I haven’t had an interest in posting about current events for a number of weeks. Maybe it is the whole Lenten experience and thinking about less temporal things at this time. Perhaps it is the fact that I am preaching more frequently on weekends in the past couple of months and thus I am spending more time preparing homilies. Perhaps it is because I am not all that excited about politics nowadays, but terribly interested in the realm of the spirit.
One thing I think is true is that the Church is under attack. I really don’t like to use that language for it seems we already have way too much fear instilled in us, leading to a loss of hope. Nevertheless, some of the core of what the Church preaches and upholds is increasingly ridiculed in contemporary society: family, marriage, life issues, social justice, peace. Our central belief in the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist is also weakening in the minds and hearts of many. I heard a few days ago, and heard again today, of someone passing out anti-Catholic tracts in Tennessee ridiculing the Eucharist.
Despite this, I marvel at the resurgence in faith of many young people. I marvel in the expressions of faith that show on the faces of the faithful who approach me to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus at Mass. I marvel when a man or woman who had left the Church decides to return, c.f., next Sunday’s Gospel (The Prodigal Son). I marvel at the newness of life in the infant. I am awed by the beauty of creation displaying in such a wonderful way the hand of the Creator. I am moved by the Word that is spoken by my brother deacons and priests in the liturgical assembly.
God is good. He loves us limitlessly. He is always present to us. He will never abandon us.
Let us remember that faith is not only assent to dogma and teaching of Our Lord and the Church, it is also maintaining relationship with God and Church. Faith is being in relationship with the one Good, the one Holy and the one True Being, revealed to us in Jesus Christ Our Lord whose body is the Church, our spiritual home.
