A Sunday Thought About This and That and Being Catholic
Being Catholic, practicing your faith, consists of more than this prayer, that devotion, going to Mass this Sunday, observing that particular penitential practice during Advent and Lent. Rather than this or that, Catholicism embraces everything. Our faith informs our thoughts, words, and actions every day. By "inform" we mean that our knowledge and understanding of our Holy Faith conforms all that we think, say, and do with the example set for us by Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to live among us to save us from our sins. He accomplished this in His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. But before the Agony in the Garden, He lived in our vale of tears for around 33 years. And many of His words and actions were recorded by the four Evangelists - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - in the Gospels. At least once a week, we all hear a reading of some part of one of those four Gospels during Sunday Mass, some of us more than once per week when we attend daily Mass, some more than that by simply reading Scripture on our own. If the words go in one ear and out the other, their impact on our daily lives will be minimal. But if we pay attention to the reading of the Gospel, if we pay it some mind, meaning think about, even meditate, on the words of the Gospel, we will, over time, understand that our Lords words and actions were meant for us, for each of us as individuals, as both teaching and specific example for how we should live our daily lives.
OK. I realize this quick summary doesn't really capture just how we might take in or internalize the words of the Gospel and allow them to radically change our lives into an imitation of Christ Himself, away from those habits of daily living driven by the influences of the secular societies in which most of us live, as well as our fallen human natures. But if you're a Catholic who has even a rudimentary understanding of your Faith, you understand at least the basic point we're trying to make here. We've got the Perfect Example to guide us throughout our journey in this world. Once we decide - and we must decide - to follow His example, we're on the right path in our journey in this world. The living of our Holy Faith becomes more than just saying this prayer or observing that devotion. We, as St Paul taught us, shed the "old man" - that person we were before we knew Christ and decided to follow Him - and become more and more like Jesus Christ, day by day.
So while this prayer or that devotion will help us along in our journey, let's start this new week right and keep our minds and hearts focused on the whole point of the this and that: Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to live among us to save us from our sins. He accomplished this in His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. But before the Agony in the Garden, He lived in our vale of tears for around 33 years. And many of His words and actions were recorded by the four Evangelists - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - in the Gospels. At least once a week, we all hear a reading of some part of one of those four Gospels during Sunday Mass, some of us more than once per week when we attend daily Mass, some more than that by simply reading Scripture on our own. If the words go in one ear and out the other, their impact on our daily lives will be minimal. But if we pay attention to the reading of the Gospel, if we pay it some mind, meaning think about, even meditate, on the words of the Gospel, we will, over time, understand that our Lords words and actions were meant for us, for each of us as individuals, as both teaching and specific example for how we should live our daily lives.
OK. I realize this quick summary doesn't really capture just how we might take in or internalize the words of the Gospel and allow them to radically change our lives into an imitation of Christ Himself, away from those habits of daily living driven by the influences of the secular societies in which most of us live, as well as our fallen human natures. But if you're a Catholic who has even a rudimentary understanding of your Faith, you understand at least the basic point we're trying to make here. We've got the Perfect Example to guide us throughout our journey in this world. Once we decide - and we must decide - to follow His example, we're on the right path in our journey in this world. The living of our Holy Faith becomes more than just saying this prayer or observing that devotion. We, as St Paul taught us, shed the "old man" - that person we were before we knew Christ and decided to follow Him - and become more and more like Jesus Christ, day by day.
So while this prayer or that devotion will help us along in our journey, let's start this new week right and keep our minds and hearts focused on the whole point of the this and that: Jesus Christ.
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