GoodNewsBulletin ONLINE

	Sign In Sign-Up

IN THIS ISSUE:

Cover Page

WHO IS YOUR NEIGHBOR?

by Bro. Pete Lapid

BIBLE CROSSWORD

Our Faith

THE BIGGER INTELLIGENCE, THE BIGGER BEAST

By Fr. KJ Veeger, MSC

Place of Refuge

Acts of Mercy: THE FRUITS OF SALVATION

By Philip Yuson

Surabaya Corner

GIVE GENEROUSLY AND CHEERFULLY

By Ramon Martillano

Sharing

BE AN ANSWER TO A PRAYER

By Kathy Quiano

Here's the Latest

THANKSGIVING IN JULY

Sharing

HEAR AND I WILL SPEAK

By Dhany Handoyo Saputra

Sharing

GOD'S STUBBORN LOVE

By Raul Loria

Sharing

A TALK ON INTERCESSION BY Father VINCENT LEE

by Chris Kamaruddin

Saint for the Month

SAINT MARIA GORETTI


Meet the Staff
Catholic Links

Previous Issues


PROFILE OF THE
GENESIS CATHOLIC COMMUNITY

THIS WEBSITE IS A PROUD RECIPIENT OF THE

PLACE OF REFUGE

Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold. For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin. Those who perform deeds of charity and of righteousness will have fullness of life; - Tobit 12:7-8

As Catholics, we are often taught that we have to do acts of mercy. This verse, specifically tells us that 'Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness.'
Sadly though, many Catholics think that acts of mercy are enough for salvation. But the passage clearly says that prayer should be accompanied by the acts of mercy. So, we do acts of mercy as a result of our prayer. And why do we pray? Because we love God. We go back to what Jesus said in the Gospel, 'Unless your righteousness exceeds those of the Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven'. The Pharisees at that time were perfect in every way. They did acts of mercy, they were obedient to the Law - as Paul said, 'In terms of the Law, I was blameless'.
So why did Jesus say that they still are lacking something? They were too focused on obeying the Law that they forgot the reason for doing what was prescribed by the Law - to love God above all things and to love their neighbor as themselves. Tobit was a man who, first of all, feared God. (Fear of the Lord is the result of our love for God). This fear of God moved him to do acts of mercy to his neighbors, such that he was not afraid of being caught burying the dead - even after the king threatened to kill him for doing this.
If our salvation is based on our doing acts of mercy, and then it means that we do not need God. But our salvation is based on grace. It is God's grace that saves us and not our acts of mercy. Acts of mercy by itself cannot save us.

Before I realized this, I always thought that since I commit sins, I would do good works to make up for my sins. I treated this as an accounting matter where my sins were the 'expenses' and good deeds were 'income'. So hopefully, when I die, my financial statements will show a profit - then I can go to heaven.
But this is not right. Our salvation is based on grace and if it is by grace, we cannot earn our salvation. BUT - as proof of our salvation, we have to bear fruit - and the fruits that we bear are the acts of mercy. We do not plant the seed of good works to bear the fruit of salvation. We plant the seed of salvation to bear the fruit of acts of mercy.
If we think that going to Mass once a week and giving millions in donation to charity will earn us our salvation, we are wrong. True, "almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin. Those who perform deeds of charity and of righteousness will have fullness of life;" but remember, these should be the fruits of our salvation - which is the result of our faith.

Visit my website at http://pyuson.tripod.com


Some information on the book of Tobit. The book is one of the Deuterocanonicals. These were books written during the Babylonian exile and were probably originally written in Greek. Protestant bibles do not include these Deuterocanonicals because their Old Testament is based on books originally written in Hebrew. The Catholic Church recognizes these books, because the early Church used these books in their teachings and recognized these as equally inspired by the Spirit of God.
If you have not read the Book of Tobit, I recommend that you make it one of your readings this month. Aside from being a story of a man's persistence in doing right, it is also a love story and of course a story of God's faithfulness.