Blog # 73 GROWING IN FAITH

BLOG # 73 GROWING IN FAITH In all of nature it is easy to see growth, the grass in need of mowing, leaves growing on the trees in Springtime, puppies, gardens, children. What about our own spiritual growth, growth in faith and generosity, growth in our love for God and one another? Is it recognizable? Is it real? The first Bible text that comes to mind when I begin to think of growth before God is 1 Cor. 13: 11. St. Paul says: "When I was a child I used to talk like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man I put childish things aside". The full implication of the text is that Paul was changing, growing, perfecting himself as the years of his life moved on. Other texts remind us of our need to grow continually in our faith, in our goodness, in our freedom. Col 1: 6 speaks of the Gospel continuing to grow among the people of Colossae. Then in verse nine through eleven of the same chapter the author says that he is praying for the people that they may grow in their knowledge of God Himself. Lk 2: 32 tells us Jesus Himself as a boy grew steadily in wisdom and grace before God and man. In Mathew 6: 28 Jesus tells us to look at the lilies of he fields, how they grow. In Ephesians 4: 14 we read : " Let us then be children no longer, tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine that originates in human trickery and skill in proposing error. Rather let us profess the truth in love, and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head. Through Him the whole body grows and with the proper functioning of the members joined firmly together by each supporting ligament builds itself up in love. These and other similar texts in the Bible readily indicate that faith was not experienced by the early Christians as a static thing, much the same as. you might say, of a precious jewel which you have or do not have in its fullness, which you appreciate , perhaps, more or less, from time to time, but in itself remains the same. Rather faith was organic, living, capable of growth, much the same as friendship, increasing or decreasing through the years, different in its different stages, never intended to be the same ten years from now as it was ten years ago. The Apostles fittingly said to the Lord: increase our faith. (Luke 17 : 5).

Blog # 25 A SLEEPING GENIUS

BLOG # 21 A SLEEPING GENIUS What happens when a genius falls asleep? I imagine certain scientists have already tackled that question and if we were to investigate their research there would be a theory or two as to what the answer might be. But for the ordinary person like myself, when the genius falls asleep he or she is very much like the rest of us. A similar question might be asked about other people than a genius. What happens to a brother sister daughter son or friend when asleep or otherwise are not conscious or thinking about their identity as brother sister daughter son or friend? In some ways they would be the same as someone else who is not related in this or that definite particular way. In a sense we are what we think we are. Applying this kind of reasoning to our identity as a Christian believer we are led to conclude the we are really and most fully a Christian believer when we are actually thinking about ourselves in that capacity, when we are actually conscious of our Christian identity. It isn't that our faith is taken away or destroyed during those times when we are not consciously aware of it no more than the quality of being a genius is destoyed when the genius is asleep, but it is not active and personal to me until I am aware of it. These thoughts came to me when I was readng the letter to the Romans, the thirteenth chapter, particularly verse eleven. "It is now the hour for you to wake from sleep, for our salvation is closer than when we first accepted the faith." To "wake up" as a Christian would seem to mean we are to claim our identity in Jesus in a conscious and personal way. As a sleeper we are still numbered among the billions of men and women alive humanly in the world around us. As awake in Christ we are different, called yet free to claim God as our Father, to give sublime meaning and value to any and all suffering, to transform death itself into an expression of the deepest trust and most perfect love.(Jn 15:13). The joys of faith are real and many for those who are "awake"!