Fides Et Ratio

Dear Brothers and Sisters, We recently celebrated Pentecost which marks the birthday of the Church. This is where we are given the POWER, LOVE, and COMPETENCE to create faith in others by the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT. However, in order to do this, we must avoid reducing the gospel to nothing more than secular humanism. Jesus experienced that temptation in the desert. We know making the Gospel explicit requires sacrifice, and that it is much easier to make it implicit. But the Lord's Name needs to be shared so others can know what to attach their deepest restless and hunger to: Jesus Christ.

The reason I sound like I'm talking to children is because I was. Every Tuesday/Wednesday and Friday we have children from St. Gabriel's join us for daily mass. Today's Readings Nm 21:4-9 Ps 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21 Jn 8:21-30

"Jesus brings God's commandments to fulfilment, particularly the commandment of love of neighbour, by interiorizing their demands and by bringing out their fullest meaning. Love of neighbour springs from a loving heart which, precisely because it loves, is ready to live out the loftiest challenges. Jesus shows that the commandments must not be understood as a minimum limit not to be gone beyond, but rather as a path involving a moral and spiritual journey towards perfection, at the heart of which is love (cf. Col 3:14)." - St. John Paul II (Splendor of Truth, 15)

Our domesticated version of Jesus is not on par with scripture. Today Jesus reveals his anger, but it isn't a cruel type. Rather Jesus reveals that through his anger towards sin, under it is a genuine and passionate love for His heavenly Father. In other words, Jesus is teaching us that being offended on behalf of God is actually a good thing.

Do we have a faith "about God" or a faith "in God?" The mystics experienced the transcendent in the ordinary, and were able to come to an awareness of deeper truths revealed to them by Christ. This leads us to a trust in God that goes beyond our own understanding...

Cameron Bertuzzi has an apologetic-ministry called "Capturing Christianity." As a Christian man, he has been greatly influenced by many other Christian philosophers and scholars such as William Lane Craig. He offers some good advice and reflection on how to share the faith, but also suggests some resources to look deeper into our faith. Check it out! http://capturingchristianity.com/tag/podcast/

St. Ignatius teaches us that there are four voices that speak to us: (1) The Devil, (2) The World, (3) Ourselves, and (4) God. In order to hear the voice that truly matters, that has the words of "eternal life" we must learn to become indifferent to the rest of those voices. How do we do this? Sunday-Rest is a good start.

Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage, Euthanasia, the right to work for the government while disagreeing with its policy...all of these things are happening...but why?

Repentance is a difficult thing to do...but its also a difficult thing to preach. Mercy, however demands it! Lets return to a Church that teaches the fundamentals of our faith: sin, mercy, Who God is, and what He has done for us in Jesus.