Pope Leo XIV greets participants in a seminar organized by the Pontifical Academy of Theology, at the Vatican on September 13, 2025. / Pope Leo XIV greets participants in a seminar organized by the Pontifical Academy of Theology, at the Vatican on September 13, 2025.
Vatican City, Sep 13, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday urged Catholic theologians to embrace a “theology of wisdom” capable of addressing urgent global challenges, from environmental crises to the ethical questions posed by artificial intelligence (AI).
In his address to participants of an international seminar organized by the Pontifical Academy of Theology, the pope said that “environmental sustainability and the care of creation are essential commitments to ensure the survival of the human race” and have a direct impact on peaceful human coexistence.
Leo emphasized that theology is at the heart of the Church’s missionary work, but must be “incarnate, imbued with the human pains, joys, expectations and hopes of the women and men of our time.” Citing the examples of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, he said the great masters of the past modeled a synthesis of faith and reason that can guide theology today.
Turning to contemporary matters, Pope Leo warned that the Church must not limit itself to moral reflections when considering AI. “An exclusively ethical approach to the complex world of artificial intelligence is not enough,” he said, stressing the need for an anthropological vision rooted in human dignity. “What is a human being? What is his or her inherent dignity, which is irreconcilable with a digital android?”
Leo recalled 2023 legislation by his predecessor Pope Francis that reformed the academy, highlighting its three “faces”: academic rigor, contemplative wisdom, and solidarity expressed in acts of charity. Theology, Leo said, should remain rooted in an encounter with Christ while engaging philosophy, science, economics, law, literature, and the arts. Dialogue within the Church must also lead to dialogue with other cultures and religions, so that theology may serve both the Church and the wider world, the pope said.
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Pope Francis meets with the United States bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2015. / L’Osservatore Romano.
Rome Newsroom, Nov 28, 2022 / 08:01 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has emphasized the difference between bishops’ conferences and bishops in a new interview with America Magazine.
“The bishops’ conference is there to bring together the bishops, to work together, to discuss issues, to make pastoral plans. But each bishop is a pastor,” the pope said in a lengthy interview conducted at his Vatican home on Nov. 22 and published Nov. 28.
“Let us not dissolve the power of the bishop by reducing it to the power of the bishops’ conference.”
The conversation with the Jesuit publication covered a wide range of topics, including the role of bishops, racism, polarization, sexual abuse, the Vatican-China deal, and whether he has any regrets from his time as pope.
In the interview, Pope Francis was told about a 2021 America Magazine survey that found that Catholics in the United States consider the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to be the least trustworthy out of the groups listed — 20% of U.S. Catholics surveyed found the USCCB to be “very trustworthy.”
Francis was asked: “How can the U.S. Catholic bishops regain the trust of American Catholics?”
“The question is good because it speaks about the bishops,” he responded. “But I think it is misleading to speak of the relationship between Catholics and the bishops’ conference. The bishops’ conference is not the pastor; the pastor is the bishop. So one runs the risk of diminishing the authority of the bishop when you look only to the bishops’ conference.”
“Jesus did not create bishops’ conferences,” he added. “Jesus created bishops, and each bishop is pastor of his people.”
The U.S. bishops met in Baltimore for their annual fall general assembly on Nov. 14-17. Katie Yoder
Pope Francis said the emphasis should be on whether a bishop has a good relationship with his people, not on administration.
He gave the example of Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas: “I do not know if he is conservative, or if he is progressive, if he is of the right or of the left, but he is a good pastor.”
In the U.S., the pope said, there are ‘some good bishops who are more on the right, some good bishops who are more on the left, but they are more bishops than ideologues; they are more pastors than ideologues. That is the key.”
“The grace of Jesus Christ is in the relationship between the bishop and his people, his diocese,” he said.
A bishops’ conference, instead, is an organization meant to “assist and unite.”
Pope Francis was also asked whether the USCCB should prioritize the fight against abortion over other issues.
To which he said: “this is a problem the bishops’ conference has to resolve within itself.”
The pope pointed out that the activity of a bishops’ conference is on the organizational level, and in history, conferences have at times gotten things wrong.
“In other words, let this be clear: A bishops’ conference has, ordinarily, to give its opinion on faith and traditions, but above all on diocesan administration and so on,” he said, again emphasizing the sacramental nature of the pastoral relationship of a bishop to his diocese and its people.
“And this cannot be delegated to the bishops’ conference,” he added. “The conference helps to organize meetings, and these are very important; but for a bishop, [being] pastor is most important.”
In the interview, Pope Francis also denounced polarization as “not Catholic,” and said the Catholic way of dealing with sin is “not puritanical” but puts saints and sinners together.
He also said in the U.S., where there is a Catholicism particular to that country, something he called “normal,” “you also have some ideological Catholic groups.”
Pope Francis arrives at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Sept. 23, 2015. CNA
On the topic of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis was asked about the apparent lack of transparency when it comes to accusations against bishops, compared with the handling of accusations against priests.
The pope called for “equal transparency” going forward, adding that “if there is less transparency, it is a mistake.”
To a question about Black Catholics, Francis said he is “aware of their suffering, that he loves them very much, and that they should resist and not walk away” from the Catholic Church.
“Racism is an intolerable sin against God,” he added. “The Church, the pastors and laypeople must continue fighting to eradicate it and for a more just world.”
Asked if he has any regrets, or if he would change anything he has done in nearly 10 years as pope, Francis said in English, as he laughed, that he would change “all! All!”
“However, I did what the Holy Spirit was telling me I had to do. And when I did not do it, I made a mistake,” he added.
On his seeming constant joyfulness, the pope said he is not “always like that,” except when he is with people.
“I would not say that I am happy because I am healthy, or because I eat well, or because I sleep well, or because I pray a great deal,” he explained. “I am happy because I feel happy, God makes me happy. I don’t have anything to blame on the Lord, not even when bad things happen to me. Nothing.”
He said the Lord has guided him through both good and difficult moments, “but there is always the assurance that one does not walk alone.”
“One has one’s faults,” he said, “also one’s sins; I go to confession every 15 days — I do not know, that is just how I am.”
Pope Leo XIV greets a young papal admirer in St. Peter’s Basilica during the general audience on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Aug 20, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday continued … […]
Quito, Ecuador, Dec 4, 2017 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- A Catholic wedding planner has encouraged married women in Ecuador to “put a smile on the face of a poor bride” by donating their wedding dresses this Christmas.
“The goal is to have women give up their wedding dresses, since they don’t have a real use for them anymore. What’s better than keeping them is to give them to someone who needs one,” Maria Alejandra Guerra told ACI Prensa.
Guerra explained that the idea came to her Nov. 26, when she went with a group of missionaries from the Bonds of Marian Love Movement to St. Arnoldo Janssen Parish, located in a poor section of Guayaquil, to coordinate a Christmas campaign for the children there.
She said that the pastor, Fr. John Codjoe, told them that one of the parish’s ministries was marriage preparation, and that because “most of these women don’t have wedding gowns,” that he was looking for dresses to be donated.
“So that little light went on, because that was something I wanted to do for some time, and so I said to him ‘Father, I’m a wedding planner, I’m going to help you and I’m going to promote this for your parish,” Guerra related.
Fr. Codjoe “was thrilled” with the proposal and told her about 19 couples who would soon be getting married in the parish.
“That’s why I decided to launch this campaign on my social media. I didn’t think I was going to get a good reception because some time ago I did a poll and most women told me they preferred to sell their wedding dresses. But it turned out just the opposite and now seven women have offered to give me their dresses,” she said.
“I’m going to go pick up the dresses and I’ll bring them over to St. Arnoldo Janssen parish. I even told Fr. Codjoe that I wanted to attend the couples’ weddings,” she commented.
On her Instagram account where she launched the campaign, Maria Alejandra Guerra said that Christmas is a “joy, it’s giving something to someone you don’t know but who needs it more…’giving without remembering and receiving without forgetting,’ because that bride you give the dress to will be immensely grateful.”
She hopes that “we can put smiles on the faces of the brides most in need.”
Guerra said that “if I succeed in coming up with the dresses that Fr. Codjoe needs for next year and I continue to get more dresses, then I’ll be looking for other parishes that will want to receive them as donations.”
She also invited married women from other Latin American countries to look for churches where they could give their wedding dresses to low-income couples who are preparing for marriage.
For women who live in Mexico, Guerra suggested they give their gowns to the charitable initiative called “Brides with a Cause” which collects dresses throughout the country to give them to needy young women.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
We read: “What is a human being? What is his or her inherent dignity, which is irreconcilable with a digital android?”
Yes, the incarnate Jesus Christ is analogue, not digital. But, we have the progressiveness of first placing Pachamama in a niche in St. Peter’s Basilica alongside the real Eucharistic Presence, and of displacing binary human relationships with a “third option” of alphabetical pronouns, and then the symbolic “coexistence” of rainbow banners within the church of St. Gesu and then in St. Peter’s in what used to be the “eternal city.”
Is LGBTQ penetration of the Church a consequence of transformer toys and then narcissist computer gaming and a digitally disintegrated “universe”? In addition to upending what is cerebral, digitized AI erodes what is created and physical. So, what now of the “survival of the human race,” as in what are “human” and “human race”?
Just words! In practice, Nominalism is the new orthodoxy. About elementary governance within the Mystical Body of Christ, souls are waiting for the other shoe to fall.
Our beloved Pope Leo XIV instructs Catholic theologians to root their work in an encounter with Christ, whilst engaging with philosophy, science, economics, law, literature, the arts, and with other cultures and religions.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines theology as: “The study of God based on revelation.” It also repeatedly emphasises the transcendent mystery of God.
In my lowly position, I would rather have read our earthly leader had instructed our theologians to be rooted in an uncompromising devotion and submission to King Jesus Christ, seeking always to be a theologian to whom The Father is revealed by Christ our LORD, as Saint Matthew gives us at 11:27.
“Everything has been entrusted to Me by My Father; and no one knows The Son except The Father, just as no one knows The Father except The Son and those to whom The Son chooses to reveal Him.”
Maybe this is what the Catechism means when it defines authentic Catholic theology as being based on revelation.
Since when has The Church forgotten that divine revelation is given to overcome the lying deceits that are inherent in a universe whose prince is a liar from the start and a thief and murderer and destroyer (see, e.g., John 8:44; 10:10; 12:31). It seems problematic to ignore that aspect of ‘Creation’ alltogether.
The greatest part of Jesus’ earthly ministry was devoted to overcoming the evils that have infected ‘Creation’, and to teaching His disciples (and us) how to do that.
Theologians have fresh opportunities to be creative, constructive and relevant. Remaining on the back foot and calling the shots is replete with short comings. Life keeps evolving all the time, faster than ever before. Pilgrims on the move cannot remain static but are expected to move ahead with eyes, minds and hearts wide open. Day by day the need for an anthropological vision rooted in human dignity keeps challenging our theologians here, there, and everywhere. It’s a healthy challenge to be embraced whole-heartedly.
It’s pleasing to find a Catholic theologian who knows what he’s talking about:
Catholic Theology: An Introduction
Cajetan Cuddy, O.P.
August 15, 2024
The opening paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the whole of the Christian life and, thereby, the purpose of Catholic theology:
God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. (CCC no. 1)
The profound significance of the very first word of the Catechism is difficult to overestimate. As an authoritative summary of Catholic faith and morals (CCC no. 11), the Catechism begins with God. Why? God is the beginning and the end of Christian doctrine. Likewise, God is the center of sacred theology. A Christian life without God is impossible. Moreover, Catholic theology without God is unintelligible.
In these carefully selected and arranged words, the Catechism highlights the fact that God is “infinitely perfect and blessed in himself.” God does not suffer from any needs or privations. He is perfection. Thus, the existence of creatures does not originate from any insufficiency within God. Rather, all creatures—including rational creatures, whether men or angels—proceed from God’s “plan of sheer goodness.” Creatures exist because God is infinitely good.
God created to share his goodness with his creatures. He did not create in order to receive something that he lacked. He “freely created man to make him share in his [God’s] own blessed life.” God’s loving wisdom accounts for the creation of the human person. Moreover, his good and loving wisdom informs the inherent structures of creation in general and the nature of the human person in particular. Because God created man to share himself with man, “at every time and in every place, God draws close to man.”
There are no barriers between God and the human person. The Christian faith denies any conceptions about God that would posit spatial or affective distance between God and creatures. The God who creates sustains his creation in existence. The Christian faith utterly rejects deistic conceptions of the deity and of creation. God is not an absent watchmaker.
Consequently, God “calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.” God’s presence to his creatures is such that he enables human persons not only to be known or loved by God, but also to know and to love God themselves. No creature can self-create. Moreover, as a creature of God, the human person is created for God. Thus, the created reality of humanity is not simply passive in nature. It is part of the primordial vocation of the human person to pursue God through the active powers of knowing and loving.
The human orientation to God is expressed even in the human experience of things other than God. All truth is God’s truth. All truthful knowledge is ultimately oriented to God because all of reality bears a God-oriented shape and direction. And the human person is uniquely called to pursue God in a specifically rational way through knowledge and love. In its very first paragraph, the Catechism provides a roadmap for the whole of human life and the whole of Catholic thought. In other words, this single paragraph gives a concise account of the essence of Catholic theology.
How widely among Catholics, is it appreciated that just as there is SCIENCE and there is SCIENCE FICTION, so too there is THEOLOGY and there is THEOLOGY FICTION.
The most serious problem arises: for whilst the sport of Science Fiction is unlikely to genocide human souls, that is exactly what the sport of Theology Fiction does.
Theology Fiction – sadly a popular genre – can be inherently soul-genociding; our willfully blind shepherds (see 2 Corinthians 4:4) leading leeming-like sheep into the pit (see Matthew 15:14 & Luke 6:39)..
There is manifestly no respect for Deuteronomy 27, nor fear of its divine curses;
e.g. “A cures on one who leads a blind man astray . . .”
What hope is there then for the average Catholic?
Every hope, when our Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Priests, Deacons, Religious, and Lay Leaders are steeped in The New Testament and The Catechism of the Catholic Church – that is, have their eyes wide-open, and their hearts obedient to the teachings of Jesus Christ – our One & Only True Teacher, and so, are full of The Holy Spirit, manifest in their lives.
Let no theologian suggest GOD has left us sheep without help. It’s all there!
We might add that the far-from-uncommon Catholic method of sermonizing people to change, no matter how well argued, rarely works. People may get dismissive, self-delusional or worse: guilty, hypocritical, or even cynical.
REAL change comes from being filled with GOD’s Holy Spirit, who counsells us from within, helping us move towards a sanctity of Christ-like self-emptyingness we can never achieve by will-power or by so-called ‘spiritual disciplines’.
How, then, does a Catholic get full of The Holy Spirit of GOD? Our LORD Jesus Christ and His holy Apostles plainly taught us -“Obey the Commandments of GOD with love, and GOD will make His home in you!” No pentecostal/charismatic shortcuts! Just OBEY!
The glory of being in-dwelt by GOD’s Holy Spirit is that, year-by-year we find we’re indeed becoming a different person: a MUCH wiser, more-loving person! No sweat!
As this truly beautifully-sung song says:”NOT BY ME BUT BY CHRIST IN ME!”
In short: Do your best to learn & lovingly obey GOD’s commands – you’ll be filled by The Holy Spirit of GOD – you will be able to give up grasping and step-by-step you’ll start to become like Christ our LORD.
The alternative is to ignore GOD’s commands, sin, & become a slave of sin; left on our own, devoid of The Help, Advocacy, Counsel, Comfort, & Friendship of The Holy Spirit of GOD.
As Moses urged Israel: “For goodness sake, chose Life not death.”
Do theologians who dimiss the commandments have any understanding of this . . ?
We read: “What is a human being? What is his or her inherent dignity, which is irreconcilable with a digital android?”
Yes, the incarnate Jesus Christ is analogue, not digital. But, we have the progressiveness of first placing Pachamama in a niche in St. Peter’s Basilica alongside the real Eucharistic Presence, and of displacing binary human relationships with a “third option” of alphabetical pronouns, and then the symbolic “coexistence” of rainbow banners within the church of St. Gesu and then in St. Peter’s in what used to be the “eternal city.”
Is LGBTQ penetration of the Church a consequence of transformer toys and then narcissist computer gaming and a digitally disintegrated “universe”? In addition to upending what is cerebral, digitized AI erodes what is created and physical. So, what now of the “survival of the human race,” as in what are “human” and “human race”?
Just words! In practice, Nominalism is the new orthodoxy. About elementary governance within the Mystical Body of Christ, souls are waiting for the other shoe to fall.
Yes to all your rhetorical questions. Although you don’t need my support for your persuasions. And for a short time all seemed so bright.
Our beloved Pope Leo XIV instructs Catholic theologians to root their work in an encounter with Christ, whilst engaging with philosophy, science, economics, law, literature, the arts, and with other cultures and religions.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines theology as: “The study of God based on revelation.” It also repeatedly emphasises the transcendent mystery of God.
In my lowly position, I would rather have read our earthly leader had instructed our theologians to be rooted in an uncompromising devotion and submission to King Jesus Christ, seeking always to be a theologian to whom The Father is revealed by Christ our LORD, as Saint Matthew gives us at 11:27.
“Everything has been entrusted to Me by My Father; and no one knows The Son except The Father, just as no one knows The Father except The Son and those to whom The Son chooses to reveal Him.”
Maybe this is what the Catechism means when it defines authentic Catholic theology as being based on revelation.
Since when has The Church forgotten that divine revelation is given to overcome the lying deceits that are inherent in a universe whose prince is a liar from the start and a thief and murderer and destroyer (see, e.g., John 8:44; 10:10; 12:31). It seems problematic to ignore that aspect of ‘Creation’ alltogether.
The greatest part of Jesus’ earthly ministry was devoted to overcoming the evils that have infected ‘Creation’, and to teaching His disciples (and us) how to do that.
Theologians have fresh opportunities to be creative, constructive and relevant. Remaining on the back foot and calling the shots is replete with short comings. Life keeps evolving all the time, faster than ever before. Pilgrims on the move cannot remain static but are expected to move ahead with eyes, minds and hearts wide open. Day by day the need for an anthropological vision rooted in human dignity keeps challenging our theologians here, there, and everywhere. It’s a healthy challenge to be embraced whole-heartedly.
It’s pleasing to find a Catholic theologian who knows what he’s talking about:
Catholic Theology: An Introduction
Cajetan Cuddy, O.P.
August 15, 2024
The opening paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the whole of the Christian life and, thereby, the purpose of Catholic theology:
God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. (CCC no. 1)
The profound significance of the very first word of the Catechism is difficult to overestimate. As an authoritative summary of Catholic faith and morals (CCC no. 11), the Catechism begins with God. Why? God is the beginning and the end of Christian doctrine. Likewise, God is the center of sacred theology. A Christian life without God is impossible. Moreover, Catholic theology without God is unintelligible.
In these carefully selected and arranged words, the Catechism highlights the fact that God is “infinitely perfect and blessed in himself.” God does not suffer from any needs or privations. He is perfection. Thus, the existence of creatures does not originate from any insufficiency within God. Rather, all creatures—including rational creatures, whether men or angels—proceed from God’s “plan of sheer goodness.” Creatures exist because God is infinitely good.
God created to share his goodness with his creatures. He did not create in order to receive something that he lacked. He “freely created man to make him share in his [God’s] own blessed life.” God’s loving wisdom accounts for the creation of the human person. Moreover, his good and loving wisdom informs the inherent structures of creation in general and the nature of the human person in particular. Because God created man to share himself with man, “at every time and in every place, God draws close to man.”
There are no barriers between God and the human person. The Christian faith denies any conceptions about God that would posit spatial or affective distance between God and creatures. The God who creates sustains his creation in existence. The Christian faith utterly rejects deistic conceptions of the deity and of creation. God is not an absent watchmaker.
Consequently, God “calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.” God’s presence to his creatures is such that he enables human persons not only to be known or loved by God, but also to know and to love God themselves. No creature can self-create. Moreover, as a creature of God, the human person is created for God. Thus, the created reality of humanity is not simply passive in nature. It is part of the primordial vocation of the human person to pursue God through the active powers of knowing and loving.
The human orientation to God is expressed even in the human experience of things other than God. All truth is God’s truth. All truthful knowledge is ultimately oriented to God because all of reality bears a God-oriented shape and direction. And the human person is uniquely called to pursue God in a specifically rational way through knowledge and love. In its very first paragraph, the Catechism provides a roadmap for the whole of human life and the whole of Catholic thought. In other words, this single paragraph gives a concise account of the essence of Catholic theology.
………………………………..
…………………..
How widely among Catholics, is it appreciated that just as there is SCIENCE and there is SCIENCE FICTION, so too there is THEOLOGY and there is THEOLOGY FICTION.
The most serious problem arises: for whilst the sport of Science Fiction is unlikely to genocide human souls, that is exactly what the sport of Theology Fiction does.
Theology Fiction – sadly a popular genre – can be inherently soul-genociding; our willfully blind shepherds (see 2 Corinthians 4:4) leading leeming-like sheep into the pit (see Matthew 15:14 & Luke 6:39)..
There is manifestly no respect for Deuteronomy 27, nor fear of its divine curses;
e.g. “A cures on one who leads a blind man astray . . .”
What hope is there then for the average Catholic?
Every hope, when our Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Priests, Deacons, Religious, and Lay Leaders are steeped in The New Testament and The Catechism of the Catholic Church – that is, have their eyes wide-open, and their hearts obedient to the teachings of Jesus Christ – our One & Only True Teacher, and so, are full of The Holy Spirit, manifest in their lives.
Let no theologian suggest GOD has left us sheep without help. It’s all there!
Correction
‘e.g. “A curse on one who leads a blind man astray . . .”’
Dear Dr John Grondelski has given us some relevant observations on what real, ‘non-grasping’, Christ-following Catholicism looks like.
https://www.newoxfordreview.org/the-need-to-stop-grasping/
We might add that the far-from-uncommon Catholic method of sermonizing people to change, no matter how well argued, rarely works. People may get dismissive, self-delusional or worse: guilty, hypocritical, or even cynical.
REAL change comes from being filled with GOD’s Holy Spirit, who counsells us from within, helping us move towards a sanctity of Christ-like self-emptyingness we can never achieve by will-power or by so-called ‘spiritual disciplines’.
How, then, does a Catholic get full of The Holy Spirit of GOD? Our LORD Jesus Christ and His holy Apostles plainly taught us -“Obey the Commandments of GOD with love, and GOD will make His home in you!” No pentecostal/charismatic shortcuts! Just OBEY!
The glory of being in-dwelt by GOD’s Holy Spirit is that, year-by-year we find we’re indeed becoming a different person: a MUCH wiser, more-loving person! No sweat!
As this truly beautifully-sung song says:”NOT BY ME BUT BY CHRIST IN ME!”
CityAlight – ‘不是我，是基督住我心’ (现场) [feat. Christie Kwek] – YouTube
In short: Do your best to learn & lovingly obey GOD’s commands – you’ll be filled by The Holy Spirit of GOD – you will be able to give up grasping and step-by-step you’ll start to become like Christ our LORD.
The alternative is to ignore GOD’s commands, sin, & become a slave of sin; left on our own, devoid of The Help, Advocacy, Counsel, Comfort, & Friendship of The Holy Spirit of GOD.
As Moses urged Israel: “For goodness sake, chose Life not death.”
Do theologians who dimiss the commandments have any understanding of this . . ?