RCIA, Who is Jesus Christ?
Today’s class followed our Journey of Faith lesson, Who is Jesus Christ? It was a powerful discussion, as Rosemarie prompted us to think about occasions in our lives where Jesus touched us or influenced our actions. The stories were often very emotional, as we looked at our lives and recognized how our definitions of Christ (e.g. peace, love, Father of History) permeated important moments.
The Journey of Faith lesson tells us that in Jesus’ day, “Christ was a mirror in whom people saw their true selves reflected. Some people did not like what they saw and so they hated him. Others, conversely, did not like what they saw, but this made them realize how desperately they needed him. It was these who gathered around jesus during his life on earth and formed the foundation of the Church after his resurrection.”
I believe that Christ remains a mirror. In class today, we all looked in a mirror and asked ourselves if we could see Christ in our reflection. Ultimately, that is the goal of RCIA. We want you to learn how to let Christ abide in you, and thus enable you to abide in his love. If you can establish a deep and loving relationship with Jesus, acts of faith that reflect his love will follow.
Many St. Patrick’s parishioners abide with Christ, and that is why on Nov. 10, we were able to fill and deliver a box truck full of assistance to Staten Island residents in need. This video shares with you some of these acts of faith.
At this time of year, as our hearts turn towards the warm memories of holidays past, and anticipation of the season to come, we ask that you think of those who have been in many cases wiped out, made homeless, pushed to the brink, by hurricane Sandy. Our faith calls us to love unconditionally and selflessly, especially those in need. Let’s keep these people in our hearts, prayers and plans for assistance.
A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
RCIA, The Sacrament of Penance
Pat led us Sunday in a very thoughtful and prayerful review of the Sacrament of Penance. I loved how Pat started out reminding us that when we atone for sins against ourselves, God and the community this Sacrament can be a new beginning for the world. As Jesus said to the apostles in the locked room when he was resurrected, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
I often wonder what the response was of the Apostles. Did they forgive Pontius Pilate and the Sanhedrin for persecuting Christ? Did they forgive themselves for abandoning Jesus? I think they did, because they went on to create a new beginning, the initiation of the Christian faith. The fact that they weren’t immediately eradicated tells me that the power of forgiveness opened up the possibility for a new way of fulfilling God’s law. (Yes, most of the Apostles were martyred. There was resistance to Christ’s way, but we also read in Acts of the Apostles how thousands flocked to living in union with Jesus.)
On this earth, when we retain the pain of our mistakes, and force those who have trespassed against us to live their mistakes over and over again, sins are retained and growth isn’t possible. Think about all of the times we hold grudges against others, like the story of Diana on the first page of this week’s lesson. She lost years of friendship with her girlfriend and lived years of unhappiness because she retained her own sins and Jennifer’s.
As we discussed Sunday, the story of the Prodigal Son can show us how reconciling with our Father, our community and ourselves can turn our lives around.
That is not what Christ wanted for us in this life. He didn’t want us to live in misery because we were unable to forgive ourselves and others. And so we have the Sacrament of Penance, a chance to shed our burdens and mistakes, and those of others against us. What a beautiful gift.
Now, some people bemoan the Sacrament, asking, as we discussed in class Sunday, why we need to discuss our sins in front of a priest. When a priest is ordained, he is empowered to act as a mediator between us and God, to act as Jesus did in a way to reconcile us back to God and our community. I also maintain that until you speak your thoughts to another person, and have to listen to your sins outside of the walls of your own head, it is easy to overlook those sins and keep performing them.
But does that mean the Sacrament is foolproof? Will we sin again? And does our human nature towards sin negate the whole meaning of the Sacrament? No. As Pat instructed us, part of the Sacrament is saying: “I resolve to amend my life and promise to do my best.” In a guide for confession at Catholic.org, we find this: “The basic requirement for a good confession is to have the intention of returning to God like the ‘prodigal son’ and to acknowledge our sins with true sorrow before the priest.”
If you take part in this Sacrament with true intention to listen to your sins, own up to them, and move away from sin, then the Sacrament has power to bring you back into union with yourself, your community and God.
One of the best ways for us to personalize the need and benefits of this sacrament are for us to examine our own lives and remember those times when we were cleansed by forgiveness. So we leave you with the following question:
Do you remember a time in your life of sin and forgiveness?
RCIA, The Eucharist
The Tabernacle inside St. Patrick’s, holding the host for the Eucharist, is off to the right of the sanctuary.
For those of you who have never seen Rosemarie teach “The Eucharist,” I am saddened for you. Her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is so powerful, so unshakable, it can make you overcome any lack of faith you might have that at communion we take in the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ.
This Sunday’s class was a remarkable reminder of how we need to work at faith like Rosemarie’s because the concepts of the Eucharist and “transubstantiation” require it. Rosemarie compared the Last Supper to the feeding of the multitudes with a few loaves and fishes. From these two events we can draw parallels to how at mass every Sunday we see a similar miracle performed for our modern hearts, minds and bodies.
Leading up to the Last Supper, Jesus’ many miracles proved that he had powers superior to and independent of nature. He is that powerful and we see his power in the fact that he transformed the future of humankind with his crucifixion. Two thousand years later, billions still follow him. Talk about transformation!
But this doesn’t mean that our human minds necessarily are capable of readily understanding and accepting the concepts of the eucharist. This is why we declare the memorial acclamation called the “The Mystery of Faith” after the host has been consecrated and before we serve communion. I always felt these words were meant to remind us of the basis for the transformation of the eucharist (Christ’s death, resurrection and promise to return). If I believe that Christ was the only son of God and died for my sins, then anything is truly possible.
As much as I would like to understand the science behind the transubstantiation, I don’t think I ever will. That’s a good thing to me, because I don’t want to reduce Christ to science. Where is the faith if I can explain neatly everything he did and promised? Where is the awe and wonder, the challenge to probe my heart and soul to have a relationship with Christ, and sacrifice something of me for him, if I look at his life as a history book? (I’ve never been motivated to have a relationship with George Washington, or Henry Ford, and I’ve read plenty about them in history books.) Knowing Jesus sacrificed himself for me and that he created a way (the eucharist) to abide in me after his death is explanation enough.
Indeed, Rosemarie called the Eucharist “a gift of faith.” In our world, where we all want everything to seem cut and dried by logic, to appear black and white, to be spelled out completely for us to follow, I love Rosemarie’s simple explanation. If I am going to push myself to be a better person, to live a life worthy of Christ’s sacrifice, I’d rather my inspiration not come solely from an instruction manual. I need more than that to transform me.
The Jewish nation of Christ’s time had a manual, called the Pentateuch. But still they struggled (as we ALL do even today) to obey it. When Jesus was asked about the Jewish laws, he said that he didn’t come to abolish the law (the Ten Commandments and the Mitzvot the Jews agreed to follow). Christ said he came to fulfill it, to add something to it more powerful than words and dictates. For me, what Christ added (with his death and resurrection) was a requirement of faith, and that faith was to be bolstered, amongst other things, by the Eucharist, a true gift abiding inside us as the nourishment we need to overcome our human limitations.
RCIA, Confirmation
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Whereas at baptism we are made members of Christ’s body, at confirmation, “we are given the power of God to bear fruit in our Christian life and to speak before the world boldly.”
This is the description of confirmation prepared by the authors of the RCIA program’s Journey of Faith lesson, from Ligouri Press. Rosemarie Morello led the class in instruction this Sunday, focusing both on the seven gifts of confirmation (listed in the ribbons of flame in the picture to the right) and the fruits that are borne when a Christian lives their life fully in the manner Christ’s commands of us.
Isaiah 11: 1-3 reads: “Give them the spirit of [I] wisdom and [2] understanding, the spirit of [3] right judgment and [4] courage, the spirit of [5] knowledge and [6] reverence.
Fill them with the spirit of [7] wonder and awe in your presence.”
The gifts come forth from the third person in the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, whom Christ promised to send to the apostles at the last supper to guide them when He was gone (John 14:16). As Rosemarie taught us, these gifts helps us live a righteous life and enable us to love, be kind and gentle, to be sensitive to others’ needs.
But, do those of us confirmed in our faith look at them as gifts?
How many gifts come with expectations? The Journey of Faith lesson taught us that confirmation is often called “the sacrament of social action,” and Rosemarie guided us through a discussion of how we need to take the gifts of confirmation and convert them into actions. With St. Patrick’s focus this school season on anti-bullying, we spent a little time talking about the courage that is demanded to stand up for someone who is being targeted by others. We spoke about how difficult that can be, and how these particular gifts can at times feel like a burden.
I think it’s wonderful that both the Jewish and Christian faiths wait until a child is in their early teens before holding ceremonies that essentially welcome the child into young adulthood where something like “bearing fruit” is an expectation. It takes a certain sense of maturity before a human can start to fully take on the responsibilities of adulthood. It is the right time.
As our candidates move towards Easter Vigil, it is important that they think of confirmation not as the end of their journey, but the beginning of a new one, one in which there are expectations placed on them if they are truly to walk as a Christian. For all of us, instructors and sponsors, it is renewing for us also to consider how we are using these gifts.
As we enter into the week, it is useful for us to think about the gifts we were given at confirmation and ask ourselves:
Which of these gifts do you need most in your life right now?
Then pray for the Holy Spirit to bring that gift to you and give you the strength to use it.
RCIA, Baptism
Our RCIA group this year includes one candidate who will receive baptism and confirmation at Easter Vigil in 2013.
This Sunday, our group “plunged” into a discussion about baptism and what baptism means for Catholics. We dived in headfirst with a very provocative question, one that was hard for most participants to answer.
“If you could start a new life, what would it be like?”
Pretty intimidating question, isn’t it? Most of us grow very comfortable with our lives and don’t readily change unless a crisis forces us to. To actively make a choice to substantially change one’s life is quite a courageous thing to do. I’ve known several people who’ve done so, and I consider them to be some of my greatest personal heroes.
Our RCIA candidates are making a very courageous choice choosing to enter fully into the Church, and we dtalked about that Sunday, especially what it means to truly follow Christ. Using our Journey of Faith lesson guide, we discussed the models we have for following Jesus. We started with Christ himself, who says in the Gospel of Luke:
“I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed.” (Luke 12:50)
Christ was greatly anguished by the life (and death) his Father called him to. We discussed how the Bible, especially St. Paul, describes baptism as a form of dying, in the model of Christ being crucified, dying and being resurrected: “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)
To become a Christian and live in the manner Christ commands of us often requires that something in us “dies.” Perhaps it is giving up sinful ways, or sacrificing something, like time or money, in charity to others. This “dying of self” puts us in direct communion with Christ’s sacrifice and holds the power to change us.
On Sunday I described a new-found friend who disclosed to me the radical change in her life following her dying on a surgery table during the birth of her second child. My friend Jan described watching the medical team frantically working to revive her after she flat-lined, and how she experienced a blissful otherworld she wanted to enter. Despite the powerful draw of moving on to this new world, Jan was called back to life, and was saved by the medical team. She said that when she had fully recovered from this experience she knew that she had to quit her profession (nursing) to fulfill her life’s potential. She now spends her time trying to help others live healthy lives.
Jan experienced her own baptism in those moments and was resurrected in a powerful way. Through a baptism with Christ, we too can be resurrected — and we will come back to this theme as the calendar progresses.
One of our RCIA candidates, technically called a “catechumen,” will receive baptism and confirmation at Easter Vigil, but all our candidates face the same question posed in the Journey of Faith lesson, one I put to all of us, including instructors and sponsors:
“What would a new life ‘in Christ’ be for you?”
Please share your thoughts and comments by using the comment button at the top of this post.
RCIA, The Sacraments
The Sacraments are visible signs of God’s presence.
We had our first class today. Pat Conroy covered the Sacraments for us and reminded us that the meaning of the word sacrament is a tangible and visible sign of God’s presence with us.
We have signs everywhere in our lives. Some are just “background noise,” like billboards trying to make us purchase something. Others command our attention and instruct us to take a very specific action — stop signs for example. Sacraments are more like highway signs telling us where we are and where we are headed.
Baptism is like the “Welcome to Woodbury” sign on Route 32, letting you know that you have reached the safe confines of our community. The Eucharist is that sign you see on a long stretch of highway, when you’ve been traveling for what seems like an eternity, and you realize there is an open rest stop ahead with warm food and something to drink.
By exploring a series of gospel passages, we recognized occasions in Jesus’ life that presaged the sacraments that we celebrate today. In our Journey of Faith lesson, today we read from: Matthew 8: 1-3; Luke 9:12-17; Mark 10:13-16; John 9:6-7; John 11:35-36; John 13; 4-5 and John 20:21-22.
The reading I find most meaningful for us right now, as we embark on our journey to Easter Vigil, is John 20, when after his crucifixion Jesus meets the disciples, afraid and confused in the locked upper room, looking for direction. Understanding their misery, Jesus breathes on them, bestowing the Holy Spirit to them. That, ultimately, is what this journey is about. By understanding who Jesus is and what he has done for you, you can eliminate fear and confusion in your life and fulfill the promise God blessed you with. If we are successful in the coming months, you will reach Easter Vigil with a deep understanding of our Catholic faith and a relationship with Christ that will serve you well throughout your life.
All of us in the RCIA program hope that you feel welcome in class and that we are creating an environment where you can openly share your thoughts and feelings, and grow in your faith.
Finally, a great question (from today’s lesson) for us to ponder during the coming week:
“Name a way we can respond to the sacraments that will keep these signs of God’s love renewed in our hearts?”
(Feel free to use the reply button below to post your response. Anyone, parents, sponsors, candidates, instructors, should feel welcome to participate.)
Richard D'Ambrosio
Pathways 