God Speaks
ONE
As we journey through the beginning sections of the CCC, we are reflecting on God’s existence, how He speaks, and eventually how we are to respond. After I had my reversion to the Catholic faith, I felt that I was suddenly thrust into a new world of meaning. All of my pessimistic thoughts and fears dissolved, but new concerns began to take their place. Like many young people, I wanted to fulfill God’s plan for my life, to follow His voice. My crisis of faith turned into a crisis of vocation. As I got more and more involved in my faith, I found myself receiving advice on how to listen to the Holy Spirit. Some of the advice was good, and some was not so good. I became convinced I was called to be a priest, and I was very close to entering a religious order. To make a long story short, I did not enter, I began dating my now wife. My kids were lucky, because I discerned, I was called to marriage. Now I can give this brief story, but of course in reality it took years of struggle and decisions for my life to play out the way it has. Because this is the way God works! He is patient, and he teaches us to be patient like He is by having us wait, struggle, and trust in His plan. God is teaching you to be patient. Are you listening? Are you responding?
TWO
The CCC teaches that, “It pleased God, in His goodness and wisdom, to reveal Himself and make known the mystery of His will” (#51). He wants us to be able to have a relationship with Him so intimate we literally share in His divine nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). God loves us so much He wants us to love Him in return. To love God in return, we must be free. Therefore, He respects our freedom and reveals to His people in stages so they/we can freely understand and respond. Slowly, despite the lengthy nature of this process, His plan unfolds and gets captured in all of the details, large and small, of His interactions with His people. Through the patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, through leaders like Moses and David, and through prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, God spoke, acted, and prepared His people for the full Revelation that comes through Jesus, His Son. This is why Jesus is the One Mediator between God and Man.
THREE
Jesus passes on the fullness of His life, mission, and teaching through His Church, guided, and enlivened by His Holy Spirit. The CCC explains that this source of truth is preserved in the Church in two ways;“orally, by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established” which they received from Christ or the Holy Spirit. We call this Sacred Tradition. And; “in writing by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing.” (#76). We call this Sacred Scripture. By these two means—Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, each flowing from God and leading us to God, gives us all that we need to know about God and our relationship with Him. Jesus even reveals our humanity to us, making our call in Him clear (cf. Gaudium et Spes, #22). He founded the Catholic Church on Peter and the apostles so that we have an objective authority in Him to decide and interpret all matters of faith and morals contained in ST and SS. Jesus, you teach me about you, about me, and about my relationship with you. Sometimes, Lord, I just don’t get you, though. Help me to get you and help me to get over me so that I can get you better.
FOUR
Many Christians say it is crazy to believe in Sacred Tradition, to believe that through word of mouth, the thoughts, teachings, and events surrounding Jesus have been preserved for us. They say we have been misguided, and blind to other influences, and that any real message not written down in the Bible has been lost. The problem with this is that the Bible teaches otherwise, namely that the Sacred Scriptures can’t contain all that Jesus taught and did, (see John 21:25) AND that we are to adhere to the teachings passed on both orally (Tradition) and written (Scripture), See 2 Thes 2:15.
On the other hand, many non-believers say all religion is a fiction, that the Bible is clearly a hoax. But which is easier to believe: all the close calls and near misses of our lives are all products of arbitrary circumstances, or that there is a mind that guides it all? That mankind, life on Earth, our solar system, galaxy, and the universe offers perfect conditions for me to exist just through random chance, or that this bridge upon which we stand over the chasm of nothing has an architect? You see, a God that can guide all things just so to get us here, can guide the Bible and traditions preserved by the Church. CCC, “God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations.” (CCC #74) And what is our response? Yes Lord, I believe, help my unbelief! (cf. Mark 9:24).
FIVE
Faith, hope, and love constitute our response to God speaking. But we must know Him to love Him. The CCC states; “The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful…to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ” (#133). These Rosary podcasts take a little different track than the traditional Rosary, but still achieves the same end; knowledge of God and growth in devotion, through Our Mother’s help. Ask yourself; “if I want to learn more about Jesus, His life, teaching, and mission, and I want His mother to guide and help me and put His life in my heart, where do I go for that?” Now you understand our approach, and you understand our mission. Let us commit to this Movement of the Holy Family so that we can hear God speak, respond with faith and love, and share this hope with those in our life! To Jesus through Mary!