Chapter 3 – Quick Reflection

When I was growing up, and especially as I revealed to others that I was considering becoming a priest, I was once asked, “How do you know what you believe?  How do you know that it is trustworthy?”  Well, unable to answer this fully myself, I went to my father as I often did in matters of faith and life.  Part of his answer was that we were Catholic and this is what we believe and live as one might expect him to respond, but it also went deeper.  He wanted to know what the person seemed to be asking me.  He explained that there was the constant history and witness of our Faith over the last 2000 years.  And he said that both God and men testify to the same Truth.  Finally, he stated that is just makes sense, from which I took that the Faith was reasonable and did not contradict our reflected experience.

Indeed, this is a very good question to Roman Catholics, how do we know what we believe?  And how can we be sure that we can trust it?  (Fr Robert Zwilling)

Chapter 3 – The Word of God, for TODAY, toward a GOAL

This morning in Mass I totally missed the first reading, there was a newborn captivating my full attention, until we stood and the response was, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”  Later, the clarity of this response brought to my mind the concern touched on in a couple of comments from the last chapter about there being no new public revelation, that Jesus is the last word.  Perhaps is was because at first reading it really sounds almost as though what is done is done and now all we have is the history of the event.  But of course while the incarnation is an historical event, Jesus speaking to us isn’t a singular past event.

We have this “Word of God contained in Scripture, transmitted by Sacred Tradition” and authoritatively interpreted by the teaching office of the Church, the Magesterium, the servant of the Word of God.

When the Scripture says, “if today you hear his voice…” it isn’t like a regular book of history recounting an event written by someone long dead, about events long past, to an audience we are out of touch with.  It really means TODAY:  the author of Sacred Scripture is the living God; at least many of the actors remain intimately connected to us, cheering us on in that great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12; and rather than just inform, the Word of God, together in Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition, has the power to transform us, not only for individual salvation, but as Church, across cultures and centuries, a people brought into unity, into fellowship, into participation in the divine life.

In the General Audience, March 29, 2006, titled “The Gift of Communion,” Pope Benedict XVI speaks of the proper goal of gospel proclamation and conversion to Christianity as fellowship with God and with one another… lifting us “from our loneliness, from being closed in on ourselves, and makes us sharers in the love that unites us to God and to one another.” He concludes, “Scripture is not something of the past.  The Lord does not speak in the past but speaks in the present, he speaks to us today. He enlightens us, he show us the way through life, he gives us communion and thus he prepares us and opens us to peace.”

I will pray about:  Am I really living as though this is all relevant TODAY, as though I am a sharer in the love that unites me with God and others.  Am I open to ongoing conversion, to hear his voice and not harden my heart, that will lead me into a deeper participation in this gift of communion…  (Laurie E.)

Chapter 3 – John 17

In our chapter we learn about Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium.  Together they present to us one faith, leading to a knowledge of God, the reason for our hope, and both source and goal of our mission in the world.  This is a lesson I especially appreciate.  I grew up with a love for Jesus and Scripture but eventually, having experienced a variety of protestant traditions, it was the unity of faith and teaching authority that drew me into the Church.  I found it a great gift and answer to one of my favorite passages, John 17.  Which just happened to be what our Holy Father taught about at his general audience yesterday!

An excerpt from the Vatican News Service summary:  “…By this priestly prayer Jesus establishes the Church, “which is nothing other than the community of disciples who, through their faith in Christ as the One sent by the Father, receive His unity and are involved in Jesus’ mission to save the world by leading it to a knowledge of God”.  Benedict XVI invited the faithful to read and meditate upon Jesus priestly prayer, and to pray to God themselves, asking Him “to help us enter fully into the plan He has for each of us. Let us ask Him to consecrate us to Himself, that we may belong to Him and show increasing love for others, both near and far. Let us ask Him to help us open our prayers to the world, not limiting them to requests for help in our own problems, but remembering our fellow man before the Lord and learning the beauty of interceding for others. Let us ask Him for the gift of visible unity among all those who believe in Christ, … that we may be ready to respond to anyone who asks us about the reasons for our hope”.”

Have you ever thought of the teaching authority of the church as a gift ?  (Laurie Edwards)

Chapter 2 – Not “tame”

This evening my husband and I watched the first episode of “Catholicism,” the recent DVD series by Father Robert Barron.  There was a phrase describing a tendency he wanted to really not give as an option for our response to the person of Jesus.  He said we can be for him or against him, but we can’t “domesticate” him.  It reminded me of what the children (perhaps Lucy) said about Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia… that he wasn’t a “tame” Lion.  They weren’t afraid of him.  They could approach him and trust him, but they certainly couldn’t direct or manage him.

Looking at Chapter 2… This God who reveals himself to us is like that…  We are reminded that it is not us managing or dictating the nature of the God we worship.  What’s more, the truth revealed about God and the Church isn’t a simple academic exercise we get to “domesticate” for our use – rather it is a powerful, transforming relationship into which we are invited to enter – not with fear, but with trust and increasing surrender to his love.

Are there areas I have tried to manage, or have kept off limits, about discovering what God has revealed?  Maybe this would be good to take to prayer – an openness to discovery.

Chapter 2 – Metanoia

“God Comes to Meet Us.”  I thought about our chapter while at Mass this morning, the reading from Jonah and the repentance of the Ninevites, and the disciples turning from their work to follow Jesus to become “fishers of men.”   When we are alert to God’s revealing himself to us, and are responsive to him, our lives change.  But something that was highlighted in the homily was that in Greek the word to repent (metanoia) also means to change one’s mind.  Both the USCCA chapter and the Sunday readings really are an invitation (or challenge) to seek what God is revealing to us about himself, about his thoughts, his desire/design for us/his opinion on issues of the day – especially as they relate to how we are to live out our lives consistent with the dignity that comes with being created in his image.  Then we are challenged to be ready to change our minds, conforming them to God’s desires/designs/opinions.  God comes to meet us, but it is a meeting after which we shouldn’t expect to remain unchanged!  (Laurie E.)

Chapter 2 – The Gospel and Culture

Just yesterday the Pope Benedict XVI spoke to some prelates from the United States as they concluded their ad limina visit.  Excerpts from his remarks can be read here and are especially well timed for pages 14-16 talking about the Gospel and Culture.  There were several areas that we could respond to.   1)  “At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good, and thus about the conditions for human flourishing.”   2)  “The Church’s defence of a moral reasoning based on the natural law is grounded on her conviction that this law is not a threat to our freedom, but rather a ‘language’ which enables us to understand ourselves and the truth of our being.”   3) “…a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience. “  4) “…we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-a-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism…”

As you read the page of remarks what stood out to you?  … Or, consider any of the above in the context of sharing the Gospel here in Southern Illinois.

Chapter 2 – God reveals himself…

Chapter 1 spoke about our thirst for God, the longing we have for God by the very nature of our having been created by God and in his image.  Our reason alone can confirm for us that God exists, but doesn’t let us know a great deal about God, not in any case on a personal level.   This chapter highlights that God has taken the initiative to introduce himself to us.  This journey of faith is an effort to be more intentional about seeking out what he has revealed about himself, not for an academic type of curiosity but because ….  fill in the blank, why attend to the self revelation of God?

Chapter 1- When were you first aware…?

On the study sheet for Chapter 1, Mickey asked when we first became aware of God’s presence in our life.  Hopefully others will share, but as a start…..  While I was baptized as an infant in the Methodist Church, and would say that was the beginning of my spiritual journey, my first awareness of God’s presence was as a youngster of just over three years old.  We had recently moved (an Air Force family) and were visiting friends of my parents.  I was on their apartment balcony and my loneliness must have looked sad when a woman asked me what the matter was.  Upon me saying I had no friends, she told me there was a friend who I could always talk to and who would always be with me and his name was Jesus.   And I believed her.  Having that profound confidence, that childhood trust, of never being friendless, of never being alone, has been a gift of faith ever since, even when I wasn’t very faithful….  In time I would add words like Redeemer, Abba Father, Lord, Immanuel, Bread of Life, and many others, but Friend and is the word I return to when I feel closest to Jesus.    (Laurie Edwards, FTF core team member)

Chapter 1 – Introductions

Chapter 1 describes all of us as seekers who yearn for God.  The questions  ask about our goals, what we are searching for.  We are asked how we search for truth and our response to it when it is discovered.   How about you?  Are you willing to share a little about yourself and perhaps how beginning the journey of FTF is a confirmation of you being a seeker along your journey?  And from the USCCA:  As a Catholic … “Why does seeking God keep your relationship with him dynamic?”

Time to Begin!

Yesterday we sent out the FTF Chapter 1 email to all FTF Registrants and tomorrow will be day nine of the Novena we have been praying in preparation. … It is time to begin Blogging!

The role of the Blog is to be a discussion forum for anyone, especially for those who are participating in FTF without the benefit of a group with which to discuss and grapple with the concepts and challenges of the teachings of our Catholic faith.