The Mystery of Faith

Jesus provides and offers many assurances during his public ministry.  Just about all are positive in nature, such as “Come to me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest”, or “I am the way, the truth and the life”, and as we heard today, “I am the good shepherd; I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”  These assurances are provided by Jesus to give us comfort, courage, and hope.  Life can be very difficult at times; we all go “through the ringer”, as they say, and Jesus understood this better than anyone else.  That is why he constantly offers messages of hope.  The question that remains is, do I really believe the promises Jesus has made?  Some other questions that come out of that one are what is faith, how do I get it, and do I deserve it?

The definition that Scripture provides in the letter to the Hebrews and one that has been used by the Church ever since is that “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1, NABRE).  Basically, it means belief in something or someone.  Not just simply that I believe what you are telling me, but rather that I believe in you.  Think of the difference in those two statements:  I believe you and I believe in you.  If I only believe you, it is possible I may not believe you later.  But if I believe in you, I am invested in you, in your character, in your person.  Believing you is only the first step; believing in you solidifies the relationship. 

How does one obtain faith in which we not only believe what Jesus says but that we believe in him?  It is this type of faith that is a saving faith, one that gets us to heaven to live with God for eternity.  This question has been debated since the beginning of the Church and not just at the Protestant Reformation, though there it really built up steam, so to speak.   In chapter two of his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul tells us that, “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8, NABRE).  Initial saving grace is completely and fully a FREE gift; there is nothing one can do to earn it.  If it could be earned then Christ died for nothing, because there would be another way to be saved outside of Christ’s free gift.  

However, all gifts can be refused and even returned.  So, as Catholics, we do believe that God saves us, but we think in more familial terms then some Christians who believe in salvation as a “one moment in time” event, an event that is inerasable (i.e. once saved, always saved).  The Church understands that we are still needed in some way – that we cooperate in that initial gift, for we must say yes to it.  We feel God’s grace move us and we cry out “yes” to God.  These moments come as conversion experiences.  It may be that it was that “one moment in time” recognition of what God was doing in us and we repent and return to the Lord; it can be a series of events that lead to “that one moment”; and still, in some ways it is both a series of events and major ones as well.

Finally, no one deserves faith or even salvation, but since God is good and his love is endless and eternal he bestows it on us and aides us with his grace.  No one can earn the initial saving act of God, i.e. baptism or any of the sacraments and their effects in us.  Still, though, in God’s goodness he allows us to fully participate in all that he does for us.  We are not simply bystanders or robots.  God requires relationship filled with love, therefore we must respond to God’s grace, be it in the powerful moments of conversion as well as in the subtle ones.

Sometimes salvation and faith can be confusing (how does it happen exactly and how do I get it?  As human beings we can only go so far with the answers, because there is Divine mystery here as well.  I do not say this as a cop-out; rather, the mystery is there so that we may dwell on it, search, and delve into it deeply.  God knows that by our nature we are curious; we are searchers.  The mysteries of God help us to keep searching. 

I leave you with mystery as a final thought: the mystery of faith.  The mystery is at one in the same time a free gift of God, undeserved, and yet he allows our full cooperation and even works to make faith real, all the while God working in us and we too working, and always together in love.

Fr. John

Picture is that of St. Augustine at the moment of his profound conversion in the garden when he heard “Take up and read, take up and read.”

I Have My Mission

I returned last night from a wonderful and blessed time on retreat which was directed by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR.  The retreat centered on Blessed John Henry Newman, not to be confused with St. John Nuemann from Philadelphia.  Each conference was based on a snippet from one of Newman’s many writings.  I would like to share one of those with you today and on which I will be preaching this Sunday as it relates to our call of being apostles.

On Tuesday morning Fr. Groeschel shared with us the following from Newman,

           

“God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission – I never may never know it in this life, but I shall be told in the next.  Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my places as an Archangel in his – if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as he could make stones children of Abraham.  Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.” (From Meditations and Devotions, Meditation on Christian Doctrine, Hope in God – Creator, March 7, 1848.)

John Henry Newman, born Feb. 21, 1801, died Aug. 11, 1890.  A convert from Anglicanism.  Elevated to Cardinal on May 12, 1879.  Pope Benedict the XVI declared Newman blessed on Sept. 19, 2010.

I ask you all to meditate on Cardinal Newman’s reflection.  It is powerful.  It helps us to look at our worth, our dignity, our calling, its importance and how we are not only connected to one another, but to God Himself.  Amen.

And the Stone Rolls Away (For Real) Happy Easter

There have been many a happy and public announcements throughout history and when Good News reaches us we can feel the excitement right in our very bones, you can imagine or even remember some of the following announcements, “The war is over, the war is over,” or “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” or Habemus Papam – we have a pope.   Today, however, we hear the greatest announcement in all of human history, “The Lord is Risen, Alleluia; The Lord is Risen, Alleluia!”

There is something that moves us when hearing Good News, you could imagine what those announcements I mentioned meant to the people who heard them and those who actually announced and shared them.  Today, the announcement of Jesus being raised from the dead must have felt unbelievable to Jesus’ disciples.   Their excitement and wonder upon first hearing it must have lifted their spirits through the ceiling as we say.  You have to remember, these folks – the disciples were confused, even broken in some way, since their Messiah died.  They did not understand the full implications of his dying and rising from the dead.  And it would still take a little more for everything to sink in.

The question does remain, however, not simply for the apostles and if they truly understood the implications of the Resurrection, but if we understand it.  When we hear the greatest announcement of all time, “The Lord is Risen,” what do we understand, what do we believe?

There are three things the Church wants to make clear, 1) Jesus did truly rise; 2) Since he did rise from the dead that means everything has changed and lastly 3) We too will rise!

Back in early December at my father’s wake a friend tried to comfort me in telling me that this was all an illusion.  The words were well meant and the intention was good.  I wasn’t sure if the person meant, that my father was no longer present in bodily form – which he wasn’t or if they meant all of life (our current being-state) is an illusion.  If the person meant that this life itself was an illusion and that reality was or is some spiritual life somewhere out there, the life just beyond us, then I would disagree.  I bring this up because it reminded me of my seminary studies on the Resurrection and how some theologians claimed that the Resurrection was simply a spiritual event.  We have to be very careful what we place under the cloud of spirituality.  There are a number of problems that could arise, we can hide under the umbrella of spirituality or illusion in order to hide from justice, or we can become superior to others, i.e. I am spiritual, I am enlightened and you are not, and finally some reduce everything Jesus did to the  spiritual, especially his miracles and Resurrection.

There are theologians who believe that Resurrection was simply a spiritual event.  The apostles did not really see Jesus; those stories were simply written to give verbal expression to what happened to the apostles internally- where reality with God exists (the spiritual realm).

I do not want to get too philosophical and theological, however the Resurrection is a key component to our belief as Christians and one that needs to be understood.  Allow me to explain.  The Church has unwritten rules, just like, let’s say, hockey.  Everyone knows you cannot hit the goalie outside of the crease.  If you do the other team will police that action themselves and come after you.  There is no rule in hockey that says you cannot hit the goalie outside of the crease, you sure can as long as it is a legal hit, and yet an overwhelming majority of players will avoid hitting the goalie outside of the crease, hence the understood unwritten rule.  The same goes for the Resurrection, it has never been dogmatically defined and nor should it be, since it is the unwritten rule that an overwhelming majority understand, i.e. that Jesus really rose from the dead, people saw him, ate with him, touched him, etc.

The apostles were not scholars, but they were not dumb.  They would have known how to describe an inner conversion experience; they would have known how to verbalize the so called spiritual realm.  They wrote the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the Truth . . .

If my friend meant this is all an illusion – this life, then my friend was clearly mistaken just like some theologians who believe in simply a spiritual Resurrection, because Jesus confirms the goodness of this life by dying for it and then rising with a renewed body that was visible, tangible, and knowable, not just in some hazy spiritual realm, but grounded in the real, Easter Sunday.  But I will give my friend the benefit of the doubt and believe that they meant that my father’s body was no longer here, though one day that body will be renewed as well.  So, remember the unwritten hockey rule, you can’t check the goalie out of the crease just as you can’t believe that the Resurrected Jesus was just an illusion.

By Jesus rising from the dead he also changes everything.  It will no longer be the way it was for the apostles nor for anyone after them.  They were used to an earthly Jesus, someone who was always around.  By his resurrecting he changed many things, one is that he would no longer be around the way he was before as he would soon ascend to his heavenly Father and give us the Holy Spirit to help us feel Jesus’ presence in prayer, to actually be with him and feed on him in the mass, and have fellowship in him through one another.  Everything changed, and it had to in order for us to be healed from our original wound.  It could not stay the way it was before or else as St. Paul says, “We would still be in our sins.”

The beauty of Jesus’ resurrection is that what he has done we also will do through God’s power.  Throughout Scripture, especially 1^st Thessalonians and 1^st Corinthians St. Paul goes out of his way to remind us that we too will resurrect, be remade and refashioned into immortality.   The souls of those who have already died will be reunited with their bodies to be whole again and those of us left alive will be taken into the air in the twinkling of an eye (not the rapture – but the resurrection as it is properly understood) at the sound of the angel’s trumpet.

Can we even begin to imagine the good things the Lord has prepared for those who love him (Romans 8:28)?   So, do not let anything trouble your hearts today, for today is precious to the Lord your God, but even more precious to our Lord is we ourselves.  He gives us every good gift, even the gift of life.  The stone rolled away for Jesus and he came forth from the tomb, but he wasn’t alone, there were so many with him and if you look closely you will that it is was also you and I, not just an illusion, but real, Happy Easter and God bless you.

Fr. John