 |
|
|
Have you ever made a huge sacrifice for love of someone else?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Maybe you have freely taken upon yourself a punishment you didn't deserve because you wanted to spare someone else?
|
|
|
|
Parents do this all the time, don't they? They are called upon to make daily sacrifices for their children and do what is best for them rather than themselves.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| |
|
 |
|
"Yes, if my child was starving, of course, I'd give him my food. I'd rather see me die, than him."
"My children mean the world to me. If they desperately needed help, even if it meant travelling to the other side of the world, I'd get there."
"I'd sacrifice anything if my kids were in danger or unhappy. I'd just want to make it right again." |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
And it was that same love without cost that led to God sacrificing part of his very self for each one of us. |
|
| This is a website of the Catholic Enquiry Office; part of an Agency of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. |
| |
|
|
|
Colour illustration by Elizabeth Wang:
A Window into Time
Copyright (c) Radiant Light 2004. All rights reserved.
www.radiantlight.org.uk |
|
Who would you be prepared to die for? |
|
|
|
Jesus was someone whose life purpose
was to love people, quite literally, to death. He allowed
himself to be tortured and to be killed even though
he was without fault. He could have saved himself but
didn't. Imagine the scenario, an innocent man dying
for the wrong doing of another. Each year, at 3pm on
the Friday afternoon before Easter Sunday, Catholics
gather in Church to pray at the foot of the cross. They
also come forward to kiss (venerate) the cross. This
day is called Good
Friday |
|
| Why did he let this happen to himself? Because, as Son of God he loved men and women so much that he wanted to spare them what they truly deserved. |
|
Catholics believe that, since the earliest times, men and women have rejected God and caused, by their own making, a breach between heaven and earth. Jesus, as Son of God, allowed himself to die to rectify (atone for) that breach, so that men and women could re-gain supernatural life, could inherit an eternity of ecstacy in heaven. This total act of self-sacrifice is called "Redemption". |
|
|
|
Your guide for this section is Vivien, she asked the same questions. She is a single mother, 30, and comes from Coventry. Click here to read her story. |
| |
|
|
![[Life4seekers - click here to return to the homepage]](../images/im-logo-blue.gif){kind=logo}
![[Read on? Books/links - Click here for more]](../images/but-readon-links-off.gif)
