When I say I am a Christian, when I say I am Catholic
Christian, when I go to church each Sunday—do I realize what I have, what I am,
why I go, what I receive, how I should act or feel because I am present?
What a question!
But as Father Mike said yesterday, “If I read the Prodigal
Son over and over and over I could write a homily on each and every line of the
story.”
Now the
older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the
house …He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The
servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned …’ He became angry, and when he
refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said
to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I
disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on
with my friends. But when your son returns …, for him you slaughter the
fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My
son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now
we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to
life again; he was lost and has been found.’”
(Lk 15: 11-32)
One of the messages in this parable is that we are
surrounded by richness IN His word, IN his church, IN our lives, IN our bodies
as they are created, without embellishment. But just like the son who remained
home we don’t begin to REALIZE all that we have been given.
If I realized what I had then I would not want more “stuff.”
Instead I would only desire more understanding and more fulfillment thru more
time with God himself.
No matter who we are, or where we are in our faith, because
we are human, we don’t, can’t and won’t fully realize all that God has made
available to us, in his love for us, in all of the gifts he has given us, and
in the gifts we are meant to share with each other.
But the message is simple--He gives me what I need, when I
need it, ALL the time—if I realize it!
I don’t even have to begin to understand all of it. But I do
have to REALIZE it so that I don’t waste what I have been given or miss the
beauty and the love that I have already received, both in the simple teachings
and in the complexities of the mystery of the why, the how and the purpose of
my creation.
Pope John Paul II
taught (and teaches us) in Theology of the Body (TOB) www.tobinstitute.com much of what we as
Christians should be taught and should want to learn about our creation. JPII
has studied and given us this teaching to help us REALIZE our gifts. But as I study
and learn these teachings I am continually saddened that so few REALIZE these
teachings are even a part of our RICH library of Christian knowledge. It is
almost as though we are afraid to learn more, afraid to REALIZE that we are
made for more, afraid to REALIZE that our small world will grow bigger and that
we will have to change if we learn what God has given us in the bodies he
created—from love, by love, and for love.
JP II teaches in TOB that here on earth, if we are married
God has given us a “taste and see” thru intimacy in marriage (it is the reason
He created marriage). But many of us don’t REALIZE, or even begin to try to understand or
to learn the beauty of the relationship God has given us with the one we love
the most here on earth. Or worse yet we reduce the institution of marriage to
“just sex” or a relationship without the responsibilities God intended for its
fullness (procreation.)
And for someone who is single, TOB teaches that this
intimacy is received even more directly through and to God, by our chastity, by
his direct love and caring for us.
WE have it all, if we realize what purpose God created us
for. He feeds us body and soul through
His Word (into our mind and heart/soul) and His Word made flesh in Jesus (in
true communion with Him –His real presence, the real presence we receive in the
Eucharist.)
His message is simple. We have everything we need in His
love and the mercy of His forgiveness. He has given us the ability to love
because He loves us unconditionally. Do
we realize this?
And where would we be without forgiveness, and where are we
when we don’t REALIZE that we are forgiven and that we can be forgiven—both by
God and by those who love us for who we are (as the Father did his prodigal son
AND the son who had everything but didn’t realize it.)
He has called us to use OUR ability to BE social justice –to
give love and to share love—to give our riches to others. We are not to depend
or expect that someone else will give it to us. We are CALLED to love our neighbor
as ourselves. But do we REALIZE that this is OUR job and OUR duty—not something
that we should give to the government or expect someone else to do for us. It
is our responsibility to help each other and to care for each other. True love
is sharing ourselves by serving one another without receiving or expecting to
receive anything in return (just as Christ did for us.)
Heavenly Father, You are Love and You have created us FOR
love. I am sorry that I ignore or complicate what you are trying to help make
me realize. Help me to open my eyes, ears and most importantly my heart to the
teachings of Your Church. Help me to realize, understand, and live the way I am
called—and that is simply to love. Help me to realize that it is my
responsibility to share the gifts you have given me with others and that I
should not expect or demand that others do it for me. Amen.
Why are we choosing to ignore the messages he sends to us? What
part of the gift do we not realize that we have been given by His gift of love
and forgiveness?
May we love more, and may we realize that we are loved more,
Blessings,Charlotte
