Experiencing God 211 Fan Into Flame

"Fan into a flame the gift that God has given you when I laid my hands on you"
Timothy

This past weekend many of us attended the Transmission Conference at St. Mary's University.  This conference was the Archbishop's response to the further implementation of the New Evangelization process started two years ago.  You might say that this conference is a fanning into flame the gifts that God has given us as a result of our Baptism and the commitment we have made to be sharers of the faith.  

As with Timothy, we are reminded that God's gift is not a spirit of timidity, but a Spirit of power, love and self-control, and we are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord.  

The question that came to my mind during the conference is: What is the church's primary role when it comes to the New Evangelization, and as a result, what is my role in this process?  If I am to "fan into flame" God's gift to me, then how am I to respond?  I think this is a valid question that each of us can ask ourselves.  

One thing became clear to me during this conference as I was listening to the Archbishop.  He said that for every weekend church service we attend, we say the creed.  The creed is an expression of our faith.  We say: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty; I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son; I believe in the Holy Spirit", and so on.  This word creed or "believe" in the original Greek text has a much deeper meaning then that used from an English context. Credo or believe in Greek is made up of two words: "to give" and "my heart".  So it means "to give my heart".  If we apply this to the creed, then we are saying:  "I give my heart to God, the Father Almighty; I give my heart to Jesus Christ, His only Son;  I give my heart to the Holy Spirit." 

The Archbishop continues:  "To give our hearts has a much stronger meaning than "I believe". It implies a surrender, a commitment, an intense love requiring a response of reverence and obedience. It is in this "giving of our hearts" that we experience God's Spirit of power in our lives.  

Although believing implies that we accept, giving of our hearts implies that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have become the very substance of our being.  If we can make this transition from believing to the giving of our hearts, then this is probably the greatest response we can make to the New Evangelizaiton process. From that will flow a deep heart felt desire to share, in many different ways, the love that we have experienced from giving our hearts to the Lord.

With the giving of our hearts, we have at this moment the promise of salvation from Christ, and union with God for eternity."  

This fanning into flame, or giving of our hearts implies that as church, we are to embark on radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk taking service, and extravagant generosity in order to make God visible in our somewhat darkened world.  We do this, not in timidity or fear, but by cooperating with God's power and love.