FAITH DOES NOT MEAN DOUBTING AS USED ON CBS 60 MINUTES

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "TO BELIEVE AND TO DOUBT" IS REAL.

Faith is a word with a difficult meaning to understand. The word faith is at the root of so many confusions in the world. The problem comes from the fierce battle in paradise between Adam and Eve, our first parents, and satan. God demanded an act of obedience to Adam and Eve to merit heaven. They were to submit themselves to the sovereignty of Almighty God and to worship only God and nobody else. God revealed himself to our first parents in a complete display of all divine revelation that they needed to live happily and fruitfully in paradise.

God did not ask Adam and Eve for an act of obedience beyond their spiritual ability to remain faithful to God. They had all of God's help to refuse to enter into a dialogue with satan. However, they accepted to enter into a friendship with satan; at that moment the battle was over. They believe satan against the word of God.  God told them if they disobeyed they would surely die. Satan laughed at God's ultimatum to our first parents. he showed them that God was hiding from them a knowledge that would make them their own God. They believed satan and called God a liar.

At that moment, the battle was lost. God pronounced the sentence which was to affect us all until the end of the world. The whole of mankind was to inherit Adam and Eve’s sin, We were sentenced to be born in sin enemies of God, to be inclined to evil all our lives and to die. The Council of Trent teaches that "we were irremediably lost for ever" if God had not sent us our beloved Savior Jesus Christ.

Saint Pope John Paul II teaches us that we are born with two forceful inclinations. THE FIRST ONE is called OUR ASPIRATIONS TO THE INFINITE. The second one is called our inclinations to EVIL. Our aspirations to the infinite are a forceful behavior within ourselves pushing us to search for the Infinite. Those aspirations are very well alive among pagans surrounding themselves with an almost  infinity of gods and goddesses. They are constantly worshiping, and they live submitted to the influence of their godly inventions.

Our understanding of  FAITH is being influenced by our aspirations to the infinite. We think that when the word faith is being mentioned,  it means our relationship with God. This is a complete ERROR. Faith only means to accept the words of another person as truthful and thus we believe what we are told. When the message are the Words from God, when  I believe with the help of the Holy Spirit, my faith is DIVINE. When the message are the words from a human being, if I believe my faith is HUMAN. We know that human faith cannot save us. Therefore, if we doubt that what we hear is not truthful, we do not believe. WE DOUBT. Jesus,  in Matthew 14:28-31,  clarifies the difference between to doubt and to believe when he tells saint Peter “DON’T DOUBT BUT BELIEVE!  On the CBS TV SHOW, doubt was mistakenly accepted as believing. This was an unfortunate erroneous use of faith. the professor.

 

OUR FIRST PARENTS ARE CREATED IN SANTIFYING GRACE

In the book of Genesis, God Himself reveals to us Adam and Eve in the very moment of their creation.  God Himself says: “LET US CREATE MAN IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS.”  God creates us with intelligence to know God and to govern our lives according to His divine Will, to be happy with Him in heaven.

 “AFTER OUR LIKENESS” means our sharing in the Life of God which is known “SANCTIFYING GRACE.”  Sanctifying grace makes us holy, saints.  Also God creates us with a WILL.  Our will is our motor that moves us in reaching our goal in life.  Eve reveals to us that our first parents had a good relation in friendship with God.  However, God gives them His Divine ORDER (Will)  in these words:  “You  are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden EXCEPT the tree of knowledge of good and bad.  From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.”  (Gen 3:2-3) Thus we must obey God because;  we must render an account of our whole life, as saint Paul reveals it to us: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.”        (2Cor 5:10). 

Thus, in the very first moment of our creation, God reveals that He is a loving God,  OUR GOD OF LOVE AND MERCY, always ready to bless us with the abundance of His Love in giving us a life full with happiness.  We can eat from the abundance of Paradise, WE CAN EAT ALL THE FRUITS OF ALL THE TREES, with one exception.  God forbids Adam and Eve to eat the fruits of the tree of good and evil.  God implores our first parents to worship only Him and nobody else.  If they disobey, they will die.  The sentence has been pronounced: DEATH. 

Therefore, our first parents know God’s Will.  God reveals Himself to them and gives them full knowledge of how they must live their life in the Garden of Eden, a plentiful life in the abundance and full happiness.  “YOU ARE FREE TO EAT FROM ANY OF THE TREES OF THE GARDEN EXCEPT THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.” (Gen 2:16-17)  God did not ask our first parents to do anything they could not reasonably and faithfully do.  In all, God gives them one commandment; He is asking Adam and Eve to submit themselves to God, to worship only God and nobody else.

Thus, death does not belong to creation and therefore is not God’s doing. Death is man made since it is a punishment for disobeying God’s commandment.  Our first parents are told they will have to give an account to God  how they use their freedom. Their encounter with the devil was not beyond their ability to refuse any dialogue with the prince of death.

What happens in the Garden of Eden really happens in each one’s life.  We must all give to God an account of our life in the body.  God in his great love and mercifulness for us is always ready to pardon us of all our sins if we sincerely repent.  However, let us learn that sin always has two consequences.  First, sin is an offense to God’s Majesty. God pardons the offense to the  sinner who with the grace of God repents.   Secondly, sin is a transgression of God’s commandments.  We must  atone for each sinful transgression committed.  Such expiation must be done on earth or in purgatory.

Let us meditate on how we want to enter into our eternal life.  Saint Paul animates us with his beautiful revelation in 2Cor 4:17:  “For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”   The professor.