Self (how God sees us)
- Do we accept our role as a son our daughter of God?
Jn 1:12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God
Gal 3:26 “ for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
- Do we believe that when the Father looks at you, He sees His precious Son, and loves you unconditionally?
Jn 14: 20 “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Which day, the day when the holy Spirit has been poured out into the heart of the believer, and the believer keeps the commands of the Lord.
Gal 2:20 “ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Col 3:3 “For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Being conformed to Christ by the action of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us
Naïve culture, constant attack on what It means to be a father & son
Go back to first things Jesus learned obedience through suffering
Dads are big sissies, wimpy, apathetic, buffoons, only watch sports demean authority then belittle it
Don’t know what fatherhood looks like, thus no understanding of Sonship
Music song in Church pews proclaimed us all saints, why show up?
God has perfect mercy & perfect justice
Inferno Dante, views might be slanted as a result
We have no fear of our fathers
Fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom. Without fear we become unwise and presumptuous of God’s mercy.
Augustine City of Godnot at all certain of universal salvation
Augustine thinks most will not be saved from their own personal choice
From Sacred Scripture Lord will not many be saved,
Lk 13:23 23And some one said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
Work out salvation as a son with fear & trembling , we have lost filial fear
Filial fear= respect
Fathers stripped of respect from all public discourse
This wrapping of fatherhood translates into a God who is a buffoon or the other extreme of rigid authoritarian like Zeus
God does have power to strike us, this should produce a respect and love
Need a return to prudential, filial love for God
- Do we realize nothing and no one externally can stop or hinder our relationship with God?
Sin comes from within and defiles, cuts off relationship to the Father
Mk 7:20-23 “18 And he said to them, “Then are you [the disciples] also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?”[h] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.”
Paul rejoices in his sufferings, they do not hinder his walk with the Lord but rather are fruitful for our Christian life.
Rm 5:3-5 “ More than that, we[d] rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”
Our Lady never lost her profound union with God in spite of the wickedness of the religious and civil leaders of her day, which causes her profound sorrow
She also was the handmaid of the Lord, she understood her worth, my soul magnifies the Lord, because Our Lady understood her identity as woman, mother, and wife.
Mary our one solitary boast.
