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It seems
to many of my rather wealthy friends, that . . . when a baptized person
sins—any sin—that sin is only concupiscence. . . . [and that
if] we are called sons and daughters of God as a fact, and not as an honorary
title, how can God send his very own children to hell to suffer unspeakable
tortures for ever and ever and ever? . . . I am in a state of great upsettness
about this. If we are not protected from the type of sin that sends one to
hell forever, and ever, then does that not strongly imply that hell, and
all its eternal torments, is full of millions upon millions of God’s
very own children, children He loves just as much as Jesus Christ. . . .
If we baptized are born again as true children of God, and as sisters and
brothers of Jesus Christ, how can we make ourselves believe that God would
find it necessary to do such a thing?
 e can believe it easy enough because
it is true. Many baptized have been lost, and many baptized will be lost
in times to come.
What is
Baptism?
Now, in order to understand this,
we need to be clear about what baptism really means. For one thing, it’s
not a magical act that once performed has
independently irrevocable effects. It’s not just a sort of bath
either—or, in the words of Saint Peter, “It is not a removal of
dirt from the body” (1 Peter 3:21b).
So, what is
baptism?
Well, as Saint Peter explains,
baptism is “an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into Heaven and is at the right
hand of God, with Angels, Authorities, and Powers subject to Him”
(1 Peter 3:21b-22). That is, baptism signifies our yearning for holiness,
a holiness that is made possible by Christ’s resurrection—which
conquered our slavery to death and sin—and is guaranteed by the
absolute power of Christ over all things.
In baptism, then, we proclaim
our intention to accept Christ’s great gift of chaste purity of heart.
And once we accept that gift we must reaffirm it
with every heartbeat, beat after beat, right to the end, when our heart stops
beating and is taken into Christ’s own Sacred
Heart.
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But the one who
perseveres to the end will be saved. |
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—Matthew
24:13 |
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Seduction by
the World
Sadly, many do not persevere
to the end because they become seduced by the
unholy world around them. Caught up in the
self and deceived by
spiritual blindness, they slowly accept
the ways of a pagan world as the status quo. And finally, when the
Seven Deadly Sins have become just a way of
life, then life becomes a culture of death—and, with their
baptismal promises hanging from them in tatters,
death will become their everlasting hell.
Why?
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If we persevere,
we will reign with Him. But if we deny Him, He will deny us. |
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—2 Timothy
2:12 |
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That is, when we cease to affirm
our baptismal promises and turn away from them, we turn away from Christ
Himself. And when we deny Him, all that heavenly power that Saint Peter described
will be turned against us, and we will have no choice but to throw ourselves
into hell to escape it.
God doesn’t do it to us,
we do it to ourselves.
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 Christian, remember your
dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by
sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose
body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the
power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.
Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave
to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ. |
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—From a sermon by Saint Leo
the Great, pope
Office of Readings, December 25 |
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Pride
So why should so many of
Christ’s own anointed stumble back into the power of darkness? The answer
is simple: pride—the most subversive of all
the sins.
Because of pride, bishops will
forsake the good of their flocks to seek their own prestige. Because of pride,
priests will forsake the power of the Eucharist to seek their own power over
others. Because of pride, religious will forsake the identity of Christ
crucified to seek the identity of a religious habit. Because of pride,
lay persons will forsake the call to deny themselves and will seek to display
their holiness before others—such as in touting the glamor of membership
in secular religious orders or spiritual associations.
Because of pride, Christ is betrayed,
truth is persecuted, and darkness creeps back into the house from which it
once was cast out.
  
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