Universal Church, Luther, and Beyond

PRELUDE
Religion for Love
--Accept Beauty All Around-and Others
     -- Religion that teaches to love beyond faults.... Greatest Love, Religion of Love not Condemnation
    *Forgiveness... Christian Love is of forgiveness, for forgiveness, and through forgiveness
                       We have power to forgive, but only through Christ not ourselves (forgive expression of God’s law of love)
                  Loving God as ourselves
                           --Prayer
                           --Garden of Eden (Prevailing Will)
                             --Consistent with Judaism
                            --God-Humanity-Ourselves
Leviticus 19:18 Love your neighbor


Luther and The Universal Church
  -- Justified by Faith, but Pope Antichrist
  -- Papal faults...
       *Power of Faith over Rome
       *virgin birth, no intercession?   
   -- Saints
        - Luther recognized previous, but not praying or relics
   --Justification of Faith in Catholicism
     --Novena
     --Scapular


-- Continuing Church
   --Luther story told, Catholicism story lives.
         --Lourdes, Medjugorje Miracles



PRELUDE

My father recently sent an email, about a book that discusses that our brain controls much of who we are, and our actions, using the case of the Austin, Tx tower gunman.. they found a tumor in the portion of the brain that our restraint lies.....And my father said that he perceived this to show that we should appreciate the uniqueness in the world, and not condemn and judge others....
   Well, whether he realized it or not, this is very much in line with the Church teachings...
I also have a cousin, who has always been a great artist, and now he expresses his art with photography, but as an artist he also has the artist’s explorative mind.  He is very intellectually curious... And he once wrote to me, exclaiming that Human Religion is all about -- the evil of man- that were are naturally corrupt, and we better live better.... we are scared of ourselves to pursue the true Good...
    Examining these two gentlemen’s observations and conclusions, and you see directly the greatest misconception of what it is to be Christian...
 
  The Greatest Commandment is: Love God, Love our neighbors as ourselves.

So were does the misconception come in?? The understanding of forgiveness...
   
  Forgiveness is the Christian Love, to forgive to to ‘’give for ‘’the other’’’’... Give away yourself, to give love, to love the fault, to cherish the other.

 The story of the Lost Son is one of forgiveness. No matter what, we should have an open heart to all, no matter how much they offended or disrespected us.  

 Forgiveness answers both of my beloved gentlemen, humans are not perfect, we do have flaws, and the most simple minded person would be hard to deny that.  Ask them if they ever felt pain because of the actions of another, if something has ever been taken away from them by another.  Is our innocence intact?  Have we sworn against others, have we wished better for ourselves than others..... have we taken from others ourselves?  Have we ever not understood the actions of another?
 All these experiences showcase the ability to affect someone by action, and in return expressing ‘harm’.

God is not harm, got is our savior of harm.  How do we get closer to God is by allowing his example of forgiveness, to work within us towards others.

Fear and Love are two of the essential motivations of the human psyche (psychology of forgiveness). Almost, if not all, decisions are influenced by the love of something, or the fear of something... Our actions express love or fear.  We may be inactive because we are afraid of what we may give up due to the action, and conversely, We may be active because we love what we may acquire....

The one who forgives... is the one who gives something up, and the forgiven is the one who receives... The one who forgives gives away their love and fear so the other person may stand in good humor against the one offended.  

It is the greatest love, it works in the fallacy of humanity so beautifully that it nearly replenishes all the fault has created.
 If there is absolute forgiveness in the world, then there is absolute rebirth of the human condition.... faults are no match for that kind of love.  That is therefore why we are called to forgive in the Lord’ Prayer ‘’as we forgive those who trespass against us’’.  Love and equality of people is only accomplished through absolute forgiveness.  

 This is the Lord’s Greatest Commandment, to love Him, and to love the neighbor as yourself. To love is to love in forgiveness, by forgiveness, and through forgiveness...

In doing this, we are both ‘’appreciating the uniqueness and beauty of all creation’’ and ‘’practicing a love that supersedes the faults of man’’’

We should never deny or reject someone’s forgiveness, they are offering everything beyond themselves for your sake.

Forgiveness is always good, and is a expression of the Greatest Love.... it does not condemn but redeems.

It has come to my attention. That in Lutheranism, They tie the Greatest Commandment together. As said by a Danish Lutheran priestess, Luther says God’s love and the love of neighbors can not be differential.

In examination, I guess it is said, that we must love others as God loves us, and therefore it is the same.  And there is a strong tie to that in Catholicism as well, but in Catholicism there is a definiate distinction between loving God first and then others and ourselves.. But both understandings understand the relevance of both.

But, in examining, forgiveness as the Greatest Love... I
    God loved first, therefore God forgave first.  God’s forgiveness is the greatest forgiveness of all, so to say that we love each other equally, is to say that we love and forgive as God does and did.  We are called to love each other as God loves us, but God superseded all of us, and his Love is first, and his love is most powerful because it granted us the ability to love.
.  It is vital to always remember that God is the beginning, and we are not ourselves before God and our humanity. But we have existed third.  God IS, then he created humanity and human Truths result from his presence and creation, and we as individuals come from this presence of humanity and its creation through God.. So, God-Humanity-Us.
  A child does not love a parent in the same way a parent loves a child, a child loves a parent because of the protection and love it was given, and a parent loved a child before the child was a child, and that is why they created the child’s life. The child’s life came from the parent, and  the parent loved the child before the child was created, the child had no way to love the parent before the parent was made, the love of the parent gave life, the child can only give its own child that kind of love, to give life.   That is why the 4th commandment expresses one shall honor thy mother and father, because the life given was a gift by the parent, and there is no other way to express the love of that life than by honoring the one who gave it to you.  
   God’s forgiveness is the parent of forgiveness, the love in it existed before our faults occurred, and there is no greater forgiveness and love than that, not even our own. But our reciprocation of that Greatest love is still crucial to our lives!

Just as prayer, we do not pray to ourselves, every prayer, even through the saints, is at the end a message for God.
  By the very necessity of prayer, we show that God’s love and power is greatest, not our own. God does not need to pray to us. There is nothing God has to pray to, just as forgiveness, all our forgiveness and love, in the end, is something stemming from God.  Because of the need to pray, the need to forgive, and the need to love stems from God, and not ourselves, God and his love is FIRST most vital to our lives.

Furthermore, wouldn’t having two loves of equal weight effect the actions of the will. Whose will would be precedent over the other, if the love is equal.  When we act against God, we still can love ourselves, but we act not out of love of God, but more so from a love of our own desire. We are unquestionably asked to do God’s Will as humans. Our own will against God’s is harmful, and against God’s love, but we can still maintain our own love while living against His will.  The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden, shows that they had a love of themselves that superseded their love for God, by acting against the law of God, for their own will.  If all love is equal, then where lies the weight balance of the wills with that equal love. When we act, do we act from either love or fear, and when we act out of love, don’t we pursue that which we desire from this love.  So aren’t desire and love related by the actions we enact? Love is a motivation of our will.  We will what we love.. what happens when these two equal loves, have different desires.

In Catholicism, the Greatest Commandment, is one where God’s love of us precedes our love.  We are called to love one another and ourselves, because he loves us., and others   We are to love ourselves to allow ourselves to do His will. The love of ourselves should invite us to do His will, not any alteration. We are to live as he wills, and we should come to ‘’love’’ our humanity so that we live out His truths.   Therefore, God’s love supersedes our love, because God is Truth, so his loves works from His Truth, our love reciprocates that love, but is the second love because we can not duplicate the Original Love.  

Lastly, biblical proof, for if there is a Greater love, or are the loves one in the same, is this:
  In the Bible where Jesus mentions the Greatest Commandment, a Jewish man well educated of the law, questioned Jesus in an attempt to test Jesus’ knowledge of the law. Jesus of course a Jew, and an adherer to the Jewish law, and only coming to redeem the law in His name... was well acquainted with scripture, and answered satisfactory to the Jew when he answered, ‘’love God, neighbor as yourself.  The second portion is in the Old Testament Lev (Third Book of Moses) 19:18.  He was maintaining Jewish law, and Jews practice that God’s love is First, and the love of neighbor, very crucial to behave in God’s love, stands second in a complimentary role to the first.