Experiencing God 208 The New Evangelization

As Jesus and his disciples travelled along, they met a man on the road who said to him: “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus answered, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Another to whom he said: “Follow me”, replied, “Let me go and bury my father first.”  But he answered, “Leave the dead to bury their dead, your duty is to go and spread the news of the Kingdom of God.”

Another said: “I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good bye to my people at home.”  Jesus said to him: “Once the hand is laid to the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God”.

Gospel of Luke

Upon first reading of the gospel, Jesus seems abnormally strict in his requirements to be a follower of His.  “Leave the dead to bury the dead”, he says to the man who requested that he first be allowed to bury his father.  “As for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”

In order to understand the gospel, we have to first understand that it has little or anything to do with providing funeral services for ones parents, or saying good bye to ones relatives and friends.  It has to do with our attachments.  Jesus understood human nature well.  He knew that if we were driven by an attraction to one thing, then it would automatically be given a preference over other things.  And in fact, it would hide from our view the very thing of greater importance.  That’s why he said to his disciples: “You cannot serve both God and money.  You will end up loving one at the expense of the other”.  There’s nothing wrong with money.  It’s just a medium of exchange to provide for our needs.  But if money becomes our master, if it becomes an attachment, then God and His Kingdom will not be revealed to us because it becomes hidden from us by our attraction  to something else.  The Kingdom will lie beyond our realization because our focus is on other things.

We see this all the time in our human emotions.  It’s very hard if not impossible to experience two contradictory emotions at one time.  If I really love you, it is impossible for me to hate you at the same time.  If I am filled with joy for the success or accomplishment of a friend, then it will be impossible for me to be envious or jealous of my friend’s accomplishment at the same time.  Well, the same is true for an experience of the Kingdom of God within.  God is all around, God is present in all things including ourselves.  God manifests His presence to all people at all times.  His love is ever present, but so few have an experience of this.  Our culture declares God is dead.  We feel on our own.  Why is this?  Because we have been blinded by our attachment to other things.  Other things have become the focus of our attention.  Our task is not to pass judgement on those who have difficulty experiencing the presence of God, or to consider them somehow lesser than ourselves.  Our task is to reveal to them, in the manner of how we live our lives that there is something in our midst that is more important than what they are attached to.

That was Jesus’ mission; to reveal to us that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that it is present among us.  This is not an intellectual understanding, but an actual experience.  Jesus became the “way” to that experienced realization through the life that He lived.   So now He asks us to follow Him in the “way” in order to make the Kingdom visible to others.  “As for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God” he instructs the man who wants to leave to bury his father. 

When I was working, I often ran into people who would say:  “I admire your faith and I should go to church.  Well, maybe after retirement I’ll have more time for that.  Right now, I’m just too busy with my job, my family.  I just don’t have time to pray right now.

These are the people that Jesus was speaking about in today’s gospel.  They were not bad people, just people distracted and attached to other things.  I want to follow you, but I still have responsibilities for my parents.  When they are dead and gone, I’ll have more time then.  Or let me say farewell to my relations and friends.  Perhaps then I can join you.  Really, what has one to do with the other?  

In following Jesus, we are not making a choice between our parents and our friends and God.   In following Jesus, we are acknowledging that we have discovered something much more attractive, much more important, and much more fulfilling than all those other attractions that we see around us that compete for our attention..  We have discovered the treasure hidden in the field, we have discovered the pearl of great price, and we so much want to share that with those we meet, including our parents and family and friends if need be. 

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about the new evangelization.  For me, this is what the new evangelization is all about.  We cannot offer to others what we do not have ourselves.  Discover within yourself God’s Kingdom, discover within yourself the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God, be energized by a renewal of our own faith, and then we have something to share, to be a witness too.  The church is in a crisis because, in many ways, we have failed to proclaim God’s Kingdom in a manner that effectively touches the hearts of others.   Through our own renewal, we will discover our new ardour, our new methods, our new expressions that will reveal God’s Kingdom, not only to ourselves, but also to those we meet.

Experiencing God 207 Advent, A Time of Rebirth

"Come to me all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest."
Gospel of Matthew

In 1994, when I first came to my new church in Dartmouth, the pastor asked several parishioners to give a short three minute presentation on our most memorial Advent and Christmas. The purpose was to make everyone aware, as far as possible, as to what this season was all about.  He asked me to speak on Sunday evening.  After some thought, I decided to speak on the Advent of 1988.  Why then?  In the advent of 1988, my mother was admitted to the Amherst hospital for a minor operation on her gull bladder.  During the operation, it was discovered that she had advanced cancer, not only in her gall bladder, but also in her liver. She was give a maximum of six months to live.  

I recall how much of a shock this was for the whole family. The rest of Advent with Christmas coming in a few weeks took on a much different flavor for all of us.  All of the normal, and perhaps "busy" type of activities that would normally consume our time suddenly lost their significance.  We all began to focus our attention on the care and concern for our mother, and how to celebrate this last Christmas with her. 

For myself, this was an Advent and Christmas that I looked at more closely through a lense of faith.  As a result, it became for me a most memorial Advents and Christmas. I never before felt as close to my family as we shared deeply our common concern.

The Gospel quote above from Matthew is very appropriate for Advent.  "At that time, Jesus exclaimed: Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.  Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Advent, if it is experienced in the manner intended, must always be seen as an invitation to draw closer to Christ.  So often, it reflects only the illusions of busyness as we attempt to make it fit in with our sometimes unreasonable expectations.  Sometimes it takes a shock to bring us into the realization of what it is really all about. 

When we are drawn to the realization that we really are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and through His Spirit He unites us as that family of faith, then we are moving towards the true meaning of Advent.  We are moving towards a true celebration of the Christmas event.

The readings from Isaiah during this time attempt to bring that realization to a people who were separated by war.  "Young men who hope in the Lord renew  their strength.  They put out wings like eagles.  They run and do not grow weary, walk and never tire."

The Advent of 1988 brought us together as a family, gave us strength to deal with our sadness, to prepare for what was to come.  It helped me personally to discover the birth of Christ and His message of consolation in a new way.

Experiencing God 206 The Generous Sower

"Then he told them many things in parables, saying: A farmer went out to sow his seed."
Gospel of Matthew

A few years ago, Catholic Christian Outreach published a little booklet called "the Ultimate Reality".  In it they showed three diagrams.  These diagrams represented the different levels of commitment in one's relationship to Christ.

The first diagram represented someone who did not have a relationship with Christ.  It is an image of a person who has all kinds of different interests - work, family, hobbies, friends, etc. but a relationship with Christ is not among them.  As far as this person is concerned, Jesus is outside of their life.

The second diagram showed an image of someone who acknowledges Jesus as part of their life, but is not completely committed to Him.  Jesus is included among the many other things that make up this person's life, but is not the centre.  Jesus is one aspect among many.

The third diagram represents a Christ-centered relationship.  All the other aspects are still there as in the other two.  Nothing is missing, but Christ is at the centre.  Christ is primary, influencing all decisions and every aspect of the person's life. 

The little booklet then makes this statement:  "If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great."  And it ends with the very familiar quote from Revelations:  "Listen, I am standing at the door knocking.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you, and eat with with you, and you with me." 

In the parable of the seeds, Jesus is telling us that God is a generous sower, and He scatters His seeds everywhere. They fall into different types of ground - some on the trodden path, some in the rocks, some in the thorns, and some on fertile soil.   So much of our understanding of the parables, of Jesus' word, depend upon our relationship with Him.  When Christ is found at the centre of our lives, we have attentive ears, we have hearts that are willing to learn, we have (what you would call) fertile soil.  And of course, if God is not a part of our lives, then Christ's word will often go unheard, bearing little or no fruit.   

Christ' invitation is always open to us. 

As we read in Hebrews: "This is a covenant I will make with you when those days arrive.  I will put my laws into your hearts and write them on your minds.  I will never call your sins to mind, or your offences."

When we come to Christ, then His word speaks very personally to us and we discover that His word is life.

Experiencing God 205 Are Our Perceptions In Line With the Gospel

"Peter insists: Lord, you will never wash my feet. Jesus responds Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”
Gospel of John

Have you ever heard the expression: “Perception is reality”. 

Perception has to do with how we see the world. And because, as individuals, we often see things differently, then reality often gets expressed differently, depending on how we perceive it. 

In our World Day of Prayer, the Women’s Inter-church Council of Canada are asking us to focus our pray and support for the people of the Bahamas, particularly to the women there who have assumed a leadership role in their communities, and who share that special affiliation with the women in our own community and country.

The question that came to mind as I was preparing for tonight was: “what is my perception of the Bahamas and where does it come from?” And If I am going to fully embrace this task of of supporting the people of the Bahamas, then maybe my perception needs to change.

I’ve never been to the Bahamas, but when I think about it, what comes to mind is a vacation spot, or maybe a great place for a cruise. I imagine beautiful beaches, resort hotels, and long walks in the sun or in moon light along the ocean. I imagine a place where I would be served great food, and enjoy good entertainment.

Where does this rather biased perception come from? I would say that it has been developed over time from what I’ve heard from people who have visited there, from what I’ve read, from pictures and brochures in travel magazines, and probably from my own imagination. Is this perception reality? Probably not.  So we must be careful with our perceptions, how we see things, because it can create something that may be “reality” for us, but fails to project the true picture.

The theme of the Gospel account from John Chapter 13 is Jesus washing the feet of His disciples.  Its message is clear: “For I have set before you an example that you also should do”. During Holy Week, on Thursday evening, this Gospel will be the focus of many of our Christian services. But in this Gospel reading, there is a line that can be easily missed. Recall the point where Jesus and Peter are in discussion. Peter confronts Jesus: “Lord, are you going to wash my feet”, and Jesus says: “You will later understand what I am doing”. But Peter insists: “Lord, you will never wash my feet”. And then the line I would like to focus on: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” He does not say: Stick with me Peter, I’ll explain later. No. He tells Peter: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me”. So what’s going on here. What is Peter’s perception that causes him to respond in the manner that he does?  And do we at times have this same perception? 

In Peter’s time, there was an ingrained perception that slaves washed the feet of their masters, that servant washed the feet of their benefactors, that children washed the feet of their parents etc. etc. This was the natural order, and you might say an established paradigm. People just could not imagine that reality could be any other way. So it was firmly entrenched as the mindset of the people. So when Jesus Master and Lord approached Peter to wash his feet, it did not fit in with Peter’s mindset. It was not a part of his reality. Peter could wash Jesus’ feet, but not the other way around. 

At first, it seems that Peter was acting in humility by refusing to have his feet washed by Jesus, but it’s really not. Peter is acting out of the conditioning of his culture. In Jesus’s response: “Unless I wash you, you have no share in me”, He is really saying to Peter that his perception is disordered. It does not reflect God’s true reality, therefore, if you cannot change, then you are offside with God: “You can have no share in me”.

Now this presents to us a grave challenge. It challenges us to look carefully at our own perceptions of how we see things. It challenges us to examine where they come from, what created them, and ask ourselves; do they conform with Christ and His teachings. It provokes some serious questions: Questions concerning our attitudes in respect to the leadership role of women in our communities, the proper interaction and dialog between Christians from different denominations, between Christians and those of other religions, between Christians and those who oppose our faith. Does Jesus’ example of washing the feet of others apply in these circumstances?

There’s a gospel from Matthew which I believe ties in with this. “While Jesus was talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside wanting to speak to him. Some told Him: Your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you. Jesus replied: Who is my mother, and who are my brothers. Point to his disciples he said: Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother.”

The washing of another’s feet is a symbolic action. It’s not to be taken literally. It’s focus is towards an expression of service to others, but it runs much deeper than this. It implies an attitude of the mind that is free from our own self-constructed perceptions. It’s an attitude that goes beyond the cultural norms to which we may have become attached like slave serving master. In the Kingdom of God, there are no hierarchical structures of importance. The commission is clear. To share in Christ, we must serve one another, and the service we render goes beyond our ingrained perceptions of what this might be.

This service is the offering of Christ’s love to all whom we meet, regardless of their status, regardless of the religious affiliation, regardless of their moral standing in the community. In fact, the mission aspect of this very unique commission implies that our service be explicitly given to those who may fall outside of our communities, and outside of our cultural norm.

In order to meet and serve the people of the Bahamas as brothers and sisters in Christ, to share in their joys, their sorrows, their needs, I must let go of my perception of the Bahamas as being a vacation spot to entertain and serve my needs. I must see the people there as being seemingly connected with me, with my own joys and sorrows; with my own struggles. I must see that we are both called to carry out that great commission given us by Christ: “I have set before you an example, an example that you also should do to others as I have done to you.”

I would like to conclude with a quote from John Vanier’s book, Community and Growth.



“A community is only a community when the majority of its members is making the transition from “community for myself” to “myself for the community”, when each person’s heart is opening to all the others, without any exception. This is the movement from egoism to love, from death to resurrection; it is the Easter, the Passover of the Lord.”

Experiencing God 204 - I Will Never Forget You

"Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the child of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you."
Isaiah

When you hear the news today from the Near East, one would almost believe that you are hearing about biblical times.  Some of the same players involved in our current day disputes in the Near East are the very ones present when Isaiah wrote his powerful prophecies during 740-690 BC.  

At that time, Assyria became the principal threat, particularly to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  So Northern Israel made a coalition with Syria to brace themselves against a possible attack.  This coalition of Northern Israel and Syria wanted Judah, the Southern part of Israel, to join them.  But Judah refused.  So they attacked this Southern Kingdom.  Judah called upon Assyria to help them.  The Assyrians came to the rescue, overthrew the coalition to the North, and tore a great part of the Northern Kingdom away from Israel.  But Assyria did not stop there.  They later invaded the very one who called on them for help, Judah.  

It was during this very turbulent time that Isaiah, a prophet from Judah, began his proclamations. When all hope was lost, Isaiah comes forth as a person to restore hope to a defeated people. 

The People cried out: "The Lord has abandoned us.  The Lord has forgotten us."  And Isaiah's encouraging words:  "Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the child of her womb?  Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you."  Words of hope for a desolate and defeated nation. Words that even today bring us consolation when we are at our wits end, and everything around us seems to be falling apart.

We find the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies in Christ.  "Even if these other forget, I will never forget you.  I go and prepare a place for you so that where I am, you may be also."  One of the purposes of John in writing his Gospel is to let his readers know, to let us know, of the connection we have with a loving Father through Christ, a connection that is not broken even at death, a moment that may seem to be the time of our greatest loss.  

Even death is conquered through Christ.  God continues to embrace us at our most troubling and desperate moments to restore our hope.  "Thus the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to anyone He chooses.  I tell you solemnly, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life."  

Of course we know that this requires a little more than a superficially listening with our heads.  This listening requires us to embrace the truth of Christ with out hearts, to encounter this Spirit residing deep within the recesses of our own being, to know in that personal way that we are saved through Christ.

This is the Good News of Christ, news that fills us with a joy that we wish to share.  May that joy of the risen Christ be with each of you this Lent. 

Experiencing God - 203 Discovering a Lonely Place

"Now Simon's mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told Him about her straightaway.  He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her."
Gospel of Mark

Who do you take your troubles too?  Do you allow Jesus to be the Lord, healer and guide of your personal life?

There is a quote from St. Jerome, an early church scholar and producer of the Jerome Biblical commentary:

"Can you imagine Jesus standing before your bed, and you continuing to sleep?  It is absurd that you would remain in bed in Jesus' presence.  Where is Jesus?  He is already here offering Himself to us.  Faith beholds Jesus among us."

As we get older and after dealing with many situations and problems (whether through work, family or encounters with others in community) we can begin to think that we can handle everything on our own.  After all, we have the experience to back up what we say and do.  What we often fail to realize is that everything is constantly changing.  We are changing ourselves.  Although our experience is good, it may not necessarily apply to our changing circumstances. 

Jesus is the only one I know who can keep us in touch with changing circumstances, and then give us the guidance and direction we need.  A simple reflective question we may ask ourselves: "Jesus, how would you handle this situation which has come up in my life?"  

In order to do this, we have to follow Jesus' practice of going off to a lonely place for a while, and being there in prayer.  We need a place where we can ask the right question and listen for His response. 

In the above Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus helped Simon's mother-in-law, and He went on to help many others who came to Simon's door that evening.  The next morning, He went off to a lonely place to pray.  When Simon and his companions saw that Jesus was missing, they went out in search for Him.  They were quite anxious to continue on with what they experienced from the previous successful evening.  "Everyone is looking for you" they exclaimed after finding Him.  But the continuation of yesterday's success was not a part of God's plan for Jesus.  "Let's go elsewhere to the neighboring towns so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came." 

Who do we take our troubles too?  Do we allow Jesus to be Lord, healer and guide in our personal lives in changing times?  Where do we go when the way we've done things in the past no longer seems to be working?  

As St. Jerome says in his commentary:  Jesus is always there offering Himself to us.  Our faith beholds Jesus among us.  Why do we continue our sleeping?  

It is in prayer; the going off by ourselves to a lonely place, to seek the Lord as our guide that we will find the answers. 

Experiencing God - 202 Beyond the Rules

"Is is against the law on the Sabbath day to do good, to save life?"
Gospel of Mark

One of my favorite bicycle rides is going across the Angus L. MacDonald Bridge on the bike lane.  It's great when you have the whole lane to yourself; no worry about cars, and the view of the Halifax Harbor is the best.  Some may say: "Are you not worried about the height, maybe driving over the side of the bridge?"  I would say to that: "It's impossible.  The lane has two huge steel railings on either side, and its almost impossible to get over them.  So I can ride across quite freely, without fear of falling off."  

I like to think of our rules in this way.  Rules are there to provide safety, to provide order.  They are the railings which enable us to move about freely and spontaneously.  We need rules in our society, and we have a lot of them.  We also need them in our churches.  But the one thing we have to be aware of is that following the rules for their own sake does not lead to meaningful worship of God. Worship and faith have to do with relationship.   

It follows and is similar too that ancient expression from Plato or Socrates: ""Justice without mercy is not really justice at all." Justice without mercy can turn into the worst type of cruelty.

In the above Gospel from Mark, Jesus is asking a question to the Pharisees:  "Is it against the law (or rules) on the Sabbath day to do good, or to save life?"  He received no answer because they were so obstinate.  To further His teaching, Jesus, on the Sabbath, asked the man with the withered hand to stretch it out, and He healed it, breaking what the Pharisees saw as one of their sacred rules.  What the Pharisees failed to realize was that the Sabbath rule was there to assist them to enter into meaningful worship of God, and not as a test to justify themselves before others. 

Following the rules, for them, became more important than the mercy, compassion and love towards which the rules pointed.  And that's why they failed to stop to help the man on the edge of the road who was beat up and robbed in the Good Samaritan story.  

Our rules take us only so far. They provide the order we need, the railings that keep us from falling offside. They permit us to move freely and spontaneously without fear.  But they all point to something greater.  We are in relationship with God.  We are in relationship with one another. And these relationships create a connection and bind us together with a responsibility towards one another and with God that goes beyond the mere practice of rules.

Experiencing God - 201 Courage in Times of Trial

"Take Courage!  It is I. Do not be afraid."
Gospel of Mark

Does Jesus ever seem distant when trials and difficulties come?

At times, in scripture, we can get so caught up in the story and the events that are happening that we miss the underlining teaching. 

Right after Jesus performed the miracles of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, He leaves the disciples so that He could go off and pray.  The disciples go off by themselves, across the Lake of Galilee where they are confronted with a life-threatening storm.  Although they are experienced fishermen, they recognize the seriousness of their situation and fear for their lives.  It was in their most desperate moment that they sighted Jesus coming towards them on the Lake.  And they heard the words of reassurance come from the One who they thought was a ghost:  "Take Courage!  It is I.  Do not be afraid."  In other words: "Don't give in to fear and panic, take courage, be calm.  You are never alone.  I am here with you."

There's a couple of points in Mark's Gospel story that are easy to miss.  As Jesus was coming towards the disciples, Mark includes a very unusual phrase.  "Jesus meant to pass them by, but when the disciples saw Him, they thought He was a ghost and cried out." 

The Israelites believed that to see God's face meant death.  In Exodus, we have reference to God setting Moses in a hollow of a rock and covering him with His hand until He had passed by.  This was to protect Moses from looking upon the face of God. 

Jesus, in being attentive to the panic and fear of the disciples, acts in a different manner.  Jesus reveals a new relationship, a new way of responding.  He comes to be with those who are afraid.  He assures us with the words: "IT IS I".  It is His presence with us, His walking with us, that defines a new type of relationship between ourselves and Christ.  It is this presence, this walking with us that drives out all fear as described in the letter of John. 

"In love, there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love."

Mark also says in the Gospel story that the disciples hearts were hardened in respect to the miracles.  In the Jerusalem Bible it says that their minds were closed.  Mark is looking for something deeper from the disciples and from his readers.  Mark is looking for something deeper from us than just the surface reading of this Gospel narrative.  Mark is hoping that we will begin to question our owl level of intimacy with Christ. 

During our own wind-tossed times; during the storms in our own lives; will we be able to stand firmly on that stabilizing rock of our faith in Christ?   Will we know, no matter what comes our way, we are not alone? 

Christ is there, sharing our journey.  His presence is not just an intellectual understanding or consent.  It is something real, something sustaining, something healing. 

Do we experience Jesus as present with us when trials and difficulties come our way?

Experiencing God - 200 Surrender

"Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter, and will not be able."
Gospel of Luke

In my late twenties, I went through what I would call a difficult time, a time of struggle.  Although I was succeeding in most of my goals -- I had an excellent job, good opportunities; I was happily married with three children; I had or could have had most of the things I wanted -- however, I continued to feel empty.  As a result, I felt like a failure.  Since my wife and I were connected with church, I started to move towards greater involvement in volunteering in search for an answer as to why I was feeling this way.  I started to teach Sunday school, and eventually joined a prayer group.  None of these activities seem to work, to take away the emptiness I was feeling until one evening.  I was at the prayer meeting, feeling very low, when in my desperation I reached out to Jesus and cried for help.  That moment of surrender changed everything.

When speaking about the narrow door, we must understand, first of all, that Jesus is the door through which we must enter.  Jesus is the way through. As Jesus says in Revelation: "I stand at the door and knock.  If you answer, if you open the door, I will come and sup with you." 

But we have a resistance to opening that door. 

This "resistance" makes the "way" narrow, because we battle with an alternative way of thinking, of believing that it has something to do with us.  Many, including myself, attempt to find an alternative route to God through the exercise of our self-will, through doing something ourselves through our own effort.

Jesus makes it clear in the above Gospel that we must strive to enter through the narrow gate.  We confuse this"striving" to "doing it ourselves", when it is not that at all.  The Greek word for "striving" is to agonize.  The implication here is that those who seek to enter the narrow gate must do so by struggle.  Unfortunately, we often interpret this struggle with something that we must accomplish.  This only hinders the process of surrendering to God's more perfect plan for our lives.

The narrow gate is difficult because of the resistance we experience from our own human pride, our natural attraction to doing things on our own, mostly because of our need to maintain personal control over our lives and the lives of others.  Surrender is a process of letting go of that.

The exhortation by Jesus to "strive" is a command to repent, to surrender to Him; not just stand and think about it, or complain that it's too hard or too small.  We are not to ask why others are not entering. We are not to be concerned with the number who will or will not enter.  We are to plow ahead, despite the resistance; and in doing so, we become liberated. We become the source of encouragement for others to follow.

Experiencing God - 199 Gift of Faith

"But to all who did accept Him, He gave the power to become children of God."
Gospel of John

Last night, I watched a movie on TV called "Heaven is for Real".  I read the book a few years ago.  It is a real story about a four year old boy who had a "near death experience" as the result of a ruptured appendix.  After his recovery from this near death experience, he began to reveal, little by little, to his shocked parents, his experience of "going to heaven" during the critical time of his illness.  Some of the things he revealed were quite extraordinary. They were, not only beyond the knowledge of a four year old boy, but things about others he would not have otherwise known.

This movie gave rise to some interesting discussions in our family afterwards.  How did we react to the movie?  What evidence do we see that gives credibility to the Gospels and its teachings?  For example, we know that:

1.  Jesus was a real historic figure.
2.  Jesus had a specific teaching which, if it were not true, would suggest that He was mad; yet His life would support the position that He was very sane, perhaps even more so than anyone else.
3.  His apostles and followers believed in Him and His teachings to the point of sacrificing their own lives in martyrdom for His cause.
4.  Jesus and his teachings have affected the lives of millions of people in the centuries that followed.
5.  And, of course, the greatest miracle of the conversion of one's heart to faith, is a common phenomena to those who accept Christ in their lives.

And yet, not all people come to faith in Christ.  Faith, as St. Paul would describe it, is a gift of grace. In the prologue to John's gospel we read:  "But to all who did accept Him, He gave the power to become children of God".  

For those of us who have accepted Christ, do we not often take for granted this tremendous gift that has been given to us?  For those of us who have received this gift of faith through Grace, is it not something that we should be honored to share?  

Does our gift of faith entitle us to look down on those who do not share this particular gift?  Certainly not!  After all, it is a gift; which means, something that is given to us by another.  A gift is something that is not necessarily given to everyone.  I have not been given the gift of music, at least to any extent.  I do not write poetry; I do not excel in certain sports, and none of my teachers ever considered me a genius.  Yet, I do have this gift of faith in Christ which I cannot fully explain; and as with you, through this gift, I experience very strongly this connection with God, which again I cannot explain.  

Yet, we know that, like a spark, our own faith can ignite the hearts of faith in another, if the right conditions exist. 

I remember a song from my early days as a christian:

"It only takes a spark to get a fire going,
and soon all those around will warm up in its glowing.
That's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it;  It's fresh like spring, you want to sing,
You want to pass it on."

So we don't look down on a brother or a sister who has not received the gift of faith, but, when the time is right, we joyfully share that gift with them in the hopes that they too may share in our joy.