Dearest Co-Worker,

Did you ever notice that when religious surveys are carried out, people are often asked, "Do you believe that God exists?"

I have yet to see a survey in which people were asked, "Do you know God?"

Or asked "Is Jesus living in your heart?" or asked "Do you have a living relationship with God?"

One of the real tragedies within the Catholic Church, indeed the Catholic Church's greatest weakness, is that we have countless people who believe in God, and often indeed seek to 'serve' God, but yet have not been introduced to a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our failure to provide successful ongoing programmes to help people come to a living relationship with Jesus and to have Him come alive in their hearts is a real scandal. It is also causing us to lose members in two directions.

1.

Those who are drifting from the Church. Some of these are drifting because they are closing their hearts to God, and that will always be the case, but others are drifting from the Church without ever getting a real opportunity to enter a living relationship with Jesus. That is a terrible indictment of the Catholic Church; absolute shame on us!!

Believing that God exists will not put new energy into your heart. Believing that Jesus died and rose again 2,000 years ago will not put new energy into your heart. Neither will believing that Jesus is God.

You will only have new energy in your heart if Jesus comes alive in it.

Again believing in God will not give you the strength to live the Christian life. Believing that Jesus died and rose again 2,000 years ago will not give you the strength to live the Christian life. Neither will believing that Jesus is God give you the strength to live the Christian life.

However well of Christ you talk and preach,
Unless He lives within, He is beyond your reach.”
Angelus Silesius

The strength to live the Christian life comes from Jesus coming alive in your heart, and then leading you, by His power and that of the Holy Spirit, into inner transformation.

Without that, being told that you have to live the Christian life can appear like a burden:- rules and regulations to be kept to keep a God-up-there happy. Is it any wonder that the Church does not appear attractive to those who have never had a realistic chance of coming to a living relationship with Jesus?

2

Others are leaving the Catholic Church to join groups that offer programmes that help people come to a living relationship with Jesus. Of course, some of those who join other groups do so out of rebellion and some because they are taken in by the false teaching offered by some of these groups - including false attacks on the Catholic Church.

But some join other groups because, for the first time, they are helped to a living relationship with Jesus.

That again is a terrible indictment of the Catholic Church; absolute shame on us!! Any subsection of the Catholic Church that fails to provide its members with ongoing meaningful opportunities to come to a living relationship with Jesus, and to have Him come alive in their hearts, leading on to a life of inner transformation, is a branch that bears no fruit. How sad it is to meet an elderly person who has been a sincere Catholic all his or her life, and yet has never been helped to a real living relationship with Jesus.

I also believe that this was a real contributory factor to the scandals that the Church has had to face - and sadly a factor that has not been properly addressed. People, with the best of intentions, set out to serve a God-up-there out of their own strength. It is very difficult to serve God if Jesus is not living in one's heart; and if you have problems, it is very difficult to overcome them without his transforming power.

One of the messages of the Old Testament is that to serve God, we need a new heart. "I will give them a new heart and a new mind. I will take away their stubborn heart of stone and will give them an obedient heart." Ezekiel 11:19 GNB.

As St Paul put it, all the law can do is show that we are sinners. It has no power to deliver us from our sinful compulsions. Those who sought to keep the law, believed in God-up-there, but belief in God-up-there cannot transform one's life.

But how does one become open to this living relationship with Jesus?

The first and most necessary step is becoming aware that it is possible. People cannot become open to it unless they are told about it, and unless they are also told something of what happens when Jesus is coming alive in one's heart and the difference that it makes.

Jesus is with us continuously. As soon as we invite Him to live in our hearts, He does so, but there is a need for this to be experienced by us.

This may come about in a number of ways. It may be a gradual process that develops as one learns to spend time with Jesus in prayer, or there may be a special experience at some spiritual event. Spiritual experiences usually happen where there is an expectant faith. In the early Church, where adult Baptism was common, people were helped to become open to it at their baptism. They spent two years preparing for Baptism, and went forward for it with heightened expectations. We too need to provide and take part in events like that,



Yours, in Christ,

Thaddeus Doyle (Rev)

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