Ephesians 1:16-17
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.
The Catholic Faith, rooted as it is in Jesus Christ who is both fully God and fully man, is the only thing that can answer the hunger for a fully human as well as a fully divine life. However, this can have unforeseen consequences. Because the Faith is fully human, it can be fully sensible and sane, even while it is also fully mysterious and enigmatic. Many Catholics, raised in the Faith, can and do assume (because it is so sensible and sane) that those who react with confusion or anger to its enigmatic aspects are simply being obtuse fools, when in reality, such critics are honestly confused or mystified by the Faith. Catholics can, at such times, forget that they are the beneficiaries of a gift, not the rightful proud possessors of anything. At such moments, Paul shows the way here: don't leap to chew people out for not understanding the Faith, much less to accuse them of ill will. Pray for them that God give them (and, we might add, us) a spirit of wisdom and revelation. The Faith is not easy or obvious for many people. And for all people, including you and me, it is a purely a gift of grace from God who alone knows what's going on. We are all fools without him.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment