Minecraft and God's Creation

          Today, I was doing my homework when I decided to take a break from so much studying. I decided to play Minecraft for a while, and I began laying the foundation for a cathedral in the middle of the city. I had the game set to "open" meaning that friends can join my world at any time. While I was working on the cathedral, some friends joined and started messing around. I was very upset because I had been working on it for quite some time and had not saved the game when they had come because I thought they were going to help me. Instead, they began placing random bricks everywhere and I had to restart from when I had last saved, which had been at least 30 minutes. I realized that this could be related to how God created the world and intends for us to be good stewards of his creation.
          God desires for all of us to join him in his heavenly kingdom, and the gates are open to all who believe in him and were good stewards of creation while on earth. Just like how in Minecraft I banned the people who messed up my world from joining again, if you do not believe in God and/or a bad steward, God will banish you from his heavenly kingdom (which is much worse). My friends later apologized to me and I accepted their apology and they came and aided me in building the cathedral , for which I was very grateful for. Likewise, God accepts sincere apologies if he sees a change in your life and you show that you truly desire God. God will welcome you with open arms, and you can once again be a good steward of creation.

Is Love Subjective?

I believe that love is subjective. But, what is love? Love is a strong affection for each other arising from a relationship. It is also the desire of good for someone for his/her own sake. God created us out of love and for love. And, because he loves us infinitely, he sent us a savior and redeemer, Jesus Christ, to save us from sin. It was our fault that we began to experience suffering and death. God created us for our own good and for our own sake. And, through our sin of disobeying the one rule God had asked us to follow, we began to suffer from the effects of sin, such as concupiscence. But, this sinful action of our early parents, Adam and Eve, is known as a happy fault, Felix Culpa, for, from it, God was able to bring about a greater good, which includes sending his only Begotten Son Jesus Christ to save and redeem us from sin. This shows the great intensity of God's love for us. But, because we are human and not perfect, we are not capable of loving infinitely as God does.

Therefore, I also believe that we have the ability of loving objectively. When we love subjectively, we truly love that person; we have true, strong feelings and emotions towards that person. But, we do not necessarily have those same feelings towards a stronger that he have never seen before. Yet, we are trying to live out Jesus' Commandment of Love, which states that you should love your neighbor as he has loved you, so I believe that is when you love someone objectively. I find it quite hard to truly love those who I have never met before or those I do not have a strong relationship with. For example, I often do not feel like I truly love my extended family members as I love my mother or God, but I do love them in a different way, which I believe is objective. Although we are not capable of loving as God loves, we should still try to truly love all of our neighbors just as Christ taught us to do so. 

The Bible Mini Series Part V

         Yesterday, I watched the final part of The Bible mini series. This series was made so that someone who has never read the Bible could watch this five-part series in order to get the gist and the most important parts of it. The part I watched was the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, his Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, and all the way until the conversion of Paul and the final writings of Revelation by St. John, which he wrote while exiled on the island of Patmos. Many movies that are based entirely on the Bible are normally not too well acted and poorly made, but the director of this series put a lot of effort into this and searched endlessly for someone who he believed would look like Jesus would have looked.
         Whenever multiple people read something, it is always interpreted differently by each individual, especially if the context is very deep and requires much thought, such as the Bible. When I first read the part in the Bible where Peter denys Christ three times, I figured Peter would have been very upset at himself but would have felt better soon. In the movie, I realized that Peter was not even at Christ's Crucifixion because he felt so ashamed of himself. What a horrible feeling it must be to deny the Son of God with whom you have traveled with and witnessed perform many miracles. And he did it three times in a row! On a another note, I had always had trouble depicting Pilate as either good or bad. I knew for sure he wasn't a saint, but at the same time he did not want Jesus to be crucified. In the movie, I found out that his wife had a dream the night before Jesus' Crucifixion and had told her husband not to harm him because Jesus was the person in her dreams and Pilate was the one who ordered his death sentence. Even though Pilate tried to not have Jesus crucified, he still did it anyway! I could not believe that, but later when the pharisees and high priests wanted the inscription on the cross of Jesus to say something along the lines of "Claimed to be the King of the Jews" Pilate made it say "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews". To me, it seemed as if Pilate believed that Jesus was truly the King of the Jews but that he cared about himself more anyways. I highly recommend watching this series and I hope that I get to see the previous parts as well.

The Importance of Confession

Why do Catholics have to confess their sins to a priest instead of confessing straight to God if Christ is the one true mediator? First, the Catholic Church is infallible in her teaching, and the true ability to interpret Sacred Scripture and preserve the teachings of Jesus Christ are only really possible within her. Jesus gave St. Peter, upon whom the Church was built, ultimate teaching authority over the Church, including the power to forgive sins. St. Peter's successors are the bishops, and Christ gave that power to forgive sins to his other Apostles, whose successors are the priests. The Church properly teaches the doctrines of faith for our salvation and entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, the Catholic Church, with her divine teaching authority ordained by Christ himself, assures us of the necessity and legitimacy of the Sacraments established by Christ, which includes the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The Church teaches that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is

the necessary means by which one receives the forgiveness of God. After Christ had resurrected from the dead, he breathed on his Apostles, signifying that he had given them the authority to forgive sins. Christ intends that all of our sins be forgiven through the Church by confession of sins to priests. A priest, by his ordination, is given as much power to minister God’s healing power of forgiveness as the Apostles themselves possessed. God chose to express his forgiveness to us this way. Because our humanity is sacred to God, He reaches out to us through this humanity. Also, in confession, the priest represents the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ. So, Christ is present during our confession of sins and mediates between God and us.

Confession to priests shows that we trust in God and that we are truly and sincerely sorry and repentant for our sins, for it requires humility. We are assured that our sins are forgiven through our confession. Although confession your sins to a priest may seem quite frightening and humiliating, just know that the priest is always gentle and compassionate. He will not condemn you for your wrong, immoral acts, rather he will forgive and absolve you of your sins through Christ himself. I usually become nervous and worried when I am getting ready to go and confess my sins to a priest, but it becomes a little easier the more often you go. And, the feeling of your soul being cleansed of its sins makes you joyous as you know that your soul has been filled with grace and that your relationship with God has strengthened.