Will man be judged?
Death..... and then?
Only if we look beyond our limits
and see our entire life at a glance, will we recognize its purpose and see God at the center of the world. Death would then not only be the extinction of a light, which it appears to be, but a person's ultimate accomplishment.
All those who never had a relationship to God because they grew up in slums or because God was presented to them as a fairy-tale or a tyrant will, at least in death, have a chance to meet God personally. And why should they not be able to review their relationship to God at this instant?
However, it would be frivolous not to care about God during a lifetime, hoping that there will still be enough time in death. Who knows whether we will then have the strength to suddenly deny our past and accept a new orientation against a way of life entrenched during a lifetime. What we intend to become in the future, we must begin in the present. This ultimate decision of man would either be a confirmation of his earlier behavior, a correction, or perhaps a revocation of his entire previous life.
These decisions are then final and irrevocable, since there are no longer any new aspects, ignorance or wavering. Beyond death, everything is final. "The way a tree falls, it remains on the ground." In the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Lk 16,19-31) the Bible says that death seals man's fate forever. Nowhere in the Scriptures does the teaching of transmigration of souls find any support.
Will man be judged?
How do you imagine the "judgment" to be which awaits every human being according to Christian belief (2 Cor 5,10)? Perhaps you think of a judge's chair in front of which the deceased must appear to be judged by God? Or do you envision an open book with all our life data? All this only makes us realize that man has to answer for his behavior. In other words: injustice will not have the last word! A last resort upholds justice.
Above all, the Scriptures emphasize that God really wants to save people and that He is not interested in a rejecting judgment (John 3,16 ff; 1 Tim 2,4). It depends on the person himself whether or not he reaches the goal of his life.
At the moment of death, a person comes to a comprehensive self-knowledge without any self-deception. Every detail becomes evident. This includes all the individual decisions which, woven together, make up the total of our life. This perspective allows the person to see what was done right or wrong. The judgment is first of all a self-judgment and at the same time, the judgment of God. The message of the judgment is the equality of people before God's justice, bringing seriousness and drama into our life and changing it.
Death - man's ultimate accomplishment
Death..... and then?
Death is not a fulfillment of what we expect from life. The solution is found in life beyond death, in redemption. But what does faith say about man's future? Christ predicts: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." (John 11,25; Luke 23,43). Although Saint Paul knows how cruelly death ravages life and how brutally it destroys hopes, plans and communities, for him, dying is no grievous departure, but a coming-home: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ" (Philippians 1,23; 2 Cor 5,8). For the believer, death is not a senseless, irrevocable end but a new beginning. As Christ came back from death so will we continue to live with Him. (1 Thes 4,13)
Death - man's ultimate accomplishment
On his first day of school, a little boy is hit by a car and dies on the way to the hospital. Our impression is that this young human life was destroyed without blooming and coming to maturity. There is something devastating in this unfinished, violent ending of a life. It shows that death does not necessarily strike a man at the moment where he is inwardly prepared to conclude his life.
But are things different at the death of an adult? What have we done with all our questions and doubts? Did we finish working on them? Often, even adults do not have the time to examine and judge their lives. Sometimes, everything we love must be taken away from us, all our masks have to be taken off, and all our roles have to come to an end so that we can see what is ultimately important.
There are always new books with reports about clinically dead persons and what they have experienced at death and thereafter. Dying is different from the experience of all those standing around. Evidently, life does not merely fade away but the dying perceive much more of what surrounds them than their outer appearance seems to suggest.
In addition, many tell us that they had an intensive global view of their past life at the moment of their "departure";&nb sp; everything could be seen very clearly. This experience proves nothing, but is surprisingly in line with the considerations and convictions of some theologians in recent times.
Death is part of our life and dying is not only a matter of a moment but also a process. Whoever goes through this process has made the unique experience of dying ahead of all living human beings. Could this not be the decisive life experience? Death would then bring any belated development to maturity: a child grows up, an adult sheds whatever is still unfinished and imperfect. Mentally retarded and psychologically disturbed persons, even the unborn child, - all of them would then have the possibility to bring their human life to a decision and to maturity in this process of dying.
Why do we have to die?
Death..... and then?
Why do we have to die?
We are inclined to answer this question by saying that the strength of the body is used up and exhausted. We come into existence, grow and flourish, reach our high point which is followed by aging and gradual reduction of our vitality. Consequently, dying is something very natural. But should we not recognize that the psychological and spiritual development of people is not necessarily affected to the same extent by this process of deterioration? There are people who are physically sick and old, but remain inwardly very young, awake and full of energy. Death is not just a chemical and physiological process; humans do not die like plants or animals.
The Scriptures often relate death to sin, which disturbs human life from the beginning. Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin..." (Romans 5,12). When we believe, we see God as the giver of life. In this view, interference with the relationship to God means decreasing life and ultimately death. This is not to say that without sin man would not have died. But he would probably not have experienced death as a catastrophe and senseless collapse but as change, fulfillment and the culmination of life.
In God's concept of the world, death is certainly an intruder, an enemy of man (1 Corinthians 15,26). It should not have been and will not last forever. Our aversion to it is correct. Death opposes most deeply our longing for life.
Death - the gate to life
Many see death as a wall on which life fails irrevocably. A future beyond death? Doubts and objections to this will never stop. Some suspect that the hope for equalization and balance in the beyond is just fraud to console simple people and divert from the miseries in this world. In brief, death is the end of everything.
Something within us pushes beyond total annihilation. Therefore, many people wish to continue living in their works or their children. The Pharaohs in Egypt built pyramids to make themselves unforgettable. Others work on some great piece of art or "make history" so that they will not disappear from the memory of mankind. But all this is merely a shadow, since the person does not live in these memories which are only a resonance and an echo.
....life and faces (smile! cartoon) twob
"Dying begins with birth"
Death..... and then?
..."like a thief at night"
There was just a brief announcement in the news at noon: "A Boeing 727 has crashed, over 120 fatalities. The cause for the accident is still unknown". This accident was not planned. The passengers were taken by surprise. Death came "like a thief at night". Where people live, there is always the possibility of losing life. Closing our eyes to this does not make sense. Transplantation of organs, deep-freeze operations, supplies of fresh cells, etc., help to prolong life but are unable to eliminate death.
Anointing of the sick
Someone has said that dying begins with birth. This was supposed to mean that right from the beginning, life is in danger of death. Pain, especially, the burden of growing old and falling sick marks the first steps toward death. Man is ripped away from his usual work rhythm by illness and becomes dependent on the help of others. In this way, he experiences his powerlessness and limitations which find their culmination in death.
The Bible often reports that Jesus particularly directed His attention to the sick to help them. His prime goal, of course, was not physical healing but psychological encouragement and strengthening. Evidently, the young Christian communities felt obligated to act like Jesus. In James' letter (5,14-15) we find this directive: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven".
We believe that Christ accompanies our life through the Sacraments in order to be close to us and give us help in times of illness, aging and dying. Continuing Jesus' and the Apostles' service of the sick, the Catholic Church administers the Sacrament of the Anointment to give hope for recovery through remission of sins and confidence in God. In the past, the Sacrament which prepared for death was called "Extreme Unction". But now, we see it more in its original meaning, as restoring life during the longer periods of illness and aging.
What is death?
Since we cannot eliminate death, we repress it and make it taboo. Above all, we do not talk about it in the presence of the sick. Often, people get rid of the dying and have them transferred to a lonely room in a hospital, even if this is medically not necessary. Dying has turned into a private matter. This only shows our total helplessness vis-à-vis death. Only recently did people realize that the dying need contact and community and that more humane attention should be given to them.
What really happens when somebody dies? At this question, all of us have to admit our embarrassment. Everyone has to take the last step by himself. Respiration stops, the heart stops beating, brain activity comes to an end, and at this stage a death certificate can be issued. But this is by far not all that can be said about death.
A "mixed marriage"
Love and Marriage
Denominationally disparate marriage
A "mixed marriage" can bring particular difficulties which should be discussed with the concerned parties prior to the wedding. Children's education or the common life of faith could give rise to disagreement. But these marriages are not identical to another. There could be a chance for common action in faith; but the problems resulting from the split in Christianity could also be intensified. In an extreme case, the success of the marriage could be endangered and the faith of spouses and children be influenced negatively.
When both partners take their faith seriously, a marriage which is denominationally different has the best chances of success. But in this case, the difference in faith is often especially painful for the couple, and the conflicts regarding the wedding and education of children more pronounced. The Catholic Church tries to meet the wishes of the non-Catholic partner as long as they do not jeopardize the faith of the other spouse and the children.
The married couple has an obligation to live according to what they perceive to be the true faith and pass it on to the children; for who would want to give to their children less than what they themselves have experienced in terms of purpose and happiness in this life? For this reason, no church can give an exemption from this moral obligation. Prior to the wedding, Catholic partners must declare that they are aware of this duty and will endeavor to fulfill it as far as possible in their marriage.
But since children's education concerns both parents, it could become impossible for the Catholic spouse to give a Catholic education to the children; in this case, the right and obligation remain to witness the Catholic faith to the spouse and the children through the conduct of life. In addition, the commitment continues to actively participate in a responsible, Christian, conjugal relationship and family life. Obviously, the non-Catholic partner who agreed to the Catholic upbringing of the children has the same rights.
For many married couples who consider all these questions to be important, it can be a consolation to know that the first years in the life of a child are most significant for religious education but that confessional differences play very little role during that period.
When spouses with different religious convictions try honestly to resolve this conflict in faith and love and to bridge existing differences, they prepare the way for a rapprochement of the churches. & nbsp;
Responsibility of parents
Love and Marriage
View of the Church
Man has to find out for himself how he can best correspond to the commonly valid norms in his concrete situation. After a conscious consideration of the decrees of the Church and verification of all circumstances, even a Catholic Christian can come to a responsible decision which differs from the view of the Church.
Responsibility of parents
It is natural that marriage and family have to do with new life and with children. The Church retains the principle that having a child can be justified only in marriage and that it should not be the result of a coincidental sexual encounter. Only in the continuous love of parents can a child find the security needed to grow into a mature human being. Moreover, for Christians the close connection between love and procreation corresponds to the creative will of God.
Married couples themselves have to make Christian and humanely responsible decisions regarding the number of their children. They have to consider their own well-being, the welfare of their off springs and the material and spiritual situation of the times and of their lives. (Second Vatican Council, the Church in the World of Today, No. 50 ff.)
But sexual relationship in a marriage is also rich in meaning and good if, after serious consideration, procreation is not intended or effected. "Marriage is not only established to produce children. The personal spousal community requires this expression of love between married partners. Faithfulness and the welfare of children can suffer should the intimacy of life be abandoned. (The Church in the World of Today, No. 47 ff.)
Abortion
It is the conviction of the Church that killing of germinating life in the womb can never be allowed. From conception onward, new life must be protected like every human life. Fertilization starts the process of bringing into existence a new human being. For a Christian, forced intervention is a serious sin. No one who has based his life on Christian principles should be tempted to believe that abortion is less reprehensible if it is not considered an offense against the civil law.
The value of life has priority above all economic, social or psychological afflictions which could burden the mother, father or family. This shows that the question of abortion is predominantly a social problem. When women decide to have an abortion, people around them usually have to accept part of the blame if these women feel left alone, overburdened financially, without adequate sex education and counseling, when they see only narrow-mindedness and hear nothing else than a moralistic "I-told-you-so" .
....life and faces (cartoon puzzle) wdd
Matrimonial exceptions? - Sexual morals
Love and Marriage
Proof of invalidity
Usually, such a process takes a long time, since a marriage is always assumed to be valid and it is up to the married couple to unquestionably prove invalidity. A validly concluded and consummated marriage cannot be declared invalid by the Church unless there are reasons for invalidity such as fraudulent marriage intentions, force, deception, or when partners are too closely related.
With reference to the Gospels, the Church is certainly right in maintaining that a marriage is insoluble. But the question is: what can the Church do when a marriage does not succeed, perhaps without any personal fault? Is it not beyond the strength of many people to have to go through life alone, perhaps after having been married for just a few years? Are there not clauses for exceptions in the writings of Paul and Matthew (see Cor 7, 12-15; Mt 5,32)?
However, on the other hand: does not every exception weaken the stability of a marriage? Looking at the whole picture, does a divorce not bring more suffering than the tragedy of an unsuccessful marriage? The possibility of legal separation takes away the support a married couple needs, especially in a crisis situation.
For many years the Church has been facing these pressing questions. She must, without any doubt, follow Christ's demand: "preach the word, be it urgent in season and out of season..." (2 Timothy 4,2). But when a marriage has finally failed and a new civil marriage been concluded, should the Church in these cases refuse to give the strength of the Sacraments to the persons involved who need it so urgently? The Church has seriously concerned herself with this problem and there are suggestions that this issue should be cleared worldwide. God does not abandon anybody who turns toward Him and no man will be written off by the Church either. There is always a way of faith out of a ruined life. A personal conversation with a priest is recommended in cases like this.
Matrimonial and sexual morals
Apart from the position of the Church regarding divorce, it is above all her attitude toward the questions of matrimonial and sexual morals which causes the most heated discussions. Here, the discrepancies between generally accepted social opinions and those of the Church become particularly evident. What is right ... being socially "in" or agreeing with what the Church says?
We cannot and do not want to discuss every single question, so we will limit ourselves to the basics: Man's conscience needs points of orientation. These are the regulations of the Church which no one may ignore as long as he or she wants to Popes Paul VI and John Paul II do not intend to make final, authoritative and binding decisions. Furthermore, the Church resolutely defends any personal decision of conscience. She knows that every human being is a unique and distinct person with freedom, responsibility, conscience and an individual life history.
Marriage and faith
Love and Marriage
Marriage and faith
Many young couples hesitate to proceed with this final commitment, knowing that marriage is exposed to unforeseen developments. But we cannot plan, secure and test everything to the last detail. Sometimes, we have to make a decision, because we cannot leave things forever revocable. Having been together for some time, many couples decide to get married, especially with the prospect of raising a family, in order to put their relationship into a firm and legally protected framework.
The celebration in the church reinforces the consciousness of finally and forever belonging together. Should a crisis emerge, the fact of a church wedding can give an important support. Many older and experienced married couples confirm this. It is true that marital difficulties cannot simply be resolved by faith and prayer. But faith in the God of love and reconciliation gives us confidence in the possibility of lifelong faithfulness. This faith helps the spouses to accept each other, forgive and allow and dare a new beginning should they disappoint each other and fail.
This shows how important it is not to put the religious life into a file after the wedding day, but to continuously care for it together.
Divorce
Jesus voiced the opinion that divorce is essentially directed against love. "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19, 6). The Church derives the insolubility of a validly concluded marriage from this sentence. She does not intend to bind and force people to hold on to the past. Rather, the thought of insolubility reinforces the endeavor to exhaust all possibilities of living in marital community.
Divorce shows that a couple has stopped looking to the future together and trying to find each other always anew. Therefore, Jesus radically opposes people continuously looking for new circumstances under which a married couple might eventually be divorced. Jesus demands of us free decisions for a faithfulness which excludes loopholes right from the start. The aim of this exigency is not only to avoid marriage breakup but to influence the partnership in such a way that divorce becomes out of the question.
Reality, however, proves that even with a Christian marriage, breakup and the entailing separation of partners cannot always be avoided. Separation is often the lesser of two evils. In such cases the Church permits partners to live separately from each other and get a civil divorce because of the civil law consequences. But this does not change the legal view of the Church regarding the continuity of the marriage concluded before the altar.
Sometimes, it is said that a married couple was "divorced" by the Pope. In reality the Pope made a declaration of invalidity which has nothing to do with divorce. In this case, it is established through proceedings before the matrimonial court of the Church that a valid marriage was not concluded in the first place.
Matrimony: a profound mystery
Love and Marriage
Marriage is a Sacrament
Christian marriage shall reflect the love and trust of Christ for His Church. He loves His Church despite all her faults and imperfections, and He does not leave her. The prototype of this link between Christ and His Church is already shown in the love of God for His people, Israel, in the Old Testament. He faithfully accompanied them through all times. This "covenant of God with His people" is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible in terms of the image of a marriage. (Isaiah 50,1; Jeremiah 2,2; 5,7).
The unconditional faithfulness of God and Jesus Christ to humanity and the Church should be mirrored in the love of the spouses. This love can correspond so closely to Christ's relationship with the Church that it is not only an image of His love, but that His love itself is becoming present through the love of the married couple. For this reason, Paul calls matrimony a "profound mystery".
What happens between two people on a minor scale takes place between Christ and the Church on a large scale. Thus, God can be experienced in the love of the spouses. Therefore, the Christian marriage is a Sacrament, a sign, a place and means for divine action. It is not merely a community for the purposes of financial convenience or an institutionalized form of procreation and child raising.
Church wedding
A church wedding is more than just an extra blessing compared to a civil ceremony. A man and a woman commit themselves to each other before a priest or deacon and at least two witnesses, but usually a larger community, and thereby administer to each other the Sacrament of Matrimony. The validity of a marriage of Catholics is tied to this rite of the Church, which, like every other Sacrament, has its own distinct form.
The community participates in this celebration and learns that God becomes present in a special way in the Sacrament of Matrimony not only to the spouses, but also to the members of the community. However, the Sacrament is not limited to the Church wedding but is very closely connected to the couple's history, beginning long before the wedding and ending with their death.
Although marriage, especially the Christian marriage, is today being called into question, the majority of couples opt for a Church wedding. This does not seem to jibe with the generally suspected decrease of the Church's credibility and the distancing of people from the Church. For this reason we often hear that for many people the ceremony at the Church is just a solemn setting for the wedding. However, in many cases, this is not so. Most brides and bridegrooms, even those who seem little engaged in the Church, feel that marriage is an important point of their lives and that the success of their common plans does not depend solely on themselves.
....life and faces (cartoon puzzle) bby
What does the Bible say?
Love and Marriage
Matrimony
is not an invention of Christianity and the churches, but since love and the desire to have a permanent relationship are an essential part of human existence, it is not surprising that they also have an important place in the Bible, Christianity, and the Church.
What does the Bible say?
The biblical image of the human being and of the relationship between man and woman is shown in the very first chapters of the Bible (Genesis 1-3). "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'
According to the story of creation the encounter with woman liberates man from his loneliness. In their conjugal love, the partners "know" each other and become "one body". The basic equality of man and woman is expressed in a metaphorical way: „This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh", an acknowledgment of the equality of sexes that was far ahead of its time. "The man leaves father and mother and commits himself completely to his wife"; this statement seems to be almost revolutionary in a patriarchal environment. But only very slowly does this idea prevail during the course of history.
In the Genesis story of creation, human sexuality is also given its divine dignity. But not in the same way as in other religions of biblical times, where sexuality itself was venerated as something divine. In the Bible, sexuality is part of human nature and human responsibility, intended to give people fulfillment and joy as a gift from God who created it. The fact that sexuality can become a source of evil and suffering, and a way for men to gain dominance over women, is due to the consequences of sin and is not part of creation.
The basis of matrimony can be found in God's creation and Jesus also sees it this way. He expressly repeats the words of the report on creation. (See Mt 19, 3 - 9; Mk 10, 2 - 12). Marriage was not established by Him. On the contrary, Jesus refers to something that has always been valid before God: spouses are tied to each other by God and therefore are not allowed to divorce, nor may man separate them. With this, He opposes those who refer to Moses and maintain that a man has the right to divorce his wife under certain circumstances.
As marriage is part of God's creation and exposed to the consequences of original sin, it also partakes in the salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians (5,31f): "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." - Paul compares the marriage of Christians to the relationship between Christ and His Church. & nbsp;