“When he had
come to the end of all he wanted the people to hear, he went into Capernaum. A
centurion there had a servant, a favorite of his, who was sick and near death.
Having heard about Jesus he sent some Jewish elders to him to ask him to come
and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus they pleaded earnestly with him
saying, He deserves this of you, because he is well disposed towards our
people; he built us our synagogue himself. So Jesus went with them and was not
very far from the house when the centurion sent word to him by some friends to
say to him, sir do not put yourself to any trouble because I am not worthy to
have you under my roof and that is why I did not presume to come to you myself;
let my boy be cured by your giving the word…” {Lk.7:1-10}
From this
Sacred Scripture, elders of Israel were able to intercede on behalf a
benevolent centurion to Christ who immediately honored their call (Prayer),
what then is this bias about the intercessory of the mother of God on the
behalf of the whole whose mother she is since Christ is the Redeemer of the
World (‘…Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world’
Jn.1:29) as well as the saints whose prayers are like a pleasing incense before
the throne of God {“and so from the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense went
up in the presence of God and with it the prayers of the saints” Rev.8:4}.
Anyway, it could be what they were thought by their head concerning the Sacred
Scripture [‘…in all his letters there are of course some passages which are
hard to understand and these are the ones that uneducated and unbalanced people
distort, in the same way as they distort the rest of scripture – to their own
destruction. Since you have been forewarned about this my dear friends, be
careful that you do not come to the point of losing the firm ground that you
are standing on, carried away by the errors of unprincipled people’ 2 Pet.3:16-17]
though at a point in one’s life he need to ask for the old ways and follow the
good old ways in order to gain rest of soul (“the Lord says this, stand at the
crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths: which was the good way? Take it
and you will find rest for yourselves. But they said, We will not take it” Jer.6:16)
or unwillingness to open entirely to the whole truth contained in the Sacred
Scripture by rejecting some {‘you stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts
and ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used
to do’ Acts.7:51} which brings about stubborn blindness in the spiritual realm [“the
unbelievers whose minds have been blinded by the god of this world, so that
they cannot see shining the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God” 2 Cor.4:4] especially among those who think they are good at
reading and quoting the Sacred Scripture (‘you pore over the scriptures
believing that in them you can find eternal life; it is these scriptures that
testify to me’ Jn.5:39) and the intellectuals of the world {“at that time Jesus
exclaimed, I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these
things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.
Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do” Mtt.11:25-26} but the
passionate desire/hunger for authentic truth amongst some of them often lead
them to the reality of God’s righteousness thus ‘Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for uprightness: they shall have their fill’ [Mtt.5:6] though the
willingness to submit one’s will-power to the Holy Spirit is often a hindrance
since the battle is not against flesh and blood rather a war against powers,
principalities in the spiritual realm hence only those who equip themselves
with the sword of the Spirit (“and then you must take salvation as your helmet
and the sword of the Spirit, that is the word of God” Eph.6:17) that is correct
[‘and he must have a grasp of the unchanging message of the tradition, so that
he can be counted on both for giving encouragement in sound doctrine and for
refuting those who argue against it’ Titus 1.9], consistently {“this is the
doctrine that you can rely on. I want you to be quite uncompromising in
teaching all this, so that those who now believe in God may keep their minds
constantly occupied in doing good works. All this is good and useful for
everybody” Titus 3:8} will be able to overcome the devil’s tactics (‘finally,
grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of his power. Put on the full armor
of God so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics’ Eph.6:10-11).
Do not also believe/think that those we
refer to as occultic/ritualist in the church who make donations are too far
from salvation, some part of their lifestyle is also making a supplication for
their conversion thus ‘…When they came to Jesus they pleaded earnestly with him
saying, He deserves this of you, because he is well disposed towards our
people; he built us our synagogue himself. So Jesus went with them…’ {Lk.7:4-6}
but we should not put the Lord to thirst with sin [“and we are not to put the
Lord to the test; some of them put him to the test and they were killed by snakes.
Never complain; some of them complained and they were killed by the destroyer.
Now all these things happened to them by way of example and they were described
in writing to be a lesson for us, to whom it has fallen to live in the last
days of the ages” 1 Cor.10:9-11] since He loves righteousness and reproofs
sinners/wicked (‘then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you;
away from me. All evil doers’ Mtt.7:23; “it is not anyone who says to me, Lord,
Lord who will enter the kingdom of Heaven but the person who does the will of
my Father in heaven’ Mtt.7:21) thus has not permitted any man to sin {“He never
commanded anyone to be godless, he has given no one permission to sin” Sirach
15:20}
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