I was reading Luke 21 where Jesus was giving his eschatoligacal discourse and was struck by verses 17-20 'And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost, In your patience possess your souls'. The Good News here is not so good in that to be hated is not nice!! There will come a time when we will be hated by all for loving Jesus. This can only occur when Christians are in a minority within a secular world or an apostacy becomes so wide and deep that a remnant remains and are persecuted. Or perhaps there is a Muslim invasion and Christians are persecuted. Any thoughts anyone? What is the meaning of this verse, 'In your patience possess your souls'?
garabandal, What I think is dependent on my definition of Christian. Am I talking about a baptized Catholic, a faithful believer, or what? I think I'll steal from your last thread on Hitler. Alice Von Hildebrand says: Our society is afflicted by the terrible disease of moral blindness. The physically blind person knows, at least, that he is handicapped. The morally blind person accuses those who see of being "fanatics." The great Pascal raised the question, "Why is it that, when I see a limping man, I feel sorry for his plight? But when I meet a limping mind, I am irritated beyond words?" His answer testifies to his genius: "Because the limping man knows he is limping; the limping mind accuses me of limping." The pro-abortionist and the abortionist have "limping minds," yet they accuse those who understand the rights of the unborn as limping. Many Christians have compromised their faith and can be considered limpers. I hope Jesus would see us here on the forum as fanatics. I believe the time is close where the limpers will become so disgusted with the fanatics that some form of visible persecution will take place. As to your second question, here is how the RSV translates the verse: By your endurance you will gain your lives. I am unsure whether lives refer to life on earth or eternal life. Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
Thanks Mario, There are those who call the evil of abortion a 'right.' Its interesting to see that there is an axis of evil developing that includes the pro-abortionists, miltant homosexuals, liberal media, socialist-communists, politicians, militant athiests, who are all determined to undermine the natural law and the teachings of the Catholic Church in particular. Unfortunately, many Catholics are asleep and don't even notice that there is a war going on, a cultural war between those who support the culture of life and those who promote the culture of death. This is really a war between anti-Christs and those who are alive in Christ and the battle lines are being drawn and defined. A subtle persecution has already begun but maybe sooner than we think this will come out into the open and we will see an open persecution of the faithful who will be labelled as the intolerant. But we are on the side of Christ and are guaranteed the victory if we persevere to the end and in doing so will save our souls. I am praying for us all to have the courage to endure the persecution - look to Christ and remember St Paul's words, 'For me to live is Christ to die is gain'. But we need to be dying now to self, to ego and embracing Christ and growing strong in the faith through prayer. This is preparation time and unless we prepare well we will fall short. Thanks be to God for my brothers and sisters on this forum - you all inspire me to keep going and this is where I can truly be myself amongst the faithful. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and all whom you love.
I think the Second Great Persecution {which is already getting underway} will be very like the Roam Persecution in that it will have a simliar cause. The Romans were, usually pretty tolerant of other religions and Christianity was not a problem as such, though slightly distasteful to some in that it exulted a 'criminal' who died on a Roman Cross, the most shameful of all deaths. The problem was that Christians refused to except the Divinity of the Emperor who exemplified in his own person the state and refused to sacrifice to the other Gods. If they had done so they would not have been killed. Its the same now when the false God is turning again to be the State. Its very similiar to that which happened under communism when the State effectively became a false God. People are becoming more and more afraid under the chastisement and the State is growing more and more as a kind of mother or father, Anyone or thing that 'obstructs progress' will get steamrollered. We saw the Church getting buried in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia and we'll see the same in the West. I think you see it a little already with President Obama being deified in a lot of quarters. Sadly I think our worst and cruelest opponents will be our fellow 'Catholics' who will and have apostasized. I still wish the Church would use excommunication more rigourously while there is still time to do so. But maybe they are in a better position to judge...
