|
Hi June,
Thanks for the very good question.
If they say:
God knows what's in my heart.
Say, Amen brother preach it! He does. Therefore He knows you are either [ignoring|avoiding] renewing your covenant with Him every Sunday or are unaware of His long standing command that can be found in the Third Commandment to do so.
If there is an important obligation that you believe someone is unaware of, like:
- making our obligation to renew our Covenant every Sunday at Mass
- going to Confession at least once a month, or
- a Holy Day of Obligation
Bring it up once in charity. Once they know, the responsibility is theirs, not yours.
If they say:
I do a lot of charity work and volunteering, helping the homeless, etc.
This is more of a typical reply based on a heresy called Moral Relativism.
Moral Relativism says,
"The heck with what God thinks. I will determine my own values for goodness and what is good enough for Heaven apart from what God thinks."
Whenever anyone does this, chaos ensues. There is no absolute good. There is no absolute holiness. There is no absolute truth. Goodness, Holiness, and Truth is what we say is good, holy, and truthful.
This is what you commonly hear today. For this reason:
- homosexuality
- abortion, and
- killing elderly family members who are inconvenient
is accepted as good.
If a Moral Relativist runs a red light and gets pull over by the police, they will say,
Thank-you, for thinking about my safety officer, but I don't need that ticket.
You see running red lights is part of what I consider good, holy, and truthful.
Have a nice day!
Vvroom, Vvroom, Vvvvvrooooom!
You see. There is no standard of right and wrong any more. Now you will also hear these days,
The Church has no right to tell people what to do.
My reply is: What?
This person obviously would know nothing about basic Christianity and what Christians are called to do.
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 28:18-20
The very first Christians, the Early Church Fathers, died specifically for the teachings of the Catholic faith rather than deny or ignore Her teachings.
Sadly this attitude (of the Church having no right) has sunk into our society because we don't catechize the faithful in the Church the way we should be. The number and type of questions we have received from this site are a testament to this ongoing problem in Catholic catechesis.
Yeah, your moral relativistic friends can reject this but in doing so they are rejecting Jesus and the one Church He founded on St. Peter and his successors.
The Catholic Christian is called to preach the full Gospel, not just the easy parts.
Remember, while Catholic does mean universal, it also means:
a Christian faith according to its totality
Meaning we don't just pick and choose, from what Jesus told us to believe. We believe and practice everything He said He wanted us to.
I hope this helps,
Mike
|
