The Faith of Our Fathers
All of us would claim to have some sort of spirituality in us. Being without it would be like admitting to not having a sense of humor. Thornton Wilder says in Our Town, everyone knows that there is something eternal. We just seem to be always forgetting it. God wants to get back into our lives. It is not his wish that we turn to him only as a last resort at the end of our lives.
According to a recent Gallup poll there is a broader trend of decreased participation across various religions, with only three in ten US adults attending religious services regularly. The percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation rose from nine percent in the early 2000s to twenty-one percent. Countries with a higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita had lower levels of Mass attendance.
More eighteen to twenty-nine-year-olds say they have no religious preference. Results in other countries vary greatly from more than ninety percent Mass attendance in Nigeria, where gunmen have opened fire on catholic worshippers, to fourteen percent in Canada.
How do we return to the “Faith of our Fathers” and the sacred faith entrusted to us from our parents and ancestors? Our faith roots go back to foreign lands from which our ancestors passed on culture, language, values, faith and a way of life. Today many only find the church handy for weddings, baptisms, and funerals.
Tradition is a powerful force that binds us to the customs and values of our people. Language articulates the songs and stories that are the real soul of a people. The church is often at the heart of all a people holds sacred, and it is here that we find the profoundest values we hold dear. The human heart restlessly seeks God.
Spirituality is what we do with the fire of God in us. We should be hyperactive spiritually. Restless stirrings of the Spirit should keep us awake. Christ came to light a fire. He was anxious to set it ablaze (Luke 12:49)
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in Mark 9:2-10, Jesus took Peter, James and John with him high up a mountain (Tabor) and there appeared to them Elijah and Moses. God the Father’s voice from the cloud said, “This is my son, the Beloved; listen to him!” What a powerful way to encounter God. Wouldn’t it be great if we could encounter God like that. We can!
Christ is truly present to us on Sunday mornings in church. He speaks to us in the Word. He is in the Eucharist we celebrate, and most important, he is present in each of us who make up the Body of Christ on earth. Like the disciples on Mount Tabor, we can truly say, “It is good to be here” at the Sunday worship.
We need to imagine in faith that God is saying of us, “This is my daughter, my son, in whom I am well pleased.” It is hard for us to accept this because we know we are sinners. But God knows we are saints too. He judges us on our potential, on the direction we have chosen for our soul’s journey. He judges us on the goodness of our hearts in our charity toward others.
At the end of our life’s journey we picture a loving Christ, a laughing Christ, who welcomes us with open arms into the eternal banquet celebration. The same Christ welcomes us to our Sunday encounters with the Faith Community.
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