THE PROBLEMS OF CHRISTIAN LIVING IN THE WORLD
Palmarian
Catholics are more than nominal Christians.
A nominal Christian is someone who calls himself by the name of
Christian, but lives in a way that is at variance and in unconformity with
Christian teaching, thinking, custom and tradition.
In
the conflict of values between modern post-Christian society and
traditional Catholic society, many a Christian will find himself
identifying inexorably with modern-day values and currents of thought at
the expense of Catholic teachings, norms and the values of always.
Christians
today must be ever conscious of the power of the threefold enemy of the
soul: the World, the Flesh,
and the Devil. They have the
obligation to oppose the world today and its spirit, and necessarily to
mortify the concupiscence that tempt us to indulge in extensive watching
of television or videos or in spending long hours before the computer.
The
reading of newspapers , worldly magazines and general media indulgence,
when imbibed sufficiently, can form in impressionable young minds a
fantasy concept of reality that finds expression in constant daydreaming.
This is the modern escapism from the drudgery of humdrum routine common
life. Here is encountered
grave danger to the soul and a breeding ground for sin. Switching on T.V.
or High Fi can be in reality switching off from daily reality to take
refuge in imaginary reality.
Christians
have the duty to live in the world, work in the world, perfect themselves
and save their souls in the world. They are not in the world to
pursue the life of pleasures .Christians are not of the world.
That is, they are never worldlings.
By indulgence, it is easy to become a worldling, with the
consequent loss of the spirit of prayer, sacrifice and penitence.
The debility of the soul is then noticed by its fruits:
a loss of piety and fervour for all things sacred.
From
this sickness of soul is nurtured the prime cause of sins and apostasy
from the faith which grows within before making itself manifest
exteriorly. Palmarian
Catholics are obliged to combat the concupiscence of the flesh -- that is,
a thousand impure desires awakened constantly by a daily multitude of
impure sights; and when joined to the less noticed vice of gluttony in its
two forms, excessive eating and drinking the battle can be precarious.
This is the widespread social sinning that brought about the
destruction of Sodom and Egypt.
The
failure to mortify the flesh is what precipitates serious falls,
especially as the world preaches to satiation indulgence in the vices; and
its insidious propaganda is unavoidable. Before this assault
empty and unoccupied minds are in peril.
We understand by the word “Penance” the mortification of these
appetites, sufficient to keep the demands of the disordered flesh in
check.
This
is what Our Lord meant in the Gospel when he spoke of cutting out the eye
that offended. We cut off
evil desires by mortifying and dominating them.
This is the penance that heaven requires of everyone who desires to
save his or her soul. Those
in the world that cast off restraints and willfully indulge their
disordered appetites are those that arrive in hell.
The
second concupiscence, called the Concupiscence of the Eyes, is the
unquenchable appetite known as Avarice:
the desire to acquire money and worldly goods at any cost or
injustice. Usually death cuts
off the avaricious, and their gains remain to others.
The
present-day psychology of man is so formed as to believe death always
happens to somebody else. There
is a mental disassociation from the reality of death that is frightening;
a disassociation which can make persons indifferent before tragedies and
human suffering that occur far from home.
The reality of death for all the disassociation could be
personalised at any time in our life.
Perhaps tomorrow in a road-accident!
The
last concupiscence is Pride! Pride
has many forms, but principally it is pride that stops us from
acknowledging our smallness and dependence upon God and His Providence. “Lo, lest you become like little children, you will not
enter the Kingdom of heaven!”
The
fruit of pride is presumption and auto-sufficiency! We are
blind to our dependence. We
take it for granted that good fortune will continue, that there will come
no day of deprivation, suffering and the Cross.
We presume that always we will enjoy good health, the job will
never fail, the finances will remain buoyant, no domestic tragedy will
afflict us, and no sickness will come to lay us low.
Christians
must live grounded in Eternal Reality, a reality that changes for nobody,
Christians or Non-Christians alike. The Christian’s philosophy towards
life embraces the desire to seek perfection in all our activities and so
to praise and glorify God. This is wisdom itself.
Meanwhile
the pagan way of seeking the pleasure of the moment is pure foolishness.
A Cup filled up with demerits is by this means acquired for
eternity. The Christian
instead must fill his Cup full of merits by demonstrating the practice of
the virtues, which consists precisely in the daily rejection of the
Capital Vices! Herein lie our
merits and victories.
The
danger posed in mediocre Christian living is that a debilitated spirit
becomes easy prey to the spirit of the World!
So, almost imperceptibly, the soul slips into tepidity and loss of
faith!
