MEDJUGORJE LATEST
MESSAGE: Fear of Hell and Good works
..from the Council of
Trent on Justification Canon VIII we see
concerning fear of hell..
---Canon
VIII. If any one shall say, that the fear of hell, through which, by grieving
for
our
sins, we flee unto the mercy of God, or refrain from sinning, is a sin, or
makes sinners
worse
let him be anathema
..this
being said fear of hell which moves a soul to good works and quickens the
spirit to becoming faithful servants of God is indeed a great gift however the
gifts of God can indeed be abused and turned into self-serving slavery just as
any good can be abused and this is what should be avoided through habitual
inspection of conscience by order of a good examination which may be procured
online or from a good spiritual advisor...
..indeed for each
station in life there will be a corresponding aptly suited examination which will
take into account the activities normal in for such a vocational capacity...
...Indeed what one
should endeavour to do in the spiritual life is avoid spiritual lust since this
habit will subvert the gifts of God and make such a one a hireling or a
spiritual merchant(a Pharisee) rather
than a faithful servant...
As the great spiritual
sublimator Jan Van Ruysbroeck mentions in his spiritual treatise THE SPARKLING
STONE....
6 – Of The Difference Between The Hirelings
And The Faithful Servants Of God
Now you may mark this: that some men receive the gifts of God as
hirelings, but others as faithful servants of God; and these differ one from
another in all inward works, that is, in love and intention, in feeling and in
every exercise of the inward life.
Now understand this well: all those who love themselves so inordinately
that they will not serve God, save for their own profit and because of their
own reward, these separate themselves from God, and dwell in bondage and in
their own selfhood; for they seek, and aim at, their own, in all that they do.
And therefore, with all their prayers and with all their good works, they seek
after temporal things, or may be strive after eternal things for their own
benefit and for their own profit. These men are bent upon themselves in an
inordinate way; and that is why they ever abide alone with themselves, for they
lack the true love which would unite them with God and with all His beloved.
And although these men seem to keep within the law and the commandments of God
and of Holy Church, they do not keep within the law of love; for all that they
do, they do, not out of love, but from sheer necessity, lest they shall be
damned. And, because they are inwardly unfaithful, they dare not trust in God;
but their whole inward life is doubt and fear, travail and misery. For they see
on the right hand eternal life, and this they are afraid of losing; and they
see on the left hand the eternal pains of hell, and these they are afraid of
gaining. But all their prayers, all their labour and all the good works,
whatsoever they do, to cast out this fear, help them not; for the more
inordinately they love themselves, the more they fear hell. And from this you
may learn that their fear of hell springs from self-love, which seeks its own.
Now the Prophet, and also the Preacher, say: The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom; but by this is meant that fear which is exercised upon
the right side, where one considers the loss of eternal blessedness, for this
fear arises from the natural tendency which every man has in himself to be
blessed, that is, to see God. And therefore, even though a man may be faithless
to God, yet whenever he truly observes himself from within, he feels himself to
be leaning out from himself towards that blessedness which is God. And this
blessedness he fears to lose; for he loves himself better than God, and he
loves blessedness wholly for his own sake. And therefore he dare not trust in
God. And yet this is that Fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom and
is a law to the unfaithful servants of God: for it compels a man to leave sin,
and to strive after virtue, and to do good deeds, and these things prepare a
man from without to receive the grace of God and become a faithful servant.
But
from that very hour in which, with God’s help, he can overcome his
selfhood—that is to say when he is so detached from himself that he is able to
leave in the keeping of God everything of which he has need—behold, through
doing this he is so well pleasing to God that God bestows upon him His grace.
And, through grace, he feels true love: and love casts out doubt and fear, and
fills the man with hope and trust, and thus he becomes a faithful servant, and
means and loves God in all that he does. Behold, this is the difference between
the faithful servant and the hireling.
..let
us all do our best and serve God according to our respective talents amen….
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