later on but the moment a believing soul reaches that moment of conversion or his receiving of the new life of the soul, i.e. the state of holiness. Our Lord Jesus himself provided us plenty of examples about being poor and poor in spirit. At the outset, right before he was to be borne by Mary, as a baby inside the womb of his Mother Mary, Jesus along with Mary bore the inconvenience of a long travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Whatever aches and discomfort Mary experienced the baby Jesus experienced. 

Upon reaching the age of reason, as information around his birth was relayed to him, Jesus accepted the not so pleasant news how his earthly parents were passed over the avail of just a little more cozy inn to be welcomed into as Joseph probably didn't have the top money to afford whatever most expensive room available for whoever with the topmost ability to pay. Jesus did not air any misgivings about having been sheltered in a stable, and his being laid on the animals' manger as his crib. 

Growing up, and having a home and a lifestyle that was not at all Palace-like in shape and form, (whereas he is Lord and King as 2nd Person of the Triune God), Jesus contented himself with the lifestyle and household only afforded by the wages of Joseph. That Joseph lived by his trade and that Jesus himself was made to adopt his foster father's trade tells us how Jesus embraced a living within limited means. If Mary and Joseph were truly well-off, they would have had a much grander mansion residence; and Joseph would have been managing artisans and employees under him instead of himself being the artisan-tradesman himself. But by traditional references to the Holy Family, theirs was only a modest home, and Joseph's source of income was merely the toiling of his very own hands. It was most apparent how Jesus was knowingly referred to as the carpenter's son. 

Then during Jesus' public ministry and by his public demeanor there were plenty indications how the Lord might have picked up frugal and thrifty ways about food handling and personal decorum. He was wont to tell his disciples to save left-over food. And he was accustomed to probably making his bed after use as he left his linen covering his body neatly folded by the tomb upon his resurrection. Instead of mounting on the more elegant full bodied horse, he was content with riding a donkey as he entered the City of Jerusalem upon the honorable welcome by the admiring people right before their betrayal of him. 

And of course, whereas Royalties of any little Kingdom or Tribe and of any age or generations even in the earlier times were typically carried by subjects or soldiers, the Lord Jesus only walked on foot to where ever he went whether on a mission or for personal business. (In addition, contrast this image of the Lord traveling all over on foot and with dust or mud trodden by his most sacred feet with the image of regular travelers of our time aboard airplanes, transported by limousines or taxis, moved up & down edifices by elevators or escalators. God could have designed the modern physical conveniences already invented and used when Jesus came down to earth; but did not, and instead allowed his Son precisely to live the yet more primitive lifestyles of physical personal mobility.) 

Finally, Jesus repeatedly said all along that he will die; and knew he would be buried once dead. Yet he was without prior arrangements how his body would be handled after his death. It took Joseph of Arimathea's personal initiative and concern to get Jesus to have a linen cloth bought to wrap the Lord's body; and it took the same Joseph of Arimathea to be the one to ask Pilate for Jesus' body, and take care of its handling, including the securing of a tomb for his burial. Upon birth and upon death, Jesus was scarce of physical provisions or Royal physical treatment. He only got whatever was coming his way according to the providential and propitious world realities: some simple caring parents in Mary & Joseph, and some scared but devout followers in the persons of Joseph of Arimathea as well as Nicodemus, who helped with Joseph of Arimathea at Jesus' burial. 

Of course, all the above appraisal about Jesus' spirit of poverty, whereas truly exemplary about the virtue of being 'blessedly' poor, or poor by lowly social & personal estate; nonetheless Jesus according to the essential message of his Gospel, specifically by the Sermon from the Mount and through the above life demonstrations more specifically meant to deliver precisely his teaching about being poor in spirit, the beatitude in poverty. The ever lingering or universal message of the Lord to all people of all generations: do not mind to bear with poverty; it is the WAY of sanctification and security of being heavenly bound. 

The theological and philosophical term for the conversion change of heart and mind, which for example is illustrated by complete resignation to life given impoverishment, is called METANOIA. Literally, it signifies the change of the mind; but it really denotes total personal change. Some concretization of this poverty of spirit as the first step in the way of holiness or the state of metanoia is the faithful compliance with the command of the ninth and the tenth commandments. The NINTH commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” The TENTH commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.” Covetousness is the desiring what does not belong to us. Somebody’s wife or potential wife does not belong to me. Therefore, I cannot desire a married woman because she belongs to her husband. Inferentially, I also cannot desire any other woman or girl, even if she is not married because first she has not belonged to me, in so far as I am not married to such a woman or girl; and because she is potentially someone’s wife in the future. The Lord stated this when he said: “You know the commandment which says, ‘Be faithful in marriage.’ But I tell you that if you look at another woman and want her you are already unfaithful in your thoughts.” Matthew 5:27-28 In other words, prior to any act of adultery with another woman a man who covets another woman is already committing the sin of adultery. In the same manner, commercializing women in the media or world of entertainment is a fostering of tempting acts of covetousness by men or by boys. In them, whether women or men, the purpose of being personable, highlighting each one’s distinct charm or commanding physical/psychological/spiritual traits, is both natural and admirable. But it is the reducing of either the woman or man to an object of gazing, (“girl-watching” or “boy-watching”), that is sinful. For then we would be appropriating “something” for us that is not belonging to us. Besides, an inordinate attachment to anybody is making that somebody above God. And God alone deserves our unlimited attention and affection, i.e. the worship of a God, who is our only God. The same principle applies to the desiring of our neighbor’s goods, whether any property or any of his/her personal attribute. To be upset because our neighbor just built a bigger or even a fancier house is covetousness. To envy someone else’s beauty, intelligence, height, or talent are also examples of covetousness. And likewise if that desiring of his/her “stuff” gets us so bothered we couldn’t get it off our mind and heart, this act of covetousness becomes idolatrous. It is turning us away from God, the only one that should absorb our mind and heart. These two commandments illustrate at the outset the act of self denial and self surrender even prior to owning or possessing the object of the heart’s desire. This is really the core of the spirit of poverty which is essential to the fundamental growing and progressing in holiness. 

By concrete illustrating, thus, how can we be sure our appreciation of the gifts and blessings of God is not an idolatrous act but an act of gratitude and praise listened to and pleasing to the Lord? We certainly could easily say we thank the Lord when we do get to enjoy a material or worldly thing that seems either bountifully showered upon us, or which evidently gives us pleasure and delights. For example, each time we become like the single one of the Scriptures’ HEALED-&-HELPED-OUT NEEDY 10 individuals, who alone returned after the ten's ailment needs were satisfied by the Lord, (re: the Ten Lepers); then indeed we are at least a grateful person to the Lord. However, how can we be certain our blessings or ourselves are truly manifesting acts of praise and worship of the Lord? When pretty women, and dashing gentlemen stand out in pageants contests, does being pretty or good looking make them glorifying to the Lord? When leaders of nations or executives of moneyed corporations show prowess and great influence in leadership or management does their power glorify the Lord? When athletes exceed record performances of great feats, will these performances serve as their tickets to the heavens? When scholars, scientists, and technologists invent ideas or gadgets that turn the world around or which lead to the betterment of human lifestyle, do their discoveries or inventions earn them their passport to eternal glory? In other words, it is true to many individuals of different races or countries or generations could be attributed world credits of achievement or credits of possession. The world is indeed populated with many beautiful women, many statuesque & imposing gentlemen, many feared or revered world leaders/corporate executives, many ingenious & masterful artisans and inventors, and many million-dollar worth sports athletes, etc... Even on the down-to-earth level, many men and women, if not everyone by some talent or another, are easily tempted to brag of a gift of some kind, indeed and so I repeat the question: does enjoying a blessing in itself enough expression of human fulfillment? When any such individual dies doing just that activity does that individual get to heaven? 

Let us bear in mind beforehand, how, in the first place, the Lord Jesus has warned us with the statement that it is so difficult for a rich man , (anyone so gifted), to go to heaven. Such that in comparison it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for such a man to enter heaven. The Lord also said man cannot have two Masters; he cannot serve both God and money, (a representation of each form of gifts/blessings). Either he will worship one and renounce the other. And by appearances, with the behavior of people, who have money, money, indeed, is very easily worshiped. Which means in this case, the Lord is the one renounced. 

It was in a negative manner, thus, how Jesus told us, we can ascertain choosing him, or make sure we are not renouncing him. He said, the way to become his follower, as we initially noted, is to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and to do actually follow him. At Mass, which is the same Calvary Sacrifice of Jesus, which is the essential Cross he has asked us to take up, carry, and embrace; the Lord ever reminds us with the words: Do this in commemoration of me do what? Do exactly what he did as formulated in the Consecration Words: to say with Christ with reference to our own body and blood, This is my body which I am prepared like Christ to get broken up for my neighbor; and this is my blood, which I am prepared like Christ to shed also for my neighbor in the name of love. 

Therefore, only if our use of our blessings or gifts expresses an act of obedient sacrifice for love of neighbors and, hence, of God, are their use legitimate appreciation of the blessings or gifts from God. Be beautiful, be good looking, be rich, be powerful, be talented, or be a diligent athlete or artist; but be such in acts of love of neighbors and of God. Only thus are these God-given honors truly praiseworthy Otherwise, they are nothing but pompous and wasteful expressions of vanities. All fleeting, and passing, and just fanciful goods of the world; but never ultimately rewarding the souls. 

Ironically, world standards say, declare yourself, Occupy the front seats, and over my dead body, you don't score on me for whatever it’s worth self pre-eminence, and street-smart clever upmanship over the other fellow is the rule to adhere to for interpersonal transactions. Any sign of openness and gentleness are interpreted for weakness and outright softness. For instant gratification and momentary glory most are tempted to buy into these parodies of self advertising. And for fear of missing on this bandwagon of self idolatries many are heck of scared of the opposite predicament: being in the least the subject of ridicule or scorn. In the process many social interactions tend to be phony relationships. Each one purports to be some sort of perfect human being: no miscues, no embarrassment, and no apologies. It’s like, each social interplay, if it is to be proper, has got to be a perfect take-one social portrait. The situational parading has got to be impeccably stamping their best foot forward. I don't make mistakes, Heck; I just look so good all peacock imitations. Vanities And more vanities But the MAN Jesus, our Lord, never did promote such a fake and tiring human behaving. On the contrary both by teachings and by his life the Lord parlayed and lived the lifestyle of humbleness and meekness. He said take the last seat so you could be moved forward. He said to imitate his meekness and humbleness in heart. And he acted out humility and meekness when he quietly resigned himself to the incomparable humiliations and rejections people subjected him in so far as these were part of his sacrificial lamb offering of him in the name of love and truth. Love, because through the ordeal he offered himself up as the necessary victim of atonement for others; and truth, because despite not being guilty of anything he received such a punishment in obedience to the Father. If we follow the Lord, like with him, our personal embarrassment and setbacks especially if caused by others become acts of love and truth. In union with Christ they serve to atone for the sins of people, as well as serve to God as truthful vindications of our abuse by others. To repeat, Jesus was made flesh, was made obedient unto the Father, and was made humble as a man, (by which he in a lamb-like fashion sacrificed himself to the Father for the ransoming of men). Hence, are we also to be always mindfully humble and meek, or lamb-like in our offering up to the Father (in unity with Christ) of all sorts of expressions of self denial, taking up of our crosses, and actual bearing of our own daily life sacrifices as our co-laboring & participation in Christ’s work of salvation. 

Part and parcel of this admission of our human littleness or state of human imperfections is the simplicity or integrity of heart, i.e. whereby we practice complete honesty about our actions and thoughts. The Lord taught us that by whatever man is guilty of in the heart, is already guilty in act. The Lord is telling us to abide by the spirit of the law, and not so much by the letter of the law. In another example, he explained how we are already sinning in the heart even if we do not commit the act. He said:”You know that our ancestors were told ‘Do not commit murder’ and ‘A murderer must be brought to trial’. But I promise you if you are angry with someone you will have to stand trial”. Complete fidelity to the law, altogether by the spirit and by the letter is emphasized by the Lord when He said: “Don’t suppose that I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to do away with them but to give them their full meaning. Heaven and earth may disappear. But I promise you that not even a period or comma will ever disappear from the Law. Everything in it must happen. If you reject even the least important command in the law and teach others to do the same you will be the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. But if you obey and teach others its commands you will have important place in the kingdom. You must obey God’s commands better than how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law obey them. If you don’t, I promise you that you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-20 

In actual terms, whether physically or mentally and even materially (financial or money-wise) the following of Jesus can mean complete surrender of oneself to the Divine Will by us. In all counts therefore it will be a painful process. It is called the “dying to oneself”, often referred to in the way of purification and sanctification of the soul. The fact that we have to suffer, i.e. to be suffering in union with Christ, is certain. Otherwise, there is no real taking of the cross. Any postulating that we are following Jesus without bearing of the cross is bound to be some type of deception worked out by both the fallible teachers and the principalities in the world (devil ones).  Actually, what Jesus underwent, each and every man is going to have to undergo. Jesus tried to refuse it so its natural we are going to want to refuse to suffer. But Jesus went through it. And according to him, if we are to be his true disciples, we have to go through our crosses, or our own types of suffering in life. And as Jesus cried during his toughest moment of suffering, we are going to cry going through our suffering. As humans we already know what it is to suffer. But if Jesus, the God-man had to suffer, how much more appropriate it is for us human beings that we suffer. As God, Jesus is above suffering; whereas we as mere creatures are necessarily involved with suffering. We have to suffer anyway. It is a fact of life. Whether we like it or not we have to suffer in life we cried during the first moment we saw the light of day when we were born. We suffered as we went through the pains of growing up, e.g. mostly suffering of the fear of the unknown. Being uninitiated in the different aspects of life we struggled to face each and every stage of boyhood/girlhood, and later of manhood/womanhood. It seemed then like older guys or older people always had the advantage over the younger ones. And we complained when we were told we just had to experience and pass all kinds of initiations; it just seemed okay for the already experienced. How terrified we were during our first jump over the deep water, at our first day at school left behind by our parents, at our first real propositioning of or getting propositioned by the opposite sex, at the first time we had to leave home or town and off to an unfamiliar city or environment, at our first challenge to a fistfight or girl squabble, at our first taste of accident, whether a fall or a car accident where it almost cost our life, when we were faced squarely by the consequences of our first major life mistake, when we had to measure up to many standard tests of social institutions where we thought we were no match for competition with others seemingly more suited for the tests, etc... Then there are the real life-like human sufferings, or social disparities in life. Others are born rich, others are poor; others are more physically endowed of beauty or strength or size, others are not; others are born with greater IQ, others are not; others are raised in more affluent environment of better school and peers, others are not; others are born in peaceful families or communities, others are not; others seem well connected for social advances, others seem so all alone and without any manner of assistance, etc.... Then we have those sufferings under the category of misfortunes: those raised orphans, those born handicapped in faculties, those that were victims of child abuse, even sex abuse when they were so very vulnerable, those that went through life unsettling events of society or of nature like disasters & catastrophe, or incapacitating military sojourn, changes in economy or political events or government, etc.. Directly or indirectly these examples of suffering are results and manifestations of the sinful man. And when the suffering is indeed directly the result of a sinful act like aids, gonorrhea, incarceration or any trouble with the law, most abortions, criminal convictions due to falsification of documents, stealing and robbery, assault and abuse of someone, or any other criminal act, then the suffering is more painful. Such an individual is pained by both the punishment and the guilt of the act. And indeed, oftentimes, our suffering is the result of our own doing, whether individually or collectively. At other times, they are caused directly by our fellow human beings even if without any fault of ours. And then also at other times it is caused simply by our being members of the imperfect creations: our predicament of human shortcoming; i.e. we are imperfect beings, and our world is an imperfect world. Nothing will seem to be right ever; and nothing will seem to be enough ever. We just have to suffer having to put up with our imperfections.  This, however, is the mystical reality of the Church: people throughout the world and through generations becoming part and parcel of the one LAMB sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ for the edification of the Body of Christ, its Church. They become worthy members/believers & professers of justice and love, as they end up serving ultimately as victims sufferers on behalf of the people's individual salvation. Starting with Christ we have been blessed with saints and leaders who were expediently instrumental heading the people turn things around precisely in the name of divine reverence, justice, self-sacrifice. The magnitude of these people’s unselfish and even martyr-like deeds cannot but manifest to us the working of the Holy Spirit empowering the people carry themselves through their individual or collective offering of their lives for the cause of justice to themselves and to the world. Recall the sacrifices of the very first Christian believers, who in testimony for the faith resigned themselves to being fed to the lions on account of the persecutions by the Roman Empire. Recall the holocaust of the Jews who were special victims singled out by Hitler. Recall further the toll of World War II both in Europe and in Asia. Then in the present milieu, let us call to mind the victims of abortion and of terrorism worldwide. 

In compassion for the above, and in sacrificial reckoning of the value of Christian suffering, self-denial, and opting for the new life in Christ, individually and personally we are not to be perplexed and be too scared when ordeals and misfortune finally come our way. In the first place it is God who bears us through them, and in the second place they are only a rite of passage to the ultimate peace and refuge with God in the heavens. Hence, we are not to be intimidated by the cross, or the bearing of the cross. Jesus assures us he is there to carry it with us. For he said: “...If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble and you will find rest. This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 The above referred to acts of self denial and self surrender along with their acts of the total choosing of God or of God’s will are genuine definitions of the so-called human freedom. TO BE ALIVE IS TO LIVE ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD. But to live by grace is to live renouncing each moment, and each day our human sinfulness. And as God is the source that empowers grace, NOBODY asking for grace will fail not receiving from Him. And no matter what type of hardship or cross we bear God will supply the grace we need to bear our sacrificial atoning and personal purifying suffering in Christ for our relief and only true joy, and for the glorification of God. We are to go through inescapable pain, hurting, and anguish; but we are assured to come out of them relieved, refreshed, and re-strengthened, and persevering. And if God allows it, for some they are even to be rewarded with glorious temporal love union with God while even yet on earth. And for everyone who is erring, and failing yet striving to be faithful God assures him as well his ever reliable company and providence. To repeat, he said, "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I shall give you rest". In relation to God, specifically in terms of our personal relationship with our Lord Jesus, this most perfect uniting with Jesus in his suffering consists the meaning of freedom. When we have Jesus, we have freedom. We shall cease to rebel. We shall accept and embrace everything the Lord has deigned for us. And in the process we shall only choose according as it were we are Jesus himself making the choice. It is freedom precisely because when we have Jesus or his grace we are freed from the effect of sinful concupiscence. This makes our choice or our act of choosing true liberty, i.e. our act is righteous. We are free from guilt, and we are free from making a wreck-less mistake. We do not choose something because it makes us afraid, or it “enslaves” or “pressures” us. We choose it because it is the right thing; but only by virtue of the fact that we are making the choice in unity with Jesus or his Spirit. Thus, when, for example, we are face to face with a near death situation, or when witnessing a live and current disaster, or bloody accident, or an obvious radical change of fortune, or simply when confronted by tragic life circumstances we testify grace is sufficient. Christ declared that he has overcome the world, i.e. the evils of the world. We are not to twist any negative into something positive; but we are to trust the Lord. To repeat, his yoke will make whatever life's cross bearable; for he will surely be there to carry it with us (A more detailed presentation of the reality of suffering in Christian living is done in Chapters 8's, 7,9, & 6 .) 

The aspect of our uniting with Jesus or his Spirit, in terms of absolute human abandonment of self in the embrace of the Lord’s will for us, establishes the supernatural nature of holiness: namely its being a gift of God. It is the life in the grace of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit through the applicable means of God’s sacraments as accepted and practiced by individual human wills or persons. 

The life and the challenge of holiness stipulate certain pre-requisites. To repeat, holiness is initially, and intrinsically a gratuitous act by God upon the soul. The main element of faith is that it is essentially a state of grace that comes from Christ, and received by the believing soul by the power of the Holy Spirit. Holiness is therefore the Divine Life that through the Incarnation of Christ God the Father gave to mankind through the Holy Spirit. This Divine Life is in the form of the sanctifying grace merited by Christ’s redemption of the sinful soul and delivered by the Holy Spirit to the believing soul. The state of holiness, thus, is begun and maintained when the soul receives and keeps the grace of the Holy Spirit. 

But this sanctifying grace is channeled into the soul by way of the sacraments or signs divinely instituted by Christ. The very first such channel of graces is the sacrament of Baptism. Grace is first received through baptism. And when it is lost, it is retrieved through penance or confession. Later grace is made abundant through the other sacraments mainly through the Eucharist. And so beginning with the sacrament of baptism, in Matthew 28:18-19 Jesus came to them and said: “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. BAPTIZE them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit....” The start of the union with God, as Jesus taught, is to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But this act of being baptized has to be accompanied by the individual’s acceptance of his/her sins, or true repentance for them beginning at the age of reason. St. John the Baptist called us out to this repentance when his voice cries in the wilderness, “… prepare the way of the Lord Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 40:3-5 with faith we are to praise God, and give thanks to God for his graces of sorrow and repentance for sins. This is the only way to open up his coming into our hearts. This is the only way to welcome the Kingdom of God on earth. As true believers and followers we are to do so through deep prayers, acts of abstinence and fasting, (especially from sensual pleasures), and through the reception of Christ's sacraments of confession and the Eucharist. It is not enough to rationally realize our sins, and to rationally deal with God, as it were individually making a pact between oneself and God. Through baptism a Christian is joined with God, and with his entire Kingdom: the members of his Church. Hence, to be baptized is to belong, to become part of God and his people. Faith is a people’s new covenant with God through baptism in the name of the Trinity by the power of Christ’s incarnation and ransoming of men’s sins. 

And the fullness of the state of grace is realized through the sacrament of the Eucharist. Just as in confession where Jesus was meticulous about man really and actually confessing of his sins, and receiving of his pardon so also in the Eucharist, i.e. in this communion with the body and blood of Christ, Jesus was again being very unequivocal and real. He said unless we really and actually eat of his flesh and drink of his blood we shall not have his life everlasting. Jesus as a man understands the physicality of love consummation. Union between two lovers involves personal physical union. Similarly in positing the realization of the act of being united with him, who is both human and God, he desires and demands that we actually unite with him physically or materially. And by the mysterious power of his words transforming the bread and the wine into his very body and blood he made it possible for him to become part of us when we receive the Eucharist, i.e. Holy Communion. John 6:56 “If you eat my flesh and drink my blood you are ONE WITH ME, and I am ONE WITH YOU.” What a testimony of Jesus’ real presence on earth with us. And what great opportunities of really being united with Christ right here on earth before the eternal heavenly bliss with God Heaven on earth   As pilgrims on a journey, men tend to wander away; and could get lost spiritually or more strictly speaking, could lose his life of grace through acts of sins. But God is so rich in love and mercy that when this happens man is invited back by God to holiness by a back road to the union with him in the sacrament of confession. John 20:21-23 “After Jesus had greeted them, again he said ‘I am sending you just as the Father has sent me; then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins they will be forgiven. But if you don’t forgive their sins, they will not be forgiven.” There is no doubt Jesus gave his apostles the power to forgive sins, and to hold back forgiveness of sins. Whereas Jesus wants men to accept their sins, and to repent for their sins; nevertheless he wanted men to actually and physically confess their sins to some people he authorized to hand down or not to hand down of his forgiveness. See, thus, the above verses. And this is very wise and assuring for repentant sinners. One, some people learned, trained, and ordained to grant pardon could only help out the penitent at really understanding about his kind of sins. Two, once he hears of the words: “I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” the penitent has the witness that he does confess of his sinfulness, and that he is sorrowful about it. Besides, people listen to all sorts of people to whom they tell of their mistakes, including guilt just to relieve themselves of some feeling of remorse, and they pay for it to do it. In confession the event is free, and the effect is more than therapeutic. There is the receiving anew of lost graces because of sins. And grace provides the penitent aside from pardon great experience of true peace.

According to man’s state of life, the Church teaches of other sacraments by which man could grow in holiness in terms of the different ways of increasing the sanctifying grace of his soul. For couples or families the sacrament of marriage is a main source of grace by which to live a holy and spiritually fruitful family life. For individuals who want to dedicate their lives to the service of God and His Church the religious life affords the opportunity for utmost graces through the sacrament of the Holy Orders. And for the individuals who are close to the end of their material lives, or who are infirm both physically and spiritually, there is the sacrament of the sick. Then there is also the sacrament of Confirmation for everyone right after receiving the sacrament of Baptism, where the souls, who are neophytes in holiness or the life of grace are conferred more graces by which to be strong at perseverance in holiness. 

Thus far, although per metanoia we posited the necessity of a purified or single-hearted choosing of God over other things or persons of creation; however per the sacramental and grace experience, which Christ has required of believers, we are making it clear how we cannot be pure or be born again on our own; we cannot be good by our own merit. We are making it clear that to be holy is to have/to receive the life of grace from Christ in the manner he has instituted them, namely per the sacramental signs, which he has given and instituted, through which by the Spirit his graces are channeled to the believing Christian. As we proceed in the understanding of this participated living in the grace of Christ, thus shall we understand as well the notions and activities involved in the personal act or living of holiness. 

To recap this: to be holy is to be united with Christ. And to be united with Christ is to possess the Holy Spirit via the possession of the grace of Christ. And these graces are received and maintained by the believing Christians through the instrumentalities of Christ-instituted sacraments, which we have described basically above. Altogether the above statements comprise the parameters in the describing of the acts or deeds of holiness. It shall always be within these parameters that we are to discuss the said notions and activities characterizing holy individuals. 

In summary, in our trying to understand what the Lord meant about himself as our WAY, the above paragraphs are to tell us aspects of the essence of Christ’s Paschal Mystery re: salvation, how it is has been revealed to us his becoming the “Lamb of God” by which mankind is saved, and with whom the believing people of God is united in participating lamb-like sacrificial atonement to the Father. And this both exemplifies and paves the way to our own sacramental “Way” of becoming or growing in the likeness with Christ or in being born again in baptism into the new life of Christ. This is why this process realizes within us by grace the above referred to metanoia, i.e. the conversion, or purity of heart becoming a reality in believing men and women by virtue of Christ’s own baptismal lamb sacrificing of himself to the Father as ransom to redeem mankind. This is and will be a process of continuing individual conversions in each and every man and woman born again in Christ as they journey precisely as a people of God, or of the Church. But we have to emphasize here that Jesus becomes the “Way” for us and within us only if we believe and profess in total embrace, even to the point of death, our Eucharistic and penance united sacrificial offering up with him of our own individual dying to ourselves per our sufferings. So just like he constantly reminds us at Mass his breaking his body and shedding of blood by which many are saved; so must we obey his command that we do likewise: offer up ourselves to be broken in the name of love. 

In the book of revelations’ references to the Lamb, and the Supper (the Mass) particularly at the moments before, during, and after the “transubstantiation act” by the Priest, when Jesus is represented as the offered and the offered/victim to the Father on behalf of mankind, the Kingdom of God is most magnificently made present. With the Saints and the Angels being united together with the faithful attending the Mass, a scenario of Heaven or the Kingdom of God is being played and actualized. At the Last Supper, which preludes the Lord's ensuing sacrificial crucifixion & death, Jesus says: This is my body which shall be offered up for you... May our last 'banquets on earth', (last neighborly fellowships w/ others) be moments of personal dying sacrifices of our living in this world.

Part Two

 Jesus, the Truth

Christ gave himself to man as the heavenly Father’s Son, i.e. the Father’s alter ego in divine-human form, who thus remains the God of mankind but who is now a little more personally known to man by revelation and grace. Christ is thus the God made man, the God to be adored, and the man, who has sacrificed for mankind in their behalf to the Father. Christ is the New Reality to be reckoned with fundamentally by mankind. In other words, with the Incarnation and Salvation Reality in Christ mankind gets to have a new meaning, purpose, and destiny in life. It is Christ. And Christ is the new reality for man. Thus if man is to define and practically characterize his living it is going to be by this new horizon and realm of reality. This goes to say the ‘old order’ of the world and of living is passé. To live to eat or to eat to live can no longer have its previous old order necessity. Christ specifically said, "Man does not live by bread (eating) alone”. Nor does sex have any more enslaving power over men and women who have chosen Christ. Thus Christ said in some equivalent words a man or woman, who professes to be Christian, does not have to be compelled to look at the opposite sex with impurity or lustful desiring because such act makes him or her guilty of adultery. The implication here is that through Christ new human beings are capable of loving of and pure relating with one another. And besides human treatment of food or sex or sexual relations, within and in accord with the New Reality in Christ the whole universe around man can be seen, understood, explored, exploited, used, appreciated, or admired according to the "New Creation" in Christ. Thus, no longer do old types and categories apply fundamentally. In Christ, both intrinsically and extrinsically human individuals have received and have gotten access to their new personalities or individualities.

Integral to the announcing of Jesus as the Truth is the announcement of the new Christian reality of grace, which is the essential reference to Jesus being our "Life", which is elaborated in the third part of this chapter. It is this grace of Christ, through the dispensing and realizing power of the Holy Spirit that determines the expressing and fulfilling of our new personalities or individualities in Christ. Individual men and women, who believe in Christ, will find real abilities, and powers or ‘empowerments’, whether by faculties or circumstances, only BY GRACE. This is the "Amazing Grace" phenomenon among Christians. Towards and within the new Christian civilization and culture, this is also the believers’ weapon of liberation vs. the old order ‘civilization & culture’. But in so far as this world still remains ‘a threshold of choice’ between those who choose Christ and those who don’t, such a new "Christian civilization and culture" will continue to co-exist with the ‘old order civilization & culture’ of the "world" . Non believers will scoff and mess up with the new "Christian civilization and culture" even to the point of the sacrificial deaths by believers. Thus, believers empowered by their faith and by the grace shall not be cut off from the living reality of the Communion/Unity/Entity of believers or ‘saints’, which embodies the very fulfillment, manifestation, and realization of Christ’s new post Incarnational/Salvation reality in the heaven, the universe, and even in this secularly infected world.

As constantly stated by the Lord, he identified himself as truth. Jesus, thus, talked of himself and of his followers being the "light of the world", (as well as being "the salt of the earth"). As the light of the world, Jesus and his Christian followers are the continuing light for the world. Whereas the world is characterized and saturated with darkness, i.e. confusions, misconceptions, misunderstanding, misconstruing of things, lies, delusions, dishonesties, deceptions, conceits, and betrayals, Christian believers are to be the stark opposites of all the above precisely because they are the identification of the truth of and in Christ. The Gospel objective is to define holiness in terms of our fidelity to Christ as the "Truth", or as the basis of truth. Christ teaches and enlightens his followers the necessity to know God’s revealed truths, especially the revelation of the truth in Christ, himself. In conjunction with all these, Christians, as the extension of Christ, need to be the "salt of the earth". Methodologically, we could understand this teaching of Jesus either by what he forbids, or what he commands on us. Negatively, thus he would tell us we are in accord or not in accord with the meaning of holiness accordingly by our harvesting what we sow if we love to commit evil deeds, we shall multiply evil deeds in our lives. And repeated entangling with evil could keep us ever buried in evil, and continually without holiness; and therefore, without God. But being without God is to be without the godliness, the being without which depicts and characterizes the superficial world. This absence of godliness is invariably attested by the flawed value systems of the world. Hence, witness the fleeting and passing values all around worldly living. At one point or another, man’s deeds amount to prosperity & glory now, then loss & oblivion, even dishonor & disgrace later. Without God’s presence in the world, the world is ever prone to and plagued with destruction and waste in varying manners and degrees. Only among, and on account of Christian believers can be seen and can take place some manner and degree of consistency and reliableness, whether in terms of individual integrity or the minimum lasting human relationships. Indeed, are followers of Christ the salt of the earth? They preserve what is worthwhile in the world, even if only for or via temporary human situations and structures. They create the least decent and worthwhile of and in human environment and undertakings. But in places or/and situations where Christian precepts are incognito and are violated the predicament of degenerate human behaving and exploitative social deal making is the expected and eventual state of affairs, whether in small or large scale. This is where man and human interactions are nothing more than exercises and venues of opportunistic and manipulative and predatory using of unwilling men &women-preys-and-victims according as these serve the capricious and exclusive benefits of the above human exploiters-predators. Whatever could be claimed and appropriated as useful and beneficial – even if only exclusive to some men, and not at all useful or beneficial, albeit, rather harmful and damaging to others. This, in other words, to repeat here, is the case of dog-eat-dog human affairs in the world. Isn’t this almost like hell? Indeed, the Scriptures warn, "The wages of sin is death." As man sins wantonly, his soul dies. Unless they repent, men that live such a lifestyle that constantly flirts with places and situations that occasion sins, endanger themselves to permanent death, eternal death. Characteristically under such an environment it is sans air of sanctification, and is sans genuine living. In all appearances it is a state deserted by God, and is a situation, which by practical purposes, is almost like, again, being in hell already. Stated another form, it is also said, "How you live so shall you die. Thus, if man lives in sins he also dies in his body. Consequently, he brings unto himself all kinds of sicknesses and maladies, whether physical or psycho-physical, while simultaneously already realizing his spiritually death. (Chapter 7, 8-A. 8-B, 8-C, & 9 altogether treat and elaborate on this evil, and sinful characteristic aspects of the living in the world.)

But precisely the Truth is that in reality, in the midst of this degenerated and dead world, we have the words of revelation and a real categorical message: "The Father loves the Son and has given him everything. Everyone who has faith in the Son has (not will have) eternal life. But no one who rejects him will ever share (not now, not ever) in that life; and God will be angry with them forever (eternally, now till eternity)." This very positive note of Scriptures spells out the promised realities assured us if we live believing; yet the same Scriptures’ note predicts the imperative opposite realities if we live not believing. For Scriptures have truly revealed how, "The Father loves the Son and has given him everything. Everyone who has faith in the Son has – (already, not just ‘will have’) – eternal life. But no one who rejects him could ever share (not now, not ever) in that life; and God will be angry with them forever (i.e. eternally, now-till-eternity)." Even more cautionary are the following biblical lines: "A Light, (the Son of God), has come into the world, and people who do evil things are JUDGED GUILTY (CONDEMNED) because they love the dark (sins, and sinful ways, sinful lifestyles) more than the light.... “Yet, the assurance from and the condition of the Scriptures is there, however, that "... he who acts in truth comes into the light, (into the Kingdom of God on earth), to make clear that his deeds are done in God." The transparency and simplicity of lives of individuals lived according to the statutes of the Lord become a witnessing to the world of their lifestyle not in conflict with the self-evident divine laws of God, and in accord with natural laws and human well-being. On the other hand, men and women’s characteristically ‘messy’, empty & fulfillment-devoid attempts at getting busy, plus their violence filled lifestyles, which are radically contradictory of the statutes, precepts, and the beatitudes that are of God, prognosticate of the precariousness of their very short-spanned libertine solely physical living in the world.

Very compellingly, (like what is discussed in Chapter 5 about the Holy Spirit,) we could turn the red flag here, or raise the warning flag about the irrevocable decisive actions of the Holy Spirit referred to by the Lord, with the promised Coming of the Spirit upon completion of Christ’s earthly mission, and upon his destined return to the Father in heaven. The Lord called our attention to the imminent and urgent executor tasks incumbent on the Holy Spirit versus them guilty of certain deeds against the Lord. ‘Thus, his words "... after I am gone I will send the Spirit to you. The Spirit will come and show the people of THIS WORLD the truth about SIN and GOD’S JUSTICE, and THE JUDGMENT. The Spirit will show them that they are wrong about sin because they didn’t have faith in me. They are wrong about God’s justice because I am going to the Father; in other words His going to the Father so He confirms the message of justice that He has taught before He left into the Father in Heaven. And they are wrong about the judgment because God has already judged the ruler of this world." Our living holy lives should be an abiding by the actions of the Holy Spirit on this world. According as is disposed and acted on by the Spirit, events surrounding our time and space, while living on earth, shall also dictate the manners of our compliant obedience to the faith, whether by way of our sufferings or our abundant blessings. (But I repeat we elaborate on this in Chapter Nine.) Holiness, however, aside from its spiritual, transcendental, and divine character is in reality a truly incarnational act of and by the soul in the real world. It is a faith that by the grace of the Holy Spirit is to be lived according to each one’s temporal and material conditions in life. It is something that we concretely either pursue, or is demanded of us to act on; or that is acted or materialized upon us. But it is assuredly a warning lest we persist in our erred worldly treatment of the Lord, and lest we, thus, get the irrevocable and frightening sins convicting by the Holy Spirit.

Surely, and precisely for our faith’s sake, and in the context referred to above, namely in the context of Christians being the light of the world, Scriptures urges and strongly admonishes us, “not to put the lamp under the bushel that everyone may see it" . Precisely, believe Christians the light upon the hill. In other words, whatever charisms or gifts God has endowed upon individuals, such charisms or gifts must be realized and expressed in the services of the Lord's community the Church. Like someone has phrased, "Count not the blessings that you have received but the blessings that you have shared. Mainly, however, the Scriptural verses referred to her apply to proper realm of truth to be beheld or placed in pedestals. They are essentially divine manifestations, whether sacramentally or strictly verbally, of God. For governments and societies, divine truths are guidelines of laws to be made for God's people. For ‘travelers’ in life, divine truths are beacons to show them directions to their way home of peace & sanity. As this is literally what describes the Lord, namely: "He is the ... truth. Both in the Old Covenant, and in the New Covenant, God revealed himself as the truth. God told the people of the Old Covenant of himself as "I AM". And being the "I AM", he ordered for them to receive, listen, and obey his Ten Commandments. But more fully, God showed himself in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ when Christ proclaimed himself the true image of the Father. This proclamation, however, is specifically the proclamation of the New Covenant's New Kingdom of God in the Person of Christ, the Savior of the world.

Hence, it had become up to Christ that the whole world through all generations be formed and be changed according to this New Kingdom of God. It had become then, the Good News of Salvation. In the process, as the purpose of God's Incarnation and Redemption of mankind through the revelation and proclamation of this Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, "The truth shall make man free...”. No more shall man be left and deserted to the mere elements of his human weaknesses and helplessness. But if man persists in not turning to the Spirit of Christ, or if he persists in not using the graces of Christ's work of redemption, man will find him so helplessly inadequate and lost. Only for as long as individual Christian believers, by the grace of God, turn to Christ in faith and conversion shall they find not only relief in the struggles of life but even some modicum of comfort and peace in the uniting with God on their journey through life. 

Mark, however, that in the journey, while living the life of obedience to the Commandments of God, specifically of the New Covenant, believers and converts of Christ will encounter tests of their faith and conversion. They shall be faced with, and suffer persecutions from unbelievers and non-believers of the world, who at times, per the Evil One, will seem to lord it over Christian populace of the world. In the process, as it had occurred in the past, Christians will be asked of martyrdom: sacrificial witnessing of fidelity to the faith as brought upon them by persecutors. The word martyr comes from martyrion, which essentially means witness. Martyrs testify to the truth. This integrity and the reality of our faith as believers invokes within us the Spirit prompting, which dares us precisely the truthful honesty to realize we are no Christians unless we testify in all fortitude to the faith, to the truth, or for instance, to open protesting against injustice. Christ, whether seen as the new human or as the Goodness/Word from the Father, must be borne witness to even for dear life. For the Christian truth is never negotiable; it must be upheld absolutely. We as, true believers, are to trust that Christ, the God-come-down on earth, by his Divine power and plan will avenge truth, justice, and true goodness. This is the other context of being the salt of the earth we have referred to parallel to the context of being the light of the world as explained here. 

(Here we are going to shift again to the more manifestly combined aspects of "Truth" & "Life”.) Thus, according to his divine mysterious planned economy of salvation the application of grace is realized by him. Exemplary highlight events of the plan were Moses’ deliverance of the chosen people, Jesus’ establishing of His church, and the Holy Spirit’s working of grace, particularly during this era of the reign of the Holy Spirit in the world, as it enables many moments of sacramental heavenly initiation experiences on earth by faithful believers-individuals. Examples of these are moments of peace, moments of deep spiritual enlightenments, moments of peaceful sufferings, moments of genuine peace between individuals, moments of temporal retribution for offenses against God and man, moments of pure acts of charity pure acts of forgiveness, etc.... In other words the above are promised fulfillment taking place already even right here on earth, and now. But through the final & complete re-making of the new heaven and the new earth, (the Final Judgment), God eternally is in the process of correcting the wrong, and the many other wrongs since original sin. However, it is through his mysterious plan and grace that God will work this out. Any intrinsic human attempt at tasking this human ordeal and job is both futile, and arrogant. Notwithstanding any protestation for honesty and integrity; therefore, to absolutist pro"activism" as good and contra “activism" as bad is praiseworthy but not the complete truth. Man is imperfect, and human traditions, institutions, belief-systems are imperfect. No horizontal, temporal, earthly attempts can fix our "human ordeal" of injustice. Only Jesus in his economy of salvation, both temporally and eternally by nature and by grace, by law and by the SPIRIT as witnessed or acted upon by faithful believers (the Church), can and will realize this. Sometime it behooves upon believers to protest actively; but at other times, in mystery and faith, they just have to suffer it like lambs being brought to slaughter. E.g. When Peter cut the ear of one of Jesus’ arresters; he said he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. When Jesus learned of the murder of John the Baptist Jesus just cried and prayed. And when Pilate offered to bargain with Jesus for his life, he said if it is the Father’s will God can send legions of Angels to protect and defend him, and prevent his death. Finally, as Jesus had to die and died, death and all shadows of death in life are, therefore, part of the Christian witnessing. To repeat our earlier verses, Jesus said, he who loses it shall save it; but he who saves it shall lose it. I.e. Christian followers will live; but self liberators will perish. This seems to run against human thinking and logic, and unacceptable and unfathomable to passionate activists and reformers of the world. But through faith we get glimpse in the innermost lifestyle of the born-again, the truly born-again believers. Though not as 'some' parochial evangelicals define this, but as the Catholic Church authentically teach, and profess it.

All this, thus, may not at all, by any means, be equated with passivism, fatalism, defeatism, etc... Meanwhile On the contrary, inch by inch, situation by situation, scene to scene, in each generation and in each believing individual, interval streaks of heaven-on-earth is promised by Christ. Thus, the following verses are his assurances how his truth and our steadfastness to his truth will be victorious over his enemies. 

Besides, it remains the bottom-line assurance and consolation that in the end we can hope for, and await that final moment of time when upon Christ’s return complete and perfect justice, retribution, and reward shall adorn the new heaven and the new earth. And nonetheless, for the time being, on this journey on earth, Jesus has formulated his ways, and has procured in all time and eternity how believing men and women are to tread the pilgrim living unto heaven and its heavenly reward of the perfect human life. 

Thus, for the believers’ assurances, the following verses are allegorical commending and declarations of how truthfulness fidelity by Christ’s followers is absolutely taken care of by the Lord Jesus. "Do not be afraid, I have conquered the world..." This is a verbalization of the reality of grace which is given believing men and women on account of Christ’s work of salvation. He gave the assurances

That through faith and grace individual men and women need not struggle over life via mere human finite capabilities & means. Man can face many a battle ultimately by the power of grace. "Fear not those who can kill your body ... they cannot kill the spirit."

Whereas, like mentioned above, Christ's followers are to become martyrs, namely offerers of physical lives in the name of Christ; the Lord emphasized the fact that it does not matter if in testifying to him we die physically. For physical death is no absolute death or permanent cessation of the life to the individual believers. Even if their body's existence is terminated, the individual soul continues to live after death. After such physical dying, the individual soul either lingers for a while in Purgatory for a little cleansing or he/she goes directly to heaven, which awaits him/her precisely for having testified to the Lord. 

But he did not command us faithfulness to his heavenly teachings without assuring us of God’s care, protection, and assistance. That is why He petitioned the heavenly Father on his disciples’ behalf, thus, "Father protect/take care of them that are faithful to you ..." The Lord, thus, particularly entrusted to the heavenly Father the special care, watching, provisions, and protection for his brothers and sisters he was parting with upon his departure for the heavens, after his death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father. Then he further validates his everlasting watching over them with the words, "I shall be with you until the end of time." Moreover, aside from placing his followers under the watchful care of the heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus Christ pledged to them his own persisting presence and company even after he left them physically after his passion and death. For through the Sacrament of the Eucharist, he made sure he could be made present amidst them commemorating his Eucharistic Sacrifice all by the power of the Holy Spirit. I repeat what I have often stated: that it was Christ's wish and command to spiritually invoke his Eucharistic and personal presence via participation within the Church's priestly celebrating of the Christian Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass, which is no less than the very sacrifice of Calvary of our Lord Jesus Christ. "If you are with me, who can be against you ..." Ultimately, thus, howsoever we find our situations in life or in the world; whether persecuted or not, whether abandoned & deserted to the elements of the world or not, precisely in so far as we have the heavenly Father’s eternal and unceasing care, as well as the Lord Jesus' personal union in the Eucharist it matters not whoever could be against us. For, to repeat the above, we are way more than adequately spiritually taken care of by God. And besides, with God on our side in our personal wars and battles, whether internally or externally, we are never really alone; and how insignificantly do they match, the believers’ enemies in the world against God, the Ruler of the world. Seeming reality will make it look like we are losing some battles; yet by real scores we will not be the one to be put to shame; we will not be the one to be dealt punishments & retributionary demands, and we will not be the ones to suffer real moral and eschatological consequences after death. Indeed it could happen we will be made to lose earthly lives; but we shall not be the ones to suffer irrevocable condemnation and punishment. 

Every instance that we speak about the truths or teachings of the Gospel, we are, in essence, evangelizing, or proclaiming the fundamental message of Christ’s establishing of the Kingdom of believers. A believing Christian who professes of his prior sinfulness remembers how before his experience of repentance and grace his lifestyle was characterized by chaos, emptiness, and lack of peace. But that each time he turned to God through repentance and grace he got to experience some heavenly order about life. For instance, the newly enlightened believer gets to perceive some heavenly meaning out of suffering, and experiences some heavenly kind of peace from within him, and even outside of him. In effect, his becoming holy after becoming evangelized in the truth marks and defines his membership in the Kingdom of God forever and ever until eternity. But whereas he gets to appreciate membership in the here and now Kingdom of God; he also gets to understand how becoming and staying holy is, thus, also a here and now believer’s obligation. It is in this manner that it is said God’s Kingdom is already in this world. Like Saint John the Baptist declared; "Behold the Kingdom of God is at hand." He did not say will be at hand, but IS at hand. 

Fundamentally, Jesus has proclaimed the truth via his proclamation of the Kingdom of God. By way of the many parables he used to speak of the existence of the Kingdom of God. And in those many different parable illustrations the Kingdom of God is referred as something already within reach if individuals are only to choose to accept it; or only if they are to comply with his certain conditions. And Christ’s number one condition how people shall know if his followers are his true disciples is if they obey his command to love one another. "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples; if you love one another?" It is probably wise indeed that God was made man, lived like a man, and was made to die like a man. And that especially so by Divine Revelation, he died as his own sacrificial lamb offering to the Father for the ransom of mankind's sins. This way not only did he realize the most visible way of ransoming of man's offense against God; but this way too Christ even more visibly demonstrated what it takes to really love. That God so loved the world that he, Christ, allowed himself to be given up by the Father as a sacrifice for the sake of mankind. Christ expressed his love for us by actually showing how it humanly understandably cost himself: his sorrows, pain, suffering, and death. Thus individual men and women, who are to realize they need to love in order to go to heaven, are taught that to love involves real sacrificing from or by them.

However, individuals do not necessarily love their neighbors when giving another their surplus, something that didn't really cost them much; or when giving to others with the expectations of receiving some returns of gifts or favors. 

Indeed the only real loving or giving is that giving that comes without their other hand knowing they are letting go of something, i.e. when giving without being bothered how much they are losing, or when giving freely such that they pay no attention whether they get favors in return. It is said love hurts. No pain, no gain, i.e. no pain in the giving, no real gain in heaven or spiritually. How sad it is that children love their parents during those days that they have been giving them gifts from when they were very young until the prime years of productiveness of their parents. But how cold, indifferent, and even disrespectful offspring they could become to the very same loved parents, who had turn unproductive, and weak & helpless. How sad it is that peers, colleagues, or friends cheer, boast, and elevate each other during moments of human accomplishing or success; yet readily and even ashamedly forget, if not actually avoid & ignore, them when they had turned impoverished and obscure in life stature. How sad how love is casually identified with exchange of pleasure or pleasantries, or least expressed with any true meaningfulness when the object of love has become unable to return concrete or material responses of loving.

To be truthful is to be faithful.  Therefore it is not being fake. Not only in words but more so in deeds, does a truthful individual come true. The utmost manifestation of the Truth of Christ is the realization of his commandment of love. Only if men love is salvation successfully preached to the world, to mankind. Indeed, the saints already in the heavens, and the saints, who are still with us on earth, are faithful to the precepts of love; and by the grace of God testify to us for our remembering and edification that loving expressed by their lives: to remain and to always give something or themselves because they are needed by their neighbor. More importantly than just being identified with our Lord, the Scriptures tell us how when we love we actually get to be with God. St. John the Evangelist writes, God is love; and whoever abides in love, abides in God. Previously, John writes that, "Anyone who loves (Jesus) will be true to (his) word, and (Jesus’ Father) will love him; and (they: the Father  & Jesus) will come to him and make (their) dwelling place with him." A similar statement of John is the following, "If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us." Hence, even before the everlasting abiding in God upon admission to heaven, souls ever actively, restlessly loving already get to abide in God while yet journeying in this world. As they love they manifest the presence of God first to themselves, and to all others around them, who cannot but witness to the manifestation of good deeds only human beings of God are capable of. John further writes, "...Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life. But if you don’t love each other, you are still under the power of death". Further on John also states, "When we love others we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God...” He also says, "...If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won’t be worried about the Day of Judgment. A real love for others will chase those worries away." 

It is equally the manifestation of the Truth of Jesus Christ that he precisely came down from heaven so heaven will not appear so remote and unreachable. He came that we may have life, and lives a life abundantly. Incarnation essentially means God within our reach. He bridges between divine transcendence and the human awfulness. Only through Jesus, and through no one else, and certainly through no individual effort could we live our life with meaning. 

But to show that God does execute his judgment now, that God distinguishes those that belong to him and those that do not belong to him is manifested by the marked differentiation between a lifestyle that by grace is lived in holiness and persevered in versus another not lived in holiness and persisted in un-holiness. It is said judge not that ye be not judged. It is left to each one to discern if his lifestyle falls under the category of the former or the latter but the finality of the present judgment here depends on whether the individual persists in not believing, not converting, or not wanting to be holy. Christ said, "…those who do not believe are already condemned”. But those that yet have not still made up their minds to believe are not yet condemned. But make up their minds right, they better; for the stake is great. The significance and urgency of evangelization consists in this: that whether in terms of our own personal initiation in the Christian faith, or in terms of the obeying of Christ’s Great Commission to spread his teachings throughout the world, Christ’s Message of Good News is being revealed to and professed by all believing mankind. For God has always wanted to reconcile man, his creature whom he created after his divine image, back to his loving embrace, and back to the sharing of his divine splendor and glory. 

It happens, however, per the mystery of life how many individuals shall find their life circumstances seemingly inopportune if not actually impossible by human standards or measures whereby to live or witness to a life of holiness. Beyond human understanding, certain individuals seem destined to be deprived of the traditional ways of living and testifying to the teachings of Christ. Hence, the following excerpts from the Internet Catholic Apologetics, "In good faith, however, when through no fault of our own both our soul or our spiritual lifestyle is far from the Church prescribed manner of life we invoke the Church’s doctrine of Good Faith. Thus, particular manners of behaving or exercise of moral judgment might be considered good faith judgments in so far as serious attempts to do the right thing is exhausted, and imminent action is unavoidable. ‘A phrase employed to designate the mental and moral state of honest, even if objectively unfounded, conviction as to the truth or falsehood of a proposition or body of opinion, or as to the rectitude or depravity of a line of conduct. One who is in this condition, so far as the violation of positive law, or even, in certain junctures, of the natural law, is concerned, is said to labor under an invincible error, and hence to be guiltless. This consideration is often invoked in behalf of those who are outside of the visible affiliation of the Catholic Church. It is not infrequently applied to determine the degree of right or obligation prevailing in the various forms of human engagements, such as contracts, etc. In the matter of prescription it is held to be an indispensable requirement whether there be question of acquiring dominion or freeing oneself from a burden. Likewise, in deciding the duty incumbent upon one who finds himself in possession of another’s property, cognizance is taken of the good faith with which perchance the holding has been begun and accompanied. Finally, if a person, although in the actually in state of mortal sin, were in good faith to come to Holy Communion, such a one, according to the judgment of many theologians, would receive sanctifying grace. The reason alleged by them, although not regarded by other moralists as convincing, is that good faith saves the communicant from the conscious interposition of any obstacle to the productive activity of the Sacrament’ ". (From the Catholic Apologetics in the Internet) 

Part Three

Jesus, the Life 

We have already been making constant precedent illustrating and referencing to the reality of living by grace prior to this Part Three focusing on it as the true “stuff” of our “Life” in Christ. Like plenty of our previous intermingled statements already explaining Christ in both perspectives as our “Way” and ”Truth”, we again explain this empowering gift of grace endowed upon individuals while we continue to deal with the evangelization process or the proclaiming of the Truth in Jesus. For simultaneous to the un-evangelized’s and un-initiate’s longings for an eventual taste of the fuller understanding and sharing of the faith, as it were already potential future/eventual missionaries themselves, by the touch of the Holy Spirit these individual men and women inescapably experience the accompanying mystical dynamics and early spiritual indwelling afforded by their beginning conversion experience: characteristically the repentance experience very much akin to that experienced by John the Baptist’s first followers’ awakening repentance experience. This consists in their having a foretaste of some level of knowing of the faith, and their experiencing spurts of the early working of grace within them. Then once fully initiated and embraced into the faith and the Church, recipients of the abundant grace of Christ, even while barely equipped with yet limited understanding of the faith, they get to encounter the truly awesome experience of being empowered and ennobled anew in their facing up to and tackling of this imperfect world, and hence, legitimately emboldened at professing and sharing the Good News of the Lord. What a wondrous reality for them to discover themselves now again capable to know good and to do good even amidst the present entangled and strangled human life journeying towards that final destiny with God in the hereafter. Another way to describe these awesome experiences is by way of referring to them as experiences of the fuller indwelling by the Holy Spirit whereby they are enabled to discern signs of the Holy Spirit’s manifest working within them. In those moments they find themselves enabled with certainty of faith to effectively call on the name of Jesus. To illustrate this point further, in John 1:29-34 John the Baptist confirms the fact that nobody can really know Jesus except with the help of the Holy Spirit. The verses narrate the following, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said: 'Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world He is the one I told you about when I said, SOMEONE ELSE WILL COME. HE IS GREATER THAN I AM BECAUSE HE WAS ALIVE BEFORE I WAS BORN. I didn't know who he was. But I came to baptize you with water so that everyone in Israel would see him. I was there and saw the Spirit come down on him like dove from heaven. And the Spirit stayed on him. Before this I didn't know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, YOU WILL SEE THE SPIRIT COME DOWN AND STAY ON SOMEONE. THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT HE IS THE ONE WHO WILL BAPTIZE WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. I saw this happen, and I tell you that he is the Son of God. In like manner everyone else cannot see or know the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Spirit shows HIM to him/her. It is in this sense that we say no one is righteous or good and wise by his/her own wit. Because to be righteous or good-and-wise is to be able to be or act like Jesus. But since nobody can claim to have seen Jesus except if he has the Holy Spirit so nobody knows or is able to do what is wise & good except if he has the power of the Holy Spirit working in him/her. In reality we are not to expect the privileged witnessing of the Holy Spirit the way John the Baptist did. But God has sent the Holy Spirit to the world ever since Jesus Christ has returned to Heaven after His resurrection on the Ascension Day. And so we have our chances at seeing Christ all around us for as long as we discern the presence of the Holy Spirit as it works upon actions, events, and things in life. Literally speaking we can see and can manifest the working of the Holy Spirit if or when we are filled with grace. And we are filled with grace when we receive in faith Jesus Himself in the sacrifice of Calvary or the Mass. Likewise we are blessed with grace each time we devoutly receive all the other sacraments like the sacrament of confession, the sacrament of confirmation, the sacrament of healing, the sacrament of marriage, or the sacrament of the Holy Orders, and initially during our Christian initiation at the moment of our baptism. In varying degrees the graces abound in us when we witness to deeds of mercy, forgiveness, and charity or love for then we demonstrate character-borne virtues in our personality, which are the fruits of the Holy Spirit, namely the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Thus we are spiritual or are possessed of the Holy Spirit when because of our possession of his graces we show fear of God at all times, are piously or prayerfully always communing with God, are not in violation of the laws of reason, are profoundly understanding of our stature before the Almighty, are most cleverly treasuring the wisdom of faith-reliance upon God alone, are generously sharing good counsel to confused or darkened souls, and are most courageously testifying to our faith under all circumstances in season and out of season. Without being affectatious, or scrupulous, without fanfare or anxieties we are going to simply manifest the working of graces, or execute power laden deeds by the Holy Spirit. In heart, in mind, and in body we are going to operate not mainly on account of our flesh but under the promptings, guiding, strengthening, and leading off and by the Holy Spirit. We are going to be tempted, and tempted a lot. And we are going to grieve the Spirit by occasional lapses of the will with our momentary human straying away from the Lord. But with the Spirit's zealous and non-stop convicting of our conscience to make us keep our faith commitment and fidelity we are to experience what Christ has promised to be the sufficiency of grace. Inside and outside of us we shall remain united with Christ's Mystical Body, and shall avail access to all its sacramental assistances and resources at all time and in all situations. After all with Christ Himself as the Head of the Body, of which we are parts of, how can we go wrong, be 'out of breath' or fatigued, or be stuck and floundering? By virtue of being united with the Body of Christ we can indeed say we have Christ in our lives, and can share Christ to others. Under these conditions, thus, we can truly say we are spiritual. Under these conditions we can claim we have the peace of God. But it is important that we focus on our fundamental option in all of our activities, or in everything about our living lifestyle. Thus, we shall be able to perform on our jobs. We get to assume responsibility for our families. We get to maintain equilibrium in our physical and social needs, e.g. enough hobbies & sufficient civic involvement. And we get to stay within the bounds of the natural and the rational laws. But basic and naturally necessary as these demands are to us, our fundamental option shall always be to be primarily oriented towards our Creator and Father; i.e. our consciousness having to be within our limits as created human beings but ever paying attention to the Divine mandates and exhortations. Concerning our needs and aspirations, our guideline criterion for planning and action should always be what God requires of us more than what we or others expect of us. As active, involved, clever, and prudent citizens of the world we must be ardent and indefatigable as children of God more than as subjects of this world. Inclusively, however, when we are faithful to the injunctions of the Lord, we ultimately and practically fulfill our fidelity to our social and earthly obligations. But if we start looking first horizontally than vertically that's when our priorities get screwed up, when compromises get to surface often, and when we end up into more problems and troubles. In other words, when we try to be all things to all people with our natural abilities and means, that's also when we find ourselves with more pressures and under more upsetting situations and consequences. Then we inevitably realize our finiteness and awkwardness. But by fundamental option, namely: God first over everything, by grace, we shall find life's little miracles and wonders of modest accomplishments much more easily coming our way. 

Some fundamentalist Christians, whether Evangelicals or Catholics, like to formulate salvation in terms like Christ, our Savior Lord, were the sole party in the salvation packaging. Thus, some them teach because Christ redeemed mankind; so man is saved no matter any works or no works from man as long as man believes. Christ will simply deliver his salvation package to each supposedly believing man. I.e. he is the Savior; man is the sinner. Christ merits salvation; man simply receives possession of salvation. This is all “gratuitous” of Christ; and all “conveniently recipient” by man. Unquestionably, Christ absolutely and terminable has paid for the sins of mankind so man can now be saved. More categorically, Christ is now already gloriously victorious back in heaven as much as “some” of mankind, (actually many men and women), that have died are presently gloriously sharing his victorious welcoming of them after his resurrection finally into the heaven. The question is who these “some” welcomed in heaven are; and which some, among the dead, were not welcomed by him after his resurrection? Let St. James’ words are the guide to our answer. He said, “Faith without works is dead.” They that “supposedly believed” but without works cannot be those “some” welcomed in heaven. For Christ himself said they are not simply those who proclaim the Lordship of God, speaking, “My Lord, My Lord...” who will be saved; but those who “do the will of my Father” , i.e. who do the works involved in the faith who will be saved. Hence, salvation is a two-way party, not a one way party. We believed the Lord has done his part, the main part of ransoming our sinfulness. Yet each individual man still has to freely or willfully embrace Christ’s pro-offered & awaiting salvation graces. A Christian may know or say or wisely expound about Christ’s teaching of love, but if he/she does not obey exactly what Christ commands in loving a neighbor and God for that matter; then he/she has a faith which is without works, and so his/her faith is dead. . Any evangelizing thus of a salvation in Christ which consists in nothing more than “ejaculatory” or “verbalistic” protestations of fidelity to Christ is not at all the equivalent of what the Lord indeed had commanded us: the commemorating deeds of life journey in his Paschal Mystery of death and resurrection united in full communion with the Eucharistic Sacrifice of Christ, started at his Last Supper but which he culminated in his more manifestly bloody acts of self immolation to the Father in Calvary for human salvation. True evangelizing should manifest declarations of love not just by lips but with offered up human selves in moments of obediential sacrifices to the Father. This is the evangelizing which is no mere superficial professing of the faith, and which testifies to Christ’s pre-conditions for discipleship:” If you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me”. These words of the Lord Jesus remain resounding words of personal fidelity to Christ, which are not without deeds of love, at the very least, for neighbor. For without actually loving God and neighbor, how could Christians commemorate Christ’s suffering, dying, rising, and ascension to heaven’s glory? To elaborate on this further we describe in the chapter on grace, quoting the verse from Romans, “... ‘God’s gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord.’ (Romans 6:23) This is the amazing reality whereas before the moment of conversion man lives nothing more than a life of the flesh; nonetheless after he gets to know, believe, and follow Christ, and after repentance for his sins he begins to live THE NEW LIFE of Christ. Hence, he no longer lives just to satisfy his pleasures, nor just to find rational answers to his questions. He lives according to and by the power of the grace he receives from Christ’s becoming man, dying, and rising from the death. The new life enables man not to fear anything that could threaten his personal life. Grace, when needed to affect one, makes miracles enabling man to work out the fulfillment of his essential human needs. Whereas before conversion man easily falls prey to despair; after conversion through grace man receives hope amidst the hopelessness of human living. It does not make life paradisiacal yet; but it makes life positively bearable. And most of all it promises him the greater fulfillment in heaven, eternal life in heaven. Grace, as it is already said many times over above, initiates man early on into the Kingdom of God right here on earth, and leads him on to the fullest enjoyment of the Kingdom in Heaven.” 

Henceforth, we have the significance of this third self description that Christ spoke of him being our “Life”, which sort of culminates the three-fold identification of the Lord. Although again, a great deal of the preceding discussion already explains this aspect of Christ’s identification of himself as the “Way”. Christ accomplished the work of human redemption and salvation by the fact that no less than God himself assumed human nature in order that his divinity is shared back by man after man lost it during the fall of Adam and Eve and, consequently, of the whole human race. And whereas with the fall mankind died spiritually or had become separated from God, by the Incarnation and Redemption work of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, man has been given back union with God or has been given back the sharing in the divine life of the God-head. Hence salvation is done; and the result is man’s renewed opportunity and retrieved state of living the life of Christ, which we call the life in grace. With this event God eventually fulfilled his promise of re-establishing covenant with man; thus ushering in the Age of the New Covenant. John writes, “And so if we have God’s Son, we have this life. But if we don’t have the Son, we don’t have this life.” Rather as individual men and women accept, embrace, and grow in the moment to moment and day by day living in grace such a New Covenant between God and man shall ultimately climax when the saved people of God shall together with Christ be finally shown in absolute glory during his final coming in the End-times. (A special discussion on the life of grace is done in Chapter 14.) 

Recapping on Holiness as the Believers’ Participation in Christ’s Universal Priesthood, Prophesying, & Serving/Living in grace: 

We can now recap this discussion on the call to holiness as in effect the call to the participation in Christ’s Priesthood, Prophecy, and Royal servitude or Pastor Union with God believes flock. To become holy consists in this participation at Christ’s atoning sacrifice to the Father, Christ’s evangelizing call to spread God’s revelations, and Christ’s fulfilling uniting within the Body of Christ of together being brought back to the peace and glory of the Father. But three things comprise the essence of the life of grace: God's revelation, sacrament, and Christ's sacrifice. For us to enjoy, manifest, and be initially enabled with this life of grace, we must listen to God's words, receive his presence within us sacramentally, and unite with God's Son's lamblike sacrificing of ourselves together with Jesus. In this consists the incarnate perfection of Jesus, that having become truly a man, he also became the perfect human image of the Father as a human being that loves, is righteous, generous, and truthful?  And he best realized these virtues per his obediential sacrifice of himself to the Father for loving ransom of all human beings via his Cross. Indeed, by this the Father has declared how successfully glorious his feat and work, mankind's redemption by the way of the Cross. For this we are to adore him, and bless Jesus because by his holy cross indeed he has redeemed the world. 

One aspect of his cross sacrifice was his living his Gospel act of being THE counter culture to the world, specifically to the status quo & establishment on account of the Truth. Unlike sinful teachers & rulers of the world, he never faked the message of fidelity to the Commandment of love of God and love of neighbors. Whatever it took, or howsoever is involved in carrying out the message of faithful LOVE of God and of neighbors that was what he exemplified and realized: the authentically JUST man. No double standards. No compromises. No lukewarmness. Only simplicity in obeying exactly what the Father demands by LOVE.  With his sharp teachings, with his marvelous miracles, and with his most compassionate healing of pleading sick people he had humanly enamored himself to the people of the world. But it did not matter to him to be without the people's honor and affection when he heeded the higher call of fidelity to the Truth or righteousness. He had rather accepted people's condemnation than cling to their fickle, passing, and changeable worldly adulations. 

Hence, we can only ask our Lord Jesus, by the grace in the Holy Spirit, to make us brave and strong in standing up against the double standard culture of the world, to make us stand up to the authoritative Pharisees of our time in obedience to his command of faithfulness to his Gospel. 

In conclusion, on our personal basis, like we began this presentation, and like we say is our call, we can and shall arrive at God’s destined commandment for us and at our most and only meaningful fulfillment as his human creatures if we follow the path revealed & taught, shown & demonstrated, and through the grace from the Holy Spirit enabled for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. And it consists in our faithfully uniting and abiding by him, who is our Way, Truth, and Life. Through moments of weakness & struggles, tests & temptations, doubts & lapses of our free will, in other words in moments of real and humanly insurmountable life crosses the following should be our Christian mind-set. We are to ever remind ourselves in real leap of faith initially to accept the crosses sent our way as our loving sacrificial atonement to the Father through and with Christ. We are to ever watch ourselves in sleep and in waking moments against the lurking lions/demons out there to devour our faith & trust in God and against these evil spirits’ overwhelming deceptions & lies that would confound us away from fidelity to God’s truths. And finally we are never ever to allow us to be swindled at jeopardizing or risking our new life of grace so preciously gained for us by the blood and wounds of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.