The Christian life is a life of belief and action, our actions are informed by our belief, our belief is reflected in our actions. They are inseparable.
St. Paul outlined for us a few identifiers of the authentic Christian.
In the Book to the Romans 12; 9-21, he wrote:
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
St. James stressed this in his epistle:
Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (James 2:26).
*But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you*
ReplyDeleteMatthew 5:44.
We are called by Jesus to show a special devotion to the brethren, but we are also called to assail the devil's kingdom, through prayer and active protest.
*Jesus caused an uproar when he entered Jerusalem, and he causes an uproar when he enters the human heart,* in the words of the Calvinist Scottish preacher, Robert Murray McCheyne.
We all think about the persecution of Christians in China, which continues daily, in spite of the agreement which the Vatican made with the Chinese government.
I pray every day for the forceful overthrow of Kim Jong-un and his gang of thugs in North Korea; see the RT Documentary, *10 Days in North Korea. Inside the most isolated country in the world.* YouTube.
Men and women in North Korea are conscripted into the army for 10 years.
Young women are sexually abused by officers and they have no recourse to justice. The diet of the ordinary soldier is sub-standard and conditions are brutal. Many contemplate suicide or make a desperate bid to escape.
The Left in Britain rarely speak about North Korea, instead they concentrate their ire on President Trump, who was democratically elected for all the world to see.
Every day our faith is put to the test in this evil world.
As the curate says in *Diary of a Country Priest* by Georges Bernanos (1888-1948) Christians do not so much lose their faith; it's more that faith stops informing their lives. This is the danger for each one of us.
The other danger is what the French archbishop Francois Fenelon (born 1651) called *a Weak and Imperfect Conversion* - this is the condition of those corrupt and money-loving members of the Catholic hierarchy!
*Such men are far from being converted,* wrote Fenelon. *If the gospel had been confided to them, it would NOT have been what it is now; we should have had something far more pleasing to our self-love.*
I wrote in an earlier post that Satan is being enthroned in the church; no exaggeration; because self-worship is the hallmark of this paganized neo-Catholicism; the hippy Church of Aquarius, which Archbishop Vigano condemns.
To end with the words of the curate in *Diary of a Country Priest* which has been republished as a Penguin Classic:
*It is easier than people think to hate oneself. The grace is to forget oneself. But if all pride were dead in us, the grace of graces would be to love oneself humbly, like any of the suffering limbs of Jesus Christ.*