September 2, 2018 

                R. To reach into that which is unknown
                with a certitude that God is there and
                teaching us as we seek to know Him –
                The deep heat of His love is ever present in
                every trial as we live the pascal mystery of
                death / resurrection –

                    For in the suffering is the glory as He
                showed us – Death / Resurrection –

                    His life – a life of loving and surrendering
                in Him to know His truths more and more
                which is really unknown to us – beyond –
                transcendent –

                    The open door comes through the
                letting go to Him in surrender as He
                calls us to deeper suffering to new
                life and a greater vision of our
                heavenly Father's vision –

                    There can be a necessity of purging –
                of removing "gunk" that has filled
                the pipes leading to our heart, so the heart
                can beat and love and be filled more and
                more vibrantly with Him –

                    But to remove the cross can be to
                take away the glory – the beauty – the
                light – the door way that leads to
                the light –

                    Do we not see that Jesus showed us
                the suffering in His bitter passion and death
                and He showed us and gave us the glory of
                the Resurrection.

                To avoid the purging, the cleansing
                is to miss the purity that comes
                afterward.

                Even in the body the clogged
                arteries must be opened once
                again for life – there must
                be that cleaning, opening of that which
                is full of "gunk" and that which
                is purging can be a very painful
                process, but the purity that follows
                is oh so good.

                    But above this all is Our Heavenly
                Father with His Plan for our salvation
                and eternal life with Him in heaven –
                Why would any man turn from God who
                created us and wants what is
                best for us?

                God gives us a sharing in His life in baptism
                and opens up the supernatural world to us –
                He elevates our knowing and loving capacity
                and we share in His knowing activity –
                In faith – we know as God reveals His
                truths to us more and more, but we
                see behind a veil and we will never
                fully know here below –

                Sing: Prayer for Union

                R. Faith as participation in God's knowing.
                I knew His presence in me, even in the
                suffering there was a reaching out for that
                which was bigger – what is the fullness
                of life to come in eternal life with Him –
                reaching into the depth of surrender, of
                letting go to confidence in Him taking
                me someday to that which is beyond
                and wonderful –

                    A reality of knowing God – trusting God
                Seeking God –  

                    Fr. Carter says in Response in Christ –
 

                Excerpt from Response in Christ by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J., pp. 140-148

^EIGHT  Christian Faith

     ...Faith gives the Christian a new capacity for knowing. It enables him to attain truths about God and His creation which would be otherwise unknowable. Faith also enables us to know certain truths which are within the grasp of natural reason, but which are attained by many only with difficulty.

     Faith, as St. Thomas states, assimilates us to the divine knowing.² Through faith we share in God's vision of reality, and we view God and creation in some way as does God Himself. This vision exists on a level of knowing which surpasses the intellect's natural capacity to grasp reality. Although faith gives only a faint share in God's vision compared to the divine knowledge itself, it is still the greatest vision of reality which is possible for man in his temporal existence.

     What are some of the characteristics of Christian faith? First of all, it is at the same time both certain and obscure. Faith is certain because it is a special sharing in the knowledge of God, God who is the highest truth. The strength of my faith, then, depends not on arguments and proofs from reason. These give a rational foundation to my faith, but they are not faith itself. Rather, the strength of faith depends upon the degree to which God takes possession of the Christian in grace. As the Christian grows in grace, the various infused virtues take deeper root, and the Christian lives more and more the life of God. In regard to faith this means that the Christian is being more vitally assimilated into the divine knowing. His faith becomes more firm. This does not mean that we always correctly estimate the strength of our faith. For various reasons we can at times think that our faith is growing weaker when it is actually becoming stronger. Such an impression can be present as faith is being purified. This process of purification will be touched upon in the present chapter, but also later in the chapter on prayer and the one on the mystical life.

     If faith is certain, it also has an obscurity about it, despite the fact that faith is also light. Faith is obscure because its realities are unseen. These truths of faith will be surrounded with a full brightness only in the beatific vision. Then faith will no longer be necessary. God and His truth will then be immediately present to us. "Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known." (1 Co 13:12).

     Because the truths of faith are not possessed here below with the complete light of the beatific vision, temptations against faith are possible. If these do occur, we should not be unduly disturbed. Great saints, such as St. Jane Frances de Chantal and St. Teresa of Lisieux, have experienced this trial. If temptations against faith occur, how should we handle them? We should not confront the temptation directly, for this only deepens its impression. We should let the temptation pass by as calmly as possible, taking reasonable means to occupy our attention with something positive. If we react correctly to the temptation, our faith will be strengthened and purified. Faith certainly can be purified in other ways. Consequently, we should not think it necessary to experience these temptations to achieve faith's purification. It is merely a question of properly benefiting from such an experience if it does arise.

     Some seem to speak of temptations against faith in the same way as they do concerning difficulties about the truths of faith. We prefer to make a distinction. Although difficulties concerning faith can certainly lead to temptations to disbelief, it seems that such difficulties can be present without actual temptation against faith. This kind of difficulty or questioning can actually be a desire to understand more perfectly the mysteries of faith. Such questioning, as opposed to temptation to disbelief, can be handled directly through study, reflection and dialogue with persons competent in theology.

     We are presently discussing some of the characteristics of faith. We have said that it is both certain and obscure. It is also evolving.³ By this we mean that the Church, as she progresses through the ages, is meant to strive constantly for a more perfect understanding of the truths of revelation. This is one sense in which the Church's faith evolves. It evolves also in the sense that the Church, reading the signs of the times, must constantly endeavor to present Christ's revelation in categories which are relevant to each succeeding age.⁴ The Church must so act because of the very nature of revelation. God has revealed Himself in Christ in order to exact a response from man. The Church also has to be concerned about the response which any age makes to her continual presentation of God's revelation. Since one of the factors which will determine man's response to God's word is its discernible relevance to his here-and-now existence, the Church is obligated to make her teaching of the faith as meaningful as possible according to all the various exigencies of each and every age.

     The faith of the individual Christian likewise has an evolving dimension because his faith participates in the evolutionary growth of the Church's faith. But the Christian's faith evolves also precisely because it is the faith of an individual. One's understanding of the mysteries of faith can grow indefinitely. This growth will take place not only through the objective means commonly available to all within the Church, but also through the more subjective means which are peculiar to individuals as individuals. Consider the fact that one's faith evolves as his experience of life evolves. Faith is part of our total existence, and God often causes us to understand more perfectly the mysteries of faith by our actual experience of them in the concrete circumstances of our individual lives.

     Christian faith is certain, obscure to some extent, and evolving. There is a final set of characteristics we would like to mention. As with all aspects of our grace-life, faith is both incarnational and transcendent.⁵ At the basis of faith's incarnational dimension is the fact that faith is received within this world's material framework. Faith partly depends upon the tangible and concrete for its proper nourishment, growth and expression. One example of this is faith's relationship to the liturgy with its very obvious incarnational dimension. Another example is that faith must be exercised within the ordinary framework of the Christian's everyday experience of work, relaxation, pain and joy. Again, such a framework of daily life has a very obvious material or incarnational aspect.

     If faith is incarnational, it is more ultimately transcendent. The truths of faith, although having a relationship to man's material world, are themselves above it. This fact constitutes one aspect of faith's transcendency. Another aspect is the fact that our conceptual formulation and expression of the mysteries of faith do not completely exhaust their reality. This holds even for the Church's official teaching of these mysteries. It also holds true for theology's expression of the Christian mystery, and for the individual Christian's personal conceptualization of faith's realities, a conceptualization which must be, of course, in proper harmony with the Church's official teaching. Summarily, the mysteries of faith cannot be totally confined to our human categories of thought and speech. These are meant as means to lead us closer to faith's transcendent realities as they are in themselves, especially to the ultimate transcendent reality, our Trinitarian God.

     In light of the above mention of theology, it might be well to consider here a few points concerning its relationship to faith. Theology is the science of faith, and its proper study can be a definite means in developing one's faith. But theology cannot be completely equated with faith. It obviously embraces much of faith's content, but it also contains and makes use of other realities. An example of this is the fact that theology utilizes philosophical categories in expressing revelation. Theology also is not obviously the same as faith in the instances when certain advanced speculations of various theologians are eventually seen to be erroneous. The Christian, while highly valuing theology, must realize in what manner it differs from faith itself.

     This is especially necessary in our present age which is witnessing a ferment, renewal and vital growth in theology. It is always one of the tasks of theology to be in advance of the current official Church teaching.⁶ This necessary gap is especially evident today because of this very special age of the Church in which we live. This distance between the Church's official teaching and present theological effort seems to disturb many of today's faithful. If we hold fast to the above distinctions between faith and theology, we should be able to maintain our peace of soul and welcome the renewed vigor of today's theology. This vigor is making its own contribution to the growth of the Church's faith.
 

            2.  Faith as Personal Encounter with God and Man in Christ

Contemporary theology emphasizes that faith is not merely an intellectual assent to a body of doctrine, but primarily a personal commitment to God who reveals these truths. For too long theology seemed to invert this order, but it is interesting to note that St. Thomas was not one of those theologians who gave the wrong emphasis. His words are in the mainstream of current thought on faith: "Now, whoever believes, assents to someone's words; so that, in every form of belief, the person to whose words assent is given seems to hold the chief place and to be the end as it were; while the things by holding which one assents to that person hold a secondary place."⁷

     By faith, through the order of knowledge, we enter into an intimate personal relationship with the Trinity. Because faith is thus fundamentally a personal dialogue between God and the Christian, it has a deep, personalizing efficacy.⁸ If I respond properly to God revealing, I achieve in graced freedom my greatest potential as a person. I become the person I should become.

     Our faith-encounter with God centers in Christ. It is obvious why this is so, since it is through His Incarnate Son that the Father has spoken and continues to speak to us. Christ contains all revelation in His Incarnate person. Christ revealed, not only by His words, but also by everything that He was and did. Christ has spoken to us not merely through verbalized intellectual truths, but through His total Incarnate person. He revealed by giving His complete self, not only His words. This fact has deep significance concerning our response to Christ's revelation. For just as Christ has given us the Father's truth in a personal way through the loving gift of His complete Incarnate person, so I must respond in the same manner. I must assent to the truth of Christ, not only with my intellect, but in love with my total being.

     Christ's message cannot be separated from His person. If I am authentically to respond to His truth I must accept everything about Christ. Full Christian faith is commitment of my total person to Christ and to the total mystery of Christ. This, of course, does not mean that this commitment is initially as perfect as it can become. My entire Christian life is a growth in this response. However, the initial response is complete in the sense that I open my complete being to Christ with the determination that I will allow myself to be assimilated to Him as He wishes.

     As the Christian responds in loving faith to Christ, he discovers his true existence. He has discovered a meaning outside of himself. And, paradoxically, the more he goes out of himself into this true meaning of life who is Christ, the more the Christian becomes himself. Now in living faith he views all reality with Christ, through the vision of Christ. The Christian sees that with Christ, and in the Spirit, he must spend himself in love for the Father, man and man's world. We see, then, that faith is not only encounter with God, but also with man.

     Because he is caught up in the vision of this Christ whom he loves with his entire being, the Christian will not count the cost. As Christ was willing to pay any price to achieve the vision which the Father showed Him concerning man's redemption, so also the committed Christian, in order to achieve faith's vision, is willing to pay the price Christ asks of him.

     Part of this vision which the man of faith has is the deep realization that living faith in Christ can transform a man's life. Consequently, the man of faith has a deep desire to help develop this faith in those already possessing it, and to aid in giving it to those not yet blessed with faith in Christ. He realizes from personal experience the importance of making such a contribution, for he knows that he himself has received this faith partly through the efforts of others, and that he is helped by them in so many ways in achieving faith's maturity. Finally, the man of faith is convinced that he promotes faith in others to a great extent by the way he himself lives it out: "The written and preached word, however, is intended to be incarnated in human beings. The word will have its most powerful effect only when it appears in another person who embodies the gospel in his life."⁹

     In conclusion, let us be convinced of the following. What faith in Christ means for ourselves and others must engrave itself deeply within our souls. For only then will we have a desire to open ourselves up fully to this life of faith in Christ, and only then will we become the desired instruments in communicating this faith to others. Each of us in his own way must be caught up into the vision, the fire, the enthusiasm of St. Paul: ". . . I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him . . . I want only the perfection that comes through faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith." (Ph 3:8-9).

_________
     2. Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, In Boeth. de Trinitate, q. 3, a. 1.
     3. Cf. Karl Rahner, Belief Today (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1967), p. 49.
     4. Cf. Edward Schillebeeckx, Revelation and Theology, Vol. 1 (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1967), p. 150.
     5. For the transcendent dimension, cf. Rahner, Op. cit., pp. 80-89.
     6. Cf. Schillebeeckx, Op. cit., p. 148.
     7. St. Thomas Aquinas, S.T., II,II, q. 11, a. 1 (New York: Benziger, 1947).
     8. Cf. Jean Mouroux, I Believe (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1959), pp. 60-65.
     9. Gabriel Moran, Theology of Revelation (New York: Herder & Herder, 1966), p. 151.

               R. Come Holy Spirit fill me with the fire of God's
                love.

                Dear God I love You, dear God I need You.
                Dear God I thank You, You are my Savior and my God.
                You are my strength in due season, You are
                with me always until the ends of the earth.
                Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I
                shall not fear, for You are with me with
                Your rod and Your staff and I shall dwell
                in the house of the Lord for years upon years.

                Amen.

                I love You Jesus.

2 Timothy 2: 1-19

As for you, my dear son, take strength from the grace which is in Christ Jesus. Pass on to reliable people what you have heard from me through many witnesses so that they in turn will be able to teach others. 

    Bear with your share of difficulties, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one on active service involves himself in the affairs of civilian life, because he must win the approval of the man who enlisted him; or again someone who enters an athletic contest wins only by competing in the sports -- a prize can be won only by competing according to the rules; and again, it is the farmer who works hard that has the first claim on any crop that is harvested. Think over what I have said, and the Lord will give you full understanding.

    Remember the gospel that I carry, 'Jesus Christ risen from the dead, sprung from the race of David'; it is on account of this that I have to put up with suffering, even to being chained like a criminal. But God's message cannot be chained up. So I persevere for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they, too, may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

    Here is a saying that you can rely on:

    If we have died with him,
        then we shall live with him.
    If we persevere,
        then we shall reign with him.
    If we disown him, then he will disown us.
    If we are faithless, he is faithful still,
    for he cannot disown his own self.

Remind them of this; and tell them in the name of God that there must be no wrangling about words: all that this ever achieves is the destruction of those who are listening. Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who has no need to be ashamed, but who keeps the message of truth on a straight path.

 

                Given October 29, 2016

                R. Please spread blessed holy water
                (You can also mix Jesus and Mary water
                with your blessed Holy Water if you have it.)
                in your yard, around your house,
                in the state you live in.