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Back ground:
During Easter Sundays you will notice that all 3 major readings are from new testament. This indicates, that during Easter, you have to contemplate on new teachings of Christianity. 1st sunday of Easter, we found the Jesus resurrection, 2 nd sunday, we found, that christianity, is harping on not too much craving to our 5 senses. 3 rd sunday we found, the essential feature of catholism,how to find God's will for you. You belong to one element of God's society, where HE request you to do a different function. Today, you are invited to analyze, the essential difference of Christianity with other religions that exist in the world. While we respect all religions we have to be clear about the essential conceptual differences between others!
Preamble to todays reading:
B1 What is truth?
Your mind will decide what is truth for you and your Free Will carry out action according to that truth, Your truth may be different to my truth. Then what is the truth in Catholicism. To follow Catholicism, you should clearly believe and understand that Jesus has resurrected and You should practice the teachings of Jesus which is clearly given in new testaments. The ultimate outcome of following Catholicism is to lead a happy life both in this world and after death. Jesus new teaching, the guiding path or guiding law is same as old testament I.e 10 commandments. He fulfill this law, to allow Freedom to all humans, to use their Free Will, by developing pardoning principle. As against revenge actions practiced by old testament, by a chosen crowd. HE then showed us how to follow the God's will by each and individual human, to see the beauty of this world, as seen by God at the creation.
Every religion in this world, promote peace in the society, while they request to practice Love. To achieve these things they teach different paths. For example for catholics, the major law to be followed is 10 commandments, with no enemies. In Buddhism they have basic 5 rules(pansil).
In Muslim, they have 5 pillars.
There are 3 types of religions:
(1) God has created this world and you have being created by God.
(2) 5 basic elements creation
(3) No body has created, world exist on there own
Depending upon this difference of creation, there are 3 concept of outcome of living
(1) You live for happiness
(2) Life in this world is sorrow, and depend upon your previous rebirths(karma)
(3) You face life as it is moving with happy and sorrow
From this basic concepts, one can develop, what actions are needed for you to follow each and every religion!.
B.2. THE LIVING OF FAITH: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS:(Morality)
B.2.(1)The Bible does not number the commandments, who did and how?
The Bible itself never assigns a number to any one of the 10 commandments. They are listed twice in the scripture, in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21
St Augustine(354-430A.D), bishop of Hippo, was the first to assign numbers to the ten commandments.
10 commandments:
(1) Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me
(2) Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
(3) Keep holy the Sabbath Day
(4) Honor thy father and mother
(5) Thou shalt not kill (means only HUMANS)(reson: 10 commandment exist before to JESUS, during that time one of the method of WORSHIPPING GOD was, slaughtering of animals, spreading of blood over the offering table.)
(6) Thou shall not commit adultery
(7) Thou shall not steal
(8) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor
(9) Thou shall not covert thy neighbor's wife
(10) Thou shalt not covert thy neighbors goods
Note: Obs: there are 3 parts, com 1- 5 God & you, com 6-8 deals personal to you, com 9-10 deals with you & society.
B.2.(3) Difference of numbering of 10 commandments:
Because idolatry is the worship of false gods, St Augustine presumed Exodus 20:4/Deuteronomy5:8("Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image") was just a continuation of Exodus 20:3/Deuteronomy5:7("Thou shalt have no other God's before me"). In other word they belong in the same paragraph.
Origen and some Greek fathers of the church saw injunction against graven images and idols a separate commandment from the one forbidding worship of other Gods. This point of view would become the position of the Anglican, Calvanist, and Presbyterian churches. Hence, both systems counts the same first commandment as the same(no false Gods) but the catholic-luthern numbering(thanks to Augustine) counts number 2" Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" where as the other system numbers that commandment as number 3. And it goes on, each one being one number different from the other until the very end. Then it is catch up timem the catholics-lutherens system divides Deuteromomy 5:21/Exodus 20:17 into 2 seperate commandments, number 9 being" Thou shalt not covert thy neighbour's wife" and number 10 being" Thou shall not covet thy neighbors goods". The anglican-calvanist systems keeps them together as number 10.
B.2.(4) How bible organized in chapters?
it was not until 1205 A.D that sephen langton, archbishop of Canterbury, divided the books of the Bible into chapter numbers, and it was another 350 years(in 1555 A.D) before Robert Stehanus the Bible chapters into verses. The original texts were written with no chapter,no verse, and no punctuation.
B.2.(5) More details from Catechism:
Articles 1691 through 2557 of the catechism of catholic church looks at all 10 commandments as the spring board for moral teaching and ethical behavior for the believers. There is a difference in numbering between the ten commandments cited by the catholics and Lutherans and the once cited by the other protestant traditions.
B.3. Recent development to bring harmony with other religions
Most of the Government in the world are helping to create conditions favorable to the fostering of religious life, in order that the people may be truly enable to exercise their religious rights and to full fill their religious duties, and also in order that society itself may profit by the moral qualities of justice and peace which have their origin in men's fulfillness to their religious outcomes.
In the view of peculiar circumstances obtaining among peoples,special civil recognition is given to one religious community in the constitutional order of society, it is at the same time imperative that the right of all citizens and religious communities to religious freedom should be recognized and made effective in practice.
Finally, government is to see to it that equality of citizens before the law, which is itself an element of the common good, is never violated, whether openly or covertly, for religious reasons. Nor is there to be discrimination among citizens.
B.4 Religious harmony with Moslems
Reference: the documents of vatican page 388- chapter 3 quote)
The church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all powerful, the creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit whole hearted ly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom faith of Islam take pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they don't acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a Prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin mother; at times they even call her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their desert to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God, specially through prayer, alms giving and fasting.
Since the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christian and Moslems, the vatican II urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.
B.5 Stone rejected by you the builders, but which has proved to be the key stone.
Pope Francis in his encyclical 1, on faith says" Those who choose not to put their trust in God must hear the din of countless idols crying out:'Put your trust on me'
Their lives becomes futile, and their works barren, like a tree far from water. Once you think to turn away from God, your life begins to fall apart. In many areas in our lives we trust others who know more than we do. We trust the architect who builds our home, the pharmacist who gives us medicine for healing, the lawyer who defends us in court. We also need someone trust worthy and knowledgeable where God is concerned. Jesus, the son of God, is the one who makes God known to us.(Cf. Jn 1:18). ALL THREADS OF OLD TESTAMENT CONVERGE ON CHRIST. We believe Jesus when we personally welcome him into our lives and journey towards him, clinging to him in love and following in His footsteps along the way.
Finally Jesus left His mother, as our mother, only after doing so did Jesus know that"ALL WAS FINISHED"(Jn 19:28). At the foot of the Cross, at the supreme hour of the new creation, Christ led us to Mary. He brought us to her, because HE did not want us to journey without a mother, and our people read in this maternal image all the mysteries of the Gospel.
C. Today's reading:
Acts of apostles says(4:8-12)"..One you crucified..raised from dead..stone rejected..key stone.."
St john says(1Jn 3:1-2) "..think..love..father..God's children..what..we..see him.."
Gospel of John says(JN 10:11-18)
"Jesus said..I..good shepard..laid..His life..hired man..abandoned..sheep..runs..
Reminds: that we live in multi religious society. In order to understand Jesus teaching, we should be very clear of the law that has to be followed. I.e same 10 commandments(law) before to Jesus given in the old testament, but now we should practice pardoning, instead of taking revenge(teeth to teeth) practice those days. Otherwise we will be name sake catholics, without enjoying happiness in our life, as promised by our creator God!.
we cannot play foot ball, with Volleyball rules. We cannot drive a car, without knowing rules of that country. In America you drive on the right hand side of the road, where as you drive in Uk, on the left hand side. Unfortunately, most of catholics, have develop their own religion for their own convenience, derived from their laziness and conditioning. Catholicism provide very simple method to enjoy happiness in this life-i.e
(1) Follow same 10 commandments
(2) Avoid anger,and always have a pardoning heart
(3)Hand over your sorrows/fears/disagreements to Holy mary/saints
(4)Follow God's will, by avoiding 7 vices(anger,sloth,pride,envy,
D. Conclusion:
This 4th sunday of easter, we were informed about the value of Good Shepard. It clearly indicates the easiest salvation to avoid fear and sorrow in our life is to practice the simple actions given by Jesus. We have to be clear that old testament we got to know how God has sent JESUS, to give full freedom to humans, to enjoy Happiness. FREEDOM IS NOT AN OPTION OR DIVERSITY OF OPINION, BUT THE ABILITY TO ACT WITHOUT BEING FORCED TO DO SO. Jesus teaching is easy to be practice (1) Universally (2) no restrictions to food/drinks (not to excercise gluttony)(3) No auspicious times, start work etc.
One should be clear, about the basic teachings of Jesus, when compared to other religions in order for him to practice and enjoy life!
GBU
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