Why do you sin?  Is it the evil within you?  Or is it your desires not fully controlled?  Or is it a desire for things you do not have but want?  We surely can make a mess of things when we let our thoughts lead us to actions which are not based on “good.”  Let’s take a desire for money as an example.  We may have this burning desire to accumulate wealth.  We think of all the things that others have that we don’t have.  We begin to dwell on this disparity every day and begin to wonder how good it would be if we had just a few of these things.  We fall asleep by picturing ourselves in a brand new car or sitting by a swimming pool with a cocktail.  Then we begin to get glimpses of others with these things on TV or in real life and we place ourselves in these scenes.  We begin to act out a life with money in our minds.  We begin to affirm that such pursuits are good and pleasing.  We come to the point where we have convinced ourselves that we must have them, we must bring fantasy into reality.  We then begin to develop schemes whereby these plans can be put into action.  I could steal the money, rob a bank, shake down a friend, borrow without the intention of paying it back or any scam.  We finally come to the point where our desire for the things money can buy overpowers us and we take action.  We do the things we planned thinking that they are permissible.  Then we find ourselves in trouble with God and the Law and we eventually come to the realization that these things did not bring the happiness that our feeble minds imagined from the beginning. We fall into sin.   Our lives are made up of a combination of these thoughts at different stages for any of a number of desires:  money, sex, food, alcohol, love, authority, pornography.  Control your thoughts and you will control your actions.

Don't you love to hear Christians talk about the phrase "the Bible alone."  These Christians tend to repel from tradition, the oral and written transmission of theology.  I personally think that people avoid tradition because they may be surprised at what they may find there.  For the sake of this brief blog spot, lets avoid tradition and look at history.  Do you realize that if you were a  Christian and lived between the death of Jesus and about 1500 A.D., you would have been a Catholic (Muslims and Jews are not Christians)?  Does that one piece of history not give you concern?  The bible had been composed and set in stone for over 1500 years.  Protestant interpretations of the bible did not materialize until the lives of Martin Luther and John Calvin among others.  Isn't it amazing that the phrase "the Bible alone" appeared right after their deaths.  If you don't want to read tradition, read history.  History will reveal to you that the discovery of the New World, the invention of the printing press and a German revolt against the Holy Roman Empire created Protestantism, a man-made religion.  This "freedom of religious expression" flourished in America and morphed into the 30,000 or so different groups of believers we call Christians today.  God weeps.

When this earth was created, certain universal truths came into being.  These truths are the natural laws or the laws of nature.  Natural law exists in two forms:  those laws that apply to animate objects (living things such as plants, animals and humans) and those laws that apply to inanimate objects (elements (like water and hydrogen), light, sound, gravity and fire).  These laws are universal in that they are never changing.  They have existed since the beginning of time, they are applied uniformly throughout the whole universe and they can never be changed.  We still seek the answers to many of these natural laws today, otherwise we would be all knowing (omniscient).  We would not have the sciences like biology (study of animate objects), chemistry (study of inanimate objects on earth), astronomy (study of inanimate objects in space), and physics (study of the relationship between the animate and inanimate), if we knew with absolute certainty all of the laws of nature.  Mathematics is one natural law about which humans have a complete grasp.  Psychology, sociology, economics, zoology, archeology and geology, for example, are man-made sciences and therefore are not part of the natural law.

Here is a list of a few natural laws.  Perpetuation of a species requires procreation. Plants and animals require food and water to survive.  All animate objects become inanimate.  Inanimate objects can never become animate.  All matter, animate and inanimate, is a peculiar combination of elements.  Fire will burn. Lightning has an electrical charge. Light and sound travel at certain exact speeds. An apple tree on earth will drop its fruit to the ground.

A change or interruption in the implementation of a natural law creates abnormalities.  In other words, a redirection or manipulation of the natural law produces or forms things which ought not to occur.

Divine law, ethics, and morals only exist as a result of the abnormalities of humans.

God lives.

Man can never be free from sin without the knowledge of the law, i.e., the Ten Commandments.  But the law alone can never save you from the clutches of the evil one.  There has to be something else that exists which compels you to follow the law.  Paul often stated that the law for the Jews was given to them to know right from wrong but the human will tended toward rebellion.  They knew the law but broke them anyway.  Therein lies the problem: our free will.  Some say that Man is not totally depraved, bad to the core. That is a man made lie. We hate but also love, we covet but also express gratitude and the will to give, and we lie but also tell the truth.  But can man do the right thing all the time under his own guidance without the aid of an outside force?  The answer must be “no.”  Sin still exists in this world.  In paradise, Adam and Eve knew not sin because it did not exist. The devil introduced sin into this world.  God gave the law to Moses and man continued to sin.  Christ appeared and died for all of mankind’s sin and left us the paraclete, the counselor, the Spirit to aid us in the expulsion of and freedom from sin.  Some call it grace, an unmerited favor.  We the ungrateful, are offered this counselor, not because we deserve it, but because God loves His creation with an inexhaustible love.  But God will never force you to accept this grace.  Your free will must choose it for yourself. You must choose to do good and do good all the time.  But your salvation requires more than just doing good.  You have to change your heart and live continually in a mindset of good.  Not only must you not break the commands but you cannot gossip, criticize, condemn, complain, judge, discriminate hate or even get angry.  You must love all at all times. God has set up your salvation in a perfectly harmonious system, but most fail to see and grab hold.  God’s salvation is a very difficult system to master but when you decide to change and engage the system, God will be waiting on you.

By whom are you possessed?  Have you ever watched those TV programs about hauntings.  There is always an evil spirit still present in this world who terrifies the family living in "their" house.  Have you noticed that the spirit is always evil?  Why is that?  I think the answer is that the good spirits have returned to the Lord and only evil ones remain on this earth.  Do you know that you are possessed by a spirit now as you walk this earth?  The living soul of God and Christ, the Holy Ghost, is real.  The Holy Ghost wants to reside within you if you seek and find, knock and the door will open, listen and you will hear.  Are you possessed by the Holy Ghost? If you are a a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, you can be assured that the Holy Ghost is no where near you.  Shed all of your depravity and vices, and ask that the Holy Ghost enter your body.  You will be amazed with the wisdom that the Holy Ghost shares.

I was reading comments from a Catholic Bishop about the impossibility of women ever becoming priests in the Catholic Church and I began to think back to the time of Christ.  In 30 A.D. women were in a subservient position in the Jewish community.  The New Testament makes comments throughout about the position of women in society.  For example, only a man could write a bill of divorce, women could not speak in the church, the man was the master of the household, and Christ only called men as apostles.  It seems that the custom was truly a male dominated society.  But let’s look at other examples.  Women ran businesses.  Remember the lady at Corinth or Athens, I forget which, who Paul encounter that operated a purple fabric business.  And Pricilla and Aquila ran a tent making business with equal authority.  And Roman women also held some power.  Nero’s mother gained her son the position of emperor and ran the show until her son put her to death.  But all in all I think society back then was male dominated and women were second class citizens.  Was this attitude toward women the reason why the church never allowed women to become Priests?  Although Christ had 12 male apostles, he had many female disciples.

Today many feminist would still say that society is male dominated.  I would beg to differ.  Women assume powerful positions at will today and do not climb the ladder or corporate rungs only because they chose not to do so. My point about this whole article is whether we should still exclude women as priests today just because “custom” in Christ’s day prevented women from taking a leadership position.  Did Christ give an absolute command that women could not become priests and bishops?  I don’t think he did.  I think the idea developed over time as a tradition rather than an absolute law.  Many church councils always assumed that priests could only be men but never made it an official rule (I could be wrong on this point).  I am not arguing for women priests.  Catholics follow tradition as well as the bible.  I am only suggesting that political and societal customs back in the day had a tremendous impact on our traditions of the Catholic Church.  If Christ's first coming would have been yesterday, instead of 2000 years ago, I would venture to say that he would have called at least a couple of female apostles.  And women would be priests and bishops. 

A Synod of Bishops is about to begin in Rome and will address the issues of marriage and family.  One of the issues to be discussed is whether divorced Catholics can receive the seven sacraments.  Although the church should not and will not ever endorse divorce, the issue must be addressed. The divorce rate is about 50% of all marriages including church going couples.  To exclude and ostracize that many Catholics explains one of several reasons why these non-denominational evangelical mega stadium churches are reaching these sizes. Is divorce completely prohibited?  Even Christ mentioned the old law of allowing a spouse to write a bill of divorce for adultery. Let those without sin throw the first stone.

Back when the church was forming just after Jesus’ death and persecution of Christians was begun by the Romans, many Christians worshiped roman gods to avoid death.  Worshiping idols is a violation of the Ten Commandments, just as serious if not more serious than the dissolution of marriage. Yet the fathers of the church allowed these violators to return to the church after a period of penance.  Cannon 11 of the First Council of Nicaea in the year 325 A.D. has your answer.  It states:

“Concerning those who have fallen without compulsion, without the spoiling of their property, without danger or the like, as happened during the tyranny of Licinius, the Synod declares that, though they have deserved no clemency, they shall be dealt with mercifully. As many as were communicants, if they heartily repent, shall pass three years among the hearers; for seven years they shall be prostrators; and for two years they shall communicate with the people in prayers, but without oblation.”

Divorce and homosexuality, just as adultery, theft, lying, covetness and idolatry are sins.  God forgives us sinners after a period of penance.  They must be allowed back into full sacramental participation after a period of penance. Divorcees should go through a year of catechism and for two years should communicate with the people in prayer, but without oblation.  Annulment in the church is a sham. There are so many reason for annulment especially Cannon 1099 (belief that marriage was only a civil contract).  If you were not married in a catholic church one can get an annulment, yet with a Catholic Church marriage, one cannot. (Canons 1157, 1160)  Why punish the practicing catholic more severely than the non-practicing catholic.  If you let them go through a period of penance these newly evangelized may stay married the second time.

My question is this?  Are the radical Muslims using ebola as a weapon?  Was Thomas Eric Duncan's death, the Texas Ebola patient, planned?  Was he a Muslim?  What easier way to wage jihad against America then by sending thousands of infected jihadist across our unprotected borders to create an epidemic of death here in the United States.  We need to seal the Mexican border and prevent all fights from Africa now.

Here are two descriptions of vineyards, one in the old testament and one in the new.
    A song, now, in honour of one that is my good friend; a song about a near kinsman of mine, and the vineyard that he had. This friend, that I love well, had a vineyard in a corner of his ground,[1] all fruitfulness. 2 He fenced it in, and cleared it of stones, and planted a choice vine there; built a tower, too, in the middle, and set up a wine-press in it. Then he waited for grapes to grow on it, and it bore wild grapes instead. 3 And now, citizens of Jerusalem, and all you men of Juda, I call upon you to give award between my vineyard and me. 4 What more could I have done for it? What say you of the wild grapes it bore, instead of the grapes I looked for? 5 Let me tell you, then, what I mean to do to this vineyard of mine. I mean to rob it of its hedge, so that all can plunder it, to break down its wall, so that it will be trodden under foot. 6 I mean to make waste-land of it; no more pruning and digging; only briars and thorns will grow there, and I will forbid the clouds to water it. 7 Alas, it is the house of Israel that the Lord called his vineyard; the men of Juda are the plot he loved so. He looked to find right reason there, and all was treason; to find plain dealing, and he heard only the plaint of the oppressed. Is 5:1-7
    Listen to another parable. There was a rich man who planted a vineyard; he walled it in, and dug a wine-press and built a tower in it, and then let it out to some vine-dressers, while he went on his travels. 34 When vintage-time drew near, he sent his own servants on an errand to the vine-dressers, to claim its revenues. 35 Whereupon the vine-dressers laid hands upon his servants; one they beat, one they killed outright, one they stoned. 36 And he sent other servants on a second errand, more than he had sent at first, but they were used no better. 37 After that, he sent his own son to them; They will have reverence, he said, for my son. 38 But when the vine-dressers found his son coming to them, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and seize upon the inheritance. 39 And they laid hands on him, thrust him out from the vineyard, and killed him. 40 And now, what will the owner of the vineyard do to those vine-dressers when he returns? 41 They said, He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will let out the vineyard to other vine-dressers, who will pay him his due when the season comes. 42 And Jesus said to them, Have you never read those words in the scriptures, The very stone which the builders rejected has become the chief stone at the corner; this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?[7] 43 I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people which yields the revenues that belong to it.Mt 21:33-43

Do you see what these vineyards represent?   Both Isiah and Jesus, when they spoke of a vineyard, were refering to the Kingdom of God established here on earth.  The Jews in the Old testament failed at tending the Kingdom and Isiah predicted that they would fall.  Jesus likewise described a Kingdom in which the workers rebeled against the owner, God.  But instead of destroying the workers in the Kingdom, the rebellious Jews would have a chance at repentence.  The owner, God, would send His own son, who the Jews would kill.  The Kingdom will be given to the Gentiles as retribution.