December 5, 2007 RCIA
Evening Session I
Priest Guide: Father Ed Jocson
Resource: Study Guide for the U.S. Adult Catholic Catechism, Chapters 1-4
Accompaniment: United States Catholic Catechism for Adults
We began, as we begin with all faith gatherings, in prayer with recitation of Prayer to the Holy Spirit as found on Page 6 of the guidebook.
We assume there is a universal desire for God in the heart of every person.
The first four chapters define and clarify the basic understanding of God’s call and His invitation into a relationship of faith. Centering on three major points we explored man’s universal desire of God, as stated above, how we come to know Him. While the will may need to be open to the call of God, it is not necessarily so. He will make himself known to us. Since he loved us into being first, we cannot make it our first choice to know Him.
We need to take a look into our personal experiences. Do we agree there is a strong longing for the “Other?” Is there an inherent longing reaching deep within our beings, our respective souls? Questions that begin with, “Who am I, Where did I come from, Where am I going, Why do I need to struggle to achieve my goals, Why is it so hard to love and be loved, when I know it is perhaps the greatest call from God, What is the meaning of sickness, death, and sin, What will happen after I die?” These reflect some of the questions of human existence. Each of us must ponder some or all these queries at various stages of life. These questions of existence and the tests of life may lead one to reach out to God or someone, actually moving us towards knowing God.
How is the quest awakened? First, God pursues us; this moves us to search for Him. Like the loving Father, He may whisper in our ears, touch our hearts with loving kindness, pick us up when we are down trodden, or He may wait for our call for help. Often He runs after us, though we may not respond quickly. Then He may quietly draw us to himself. Gradually or swiftly, depending on the disposition of faith, the call and/or the journey, we begin to know Him and form a relationship. A relationship that may grow in leaps and bounds, or softly and steadily according to God’s will and our individual needs and desires of the soul. God knows these better than we know them ourselves. He being all loving, all knowing waits patiently urging us to respond.
But how do we come to know God? Let us look at the three paths that lead the way. Through Creation we witness an order and beauty in our environs, those in which we may live and others we visit by His design and our will to choose. For example, who is not breathless with reverence when viewing The Grand Canyon, or simply looking at a butterfly supping on a flower in full bloom? Nature’s harmony bids us to take pause in wonderment, often thanking God for his orchestration in our world.
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“The fact that all visible things come to be and eventually pass out of earthly existence points to an eternal creator who has no beginning and no end and who sustains all that He has created” (CCC #32). The world continues to shift and change; we look to One who doesn’t change, “The Source” of all. God is eternal.
Secondly, we find Him through the Human Person, since every human person seeks to know the truth and to experience goodness. Listening to our conscience, seeking happiness, the freedom to give, receive, and experience, echoes we are more than our bodies. We realize we are fashioned with a soul that continues to reflect our spiritual nature. These intangibles of the human spirit call us to a deeper substance---pieces of eternity---to the Eternal, the One being, which is the reality of God, the Supreme Good.
One may question, “Why have so many not found God?” At difficult times suffering and pain lead people away from the belief in God. To lose a loved one, to be diagnosed with a terminal illness, to lose oneself in worldly desires and pleasures is to hide from the very face of God. We can look to the book Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise as an example. They knew God, conversed with Him, and were happy in their exclusive surroundings. But God set boundaries; he forbade them to eat of the tree of knowledge. Curiosity and desire led them to disobey the command of their Creator Father. All of a sudden they hid their faces and their bodies from God. Why did they act in this manner? They were aware of the sin they had committed against the God who had given them everything and all. They acknowledged their sin, their selfishness. And so it has been down through the ages of humankind.
Some people have not heard the “Good News” of God’s self revelation with them, while the scandalous behavior of some believers deter honest seekers away from religion. Others do not wish to follow and obey God, neither denying nor acknowledging God. Others leave little room for God by submitting to a hectic pace, a cluttered life with demands of busyness and diversions. These persons are not seeing clearly, deeply. The truth lies in busying oneself with the most important matters first…listening to the word, serving others, being open to the Spirit’s movement…then all that matters falls into place. Just as Jesus fed the thousands with a few loaves and fishes, He feeds us on all levels of living. In Heaven we will be filled-up, but even now we can experience the blessings, if we are in sync with God’s will and commands. Virtue stands in the middle.
Throughout history, people have yearned for the “Good” despite obstacles and occasions of violent opposition to belief in God. We see this in our world today, when others in power try to silence the voice of Christian conscience and values. But then the challenge becomes a quest to once again raise the banner of truth; taking a visible and vocal stand for justice as witnesses to the light of God’s inherent attractiveness in human life. The call of God urges us on in faith, with hope, knowing an enduring love for our Creator.
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The third path on the journey to knowing God is through Revelation, or the action of God in history. God fully chose to make Himself known to us in relationship. We could not have a relationship in faith without His loving connection. How else can we truly love another, but through knowing the love of the Divine, the Giver of life? For we, as children of God, are truly made in His image and likeness. God chose to share the “mystery” with us, for we could not fathom the depth, or the height of such a “mystery.”
For God’s ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts. And so His revelation unfolded gradually throughout history, first manifesting Himself in our first parents. Though, as was stated earlier, Adam and Eve fell out of His favor, God lifted them from despair into the hope of salvation. He promised redemption by sending “someone” who would crush the serpent.” They journied in this hope.
Over succeeding centuries, providential care followed, manifested through human beings chosen to carry out His Divine Plan. The Old Testament speaks of Abraham, the father of a great nation, Moses as the leader of the Israelites, who experienced God in the burning bush and received a direct message from God, stating, “I am who am”, or Yahweh, the name of God in the Jewish tradition. Prophets were sent, reflecting on God’s actions in the midst of living and foretelling future events. These gifted believers, who were deeply in relationship with their God, recorded history as it was revealed or would occur down through the ages. But the fullness of God’s Revelation took place when Jesus became man, the Incarnate. The fullness is Christ “in flesh.”
Revelation is the self-revelation or disclosure of the living God. He showed Himself both by great deeds, as read in the Scriptures, and by the words that illumine the meaning of the deeds (DV. #2). Further, it is the act by which God speaks to and forms a “covenant” people, creating a nation, a community. We are affirmed by this grand dialogue between God and His people, that He will always be present, and “You will be my people.” The Old Testament accounts are filled with such accounts, (Ex. Abraham and Sarah) which include the people’s interpretation of historical events, reflecting a greater understanding of God’s will and presence. The Bible contains all revelation.
We begin the credo of believing in God, Creator and Father of all humankind, who chooses to reveal Himself first through the creation of all things seen, then through the people in whom He has breathed life, so they can listen and relate to others their understanding, life experiences, and vision of the great “I am.” Through all of these manifestations of God, though the human eye cannot see him, faith develops. Faith, an innate knowing, a stirring of the heart and mind to seek, to know and to love God with all our hearts----an ever deepening mystery of God working in each of us. Faith is required to respond to God’s revealing word and to perceive the divine action in history. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit believers grow in an appreciation of God’s purpose in history to love and to save us. Among believers, true faith requires a conversion or change of heart that flows into everyday living.
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This change or conversion process lasts forever in the life of the believer. It is a way of continually being in touch with the triune God and His people, i.e., the covenant established from the beginning of time. Christian covenant is definitive. There will be no public Revelation until the final glorious manifestation of Jesus Christ at the end of days (DV. #4). Private revelations or apparitions (e.g. The Blessed Mother in Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje) can deepen faith and help to affirm and inspire a more profound commitment to what has been revealed through Revelation. They add nothing to what has already been publicly revealed through Jesus Christ.
While the faith community continues to strive and stay focused through attacks by counter cultural forces, the existence of these negative forces must be acknowledged and challenged in their attempt to marginalize religion. In this culture of disbelief there arises the need for evangelization. Evangelization for some, may conjure pictures of soapbox heralding in the marketplace or on street corners. To evangelize, one must first be evangelized, by witnessing and teaching the truth and love of Jesus Christ. It is to bring our present culture into a positive, life-giving proclamation of goodness by sharing the Gospel, “Good News” message with our neighbors and others we meet on life’s highway. Acts of Christian kindness, understanding, and witnessing by word and example can change the negativism that permeates the mind and the senses. As believers we are each
called to evangelize.
The transmission of God’s Revelation is accomplished through Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, the foundations of church teaching; namely, the Deposit of Faith.
This is the source for knowing and transmitting God’s Revelation from one generation to another. Sacred Tradition teaches the fullness of Revelation resides in and through Jesus Christ by His teaching, witness, death, and resurrection. Further, He commissioned the Apostles to preach the Gospel (these teachings) to all whose hearts would be open to receiving it. Graced by the Holy Spirit, the Apostles did what Jesus commanded through many hardships in building community, incarceration and even death. Nevertheless, they transmitted the Gospel message orally, in writing, by the heroic sanctity of their lives, and by ensuring the mission would be successful.
Preaching and witnessing to the Gospel called for the obedience of faith, i.e., hearing and obeying God’s Word, the reception of Baptism, the formation of a community of believers, gathering for Eucharist, and generosity to the poor. This laid the foundation for the successors to the Apostles and the establishment of the teaching office of the Magisterium. Thee teaching and example of Jesus Christ, as well as what they learned from the Holy Spirit were handed over, making them keepers of an authentic interpretation of God’s Word, protecting the purity of our belief. Thus, all the faithful share in understanding and handing on of revealed truth through the “supernatural appreciation of faith” on the part of the whole people—universal consent in matters of faith and morals (CCC, #92).
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Sacred Scripture, Word of God transmitted through the Bible, was God’s offering of inspiration and divine assistance given to human authors to capture the era and the journey, as well as the mandate of faith as instructed by the Son of God, Christ Jesus.
We need to be attentive to what God wanted to reveal through the writers for our salvation by seeking authoritative interpretation of the Word of God. There is a literal sense, meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered through “exegesis,”
or critical analysis, while the spiritual sense, derived from the writing of God’s plan for salvation is related in an allegorical sense (images and symbols), a moral sense (relates to how the faithful are to act justly), and an anagogical sense (relates to their “eternal significance”). Biblical Literalism, to interpret the Bible only on the actual words and their meaning, dismissing the symbolic, and Historical Reductionism, which dismisses
the supernatural aspects of the Gospel are two other forms of interpretation.
Obedience through faith is the response to the loving Revelation of God. It is a gift from God Himself. By making Himself know to us through Revelation, He hopes to draw a response. Both the gift of God and our response are called Faith. This gift provides the grace to bring us into a personal, loving union with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This grace, a free gift from God’s love for each of us, is an enabler to hear the word and keep it. Our reception of the gift, calls us to respond with our minds and hearts to God, to trust in His will, and to follow the direction He gives us.
Once the gift has been received we can recognize qualities of faith, basic ways in which we express our belief in God which challenge us to apply our faith in our daily lives. Faith is a call to both a personal and communal relationship. Our personal adherence to God and the whole truth He has revealed brings us to a relationship with God’s people, which in turn strengthens us to grow in our relationship with God.
Love of God must encompass neighbors…all others.
Faith seeks understanding by way of Sacred Scripture, theology, the catechism, and numerous studies and writings of the doctors and Magisterium; it is a friend of reason. Faith is necessary for salvation (CCC, #161), a gift of grace, a free human act to respond to the divine Revelation and to follow through by living out our responses. Our very nature calls it forth; believing is a message, a journey, and a pilgrimage for life. The faith pilgrimage develops in stages, through periods of temptation, worry, doubt, shadows, and darkness. There will always be challenges to faith posed by a cultural milieu, which is heavily influenced by the Enlightenment, the promise of science and Deism. But Jesus has sent us the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide us on the way. He has given us great and simple examples of others in faith who have led the way into eternity, both canonized saints and ordinary people who teach and live the Gospel lessons. The ultimate goal of a life of faith is eternal union with God in heaven.
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Through the gift and experience of faith, we are able not only to look ahead to what awaits us, but also to experience here and now some of God’s divine life—a taste in advance of our sharing with Him forever (CCC, #163)---a source of strength, wisdom, confidence and hope in a life of faith.
Respectfully submitted:
Rosanne Barone, Documentor, Session I
December 7, 2007
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