Ez. 17:22-24; Ps. 92:2-3, 13-16; 2 Cor. 5:6-10; Mk. 4:26-34
Walk by faith not by sight says the Lord. It is the sign of a Christian who trusts in God the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. The world would say have faith in yourself, look to the people and believe by sight in the science. Can faith in ourselves give us the answer to the question, “why do I exist?” Can people agree and tell me “what is truth?” Can science answer the question “what comes first the chicken or the egg?” Can faith in myself together with the people, and science tell us where we will spend eternity? Jesus came to give us the answer and was rejected and crucified. Jesus prays that we may all be one with the Father as he is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit calling us to be united as one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church as the people of God.
Jesus calls us to be one in faith, hope, and love. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables and “without parables he did not speak to them but to his own disciples he explained everything in private”? If there is an argument to be made for the magisterium of the Church this statement reveals to us that Jesus was establishing a structure of leadership for the people to walk by faith in the teachings of the church through those he called to be his disciples and explained everything to them. Thus, we are not to walk by the sight of our own interpretations of his word, create our own truth from our own conscience, follow the herd mentality, or expect science to be an end in itself.
Where is the authority in the interpretation of the word of God? We can all study scripture and when we do, we will come to understand more the teachings of the church but without the guidance of the church history, the writings of the Church Fathers and Tradition we can find ourselves spinning the wheel and going in the wrong direction. Today there are many wheels on the road spinning scripture and using the Bible to create their own dogmas. God’s call is to be one from the same seed and the same shoot of one faith.
What about following our own conscience? A child is born with the capacity to grow and learn. It develops its conscience beginning with the moral responsibility of its parents to teach right from wrong, to believe in something greater than themselves, to reciprocate love given unconditionally. A child is baptized to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit with all the gifts that the Spirit provides to grow in spirit and in truth with a well-formed conscience.
A conscience does not just exist it is nurtured by love and commandments into maturity. How many souls find no fear in harming others with a conscience that believes it is a dog-eat-dog world so take what you can while you can and too bad so sad for the other. In a time of so many broken homes, unfaithfulness in relationships, and distrust of institutions where does a child get a well-formed conscience? It begins in our domestic church at home teaching the faith that is being passed on to us from the church Jesus founded as we are to walk by faith.
A well-formed conscience in the domestic church at home is supported by the greater faith community when we come in fellowship to receive Christ in the Eucharist where he remains with us. Today Catholic schools are growing in numbers as families see the culture of death spreading in all the other institutions that seek to separate faith in God from the public square. These institutions will not prevail because ultimately the victory is won on the cross by Jesus but they will cause harm to our children who are seeking the truth and told to follow other ideologies against the teaching of the church.
If we ask the question “who founded the doctrine of the church you go to?” We can get answers like Augustine of Canterbury for the Church of England, Martin Luther for the Lutheran Church, or John Wesley for the Methodist Church, or John Calvin for Calvinism, or even “my neighbor who is Pastor of his own church”. Catholicism is traced back in history through all the Popes to Jesus Christ with Peter as the first Pope. We are living in a time where many are leaving religion behind becoming what is called “the None” to follow the science or their own spirituality
What about the truth of science? There is a rebirth of science as the new god of truth. Science is a medium of discovery to help us raise questions for every answer it proposes. All answers lead to more questions and end in the mystery of faith. What comes first the chicken or the egg? Neither does! God comes first, the prime mover of all creation. Even the mustard seed, by sight we see how it grows and we contribute to its growth with water, tilling, and fertilizing but its transformation is part of creation into what God has destined for its purpose. The kingdom of God has a divine purpose for those who accept the seed of faith in the word of God. If we trust in Jesus, we will live the transformation in our own lives and no science can explain it but we will know it.
Some social scientists want schools to go beyond academics and be the authority to teach social justice. Schools are being mandated to teach Critical Race Theory defining one race as oppressive above others and seeking retribution. Is this the teaching of a well-informed conscience or the ideology of one group over another? Does this follow the teaching of Jesus to be united as one or the teaching to divide one another by race and to distrust the other? Critical Race Theory seeks to have some form of retribution that is punishment by having the present society pay for past history but two wrongs don’t make it right. History proves that once you label a race as evil, evil comes from it and that is from the evil one.
The Church teaches we should make reparation for the sins of the world not retribution. Reparation is a voluntary act, retribution is a mandated act; reparation is an act of love for the other, retribution is an act of punishment to the other; reparation is through adoration, prayer, and sacrifice to bring the kingdom of God which is justice, peace and joy; but retribution is to follow the teaching of “an eye for an eye” for the sins of the past by your fathers, and your father’s father or there is no justice and no peace. This is the new norm to create a herd mentality that our children are being indoctrinated into. When Jesus spread his arms on the cross he voluntarily accepted to make reparation for our sins and those of the whole world giving us his sacred heart wounded for our transgressions.
What about the herd mentality, is there truth in numbers? One of the excuses parents hear from their children seeking approval is “everyone is doing it, has it, or believes it”. We know from scripture that not all seed falls on good ground and so not everyone is on the path to heaven. There are a large number of seeds that grow among the weeds and choke the plant before it can develop and give the fruit it was intended to produce. There also is seed that falls on the rock of death coming through abortion, euthanasia, and genetic manipulation and never is given the opportunity to sprout. The herd mentality is full of “rabbit holes” and death traps that claim to be truth and for a greater cause. Some have come to believe that the end justifies the means but scripture reminds us “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Jesus tells us by the fruit you shall know who is a child of God.
Christ is the sower who can transform us when we live by faith in the word of God celebrated in the liturgy of the Mass. The Mass has two main parts, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist and together they are the revelation of God’s presence with us. The transformation by faith leads to justification and justification to salvation through the works of faith. “The just shall flourish…they shall bear fruit in old age” the fruit of salvation for the kingdom of God. The fruit of salvation begins as a mustard seed in the waters of baptism. How it sprouts and grows are the works of faith through the Holy Spirit. We are reminded that “Jesus saves” but he cannot save us without us. Jesus joined our humanity to raise us into his deity for a glorious eternity.
We are a creation of God not science and God has a purpose for each of us, a divine purpose. We should never grow tired of seeking our divine purpose for it does not come as a single act we check off as done. Our divine purpose is a daily call to be the difference through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit as our offering to God the Father. Our divine purpose this day, this hour is to make an offering of ourselves in the sacrifice of the Mass in our worship joined in fellowship with a community of faith “For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.” (Mt. 18:20)
Our divine purpose carries a daily cross but also joy and peace because God is with us. We are to trust more in God and fear less of the world. We are to love more and worry less what the world fears. We are to seek more the kingdom of God and seek less what the world wants to offer. We are to pray more “thy will be done” and demand less to have it our way. We are to wait more upon the Lord for the treasure from heaven than to go down every “rabbit hole” of worldly pleasure. There is God’s way to heaven and then there are endless ways to hell. The early Christians were known to follow “the way”. Are we living “the way of Jesus”?
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