Tonight at RCIA we went through the four marks of the Church. What I am most inspired by in this is that, by becoming a Catholic, not only do I enter the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, but there is also an individual dimension.
It then becomes my aim, my goal and my destiny to become One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic myself. In other words, through God’s grace, I become One. I become unified. All the warring passions and ego and discord becomes resolved. As Jesus prays for me, I become one as he and the Father are one. This integral unity is what St Paul means when he says that “In Christ we live and move and have our being.” My Being is One with the one who is I AM–who is the ground of all being, who is Being itself.
I am also called to be Holy, called to be whole, called to be complete. I am called to the ‘full maturity and stature of the man Christ Jesus. This is what holiness is–not just piety or prayerfulness or being polite, but to be fulfilled and made whole. This destiny we share as we enter the one, holy Church. That is we are called to be saints. Pope Benedict has said, “The Scriptures can only be interpreted through the lives of the saints.” The same is true of the Church–the church can only be understood through the lives of the saints. When we see the saints, when we celebrate their lives we see what we are called to be and we see what we are already (if only we had eyes to see)
I also want, individually to be Catholic. That is, I want my own narrow, provincial, ego centric, limited life to become huge. I want it to have a universal dimension. By becoming Catholic I become one with my brothers and sisters on the mission in El Salvador, one with my blog reader friends from around the world. In communion I become one with all the saints down through the ages, in every nation, from every tongue and tribe. Furthermore, this universal dimension helps my poor life to transcend and belong to all that is beautiful, good and true wherever and however it exists in the world anywhere and at anytime. From the cathedrals of France to the temples of Angkor Wat, from the clapboard white Baptist Church to the symphony halls and stages and galleries the world over–in every shrine of any kind–wherever there is beauty, truth, goodness and light, the universality of the Church gathers me and my small life up and magnifies it to a universal.
Finally, I also want my life to be apostolic. See the apostles, the sent ones? See their focus, their mission, their zeal, their life in the Spirit? See their connection with Christ, their love for the Truth, the passion for souls, their missionary spirit? I want to share in this. I also want to share in the apostolic truth and live it–the apostolic truth taught and lived by the Catholic faith that comes to us from the apostles.
When we say in the creed, “I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” all this is included.
I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
This post explains why all this obsession with Obama and Palin are beneath you. It touches upon your divisive passions and the ill-researched rantings one hears on AM talk radio (eg. excerpts out of context that make Obama out to be anti-white). This dimension of your thought is not in accord with the great, unifying, I AM wisdom. This is why I think you should compose a prayer for Obama that he see the light with regard to the sanctity of unborn life and leave it at that – wash you hands of politics and pay more attention to thoughts, and blog posts, like this one.
Well done, Father. Some time ago, I had an interesting experience of seeing myself as departed from this life but able to see all that was going on. It changes one’s perspective quite radically. I can recommend it. Imagine yourself–perhaps as an invisible bird–able to go anywhere, see, hear, everything. Passions and politics, the “tragedy of unrequited love,” all sorts of the-world-is-ending stuff, anger over ultimately very trivial things that seem so earth-shakingly important, including opinions within and without the Church–and finally, the horrendous suffering ignored, turned away from–of animals, of all the innocent. Contemplation of what’s really important can dramatically alter how one sees one’s own life and life itself.
Father Longenecker,Well spoken. I like the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel always, use words when necessary”. I take from your blog that you believe in this as well. I, being fairly new to the blogoshere, have noticed that there is always an antagonist in the crowd that subtly claims a better understanding of the Catholic Faith than our teaching Magesterium. It is near impossible to instruct the ignorant when their minds are already made up and they seek shelter in their self-imposed unconcious unreality.I will now plead my ignorance and I am always willing to learn: what the heck is the great, unifying, I AM wisdom? Is that sort of like the great, cumbaya campfire, warm, fuzzy, and all-inclusiveness? Whose school of thought did that originate? I wonder if the moneychangers felt unified with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when Jesus Christ drove them out of the temple? Or how unified did Cain feel after banishment? Peace, Graubo
It is inclusive of all that is true, wherever it is discovered, and exclusive of all that is false, wherever it may be.
“I AM the Truth, the Way, and the Life.”Dependening on our respective lives, we focus on one more than another, maybe. For me, it’s always been Truth. Truth keeps the intellect humble, the Way directs our work, and the Life feeds the spirit of us all. He is all we ever need.
“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue” – John MiltonFather, keep on keeping on. Your voice is being heard. And it needs to be heard. Though the forces of darkness do not like it I am sure.
Interesting thought, that we should have those four marks too!I have many Protestant friends who say the Supreme Court judges are mangling the Constitution by giving it meanings the original framers could never have intended. They say if there’s doubt about what the text means, you can try to resolve it by looking at what the writers meant, the “original intent”.I think they should read the Creed the same way and ask themselves what its framers’ original intent was. What did those early Christians at Nicea and Constantinople mean when they came up with the phrase “one, holy, catholic and apostolic”?
Thank you for those beautiful words and inspiration, Father. I will be sharing them with my daughter and son-in-law who is now in RCIA himself.Vivat Jesus!