WHY IS THE WORLD THE WAY IT IS?

So that we could love, God gave us the gift of freedom. (If we had been programmed or forced to love then it wouldn't really be love after all.) With our free will we chose to disobey God rather than love Him.  This is what the Bible calls sin. Sin is the free choice to separate ourselves from God, when we decide what is right and wrong rather than following God's plan for our happiness and joy. Sin brings selfishness, pride, hatred, arrogance, lust, greed and worst of all death. These things make us deeply sad in our hearts and keep us from experiencing God's life within us.  This is the world we now live in. Cut off from God by sin, man is destined to the eternal sadness of separation from the One who made him. No matter how hard we try, there is no way that we can return to God by ourselves.

IS ALL HOPE GONE?

The good news is that God has not abandoned us, even though we chose to walk away from Him.  God's love for us remains.   God loves us so much that He sent his only Son to become one of us and to save the human race. This is Jesus, the Son of God, who shared our human nature so that we might share in God's divine life again.

GOD COMES TO SAVE US

It was our disobedience that brought sin into the world, and with sin, the punishment of eternal death.  Jesus did two things that we could not: From within our human nature He offered an obedient "yes" to the Father that no man could offer and, in saying yes to the Father, he accepted the punishment for our sins. Filled with love for us, Jesus was willing to suffer and die for us and by his death enable us to escape from our sins and to live with God forever.

THE CROSS

The sacrifice Jesus made for us was offered on the cross.  The full weight of our sins was placed on Jesus who suffered a violent, excruciating death, revealing the awful nature of our sins.  Jesus offered his life for us on the cross.  Proof that the Father accepted Jesus' sacrifice for our sins is that he was raised from the dead on the third day. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is also his great victory over death. Death entered the world through sin and disobedience. Jesus, free from sin, brought life into the world by his obedience to the Father's will.

IS IT ALL TAKEN CARE OF FOR ME?

We mentioned earlier that God gave us free will so that we could love. 

So even after the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, we are still left with a choice to make.

God respects our freedom to choose. God gave us free will, and if we choose a life apart from Him, He will allow us to do so, even in eternity.  So once again we are left with a choice to make. What will we choose?

As much as we try to deny it, our attempts to find happiness in the things of the world really only leave us empty and looking for something more. Worse still, we can become bitter, frustrated and filled with despair as we desperately continue our search. Will we choose this type of life, of sin and separation from God, of bitterness, frustration, and despair?

Or will we choose to become what we were made to be? Will we choose to accept God's love, to receive His forgiveness and healing, and to live as He made us to live, which leads to real, true happiness? 

If we choose God, then we must become a follower of Christ, a Christian. To do this, we must repent of our sins, believe in Christ, and be baptized. When you open your heart to God in this way, He enters your life and fills you with his Holy Spirit.

Jesus knows that we cannot follow him by ourselves, He knows that we are weak and that we falter. So Jesus gave us the Church, which He founded, to offer us the strength, guidance, care and teaching that we need. The Scriptures make it clear that belonging to Jesus also means belonging to His Church.  The Church is our family, filled with brothers and sisters who struggle just as we do, but strive to love one another as He commanded.

Even while He was here on earth, Jesus chose a leader for His Church: the apostle Peter. Peter was the first of the Apostles to confess his faith in Jesus as the Messiah. He made Peter the rock on which he built his Church, and for two thousand years the Church has been led by the popes, the successors of Peter.  They lead the Church relying not on their own strength or wisdom, but on Jesus' promise that not even the gates of hell would destroy His Church, and that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth.

While there are many different churches today, the Catholic Church alone can truly claim to be the Church founded by Jesus because only the Catholic Church has preserved all of the gifts He gave to her: the fullness of the Scriptures, the life of the Sacraments, the full teaching authority of the Apostles handed on through the bishops.  It is through these gifts that God continues to provide for our needs, guiding us closer to Himself each day.

WHAT DO I DO NEXT?

Once you have resolved to accept God's gift through Jesus Christ, then you need to work on building your relationship with Jesus and His Church.

Building your relationship with Jesus happens when you spend time trying to get to know Him better each day. To do this, you really need to spend time each day reading from the Bible, the Sacred Scriptures. The Bible reveals the great love God has for us, teaches us how to make good choices that lead us closer to Him, and allows us to get to know Jesus as He is.  So spend time in prayer each day, reading from your Bible, and sharing with Him all that is in your heart.  The best prayer is honest prayer that comes from our heart.

To build your relationship with Jesus' Church, start by making a choice to attend Mass each Sunday. God wants us to be part of His family, and we keep the Sabbath holy by worshipping Him as Jesus taught us at the Last Supper: "Do this in memory of me".

If you're not Catholic, then take the steps necessary to join Jesus' Church. If you have been Catholic before, all you need to do is to go to confession. If you haven't yet become Catholic, our parish has a regular program that will help you become part of the Church. Please call the parish and speak to the pastor for more information and with any questions you may have.

Want to learn more about becoming Catholic? Click here!

Whether or not you are Catholic, you may have questions about the Catholic faith. You may have heard challenges to the Catholic Church's claim to be the interpreter and safeguard of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Want to learn more? Click here!