By Cynthia Aralu

Hello everyone! Remember to pray the Rosary!

The meaning of holiness has been blurred by so called “well meaning, peaceful Christians” such that you may hear phrases such as holy Muslim, holy Jew or holy non-Christian. Is it a lack of vocabulary or perhaps the snare of the tongue or a trap they have fallen into? Whatever the case may be, when such language is presented without careful reflection, they risk confusing or misleading Catholics and Christian denominations about what holiness truly means.

Those who know and live the truth of the Bible understand that our righteous acts are like “filthy rags” to God. Our good actions resemble a child’s crude drawing, treasured not because of its artistic merit, but because the parent loves the child. The drawing has value only because the parent gives it value, simply because it is the work of their beloved child. In a similar way, the righteousness Christians possess is not a holiness that arises from their own “good” efforts. It is a holiness given to they who in and through Jesus have been adopted as heirs of God with Him. We who are a Holy Nation, believe we are saved by grace through faith; it is entirely God’s gift through Jesus, so that no one may boast in themselves or in their works. The righteous or holy actions of Christians do have merit, but only because Jesus Himself gives them merit. In Jesus, Christians have the justification of a clean conscience before God. Moreover, if The Law being perfect in Itself, could not save imperfect men, because of man’s carnality and sinfulness, how far away are those who neither have nor follow The Law?

One might say, what about the gentile Cornelius and his household? However, he was described as a devout man who feared God and who gave alms liberally and prayed constantly to God, and the bible explains that to fear God is to keep His Commandments, and the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and to know God is to have understanding. “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man“, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul…“. Cornelius was a man predisposed by God’s grace to accept Jesus the moment He heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to convert because He had wisdom and understanding, because he truly loved God, not an audio love but an actionable love; and God does not discriminate.

That said, it is difficult to understand how anyone can read a passage like Romans 11 and still insist that it is impossible to fall from grace through disobedience or grave sin, or to be cut off from God, even after having been claimed by Him. The text itself makes the distinction: God’s gifts and call are irrevocable, meaning “once claimed, you are always claimed”, but this is not the same as “once saved, always saved”, since St. Paul himself warns plainly, “For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.”

There is hope if you repent, and God can graft you back in for sure, as St. Paul continues in the passage with hope: “And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”

Why, then, do some insist they remain saved regardless of their actions? Is it ignorance of Scripture, or a difference in language they use or a fear of acknowledging the seriousness of their unrepentant sins, because acknowledging that truth might force them into despair or a crisis of faith?

If they do not believe for the sake of St. Paul, they should believe The Words of Jesus, “Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me”.

Jesus is the True Vine, we are the branches and His Father is The Vine Dresser. It is the branch which Jesus claimed for Himself that His Father cuts off because it does not bear fruit. In John, Jesus also said, “If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned“. Given The Words of Jesus which will never fade away and will be fulfilled for all eternity, how can there be groups who claim to follow Jesus who still say, “once saved, always saved”?

If I were to be even more critical, I’d say that the ones who are doing this are wicked in heart or misguided to the point of wickedness. If they themselves were to have children who stole obscene amounts from them daily, or had orgies in their homes every night despite knowing it is not allowed in their homes, being unrepentant and unwilling to change, they would kick those children out. The children do not stop being children, since they have a mother and father, but they are cut off and will not reap all the material benefits of being children unless they reform; albeit they may benefit spiritually leading to their reform or if they remain unrepentant, they cannot be trusted to an inheritance. Even the prodigal son repented before his father reconciled with him (ran out to meet him), because in reality when we sin, we are turning away from God and saying we do not want God, and the prodigal son, in returning (wanting his father), repented. How much more God? Where is their zeal and love for God to suggest such a thing?

I will use another analogy from a real life situation which I watched on IG. It was a video of a mother and her sons. Both sons played in the mud that day and came home caked in mud, wanting to be let into their home. Their mom didn’t discourage their play but was firm in refusing them entry, since they would track mud into the house and cause havoc to their house and drain. They were instructed to be hosed down in their yard with cold water to get rid of as much mud as possible before going in, despite the younger son pleading. People applauded the mom for being sensible. So, it is not that people are not able to see the sense in being barred entry from your parent’s home, because they know love does not mean a lack of sense. You can even apply this to the topic of purgatory, although it is something different being purged in purgatory, though still uncleanliness. So, how much more God? When it comes to God, there are people that would like to skip repentance and reconciliation to relationship. What a disordered thought to have, that they would want that for God. Where is their love and their zeal for God? This is a case of false compassion where the offender is loved more than the One offended. What injustice!

In God’s providence, the virtues we fail to live out as Christians often reappear in other places, and that makes me believe that this is the reason ideologies which are anti-Christ are allowed to exist. For example, Muslims sometimes embody values such as discipline in prayer, modesty, or even a wife’s respectful submission to her husband that Christians themselves have neglected, even though they don’t get everything right. In the same way, an unbeliever may show generous or sacrificial or servant leadership towards his spouse while some Catholics or Christians fall short of that calling. And among Protestants, there appears a visible confidence in faith that Catholics can at times seem to lack, even though Protestants, too, can go astray when personal desires overshadow God’s will.

It appears to me that everywhere Catholics have failed, God remains sovereign and shows no partiality, and as such, God is glorified through His Creation, whether they are Catholic or a Christian denomination or neither. I also sense that unbelievers reveal to Christians the very areas where we fall short. Their unwitting witness can become a call to repentance to our benefit, though we may just as easily remain blind to it, to our condemnation. In the end, everything will come to a head on judgement day, and it seems they will rise up and condemn Christians who were supplied all the grace of God and yet did not live with more fidelity to God. This is not a new message. It takes inspiration from Jesus’ words: “The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here”. As baptised Christians, you have received something greater. How much more a Baptised Catholic who has received other Sacraments? And even so, the persecution I see approaching the Catholic Church arises from our own unfaithfulness, yet it is also permitted by God to purify us and draw us back to deeper fidelity. Through all of it, I see God’s love at work. The words of Pope St. Pius V suddenly makes sense to me: All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics.

It is easy to admire the devotion of a prayerful Muslim but at the end of the day, any group of people who reject Jesus as God are the anti-Christ and liars since they deny The Father and The Son. If anyone professes the Bible to be The Word of God, and claims to have the Mind of Christ, they would believe this too.

In any case, do not be deceived or fall into the trap of thinking any human is holy apart from abiding in Jesus.

That said, are we not obligated to God, as Christians, to carry out the works which correspond to the faith we profess? And when we have done so, should we not thank God Who enabled us to be able to do so one more time, since God supplies us with the grace/ability to even begin or carry on or to finish. “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.” “Likewise, my brethren, you have died to The Law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.”

I fell into the trap of thinking that I would not suffer in my dream or in my mind or in my body any unwanted impurity, if I am in a state of grace and I pray and I stay away from all that is impure. Though these are good things to do and the reward will be reaped in full in the future and in eternity, and even now, the benefit of it is already evident to me; it is just not the right heart to have, and I didn’t even realise I held such belief until it was revealed. I have come to realise that though the body has some value, the soul has more value for the present moment and for all eternity, and so I had to learn a lesson in detaching my mind from what happens to my body and trusting that I am still in Jesus. In fact, when I consider the life I have led, it is indeed necessary that I suffer in my body for my actions. What a privilege! For this is God’s Mercy to me and this is not forever.

A recent word I’ve embraced, one that has guarded me from confusion and kept my love for God from growing cold under stress and doubt, is this: I am cleansed by Jesus’ Words when I read the Bible (John 15:3), when I attend Mass and the Bible (His Word) is read or proclaimed over me, when I pray. In the same way, I can also believe that I am cleansed when I adore or pray before His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist (Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity) during Adoration/Benediction. I can also believe that I am cleansed when I receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in Holy Communion. I am already cleansed by Jesus. And even though I am well aware of my unworthiness, struggling to see any good in me, a greater Truth exists, that I am already cleansed by Jesus. So, I must abide in Jesus and draw near to Him, if I am to be of any good.

I only say this while knowing that by God’s grace, I am already in a state of grace. Yet, this does not replace the Sacrament of Confession, a gift which Christ entrusted to His Church as a means of reconciliation and restoration, especially when a person is in mortal sin. To those who believe in all God has revealed through Jesus, this is true. To those who do not, it may provoke offense or indignation. But, the reality of the sacrament does not depend on human approval. It stands because Christ Himself established it: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”. And all arguments against Christ will die to the Glory of God and in Jesus’ name. Amen.

On a final note, pray the Rosary and entrust yourself to Jesus through Mary through the method of St. Louis Marie de Montfort! And if you need help with this entrustment to Jesus through Mary, look up the course provided by the Heralds of the Gospel on their Reconquest Platform. It is a solid 33-day course.

Thank you for reading today’s post. Remember to like this post and share it with your friends if you enjoyed it. Follow me on my blog, Katmira’s blog, to receive notifications whenever I have a new post. You can also subscribe below to get an email notification whenever a new post is out. This is particularly helpful if you don’t have a WordPress account.

Let it be, until we meet again or “Ka ọ dị” as it is said in Igbo.

Note: Co-pilot was used as an editing tool.