14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Mathew 7: 14
Pope Francis continues with his mercy uber alles theme:
Pope Francis says Catholic leaders do a “great injustice” when they say God judges sinners when in fact he forgives sinners with his mercy.
At an evening prayer service Friday in Fatima, Portugal, Francis said: “Mercy has to be put before judgment and, in any case, God’s judgment will always be rendered in light of his mercy.”
Francis has riled the more doctrinaire wing of the church with his mercy-over-morals priorities, particularly after the last two doctrine-minded papacies. He recently concluded an entire Holy Year on trying to show the more merciful side of the church.
Francis delivered the mercy-trumps-judgment message on the first day of a two-day visit to the shrine at Fatima, where three shepherd children reported having visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago. Francis will declare two of the children saints on Saturday, the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.
Go here to read the rest. When it comes to our eternal destination the Church has always warned us against the dual sins of despair and presumption. Has the constant emphasis of the Pope on God’s mercy lured many sinners, i.e. all of us, into the sin of presumption and that we will be saved no matter what? If so, the Gospels strongly indicate that this is very much mistaken. Hank Williams led a life enmeshed in sin, but in his immortal I Saw the Light (1948) he reminds us of the words of the Christ that strait is the gate and narrow is the way, and that we must trade the wrong for the right if we are to be saved. What an odd time we live in when Catholics can get sounder moral instruction on this key point from a dead, drug and alcohol addicted, Protestant Country singer than from the Vicar of Christ.
“What an odd time we live in when Catholics can get sounder moral instruction on this key point from a dead, drug and alcohol addicted, Protestant Country singer than from the Vicar of Christ.”
Yup, and that’s true mercy 😉
And the way it is all in the Washington Post ( owner Jeff Bezos) makes us Catholics all look as foolish as the Bezos of the world think we are.
The resolve of the evil one!
Pope has said his time will be short before he goes to the father’s house.
I can not Imagine how he can stand quietly in prayer in front of the statue of Mary without feeling the heat.
Years ago we used to wonder about how an anti christ would be able to fool the world.
Mercy and justice – neither one comes before the other. God’s mercy is perfect, as is His justice. That’s incomprehensible but true.
If we open ourselves to God’s grace we will fall under His mercy. If we fail to, we fall under His justice. Both are equally real. God doesn’t need anything from us, and we can’t enhance His glory. We will either bring glory to His justice or to His mercy. But God is love, and wants us to fall under His mercy. He created us to sing His praises in Heaven.
It’s merciful to talk about God’s justice, and it’s just to talk about God’s mercy. I can’t fault the Pope for either. I can fault the Post for doing a bad job in their religion reporting. But people these days need the full message, as people always do, about God’s mercy and justice.
“If we open ourselves to God’s grace we will fall under His mercy. If we fail to, we fall under His justice.”
Well said Pinky. God forces no one into heaven. God condemns no one into hell. God is. Man must will to get to heaven. Man must will to avoid hell. The choice in free will belongs to man. God does not and cannot contradict Himself. Given free will, man must will to belong to God in Mercy, Justice and Love. Only prayer from Pope Francis may convert the hearts of those who refuse God’s mercy. It is man’s choice. Neither God, nor Pope Francis can impose God’s mercy on a reprobate who refuses God’s mercy.
Yes -my literal earthly understanding of justice and of mercy are certainly inadequate!
Justice and Mercy “kissed” at the cross. Justice and Mercy stand together- Mercy is just, and justice is mercy
BUT we are in Time and Place.
God is outside time, there is no chronology in Him – His attributes of justice and mercy are eternal -we would think of them as “coincidental” if they were in time but they are. mysterious (like Jesus’ eternal “sonship” and shared esse)
For us, there comes a time when the cup is full. There needs to be repentence before death, before entering timelessness.. “today” like the good thief did.
Time can run out on us- like a fugitive 🙂
Isn’t God’s perfect justice in the fact that he gives us the freedom to ask, or refuse to ask, for his perfect Mercy?
It seems to me that God’s perfect justice would be in throwing me into Hell for all of my sins, and that God’s mercy gives me the unearned opportunity to ask for His mercy. I’ve already cashed in my Freedom chip with my first sin. At this point, all I can do to appeal to justice is wash myself in His blood and say “this debt was paid”.
When “Pope” Francis speaks of mercy he really means antinomian: 1 : one who holds that under the gospel dispensation of grace (see 1grace 1a) the moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation. 2 : one who rejects a socially established morality.
“Pope” Francis quite simply is a heretic.