SPIRITUALITY 101
SPIRITUAL REFLECTION- 96
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

In Canada on the last day of Eastertide, at the afternoon angelus, the bell tolls twice as long as usual, and then people pray for those who are spiritually dead and have not benefited by repentance of their sins by Eastertide.

Would those bells toll for us? Have we taken an account of our sins recently, and had them forgiven and forgotten by God?

DEVOTION - Growth in love- 3rd stage
DEVOTIONALS- MEDITATION-SACRAMENTALS-THE ROSARY-22
THE CREED-21

The Creed continues, "I believe in.....the forgiveness of sins." This is central to Christianity. The forgiveness of sin, accompanied by the restoration of the sinner to a state of grace and repairing the damage done by the sin is the hope of all Christians.

Throughout the Old Testament, we find many efforts to remove sin, but none were effective. Man had insulted God in his sin, and it would require a man to redeem sin. But man could not redeem sin against divinity, the man who could redeem sin must also be divine. Never-the-less, man continually attempted through his own efforts. In the interim between the entrance of sin into the world and the coming of divinity in humanity as Jesus Christ, God directed man to deal with sin as best he could.

When God directed Moses in the building of the Ark in the desert, as a place in which God could dwell among men, he had Moses prepare a golden plate, 2.5 cubits long and 1.5 cubits wide to cover the ark (Exodus 25:17). The golden covering was called a propitiatory. The word propitiate refers to atonement, a blend of the ideas of expiation (erasing) of sins and reconciliation of man with God. It was understood that man could make an act of atonement and he would be forgiven (Leviticus 4:20, 31; Numbers 15:25 ff.). The propitiatory was the place of atonement. The blood of a sacrificed animal was washed over the propitiatory, as a sign of "washing" away sins. In this action sins were removed, but the damage done by sin to humanity was not corrected.

On the day of atonement, a very holy day for the Hebrews, the priest performed the act of atonement by placing the blood of a sacrificial animal on the head of a goat. The goat was then led into the desert, by a gentile, and cast into a chasm. On this same day, blood was sprinkled onto the Holy of Holies of the temple, on the tapestry separating the people from the Holy of Holies, and on the people.

In all instances the atonement rituals involved the blood of animals. Sin was seen to represent death, and blood represented life. It was also recognized the sin affects people as though it were in the blood. Even the simplest of sins influences everything that makes man fully human and fully alive. Since sin was seen to be associated with the blood, the shedding of blood was seen as a means of atonement.

In the Passover night, on which the angel of death passed over Gods chosen people enslaved in Egypt, the blood of a lamb was painted on the door posts (Exodus 12:13). This ritual had been used by the Bedouin of the desert through prior centuries when the blood of a lamb was painted on the desert tents before the sheep were sent off to the spring pastures. The blood was a sign of life, and was believed to protect the sheep and increase their fertility. Passover was celebrated by the shedding of blood of the lamb until the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. During the timewhen Jesus was in Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover, Josephus (the historian) tells us that there were as many as 250,000 lambs slaughtered on that day.

The history of Gods chosen people represented a virtual river of blood, but atonement could not be completed with animal blood. We see the first indication of the necessity for the death of Jesus on the Cross, on a day near Jerusalem when John was baptizing in the Jordan river. John looked up, seeing the thousands of little pet lambs led toward the city of their sacrifice and cried out, "There, There is the Lamb of God!" He had seen Jesus in the crowd.

Later when Jesus died on the Cross, a death in which His blood separated from His flesh, He became the sacrificial lamb of the Christian. Atonement had finally reached its fullness and sins were not just washed away, or carried away, sin was forgiven and the damage of sin restored in man.

In order that Jesus continue forgiving sin in the world, He left the Church of the Apostles. Upon the day of His resurrection, he appeared to the Apostles, who were hiding for fear of the Jews. He breathed on them, transmitting the power of the Holy Spirit to them, just as He had done for Adam in the garden of Eden. Then He said, "Whose sins you forgive them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (John 20:23). In this way Christ gave the Church authority over sin in the world. We celebrate this great gift in the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which we speak our sins to Christ, represented by the priest. The confession of sins is evaluated by the priest and when he decides that the confession is serious and there is a serious attempt to amend ones life, forgives the sin in the name of Christ.

THE NEW CATHOLIC CATECHISM:
ARTICLE NO. 1040

The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God's justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God's love is stronger than death. (Song of Songs 8:6)

FINAL JUDGMENT
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

Christ will come in Holy Glory
And each will then review the story
Of their lives as they have lived it
What wondrous fabric they have knit
What astounding treasures did they quarry

We will then know full entire
All to which God did aspire
For which we each do play a role
And how we fit into the whole
What graces we had as our attire

We will know his full plan
For salvation of sinful man
And how His justice does defeat
All inequity it does meet
And why His Son took His stand

When we come to see Him there
Of our weakness full aware
We can say that we are sheep
And not the goats who left the keep
To receive more than life can bear

Ó2001 DR. JAMES E. BREAZILE, deacon 
JOHN PAUL EVANGELIST OCDS