Moral Certitude Vs. Moral authority

Pope Francis washing feet

          Today I was speaking to my friend about the new pope Francis, and it brought back to me an observation that I have been thinking about writing on for a while. That is the difference between having moral certitude and having moral authority.  Moral certitude is something that the Catholic Church has enjoyed since like Jesus promised in Matt 18: "the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church". This means that on matters of morality, the Holy Spirit does not let the Church err on its teachings.  This is comforting given the infiltrations of moral relativism that have taken modern society by the storm.  Now when it comes to moral authority, I think the church today have lost its appeal or authority when it comes to morality given the scandals that it has endured from its own. The scandal from some priests, that of politicians who don't honor God's word in their governing or even our individual personal scandal that we cause when we don't live according to the Gospel as Christians have cost us the moral authority that we should have so as to leaven the bread of society.
   If we look at the life of Jesus, we see a great combination of both moral certitude and moral authority.  Jesus taught the truth from a position of authority because his entire life was a model of truth. Now I know that we might argue it was because he was God; and its true, but down throughout Christian history, we see that the people who have won people's hearts to the truth lived holy lives that demanded being heard.  Even in recent times, someone like Mother Theresa of Culcutta although backed by moral certitude of the Church's teaching had great moral authority since she lived the gospel in an authentic manner.  An atheist who had studied the scriptures for 20 yrs and interacted with many Christians had remained unconvinced about Christianity, but spending a few hours even minutes with Mother Theresa led to his conversion.  When he was asked how comes, he said that through out that time of his study, he didn't think Christianity was anything more than a noble ideal, but spending time with Mother Theresa, he saw those teachings portrayed in a manner that he couldn't argue with.  The life of charity that Mother Theresa lived demanded that she be heard when she spoke about truth since her life gave testimony to her words.  This is what moral authority looks like. The same can be said of others like Blessed Pope John Paul II and many others.
    Now going back to Pope Francis, I think he has introduced a new vision for the Church that will however slow start to give it back moral authority.  By inviting people to care for each other and creation, urging us to care especially for the poor and weak of our society and to live an authentic Christian life will help us to start shining in a manner that is undeniable about the Gospel we preach.  If we preach the truth and yet ourselves do not live it, we come out only as using it as a sword of judgment instead of the saving grace that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus said that we shall "be known by our love" and that is the invitation that our new pope is calling us to.  G.K. Chesterton once when asked if there was any argument against Christianity said that "the only argument against Christianity he could find was Christians." Meaning that the Christian message was without blemish but the people delude it by their bad example.  If we practice charity liberally, our message on morality becomes relevant, and we can win the hearts of people towards truth.  Finally we can weave the moral certitude that the Holy Spirit promises with a moral authority that demands following, and take Our Lord from the Cross that we have once again nailed him with our sins.  May God see us into this new phase of history where evil is rampant and relativism on the rise, but also where grace abides all the more. 
Lord Jesus, may your love penetrate the darkness of our hearts and bring us to the light.

Eve and the serpent: The modern day deception of abortion

  

"God knows well that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil." (Genesis 3:5) This is the classical lie that the serpent used thousands of years ago to deceive the woman in the garden of eden leading up to the fall of man from grace.
   Today as I reflect on the modern state of our society, I see how we are still falling for the same lies from the ol' serpent.  I however wish to concentrate more on the issue of life especially today as we combat the rampant sin of abortion. From the events of the garden of eden, we see that the devil first cast doubt in the woman's mind about the goodness of God and whether truly obeying him was for her good. When the woman entertained these thoughts, the devil finally was able to convince her that by eating the fruit and disobeying God, she would become like god and determine what is right and wrong living on her own terms. Most of us know that the story ends with the woman consenting, leading her husband to sin and both end up falling from grace and separating themselves from God by spiritual death.  Fast forward to 2013. It saddens me to see how the devil has been able to conjure a modern deception that is not too far from the one in the garden.
      Let me explain.  Since 1973, and that is in the United States alone, over 55 million babies have been aborted under the guise of choice. The abortion proponents claim that it is the Woman's choice to kill her unborn baby.  For us Christians at the very least, we know that the gift of life and its taking thereof falls under the jurisdiction of the Sovereign God alone.  However, many today have usurped this role of God and accorded themselves the masters and mistresses of life.  Once more, man in search of autonommy have succeded to fall into the devil's deception.  In our world today, abortion has been engraved as a constituional women's right.  The selfish act of choosing our "hapiness" leads to the death of many unborn children under the protection of law.  Any reasonable person knows that abortion is killing, yet we continue to make all kinds of excuses just like our first parents did in the garden of eden.  Yes the devil is deceiving the modern day Eve by telling her that she will be happy and free if only she aborts, and the modern day Adam is still missing in action or is intimidated to stand up to the lie. But is there hope for man.
    Obviously the story of man did not end with his fall.  God in his goodness sent his only beggoten Son to save man from his sins.  This is the only answer to our ailments today.  If you ask anyone who has ever had an abortion, if they are honest, they would tell you that although they must have felt secure under the lie that it was nothing before the fact, once they went ahead with the abortion they knew it was wrong immediately just like Adama and Eve knew they had done what was wrong immediately after eating the fruit.  It is also true that just like Adam and Eve hid from God in shame, many who have had abortions or are advocates of it continue to hide from God.  However, God continues to call us to come back to Him and if we expose ourselves and seek his forgiveness, He is merciful and will heal us.  This must be the message for us today.  For those who have been deceived,  you should not hide from God, He is ready and willing to forgive you and you must approach him.  We should continually reflect on the fact that God is bigger than all our sins and He can forgive all of our sins, we however must seek the truth.  It fills me with sorrow to see how many even Christians don't see abortion for what it is and try to justify it as a choice.  It is our duty to tell the truth and not stand watching but to pray pray pray that the truth will prevail and then work work and work some more to eradicate the lie that so many of our brothers and sisters have fallen into. 

Prayer
  Oh Lord Jesus, have mercy upon us and bless those who are under the burden of the sin of abortion.  Help them to seek your forgiveness and be reconciled to you.  Also help those who are lukewarm that the fire of charity may enkindle their hearts anew for the protection of all life.  Finally Lord, give light to all those who themselves being deceived continue to deceive others.  Amen