The Cross Leads To Salvation

I would like to address a comment that an anonymous poster wrote under the From The Catechism post.  According to the anonymous poster:

AnonymousJune 11, 2017 at 11:30 AM

Killing Jesus was an offense to God. Both physically and spiritually. An irredeemable sin. The crucifixion of our Lord is the scandal of the whole universe!

First of all, Christ was put to death in the body, not the spirit. The spirit or soul is immortal.  On the third day, Christ was resurrected from the dead.

Secondly, persecuting and killing an innocent man is certainly a sin and highly offensive to God. There is no doubt about that.  Nevertheless, something good came out of Christ's death......the forgiveness of sins and mankind's redemption.  Only God has the power to bring about something good from the consequences of evil acts.  According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 

312  In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me here, but God. . . You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive."¹⁷⁸ From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace that "abounded all the more",¹⁷⁹ brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good. 

God allows bad things to happen because He respects the free will of all His creatures.  And God allowed these things to happen for a reason.  Even the persecution of Christ brought together two enemies and reconciled them into friends.  

Luke 23:11-12 Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him.  Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends - before this they had been enemies. 

Imagine that!  The persecution of an innocent man (Jesus Christ) brought about the reconciliation of two enemies.  So, brothers....courage!  God allowed this persecution to happen for a reason.  As a matter of fact, the persecution of Archbishop Apuron brought about the reconciliation of two of the Archbishop's accusers: Doris Concepcion and her son Champ Quinata. According to news report:

For several years, Concepcion had been estranged from her other son, Champ. The mother said she had been trying to reach out to him for years.

Champ Quinata, for his part, said he kept his brother's secret for nearly 40 years and it affected him in a lot of ways. He stayed away from his mother and his whole family.

When Champ found out in 2016 that his brother, almost on his deathbed, also told their mother about Apuron, that's when Champ and his mother got reconnected.

Imagine that!  Just as the persecution of Jesus reconciled two enemies, so the persecution of Archbishop Apuron reconciled a mother and a son. God loves all people, and we will continue to pray for Archbishop Apuron and for our persecutors.    

This persecution comes to help us all.  It brings us closer to Jesus Christ.  We become one with Him in His suffering.  Jesus suffered from temptation, rejection, scorn, ridicule, insults, betrayal, sorrow, unrest, unjust imprisonment, and persecution.  

However, Jesus healed and raised people from the dead to show that suffering and death will not have the last word, so much so that St. Paul will one day say, “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).  So, let us take up our cross and follow Christ, who conquered death and suffering.