AN ADVENT CATECHISM
Monday of the First Week of Advent (Matt.8:5-11) Conversations are such an integral part of ordinary life. We meet someone, find that there is a lot we share...a friendship begins. To meet, to share, and finally to accept the other. Faith is very much like a conversation. Through grace Christ appears in our life. He begins the dialogue...tells us who He is and shares His dream with us. Finally, He asks us to accept this friendship which He has offered us. Faith is not merely an intellectual assent. No more than a conversation can be, if it is truly a conversation, can be simply “intellectual”. The entire person is involved....there exists the mutuality of giving and response. Faith is entering into this conversation with the Lord. It is His voice breaking through the noise of life. It is being in the crowded room of life, with people talking, with many distractions and having someone come up behind you and say:Hello! I would like you to be my friend. The noise continues, the distractions persist but the voice of this new Friend pierces them. Faith, continuing this simple example, is the Lord coming to us so that we may go to Him.
Monday of the First Week of Advent (Matt.8:5-11) Conversations are such an integral part of ordinary life. We meet someone, find that there is a lot we share...a friendship begins. To meet, to share, and finally to accept the other. Faith is very much like a conversation. Through grace Christ appears in our life. He begins the dialogue...tells us who He is and shares His dream with us. Finally, He asks us to accept this friendship which He has offered us. Faith is not merely an intellectual assent. No more than a conversation can be, if it is truly a conversation, can be simply “intellectual”. The entire person is involved....there exists the mutuality of giving and response. Faith is entering into this conversation with the Lord. It is His voice breaking through the noise of life. It is being in the crowded room of life, with people talking, with many distractions and having someone come up behind you and say:Hello! I would like you to be my friend. The noise continues, the distractions persist but the voice of this new Friend pierces them. Faith, continuing this simple example, is the Lord coming to us so that we may go to Him.
Tues.1stWeek of Advent (Luke 10:21-24) The song of praise and thanksgiving which Our Lord sings reminds us that faith brings us into the very community of God. It is a family affair. The family of the Trinity invites us to share their life. Reading these words of the Lord we are impressed with another fact: the activity is all on the part of God. It is the Holy Spirit who inspires Jesus to sing, it is the Father and the Son who reveal..the impression of a working God is very vivid. It is not so much then that we are trying, that we want to be members of the Family but rather that we are open to receive the invitation which is extended to us. The theme comes back that faith is the gift which God gives us so we can go to Him. It is God coming to us first. It is God working within us before we do anything..it is only because God is working that we can do anything....In some mystical way through faith we are joined with this community we call the Trinity. At the very core of who we are we live with God...at the center of the “I” the life of God is ours.
Faith is that gift which while respecting each personality also creates inside of that personality a new relationship in life sharing with God.
Wed.1stWeek of Advent (Matt.15:29-37) Faith leads us from the human to the divine. Human expectations and human needs seem to be so very often the material from which we are led to an introduction into the Divine. Today’s Gospel is a perfect example. Hunger is one of the most basic of human experiences. To satisfy hunger is one of the most basic of human needs. Jesus in satisfying the hunger of the crowd leads those with faith to a higher plane. There is an awakening to further possibilities in life. Stopping at the human is for those without faith...to look at the human experiences and to see how the Lord has entered into them is the invitation of today’s Gospel.
Faith is that gift which is constantly “pulling” towards greater horizons A young college student comes to the Church for the first time. She has no interest in Christianity her only concern is to learn English. A human need. In teaching English the priest brings in some Christian concepts...that there is a God, that there is such a thing as love....the college student begins responding to these more than to the English. The spark of faith is ignited and she is led to a higher level. A man with seven children who thinks that he is entering a more quite phase of life, is looking forward to the quiet with the children leaving home for school....discovers that number eight is on the way. His first reaction is anger...he, as he expressed it to me, “does not handle it very well”.....the baby is born and becomes the joy of his life. God looked down and said what you are expecting now is not enough to make you happy, I will make your joy full.
Faith is that gift which helps us to look forward. When things come into our lives and little differently than we had planned, the baby, or when new possibilities make themselves known, the student learning English, faith lets us look at the human and see the divine.
Thurs.1stWeek of Advent (Matt.7:21,24-27)....”You never listen to me” how often have we either heard or used these words. How often have we applied them to ourselves: I guess I should have listened to you.
Quite obviously to listen is more than just the physical act of hearing. Listening at its deepest means to respond to the wish of another. The word “respond” comes from a Latin word which means to “answer a hope”(respondere)...
To listen to the Lord means to try to enter into the very mystery of who He is , to try to come to some understanding of who He is, and what His dream is for us and to answer it. To listen to the word of God is to get so involved with the Lord that our lives become this responsive act of love. There are many people who can quote the words of the Lord, who “know” their scripture, but whose lives do not seem to match up with their utterances. To build the house of our lives on this response to the love of God is the to build it on rock.
Many years ago I attended a wedding reception. A co-worker of the groom, as a matter of fact he was a boss, got up and told the brand new bride of two hours that she should never ask the question if her husband loves her more than he loves the company for which he works. She was informed, rather bluntly, that she is expected to be a nice quiet wife and not to cause her husband any trouble. The bride, thank God, was a little smarter than the man giving the speech. She knew exactly what she wanted and was going to fight for it.
Shortly after the wedding the company went bankrupt. The man who pontificated so nicely committed suicide and the young groom who listened to the speech as if it was the way things ought to be went into a complete depression. His young bride was the only one on whom he could turn for strength. His life had collapsed but hers even though it was difficult seemed to be still standing.
There are many voices trying to tell us “what to do”..there are many voices asking us to “listen to me” there is a lot of static and sometimes we do hear the wrong voice...sometimes we do answer a false hope...but the Lord does not give up. He keeps speaking to us helping us to respond to the dream He has for us.
Fri.1stWeek of Advent (Matt.9:27-31) Faith looks confidently to the future with the hope of being able to see. In the writings of St.Paul sight is equivalent to faith. To be able to see beyond what we see now. For a person of faith there is this desire to see the hand of God but sometimes it is so difficult. The human weakness under which we all have to struggle blinds us...all the things that were learned many years ago about original sin, weakens the will, darkens the intellect and sets emotions out of control, make us blind to the working of God.
Faith in the Lord is the assurance that we can be healed and made to see. It may take time. The process may not be and probably will not be as rapid as today’s Gospel....but there will come a time when sight will return. What does this mean: to be able to see. It means that something in life will be able to be looked at no longer in the light of just personal interests but will be able to be seen from the viewpoint of God. Maybe there is a suffering in life which seems to have captured us, we do not know which way to turn...prayer rather than being the freeing experience it should be only seems to make the problem worse. No matter how hard one tries prayer instead of being God focused seems to keep coming back to oneself. Then all of a sudden the weight is taken off our shoulders.
The gift of sight will not change the real world. The problem will still be there. What we see will be different. There will be a dimension, the God dimension, which we missed before.
Faith is that gift which permits us to see and at the same time gives us the hope to know that even if at a particular time in life we may be “blind” that someday the healing hand of the Lord will touch us. In this light faith is that gift which allows us to thank God not only for yesterday’s salvation but for tomorrow’s.
Sat.1stWeek of Advent....(Matt.9:35-10,1,6-8)....Faith mean to share in the ministry of the Lord. This sharing in the ministry is more than just “working for the Lord”. Through faith and Baptism we are identified with Christ, His sign is on our souls. Baptism immerses us into the mystery of who He is so much that as one of the Fathers of the Church said: anything that is said of Christ may in some way be said of those who believe in Him. Christ is Saviour, the light of the world, life, Christ is the Son of God, and the Son of Man, all of these appellations belong to Jesus by nature and to us by our adoption in and through Him.
The ministry to which we are called, each in their own way according to their particular state in life, is a living of this identity. The Gospel command is Jesus telling His disciples to preach in exactly the same way He does...by words and signs. Why? It is a way of telling them that they share in His life and rather than simply being a command what it is is Jesus telling them who they are. He is bringing out in a part of what it means to believe in Him....that they are called to share in His mission of preaching the Good News.
Our image of Christ when it comes to His sending forth has to be looked at again. So often they are looked at as “things Jesus tells us to do” rather than a giving to birth of that part of our personality which touches on the identity with Christ. In sending forth we preache Christ. Preached not only because He told us to but rather because it is whom He has made us.
Faith is that gift which while respecting each personality also creates inside of that personality a new relationship in life sharing with God.
Wed.1stWeek of Advent (Matt.15:29-37) Faith leads us from the human to the divine. Human expectations and human needs seem to be so very often the material from which we are led to an introduction into the Divine. Today’s Gospel is a perfect example. Hunger is one of the most basic of human experiences. To satisfy hunger is one of the most basic of human needs. Jesus in satisfying the hunger of the crowd leads those with faith to a higher plane. There is an awakening to further possibilities in life. Stopping at the human is for those without faith...to look at the human experiences and to see how the Lord has entered into them is the invitation of today’s Gospel.
Faith is that gift which is constantly “pulling” towards greater horizons A young college student comes to the Church for the first time. She has no interest in Christianity her only concern is to learn English. A human need. In teaching English the priest brings in some Christian concepts...that there is a God, that there is such a thing as love....the college student begins responding to these more than to the English. The spark of faith is ignited and she is led to a higher level. A man with seven children who thinks that he is entering a more quite phase of life, is looking forward to the quiet with the children leaving home for school....discovers that number eight is on the way. His first reaction is anger...he, as he expressed it to me, “does not handle it very well”.....the baby is born and becomes the joy of his life. God looked down and said what you are expecting now is not enough to make you happy, I will make your joy full.
Faith is that gift which helps us to look forward. When things come into our lives and little differently than we had planned, the baby, or when new possibilities make themselves known, the student learning English, faith lets us look at the human and see the divine.
Thurs.1stWeek of Advent (Matt.7:21,24-27)....”You never listen to me” how often have we either heard or used these words. How often have we applied them to ourselves: I guess I should have listened to you.
Quite obviously to listen is more than just the physical act of hearing. Listening at its deepest means to respond to the wish of another. The word “respond” comes from a Latin word which means to “answer a hope”(respondere)...
To listen to the Lord means to try to enter into the very mystery of who He is , to try to come to some understanding of who He is, and what His dream is for us and to answer it. To listen to the word of God is to get so involved with the Lord that our lives become this responsive act of love. There are many people who can quote the words of the Lord, who “know” their scripture, but whose lives do not seem to match up with their utterances. To build the house of our lives on this response to the love of God is the to build it on rock.
Many years ago I attended a wedding reception. A co-worker of the groom, as a matter of fact he was a boss, got up and told the brand new bride of two hours that she should never ask the question if her husband loves her more than he loves the company for which he works. She was informed, rather bluntly, that she is expected to be a nice quiet wife and not to cause her husband any trouble. The bride, thank God, was a little smarter than the man giving the speech. She knew exactly what she wanted and was going to fight for it.
Shortly after the wedding the company went bankrupt. The man who pontificated so nicely committed suicide and the young groom who listened to the speech as if it was the way things ought to be went into a complete depression. His young bride was the only one on whom he could turn for strength. His life had collapsed but hers even though it was difficult seemed to be still standing.
There are many voices trying to tell us “what to do”..there are many voices asking us to “listen to me” there is a lot of static and sometimes we do hear the wrong voice...sometimes we do answer a false hope...but the Lord does not give up. He keeps speaking to us helping us to respond to the dream He has for us.
Fri.1stWeek of Advent (Matt.9:27-31) Faith looks confidently to the future with the hope of being able to see. In the writings of St.Paul sight is equivalent to faith. To be able to see beyond what we see now. For a person of faith there is this desire to see the hand of God but sometimes it is so difficult. The human weakness under which we all have to struggle blinds us...all the things that were learned many years ago about original sin, weakens the will, darkens the intellect and sets emotions out of control, make us blind to the working of God.
Faith in the Lord is the assurance that we can be healed and made to see. It may take time. The process may not be and probably will not be as rapid as today’s Gospel....but there will come a time when sight will return. What does this mean: to be able to see. It means that something in life will be able to be looked at no longer in the light of just personal interests but will be able to be seen from the viewpoint of God. Maybe there is a suffering in life which seems to have captured us, we do not know which way to turn...prayer rather than being the freeing experience it should be only seems to make the problem worse. No matter how hard one tries prayer instead of being God focused seems to keep coming back to oneself. Then all of a sudden the weight is taken off our shoulders.
The gift of sight will not change the real world. The problem will still be there. What we see will be different. There will be a dimension, the God dimension, which we missed before.
Faith is that gift which permits us to see and at the same time gives us the hope to know that even if at a particular time in life we may be “blind” that someday the healing hand of the Lord will touch us. In this light faith is that gift which allows us to thank God not only for yesterday’s salvation but for tomorrow’s.
Sat.1stWeek of Advent....(Matt.9:35-10,1,6-8)....Faith mean to share in the ministry of the Lord. This sharing in the ministry is more than just “working for the Lord”. Through faith and Baptism we are identified with Christ, His sign is on our souls. Baptism immerses us into the mystery of who He is so much that as one of the Fathers of the Church said: anything that is said of Christ may in some way be said of those who believe in Him. Christ is Saviour, the light of the world, life, Christ is the Son of God, and the Son of Man, all of these appellations belong to Jesus by nature and to us by our adoption in and through Him.
The ministry to which we are called, each in their own way according to their particular state in life, is a living of this identity. The Gospel command is Jesus telling His disciples to preach in exactly the same way He does...by words and signs. Why? It is a way of telling them that they share in His life and rather than simply being a command what it is is Jesus telling them who they are. He is bringing out in a part of what it means to believe in Him....that they are called to share in His mission of preaching the Good News.
Our image of Christ when it comes to His sending forth has to be looked at again. So often they are looked at as “things Jesus tells us to do” rather than a giving to birth of that part of our personality which touches on the identity with Christ. In sending forth we preache Christ. Preached not only because He told us to but rather because it is whom He has made us.
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