When We're Quiet...

[ironmonk]

[quote name='ironmonk' date='Nov 10 2003, 03:19 AM'] To many Catholics are quiet about what's right and what's wrong.

The "I'm ok, your ok, where all ok" leads people to not be ok.

When we're quiet people continue drifting further from Christ and get hurt.

I understand how people don't want to offend others. I don't want to offend anyone, but at the cost of offending, we must stand up for what is right and just as taught by the Church.

I know that some people blame others for their own issues because of their problems with conscience. One person shows them and tries to explain to them why certain things are wrong. Then the person with the conflict lashes out at the one trying to help him. When in all reality, the angered person is really angery with his problem of conscience.

Maybe if more Catholics would explain the same thing to him in different a light, he might come to realize this.

Charity demands fraternal correction. If we see our brother doing wrong, and we fail to tell him or let him believe that what he is doing is right... then we do not have Charity for him. We are our brothers keeper.

[b]Acts 20:24 [/b]
Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God's grace.
[b]25 [/b]"But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again.
[b]26 [/b]And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
[b]27 [/b][u]for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God[/u].


[b]1435 [/b]
Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one's brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.

[b]1829 [/b]
The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:
Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.


Now, if someone who has corrected a brother, was wrong, then others need to correct the one trying to help the other brother.... and if the first brother was right, then others need to help explain to the wrong brother where he is wrong.

We all have to go through conflict in life, if we go through life thinking we are a victim, when we are not, and others allow us to believe that we are a victim, then our blood is on their hands.

Think of all the things that happen because not enough people stood up to simply say "That is wrong.". Such as abortion. People think that someone else will stand up... so they don't... it's time to stand up... not time to sit on the sidelines waiting to see what happens. If we are a Christian Community, then we must help each other out... in times of grief, need, and in times of correction.

Standing up can simply be showing charity to your brother by letting him know the best way you know how what the Church teaches and why.

Do not let your brother think he is right, when he is wrong.

Rather it be me, or anyone else... charity demands it.

God Bless, Your Servant in Christ,
ironmonk [/quote]
I just thought this would be appropriate.


Stand up for what is right in God's eyes, not man's.


God Bless,
ironmonk

[philothea]

Good to read...

I don't know what to do for many people though. They don't even believe in the concept of right and wrong. I can't figure out any way to get through to them. The merest hint of morality, and they think you're an ignorant, judgemental oppresor.

[Cathurian]

Amen to that, philothea.

What to do against apathy?

[Qoheleth]

[quote name='Cathurian' date='Jun 1 2005, 09:44 PM'] Amen to that, philothea.

What to do against apathy? [/quote]
Just prayers, I think.

[philothea]

Praying for them is all I've been able to come up with, too.

(Oh, and this one other super-sneaky-sneaky plan to convert them all -- ha ha! -- but that'll take lots of luck and several years if I work hard. Um, I should get back to work.)

Edited June 2, 2005 by philothea

[ironmonk]

[quote name='philothea' date='Jun 1 2005, 09:28 PM'] Good to read...

I don't know what to do for many people though. They don't even believe in the concept of right and wrong. I can't figure out any way to get through to them. The merest hint of morality, and they think you're an ignorant, judgemental oppresor. [/quote]
At least you tried... As Thess said in another thread... it's about planting seeds.

God calls all men, maybe something you said to the "brick wall" you talked to about right and wrong two years ago will click this week and he will start his way to Christ.

You won't always be able to see the fruit of your labor... but labor we must.

I wish that I had someone to tell me I was doing wrong when I was 19... I was "normal" - which was bad.

God Bless,
ironmonk

[curtins]

Everyday I see instances where I should stand up for what is right even if its not necesarily directly like a church teaching or something directly religious it just might be standing up for what is right or what is good. Its hard and thats in a Catholic grammer school (now onto Catholic high school). I try and stand up at least one time a day. Thats what I aim for- to at least do something. But I get nervous in real life talking to people and standing up fo whats right. Online is different where I have time for forumulate my response etc etc- but in real life at the spur of the moment its hard to get accross what I need to get across without sitting there for 4 hours or sounding like a retart. Just yesterday I was talking to my freind online about why she shouldnt make out with her boyfreind and then shes like I'm not in love with him and Im like then why are you dating him. And it went into this whole thing about why and when you should date someone etc etc. sometimes I feel like people wont listen to me cause they think I think Im perfect and am condeming everyone else cause I'm the big "preacher" and thats not how I want to come across but someone's gotta do it I guess.

a great thing to say when people attack you or make fun of you for standing up for what is right- say "Im just saying what needs to be said"- from the fr pontifex song platnum prision


God bless and keep fighting

[dspen2005]

sometimes, though, speaking out is not the method by which God wishes some of the faithful to evangelize or correct error.... if being vocal were the only way that God uses us, there would be no contemplative religious....

i suppose i am taking a literal interpretation of your meaning "speaking out".... but we can correct the error of others by our actions -- which do not necessarily require words.... praying for those who persist in error. I will grant you that we, especially in America, have become tepid in our approach to religion... PC is now the name of the game. Those whom God provokes to speak out ought to do it openly and purposefully. For example, today I went to an abortuary and prayed the rosary with some other peoples -- there were only 4 of us.... but it is actions like that, where others can see that can, in some way, inspired by the Holy Spirit, stir up a change of heart.....