THE PENNY CATECHISM Part 2
To whose Image and Likeness did God make you? God made me to His own image and likeness.
Is this likeness to God in your body or in your soul? This likeness to God is chiefly in my soul for it is immortal and can never die.
What should I take most care of my body or my soul? I must take care of my soul for Christ said "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffers the loss of his soul" (On the question of Salvation History is it not strange that the word soul has been corrupted in the readings at Mass to 'life'. .......suffer the loss of his LIFE)
What must I do to save my soul? To save my soul I must worship God by Faith, Hope, and Charity; that is I must believe in Him, I must hope in Him, and I must love Him with my whole heart.
As you can see there is very dangerous stuff in the Penny Catechism. It asks us to have a relationship with God. We must always believe He is there and what He asks of us we must do in order to save our souls. Fifty years ago great 'prophets' and 'scholars' arose in the Church and swept away all those ideas of salvation history. It is a sobering thought to recognise that if this is true then the first people we must recommend for Heaven are the soldiers of ISIS. What has so far been ignored in the troubles is that these people we call fanatics actually believe they are doing the will of Allah and there will be no peace talks with them. They are following their conscience. No, God wants not a blind Faith but a Faith bound in reason and trusting that what he asks us is for our good even if we do not see it that way. God's ways are not our ways, we follow the Word of God and not human thinking.
Hope in God is certainly something we need in todays world. But He does not want us to expect Him to do everything to bring peace to our homes and our world. Our hope in God should move us into action to do whatever he asks of us to help ourselves in difficult situations, to help our neighbour in difficult situations, and even help our Government in difficult situations, knowing that good will come in the end.
"What is the greatest Commandment" Jesus was asked. "Thou shalt love the Lord your God, with all your heart and all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength" He replied. Well, yes I do that on a Sunday don't I? I guess that is the answer for most of us if we were honest. We could never pass the test God gave to Abraham in asking him to sacrifice his son. But Abraham believed that God was good and trusted him that somehow his son would would be spared in some way by God. That took real Faith. It is so easy however to turn against God and blame him for all the evil in the world that we ourselves have created by our actions as people and by our refusal to put the gift He has given us in His Church into a real part of our lives. There is this modern tragedy of keeping our Faith apart from the Church, or believing the Church should conform to our will.
But this is as I say dangerous stuff from the Penny Catechism.
Is this likeness to God in your body or in your soul? This likeness to God is chiefly in my soul for it is immortal and can never die.
What should I take most care of my body or my soul? I must take care of my soul for Christ said "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffers the loss of his soul" (On the question of Salvation History is it not strange that the word soul has been corrupted in the readings at Mass to 'life'. .......suffer the loss of his LIFE)
What must I do to save my soul? To save my soul I must worship God by Faith, Hope, and Charity; that is I must believe in Him, I must hope in Him, and I must love Him with my whole heart.
As you can see there is very dangerous stuff in the Penny Catechism. It asks us to have a relationship with God. We must always believe He is there and what He asks of us we must do in order to save our souls. Fifty years ago great 'prophets' and 'scholars' arose in the Church and swept away all those ideas of salvation history. It is a sobering thought to recognise that if this is true then the first people we must recommend for Heaven are the soldiers of ISIS. What has so far been ignored in the troubles is that these people we call fanatics actually believe they are doing the will of Allah and there will be no peace talks with them. They are following their conscience. No, God wants not a blind Faith but a Faith bound in reason and trusting that what he asks us is for our good even if we do not see it that way. God's ways are not our ways, we follow the Word of God and not human thinking.
Hope in God is certainly something we need in todays world. But He does not want us to expect Him to do everything to bring peace to our homes and our world. Our hope in God should move us into action to do whatever he asks of us to help ourselves in difficult situations, to help our neighbour in difficult situations, and even help our Government in difficult situations, knowing that good will come in the end.
"What is the greatest Commandment" Jesus was asked. "Thou shalt love the Lord your God, with all your heart and all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength" He replied. Well, yes I do that on a Sunday don't I? I guess that is the answer for most of us if we were honest. We could never pass the test God gave to Abraham in asking him to sacrifice his son. But Abraham believed that God was good and trusted him that somehow his son would would be spared in some way by God. That took real Faith. It is so easy however to turn against God and blame him for all the evil in the world that we ourselves have created by our actions as people and by our refusal to put the gift He has given us in His Church into a real part of our lives. There is this modern tragedy of keeping our Faith apart from the Church, or believing the Church should conform to our will.
But this is as I say dangerous stuff from the Penny Catechism.
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