Blog # 240 The Whole Story ...a Matter of Life and Death

Blog # 240  The Whole Story...a matter of life and death.


There are three levels upon which a human creature may live. Level one is the basic level. We are created on that level. To be there is not a free choice on our part. The second level is built upon the first and includes it. The third level is based upon one and two and includes them. Here is a summary of a few points of Catholic theology regarding the three levels of living as a human creature.

LEVEL ONE: We are created as our first parents were created, in the “image and likeness” of God, then formed by our experience of truth through the use of our five natural senses. At best JESUS is known by people living on this level as an historical person two thousand years ago. In Himself, however, the glorified Jesus continues His mission on earth as a Prophet, calling, inviting ALL people to believe in Him through the work of evangelization introduced and described in the inspired writings of the New Testament and carried on by the members of His Body, the Church, in prayer, almsgiving, integrity of life, and giving witness and testimony whenever opportunities occur. DEATH on this level is seen as the end of life.

LEVEL TWO: We are informed by faith on this level. JESUS is seen on this level as Personal Savior, victim for sin, source of salvation, inspiration, and encouragement for those who accept Him as their personal Savior. DEATH is seen as “going to Heaven”.

LEVEL THREE: We are transformed by Sanctifying Grace on this level. Jesus is seen as Vine, King, and source of new life. DEATH is seen as our greatest act of love, unconditional trust and total love. It is our gift to God our Father and Creator of all that is and has ever been “ours”, through , with, and in Jesus, Whom He introduced to us, many years ago for most of us, as His Beloved Son, and to Whom He united us through Baptism as branches on a living vine, the Church. We are indeed doing more in our death than “going to heaven”!

The TRIANGLE is used to symbolize the human creator made to the image of the triune God, Father, Word, and Holy Spirit.

This symbol within the triangles on level two and three is made up of the two Greek letters chi and rho which are the first two letters in the Greek word for Christ.

The coloring is a symbol of the divine life possessed by Jesus as the Word of God and shared through faith and Baptism in a finite way through the gift of Sanctifying Grace.

Here are a few Bible texts to consider regarding “The WHOLE STORY - - - a Matter of Life and Death:

Jn 3: 3 “ I solemnly assure you, no one can see the reign of God unless he is begotten from above”.

Jn 6: 35 “I am the bread of life”.

Jn 6: 47ff “…if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you”.

Jn 10: 10 “I came that they may have life…”.

Jn 1: 11f “Any who did accept Him He empowered to become children of God. These are they who believe in His name, who were begotten…,by God”.

Jn 20: 20 “Jesus performed many other signs as well – signs not recorded here – in the presence of His disciples. But these have been recorded to help you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith you may have life in His name”.

Jn 15: 23 “Live on in me as I do in you”.

Gal 2: 20 “…and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me”.

Rom 6: 4 “Through Baptism into His death we were buried with Him so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too we might have a new life”.

2 Cor 5: 17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”.

Col 2: 13 God gave you new life in company with Christ”.

Col 3: 10 “What you have done is…put on a new man, one who grows in knowledge as he is formed anew in the image of his Creator”.