My dear mother, who passed away a few years ago, was full of kindness. She was gentle and discreet. Isn't that the most beautiful adornment a woman can have? (1 Peter 3: 3- 4). Very competent, she took care of her family with zeal, and managed her whole house despite a slight physical handicap from which she suffered a lot, in silence. She always put others above herself, and accepted her suffering and difficulties without complaint. His way of being has been beneficial to us.
My mother did not attach much importance to the outward behavior of a believer, but she secretly maintained an upright relationship with God.
The power of Tradition.
For my parents, the Bible had always been a forbidden book. However God, in His omnipotence, can overcome any fortress built by Roman Catholicism in the heart and mind of man. I know my mother feared the Lord; I was brought up with great respect for God, in fear of divine wrath against sin.
Many times, I remember, I went to the confessional after having accumulated the faults and sins against God, having suffered without respite from remorse which deprived me of all peace until I had been absolved by the priest. in the confessional. Absolution brought me liberation and relief.
We didn't know anything about the Gospel of grace, of the marvelous. message of faith in the reconciling work of Jesus, through whom we have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Such is the power of Tradition in the Roman Catholic system. Consider, for example, confession. The Bible says, "All the prophets bear record of him that whoever believes in him receives forgiveness of sins by name." (Acts 10:43).
Yet Rome excommunicates all witnesses to the Bible, as the Council of Trent bluntly declares. Generally speaking, Tradition rules out the Scriptures. As the Word of God asks us, we must be careful: indeed, we are inclined to accept what Tradition dictates more than what the Bible says. Tradition creates real problems.
The missionary vocation.
I started my secondary studies at the College of Waregem, studying Greek and Latin. At that time, discipline was still rigorous. We obeyed, we learned. It was a difficult time for me: the residents only returned home two or three weeks a year.
The service of the poor attracted me. During my studies, I had time to read the accounts of great missionaries, and the thought occurred to me to imitate them. In 1959, therefore, I entered the Order of Missionary Oblate Fathers of Mary in Korbecklo near Louvain: there was the novitiate of the Order. It was another trying year, very difficult for me. We were tested, we were trained for monastic life.
Spiritual exercises without value.
Every day, very early in the morning, we had a prayer meeting with reading of the breviary, meditation, mass, and devotions to the Virgin. During the day we also had spiritual readings, the rosary, and Bible reading time. In the afternoons, we engaged in manual labor in silence.
Sometimes on Friday afternoon we had to flog ourselves. Each novice had his whip and had to flog his back, a bit like atoning for his sins for the week.
This is how we were trained for monastic life for a whole year. We did not realize that in reality all of these spiritual exercises, all of these efforts to serve God were worthless and only served to satisfy the flesh, as Paul teaches us in the Letter to the Colossians.
All of these supposedly holy methods only obscure Jesus' role as Mediator: "Now those who are in the grip of the flesh cannot please God." (Romans 8: 8). What grace, this rest which the finished saving work of Jesus brings! I want to communicate this message to all priests and to all those who live in the monasteries: "Repent, and believe in the Gospel!"
It saddens me so much that CatholicsRomans do not know the difference between the truth and the lies contained in the spiritual doctrines of Rome: the latter are deeply anchored in the thought and in the spirit of the people. I see how difficult it is to make a lie disappear when I evangelize door-to-door with an assembly of "born again" Christians in Münsterbilzen.
In each of us there is a deep aversion to the truth. The truth of the Word brings to light our state of sinners, our perdition; but instead we want to listen to suggestions from our own hearts, which the Bible calls "crooked" and "incurable." In Jeremiah 17: 9 we read: "The heart is above all crooked, it is incurable: who can know it?"
Priest of the Church of Rome.
After this year of training for monastic life, we went to the Study Center in Gijzegem, a village located between Aalst and Dendermonde. After two years of studying philosophy and four years of theology, I was ordained a priest on February 20, 1966. This was the most significant event of my life, of course, the crowning of my studies and my education. .
To be a priest of the Church of Rome! There was nothing higher. We had been chosen to perpetuate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the present life, to be the bearers of the grace of God. I was fully convinced of it. We pretended to be a sort of "blessing maker". How far I was from the Scriptures!
It is shameful to belittle the perfect and fully sufficient sacrifice of Jesus by adding to it the Offertory of Mass, while choosing to ignore the depth and power of His sacrifice which provides us with eternal salvation. The Epistle to the Hebrews is perfectly clear on this point.
I followed an additional year of preparation for the Minor Seminary of the Fathers of Waregem, an intermediate school where one can opt for monastic life. Subsequently, I was asked to go to Antwerp and engage in parish work with a team of priests. My task was to work with young people.
After a year of work, I left Antwerp-Kiel, having been called by my order to do comparable work, this time in a newly established parish in Houthalen-Est. Three other Fathers and I started working as a team. I kept asking myself questions about their convictions, their idealism.
It was all about human power; it was a human construction built not on rock but on sand. Our life was not based on the Word of God; it was therefore a very unstable building, susceptible to collapse overnight, as the Bible says. How important it is to base our life on the Word of God!
After ten years of priesthood, my spiritual life was practically extinct. Especially when I was in the presence of basic human needs, I was forced to regard my official ministry as a Roman Catholic priest as a failure.
To the seriously ill, I could not bring the comfort of the Word of God. To those who were burdened with guilt because of their faults, I could not present the forgiveness and reconciliation that is in Jesus Christ: I myself needed to know God and receive His forgiveness for my own sins.
That's why my own spiritual life was like a garbage heap. The main cause of my failure was that I did not know the Lord Jesus or the Scriptures. Astonished people sometimes ask how a priest can not knowthe Gospel and Christ as it should be. It is indeed deeply humiliating to have to admit this.
For us Roman Catholics, Jesus is our great model, He offers an example of moral righteousness, social and economic justice. This is why I was so deeply involved in social works, to try, in a way, to be like Jesus and to achieve, if possible, salvation.
A new spiritual birth.
Apart from Jesus Christ, salvation is impossible. We all need to be led to the grace of God: there is no other way to be saved. By the grace of God, I was brought to a spiritual rebirth in Christ by the divine scriptures. Of course, this was not done without pain. In the light of the Gospel, I discovered who I was: a being delivered up to sin, incapable of doing good, and prone to evil.
In me, nothing good! This is the testimony of the Bible! The Scriptures themselves assert that I was absolutely incapable of saving myself, and inevitably destined to perdition, as Paul explains to the Ephesians. In my own nature, God finds nothing pleasant, nothing good. Who would have believed it, after ten years of zealous service as a Roman Catholic priest? In one word, Paul describes all this diligence: "garbage" (Phil 3: 8).
And I who believed that all these good works were used to attract the favor of God! I discovered that on the contrary, they only contributed to harm me: "because I know it: what is good does not live in me, that is to say in my flesh.
Because I am able to wanting, but not doing good, "cries Paul (Rom 7:18). Apart from Jesus Christ, salvation is impossible. We all need to be led to the grace of God: there is no other way to be saved. And I who believed that all these good works were used to attract the favor of God! I discovered that on the contrary, they only contributed to harm me: "because I know it: what is good does not live in me, that is to say in my flesh. For I am able to wanting, but not doing good, "cries Paul (Rom 7:18).
The Bible does not compromise on this point. There is no middle ground between truth and falsity. What is not truth is a lie! There is a great temptation to take the pious people who attend church as righteous, but God has broken in me this deep and pernicious belief in self-redemption.
I believe there is absolutely no one who wants to make a living from grace alone. We still cling to a secret hope of finding "good ground" in ourselves, and our pride holds us back from acknowledging that it is not.
From the Bible an atmosphere of sovereign grace emerges: it is therefore by grace alone, by means of faith, that the sinner is justified.. The collaboration of pardoned is totally excluded. I rejoice that God has revealed this truth to me. He says in effect: "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32).
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