4th Sunday Of Advent, 2015-2016

Hi! and happy holy and family day to all of us; and, it's just 5 days to go before Christmas, GUYS.  For our first-thing-first this Sunday:

THE GOOD NEWS (20 December 2015)

The Old Covenant Prefigures The New

"This is why on entering the world, CHRIST says:  You did not desire sacrifice and offering, you were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings.  Then I said:  'Here I am.  It was written of ME in the scroll.  I will do YOUR will, O GOD.'

First HE says:  Sacrifice, offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings YOU did not desire nor were YOU pleased with them -

although they were required by the Law.  Then HE says:  Here I am to do YOUR will.  

This is enough to nullify the first will and establish the new.  Now, by this will of GOD, we are sanctified once and for all by the sacrifice of the body of CHRIST JESUS." - Hebrew 10:5-10 

(How then can we affirm that CHRIST's sacrifice has freed us?

The sacraments we receive - and the pardon we receive in the Church - are never more than the application at the present moment of that which has been done once and for all.  For a baptized person, there is no further rite, commitment, new baptism [baptism with a lot of water, baptism 'in the spirit' ...] that can give more.  All has been given in JESUS.  John does not hesitate to say that whoever is in CHRIST does not sin [John 3:6]:  he does not commit a sin that leads to death [1 John 5:17].  Only sins that cause a total rupture with CHRIST can bring us back to our former state of 'death.'  Although it is certain that confession is of great help to overcome sin, let us not think a Christian continually passes from mortal sin to grace by confessing, sinning again, and confessing again.)