DOES YOUR CHRISTIANITY IMPACT YOUR LIFE?

 

One of the strongest insights that I received was in a situation where the young mother wanted he baby done.  I explained to her, “But that is not baptism.” She fired back, “I’ll make it what I want it to be !”

 

She summarized in a few words what most people actually do. They live their religious teachings at what they want it to be. It is no different whether you be a Buddhists, a Hindu, a Moslem or a Christian. There is no room for the challenge that religious faith actually brings to our lives. We live religion at our own level, even it be a very mediocre level.

 

Today, I would ask you to take stock of your own faith life. Does the teachings and core values actually impact your life? Does your claim to a Christian faith actually make a difference in your daily life?

 

In a society where life can be non-important, such as in abortion, medically assisted death or the refusal to pay a decent living wage; what does your Christian faith teach you about the value of human life?  A just life where humans can thrive? 

 

How does your Christian faith challenge you on the survival of the earth and all future generations?  Do you even know if your religion has anything to teach you about responsibility and care for the earth? For all living things? 

 

Humanity has a terrible record when it comes to making war. At the moment we have Somalia, a very poor African country, but is still able to finance a civil war. What does your Christian religion teach you about making war?  Even if the teaching is very positive, does it have any impact on the decisions of governments and individual citizens? 

 

As we move into the confines of our own house, what does your Christian religion have to teach about intimate partner violence? About battered women and children? What does it have to say about sexual abuse toward children that happens in the home setting? 

 

And what about all the homeless in our country. Finally, this is getting attention in the media. What does your Christian faith have to offer on this question?

 

This reflection is not to make you feel down, but to alert you that there are strong and well-developed social teachings on each of these questions. Under the leadership of our bishops well-spoken and reflected Christians have worked out the consequences of our Christian faith in each of these situations. The average Christian may be totally unaware that there is a strong body of social teachings on each of these social issues. You and I do not have to re-develop the wheel!

 

The purpose of this little reflection was to spur the reader on to discover the social teachings of our Christianity.  There is so much in the social teachings of the Church that our faith life will be strongly enriched and deepened.

 

How aware is your local Church aware of this rich source of teachings on so many of these questions today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IT HAPPENED ON THE ROAD

 

This Sunday we hear of the two disciples who walked to the village of Emmaus (Lk. 24,13-35). They were joined by a stranger. During the conversation the stranger begins to elaborate the meaning of the prophecies that would explain the death of Jesus. The two disciples did not get the message. They continued on and invited the stranger to join them as they took up the night’s lodging.

 

When they sat down to eat the stranger took the bread, gave blessing and broke it. At that moment the two disciples discovered that the stranger was the risen Christ. He disappears. They rush back to Jerusalem to inform the other disciples that they were correct. They had encountered the risen Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

 

Focus today where they had encountered the risen Lord. It was not in a prayer house or other designated holy place. It was on the road.

 

People can become too narrow in their perception of divine action. Many limit holiness only to within the four walls of the local church building. It is good to value the worship space but it is much too limiting to the way that God actually works.

 

Look for the movement of the risen Christ among your co-workers who make special efforts to help the new Canadians adjust to our Canadian ways and to work through the many government procedures in order to obtain services. They take the new comer down to the driver trainer and help them obtain their driver’s licence. The risen Christ is working through the goodness of these co-workers.

 

See the goodness of the resurrection in your sister who had adapted her work schedule so that she can be of assistance to her daughter who is now a single mom with three pre-school children. Your sister has made many sacrifices for the sake of her grandchildren. The goodness of this woman is a sharing in the goodness of the resurrection.

 

Listen to your elderly uncle, whose only mobility is the wheel chair, who daily makes intercession for so many people who need to be brought to God. His many prayers brings the concerns of these many wounded people before God. His prayer is a strong affirmation of his trust in the power of God to give assistance to these many hurting and confused people. In his prayer he is living the resurrection.

 

And none of this is happening in a church building. 

 

The work of the risen Christ is on the road. First, it is in the everyday activities of our lives that Christ comes to us. Many  a time we will be surprised as were the two men on the road to Emmaus. 

 

Take a few moments to reflect where you have encountered the risen Christ on the road.

 

 

LIVING AN EASTER FAITH

 

 

We now enter into the fifty days of Easter. This is not an add-on to Easer but a time for the people of the Church to work out what it means that Christ has risen and has been given to us. 

This is reflection time. What are the implications that Christ is actually risen?

 

There is a certain strain of unreality among many people who identify themselves as believers. They figure that their religious faith should never make demands on them or cause them any difficulties. This is an expectation that will prevent them from ever growing up in the faith. 

 

We are going to hear next Sunday of the ‘doubting Thomas.’ The gospel writers wanted to show how difficult it was for many of the disciples to come to terms with the resurrected Jesus. In their doubt, they were wrestling with reality: was the resurrection real or just a made-up story?

 

Each one of us needs to walk in shoes of these doubters. If the resurrection of Jesus was real, what implications does it have for my life? The life of my Church? For many born-Catholics the struggle may be painful but it can become so life-giving.

 

The resurrection of Jesus is the giving of God to humanity. Each believer is given the Holy Spirit; God alive and working in us. The sharing of the Holy Spirit is the living extension of the risen Jesus. This is a debilitating weakness on the part of so many born-Christians. They are not aware that the risen Jesus must now come alive in us.

 

We are the ones sent to continue and make real the love, mercy and mission of Jesus Christ in our own space and time. 

 

The risen Chris comes alive in us when we pray with our co-worker in the hospital. Her recovery is very slow and some days she is very frightened that her illness could be fatal. You care. Your listening and  supportive presence are made real in your prayer for her recovery. It is very simple and so very human; but the risen Christ is shared in those moments.

 

The couple who sit two benches ahead of you in Church volunteer at the food bank. They work with Christian believers, people from other religions and the religious indifferent ones. They try to bring respect and understanding to each of the clients they encounter at the food bank. They never tell you of their respect; they just do it! Even if many of their religiously indifferent co-workers do not understand how they practice their faith, they are putting the resurrected  Jesus into practice. They are making the resurrected Jesus come to life through their hands and through their smiles. 

 

These next fifty days are a time of exploration for the Church. How can the resurrected Jesus come alive among us? What are the signs of the presence of the resurrected Jesus in our lives? 

Where are the moments that we recognize the presence of the resurrected Jesus and blurt out like the apostle Thomas, “My Lord and my God.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IT IS EASTER

 

Life can become rather bleak when we look at the invasion and destruction of the Ukraine, the killing of police officers in Canada and the garbage on our streets that nobody cleans up. We do not run away from the blackness of reality or the power of evil in our world. 

 

Now reflect on what God is doing. Open yourself to be gripped by the working of God in our world. Too many people have this very polite and sugarlike quality to their belief in God. Nice; but it does not make too much difference to our daily life.

 

God has become flesh and made of his life and his death a sacrifice of service and love for all humanity. In the death of Jesus, all humanity is brought to God. The arms of Jesus on the cross embraces all humanity. 

 

But the great mystery of the cross is made real in the revelation, the pouring forth of the Son of  God in the resurrection. The Son of God has been given to all humanity. 

 

Now this is not a goodwill gesture on the part of God. This is the living part of the plan of God to redeem humanity. Now, the resurrected Jesus is being given to each believer. Now, the mystery of Jesus Christ must happen in each person.

 

Now, the person, the mission, the compassion and the justice of Jesus must happen in us. This is a dynamic and transforming presence. There is nothing polite about the resurrection and its effects. You are meant to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

 

The resurrected Jesus must come alive in your prayer life. You seek the presence of God when you see the morning light after you get out of bed. You seek the presence of God when you take your first coffee in the morning. You share your plans for the day with God as you drive to work.

 

The resurrected Jesus is meant to come alive in your faith community when it gathers each week for the Sunday Eucharist. The people of the Church come to be touched, molded , challenged and empowered each week by the Word of God and the Eucharist. It is here that we share in the great act of redemption, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

 

The resurrected Jesus is given to us to come alive when we reach out to the poor with their many faces. The poor person that you may help may be your co-worker who shares her fears and pain that her thirty year old son is into the drugs. She is so afraid that he will overdose and she will become childless. You can only listen and walk with her in her fears and her frustrations  that she can do nothing to help on this end. The resurrected Jesus is coming alive in your compassion and understanding. It may not be as successful as you want (that the son would stop doing the drugs and seek help) but the hands of Jesus are present in your empathy, you listening.

 

Easter is the giving of the resurrected Christ to us. Be conscious how the resurrected Christ wants to come alive in your prayer, your service to others and your love for your fellow human beings.