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Unity of the Church, Seen in the Ministry of Reconciling People to Jesus…
Devotional Thought of the Day
11 (He, Jesus) filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher 12 to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, 13 until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13 (MSG)
2. The Church was founded for the purpose of spreading the kingdom of Christ throughout the earth for the glory of God the Father, to enable all men to share in His saving redemption, and that through them the whole world might enter into a relationship with Christ. (1)
The person who wants only the God whom he has invented for himself—how is he to be certain that there is a God, how is he to love one who never answers him? But God has come to meet us in our groping search. He speaks to us in the community of faith, he challenges us, he lives among us. That know-it-all pride that wants to put itself above the Faith of the Church and her living community inevitably ends in an aversion for God and for itself. In the community that God himself has formed and that comes to us from his love, he can be loved in return. It need hardly be said, then, that love of God is never a private relationship between me and him who is both mystery and eternity. The community that he created includes me; hence this love is returned to it and transcends it because God wants to unite all of us in a single city of eternal peace (2)
7 Moreover, the people are instructed often and with great diligence concerning the holy sacrament, why it was instituted, and how it is to be used (namely, as a comfort for terrified consciences) in order that the people may be drawn to the Communion and Mass. The people are also given instruction about other false teachings concerning the sacrament.
2 Meanwhile no conspicuous changes have been made in the public ceremonies of the Mass, except that in certain places German hymns are sung in addition to the Latin responses for the instruction and exercise of the people.
3 After all, the chief purpose of all ceremonies is to teach the people what they need to know about Christ (3)
I’ve been thinking a lot of the differences in the churches recently. I hate the divisions that exist in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church we confess in the creeds. .Even as I respect the people who take the division seriously, and lament it, even as they recognize the need for it. (that is another blog… we can’t simply dismiss the differences)
One of the things we do agree on, is the need of people to know Jesus, not just to know of Him, but to know Him. Which means being drawn to Him, to find Him in the midst of His people, the life of Christ into which we are called is lined in the community of faith.
Both Vatican II and the Lutheran Confessions agree on this, as would most pastors, even if we don’t agree on what the church looks like, the need of Jesus’ involvement in people’s lives is their greatest need.
For knowing Christ brings joy, even as it removes all guilt and shame. Knowing Him means that our brokenness is being healed, that our lives have meaning that extends beyond this moment. The mission, the apostolate that God entrusts to us is incredible.
Incredible because of the change that occurs in the life of the disciple.
Incredible because of the trust God places in us.
Incredible in view of the unity we find with each other, as we find ourselves in God’s presence. In His finding us, we end up finding each other….and as we see people come to know God’s mercy, they become part of His people. That we are being bound together in Him extends over all other things that could divide us, even as we struggle (or should struggle) to see those things settled, not as compromises, but as brothers with one goal – being in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, the hope of unity is there… because He is.
Lord, bring you church together, reveal to us that we are one, even as you and the Father are one. Lord have mercy upon us. AMEN..
(1) Catholic Church. (2011). Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity: Apostolicam Actuositatem. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 226). San Francisco: Ignatius Press
(2) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 226). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
(3)
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 56). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
A Way to Deal with Spiritual Insomnia…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
6 I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn.
27 Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? 28 Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe. 29 If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences. 30 That’s why so many of you even now are listless and sick, and others have gone to an early grave. 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 (MSG)
1 It is taught among us that the sacraments were instituted not only to be signs by which people might be identified outwardly as Christians, but that they are signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us for the purpose of awakening and strengthening our faith.[2]
They should, therefore, constantly exert themselves to have the faithful know and live the paschal mystery more deeply through the Eucharist and thus become a firmly-knit body in the unity of the charity of Christ.9 “Intent upon prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4), they should devote their labor to this end that all those committed to their care may be of one mind in prayer10 and through the reception of the sacraments may grow in grace and be faithful witnesses to the Lord.[3]
316 You tell me: “Yes, I want to!” Good. But do you “want to” as a miser wants his gold, as a mother wants her child, as a worldling wants honors, or as a poor sensualist wants his pleasure? No? Then you don’t “want to”!
It was a long time ago, thirty-five years ago when the nights seemed so long. I was young, working as a dishwasher at a Denny’s back in New Hamshire. I worked the graveyard shift, the eleven to seven am a shift. I would go from there off to high school. There was a point on those nights, I can never forget.
When you work those shifts, or if you are just having a tough time sleeping, there is a time where the darkness begins to crush you. It is about two hours before the sunrise, until the moment the hint of dawn starts to lighten the sky. I would run up the ladder, get out on the roof, and watch the miracle of a sunrise.
But oh, the pressure of night in the two hours of the night! It causes a sense almost like claustrophobia, as you wonder whether the night will ever end.
As I read the first quote above, the psalmist is comparing his hunger for God’s presence to the night guard waiting for dawn, those feelings resonated within me. And It resonated so much, that the blog came about.
I think there are times we get spiritual insomnia. We forget God is here, and we get overwhelmed by the darkness that is in life. The evil that casts it dark shadow over us, that would oppress us with that same feeling that occurs in the hours before dawn. The more the darkness crushes us, the harder it is to remember that dawn is coming, the harder it is to remember His light has shown in our lives… and still does.
No wonder Paul will talk of those who have fallen asleep and even died because they didn’t recognize the Body and Blood of Christ!
I put two quotes, after the scripture quotes, one from the Lutheran Book of Concord, one from the Roman Catholic documents. Both talk of the strength found in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist The strengthening of faith, the communion that grows strong among the people of God. It is something we agree on, this recognition of God’s presence, and His work in our lives. His supernatural work seen as the Holy Spirit, strengthens, cleanses, heals, comforts and makes new.
The God we encounter as we are fed His Body and His Blood.
As His light again is brought into our lives.
As it shatters that darkness that we feel crushing us. I’ve been in those darks nights, I’ve felt the pressures, the anxieties, both from physical darkness and spiritual darkness. Perhaps that is why I so desire and love to share in Communion, why I appreciate it so much. It is more refreshing than even the dawn.
So run to the altar, desire God’s presence as St Josemaria challenges us to desire it. Even as that desire grows, know how He comes to you, through His Word, through His sacraments,
And find the rest those who work at night find, as their day ends with the dawn.
[1] Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 35). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
9 Pius XII’s encyclical letter, Mediator Dei, Nov. 20, 1947: A.A.S. 39 (1947) p. 97 ff.; Paul VI’s encyclical letter, Mysterium Fidei, Sept. 3, 1965.
10 cf. Acts 1:14 and 2:46.
[2] Catholic Church. (2011). Decree concerning the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church: Christus Dominus. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
