New Teaching

February 1, 2009

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. Deuteronomy 18:18

In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” Mark 1:23-25

Piety

Lord, you have authority over all things. Grant us the great calm from all needs which trouble and preoccupy us so we will not be distracted from your work. Amen.

Study

Authority speaks to us through the reasons we have to pay attention to what is asked of us. Our piety has the reflection of the mind and heart of Christ for its authority. When we share our moments close to Christ they speak with the authority of how closely they draw us to Christ. Because the Saint is an update of Christ they speak to their time and their age in how they bring one closer to Christ. How the moment makes us a transparency of Christ is why a moment is close to Christ.

The big question of life is; “Am I really willing to be who Christ would have been if he had been lucky enough to be me?” Jesus goes on teaching in our world today by the ways he is present in our lives. How closely our moment touches on Christ is how the authority of his words and teaching touch our lives today. The goodness of our lives keeps the authority of Christ active in what we say and what we do. Saints could be called obsessive compulsives by how heroically they live the goodness of Christ. Saints are radical in how they respond to the needs of the moment they are living in. They know how to give all their life to what they are doing. They bring Christ’s authority to their work by how they give of themselves. People want to work with them because they are so giving that we find it a privilege to work with them. We have people who by their personal devotion bring the authority of Christ to their ministry.

Baptism re-birthed us into the life of Christ. Christ dwells in our souls because they are temples of the Holy Spirit. We open our hearts to others by our apostolic work. We become Contemplatives in Action by the love that opens the door of our heart to the needs of those around us.

Paul in his letter to the Corinthians gives us a plug for Celibacy. He is talking about how living with another can be a distraction from living with Christ. Matrimonial spirituality gives us a way to find Christ in the partner. The Sacrament allows two, a man and a woman to become one. The sexual union of the two partners of the sacrament becomes a symbol of how the two become on in Christ. Where ever there is love, Christ is there. The oneness of the matrimonial union is the oneness of the two in Christ. Study is the challenge of every day to find Christ in what we are doing. Matrimony commits one to better share their life. Sacraments give us back the humanness of Christ as he takes part in our lives. The historical Christ who is in heaven remains the word become flesh in the Sacramental life of the Church.

Action

The Church is the people of God. Each of us from the child to the aged senior has the responsibility of being the word of Christ. We have the apostolic responsibility of preaching always and occasionally putting words on the meaning of the goodness of our lives. The Cursillo calls us to be companions of Christ and helps us to claim the presence of Christ in whom we are. Christ who we discover as a brother on our Cursillo becomes the deepest meaning of our lives as we work to share him in all our friendships. Make a friend! Be a friend! Lead the friend to Christ. He is not only the deepest meaning of our lives, but also the real person we are meant to be. The word he has put on our heart calls us to be Christ to one another. We are called by God to share his love by realizing our potential to be Christians, Christ for one another.