Our Lives are the Pride and Joy of Christ
It is in the Glory of God that I will find the desire of my Savior; His Truth!
Of course the Glory of God is found only through the suffering that Christ endured for all of humanity which culminates with the shedding of his Blood. His desire is simply that because of our sins he would humble himself becoming Incarnate taking on the very weakness that we have and asking us to accept his saving grace.
There is always the paradox that Goodness exchanged eternal life for a temporary human existence that meant he would have to die as each of us because of our sin. However, we will die since the wages of sin are death. Jesus never sinned, not just because he was God in the flesh, but because he wanted to assume the evil that was our sin in order to eradicate what was ours.
Disfigured by sin and death, man remains, “in the image of God,” in the image of the Son, but is deprived “of the glory of God,” of his likeness.’ The promise made to Abraham inaugurated the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that “image” and restore it in the Father’s “likeness” by giving it again its Glory, the Spirit who is “the giver of life.” (CCC 705).
We are not alone as the very sin that belonged to each of us because of the Fall is now expiated through the Communion of Saints that pray for us and in conjunction with the Passion of Christ on the Cross.
In the communion of saints, “a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things.” In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishment for sin. (CCC 1475).
The Church Militant, the Church Suffering, the Church Triumphant. This is the standard understanding of the Communion of Saints. Those of us who accept the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding purgatory are in sync with what the Church suffering is all about. Just as many who do not accept this teaching also have a struggle with the Real Presence of Christ in the Consecrated host at Holy Communion. Both of these Truths are paramount to Roman Catholic catechetical beliefs and constitute our understanding why they must be presented to all Catholics in the pews.
When looking for the Truth our search ends with the Crucifixion/Resurrection of Christ who Incardinated himself as one divine action that God planned to redeem all of us. It will require a positive belief to understand something that goes beyond the finite mind of man. None of us can discern how this duel event was the only way to forgive us. However, it is only the Triniterian manner that would be the perfect solution that the Trinity planned as we were being created. Eternally the final wound of sin was already in operation since there is no past in an eternal kingdom. God knew what sin would do to the perfect creation of man so he ensured that we would not find hell through himself. He gave us a choice and we would choose it or reject it. That is Truth!
Ralph B. Hathaway