To attain holiness we must not only pattern our lives on Christ's being gentle, humble, and patient, we must also imitate him in His death. Taking Christ for his model, Paul said that he wanted to become like Him in His death in the hope that he too would be raised to life.---St. Basil, bishop, from the book, "On The Holy Spirit".
Heady stuff is our faith. But if we look at these things with our minds alone, we will be beguiled and fall into distracting arguments like 'predestination vs free will', or some other distraction. Our heart must ultimately be the leader in this journey of the cross. Reason without faith leads to ideas like, 'abortion is a choice'. Faith without reason leads to fanaticism, i.e. 9-11, or the killing of doctors who commit abortions. We must approach the treasure that is our faith with humility. For instance, I have seen so many angry people who hate what they think is the Catholic Church, not what it truly is. I used to be one of them. The Pharisees hated what they thought Jesus was, not Who and What He truly was. If they had known how deep and rich His love was for them , and had turned from their pride, they would have run to Him. We see this with Nicodemus, the Pharisee who came to Jesus under the cover of night, and then, after His death on the cross, came with spices for the burial. Grace falls like rain.... To become like Him in His death is not something we can study only with our intellect, but in order to go there with our heart, we must go where this teaching is part of the very fabric of all things believed and embraced. I have found this nowhere else but in the Roman Catholic Church, especially in the understanding of Jesus' Passion. I do not know why or how His grace brought me to this Alter, but I want all of eternity to thank Him. Christ have mercy!
wkm
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