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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)
The Miracle Rosary is now available on a set of 2 CD's
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