Saturday, September 21, 2013
new wine, new skins
I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life.
God is in everyone’s life.
Even if the life of a person has been a disaster,
even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else—
God is in this person’s life.
You can, you must try to seek God in every human life.
Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds,
there is always a space in which the good seed can grow.
You have to trust God.
POPE FRANCIS I
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6 comments:
well the weeds and thistles grow up fast, lord
on this little plot i'm meant to plow
won't you show me where the wheat is growin'
and we'll reap, reap the harvest now
amen to pope francis's words
amen indeed
his words remind me of karl rahner
another jesuit
weeds and thistles
wounds and scars
a few years ago
i would have interpreted the pope's words
as a guide for my own efforts
to preach the gospel to others
using words when necessary
i suppose now his words apply
more directly to me
urging me to trust that God
is present in my life
even as i continue to struggle to overcome
the discouraging rcia experience
of having felt God's presence
vibrantly in my life
only to have my questions
gain the response of:
"you don't understand"
and "you're not ready"
to enter the Church
i don't blame my rcia instructors
but that doesn't mean
that the wound is healed
i still find myself sometimes
afraid to renew my trust in God
afraid of the Church
who treated my relationship with God
as being good as far as it went, but
nonetheless fundamentally insufficient
to the point of being almost irrelevant
how can i trust
the institution
that trampled on
the one thing that was
most precious to me?
that may be a question
that only God can answer
and i trust that he will
i wonder now whether
i ever blamed my rcia instructors?
i may have sounded like i did
but deep down i think i may not
have allowed myself to blame them
i made excuses for them--
they were doing their best
and those excuses were probably true
but perhaps in doing that
i unwittingly told myself
that therefore it shouldn't hurt
and therefore the fact that it DID hurt
meant that something was wrong with me
i suppose i haven't learned yet
what to do with pain
that is no one's fault
if there is nothing to forgive
how do i let go of the pain?
thanks for the quotes
sorry i went to a negative place
i don't feel as negative
as i may sound
one day i will be past all this
i should hope that
your experience becomes
important not so much for you
but for others who come
seeking
i also think you might reflect a bit
on how your coming into the church was posited as something sort of different than other rcia candidates who are porbably breaking from other traditions and not looking back...in some ways you were and are asking more than the average rcia instructor can answer...they are it seems to me more theological problems that you are detecting....perhaps real flaws which might only be resolved in the awareness of others facing the same thing
and
somehow getting to realize that
the cross was present
and still is in your particular journey....i can see no reason why the cross might not be evident in any persons' entry into the pascal mystery in a deeper way
you seem to want to prove something by all this
i'm still not sure that i get it
wouldn't be the first time
c'est la vie
!
...
i also think you might reflect a bit
on how your coming into the church was posited as something sort of different than other rcia candidates who are porbably breaking from other traditions and not looking back...
Yes, I am aware of this difference. I wonder what the possibilities are for opening up other channels by which individual Protestants could become reconciled with and received into the Catholic Church--channels that would be more appropriate for Protestants who are seeking fuller integration into the Catholic and Apostolic Church without any felt need to break with their existing tradition?
in some ways you were and are asking more than the average rcia instructor can answer...they are it seems to me more theological problems that you are detecting....
Yes, I am aware of this too.
I wonder how the Church can provide help for people like me? Are there enough others like me that would make it worthwhile to train RCIA leaders to seek referrals for candidates whose questions go beyond their own ability to answer?
It probably would have helped me to step beyond the RCIA instructors and talk to a priest, although the ecumenical questions with which I wrestle, may also go beyond what the average priest really wants to deal with.
I did try meeting with a sister in Hemet once, and with Fr. Philip twice, but by then I was already upset and easily hurt.
I think the best thing probably would have been for me to develop a relationship of trust with a spiritual director before entering RCIA. But spiritual directors are not easy to find.
you seem to want to prove something by all this
I can see that I often sound that way. And there probably have been times, when I wanted to prove one thing or another--that Protestants can be just as devoted to God as
Catholics, or that Protestants also have the Real Presence of Christ in their lives, or that our differences are not as great as Catholics sometimes make them out to be, or that Catholics sometimes speak insensitively about Protestants instead of trying to "seek God in every human life," as the current Pope advises.
But what I wrote last night was genuinely in pursuit of my own healing, written as much for myself as for anyone else. I don't think I was trying to prove anything at that time.
i'm still not sure that i get it
Thanks for being honest.
And thanks for trying to understand.
This is not your problem to solve.
... but perhaps it might help you to understand if you think about how a Catholic might feel if the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was questioned by someone whom they held to have authority over them. Imagine how that might undermine their faith. This might help you to understand how I felt when those whom I had allowed to have some authority over me (RCIA instructors), said things that subtly called into question the reality and truth and sufficiency of my existing relationship with God.
Can you see how it might take some time and effort to recover from that?
Thanks for your patience.
i heard on stephen colbert last night that the pope drives around in a 1984 renault relatively incognito just drives around rome on his own...talk about acts of faith....a 1984 renault ...you've got to be kidding me and then and then i heard his limosine is a ford focus....i feel like i'm on a ecclesial rollercoaster
hold onto your caps
jh
i knew he was using a private car
instead of a limo or the pope mobile
i didn't know it was such an old car!!
now i feel decadent in our 2002 and 2009 Subarus
i do love this guy though
and i need to start watching colbert again
:-)
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