I won't argue this. It's not possible, at least for me. My own personal suffering in this world has been a result of not having anyone capable of defending me close by. Those whom one may think should have were already broken when I "arrived". It's been an intense spiritual battle for me and for my loved ones. And people being "nice" was a huge part of the problem. Not calling a spade a spade was a massive part of the problem. One learns over time, if one is sincerely seeking the Truth, how important forgiveness is for one's soul. One also learns over time that perpetual victimhood is a sin in itself. Thankfully, we have great sacraments to help us along, and with the help of God's grace, we can grow. You must be very blessed in life not to have faced such struggles. Give thanks to God for this. He has, for some reason, protected me like a mountain fortress. My maiden name actually translates as "mountain fortress" from the original language. There is a psalm that mentions "you have protected me like a mountain fortress". To see this after so many years of misery is to me a great grace. I say this not to brag in any way at all, but to say that every single one of us has and still has struggles that may be foreign to others. God loves us individually, and His plans for us are as individuals. But they are not discovered by placidly waiting for them to magically appear. It takes hard work, silence, and patience. And most of all prayer. Prayer from the heart. Pray from the heart, and God will lift you to His Heart and show you His will for you. God bless you abundantly ~
Maybe I need to change direction a bit to demonstrate what I am getting at. When looking at the world, through the Newtonian paradigm of cause and effect, there is the belief that if we kill all the evil people who stand in the way of good, good will thrive. This is like picking out the weeds from the earth so wheat can grow. But it doesn't work like this. When we hold onto what is good in spite of evil, and act with love, then weeds die. But not only do the weeds die, but the wheat multiplies greatly. No one said this is easy. Saints never had easy lives, but they picked up their crosses with faith. Also, you do not know my journey or what I have been through, or what I am currently going through. Please do not make assumptions about me.
Maybe this is the problem ~ I don't think anyone here has been advocating going out and killing all the evil people. Imagine if they had thought that in the beginning and took out St. Paul before his conversion....It's about defence. There's spiritual warfare too. I plan on participating in Msgr R's session Monday evening so as to continue to find healing, and to further learn how to defend myself from the onslaughts of evil. Maybe it's confusion between the Saints that are formally canonized by the Church in the world and the Church Triumphant. Because everyone who is in heaven is now a Saint. And the souls of the suffering Church in purgatory are in the waiting room, getting cleaned up. All are inspirational, imho.
The point of contention is whether or not it is good to murder others in self defense. I am suggesting that from both a scriptural and traditional point of view, it is in most instances not. When the heart is constantly directed to Jesus, regardless of circumstances, saints are born. They get how the world works. This is why we on earth are called the church millitant, which fights against sin/evil by grafting ourselves to Jesus. Once we take our eyes off of Jesus we sink. “Life is a gift, because as long as we are on this planet, we can grow in our ability to love. The more we learn to love, the more we will enjoy eternal blessedness with God.” “Conversion is nothing other than lifting one’s gaze upward. All you need is a simple movement of the eyes.” - Bl. Carlos Acutis I should also mention that before St. Paul converted, St. Stephen was killed, and while he was being killed he pleaded to God that his killers be forgiven. Many believe it was by this prayer that St. Paul was converted.
And from my perspective, killing in self defence is not murder. It's the last resort. St. Edith Stein turned herself into the Nazis. If everyone had done this, would there be any good people left? Others fought against the evil. All suffered. But the truly bad and unrepentant will suffer eternally. Seriously leaving it here. Not being a theologian, or even having studied it much, it's beyond me. There are others more capable of carrying on. Your goodwill shines through. I apologize if I offended you.
The current cathechism is bordering close to heresy, at the very least, in its teaching on capital punishment. The teaching was different up to only a very short time ago. Can Truth change, on a whim? Just as well the teaching of the current cathechism wasn't part of the culture of Ancient Rome.
I think execution is far, far kinder than keeping people locked up for the rest of their lives. Also the cost to the State of keeping people locked up for the rest of their lives is unfair to tax payers. Perhaps the reason why so many people are opposed to Capital Punishment is that they don't believe that there is a life after this one? It would be good if the Death Penalty were mandatory for those who molest children in particular. But also for certain kinds of drug dealers. Some of the richest ones have become impossible to control. They can run entire countries now even from prison. The only way to stop them is by killing them. A good example of a person who would be much safer executed at once is Ridouan Taghi , a major drug dealer who terrifies even the Dutch Government silly. He is still running his massive drug cartel from prison and can get anyone anywhere killed at pretty well a moments notice. He has more money than many small countries.
The prospect of death in the morning greatly concentrates the mind. How many executed criminals made their peace with God in their last moments? How many potential criminals opted out of perpetrating their mooted crimes for fear of execution? How many child molestors languish in prison, nurturing their sick fantasies in anticipation of their inevitable release? How many reoffend, considering their near-certain reincarceration a worthwhile tradeoff for their opportunity for another degradation of an innocent? We face a future of imprisoned monsters, while our old, sick, handicapped and others considered 'useless breathers', will be casually and systematically put down like dogs, only in a much crueler way.
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: Romans 19 Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. 21 Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good. People have tried to create loving societies by killing criminals since the beginning. The cumulative sin remains, and often increases in doing so. So one cartel leader dies and five more replace him. This is what Jesus is trying to get across. Killing solves nothing. While the Justice of God is Good, because nothing but Good can come from God. It's why Our Lady in Medjugorje constantly calls us to prayer and have love in our hearts. She has never called us to violence.
I discovered today that Hitler painted this image of Our Lady with the Child Jesus in 1913 when he was only 24 years old. This makes you wonder how he would rise as Germany’s false messianic savior just 20 years later. Perhaps, when the Antichrist emerges, he will publicly praise Jesus and Our Lady at the beginning of his reign, though he will never confess that Jesus came in the flesh.
https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Adolf_Hitler_-_Mary_with_Jesus_(1913).jpg In the link above, there is a better reproduction of this painting with a background detail that really catches my attention: could it be the Jewish temple of the "Heavenly Jerusalem" in Germany itself? I couldn't upload this more detailed reproduction of the painting to the forum because an error message says the file is too large.
I had to use my older phone to take a screenshot since I still haven't managed to enable this feature on the newer model I bought in November, even though I faithfully followed several tutorials on YouTube.
