PAROQUIA Nssa. Sra. do ROSÁRIO

Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fatima                                  9 November, 2012                    XLII:3

Trav. Carlos Pontes, 171                                   http://www.egfbenya.com

Cx. P. 101

62.900-000 Russas, Ceará                                e-mail:  [email protected]

BRASIL

Dear Friends, Family, Benefactors & Colleagues :

          The fall from grace is always traumatic for an individual, a group or even a species. Transgression, sin or betrayal, the terminology can vary but first venture of any entity into degeneracy is ALWAYS marked by depression.

          That venture is always PRECEEDED by Confusion to some degree. From the first sin of our primal parents to the specific falls that each of us makes in our unique ways, the Tempter knows that we MUST  be confused in some way or form because, notwithstanding our frailty, limits and weakness, none of us  wants to freely and consciously offend Almighty God. We must be misled somehow and the tempter, in his malignance, is most proficient in confusion.

          Yet initial fall is anything but satisfactory to the prince of degeneracy. He knows that Divine Compassion and Mercy are infinite in their abundance and that recovery awaits every sinner who repents. Proclivity of function, habitual fall is the degenerative goal of this spiritual Deviant. Such habit characterizes the addict, one who is a carrier of degenerate tendency (or tendencies), be it alcohol, aberrant sex, violence, fear, food or any perversion of the otherwise beneficial gifts bestowed upon us by our Creator. Such proclivity is a weakness, but NOT in itself an offense to God. Recognized and dominated by the carrier, through the Power of God, such weakness can become a source of sanctity as was the “thorn of Satin” that Saint Paul carried, or the sexual abuses that Saint Augustine conquered.

          Thus addiction to evil must finally lead to Despair if the Tempter is to conquer. That despair MUST be manifest in “license” (juridical permissiveness), individual and collective so that perversion be INSTITUTED within entire cultures and nations. Decent people of spiritual weakness QUIT on themselves through moral compromise with evil not only in their own witness but also promoting such compromise through instituted and condoned social and spiritual degeneracy. The libertine sequence is established and promoted.

          Almighty God is aware of this sequence of degeneration. He knows that on our own, we are no match for the Tempter. Thus He ARRIVED among us, as ONE of US, complete with our tendencies (yet COMPLETE in innocence) in order to face and defeat the malignance that can dominate and destroy us. Not content to merely conquer evil, He established a Body and transcendental mechanisms (Sacraments) to assist each of us in our personal battle against evil in our efforts to recognize and defeat our personal proclivities.

          We celebrate that subtle arrival and continued profound presence at the HANUKKA-ADVENT-CHRISTMAS Season with gratitude and sobriety of Joy in our witness to Him, Jesus Christ who is our redeemer. In communion with Him, I wish to all:

A JOYFUL YULE TIDE and a BLESSED NEW YEAR of 2013!

                                                                       With humble gratitude in Jesus Christ

                                                                                  Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.