What is the hope that is in you that St. Peter is talking about in this epistle? That hope is the truth coming from Jesus Christ that is with those in his true church. The hope that in Christ of attaining salvation and eternal life in the Kingdom of God in the coming new heaven and earth.
You can't give what you don't have. But when you are received in the Catholic Church you are already at the very gate of the kingdom which is ready to be opened to you as the elect of God. Have in mind that the keys of the kingdom are not given to anyone else but to Peter the visible head of the Catholic Church.
This is the hope that St. Peter is talking about, the hope for eternal life through salvation in Jesus Christ who founded his church, that is the Catholic Church. The New Tabernacle of the Kingdom dispenses the free gift of life through sacraments instituted by the Lord Himself in the Catholic Church.
Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect says the Lord; however, the question is how can we attain perfection as a human being that has the concupiscence or the tendency to sin which is the consequence of the original sin? While Jesus has effectively redeemed us from the original sin and made possible the forgiveness of our sin our natural tendency, or concupiscence to sin remains in our nature. So the way to perfection is through the Sacraments which are the free gifts of grace given by the Lord God for us. It allows us to become holy and justified even if we commit sins and fall from time to time due to the sinful nature that we have inherited from our first parents.
Through the Sacrament of Baptism which is also called the Sacrament of faith, we are born again and regenerated washed of the heavy load of sins from our conception up to the time of our baptism. We are justified made righteous by God's grace and we become a new creature as adopted sons of the Father through Jesus Christ. A new nature is added to us, that while we can fall to sin in our flesh, we now have a new spiritual nature that will draw us back to God. With the Sacraments, nothing can separate us from God. To be Catholic is to be Sacramental in our way of life which draws us to holiness. Once a Catholic takes away his sacramental nature, he falls back to his sinful nature. A case in point. When one committed a sin by breaking the laws of God for sin is the breaking of the law, he carries the burden of the sin.
Protestants have only themselves to rely on because they have rejected the sacraments. They said they can go directly to God and ask forgiveness. But by embracing Jesus Christ they have also put themselves under the new law of the Lord in the New Covenant for the Lord said, if you follow me you must do all my commandments. From the Law of Moses which has been fulfilled by Christ, we are now under the law of Christ. While it's true that we are given salvation through Grace which is a free gift of God through the faith in Jesus Christ. We are under the law of Jesus and the Lord said that if the brother has committed wrongdoing he must be brought to the church and that church is no other church but the one founded by him. For it is in that church that the law is given on forgiveness "Whose sins you forgive, it is forgiven them, Whose sins you retained, it is retained." This is the sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation which is in the Catholic Church. How then can one know he is forgiven? Through the church that says in the Sacrament, you are absolved of your sins.
Becoming Catholic and submitting our spiritual well-being to Jesus Christ through his Church is to humble ourselves. A protestant lacks the humility asks by the Lord for each one of us because they don't want to be under the authority of the church and so they invented the Bible alone as the only authority of faith for them. With Bible Alone, they have become their own authority based on their individual interpretation of the word of God written in the biblical books, gospels, and epistles which were in fact written for the church particularly the New Testament. The church did not start with the written command of Jesus Christ but by his oral command given to the Apostles and Disciples saying, "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you".
By Bro. Manny OTFS Chief Apologist
This is the hope that St. Peter is talking about, the hope for eternal life through salvation in Jesus Christ who founded his church, that is the Catholic Church. The New Tabernacle of the Kingdom dispenses the free gift of life through sacraments instituted by the Lord Himself in the Catholic Church.
Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect says the Lord; however, the question is how can we attain perfection as a human being that has the concupiscence or the tendency to sin which is the consequence of the original sin? While Jesus has effectively redeemed us from the original sin and made possible the forgiveness of our sin our natural tendency, or concupiscence to sin remains in our nature. So the way to perfection is through the Sacraments which are the free gifts of grace given by the Lord God for us. It allows us to become holy and justified even if we commit sins and fall from time to time due to the sinful nature that we have inherited from our first parents.
Through the Sacrament of Baptism which is also called the Sacrament of faith, we are born again and regenerated washed of the heavy load of sins from our conception up to the time of our baptism. We are justified made righteous by God's grace and we become a new creature as adopted sons of the Father through Jesus Christ. A new nature is added to us, that while we can fall to sin in our flesh, we now have a new spiritual nature that will draw us back to God. With the Sacraments, nothing can separate us from God. To be Catholic is to be Sacramental in our way of life which draws us to holiness. Once a Catholic takes away his sacramental nature, he falls back to his sinful nature. A case in point. When one committed a sin by breaking the laws of God for sin is the breaking of the law, he carries the burden of the sin.
Protestants have only themselves to rely on because they have rejected the sacraments. They said they can go directly to God and ask forgiveness. But by embracing Jesus Christ they have also put themselves under the new law of the Lord in the New Covenant for the Lord said, if you follow me you must do all my commandments. From the Law of Moses which has been fulfilled by Christ, we are now under the law of Christ. While it's true that we are given salvation through Grace which is a free gift of God through the faith in Jesus Christ. We are under the law of Jesus and the Lord said that if the brother has committed wrongdoing he must be brought to the church and that church is no other church but the one founded by him. For it is in that church that the law is given on forgiveness "Whose sins you forgive, it is forgiven them, Whose sins you retained, it is retained." This is the sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation which is in the Catholic Church. How then can one know he is forgiven? Through the church that says in the Sacrament, you are absolved of your sins.
Becoming Catholic and submitting our spiritual well-being to Jesus Christ through his Church is to humble ourselves. A protestant lacks the humility asks by the Lord for each one of us because they don't want to be under the authority of the church and so they invented the Bible alone as the only authority of faith for them. With Bible Alone, they have become their own authority based on their individual interpretation of the word of God written in the biblical books, gospels, and epistles which were in fact written for the church particularly the New Testament. The church did not start with the written command of Jesus Christ but by his oral command given to the Apostles and Disciples saying, "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you".
By Bro. Manny OTFS Chief Apologist
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