PHILOSOPHIC TOUGTHS OF CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE

PHILOSOPHIC  THOUGHTS OF CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE.

Its well known that the highest summits of thought that the human race has reached were in the times of Socrates , Plato and Aristotle. But since they were pre-Christian they lacked the knowledge contained in the Divine Revelation, specially the one that Jesus himself left to us personally, so let´s meditate only in a few issues from this Divine Revelation that could not be thought by humans, and only came to our knowledge, thanks to the word of Jesus. As examples we can mention God´s trinity of persons in one Divine Nature, and the creation of all humans as image and resemble of God.

In a similar way we can mention the creation by the sole God´s will an it´s providence that not only creates but preserves the order of the universe. Creation is not only what we can see or imagine and that is related to matter , or not, and  it includes  issues like the existence of entities due to the need to “invent”  existence itself, also time had to be created, since  before time existed, there could not  be time at all. Every thing we know is subject to time and existence, except God who created them, and is, not only exists, as He Himself said. He is who He is. Creation includes heaven, hell and universe, the good angels and the bad ones the traitors and disrespectful of God, that suffer in eternity. And among this all manhood is created as a person with a material body and a spiritual soul, a flesh that will follow the laws of matter and an eternal spirit created for each and every one of the conceived persons of humanity, !created at the moment of conception! Is this not amazing? “”God acting in the creation of a new soul at the moment of the creation of a new human being by it´s parents, God and mankind acting together.””  Humans are, due to their spiritual soul, created for eternity,

One of the most difficult things to be understood, even by scientists without faith is that mankind is the only creature besides the angels in heaven, that exist with reason and freedom, we have a notion of the enormous size of the universe, and it seems that given our size, humans are too small,  in our earth, and even our galaxy to be the only intelligent life in that immensity. What n has to be understood is that the huge universe is enormous to us, but size is no problem for God creator, we must remember that he created (invented) sizes not only in the big stars and planets etc. but in microscopic life.

The influence of Christianity in philosophy and in general of the cultures and knowledge of the west world was definitive. Christian Morality from the third century on,  has a great incidence in the customs and concepts of family, marriage, the human person and its dignity, improving them in a strong manner, and with the discovery of the New World the colonies brought Christianity to most of the territories. This influence permeated every thing, the forms of government, education, religion included. God is since the third century for all the West World                        personal and benevolent we have a true theology and a religion that unites us to the Divinity. The faith, the morality, the love of God and its creatures along with true knowledge of our destiny and precedence is extended.

Jorge Casas y Sanchez

CORE (ESSENCE) OF CHRISTIANISM.

Today we will be meditating about the core   (essence) of christianity, not looking for a definition, but it´s  real concept.

In the first place we should say that christianity is truth, IT IS THE TRUTH,  it is the ligth that is needed to understand truly the worl and all its entities.specially: life, the human person, existance, our existance in particular looked with its authentic trascendence. The truth can not be extinguished because it would darken our spirit.

The church, our magister, assisted by the holy spirit is alwais our guide to the luminous way of our salvation.
there is no possible doubt since it is based on the divine revelation, without it we would be blind. Here the roll of our faith is of most importance, but the truth alone does not replenish our spirit, it is, yes, indispensable for our salvation and God in its wisdom does not deceive us and cannot deceive himself.

The human person needs RULES, norms that tell us how we should operate in this life, moral imperatives that inform us on what is rigth and what is wrong, besides our consciouness, as the compass tells the seaman if his course. We must remember that our fallen human nature is not alwais rigth and when we fail, there is the sacrament of forgiveness. For a moment imagine a world without ruling, it woul be caos.

But christianism not only is THE TRUTH AND THE RULING, wich are absolutly needed, and that in no way cancels our freedom, we have to remember that all freedom includes responsability in both ways in what is done to us and what we do to the others. as St. John evangelist tells us GOD IS LOVE and what comes from God is lovable, so all catholic norm proceeds from its kindness and mercy.

God creator has done every thing out of his love, we cannot find any other reason for the Creation; so love, God´s love,  is in all things, specially the human creature, wich is created at his resemblance. but the CULMINATION OF GODS LOVE is in the incarnation of the Second  Person of the Holy Trinity that came to live among us, to suffer to give us its example, to gain for us  God´s fatherhood, to suffer it´s painfull Passion, to found it´s only Church, and leave us the Scriptures and tradition of the New Testament, the Gospel and in all the Revelation of the new alliance.

So as we see there is no real definition of catholisism, because we woul fall in a philosophic theory or an impersonal formula,christianism is the stated living Person of the LOVE OF GOD, JESUS CHRIST,who lived among us in mortal flesh, gave his Mother to us as our Mother, for all mankind, and resucitated gloriously as figure of our own resucitation.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.

MORAL LIBERTY.

MORAL LIBERTY.

Moral freedom is  inescapable to the human being, we must be aware of the good and the evil, as responsible beings, different from animals that are “programmed” but have no freedom, the have  instinct but no consciousness, they do not  see the difference between right and wrong, but we do, thanks to our conscience.

Our moral freedom is rooted in our reason and will, and catholic persons are expected to    answer for ourselves, of our own free willpower in free manner. When we surrender us to love of God and do good things in our best possible way, that makes us more free and more persons as we dispose of ourselves according to the will of thy Father.

Liberty (freedom) is not a purpose, it is a gift from our Creator to be used in a responsible way in all that is truly good, so liberty is for the persecution of good in general. We give glory to God as we  freely do good things.

There is not absolute liberty there are conditions that exist in out context they may be of several kinds:  1) genetic , geographic, chronological, etc. we do not pick them, they simply are given to us. Also 2) there are three terms that limit our freedom:  they implore us—they stimulate us and they support us.

Without the two precedent realities there would not be real liberty.

Our liberty is not always the same it varies and we have to consider it as a seed that has to flourish, since it changes, can grow or diminish, mature or weaken.

A mature liberty is responsible and has compromise in truth and love, it strengthens and grows.  The human being with full freedom chooses deeper due to its  better image of God. His  adherence is with true happiness.

The pursue of liberty is mysteriously inclined to abandon the aperture to good in general and to the truth, that is to God, and we feel that we should persecute transient objects, and this tangles our opening to real liberty and auspicious contradictions. Jesus Christ liberated us precisely so as to be really free.

We are responsible of our acts in the measure in which they depend of our free will, on the use of our liberty, ignorance, lack of notice, fear,  established habits, passion movements,  can diminish impotability. For an act to be impotable it is needed its previsibility. But the directly wanted act is always impotable to the actor.

In our inner will we always look for the truth and we do it in relation to the goodness or wickedness of our acts concerning  the sense of life.

To be truly human beings we must  submit to the creational scheme of God, this is our adjustment to the Divine Truth, there nis where we find the true sense of ou lives.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez

THE ECCLESIAE (IGLESIA)

THE "ECCLESIAE"

There is not in English a Word for “Iglesia” (Ecclesiae in Latin) our word in romance lenguajes for “Church” would be “templo”, so when we refer to the IGLESIA it is the Catholic one, the only one founded by Jesus Christ, one , holy, catholic, apostolic and roman, these are the main and first foundation of this living spiritual association of the baptized to wich we belong, and profess, under the visible head that it has, the POPE, that leads the hierarchy scattered in all the orb, under the dioceses headed by the bishop of each and every one, as first spiritual and religious  authority.

This “Ecclesiae” of ours has several foundational moments, that we will exam ahead but its birth is seen especially at the Jesus Christ Cross by the Magistery and the Tradition, having been the task of Jesus its creation since He started its public life. Jesus created it to be assisted by the Holy Spirit in the fulfillment of its objectives, its mission that consists in the education that we acquire trough the word of God expressed in person by the Son (the Second Person of the Holy Trinity) to his apostles and disciples, this knowledgement that will last for ever until the end of times in its lively and active form, but this is not its only objective, besides it is the announcing the Kingdom of God that is brought to us and that is among us, even if it is not of this world, in it is, in the form of mystery. In the history of the life of the “Ecclesiae” we find several foundational moments:

--When Jesus tells Simon, you will be Petrus  and will be the foundation of my Ecclesiae.

--At the cross after his death when the lance goes through his side and water and blood come

    out, some Fathers of the Ecclesiae see in this a point of foundation.

--Also in “PENTECOSTES” when the Holy Spirit comes to the “Apostle Reunion.

The Ecclesiae is our teacher, the one that cares with special neatness the instruction of THE DEPOSIT OF THE FAITH, where Jesus Christ´s Doctrine is contained, knowledgment that is in the Written Word and the Tradition. Its mission is supernatural the Ecclesiae is the administrator of the Sacraments established by Jesus, is also the one that introduces, and help us grow  into our faith, and offers the means to get eternal salvation. Other aspect that is very important about the Ecclesiae is its INFALIBILITY, which is given to the MAGISTRY and the POPE when he expresses Ex-Cathedra, due to the care that the Holy Spirit exerts over its Eccleciae on the care of the DIVINE REVELATION.

The Ecclesiae will always be recognized as “UNA, SANTA, CATÓLICA Y APOSTÓLICA. Even thoug named in the anglo-saxon countries as the ROMAN CATHOLIC.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.

FAITH AND DIVINE REVELATION

As you all ready know, what I want to post in this blog are subjects of meditation, so according to the level of knowledge, it will improve your wisdom while meditating its different points or it will be useful simply as meditation motif. Any way it comes from what God has decided to reveal to us humans.

It has been a generalization what we call “adult cathequesis” it covers two themes, one is what is contained in the Devine Revelation, which we start learning as children, when our parents send us to catechism and continue to grasp as we grow up, and the other is FAITH, here we refer to the theological virtue that allows us the intuition of God. But we may have rejected it, or not allowed it to take seat in our conscience. In any of these two cases what we should do, in order to be really responsible with ourselves, is to put our willpower in its recuperation, to have it again, even if it will be little by little, but really we should compromise to have it back, to get involved in the process of coming back to the flock.

Once admitted, that we can become a better catholic, FAITH is indispensable, we should pray to God so as to grow it inside us, even if it is very little at the beginning it will grow in due time, it takes constancy and we should be methodical, some minutes every day in the presence of God and we will be introducing us in what HE wants us to know, and believe.

Following this line of scheme I propose to start posting entries related to this marvelous divine Faith and Revelation. Allow me to help you.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez

LETTER OF A SIMPLE CATHOLIC PRIEST

Principio del formulario

 I want in this occasion to publish this letter of a priest, who gives us some brush-strokes of catholic priests, so hated, so attacked, by that so many journalists who never have taken into account these words from the Gospel. “LET THE ONE THAT IS CLEAN OF SIN THROW THE FIRST STONE”. They never give this any consideration

 Letter of a simple priest who the New York Times is not going to publish April, 2010.

 Loved brother  journalist: I am a simple catholic priest. I feel happy and proud of my vocation. It is now twenty years that I live in Angola as missionary. It gives me a great pain that persons who would have to be signals of the love of God, are a dagger in the life of innocents. No word  justifies such acts. There is no doubt that the Church it cannot be, but of in the side of the weak ones, the defenseless. Therefore all the measures that are taken for the protection, prevention of the dignity of the children will be always an absolute priority I see in many means of information, mainly in your newspaper the extension of the subject in morbid form, investigating in detail life of some pederast priest That appears in some a city of The USA, of the decade of the 70,more than 40 years ago another one in Australia in the 80´s,  other recent cases… Certainly all condemnable. They are seen as average and sensible journalistic presentations, others amplified, full of preconceptions and hatred.

Being peculiar the little news and disinterestedness by thousands and thousands of priests who are consumed in the dedicated work in favor of millions of children, adolescents and most underprivileged in the four angles of the world! fodder, and your  means of information do not show any interest. We  have had to transport ourselfs, by ways mined in 2002, to attend many children undernourished from Cangumbe aLwena (Angola), because nor the government or the ONG's arranged solutions. We were not authorized, but did bury tens of small deceased between the displaced ones of war and those that have returned; that we have saved the life to thousands of people in Moxico by means of the unique aid station in 90.000 km2s, as well as with the distribution of foods and seeds; that we have given the opportunity of education in these 10 years and schools to more of 110,000 children… it is not of your interest, to publish that with other priests we have had to aid the humanitarian crisis of near 15,000 people in quarterings of the guerrilla, after its surrender, because never were received the foods from the Government and the ones from UN never arrived. It is not in the news that a.priest of 75 years, the P. Robert, by night crosses the city of Luanda curing to the boys of the street, taking them to a house of welcome, so that they decontaminate of gasoline use, that alphabetizes hundreds of prisoners; that other priests, like P. Stefano, have houses of passage for the boys who are struck, mistreated and even violence and they look for a refuge.

Either that Fray Maiato with its 80 years, passes house through house comforting sick ones and desperate. It is not news that more of 60.000 of the 400,000 priests, and monks have left their earth and its family to serve their brothers in a leprosy hospital, in hospitals, fields of refugees, orphanages for children accused of wizards or orphans of parents who passed away with AIDS, in schools for the poorest, in centers of professional formation, centers of attention to zero positives… or coverall, in parishes and missions giving motivations to people to live and to love.

It is not news that my friend, the P. Aurelio Marks, to be saveing  youngsters during the war in Angola and has transported, them of Kalulo a Dondo and when-returning to its mission has been machine-gunned in the way; that the brother Francisco, with five ladies catechists, have gone to help a the more recondite rural areas and have died in an accident in the street; that tens of missionaries in Angola have died for wanting to give sanitary aid, by a simple malaria; that others have jumped by the airs, because of a mine, visiting its people.

In the cemetery of Kalulo there are the tombs of the first priests who arrived a the region to spend 40 years. It is not in the news the time of the life of “a normal” Priest a day, its difficulties and joys consuming without noise his life to please a community in wich he serves. The truth is that we did not try to be in the news, but simply the good news that without noise began at night of Passover.

A TREE MAKES MORE NOISE WHEN IT FALLS THAT A FOREST THAT GROWS. I am not trying to make a vindication of the Church and the priests. A priest is neither a hero nor a neurotic. He is a simple man, that with his humanity wants to follow Jesus and to serve his brothers. He has miseries, poverties and fragilities like in each human being; and also beauty and kindness like in each creature… To insist on form obsessed and persecutory in a subject losing joint vision creates offensive cartoons of catholic priesthood in which I feel like victim. Only one thing I request friend journalist, look for the Truth, the Good and the Beauty  that will make of you a nobleman in your profession.

 In Christ, P. Martin Lasarte sdb

HUMAN SOUL

In this world everything that exists has a purpose, serves to something, it exists for a reason or several, this is the theme of our meditation today.

The human being is, exists, in prominently manner, this is one of the questions we all ask ourselves in our most intimate thoughts, but we are the unique being in the world that can do so, because it is the soul and its spiritual operations exclusively that are not material all other entities are matter, and matter follows its fatal laws, and do not have the possibility to change them. The soul and its operations, such as:  love, the exercise of freedom, the ability to think, free will, feelings, have by contrast  a freedom that can be described as unlimited, as far as we know there are no boundaries, for example in the Love of God, we can not see where it ends, where its maximum is.

 The soul and its capabilities in general constantly produce its fruits, unique novelties, always goes into new accomplishments, creativity continues without repetition in works of art, music, film, automobile industry, aviation, marvels in engineering and construction, chemically synthesized products, literary works or the countless productions of the arts, in the progress of science, new invented products and processes of production, trades, professions and in general of all human activities.

And the soul with its main instrument  the human brain, and its freedom, tends to yield its fruits when the proper conditions are rigth. And painfully  this is one of the great problems of humanity, its shortcomings, the lack of conditions that lead to opportunities for adequate progress in the spiritual life, which only exists for some, but not for all those who have superior ability to think, act, create, conceive beyond what has been taught, to be better than their teachers, to break the barriers and escape, to resolve what was apparently insoluble, to see beyond others, to help those who have not been able, or have not achieved an adequate improvement.

We can not fail to mention the gifts of genius or superior talent in one or an other area, that are not distributed equally, whether it is physical appearance or the conditions of time and place, this, we will leave between the mysteries that God gives to everyone. But many have had the possibility but not the opportunity to have flourished  being the expediency latent throughout the life of the person, who has owned the power, without the, chance to be developed, not even manifest itself, because human life and its shortcomings have been  unable or failed to provide the necessary conditions.

Of course this is a widespread concern and the human race struggles to educate its members, but the efforts and resources are not always sufficient.

With this consideration in mind, it stands, I dare say, the paramount importance of the spiritual activities in the human person, over the material nature, which concern more than anything to keep alive the body. Most of the needs of man are spiritual,  whether a minimum of conditions are necessary to cover the primary physiological needs: shelter, clothing and sustenance, but once these are covered, it is the education of their Catholic faith, the teaching of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, the example of love of God, which stands above all other needs and which are necessary for eternal salvation. This was considered important in the conquest of New Spain, (America) who provided such rich fruit at the time and continues giving it to Latin America. We now have the figure close to half of the faithful of the Catholic Church in the world.

 God wants all of us to save our soul, and certainly this is so, it could not be otherwise since God is Love and God would not have created us for eternity without ensuring the possibility of happiness forever, but God leaves us free to choose since we are the only created free beings in the world and not just for  this short life, but the eternal one. The primary mission concerning the Catholic Church is the salvation of souls, and is concerned  for the destiny that each will have, destiny that will be known to every individual, in the trial to have before Christ immediately after death.

Considering, our salvation is therefore of utmost importance, it is the final purpose of human beings and we should focus on it, nothing, nothing can be more important in our lives. It can be said that we exist for salvation, but based on the freedom that the Creator has given us we can choose not to consider it the absolute finality, and change it for the ersatz ie. "the earthly happiness" by the ambiguity of  "you only live once” , or other similar. That is the worst human error. The truth is we have to live this life to save ourselves for eternity.

Human beings have an infinite number of purposes in their existence, but all should be oriented to achieve salvation. Purpose of purposes.

Jorge Casas y Sanchez.