EXPLORATIONS
IN FAITH
AND SPIRITUALITY
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Focus: Becoming Missionary Disciples
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Goal: Acquire new skills that will enable us to “become part of that great whisper that wants to keep echoing in the different corners of our lives: Rejoice, the Lord is with you!"
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We dedicate this year’s Explorations in Faith and Spirituality to (1) exploring today's world and Church situation in the light of recent Church documents and (2) discovering what, if anything, we can learn about this "great whisper. . ." and in response become better evangelizers, i.e., make our inner Gospel joy more visible to others, especially through Spirit-directed encounters.
BEING MISSIONARY DISCIPLES
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HOW CENTRAL IS THE CHURCH IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE?
Just as central as the Yankees Team is to Aaron Judge’s life?
If you don’t feel that way, join our Exploration which begins below:
ON BEING A CATHOLIC OF TODAY
Introduction: What is the real "Real Thing" - Coca-cola, the iphone, a superbowl ring or Jesus?
I sense that many, perhaps most of our parishioners have lots of doubts and misconceptions about the Catholic Church and, not facing these head on, is making for a somewhat mundane, unjoyful everyday life, a far cry from what Christ wanted the Church to be for us. What went wrong? Should it be fixed? And, if so, how?
Well, after much thought about this, I suspect that the source of the problem, among other things, are
- Humanity's propensity to focus on the wrong things - and that seems to have been going on since the time of Adam and Eve. The Bible, Old and New Testament, and the whole of Church History tell story after story of people not heeding the messages of saints and prophets to the people of God telling them to recognize that God cares about us and we should show gratitude and allegiance to God. Sadly, all through the ages, most people just don't "get it" and God, appearing not to wish to go against the free will God gave us, watches and graces us with opportunities to figure things out.
- The people who do "get it" don't do enough in a timely manner to make the Joyful Message of the Gospel heard. One rather recent opportunuty we missed was when companies started using the findings in psychology in advertising campaigns to make us believe that we couldn’t live without their products (Like Coke – the Real Thing). We and our Church, which has the “product” which IS the Real Thing, could have countered, but we did not. Why? Was it a missed opportunity? How much could we have done? How much can we now do to counter such messages?
The first of these two sources indicates a need for personal interior conversions and transformations. The second indicates a need for communal conversions and transformations. Interestingly, Personal and Communal is what we proclaim our God to be: One God - Three divine Persons. The Church: One Body - Many Members.
So this page and the rest of the Missionary Disciples pages are one attempt to give us a chance to look at the Church and at our place, the part we play or could play, in it as something that may be totally different from the way we have thought it to be up until now. What we are about to explore is not anything new, but I suspect that, if you really listen, this will be new to you. Almost all of this material is based upon writings from Scripture, Catholic tradition, writings of popes like John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis and recent writings and videos of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
This is the kind of material that I and my Explorations in Faith and Spirituality attendees have been discussing since 2006. Because of COVID-19 and social distancing, I am putting the content here so that people who cannot attend the sessions can think about it and form their own study groups. Share this page with your friends and see if they would like to do the suggested discussions with you.
And please share your insights and suggestions with me. I am doing this to help you. Your feedback will influence my additions and changes to the material presented. As Saint Augustine used to do of his readers, so I ask you for the benefit of your sharing your doubts with me. I repeat to you the words he put forth at the beginning of his treatise On the Trinity:
"Let everyone who reads these pages move along with me when she is equally sure of things.
When she is equally hesitant, let her delve into them along with me.
When she realizes that the mistake is hers, let her come back to me.
When it is mine, let her call me back.
And so, let us go forward together
along the road that charity lays out,
setting our sights on God,
the One of whom it is said,
‘Seek his face always.’"
Please send emails to me at slfernandez@stmichaelscranford.org You feedback is greatly appreciated.
Sister Loretta Fernandez RSM
MISSIONARY DISCIPLESHIP?
"Missionary Discipleship" is the term that is not familiar to us and, perhaps, like me, you are a bit uncomfortable with it. It comes from the homily that Pope Francis gave on January 21, 2018 in Las Palmas Air Base in Lima, Peru. He said:
"Today the Lord calls each of you to walk with him in the city, in your city. He invites you to become his missionary disciple, so that you can become part of that great whisper that wants to keep echoing in the different corners of our lives: Rejoice, the Lord is with you!"
Let's start our exploration of our Church and our place in this Church and among God's People by considering this great homily of Pope Francis. The Pope's message is that God is whispering in our world - in us and arounds us - in the actions that spring from the image of God that is our true selves. It is expressed in this song.
Evangelize; Do Not Prosiletize
On many occasions Pope Francis has referred to the fact that many Catholic think that evangelization is prosylizing. He emphasizes that he believes Christians are called to share the Gospel, “The Church grows by witness. That means showing by our words and our lives the treasure we have received. That is what it means to evangelize. I live this way, I live this word, and may others see this. But that is not to proselytize.” (unprepared remarks before meeting with the Bishops of Bangladesh, 12-1-17) This witness of your personal belonging to Christ is what will draw someone to consider learning more about your faith. Their own questioning will draw them to freely want to believe.
Pope Francis’ Homily from the Holy Mass at the Air Base “Las Palmas”
January 21, 2018
HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE
PERU – Lima – 21.01.2018 – 16.15
Las Palmas Air Base
Holy Mass Homily of the Holy Father
“‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you’ (Jn 3:2). With these words the Lord spoke to Jonah and directed him to set out towards that great city, which was about to be destroyed for its many evils. In the Gospel, we also see Jesus setting out towards Galilee to preach the Good News (cf. Mk 1:14). Both readings reveal a God who turns his gaze towards cities past and present. The Lord sets out on a journey: to Nineveh, to Galilee, to Lima, to Trujillo and Puerto Maldonado… the Lord comes here. He sets out to enter into our individual, concrete histories. We celebrated this not long ago: he is Emmanuel, the God who wants to be with us always. Yes, here in Lima, or wherever you are living, in the routine of your daily life and work, in the education to hope that you impart to your children, amid your aspirations and anxieties; within the privacy of the home and the deafening noise of our streets. It is there, along the dusty paths of history, that the Lord comes to meet each of you.
"Sometimes what happened to Jonah can happen to us. Our cities, with their daily situations of pain and injustice, can leave us tempted to flee, to hide, to run away. Jonah, and we, have plenty of excuses to do so. Looking at the city, we can start by saying that there are ‘citizens who find adequate means to develop their personal and family life – and that pleases us – yet the problem is the many ‘non-citizens’, ‘the half-citizens’ or ‘urban remnants’{1}. They are found along our roadsides, living on the fringes of our cities, and lacking the conditions needed for a dignified existence. It is painful to realize that among these ‘urban remnants’ all too often we see the faces of children and adolescents. We look at the face of the future.
"Seeing these things in our cities and our neighborhoods – which should be places of encounter, solidarity and joy – we end up with what we might call the Jonah syndrome: we lose heart and want to flee (cf. Jon 1:3). We become indifferent, and as a result, anonymous and deaf to others, cold and hard of heart. When this happens, we wound the soul of our people. As Benedict XVI pointed out, ‘the true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer… A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through ‘compassion’ is a cruel and inhuman society’.{2}
Discuss: The Jonas Syndrome: Can it (Is it) happening in our country today? If it is, what can we do to remedy it in ourselves and around us? What does Pope Benedict's statement say to you? Do you think wanting the USA to be a "society that is able to accept its suffering" resonates with many or most of people in the USA today? Do you think that people in other countries, seeing our news reports, would think that of us?
"After they arrested John, Jesus set out to Galilee to proclaim the Gospel of God. Unlike Jonah, Jesus reacted to the distressing and unjust news of John’s arrest by entering the city; he entered Galilee and from its small towns he began to sow the seeds of a great hope: that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that God is among us. The Gospel itself shows us the joy and the rippling effect that this brought about: it started with Simon and Andrew, then James and John (cf. Mk 1:14-20). It then passed through Saint Rose de Lima, Saint Turibius, Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Juan Macías, Saint Francisco Solano, down to us, proclaimed by that cloud of witnesses that have believed in him. It has come to us in order to act once more as a timely antidote to the globalization of indifference. In the face of that Love, one cannot remain indifferent.
Discuss: Pope Francis here is showing how the Gospel Message, "the Kingdom of God is at hand, that God is among us." is passed "in a rippling effect" from Jesus to the first disciples, then to the saints of the people of Peru. Were he talking to you and me today, who would be those saints, those holy people in your and my life who are part of this "rippling"?
"Jesus invites his disciples to experience in the present a taste of eternity: the love of God and neighbour. He does this the only way he can, God’s way, by awakening tenderness and love of mercy, by awakening compassion and opening their eyes to see reality as God does. He invites them to generate new bonds, new covenants rich in eternal life."
This "taste of eternity" that Pope Francis asks us to experience as we are living the present situations of our live is what makes us disciples allowing Jesus to walk with us through the places where we are today and to enter into the lives of the people we meet. Can we do this? Can we let God do this - let God become flesh over and over again?
I think that most of you know this song, "Holy Is His Name" written and song here by John Michael Talbot. What you may think is that it was thought of and composed in a peaceful, quiet setting, but it was not.
Where are the IMPOSSIBILITIES IN YOUR LIFE - THE THINGS THAT YOU THINK CAN'T HAPPEN? Let God do the impossible through you.
As you listen to this next section of Pope Francis' homily, see yourself and each other and your family and friends as being among the disciples walking through our city with Jesus.
Pope Francis' homily continues:
"Jesus walks through the city with his disciples and begins to see, to hear, to notice those who have given up in the face of indifference, laid low by the grave sin of corruption. He begins to bring to light many situations that had killed the hope of his people and to awaken a new hope. He calls his disciples and invites them to set out with him. He calls them to walk through to the city, but at a different pace; he teaches them to notice what they had previously overlooked, and he points out new and pressing needs. Repent, he tells them. The Kingdom of Heaven means finding in Jesus a God who gets involved with the lives of his people. He gets involved and involves others not to be afraid to make of our history a history of salvation (cf. Mk 1:15, 21).
"Jesus continues to walk on our streets. He knocks today, as he did yesterday, on our doors and hearts, in order to rekindle the flame of hope and the aspiration that breakdown can be overcome by fraternity, injustice defeated by solidarity, violence silenced by the weapons of peace. Jesus continues to call us; he wants to anoint us with his Spirit so that we too can go out to anoint others with the oil capable of healing wounded hopes and renewing our way of seeing things.
"Jesus continues to walk and to awaken hope, a hope that frees us from empty associations and impersonal analyses. He encourages us to enter like leaven into where we are, where we live, into every corner of our daily life. The kingdom of heaven is among you, he tells us. It is there wherever we strive to show a little tenderness and compassion, wherever we are unafraid to create spaces for the blind to see, the paralyzed to walk, lepers to be cleansed and the deaf to hear (cf. Lk 7:22), so that all those we had given up for lost can enjoy the resurrection. God will never tire of setting out to meet his children. How will we enkindle hope if prophets are lacking? How will we face the future if unity is lacking? How will Jesus reach all those corners if daring and courageous witnesses are lacking?
Discuss: Do you believe that the "kingdom of heaven is among you"? Do you FULLY believe it?
"Today the Lord calls each of you to walk with him in the city, in your city. He invites you to become his missionary disciple, so that you can become part of that great whisper that wants to keep echoing in the different corners of our lives: Rejoice, the Lord is with you!"
Discuss: So, what do you think Pope Francis is asking of us when he says, "Today the Lord calls each of you to walk with him in the city, in your city. He invites you to become his missionary disciple, so that you can become part of that great whisper that wants to keep echoing in the different corners of our lives: Rejoice, the Lord is with you!" Do you want to do this? Do you think you can do this? If so, what comes first? What do you first have to do? How does one do this?
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{1} Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 74.
{2} Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, 38.