Posted on 03/20/2014 2:57:03 AM PDT by markomalley
We discussed two days ago on the blog how the Church is the Body of Christ and the place where we first and foremost find Him. We cannot really have Jesus without his Body, the Church, despite the privatized claims of many. Just as it pertains for a head to be together with its body, so too it pertains for Jesus the Head of Church to be united with his Body the Church. So, Jesus is at one with his Church and the Church is the place where we first and foremost find his presence.
But to say we find him here does not mean that people DO find him here. There are many issues that keep people from experiencing his presence here. There are also some practices we ought to better observe in order to better manifest the presence of Jesus. Let’s consider first some problems and then some remedial practices.
I. Problems – If Jesus is present in his Church then this is most evident in his action and presence in the Liturgy and Sacraments of the Church. Yet any cursory look into a typical Catholic parish would reveal little to indicate an obvious awareness of presence and action of Jesus in the Liturgy and sacraments:
A. Bored and Disengaged? The assembled people, including the clergy often look bored, distracted and mildly irritated at having to endure the event. Where is the alert joy that one sees at sports events, or the visits of famous people? If Jesus is alive and ministering in this moment why do so many look more like they’ve come to get a flu shot? It is as though there is a wish that the whole experience will be as quick and painless as possible.
Some will argue that the many people are just reserved. But most of these same people are animated enough at a football game or political discussions. The answer seems to be more related to a lack of vivid faith and understanding that the Liturgy and Sacraments are encounters with the Risen Lord Jesus.
B. Perfunctory? Further, in terms of the overall spiritual life of many of the faithful there is a perfunctory “Check off the God-box” observance wherein those who observe norms at all, such Sunday Mass or yearly confession, do so more as a duty than with eager love. The minimum is sought and only that is done. The box is checked and one seems relieved that the “duty” is done. It is almost as though one placating the deity rather than worshipping and praising the God they love and are grateful to. The upshot is that Sacraments are thought to be tedious rituals, and not transformative realities or a real encounter with Jesus.
C. Low Expectations- Expectations are also low when it comes to sacraments. Many put more trust in Tylenol, than the Eucharist. Because, when they take Tylenol, they expect something to happen, for there to be healing, for the pain to go away, or the swelling to go down. But do these same people bring any real expectations about the Eucharist or other Sacraments? Almost never.
Much of the blame for these low expectations is that priests and catechist have never really taught the Faithful to expect a lot. At best there are vague bromides about being fed, but little else is vigorously taught about radical transformation and healing.
D. Unevangelized? The general result is that many in the pews are sacramentalized but unevangelized. That is to say many have received Sacraments and gone through other Catholic Rites of passage but have never really met Jesus. They have gone through the motions for years but are not really getting anywhere when it comes to being in a life-changing, transformative relationship with Jesus Christ. To a large degree the Lord is a stranger to them. They barely know him at all and are far from the normal Christian life of being in personal, living and conscious contact with the Lord.
II. Principles and practices - If these be some of our common problems, then what are we to do? Perhaps some of the following principles and practices can point the way.
A. Clarity as to the fundamental Goal of the Church. Clearly the fundamental mission of the Church is to go to all the nations, teach them what the Lord commands, and makes disciples of them, through baptism and the other Sacraments. (cf Matt 28:20).
But making disciples and being a disciple is about more than “membership.” To become a true disciple is to have a personal, life-changing and transformative relationship with Jesus Christ. It is to witness and become a witness of the power of the Cross to put sin to death, to bring every grace alive, and to make of us a new creation in Christ. This must become more clearly the fundamental goal of the Church. We cannot and should not reduce discipleship to membership.
The goal is connect people with the Lord Jesus Christ so that he can save them and transform their lives in radical and powerful ways.
B. Conviction in Preaching – Those who preach, teach and witness to others cannot simply be content to pass on formulas and quote others. Priests, parents, catechists and others must begin to be first hand witnesses to the power of God’s word not only to inform, but to perform and to transform. They must be witnesses of how the Lord is doing this in their own life.
They ought, if they are in touch with God to exhibit joy, conviction and real change. They must be able to preach and teach with “authority” in the richer Greek sense of the word. Exousia (the Greek word for authority) means more literally to preach “out of one’s own substance.” Hence the summons is to speak from one’s own experience as a first hand witness who can, with conviction say, “Everything the Church and Scriptures have always announced are true, because in the laboratory of my own life I have tested these truths and found them to true and transformative. I who speak these things to you swear to you that they are true and trustworthy along with every Saint.”
A first hand witness knows what he saying, he does not merely know about it. The video from Fr. Martin below speaks to this practice. Preaching, teaching and witnessing with conviction is an essential component of renewal in the Church.
C. Cultivate Expectation! – We have already noted that most people don’t expect much from their relationship with Jesus Christ. Most of us expect to and have met people who have changed our life. Perhaps it was when a spouse we met, perhaps it was a teacher, or perhaps it was a professional contact who opened our career.
But if ordinary people can change our life, why not the Lord Jesus Christ? And yet most people think that having tepid spirituals lives, boredom and only a vague notion about the truths of faith is normal. Really? Is that the best that the death of the Son of God can do for us that we should be bored, tepid, uncertain, and mildly depressed? Of course not!
We need to lay hold of the glorious life that Jesus died to give us, have high expectations and star watching our life be transformed.
Consider, as an image the woman who came up to him in the crowd and said, “If I just touch the Hem of his garment I will get well.” Jesus was amazed that one woman in a crowd of thousands who were bumping up against him, one woman actually touched. He said to her, “Your faith has healed you.” (Luke 8:47). Who has the faith, who has the expectation to be healed, to get well, to be delivered? King Jesus is a listening all day long!
D. Catechetical refocus – We have tended to teach the faith more as a subject than a relationship. And hence we focus on and measure success based on whether one can list the seven gifts of the spirit, or the four marks of the Church. Now, of course faith has a content that must be mastered, but without relationship to Jesus most people lose command of the facts shortly after the test.
We need to begin more with relationship. Get people, children and adults excited about Jesus, and joyful in what he has done and the motivation to learn comes naturally.
Some years ago I became a fan of Star Trek (in the late 1960s) Captain James Tiberius Kirk was all the world to me. Even though he was a fictitious person, I wanted to know all about him, where he was born, what he did, and thought. When I discovered the actor who played him I also joined the William Shatner fan club. I then wanted to know what Shatner thought about important issues, when he was born, what his favorite hobbies and activities were etc. Fascination drew me to a mystery of the facts about both Kirk and Shatner. You didn’t have to make me learn this stuff, I was way ahead of any requirements.
Do people think this way about Jesus? Usually not. And why not? Because we do very little to cultivate this fascination and joy. We teach more about structures, rules and distinctions than about Jesus. Again our intellectual tradition is important and essential. But without starting with a relational interest, we might as well be building on no foundation at all.
Jesus said, “Come and See” as an initiation. Creedal details came later and were important. But relationship was first. Friendship precedes all the facts, which come later.
Where in our catechism do we inculcate a love, respect and fascination with Jesus?
E. Come on, Testify! - Catholics are terrible at testimony and witness. What is your story? How did you meet Jesus? What has he done, what is he doing in your life? Have your children ever heard you say you love Jesus? Do they know what he has done for you? Do parishioners ever hear their priests testify? Arguments and proof have their place, but without personal testimony and conviction, these truths remain abstractions.
There may come a time when, through arguments, you actually get a buy in. But then comes the question: “Well, that’s good news. How do I know its true?” And that’s when you have to convincingly answer: “Look at me.” It’s not enough to state facts and quote others. At the end we have to know what we’re talking about, personally and convincingly.
Bottom line, that means we have to be converted, and having experienced conversion go forth as those who know the Lord, not just know about Him. I gave my testimony story here How I met Jesus. What’s yours?
Some problems and practices. How say you? Add your own!
Did you steal that from Arthur?
Mary is the Mother of Jesus who was without sin.
Remember Jesus telling us: He said to them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” John 8:7
So why are you casting stones at Mary or Catholics that have a religious loving reverence for the Mother of Jesus? Do you not hold your own mother in high regard as one that gave you life and nurtured you?
Can I show that Biblically? Sure. It permeates Old Testament culture.
I looked up “kneel(ing)” and “bow(ing)” in the good old BibleGateway Keyword Search, and found so many references it would be exhausting to list them all.
And these are all examples approved by God! Not one of them is condemned or reproved!
Genesis 23:7 Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of that land.
Genesis 33:3-7 Jacob bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother Esau.
maidservants and their children bow down to Esau
Leah and her children bow down to honor humans
Joseph and Rachel bow for the same reason. Etc. etc!
Genesis 37 Joseph’s dreams: his brothers’ sheaves of corn -— and then the sun and moon and eleven stars —— bow down to him. Later his brothers actually do bow down to him with their faces to the ground
Genesis 48:11 Joseph bows to Jacob “with his face to the earth.”
1 Kings 1:15 Bathsheba bows low (face to the ground) and kneels before the aged king David
2 Kings 1:13 the captain "kneels" before the prophet Elijah, and “prays” —begs-— him to spare his life and the life of his 50 men
Moses bows down to father-in-law; Ruth bows down to Boaz;
David prostrates before Jonathan; and before Saul;
Abigail, Saul and Nathan prostrate to David;
Obadiah bows to the ground before Elijah;
the prophets in Jericho bow before Elisha;
the “whole assembly” bows low and prostrates before David;
David bows to the Temple;
David prostrates to Jerusalem;
God causes the king’s adversaries to bow prostrate on the ground and “lick the dust at his feet”;
God promises that the sons of the oppressors will bow to Zion.
OK, pretty obviously the patriarchs, prophets, and kings knew about the commandment not to bow down and worship anything or anybody but God. But here they are bowing, kneeling, and prostrating, and God is not offended. Why?
Because the commandment clearly forbids bowing and worshipping a creature as the Creator--- in other words, adoring; it does not forbid kneeling or bowing (to king, prophet, father, husband or brother) as a form of honor.
The commandment does not prohibit kneeling or bowing to give honor. It prohibits, specifically, adoration toward anyone but Almighty God.
Now here’s an interesting episode:
1 Kings 2:19
When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat down at his right hand.
Here’s the King bowing to his mother. Does that mean she’s equal to God? No. It doesn’t even mean she’s equal to the King. It means he’s pleased to honor her because of her royal dignity, her relationship as Queen Mother.
As our mindset gets further and further from traditional custom and culture, it gets harder and harder to grasp what was once the universal language of physical gesture (the salute, the tip of the hat, the bow, the genuflection, the handclasp, the curtsey, the kiss) and put each expression in its proper perspective.
That's a Biblical truth to ponder and appreciate. As I live, I appreciate it more and more.
No, it’s just something I picked up from bad companions on the street.
Amen! Thank you so much for writing that.
It seems malicious for you to ignore the context and seize on this as if it were a deliberate vulgarity, of which no reasonable person would accuse our longtime courteous friend, campion.
But I will not impute malice to you,. I think you just did not read carefully. And probably you are not very familiar with campion.
But in the future, I would urge you to be just and charitable in your dealings. Do not jump to the worst possible conclusions. Give it a minute and think of a more innocent interpretation. Reach the conclusion: "It was a typo".
Just and charitable dealings. I would urge that on us all; I would urge it on myself.
was
not
meant
as
filler.
Does every tenet of your religion require such a tedious explanation and why do you bind yourself to a lawyer-esque tact of defending your Faith?
It is so simple, my friend. Put your Faith in Christ and his work on the cross, and free yourself from all that unnecessary gobble-dee-gook.
It applies at least equally to you as well.
No of course not, but protestants have demonstrated an inate ability to misunderstand anything that Catholics say and try to twist our words. As evidenced by you recent foray over a simple spelling error.
IMO, it’s often because we’ve become too focused on the minutiae of the rituals, and not the big-picture message.
I agree with that part, my friend. In all sincerity.
I'm the President of the Marian Rosary League Against Unnecessary Gobble-dee-gook.
As for the tedious lawyer-like explanation, this becomes necessary only because of tedious thousandfold objections which ignore the obvious.
If I had a nickel for every time a person on this honorable FR Religion Forum repeated the same dumb objections to simple, normal, God-pleasing Catholic practices, I would buy--- why --- my goodness, I could buy... hmm... a glass of beer.
Or two! One to share with you, my dear Boanerges.
Or an even more simple comparison ... an airliner has a pilot and a co-pilot, but only one is in charge ... the pilot. The co-pilot is there to assist the pilot.
Religion, Ritual, get rid of it. Get Faith in Jesus, it’s the only way.
This could be fixed if pastors and priests actually started doing their jobs and preaching/explaining the scripture, rather than channel their inner stand-up comedian during homilies.
That's not it.
We could share inordinate time and 10 beers and I would never comprehend Catholic Logos.
**,,worship Jesus**
Exactly what Catholics do along with worshipping God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
We honor Mary and the saints.
Do you honor your mother and your father, hopefully?
Same thing.
“Peter makes it clear that he has the power of Christ in his possession”
As do we (saints), all. What we lack is sufficient faith.
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