Good. But I don't think we differ using the word "just" as in "just society". "Just society" would mean a society where justice - or righteousness - prevails. A just man is a righteous man, one who lives the justice of God, returning to God all that is right and due to Him.We can debate the word "created" or "just society" (helping somebody or forgiving somebody is not exactly "just"), but you got the main point.
But the word which I used in my paraphrase would be troubling to me: "we are instruments of God"? - no, much more than "instruments", I must say. A person is more than an instrument of another, even of God. God created persons, having a dignity of being a "who" and not a "what." God Himself is a Trinity of divine Persons; the angels are persons, human beings are persons made in the image and likeness of God, made for personal communion with Him - not merely as instruments of His will, for His purposes, but to be participants with Him in His will, to have fellowship with Him in His purposes.
1Cor 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
2Cor 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
1Jn 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
2Cor 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
1Jn 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
The reality of our human vocation into this personal and intimate communion - or fellowship - with the all-holy God, seems to me to be a foundational difference between the Catholic and protestant understandings of Christianity. I hear protestants deeply incensed, offended and scandalized by Catholic honor paid to human holiness - as in the saints, especially Mary the Mother of God. I am told we are dishonoring God, in honoring as we do the saints, and Mary especially - but as we see it, the saints and Mary have most beautifully risen to the calling in Christ that is God's will for us!
We are called to holiness, and to the perfection of holy charity (divine love). Why do we say that? Because we are called into personal communion with Him! And there is no communion with Him except in holiness! Protestants tell me that we are insulting God by recognizing human persons as having entered into the fullness of His will for us all - holiness, and the perfection of divine love. Protestants seem to diminish the call into Christ down to maybe one notch above being a "good citizen", but nothing close to the call into the holiness of beatitude in His glory, in heaven.
Your thoughts?
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