Core Business - Sin

The "core business" of the Church is salvation from sin. It is not running hospitals, educating people or supporting protests, as good as these may be. The readings of the Mass for the First Sunday of Lent (Year A) focus on why Jesus came. "Sin entered the world through one man...As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Rm 5:12, 19).

Matthew has summarized the temptations of Jesus 40 days in the desert as putting right what the Chosen People did wrong during their 40 years in the desert. (See Mt 4:1-11) They had sought nourishment apart from God (See Dt 8:3: Ex 16). They tested God by saying "Is God with us or not?" (Ex 17:7). They worshipped a false God (Ex 32:1) as their leader. So salvation from sin is like zipping up something that has been unzipped; it reverses the process.

To carry out our core business, we need to recognise sin and to apply the salvation of Jesus Christ. We will be able to help others do that with sensitivity when we have recognised our own sin. (See Mt 7:5) The Lenten prayers call us to recognise sin in ourselves; it is a great time in the Church's year for a "spring clean."

Of course the agents of the New World Order, want us to ignore sin as being 'too negative', or re-thinking it as "Integrating the shadow self" (See my blog on Carl Jung) or as causing "bad feelings." But we all know sin exists because we can easily recall the people who have sinned against us.

Charisms Revisited

In 1969 I first heard of “Catholic Pentecostals”. Wanting to dismiss them, I said that we don’t have to recognize the Holy Spirit since he will get on with his job anyway. In the group was a professor of dogmatic theology who told us that a person would only be fully present if we recognized that the person is there. Similarly the Holy Spirit will not be fully active, if we do not welcome his presence. On the strength of that thought, I had a look at and then joined the Charismatic Renewal (as it became known).

In recent years, I walked away from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal because I had seen so much emotional self-indulgence and emotional manipulation. More especially, New Age practice had so permeated the meetings that the reality of sin and the power of the cross were actively avoided. There was none of the prophecies, miracles, deliverances and profound conversions that I had previously known.

Yet, the Church in western civilization needs the Spirit’s powerful presence even more, now that the social engineering of the NWO has a stronger grip that it had 40 years ago. So I have revisited St Paul’s teaching on the charisms that is found in 1 Corinthians 12-14. The teaching is wonderfully simple. The power that Jesus had in his ministry is shared among the members of his Body when we come together in prayer, bringing a “psalm, teaching or prophecy” (14:26) to build up the community (12:26) and to let the Spirit move us with “many different gifts” (12:4).

St Paul encourages us to “be ambitious for the higher gifts” (12:31). Instead of presenting us with programmes, techniques or seminars, Paul puts before us the way of unconditional love “which is always patient…is not boastful…and endures whatever comes.” (13:4-7)

We are to “be eager, too, for the higher gifts, especially for prophesying” (14:1) which not only teaches and encourages us but which tests the hearts of non-believers bringing them to “worship God, declaring that ‘God is indeed among you.’” (14:25)

Yes, I could buy into a charismatic renewal that is like that!