An Anglican friend told me that she does not bother to cultivate deep friendships with non-Christians—although she certainly treats them civilly and shares the Gospel with them when they are curious—because she knows she won’t see them in Heaven, unlike her Christian friends like me, with whom she anticipates eternal friendship.
This is a logical conclusion of the illogical and unscriptural premise “once saved, always saved.”
Conversion is not a once-off experience. Conversion is falling in love and staying in love. Like any relationship, our relationship with God may be sparked by a defining moment, an encounter that transforms reality as we know it. However, like any relationship, we have to work at it. St. Paul says, “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, with fear and trembling work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12).
Catholics say, “We have been saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved.” Salvation was brought about by the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross, but God respects our free will in each and every moment of our lives. He wants us to cooperate with Him in the work of restoring ourselves and our fallen world according to His divine plan, but He will not force us to stay in His grace. That is true love, to be able to shower untold gifts on someone—precious gifts which bring him into relationship with oneself, especially the ultimate gift of self—but to allow that person the freedom to reject these gifts and yourself. Love does not force a return of love; it cannot be forced, but must be a willing response.
People stay in marriage when they choose day after day to remain faithful to their vows and their spouse. People stay friends when they keep in contact, forgive trespasses, and help each other grow. People stay Christian when they choose to remain faithful to their baptismal vows and their identity as children of God. Redemption is a lifelong commitment to live in the grace of God. Satan, who gave up the gift of communion with God, strives ever to wrest this priceless gift from our hands; we must practice constant vigilance and maintain a firm hope in God, avoiding both the sins of despair and presumption.
“All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, I am the way.”
—St Catherine of Siena
Image: Fr. Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., Holy Mass at the Carmel in Mayerling, Austria. (via Outward Signs)
9 thoughts on “Being in Relationship with God”
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You were born to write for the Church. Never stop.
Thank you for your encouragement!! God bless and keep you always.
Thanks for that prayer. In the entire Summa Theologica by Aquinas, the best moment is when he says that we can “further” predestination by prayer. I pray for you young writers especially ( I do short petitions every fifteen minutes as I oil paint ). Why pray for you? Because as St. John of the Cross said…”the devil sees every high thing”. He saw Job the blameless and approached. And you guys are a “high thing”. He’ll be looking eventually to approach you. A Jew 2 millenia ago began to fast in the desert day after day…nearing 40 days. Satan saw it and approached because it was….a high thing.
That is beautiful. Thank you very much for your prayers; they are deeply appreciated. Yes, Satan does prowl around waiting to pounce — thank God for our guardian angels!
What are the subjects of your paintings, if I may ask? Have you done any iconography? I joined an iconography school last year, which was deeply edifying.
The opposite….I do realism of the ocean. I’m tech UNsavy but I hope this link gets you to my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/people/William-Bannon/100009004318674
If you go by Romans chapter one, nature painting is religious and it’s the sermon visible to every human on earth. Remember that if you ever get nature inclined. I’m just beginning moonlight scenes. I was with galleries long ago in NY city and I’m preparing to reenter there but that’s a few months out. The moon was a symbol for some of the Church because it’s light is not its own but comes from the sun ( God ).
If you like the moonlit painting at facebook, I am embarassed that photos do not capture the oil painting in person experience….which is about ten times the beauty of the photo of the painting.
And remember…” satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light”….those are the toughest temptations for women in particular. ” the devil sees every high thing” was really St. John of the Cross quoting his copy of Job but the modern translations change it a bit probably due to using a different ancient manuscript. I like his better.
By the way, at Cana when Mary asks Christ for help with the wine shortage, all English translation have Christ being rough in his answer. Ignore them and read only His answer in the official Catholic Bible…the New Vulgate… the Douay Rheims follows it in English generally. He really says…” what to me and to thee, my hour has not yet come”. Mary was worried that if she forced him to do a miracle, He would be arrested by temple soldiers because she unlike us did not know how soon His arrest would take place. Christ saw the worry on her face and he was addressing that worry…” what to me and to thee, my hour ( to suffer) has not yet come”. That’s why Mary heard an immediate yes but Augustine and Chrysostom took “hour” as meaning hour to go public leading both to have coldness in Christ’s answer. Their interpretation led to all the rude English versions of Christ words. Ignore Western civilization in that passage. A Franciscan, M. Miguens in his book, ” Mary ‘The Servant of the Lord'”
uncovers the confusion and mistake….see page 110. Christ was not being rough…He was reassuring Mary that the Passion was not near timewise at all. Every homilist has trouble with it because most translations miss the real words of Christ which are in the official Bible…the Vulgate. Hour in John always means….hour of the Passion. Miguens is correct because I found the same rare idiom…” what to me and to thee” in 2 Kings 3:13 in the original Vulgate ( Douay Rheims fails here to be accurate) in an incident in which Eliseus says it just before he does a miracle of producing water which looks like blood to the distant enemy. Water equals blood….water at Cana becomes red wine…idiom said at both. Christ probably talked to Mary about 2 Kings 3:13 previous to Cana. Augustine missed all this because when he got to the passage in John…he saw him and his mom and Augustine had argued with his mom for years of his pre baptism life.
Just tried my facebook page at 12:35 lunch and the timeline and photos are blank. I notified facebook and they said to check in a few days. Odd.
Try that link next week perhaps. First time that happened. Maybe it was you know who from hades….lol.
Now it’s back up at facebook at 1pm. Good luck. I will never get in a self driving car and trust computers.
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