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NEW MESSAGES/HOMILIES CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS DEFENDING THE FAITH
Blogger Priest 
Dear Father Joe, regarding the previous question I asked about the borrowed DVDs. I’m not too sure. They are produced in China, where there is no copyright law so technically, the pirated discs didn’t infringe copyright because China doesn’t acknowledge there is such a thing. But I guess, when you purchase an “official” disc, you already paid the rightful owner and therefore they have received a certain amount of money even though you borrowed your friend’s disc to watch.
In this situation, though, I don’t know what I should do. Legally, they’re not stolen. But in a sense, you’re not paying the owner anything. What would be the better thing to do then, if there’s no “right” thing to do?
I know music was meant to glorify god, but is it a sin to listen to music that doesnt, like rap?
Hey, i was just wondering that since i was supposed to write something in french for school but wrote it in english then translated it, would that be a sin, like cheating or something of the sort?
i have many questions one of which is magic i know it exists but is it all evil if the devil can give a person power can’t God do so as well along with if magic would to be used for good then it can’t be evil because no good can come from the devil please respond and in dept to i want to know details
Now my last question is what if the person doesnt forgive you, even if you apologize?
Dear Father Joe, my relatives gave me some pirated dvds. But they are from China, where there is no copyright law. But some of the companies who own the copyright make their own “pirated” discs in China to counteract them. Though mine are of bad quality and really seems to be pirated, is it okay to watch them? Because even though they are pirated, I am not the one who stole from the owner. But is it still sinful because in normal circumstances, one pay the rightful owner before one lends it to somebody else? Thanks!
So if i cant apologize to the person, like at all i can still be forgiven as long as im truly sorry?
I have a question, what if we have sinned aginst someone in the past and forgotten or something along those lines, or we sinned against then and cant speak with them anymore due to distance of where we live so we cant apologize, will god forgive us still?
MELISSA:
Dear Father Joe,
The Holy Bible – RSV Catholic editions on Malachi 4:5-6.
“Behold, I will send you Eli’jah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.”
Q: What does it mean, “…the great and terrible day of the Lord comes” and also “lest I come and smite the land with a curse”? These 2 verses mention that Elijah will come before the Messiah, does it mean Elijah will come in the second coming of Christ or during Jesus’ time as we can find this description of John by Jesus in Matt 11:11-15?
Thank you Father, Melissa
Sorry, but just tell me if i’m right. So there were ten commandments hiven to moses, and those were for those people but when jesus died on the cross, we didnt have to follow the ten commandments, we only had to love God with all our heart body mind and soul and love our neigbour as ourself, which will be fullfiling christ’ commandments.
Oh, okay we still have to follow all the commandments, or just the two because i thought that when jesus died for our sins the ten commandments were no more and we had to only believe in him.
Dear Fr Joe,
So it seems that we have come full circle. Only Catholics can enter Heaven, and only 25% of them as by your own admission. The other 75% can’t get out of bed and out of that quarter who fulfill their Sunday Obligation, possibly some of those are not in a state of grace anyway.
It just seems bizarre that God should create countless millions of souls and then, apart from just a few good Catholics, send them all to Hell. (And I know that Limbo was originally considered as a annex to that place of eternal torment, but the latest theological view is that it is a lesser part of Heaven, which to my thinking is another bizarre concept).
So it seems that my original question was not only relevant but also quite significant. If “it really is that difficult to get to Heaven,” and it seems that I cannot be destined for that place as, if what you say really is true, then I could never enter in because of my attack on the Church and my heretical form of Catholicism. I have condemned myself for eternal torment through my actual attack on the Body of Christ.
But even if I did not do that, I would still be guilty of crucifying Christ anyway just by the very fact that I was born into this Universe.
So, I have to conform or be damned, and I am struggling to believe in something that seems to me to be terrible. Then you say that Faith is a gift from God, well perhaps I ain’t got that gift?
So there are now 840 confirmed victims, cases of Child Abuse in Australia carried out by Catholic Priests and religious and the terrible suspicion that there may well be up to 10,000 actual victims over the last 80 years; and yet, you castigate me as persecuting the Body of Christ! Let’s just try to get things into perspective, please.
How did Moses arrive at the Ten Commandments. Do you think that God actually gave him 2 tablets of stone, or did he find the stone and got God to carve out the letters? Or did he really and actually meet with God and transcribe into stone what God actually told him? Or was it more that he was inspired by God and carved out that inspiration? Or could he have even been a bit of shrewd politician, but nevertheless a very good man and just came up with this code of living that was very sensible and honourable and certainly not opposed to what God might expect from all of us?
What about his anger (Moses that is) when he saw just what his and God’s lot were up to in his absence? He destroyed the first edition of the Decalogue in a terrific fit of rage against the Chosen Race.
Was that justifiable anger?
With love and exhaustion,
Paul
So those jesus’ commands are the only ones we should follow?
Dear Fr Joe,
I would have expected nothing less from you, but sadly, and ironically, your very words prove the point I was making, and if my understanding of Catholic Doctrine is defective despite the fact that I was educated from the age of 4 till 11 by some very pedantic nuns and from 11 till 19 by some very vicious Irish Christian Brothers, then I certainly had enormous opportunity to learn the finer points but must have missed much of it.
Also, sadly, it was the raucous cries of the priests and scribes of the time that I hear too in this letter of yours; simply: “crucify Him, crucify Him” only in this instant I am the one in the dock. Perhaps we all have planks in our eyes, but your very defense of Your Truth even smacks of the need to store up brownie points and seems to make God’s offer of salvation conditional upon us conforming to the rules of Catholicism.
And yet, Jesus very words to the soldiers who were the actual ones who hammered in those nails, those who never knew Him and possibly even despised Him, was simply: “father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
I have no idea if what you say is ‘the truth’ or if my ‘liberal protestant’ identity as defined by you is nearer to the truth, but you, on the other hand, are 100% convinced that yours is the only way and the only truth. It doesn’t square the circle unless you also claim that “without the Catholic Church there is no salvation”…….that smacks of another sort of fanaticism. Surely a degree of doubt is most necessary to avoid the dangers of that road?
Best wishes,
Paul
I have a question, what are the latest commandments we must follow and anything else you could tell me that’d be great. Thanks!
Priest, I ask you to tell me what the latest commandments we should follow to enter The Kingdom Of God, I just need to know how to get to heaven, so I know what I can do and not to do.
PAUL: Dear Father Joe, IS IT REALLY THAT DIFFICULT TO GET TO HEAVEN? The Catholic Church would have us believe that it’s nigh on impossible to get to heaven because of all the rules and laws that we fall short of keeping every single day, and it encourages us to fear God’s Judgment and hope that God might just be feeling generous when we meet Him at the point of death. We should hope that, on that one day He might be in a good mood and let us sneak in as a concession and not send us to Hell which is what He really wants to do to us. The Catholic Church tells me I am a terrible sinner and only worthy of eternal damnation. I will have to earn redemption and seek forgiveness all the time, and especially on Sundays.
PAUL: It’s the Jewish New Year, the time when all practicing Jews expect God to review their past year and weigh all their good deeds and set them against all their bad deeds, their sins in other words, and if they happen to come out in credit, then they can carry on in much the same way during the coming year so that their credit will set them in God’s Favor at the point of death and they will then be well placed for whatever happens to them after that… exact definition uncertain.
PAUL: We, as Catholics, have inherited much of this thinking, that God is some sort of eternal tally-man and trundles out the scales of justice when we pop our clogs.
PAUL: All the plenary indulgences will help to balance up those scales, together with the charitable works of mercy that we have diligently performed. Set against those plus points will be all the gray and soot black sins, both mortal and venial that, even though forgiven by a priest if we are so disposed to avail ourselves of that sacrament, will never the less still require a trade off in purgatory simply to negate the remaining stain of sin that still tarnishes our immortal soul.
PAUL: This Catholic God, much like the Jewish one, certainly is a terrible task master and like Shylock, wants His pound of flesh.
PAUL: Jesus, on the other hand, seemed to tell a different story. As far as the Commandments went, His was a more sort of Humanistic take. I’m not talking about murder here, even though King David seemed to have gotten away with that one, I’m looking at the others and certainly the ones that the Catholic Church bangs on about, say the third (or the forth if you’re Protestant), which is exactly why Jesus came onto the radar. It was the Sabbath and the leaders saw a fellow Jew carrying his bedding… a serious offence much like us missing Mass, and worthy of being stoned to death. But this bed carrier told them that Jesus, the man who had cured him, that too on the Sabbath, told him to carry it. That really put the cat amongst the pigeons. Not only was this man going about curing people on the Sabbath and breaking the Mosaic Law, he was telling others to commit terrible sins… that’s when they set out to get him.
PAUL: And so it was when Jesus was hanging on the cross with nails driven into His hands and a crown of thorns roughly hammered onto His head, that He turned to the man we call “The Good Thief”. And said something quite wonderful.
PAUL: Now the nuns, backed up by your very own confirmation, would have me believe that it was I who hammered in those nails, placed that crown of thorns on His sacred head, and it was I who plunged the lance into His side… that’s poppycock.
PAUL: The Passionists would also have us believe that – but all seem to have missed the point. God created me in a state of “original sin” as the Church defines it and unless I am Baptised then I will never enjoy the full Beautific Vision even if I were to die ‘post partum’. There is still a place called ‘Limbo’ possibly now a lower level of Heaven, but all babies who die shortly after birth, but without being Baptised, will only ever achieve a second class Heaven at best, or at least that’s what the Law givers still maintain. I see that as utter bunkum.
PAUL: When Jesus was at the point of His death on the cross, the “Good thief”, (who had obviously lived such a sinful life that he was sentenced to crucifixion, so he wasn’t really good at all,) this ‘Good Thief’ witnessed that Jesus was innocent and someone special and asked to be remembered when The King came to His Kingdom, Now this man, probably a terrible sinner certainly had never been Baptised, nor was there any desire to be baptised, but the Catholic Theology sort of gets round that one by introducing a rather tenuous “Baptism by Blood” just to weigh the scales in favour of a good home run. Jesus simply said to him “Today you will be with me in Paradise”.
PAUL: And so it is with the parable of the ‘prodigal son’, the ‘workers in the vineyard’ and say, the ‘good Samaritan’, Jesus was sort of pointing out that it’s not a case of saving up brownie points throughout a lifetime of compliance with the law, it’s more to do with what’s in the heart, and a personal relationship with Jesus.
PAUL: This might sound very anti-Catholic and I guess it is, but I see so many so called ‘good catholics’ turning up for Mass every Sunday and just a few will go back to work the next day doing a job that really counts, a service to their fellows, most will simply earn money by ripping off someone somewhere and spending that on their new cars and plastic frippery. Most seem to be engaged in usury somewhere or other. Most would pass by on the other side of the street. Most ask me how I am and disappear before I can actually tell them.
PAUL: We can’t earn our salvation, Jesus already paid that price. I do not have a debt to pay, I am not having to save up credits to balance the weighing machine; there is no weighing machine at all. Jesus fulfilled the law and with His dispensation entered in a new way and the way was “LOVE”. There is no debt nor indebtedness even though I need to live by His Way, but it is His Way and not His Rules or His Laws that I have to follow. The Good Old Catholic Church seems to have missed that point somewhere along the way and is trapped, still, in the Jewish heritage of an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” and I for one am sick of it. So there, with love as always, Paul
Dear Father Joe
The Holy Bible – RSV Catholic editions on Malachi 4:5-6,
“Behold, I will send you Eli’jah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.”
Q: What does it means the great and terrible day of the Lord comes? and also lest I come and smite the land with a curse? This 2 verses mentioned that Elijah will come before the Messiah, does it meant Elijah will come in the second coming of Christ or during Jesus’ time as we can find this description of John by Jesus in Matt 11:11-15.
Thank you Father.
Melissa
Dear Father Joe,
Will I be “demanding unnecessary work from others” as stated in the code of canon law under Sunday obligation if I am planning to study with my friends, but they are only free on Sunday? Since it would require, for me, public transportation and going to restaurants (because they might want to have meal together after studying). Maybe we’ll sit in Starbucks and buy some drinks. Is it okay if they are only free on that day? If it’s not, how can I tell them what my faith doesn’t allow me to do without giving them a bad impression?
I must ask, when i lied must i come clean about the lie and tell the truth for god to forgive me?
When the church preaches about Jesus emptying himself what exactly is meant by that and where is the documents to back it up? Thank you.
Dear Father Joe, how can one distinguish what is and what isn’t cooperation with evil or sin of omission? For cooperation with evil, what if a person may be eating an ice-cream out of gluttony (though I’m not sure) and they ask me to pass the ice-cream they want to buy? As for sin of omission, if my classmates are cheating but the teacher didn’t notice it or maybe she doesn’t care about it, will I be guilty of omission if I don’t report it? Thanks!
Dear Father Joe,
Sorry if I appear too annoying, but I’m really want to know what should I avoid in regards to my previous comment under the same name. Tutorial schools are a organizations who hire people to teach some subjects. They cannot replace the normal schools, the school that you and I are familiar with. How it works is that you apply for a course, say on Saturday. Then the people enrolled go there for an hour and more to listen to the teacher and do exercises. It’s basically an organization with academic courses. But no school rules as far as I’m aware of. Usually students apply in the hope that they can improve their results, especially for the public exam (same as SAT in the US)
What I’m thinking of doing is just to stay there for the lesson and even if i hear the contents of next year’s public exam paper, I’m not going to mark it down or remember it. If the teacher gave me some exercises from that library book and wants us to do it during the lesson, then I won’t do it. Is this the best alternative? Thanks! =]
Dear Father Joe, I am wondering whether I should quit a tutorial school. The reason is that the teacher seems to be giving Some insider’s information about next year’s exam in terms of essay types. He has a post in the department and he did say “I can’t say too much to you” makin me think perhaps he has a better judgement than I do. However, then he mentions that after the questions are set, he’ll narrow down what we’ll be practicing.
Another thing is, he said he deliberately kept books from the library and pretends to have lost them and gave he fine because those articles in the books are needed to give to us as practice papers. Is this stolen material? Furthermore, I don’t know if it infringes copyright for sure but it seems to. I don’t live in US so there is no fair use.
Should I continue my lessons? Is it acceptable if I practice the essay types the teacher suggested us to as he says these are the ones that is most likely to be tested/ will be tested on?
I have a question. The question is, can God forgive deliberate sin? Please tell me, so that I will know if I can be forgiven if I have deliberately sinned.