         
Pastor's Desk Archive             
2007 Pastor's Desk Arch.            
|
Pastor's Desk Archive (September 2007)Journey of Faith (9/2/2007)
Who Can Be A Disciple Of Jesus Christ (9/9/2007) Journey of Faith (9/2/2007)Since we’ll be resuming our regular sessions of Journey Of Faith this coming Wednesday, I thought you might be interested in knowing some of the most important topics we’ll be covering over the next weeks and months. JOF is for individuals looking for a spiritual home and for Catholics who are seeking to strengthen their faith. Who is God and how do we find Him? In the old days many children were told that they should never question God and to put any doubts about him out of their minds. The truth is that without asking questions, there can never be any satisfying answers. We’ll look at the ways in which God reveals Himself through scripture, tradition, and personal experience. What about the Bible? Is it a "blueprint" for life? What do we mean in saying it’s "inspired"? Does it contain the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? How does the "Catholic" bible differ from the "Protestant" one? Should we read it cover to cover? How can God be both One and Three? Who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Do Catholics worship one God or three? What is "sacramental life" all about? Do we "receive" them, "obtain" them, or "celebrate" them? How many sacraments are there and what is the purpose of each. What does it mean that Christ takes away the sin of the world? What makes certain conduct sinful? Shouldn’t we just follow our own conscience? What’s the difference between mortal and venial sin? What is Grace? Is it something we can earn through good works? How does it help us live a Godly life? Can we increase it or lose it? Why must Catholics confess mortal sins to a priest? Can’t we just confess them directly to God? How can we be sure we are forgiven our sins? JOF SESSIONS RESUME Who Can Be A Disciple Of Jesus Christ (9/9/2007)After listening to today’s gospel passage, we could well wonder if any of us qualifies. This is what the gospel said:
Anyone else looking for some “wiggle room”? Is it possible, or even likely, that a great many of us want to enjoy the benefits of faith in Jesus Christ without actually doing our best to learn His teachings and incorporating them into our daily lives? Do you think that’s what Jesus meant when He said “not everyone who cries ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only those who seek to do the will of my Father”? He also told Simon Peter that salvation is impossible thru the sheer exercise of human will, but that everything is possible for God. By the grace of God, then, we can love Jesus more than anyone or anything including life itself. And by that same grace we can endure the crosses that come our way just as Jesus endured the heavy burden of His cross. We can do this as we become committed to listening to God’s Word so that we can put it into practice; and by graciously opening ourselves to the changes made possible by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. This brings us to the hardest part: the willingness to renounce all our possessions. It really just requires reconciling ourselves with reality. We are going to leave all our possession behind in this world. Since this is an undeniable fact, maybe all Jesus is asking of His disciples is to loosen our grip beginning now. Isn’t now the time of salvation? Is the kingdom of God not at hand? The Prodigal Son (9/16/2007)The word prodigal means lavish or profuse. When used to describe the younger brother in today’s gospel passage, it refers to the lavish way in which he wasted his share of his father’s inheritance. But this parable might just as well be described as that of The Prodigal Father because it is really about the lavish way in which God bestows His mercy upon even the greatest of sinners. This story is also about the resentment that God’s mercy can engender among those who believe that mercy should be shown only to the righteous. How many of us would have welcomed this scoundrel of a son with open arms? Would we not first want to impress upon him how worried we have been, or even how angry we were when he decided to take the money and run? Recall that the telling of this story was occasioned by the very thought that Jesus would be hanging out with the likes of tax collectors and sinners. If He’s a truly religious person, they thought, then surely He would repudiate and condemn these people for being so unfaithful to God. As religious people they had set themselves up as judges. But it was their very judgment that Jesus wished to repudiate and condemn by the telling of this tale. The moral of this story is that God shows mercy for a living. He knows He is perfect and that His creatures are imperfect. He is so eager to love those who belong to Him, that He is very willing to settle for even a small measure of repentance. Many of us, on the other hand, are waiting to become more perfect before turning to God and asking for His help. We are so unworthy after all. We may have more than a little of the older brother mentality when it comes to our attitude towards great sinners. Since we expect God to come down hard on us, we are always ready to come down hard on others. Maybe it’s time for us to lay aside our old ways and turn to God for his life-changing mercy and love. Can We Serve More Than One Master? (9/23/2007)In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus says we can’t serve two masters…that we really can’t fully serve God while at the same time trying to serve mammon. The latter is the word in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) for riches or wealth. But we have all been raised in a society which urges us to build up material wealth. At every turn we have been encouraged to acquire a good education so that we can pursue the kind of career that will reward us with material benefits and financial security. Haven’t we all been pursuing in one form or another the fabled American Dream? So is what Jesus calling us to do in this teaching really possible for us? Can we be truly faithful followers of Christ while devoting so much time and energy to material well being? In the first place, keep in mind that this teaching is directed only to those who have a desire to live under the direction of God. It’s a teaching only achievable by people who wish to take seriously the notion that God intends to make saints of them. Since all things are possible for God, this includes making silk purses out of sows' ears. So I suppose that anyone who wants to think of themselves as Christians strictly on their own terms may dismiss this teaching as unrealistic and be on their way. But this teaching is given in the context of what it means to be a wise steward of all that God entrusts to our care. This includes following the Gospel law of economics that is as solid as the law of gravity: It is in giving that we receive. Good stewardship requires the ability to distinguish what is of truly lasting value from that which only seems valuable in the short term. Curiously, a relatively small percentage of parishioners of this or any parish seem to do well at this. These are the folks who appear convinced that giving as generously as they can of their time, talent, and treasure to the building up of God’s Kingdom on earth is going to build the kind of wealth for them that will extend beyond the grave. They realize they have been given more of the good things of this world, and so they do their best to give more. Meanwhile, a much larger number of people seem to be busy about many other things—including just trying to survive. They appear to want to serve more than one master and are probably hoping that in the end God may just let bygones be bygones. That would be nice of God, wouldn’t it? Respect Life (9/30/2007)What does it really mean for Catholics to “respect life” or to be “pro life”? Failure to think about this question can reduce these designations to mere slogans. What they mean to me has everything to do with how I have come to understand the meaning of the word life. In the Gospel, Jesus says plainly, “I have come to bring life that you may have it more abundantly.” He is not simply using the word life here in reference to mere existence or survival. He is referring to Life from its very source—the Creator God. Jesus came to bring human beings a share in God’s own life. This is a life that lasts forever. It’s an imperishable life because of its connection with its source. Since God desires that every human being made in his image and likeness be saved, every single life is vested with an inviolable dignity—from conception to physical death and beyond. I know that my life began when I was conceived in my mother’s womb. How could it be any other way? How, then, could it be a moral choice to deliberately end the life of an unborn child? Some would say: “That may be your religious belief, but it’s not mine so it’s up to my conscience and not yours.” That may sound like an intelligible position, but it is actually utter nonsense. Don’t many murderers kill people in cold blood because they don’t believe it’s wrong to do so? Does one’s personal belief alone determine what is right or wrong? Sadly, the number of people who believe that is growing everyday. It’s called moral relativism and while most people don’t know it by that name, it is undermining every society where it is taking hold. If I respect life, I also respect the person who has come to believe that because abortion is legal it is also a moral choice. They are more to be pitied than condemned. Some of these people have repented of their sin and have been reconciled with the church. We mustn’t hold their past sins against them—no matter how grave. The one’s who may deserve condemnation are the Catholic politicians who claim they are personally against abortion while supporting policies and legislation that aids and abets the practice. Respecting life also means that I don’t regard sexual activity as primarily a form of recreation, but as a sacred activity that has the power to strengthen married love and to bring new life into the world. One of the reasons we have fewer priests (not the only one) is that couples “choose” to have fewer children. Parents have always played a primary role in the encouragement of vocations but they are less likely to encourage their one or two children to consider committing their lives to the service of God. This doesn’t mean that faithful Catholics must welcome more than two children, but if they want to encourage vocations they may wish to be even more generous in their love. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||