by Will Reaves, Director of Faith Formation and Intergenerational Catechesis
It’s good to find a home in a local parish community. It’s good to feel connected with a worldwide Church. But if all we do is foster human connections, we’ve missed the point of our Faith. Ultimately, we are made for God. Yet, for so many people, the idea of having a true relationship with God seems foreign, even impossible. God is impersonal and distant, and we cannot hear His voice. Or God is demanding and cruel, calling us to a standard we cannot possibly meet or permitting, even causing, great suffering in the world. It can be very difficult to break through that mindset to show how God is radically in love with His creation, and with each person individually.
Jesus came into the world to share with us that truth of God’s love, in its fullness. Our world desperately needs to know what the early Church called the kerygma, the good news of Jesus Christ. So many people do not know that message. So many others know it, but struggle to know how to share it with other people. Yet this is our calling as Christians: to share this message with others, as we have felt it in our own lives. My prayer for everyone reading this is that you would be able to shed any false ideas you have about God, particularly those ideas that keep you from knowing His love for you deep within your heart. For the kerygma, the story of the Gospel, is ultimately about how God loves us. May you feel that love in your life.
Challenge: For the coming week (at least), say the following prayer at least once a day: “Open my eyes, Lord; I want to see Your face.”