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Father Cleary
Father Richard James Cleary was born and reared in Wichita. After graduation from Cathedral High School in 1947, he attended the seminary operated by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey in Northwestern Missouri. There he came to appreciate the life of the monks and, having obtained the permission of Bishop Mark Carroll of Wichita, he became a monk of that monastery. After being ordained a priest in 1955, his superiors sent him to get his master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, Canada, then to study in Athens, Greece, and then in Rome, Italy, where he obtained his doctor’s degree in Theology. Finally, he spent a year of study at Harvard University. Later, Fr. Cleary was assigned to teach for many years in Rome. In 1998, he returned to Wichita, where he served in parish ministry at St. Mary’s Cathedral and at Blessed Sacrament parishes. In 2001, his abbot (superior) transferred him to Arkansas, where he served as chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, and helped in the parishes of northeast Arkansas. In March 2010, he was re-assigned to his monastery, Conception Abbey, Conception, in Missouri 64433. He can be contacted there at, 660-944-2877, or by email: rjcleary@juno.com.
Religion
2013-06-25 09:55:34
Faith vs Works
A-The expression “to accept Jesus Christ as your savior and have a personal relation-ship with him” was cited by Martin Luther at the time (16th century) of his protesting against the Catholic Church’s teaching about the necessity of good works in order to be saved. Granting that in Luther’s time some expressions of Catholic teaching and some Catholic practices were frequently misunderstood and indeed seemed to go against the Bible, the Catholic Church never taught that a person is saved by works alone or by the merits of their own good deeds. The Church did encourage various good works by granting indulgences for the performance of such works. An indulgence is a remission in whole or in part of the punishment due to sin. The Church has from Jesus the authority to forgive the sins of human persons, and uses that authority to foster various practices of piety and prayer. Good works (e.g. charity and fasting and almsgiving and prayers and teaching and the Sacraments) all suppose the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ. All these good works cultivate a close personal relationship with Jesus. That faith proves itself and is alive when expressed in good works. In his rejection of the Catholic Church, Luther protested against the use of indulgences and various Catholic practices of religious devotion, including veneration of the saints and relics connected with them, and eventually against that most important expression of Catholic faith and practice: the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Luther’s followers and successors would eventually restore many of these practices, which are rooted in early Christianity. Luther’s insistence that we are saved “by faith alone” (Luther’s words) is contradicted by Jesus’ cousin, St. James, in his epistle in the New Testament. Therein (chapter 2, verses 14-26) St. James answers Luther’s protestation. The Apostle writes: “My brothers, what good is it for someone to say that he has faith if his actions do not prove it? Can that faith save him? Suppose there are brothers and sisters who need clothes and don’t have enough to eat. What good is there in your saying to them: ‘God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!’ – if you don’t give them the necessities of life? So it is with faith: if it is alone and does not express itself in actions, then it is dead. But someone will say: ‘One person has faith, another has good deeds.’ My answer is: Show me how anyone can have faith without good deeds. I will show you my faith by my good deeds. Do you believe that there is only one God? Good! The devils also believe – and tremble with fear. Do you want to be shown that faith without deeds is useless? How was our ancestor Abraham made righteous before God? It was through his good deeds. . . . His faith and his deeds worked together; his faith was made perfect through his good actions. And this is why Scripture says of him: ‘Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.’ And so Abraham was called God’s friend. You see then, that it is by his deeds that a person is made righteous before God, and not by his faith alone. . . . . So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without good works is dead.” Luther preferred his own opinion to that of the Apostle, and so rejected the Epistle of James from the New Testament. By now however most Protestants, including Lutherans, have recognized that the Epistle of James has been part of the New Testament, since the time when the Canon of the Bible was determined (around the year 100). In the gospel (Matthew 7:21) Jesus says: “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the Will of my heavenly Father.” Faith is expressed not only by words, but requires deeds for proof. The person, who chooses to do evil, in that action, is rejecting the faith he might profess with his lips. Religion is not a matter of picking and choosing according to the individual’s tastes. The television mogul, Ted Turner recently said that he prefers the Ten Commandments be styled “the ten suggestions.” He acknowledges that the Commandment forbidding adultery makes him uncomfortable. But the Commandments are from God, and do not depend on human acceptance or individual opinion. Each person will be judged by God: according as to whether or not they have lived their faith through good deeds, which include the Commandments. Those persons, who have practiced good deeds, evidence living faith, and so their faith will enable them to go to heaven. Those persons who chose to ignore the Commandments and neglected to practice good deeds will go to hell, even though they might protest: “I believe.” By their evil deeds, committed during life on earth, they effectively denied the faith. So in hell they will believe, along with the devils, and tremble with fear!
 
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