1. Christ gives these two advices.
First advice; ‘If one of you decides to build a tower, will he not first sit down and calculate the outlay to see if he has enough money to complete the project?’ Meaning to say; ‘if one wants to build a house, he should do two things. First, he should know how much it will cost to build his house and secondly, he should find out if he has that amount.
If he does not know the amount needed to build a house and fall short, even if he had the money he might just not finish the construction. And, even, if he knows the amount needed but if he does not have the amount, neither will he be able to finish it. He should know the amount needed and he must have that amount.
The Liturgy of the Mass was completing our knowledge on what we must do to have everlasting life. Now, He is teaching us that if we want to have everlasting life, first, we must know how much knowledge we must have to attain our goal. And secondly, we must find out if we have that complete knowledge.
Again, He is telling us that if our knowledge on the way to salvation is lacking, we won’t make it. And again, if we have all the knowledge but we do not put them into practice, we won’t make it, either. The above teaching is based on His two sayings; first, that we must know everything regarding the salvation of soul up to the last iota. And secondly, on the wise man who builds his house on rock is the one who knows and obeys His commands.
The man who sits down and calculates the outlay to see if he has enough money to complete the tower is the Gospel’s wise man who knows the commands and puts them into practice. He knows how much the house will cost and he has the amount to finish it.
How much knowledge is needed to build our spiritual edifice that can make us worthy to have everlasting life? We need, at least, a good knowledge of the meaning of the articles of the Nicene Creed. The Apostle’s Creed is insufficient. Why? The Apostles Creed does not have a very important element of Catholic belief, i.e. the four visible signs of the true Church of Christ. So most Catholics cannot prove that they are in the true Church of Christ. While the Nicene Creed have the four visible signs. But, of course, we must know the explanations of those four signs.
The state of the Church. Most Catholics, including nuns, priests, bishops and cardinals, do not know how much knowledge is needed to attain everlasting life. Their knowledge is way, way down the necessary requirement. Even Pope Francis have a below- the necessary- level knowledge for salvation. Most Catholics have a knowledge equivalent only to the level of Protestantism. They, indeed, have a little knowledge of Catholic doctrines but it is not sufficient to finish building the house.
The reason for this is that; Catholic knowledge is an infuse supernatural gift from God. It cannot be attained by enrolling in a seminary. Again, it is a gift from God, attained through unceasing prayer, which nobody is doing today. Yes, people pray but not unceasingly. If man prayed as long as he watches television, he could get this infuse knowledge.
Second advice. ‘If a king is about to march on another king to do battle with him, will he not sit down first and consider whether, with ten thousand men, he can withstand an enemy coming against him with twenty thousand?’
If you know the way that leads to everlasting life and follow Christ in that way you should know how the road that leads to life look like. There will be smooth roads and there will be very rough and narrow roads. And there will be impassable roads. Can you survive passing those roads?
In the last posts we saw how rough the roads could be. Christ, Himself said; your husband or wife, your brothers or sisters will actually stop you. Your parish priest and diocesan bishop could try to stop you. Yea, even the Pope can stop you, as Pope Francis is trying to do in his ‘Vultum Deum quaerere,’ where he is preventing religious from reaching contemplation. Can you handle such impassable roads? If not, don’t even go to battle; don’t even make the journey.
Negotiate first so you can get the upper hand. How can you get the upper hand? Christ said; ‘take your cross and follow Me.’ If you don’t do this, you will not survive the impassable roads. ‘You cannot be My disciple.’
2. What will it cost you to attain everlasting life?
First, Christ said; ‘none of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his possession.’ Note in the last post. You have to renounce all your possession to avoid covetousness, the vice that will allow Satan to possess you spiritually. The desire for money had given Satan the opportunity to possess the souls of most men.
Second, Christ said; ‘if anyone comes to me you must turn your back on your father and mother, your wife and children, your brothers and sisters, indeed your very self.’ If you turn your back to your wife and children, it is not to look for another wife and have other children…..as someone in the Vatican is encouraging remarried people to do. St. Thomas of Aquinas wrote; to turn your back means…..if any of them tells you not to seek the kingdom of God, turn your back on them, do not obey them and unless they change, have nothing to do with them.
And then Christ, speedily add, ‘turn your back on your own self.’ Meaning; don’t do anything that will not bring you to heaven.
This part ‘turning your back’ is further explained in the words; ‘to take your cross and follow Me.’ What does it mean to take up the cross of Christ. St. Thomas mentions two things; to carry the cross of Christ is to deny all the desires of our concupiscence, and secondly to practice the works of mercy towards our neighbour.
The reason why we must renounce all our possessions is to have the means to perform good works towards our neighbours. These works are well explained by St. Augustine and St. Thomas and should not be interpreted the way we want. Saving the earth is not in the lists of good work; neither is welcoming immigrants into our countries. These are just off-the- cuff comments made on a boring plane ride.
3. Pope Francis.
Pope Francis and many of our bishops have not told us the whole amount needed to build our spiritual edifice. Even up to now. So we have become laughing stocks because the church is filled with unfinished structures.
The Church of Rome had not subsidised our journey to eternal life which she is supposed to do by the merits of the death of Christ. And instead of warning us of bad roads ahead, they had thrown obstacles on the road ahead as if we do not have enough problems, like saying that Jesus Christ is not truly present in the Holy Eucharist. Did you notice Pope Francis’ insinuated this in his speech in Poland?
For those of us who are serious in saving our souls, what must we do? The same thing. Since the way to everlasting life is infused knowledge given by God, let us get it from God through unceasing prayer with the aid of Divine Revelation, the the writings of the Fathers of the Church (which can be downloaded from the Internet free of charge), and, not to burden ourselves to much, add the writing of Pope Benedict…….and you will be very well on your way to everlasting life.
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