And Lead All Souls to Heaven...

"O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy."

The Fatima Prayer.  It's often prayed at the end of each mystery of the Rosary.  I've prayed it hundreds of times. 

But do I mean it?

Oh, the part about myself I mean:  forgive me of my sins, Lord. Yes!  Save me from the fires of hell!  Yes, yes, I mean that part.  

But what about the second part?  Do I mean that as well?  Lead all souls to heaven? Do I mean that?   

Definitely.  

Well, most likely.  

At least I think so.

Probably.  

Maybe.

Doubts begin to creep in regarding my sincerity because the more I think about that phrase, that line, that prayer--lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of They mercy--the more I think about that phrase, the more I realize that it's not just about my family.  My friends.  My coworkers.  My neighbors.  

It's not even just about the nice people I meet while shopping.  Or at a restaurant.  Or at my sons' little league games.

The prayer's bigger than that.  See, it's not just for the people I talk to, the people I relate to.  It's also for Kermit Gosnell, the abortionist who was just today convicted of murdering 3 babies born alive in his abortion clinic.  He snipped the backs of their necks with a pair of scissors to extinguish their lives.  Especially those in most need of Thy Mercy:  that's a man like Kermit Gosnell. 

It's also a man like LeRoy Carhart, another late term abortionist who, in this recent video, compared a terminated baby in the womb to "meat in a crock-pot" and then joked about his toolkit for abortions that includes a "pick-axe" and a "drill bit."

    

When I sincerely pray that prayer, I'm also praying for the Joe Biden's and the Nancy Pelosi's and the Barack Obama's and all the other politicians--Republican, Democrat, Independent--who all seem to have no conscience and no problem supporting an industry with so much blood on its collective hands.

But the prayer is even bigger than that, because the prayer covers the Boston Bombers.  When I say that prayer and mean it, I'm praying for the souls and the conversion of those cowards who took the lives of the innocents at the marathon. 

I'm praying for the man who kept those three girls locked up in his Cleveland home for 10 years.  The man who raped them and then beat them to induce abortions.  And the brothers who may or may not have known what was going on and didn't say anything.

I'm praying for the next Osama Bin Ladin.  For the tyrant in North Korea.  

And the list could go on indefinitely.  When I pray that prayer and mean it, I'm praying for the most hardened, most vile sinners on the planet just as I pray for those we'd all call "good."  

Am I up for that?  Do I honestly long for the salvation of these souls?  Do I sincerely long to learn of their conversion to Christ?  Do I truly want to pray for the mercy that will bring about repentance and open the gates of heaven to the likes of these?

I don't know.  But I hope so.

I hope that when I say that prayer and conjure an image of the faces of those who support or perpetrate such horrific evil in our times, I hope that I truly ask for God's mercy with more than just my mouth.  

Because that is the heart of the Gospel:  Mercy for the undeserving.  Mercy for the sinner.  Mercy for the repentant heart.  Mercy for my family.  Mercy for me. Mercy for Kermit Gosnell.

So, Lord, for my sake and for the sake of my family and friends, and for the sake of the eternal souls of Kermit Gosnell and all those who commit or support evil:  O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.  In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.  Amen.

 

The Authority to Forgive Sins

In the midst of this study of the Catholic Faith and an examination of my own beliefs, I've run into Scripture passage after Scripture passage for which my former/current (I'm still journeying, afterall) tradition offers me no good explanation.

For example, here's a passage I've read hundreds of times and yet I never once caught the ending of it until just recently when I looked at it with a Catholic understanding.

The passage is Matthew 9:1-8. Read it and see if the last line surprises you or not. I'm betting that some of you at least will leave the computer and go check it against your own Bibles--just to make sure I haven't toyed with the wording. (That's the first thing I did when I stumbled upon it on a Catholic website explaining the Biblical roots for the Sacrament of Reconciliation).

Anyway, here it is:

And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."

And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming."

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--he then said to the paralytic--"Rise, take up your bed and go home."

And he rose and went home.

When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. Matthew 9:1-8

The word that caught me off guard is the last one: "men". Matthew clearly writes that the people were amazed that God gave this authority--the power to forgive sins if we read back a verse or two--to MEN. In the plural.

If you do a parallel study of multiple translations, you'll find there's no getting around it. This or that particular translation may opt for the phrase "people" or "human beings" or "men", but whatever word is selected, that word is always plural.

Now, when Matthew, guided by the Holy Spirit, wrote the words "they glorified God, who had given such authority to men," what do we think he was talking about? Is there any point in the history of Christianity--any point in recorded Scripture--in which God gave men--not a man, not just Jesus, but MEN--the authority to forgive sins?

Well, I can only think of one, John 20:21-23 which reads:

Then said Jesus to them again, "Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."

This is the foundation of the Catholic understanding of Confession--the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And this is just a beginning introduction. The verses need to be weighed and parsed and history needs to be consulted before any kind of understanding one way or another can be reached. And I'll do my best to get to that later.

But for now, I wanted to throw it out there because it shows that while Protestants may disagree with Catholic theology regarding confession, they really can't honestly claim that there's no Biblical support for it.