AboutRev. Dennis W. Meinen Expertise I prefer answering questions that a typical parishioner in a typical parish asks.
Experience I was ordained to the priesthood in 1987. One year later I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I am chaplain at a Catholic retirement/nursing home. I have a scooter (With the help of the Veterans) so I?m never at a desk! I am also involved in the Diocesan Office of Ministry to Persons With Disabilities and serve at our Catholic Hospital doing night call usually once a week. I write a column on disability for our Catholic newspaper and I try to tell how people can overcome obstacles to their disability. I freely admit to everyone that the ways of God are sometimes mysterious, but exciting. Why did God call me to the priesthood, yet will that this disability be part of it? St. Theresa told God that "It's no wonder that You don't have many friends, what with the way You treat them!" According to my human finite reasoning, I could serve God a lot better (and longer) if I was cured. But then I remember that St. Paul said that Jesus told him, ?In weakness power reaches perfection, because you?re strong in the Lord!?
Question In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful. Dear Reverend, my question is about the might Jesus(may the peace and blessing of God be upon him). I'm curious about something. Kindly explain to me about the original and how every child is borned of sin. I know Adam & Eve (God's peace and blessing be upon them both) ate the forbidden fruit. How is that fault part of me? As Jesus said in your bible, "No one shall enter the kingdom unless thy becometh that of a child." Isn't that what Jesus said. If a child is borned of sin, then I guess the kingdom is for sinners. Jesus also said, "No one is given a burden which he cannot bear. The father shall not bear the inequity of the son nor shall the son bear the inequity of the father." Was Jesus just speaking things he really didn't mean?
Who was St.Paul? According to this Christian bounty hunter, Jesus appointed him as an APOSTATE to the gentile, samarita and sabatians but didn't Jesus said, "Go not unto the Gentiles, samaritan or sabatians. I have not been sent but to the lost sheep of Israel."
Jesus also said, "Thy Lord God is ONE. Thy shall love they lord with all thy heart and all thy soul and thy shall not bow down to any images in the heaven, the earth or the sea below." Now tell me dear Reverend, how did father, son & holy spirit came about. Who is the holy spirit? I know it's not who Jesus prophecized because according to Jesus when the PARGALETE (the original word the bible which means the comforter but was deleted and changed to holy spirit through the numbers of MAJOR REVISIONS TO THE BIBLE. I DIDN'T KNOW WE COULD REVISE GOD'S WORD TO SUIT OUR TIME) But anyways, when the comforter comes, he shall speak of Jesus and confirm him. His WORDS shall be the words of God and his message shall be for the entire universe. Tell me who fits this description?
Thank you for your time.
Answer Dear Curious,
Usually I don't answer these kind of questions if I detect a desire to debate only, and I do, judging from the tone of your "missive."
But you did sign yourself "curious." I just know that both sides usually don't want to/seldom do change their opinion(s)in a debate.
But for this time I will state Christian/Catholic belief about this.
Original sin is, according to a doctrine in Christian theology, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. While the Old Testament and the New, which frequently speak of the sinfulness of humans, do not contain the terms "original sin" and "ancestral sin", the doctrine expressed by these terms is claimed to be based on the teaching of Paul the Apostle in Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:22. Some see the doctrine, which however is not found in Jewish theology, as implied in Old Testament passages such as Psalm 51:5 and Psalm 58:3.
In the history of Christianity this condition has been characterized in many ways ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature," to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt by all humans through collective guilt.
Western Christian tradition regards original sin as the general condition of sinfulness (lack of holiness) into which human beings are born, distinct from the actual sins that a person commits. Different views exist as to whether a person bears real guilt or personal responsibility only for actual sins that they personally commit, while being tempted by original sin, or whether they bear actual guilt for the sins of ancestors.
The prevailing view in Eastern Orthodoxy, as is also Roman Catholic doctrine, is that man bears no guilt for the sin of Adam. They prefer to use the term "ancestral sin", which indicates that "original sin is hereditary. It did not remain only Adam and Eve's. As life passes from them to all of their descendants, so does original sin. We all of us participate in original sin because we are all descended from the same forefather, Adam."
An important exposition of the belief of Eastern Christians identifies original sin as physical and spiritual death, the spiritual death being the loss of "the grace of God, which quickened (the soul) with the higher and spiritual life" Others see original sin also as the cause of actual sins: "a bad tree bears bad fruit" (Matthew 7:17, NIV), although, in this view, original and actual sin may be difficult to distinguish. Man sins not because of any innate proclivity to sin, but out of the fear of death, death being the consequence of the first sin.
