New Evangelization - What was wrong with the old one??

Nothing was really wrong with the "old" evangelization.  

In fact, my blog title is a trick question!

Evangelization is always "new" in the sense that in various ways we as Christians are presenting the "newness" of the Gospel to minds and hearts that need to revitalized by the Truth - The Truth Who is in fact a Person to be encountered.  There is always something "new" to be discovered in relationships (especially in our relationship with God!)

St. John Paul the Great called for a "New Evangelization" which would "re-present" the Gospel to a modern culture which has, by and large, detached itself from the Christian faith which birthed it.  Just as a child can pull away from it's mother's teachings and try to "make it's own roots" so our culture has left aside Christ in order to try and "recreate" itself in a new image. 

All of its efforts are failing.

Look at the suicide rate, the terrible rise in school shootings, the depression, anxiety, the hungry search for spirituality of various kinds, the brokenness from all too common divorces, the rate of abortion and how this effects men and women, etc etc and on and on.  

Our culture, our hearts are broken.

We have the solution and a ready made remedy for healing available.  It has been presented to our culture in the past but the present culture chooses to keep it there - in the past.

Here is where Christians, especially Catholic Christians, enter in.  They enter into the present moment to re-present in "new methods, new ardor, new expressions" the eternal truths which God has revealed through His Son and through that Son's Church (Jesus' "body" on earth.)

The Bible says that Jesus, Who is God's eternal Word, "became flesh and dwelt among us." That same Word, that same "Good News" from the Father speaking of hope, and life, and healing and forgiveness continues to be "enfleshed" through Christ's Church; through Christians who bring Christ into the now of every day life.  Christians are to represent Christ to the world, they are to re-present Christ in the present time in order to lift those who allow themselves to be encountered by Christ into eternity with Him and with the Father.

Say what?

In other words, Jesus is alive and He lives and can be encountered in many ways but especially wherever the Gospel is proclaimed and lived.  

St. Joan of Arc once remarked about Christ and the Church, "I only know that they are but one thing; and we shouldn't complicate the matter."

He speaks to you through those Who listen to Him: "Whoever hears you (disciples) hears Me."  That is because the message of the Father to the world - Jesus - lives  in the truth proclaimed because He IS the truth proclaimed.  God enfleshed.  God here and now.

Emmanuel.  God-with-us.

One way, one medium through which to listen to this message is through great talks on the faith connected to relevant topics for today. If you click on the "Lighthouse Catholic Media" icon on the right side of my blog you'll be linked to talks from some of the best and most gifted speakers in the Church today (to see it you may have to first switch the view to the "PC Version" of my blog by clicking the PC Version link at the bottom of the page.

There are Young Adult Downloads, Cd-of-the-Month Clubs, books, individual cd's.  You could even ask your pastor to get a "Lighthouse Kiosk" for your parish.

Wherever truth is encountered there is Christ.  For today's world that is something which needs to be brought back.  We need to remember our roots in Christ and so be "re-membered" into the Body of Christ, the Church.  The world is 

desperate.  Thank God there is a Savior.  Thank God, too, for Christians who can re-present the Gospel to a broken, fallen culture and start putting things back together again.

(That's Humpty Dumpty.. he's the one who "sat on a wall" and "had a great fall."  Unlike him, however, WE can be put back together again.)

-MM

I hope for hope

When it comes to trials sometimes perseverence is all you think you can do.

But that doesn't mean it's all God can do.

He wants us to hope.  To hope in Him moving in our lives.

Maybe you think you're running out of hope.

You can pray for hope.  Ask for greater hope.  Ask for the grace to persevere in hope.

It's always worth it; hoping.  

Just so long as what you are hoping for is God's Will to be fulfilled in your life. Anything else is not worth hoping for.  It will leave you unsatisfied and still needing God's Will in the end.

That is, after all, the best thing and it is also the only thing worth desiring.  It is the only thing which satisfies in the end because it is the end for which the human heart is hard wired to desire.

So ask for hope when you're struggling with life.

"Commit your way to the Lord.  Trust in Him and He will act." (Psalms 37:5)

He will act.

_____________________

I really like the image of the "handmaid" from Biblical times.  The Blessed Virgin Mary refers to herself as the "handmaid" of the Lord.  What was a handmaid? As I underatand it this refered to a servant who stayed at her master's feet and kept her eyes on the master's foot or hand; at the slightest, indicating movement from the master the handmaid would immmediately get up to fulfill the master's desire which was made known through a simple flick of the hand or a movement of the foot.

Mary delighted to be this "lowly" servant; perfectly patient and attentive to her Lord's slightest indication.  She was a woman filled with hope because she kept her eyes transfixed on God and listened for His Word.  With her whole being she waited and listened.  When God desired to speak His eternal Word into the center of her feminine being - her womb - she was able to humbly consent:

"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  Let it be done to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38)

God intends to bring us to a point of making a deeper "fiat" (Latin for "let it be") to His Will through helping us grow in hope.  He allows that we are brought to a point of greater dependency on Him; a greater need for His intervention.  He wants us to lovingly sit at His feet and wait for the slightest indication of His Will not out of fear but out of LOVE.

Where else could you possibly want to be if not sitting at His feet listening to his Word?

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feed of him who brings good news." (Isaiah 52:7)

And if He seems silent for a time is there anything that could hold your attention better than the love in His eyes?  If you are looking for and hoping for something other than Him; if you THINK God isn't enough for your heart right now; if your attention is diverted away from Him... maybe God just wants you to refocus and be an attentive "handmaid" again.

"For hope does not disappoint." (Romans 5:5)

Because true hope is always fulfilled in God.  Always.  So don't give up.  Go to Him and wait for Him to act.

"For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay." (Habakkuk 2:3)

It will certainly come and will not delay.

"Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted and wait for the Lord." (Psalm 27: 14)

Meditate on Psalm 27 and receive the gift of hope.

-MM

Why, oh why, didn't I take the blue pill?

Why is life hard sometimes?

I think partly it is because we have choices to make and desires which long to be fulfilled.

The Budda would say that suffering comes into our lives because of our desires.  If we had no desires then we wouldn't suffer.  The idea is that when we suffer it is then that we desire not to suffer.  Suffering with a hungry tummy? Buddhist philosophy says it's because you desire food. Get rid of the desire and you'll have no suffering. Suffering from grief? It is because you desire what has already bee lost.  That's the basic idea as I understand it from the Buddhist perspective.

Christ's view of the matter is different.  Christ is God and sees the truth of things; how they really are.  

I think (this is just me though) that we suffer because we don't see the truth of things.  We don't see the real world and don't always live in reality.  Our desires are good oftentimes but we don't see how to properly fulfill them according to how God sees things (a.k.a. according to reality.)  So we suffer in ways that we wouldn't have to if we just lived according to the light God offers on our situation (faith is a real illumination of our intellect.) 

The Buddha wanted to remove suffering so as to enter into bliss.

But the Christ is different.  He's always different.  He's utterly unique.  God is wholly "other."

Christ wanted to enter into our sufferings (not avoid them or get rid of them) so that He might lead us out of our narrow existence (read "self-seeking") into the broad vision that God has of things.  Christ takes us from where we are (suffering in our selfishness) to where He is (perfectly free in the Father's love.)

All we want is to be in the Father's love.  It's not that we just want to be suffering-less.  We want love.  In this life the only way to learn love, to become love, is to sacrifice your whole self for Love's sake.  That is a suffering.

But for the Christian suffering isn't a waste.  It's the pathway to exactly what our hearts crave, namely, not us.  We want God but we're so acquainted with ourselves.

May we suffer His coming into our lives and suffer the death of our selfishness so as to experience the bliss of selflessness.  Love forgets itself and sees it's beloved.  

I'd much rather gaze at God for all eternity than myself.  

Satan chose the latter.  That's why hell is so terrible.  That's why it's such suffering.

It's all about you.

-MM

The Best is Yet to Come

A few Scripture passages come to mind for hope.

"You have saved the best wine until now."  John 2:10

"I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you." John 4:18

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." John 16:7

_______

It is ok if the good wine you were used to has run dry.  It is ok if the cosolations you were used to in life no longer satisfy.  It is ok if even the sense of Jesus' presence seems to fade  Because the best is yet to come.  That's how Jesus in fact works - He always has something better.  

In fact, I think Heaven will be an experience of continuous increases in joy; thinking it couldn't get any better than this we will, for all eternity, be surprise over and over and over.  

God is a God of surprises.  

And children love surprises.

God is our Father and we are His children.  He intends (if we trust Him and abandon ourselves to Him) to surprise us.  He intends to give us the deepest desires of our hearts.

However, this life is a continuous expansion of our hearts; a constant stretching and an ever deepening in our own self-realization about what our deepest desires actually are.  We know the answer of course.  Our deepest desire is total fulfillment in the eternal, unconditional love of God our Father.  

We reach points in our lives where we think, "This is it! This is happiness!"

God smiles...

"The best is yet to come."

_________

Our times of "desolation" and our experiences of emptiness allow our longing for God to increase.  He never abandons us of course.  Never.  It is just that our desire for Him needs to be purified.  He wants us to desire Him and not just the nice feelings we get when we sense His presence or the security we feel from His power.

Pure love is what we truly desire but we cannot attain it but througn pure faith and pure hope.  They need to be pure - unadulterated by selfish desires or self-seeking (for love is the exact opposite of selfishness.) There should, ultimately, be no other reason for us to pursue pure love (God) than pure love for God.  We should love Love because He is perfectly loveable and worthy of our love!  But in our lives, because we are imperfect, we know that "Love is not loved."  Love is not loved as He ought to be; as He deserves to be. The human heart just won't be satisfied until we love with absolute purity and by ourselves we can't do it.  Often, though, we don't even realize how impure (read "mixed") our love is.  It is God's mercy that allows us to be dissatisfied with where we're at because at the end of the day...

The best is yet to come

And we need to suffer His coming (and it is a real suffering!)

"For our God is a consuming fire... (Hebrews 12:29) "...a jealous God." (Deuteronomy 4:24)

(Jesus, Incarnate God, is called the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah" in Revelation 5:5)

And as long as we allow Him to keep coming in the ways that He wants to He will not stop His offensive until He has exactly what He wants:

Your heart.

All of it.

__________

"The LORD is a warrior; LORD is His Name."  (Exodus 15:3)

"The Lord Himself will fight for you; you have only to be still." (Exodus 14:14)

"...Let it be done to me according to Your Word." (Luke 1:38)

Let Him come.  Receive Him. He is exactly what your heart craves even if His firey love burns painfully and purifies away all the dross.  Just remember:

The best is yet to come.

-MM

Do you need some encouragement?

Several years ago I was on an 8 day silent retreat as part of the Institute for Priestly Formation summer.  We had 4 hours of prayer each day and were asked to pray with particular Scripture passages during those times; to really dive in and meditate on them. At the very end of the retreat I was talking with a Priest who asked me "Of all of the Scripture passages you had to pray with which one spoke to you the most?"  He was trying to help me get the "main point" which God had been offering to me during those 8 days of prayer and silence.  In other words, he was helping me to sum it all up.

On one of the days we prayed with a passage from John 14 which was exactly what our Gospel was today.  One verse - out of the entire retreat - stood out to me. Verse 18:

"I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you."

Now, my retreat at that time wasn't necessarily a very "difficult" or "dry" period for me.  There was much consolation and I experienced a lot of peace and healing.  So why did this verse - and why does this verse even now - stop me dead in my tracks?

I think all of us have tremendous pain in our hearts.  It would be a mercy of God to reveal it to us but, in His Wisdom, He doesn't always let us feel our deep brokenness.  There is a time, though, for everything... (Ecclesiastes 3 says so.)

It is merciful for God to allow us to feel our pain (He usually allows this pain to manifest over long periods of time - think "years") because then we realize how much we need His consoling love.  This is part of the great purification every soul has to undergo - whether here in this life or in a "purging" and purifying encounter with God's loving mercy after death which we call "Purgatory" - we must let God into our woundedness and pain and then we will be fully ready for the banquet that is Heaven.  "Nothing impure will ever enter it [Heaven.]" (Revelation 21:27)

The Kingdom of God is indeed within us and among us (Jesus Himself says so in the Gospels.)  So why don't we always experience the Kingdom of God in a "sensible" way?  Why do we sometimes "feel" like the Kingdom of God is so far away?  I think it's because we are in a constant process of becoming who we are.  We are in need of deep healing.  

Just as a scared 3 year old cringes at the pain of letting the doctor clean out a bad cut so the child of God that we are inside cringes at allowing the purity of God's love into the darkest and most painful areas of our hearts (remember hydogen peroxide?  Is there anything more painful for an open wound?  Hard to say...)  Yet, why do we cringe at that which we so desperately long for?  Because it's painful.  Love is painful when it's true.

Love and Truth go together (if either are to be authentically themselves.)  When God loves us He loves us as we actually are.  We are His children to be sure but we are not perfect.  We are works in progress.  Broken, limping pilgrims.  We are imperfect in this life.  We are "becoming" who we are.  We are in this tension of "already" but "not yet."  Christ's image is stamped within us but our sins blur that glory and our brokenness makes it hard for us to be docile to His Holy Spirit like Jesus always was.  

Happily, though, God loves us in our imperfection.  Often when we are truly experiencing the Love of God it is painful because He loves us precisely where we don't want (though we desperately need it) to be loved.  His love shines light on our darkness and that is uncomfortable.  He looks at what we think is unloveable and says "I love you precisely there - right where you are."  This sometimes is hard to accept; this "unconditional" love.  "God, You mean you love me AS a broken mess?  How is that possible?? There's nothing loveable TO love!!"  We may start to fear His condemnation and rejection.  We say things like, "This part of me can't be loved.  It's too terrible."  Yet we're desperate for God's healing love right *there*!  The heart of the broken child in us cries out, so to speak, for it's Papa but the lies tell us that Papa isn't coming and that He wouldn't want to anyway.  But what does God's Word say to that?  What does Jesus say in response to that anguished cry?

"I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you."

It is difficult to "hold still" while God is trying to love us in our brokenness.  We're very good at ignoring Him; squirming away whenever He gently brings up some dark area of our hearts which need His healing.  

God wants to meet you in the place where you think no one can meet you.  He wants to encounter you precisely in the place where you have experienced the greatest LACK of love.  *There* ...right there is where God wants you to be vulnerable with Him.  *There* - in the deepest pain - is where He wants to say "I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you."

So let Him come.  

Now it is interesting that the translation used at Mass (NAB) has that same verse rendered "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."  Orphans?? Wait a second Jesus, what do you mean?

You know I think it's interesting how these two translations - in some ways - can mean the same thing.  After all, what is an experience of "desolation" if not feeling as if "God has left me" or "I am alone in this struggle" or "My Father is not coming to help me.  He must not love me or He would take this away."  In various ways, desolation can be an experience not unlike what an orphan might feel like - without a Father.  

But JESUS comes to reveal the Father.  He says that the FATHER is in Him.  So JESUS sees the deepest woundedness in our hearts - and that's the place which longs for the Father's love (it is also the place which the Father's love longs for!) It's the place where we feel "desolate" as if we are "orphans."

What's your wound?  No, I'm not opening a public forum for this question.  I'm asking because you need to pray about it.  I need to pray about it.  We need to let God be Who He Is (FATHER) IN our very woundedness.  We don't experience God's Kingdom because we don't let the King come in and be what He wants to be for us - the King of Love and Our Father.

Our Father... Thy Kingdom come... Truly.

"...I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20)

Gosh, there He goes again - wanting Holy Communion with us. We're starving for love!  Take the meal of the Eucharist, receive all that He has to give because it is all that you've ever longed for:  The Love of the Father.  Your Father.

Jesus came to reconcile the world to the Father; to bring the world back into a Holy Communion with the Father.  Won't you let Him in?  Oh, and don't worry.  You have a Mother, too.  "Behold your Mother" (John 19:27) (Isn't it interesting that He gives us His Mother precisely at the Cross?  He gives us His Mother exactly where we need her the most - in our suffering and pain.)

Jesus has thought of everything! All you have to do is say yes.  Let your Mother, Mary, take you by the hand and lead you right into the heart of Jesus and Jesus will take you home - back into your Father's Heart where you belong.

Where you belong.

-MM

So What's the Plan?

Life isn't a race.

I think, more often than not, life is more about coming to a complete halt rather than going as fast as you can.  I'm talking about "abiding."

I deeply appreciate the 13th-16th chapters of the Gospel of John.  John was the Evangelist whose mission it was to especially reveal and emphasize Christ's Divinity.  Jesus is the Son of God Who became the Son of Mary (thus becoming a Son of man) to teach us sons and daughters of men how to live our deepest identity and calling as children of God.

A thought on what it means for Jesus to be the Son of God:  Jesus is always at rest, always at home in His Father's love.  Jesus abides in the Father.  "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me" He says.  Jesus is utterly filled with the Father's Love (aka the Holy Spirit.)  Jesus invites us in today's Gospel reading at Mass to "abide in My love" (RSV-CE translation.)  Hence, Jesus' love is the Holy Spirit which is in fact the Father's love.  To draw nearer to Jesus, to rest on His heart, is to abide in the Father's overflowing Love from Jesus' Heart.

I sense that love most intensely when I am meditating on the Word of God (the Scriptures) in the presence of the Word of God (the Eucharist.)  Jesus' whole purpose in coming to fulfill His Father's Will was to enter into a Holy Communion with us; that we might abide in His love.

All God ever wanted in sending His Son to us was to bring us back to abiding in His love to be in Holy Communion with Him.  God wants us to stop racing around.  Just stop.  To listen to what He has said to us (His Word - i.e. Jesus!) and simply receive the Love He is always giving.  To really enter into Holy Communion with Him.  To really receive Holy Communion for what It truly is:  All of God's Love. Eucharistic Adoration before and after Mass (or praying in front of the Tabernacle) prolongs and intensifies that Holy Encounter with Christ in the Eucharist; it expands our hearts even more to receive ever more of His love and grace.  

But we receive precisely what we are open to receive.  

Let us open our hearts even more!  We can turn to Mother Mary (whose receiving of the Word was the most fruitful "receptivity" in the history of mankind! So fruitful that the Word actually became flesh within her!) We can ask her to help us receive more of what we so desperately need: the Father's love.

It is one thing to be loved by God - it is another thing entirely to receive it. 

And at the end of the day that's all that matters because, at the end of any day no one wants to keep racing but everyone wants to just be loved, to abide in love (even going home to a family, which is a place to be at rest, is a manifestation of our need to "abide.")

So some people have asked me, "Matt, now that you've left this community and priestly formation, what's the next step?"

Oh... I think I'll just stay put.

"Abide in My Love."

-MM

It's a restful place to be; abiding in God's love.  I wish you would rest, too.  

Update from the Other Side of the Pond

Well, you may have noticed (or, if you haven't, are about to as Im pointing it out in about 1 1 1 1/2 seconds) that I havent updated my blog in quite some time. I would like to coninue with it; I enjoy writing and think blogging is a great way to share what you want to share.  In my case I want to share my faith.

The reason, though, I've not blogged in a while is because I've been more focused on prayer and discernment these last couple of months.  During Lent there were beginnings of ideas that God may actually be calling me to close the door on discerning Priesthood and thus leaving the community I was with, The Missionaries of the Most Holy Eucharist

Easter was a time of surprises as it seemed that the Lord was, through various means, confirming the fact that I was to head back home.  Culminating in a beautiful pilgrmage to Lourdes and Fatima I was able to be confident that, indeed, this was God's Will.  Go back to 'merica!

(God didn't really say that to me - He doesn't have a Texan accent but you get the idea.)

So I came back home.  Going to try to listen to the Lord for the next step.  He often only shows us one part at a time anyway.

I'll remain associated with the community I was with, however.  I still firmly believe in their mission and want to help spread Eucharistic Adoration however I can but now I will no longer be discerning the Priesthood as they say.

So that's the brief update!

(Now I just need to figure out how to change my blog profile...)

-Matt