Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) - An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine by Thomas L. Kinkead
page 91 of 443 (20%)
page 91 of 443 (20%)
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one hundred dollars; so I go to a slave owner and say: I want to sell
myself for one hundred dollars. He buys me and I soon squander the one hundred dollars. Now I am his property, his slave; I shall never earn any wages and shall never be able to buy my freedom. No other slave can help me, for he is just in the same condition as I myself am. If I am to be free, a free man who has the money must pay for my liberty. This is exactly the condition in which all men were before Our Lord redeemed them. Adam sold himself and all his children to the devil by committing sin. He and they therefore became slaves. They could not earn any spiritual wages, that is, grace of God to purchase their liberty; and as all men were slaves one could not help another in this matter. Then Our Lord Himself came and purchased our freedom. He bought us back again, and the price He paid was His own life and blood given up upon the Cross. In His goodness, He did more than redeem us; He gave us also the means of redeeming ourselves in case we should ever have the misfortune of falling again into the slavery of the devil--into sin. He left us the Sacrament of Penance to which we can go as to a bank, and draw out enough of Our Lord's grace--merited for us and deposited in the power of His Church--to purchase our redemption from sin. 60 Q. Did God abandon man after he fell into sin? A. God did not abandon man after he fell into sin, but promised him a Redeemer, who was to satisfy for man's sin and reopen to him the gates of Heaven. "Abandon" means to leave to one's self. Adam and his posterity were slaves, but God took pity on them. He did not leave them to themselves, but promised to help them. "Gates of Heaven." Heaven has no gates, because it is not built of |
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