Sunday, February 8, 2015

The Problem: The Gospel That is Jesus - Why Settle for Less?



The Problem: The Gospel That Is Jesus – Why Settle for Less?

                Settling for less than a full understanding of the Faith leads to a situation – one like we have now – that is seriously problematic for the Church. Most significantly, this is because such a state of affairs mutilates Christianity.  To be more graphic, it dismembers Christ. How else are we to put it if our schools and churches give the people of God only the Head of Christ, His teaching and His wisdom, but avoid any encounter with His Sacred Heart, even shut out any experience of the awesome Love, Divine Love, which issues forth from that Heart pierced and broken for us?
            How can such a tragedy be avoided when in fact Christians today embrace an idea of Faith that expects so little in comparison to what God wants to give us in the gift of Jesus? Such a course of action cannot but create a perilous state of affairs in the Church, yet this is exactly the course pursued by so much of the Christianity witnessed in our own day and time.
            Is this an extreme conclusion on my part? Ultimately each person must decide for themselves. But if one says there is a full and vibrant understanding of Christian Faith resonant among the people of God today, indeed it is difficult to see. For myself, I do not see it. What challenging, compelling signs of vibrant Faith surround me and confront me that I need to see but in fact do not see? Where is this vibrant experience of God’s Love present in power to which true Faith leads, and to which it leads as to its central focus and goal before it does anything else?
            This is the fundamental task of true Christian Faith: to lead exactly to this experience of God present in poawer to the heart of every human being in and through the Holy Spirit of Christ’s Love. But where is it? Or rather, where is He, the Lord in the Person of His Spirit alive and present among us today? Where is this experience of His Love pervasive and resonant among the Christian “faithful” of our own day?
            Some may protest my provocative questions as an outrageous challenge to the contemporary Church. But then, for myself, for my own good, I only ask that you take me to what you see. I long to see what you see if it would truly help me to notice powerful signs of His Life among us that I have failed to observe.
            What is it then that you see? Is it the sight of seminaries and convents filled to overflowing with new vocations? Is it perhaps a growing national movement of priests praying together daily in their rectories? How about a capacity crowd every Sunday at your parish Mass; or is it perhaps a Sunday Mass filled to overflowing with youth, youth “raising the church roof” with songs and psalms of praise sung with the strength and force of conviction? Maybe there are such movements, places, parishes and spirit-filled happenings – the dreams of Jesus and Mary for the Church if you will - but I do not see many, if any.
            Rather, all too clear to ignore and misconstrue, is a very different picture confronting us, in sharp contrast to these beautiful dreams for the Church that I too long to see. Too clearly present to ignore or obscure is the sight of so many areas of contemporary Christianity – if you can call it that – pursuing a perilous course to ruin, and precisely for no other reason than this failure to communicate the full Gospel, a whole and full understanding of Christian Faith. And what understanding of Faith is that? It is Faith that leads people first and foremost to an experiential dimension of God’s transforming Love; Faith that must lead to the power of this Love, Christ’s Love, as necessary and salvific – a Divine Love that can be present and known to the heart of humanity, that can fill the human heart to overflowing. And Jesus said, “If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. For, as Scripture says, from his heart there shall pour forth rivers of Living Water.”
            Yet the manifestations of Christian Faith surrounding us today fall so far short of any such mission. Satisfied with simply communicating Church doctrines, precepts, and faith formulations, contemporary Church leaders pretty much leave out or ignore any effort to guide the people of God to an encounter with the Risen Christ, “alive and still with us”, present in power among us through the Person of His own Love, the Holy Spirit. I can still remember the opening words of a Cardinal of the Church to the assembled Confirmandi at my son’s Confirmation: “Don’t expect anything miraculous to happen here here today.” So much for my son’s hope for his own personal Pentecost. Was the miracle of Pentecost merely for the Apostles? Or did the miracle of Pentecost - or for that matter, all miracles and powerful manifestations of the Spirit – cease with the close of the Apostolic Age? I think not!!!
            So we are left with failure of the Church today to truly evangelize, to proclaim a full Gospel message; to proclaim like Paul a Gospel that is the power of salvation to all who believe, a Gospel that will baptize us and confirm us with heavenly Fire, with the Holy Spirit coming upon us and anointing us with a sudden “sound from Heaven like the rush of a mighty wind” (Act 2:1).

Note: Interested in reading more? The "Hodge Podge" in its entirety is now available as an eBook in our website store. Peace to you, God Bless, Doug +