Saint Olga, "Equal to the Apostles"
879-969
My 34th great grandmother
Saint Olga (called "Equal to the Apostles" by the Orthodox Church) killed an entire ethnic minority of people in her land, in retaliation for their having killed her husband. She was devious and deliberate, and murdered them all. The same force, intention and will that was brought to bear on those awful deeds, was later directed to God and carried her to sainthood.
We can redirect our energies to that which is all good, and join the Lord, or we can direct them to that which is evil and go elsewhere. If we walk toward Him, Jesus opens the gates for us. If we deliberately choose evil, thinking that God will forgive us for doing so, we will be on another road, going to that other place, and, even though Jesus is standing at the gates, waiting for us, we will not be there. We have taken another road.
Indeed, Jesus even comes out onto the road to meet us, if we have chosen Him by doing His will. He and God the Father reside with us, when we demonstrate our love by 'keeping his word, i.e., obeying His commandments.
Jesus answered him, 'if anyone love me, he will keep
my word, and my father will love him, and we will
come to him and make our abode with him'
~ John 14:23 ~
All the major religious traditions are concerned with methods by which we may join the good and leave evil behind. This is a highly simplistic rendering, but true nonetheless.
Goodness is inclusive and generous, warm and embracing. Even if a person does not know Jesus but embraces goodness, he is already part of the body of Christ by doing so. The Catholic Church recognizes that God is goodness, itself, and welcomes that goodness in persons.
Some people, ignorant of the heart of the faith, choose the Good and travel the road toward God, keeping the commandments without knowing they are doing so, and find themselves being met by Christ and His Father on the road. Many have gotten a wonderful surprise after death, I would guess! Thus, there is no salvation outside of The Church, but The Church is an awful lot bigger than most people realize.
I once knew a woman who became enraged when I explained this doctrine of The Catholic Church. In the middle of a restaurant, she stood up and shrieked at me, "There is no salvation without Christ!" I tried to explain to her that she was right, but not in the way she believed she was right. Her legalism would exclude many good people who, through no fault of their own, did not know Christ but lived a life in keeping with Christ's commandments. She wasn't having any of it. She belonged to a legalistic, narrow church with a poor understanding of Christian theology.
The fact is that no one will ever be "good enough" to deserve Jesus, and, once you start inventing reasons to exclude people from heaven, there is no end to it.
"Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel
of Christ or his Church but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere
heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will and
they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may
achieve eternal salvation."
~ The Catechism of the Catholic Church~
The most important thing seems to be that we try to do His will. We will fail, of course, some of us many times, over and over again, but our Lord is the Lord of second chances, the Lord of Divine Love. He sees our hearts and knows our intentions.
The thing to examine during this time of Lent is whether or not we really ARE trying to do His will. Are we being obedient to everything, or have we rejected certain teachings because we don't agree with them? In this case, we have to ask ourselves why we think we are a better authority on the teachings of Jesus than His Church. What are our bona fides, our credentials? If we are honest with ourselves, we aren't the experts.
Our Lord is the Lord of second chances. Lent is the chance to take advantage of it. I pray you all make good use of it, and ask you to pray for me, as I pray for you.
God bless us all.
Silver Rose Parnell
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