What it is to be a Christian

Do My Christian readers clearly understand what it truly is to be a Christian? It certainly is not, as some people with slightly confused ideas appear to imagine, merely to abstain from murdering or plundering your neighbor. To do this is just to escape being a villain, that is all.
To be a Christian is not merely to be a good father, a good husband, a good son, a good workman, and industrious and honorable man, a good comrade, etc.; that is only to be an honest man, and a Christian is something more than an honest man.
   

To be a Christian is not merely to respect religion, to consider it good and useful, to acknowledge that Christianity has inspired noble deeds; that is imply to judge fairly, and to possess the good sense of an intelligent man: in order to hold such opinions as these nothing is needed but to rise above vulgar prejudices, and to despise the pointless sneers of a shallow philosophy.
Lastly, to be a Christian is not merely to observe certain exterior practices, such as to hear Mass regularly, to abstain, or even to go to confession. These practices, although very excellent, are nevertheless only means by which to become and to remain a true Christian. Then what is the Christian life? And what is a true Christian?
  

  A Christian is a baptized man, who believes with his whole heart all that is taught, in the name of Jesus Christ, by the Pope and the Bishops, who have been entrusted by the Saviour to spread the Christian religion throughout the world; a man, moreover, who observes, as far as human weakness will allow, all the commandments of God and the laws of the Church; and who earnestly strives to the best of his power to imitate Jesus Christ, his God, his Saviour, and his great example.
   

A Christian is a man who loves God before all things, who would choose to suffer anything rather than to offend Him, who detests sin in others, and still more in himself; he is a man who loves and practices the right, who battle constantly and perseveringly with all his evil passions, and who, in spite of the evil inclinations which will sometimes rage powerfully within him, is still pure and humble, patient and merciful, indulgent to the faults of others, patient and resigned in misfortune.
   

A Christian is a man who is constant in prayer, and who follows in the footsteps of his Lord and Master, and thus, ever looking to Jesus, learns from Him the daily lessons of virtue that he needs. He pardons his enemies, even as Jesus Christ pardoned His. Like Him he goes about doing good. He loves all men, but especially the poor, the forsaken and the insignificant. In prosperity his heart is ever detached from earth, and lifted up to that heavenly home where the only true good is to be found. In poverty and suffering he is calm and full of hope, remembering that to the sorrows of Calvary succeeds the joy of the resurrection and that, it is only through the cross that we can gain the crown.
   

A Christian, then, is a living copy of Jesus Christ; a man who loves what Jesus Christ loves, condemns what He condemns, and judges in all things as He judges; and in this man, His faithful servant, Jesus Christ Himself does, in a manner, still live and walk with men.  Such is the true Christian, such we all ought to be, such we should all become or remain!
   

There is no position in life in which it is impossible to be a Christian. In poverty or wealth, in health or sickness, in youth or age, it is all one; and we should each, without exception, be holy, and should model our lives by that perfect pattern which we have just sketched out. Are we true Christians? Do we possess that humility, that singleness of heart, that disinterestedness and the purity of life, which constitute the Christian character? Let the conscience of each of us answer this question! Alas! Mine does not respond to it very readily – and reader, what of yours?
   

Let us, then, take courage, and turn to the Lord our God. Pagans, perhaps, until now, let us make haste to become Christians. If our own weakness causes us to shrink from such great and serious duties, let us have recourse to that powerful aid which the mercy of God has placed in the bosom of the Church. Let us pray, let us frequent the sacraments; let us seek in the confession of our sins a remedy for the past, and in frequent communion strength fro the future. Let us make a vigorous effort, not shrink from any trouble that is required of us by God; does He not deserve it from us? Life passes quickly! Let us work while it is day: blesses is that servant whom He shall find watching; a few hours of weariness, a few hours of brave and patient fighting, and then, to the passing trials of this earthly probation succeeds the eternal rest, the unutterable gladness promised by the Saviour.

                                                        FEAR OF HUMAN OPINION
    “I would willingly fulfill my religious duties, but I am afraid of ridicule.” – Then you are afraid to go to heaven, and not afraid to go to hell? You must have a very singular courage and a remarkable determination! O man, feeble and faithless! You are indeed faint-hearted, and should blush for your own weakness and dishonor; for what, I ask, is a greater dishonor than cowardice?
Respect for human opinion in matters of religion is the greatest cowardice of all. It is a voluntary renunciation of that which is holiest and most sacred in man – his conscience. It is a weak abandonment of our most essential rights and of our most important duties! That of leading holy Christian lives, of accomplishing our destiny here, and of saving our soul hereafter! Such cowardice is something worse than weakness; it is a folly and a sin.
   

You are afraid to say your prayers, to avoid evil company and places of temptation, to go to church, to serve God. And what could be more deserving of honor than a conscientious fulfillment of such duties as these? Prayer, the service of God, and obedience to His law are the marks which most perfectly distinguish us from creatures without reason. For the animal destitute of reason has no eternal destiny, and fulfills all the laws of its being when conscious only of the passing moments of its limited existence. But you yourself are here on earth only that you may hereafter go to heaven; and time for you is nothing but a prelude to eternity. HEAVEN AND ETERNITY! Behold the end and aim of life, the end which should reign supreme above all others, and without which everything is lost. Therefore by not daring to serve God during your life, you willfully renounce both heaven and eternity; you sacrifice God, your own salvation, your own soul, and your own happiness, even as you sacrifice your duty and your conscience to a miserable fear of man, which is a thousand times unworthy of a Christian, and is despicable in a man.
   

“I should be ridiculed,” you say! What a grievous affliction! What effect would it have upon you? You can surely afford to despise what is so utterly beneath your notice. Supposing men laughed at you because you ate when you were hungry, and drank when you were thirsty, and warmed yourself when you were cold, because you loved your mother, because you were not a scoundrel. I am speaking seriously – would you change, do you think, and try to act in some manner which would give greater satisfaction to those who thus criticized you? You will not trouble yourself to answer such a question? There is that which is more reasonable, more natural, more lawful, and more necessary still; obedience to God your Creator, the practice of religion, and the keeping of His commandments. To fear to be a Christian is to fear to be a reasonable being, it is to fear to be a good, conscientious, and honorable man.
   

Go, therefore, to confession, coward that you are! And fear God rather than man!

                                                                           NEGLIGENCE
    For many years the world has been devastated by a fatal and terrible sickness, which has made dreadful ravages, in all places at one and the same time: in France, England, Italy, Europe, whether the air be bad or good, the people civilized or barbarous, the whole world suffers from its fatal and deathly influence; and for centuries victims have succumbed to it. You doubtless imagine that I am referring to some one of those scourges which we call pestilence, cholera, typhus fever, etc.: but no; the evil that I would point out to you is still more terrible, and causes the death of a still greater number of men; it not only affects the body, but it also poisons the soul, and its fatal effects endure beyond the portals of the grave.
   

This deplorable evil is negligence. This it is which causes the ruin of whole families and plunges them into the frightful miseries to which they sooner or later succumb. This epidemic is so much the more to be dreaded because there are no signs which give warning of its terrible approach, and it seizes a man before he suspects it is near; it draws him little by little from his duties to God, and soon after from his duties to his family and toward his fellow-men. This scourge is one of the fatal fruits of original sin.
   

The first symptoms show themselves, then, on being confronted by some difficulty, you stop, hesitate, and address such words to yourself as these: I cannot! It is too difficult! I have no time! I will do it on some other occasion, but not now! It is not worth the trouble of beginning, because I shall never be able to go on! It is beyond my capabilities! Oh! then, while there is yet time, ask yourself quickly these two questions, and answer them by the light of your own conscience.
   

1st, What should I do if I were quite assured that directly I had accomplished that which now appears to be impossible, I should receive five pounds as the price of my efforts? 2nd, What should I also do if I were equally certain that I should receive a hundred stripes directly I had yielded to those insidious suggestions of negligence, which I believe at this moment that I cannot resist?
   

These two questions, with the answer which your conscience cannot fail to give, will prove a sure and simple remedy against the evil I have pointed out to you.

                                                                          I HAVE NO TIME
    Out of ten persons who do not fulfill their religious duties, there are at least six or seven who will say to you when you speak to them about it, “I should be glad enough to do so, but I have not time; every one must gain their living. Religion is good for people with nothing else to do, who can live without working.”
Nothing is more false than such reasoning as this, nothing could be more opposed to the spirit of Christianity; religion is made for all, even as God is the Father of all; and if there were any distinction to be made among men, it would, unquestionably, be the poor and the insignificant who would take precedence in the sight of God.
   

This is a very common error among the working classes, especially in large towns; and we must say that it entirely results from ignorance. They have and absurd idea of religion – they believe that it solely consists of a very great number of outward observances; and the daily work which is absolutely necessary to workmen in order to gain a living, being evidently incompatible with such practices, they solve the difficulty by the habitual words, which they lay down as an axiom, but which are in truth an unconscious blasphemy: “I have no time.” But tell me, my friend, how much time does it take to love God? How much time do you need to think of Him sometimes during the course of the day; to ask Him to bless you, to crown your efforts with success, and to give you the rest of heaven after your sorrows and weariness of earth? How much time does it take to keep from swearing, to honor your father and mother and lawful superiors, to abstain from drinking, to pardon your enemies, not to return evil for evil, to bear with the faults of others? How much time does it take to be chaste and pure, to turn from evil thoughts, to avoid sinful conversation, to shun such and such a bad companion who would be sure to lead you into wrong? Does it take much time to repent when we have done some wicked foolish thing? Still more, does it take much time to pray morning and evening? In five minutes, in ten minutes at the most, this great duty can be perfectly fulfilled; and where is the man who cannot, if he so will, spare some few minutes, at the beginning and at the end of the day?
   

But then, you will say, religion commands so many other things. You must hear mass on Sundays and Holydays. You must go to confession, and go to communion, and does not all that take time? That is what I mean when I say I have no time. And what do those who are quite as busy as you are, and often much more busy and still more in need of gaining a salary, and who yet do all that, and more than that? I know some who never pass one week without receiving the sacraments. How do they find time to fulfill their duties? What they do, you can do. It is the will that is wanting, and not the time. The reason that you do not find time, just as they find time, is because you have not the deep conviction that they have of the vital necessity of religion. You consider the body before the soul; they consider the soul before the body. Not that they neglect their families and their own bodily requirements, no; only they know the value and the difference of things, and rule their lives according to the truth.

What would you say if your employer attempted to deprive you of the time to eat? You would leave him, and you would say: First of all, we must live! I say to you still more emphatically: first of all, even before the life of your body, take thought for your soul, which is the noblest part of your self; your soul, which makes of you a man, since through the body we are only animals; it is the soul which makes the man, and distinguishes him from the beast.
   

The eternal salvation of your soul may not be taken away from you by any living creature, and if any one should attempt to rob you of the most sacred of your rights, then is the time to practice the great Christian rule: To lose everything rather than to lose God.
   

But it is my calling, you add, which prevents me from attending to my salvation. Is that true? Answer me carefully; for if, after having well reflected, you still answered “yes,” I would say to you: then you must give it up, and find some other. What will it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your own soul?

Therefore, say no longer, I have no time to be a Christian, for you only deceive yourself. Say, if you wish, I have not as much time, or as many opportunities, as I should wish. That may be so, but, after all, it is but the heart and the will to serve Him that God requires, and for this there is no question of time. To him who will not give to God his time, God will refuse His eternity. 

From the book "The Faith that never dies"

Almsgiving by Monsignor Patrick Perez

..Today’s epistle and gospel, mainly gospel, it says today, “By their fruits you shall know them”. Now when we think, “By their fruits you shall know them” we think of the end result of something like somebody’s life who was an architect for example. Their fruits will be the various buildings they designed, kind of the end project. However, the way it’s meant in today’s gospel is not so much as an end product that’s finished and done with. It specifically refers to good works.

Now you know by what our faith teaches us that we are saved not only by faith but also by good works. That’s an essential complete Christian-teaching package. Protestants have eliminated the good works part. Protestants say we are saved by faith alone. That never existed in the history of Christianity as a teaching for the fifteen hundred and something years before the advent of Protestantism. In fact, the Bible itself teaches that we are saved by faith and good works. Look at what Our Lord says, “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire”; well needless to say the fire is Hell. So He’s talking about the importance of good works on a level with faith itself. Now I think many people disregard the good works part and not through some unwillingness to do good works but because it’s not clear to many what this means exactly.

My personality, I like things black and white, okay? Tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Just don’t make it fuzzy; I don’t like that. A lot of times people will come to me and they were on vacation somewhere and they felt they had to go to confession to some Novus Ordo priest and he gives them a fuzzy penance which if I would have kind of reached through and slapped him one and said look, tell me what to do! Because they’ll say like well go out and express your kindness or something – and I do that all the time more or less – at least I’m trying to do it – but that doesn’t mean anything to me. Say ten Hail Mary’s or a decade of the rosary, say two rosaries – that means something to me. I think therein lies the confusion of the good works because when the catechism says we are saved by faith and good works people go, good works- what exactly are good works? Then you would have your own interpretation of that, some might be right, some not, but once again for my personality it’s too fuzzy.

First of all, what are good works? Generally, when we read the catechism no matter which catechism, we come to the part about good works and it enumerates the Works of Mercy but even those can be kind of difficult to pin down. Let me ask first of all, what are good works? Good works are all the actions of man which are performed according to the will of God while in the state of grace for the love of God. So anything you do, any act which is in good with the will of God and it is done in the state of grace for the love of God is a good work, okay?

Now when we talk about the Works of Mercy I want to talk about first, what mercy is. Mercy as we are talking about here, is a virtue influencing one’s will to have compassion for and if possible to alleviate another’s misfortune or suffering. The necessity which is to be succored can be either body or soul, hence it is customary to enumerate both corporal and spiritual works of mercy. I’ll describe those in a second. Mercy – the way we mean it: When you have mercy on somebody, God has influenced you to alleviate their need or their suffering in some way for the sake of Him, because of Him, because He wants us to do that. You see, their need – their suffering, can be either physical suffering or spiritual suffering so we have these divided into two groups. But what I’ll tell you a little bit later is that there’s not really this great division between them, only a theoretical division and I’ll talk about that in a second.

We all know the Corporal Works of Mercy – corporal means to deal with body things, physical things; spiritual to do with their soul, and I’ll just read through the list: Feed the hungry Give drink to the thirsty Clothe the naked Harbour the harbourless Visit the sick Ransom the captive Bury the dead The Spiritual Works of Mercy are: Instruct the ignorant Counsel the doubtful Admonish the sinners Bear wrongs patiently Forgive offenses willingly Comfort the afflicted Pray for the living and the dead Now to further simplify this let me say that the works of mercy can be summed up in one word. Remember I said there is very little division really between the principle of a work of mercy and it can be summed up in one word which I will have to explain lest somebody panic and the one word is almsgiving, almsgiving. We’ve all heard of almsgiving, we’ve heard of alms but I’m pretty sure the term is not as well understood as it should be. We most of the time jump to understanding the word almsgiving in a restrictive sense to one sort of alms. I want to say something about that. What does “alms” come from? It’s a derivation of the Greek word ελεημοσύνη (eleemosýne) –remember that! – which is rendered in Latin as elemosynas — big difference – which literally means “mercy”. So the connection as to why almsgiving and works of mercy are virtually equivalent is, the name alms virtually means mercy, absolutely does mean mercy, literally means mercy. More about that in a minute.

 First just a word about spiritual and corporal works of mercy in the catechism: They are not in fact all-inclusive and some of them as listed aren’t even for everybody. I know sometimes, myself included in the past, go Well, okay, here are the works of mercy. You have to do them. And I thought I had to do all of them or else I might not make it! First of all let me say not all of them are necessarily for everybody to do. The corporal works of mercy are specifically commanded by Christ. Failure to do them in fact results in damnation. Look what Our Lord says about some of the corporal works. It’s a parable but He said, “Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand, depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me not to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me not to drink; I was a stranger and you took me not in; naked and you covered me not, sick and in prison and you did not visit me”. Now those are pretty specific, we can do most of those in one way or another. The spiritual works of mercy have a loftier purpose. Mind you, the corporal works of mercy are important because unless your bodily needs are taken care of – I mean, imagine if you are starving all the time, your prayer life is not going to amount to anything and you need time for prayer, you need to be in a condition where you can pray at peace. We all know that. But then on the other hand the spiritual works of mercy have a loftier end, to care for that part of somebody that is immortal. Much more so – the body will eventually die and later on will be resurrected but the soul is really the primary concern. So they have a loftier purpose and the average person is not called, in fact, to do everything. Just because they are a loftier purpose; it’s like anything that requires skill. It’s not always for amateurs. You look at doctors these days, they have specialists; somebody specializes in cardiology, another one gastroenterology, another one in something else, and everyone has their specialty. Well you know even though I suppose a cardiologist could give you recommendations on your stomach problem, it’s kind of a specialty thing. You shouldn’t read on the internet how to remove your own appendix for example. It might tell you but you don’t do it because nobody removes their own appendix. Maybe if it’s a real emergency I wonder, but okay — a little novocaine, a razor blade, needle and thread. (Monsignor laughing) But it requires a level of expertise and some of the spiritual works of mercy require a level of expertise. For example, it may happen that an altogether special measure of tact and prudence or some definite superiority is required for the discharge of the oftentimes difficult task of fraternal correction. We’re not all experts at correcting our brother on their faults. If you really don’t know the person or know what you’re talking about you don’t try to correct them even though that is one of the works of mercy. Similarly, to instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful and console the sorrowing is not always within the competence of every person. Others however are within the reach of all. To bear wrongs patiently, to forgive offenses willingly, to pray for the living and the dead – anybody can do those and, in fact, you have no excuse for not doing them.

The motive for all these things has to always be charity. The general underlying idea of why we do works of mercy, this especially applies to the corporal works of mercy, is that God put the goods of the earth here for everyone. There is no excuse for anybody starving on our beautiful planet. There is no excuse for that. The reason it happens is that people are sinful and greedy. I remember when I was a teenager there was some famine in Uganda or someplace over there and the U.S. sent tankers – you know, those big cargo ships – full of grain and food over there. Not one bite of it made it to the people who were starving to death. Their corrupt governments intercepted it all, sold it on the black market and pocketed the money. That is why people are starving to death, not because God didn’t put enough food on earth for everybody, because He did. So that is the essential principle. Just remember as one person once said, “It is one thing to have a right to possess money and another to have the right to use the money as you please”. The famous billionaires that we see, Zuckerberg and Gates and these people, God let them have what they have but not for their own purposes. When it comes down to it, He let them be rich to take care of people who can’t do it themselves. That is why God allowed them to be rich and that is why unless they are taking care of other people who are less fortunate they will not enter the kingdom of heaven. To this end do we just go up to a person and give him our money? Hello homeless person. Here is all this money. Well, there are a number of reasons why you don’t do that: a) most homeless people aren’t really in their right mind and that would be a complete waste because they would probably go rescue kittens with the money or blow it on drugs or something like that. So you don’t just do this willy nilly.

To whom shall we give and how? As a general rule let’s say the indigent, the needy of every class, saint or sinner, countryman or foreigner, friend or foe, have their claims upon the charity of those who are able to give alms. The saints universally say this goes across every party line. When somebody is in need and you have the ability to help them with these works of mercy, you are obliged to do so. The notion of almsgiving embodies the donation of commodities necessary to lighten the human misery and moralists admit that it is sufficient in fact to lend to somebody. So let’s say somebody is willing to make some money by cutting lawns. If you have an extra lawnmower and you don’t want to give it to them, you can lend it to them and you’ve still done a good deed. However, this almsgiving should be discreet, it should reach deserving individuals or families, and it should be prompt, secret, humble and abundant. Those are the things. You don’t just give willy nilly. You give to somebody who is actually competent to use the gift you are giving them. What are the benefits of almsgiving? Well, it says in the Bible to make unto yourselves friends of mammon of iniquity. So first of all, almsgiving renders the donor like unto God Himself and that’s written in the scriptures. You are imitating God by giving of what you have to those who do not. Furthermore, one saint noted something quite interesting. It renders God Himself the debtor to those giving alms. Giving alms puts a debt obligation on God to give you something which is a fascinating principle. Moreover, it adds special efficacy to prayer, it appeases Divine Wrath, it liberates from sin and its’ punishment, and thus paves the way for the gift of faith. It has many, many benefits for our souls and even for society in general. Now why should we give alms at all? Well, the simple answer is we can’t go to heaven without doing good works, without almsgiving. You cannot go to heaven without it. So let me say, Christ says, “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire”, meaning if somebody who doesn’t do good works will go to hell. It’s not enough to abstain from sin. People think well, if I just don’t sin – in that sense, do some heinous or egregious sin then I will go to heaven. But that’s only half the story. By failing to do good works you are sinning and, in fact, St. Thomas Aquinas has some things to say about that.

The servant in the gospel who did not even waste the talent received for example, remember the talents, but only hid it in the ground, he was cast into the darkness — the servant who had the gifts and buried it, the talent. St. John Chrysostom says, “If you had a servant who was in truth no robber, no glutton or drunkard but who sat at home idle neglecting everything for which you had employed him, would you not pay him with the whip and send him off? Is it not bad enough to neglect which duty demands? St. Thomas Aquinas says that if you refrain from doing good works from opening yourself up for those in need, you are guilty of theft. So this is very important. My dear faithful, let’s just end with a prayer to open us up to the words of today’s gospel to recognizing need in our fellow man and when we have the ability to fill that. O Lord, guard me from false prophets, heretics, and seducers, and grant me the grace, that according to St. Paul’s instructions I may become fruitful in all good works. Inflame my heart, that I may adorn my faith with them, thus do the will of the Heavenly Father, and render myself worthy of heaven. Amen. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

from source