A Pentecost Sunday Thought About How to Really Practice our Faith Like Those Early Christians

We hear and read how our Catholic Church has somehow "perverted" the pure original spirit and practice of the spiritual life as taught by Jesus Christ. We're told Jesus didn't intend all this pomp and ceremony, the "male hierarchy," and all the rest. We Catholics know that this misguided, and yes, let's just say it, heretical interpretation of what Our Lord taught flows from those who turned from the Church in the 16th century during the Protestant "Reformation." Indeed, one wonders how those "reformers," all of whom were 1,600 years removed from the early Christians, knew what those first Christians thought, how they lived, how they prayed, in short, how they practiced their Christian religion in the years after Our Lord's Ascension.

As we celebrate Pentecost today, we remember that day when the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in such a dramatic manner. We remember that as a result of His Presence and Indwelling, the Apostles marched off to preach the gospel to the world as Our Lord had instructed them to do. From that day forward, they "got it" and they shared it with anyone who would listen, instilling in them a faith so real, so present, that the lives of people turned from the sort of lives most of us live today to extraordinary lives, enriched by a deep understanding of the supernatural. How much richer our lives would be if we could somehow really capture their spirit and understanding today. Of course, the answer lies in authentically practicing our Holy Catholic faith.
 
So here's something from Father Victorino Oscende, O.P that not only talks about now those early Christians really practiced their faith, but also, how we can authentically recapture their spirit and practice today.

"St. Paul called the first faithful ‘saints,’ and very likely the generality of them were such. Why? Because the early Christians surrendered wholeheartedly to Christ from their conversion. He was their ideal, the object of all their aspirations, the incentive of all their actions. Complete surrender to Christ was their law, and upon it they based the whole science of perfection. This total surrender, practiced with a lively faith, complete trust, and an ardent love for Christ, sufficed to sanctify them. However, with the passage of time and the cooling of charity in the hearts of men, it became necessary to multiply the means and methods of perfection in order to entice men to seek it and to sustain them in that pursuit. In this way the procedure eventually became inverted: the neophyte was introduced very gradually into the ways of prayer and the gift of self to God, and only after a long period did he arrive at complete surrender, which at one time had been the starting point.

In the doctrine of the Little Flower (St. Therese of Lisieux), the right order of procedure is again established and the life of perfection begins where it should: in the total surrender of the heart to God. Everything else comes as a necessary consequence of that surrender. Her Little Way facilitates the attainment of sanctity, not by taking away or diminishing any of the essentials of perfection, but by making sanctity the work of love, and thus giving it the ease with which love always operates. Wherefore, let no one deceive himself by thinking that her Little Way is a marvelous secret for attaining sanctity without any labor or struggle…No other way to sanctity has been found, nor ever will be found, save the way of the cross and the following of Christ. Neither will anything or anyone ever be able to except us from its burden and yoke. All that we can desire and hope is that its burden be light and its yoke sweet, as Christ Himself has promised.” (Fr. Victorino Osende, O.P.)

If you haven't read at least "The Story of a Soul" by St Therese, do yourself a favor and do so. Remember that this little French nun who died at such and early age (24) from tuberculosis has been declared a Doctor of the Church Her spiritual life was strong and deep and we can learn much from her.

And here a reprise of the beautiful Veni Creator Spiritus, one of my all-time favorite chants, most appropriately sung on this great feast day.