Living a Christ-Filled Life in a Catholic Parish – Part 6

09-08-2024Weekly Reflection

“The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope, or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love.”
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 25

For those of you who have gone through Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Catechism of the Year podcast, either on your own or through the Parish Catechism Fellowship, you know how important paragraph 25 is in the Catechism. The whole purpose of what we do is love – love of God and love of neighbor.

With that love, we are called to sanctify the world because a Catholic Parish does not merely exist for itself. We are called to share God’s love and guide others to Christ. We all called to be saints. As St. Pope John Paul II said at World Youth Day in 1993, “This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel. It is the time to preach it…. Do not be afraid to break out of comfortable and routine modes of living in order to take up the challenge of making Christ known in the modern metropolis.”

It is appropriate that this series ends on September 8th, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary had such great love of God and love for neighbor that she submitted to God’s will to give mankind the greatest gift ever – Jesus Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI said the following about Mary’s ‘yes’ in a homily on December 18, 2005, “Adam and Eve, with their "no" to God's will, had closed this door. "Let God's will be done": Mary invites us too to say this "yes" which sometimes seems so difficult. We are tempted to prefer our own will, but she tells us: "Be brave, you too say: "Your will be done', because this will is good". It might at first seem an unbearable burden, a yoke impossible to bear; but in reality, God's will is not a burden, God's will gives us wings to fly high and thus we too can dare, with Mary, to open the door of our lives to God, the doors of this world, by saying "yes" to his will, aware that this will is the true good and leads us to true happiness. Let us pray to Mary, Comfort of the Afflicted, our Mother, the Mother of the Church, to give us the courage to say this "yes" and also to give us this joy of being with God and to lead us to his Son, to true life. Amen!”

Do not be afraid to submit to God’s will. He will sanctify you with the Soul of Christ, He will guide you with the Holy Spirit, and He will give you the courage to strive for the highest goals for His glory. All you must do is say ‘yes’!