Realizations About the Core of Christian Faith

Dear Friends,

You and I have been taught that the center, the core of Christian faith is to believe in Jesus.

Here are some realizations about Jesus to mull over and to take to heart.

To believe in Jesus …

                … is to be faithful to who He is really and not to who we think He is.

                … is to know and embrace Jesus  as the Risen Lord.

                … is not just an intellectual thing. It has to do with the “illogical logic” of the heart.

                … is not to be solitary. Jesus calls us to be a community of believers.

                … is to know that God acts in human life only when there is human readiness/human consent.

                … is to  both rest and be restless in the faith we profess.

Still it is not enough to confess that Jesus is the Risen Christ, present in our midst here and now.

Belief, if it is true and real, propels us into action, seeing, touching, ministering  as Jesus did.

In your life, when has your belief in the Risen One moved you to action? What happened?

Was it life-giving, life-changing for you or for others? Did you come to look at and engage the world

differently because, like the disciples after the resurrection, you could say “ I have seen the Risen

Lord!”?

                Holy One, Jesus, Our Savior and God,

    We stand, walk, leap, run through this world

                With all those you have given us as

                brothers and sisters.

                Help us to be and do all that is possible and necessary

                To help Your Father’s  Reign come to fullness..

                May our strength, energy and conviction

                Begin in You and end in You.

                Amen.

May your week be blessed

~Joan Sobala, SSJ
CLICK HERE to learn more about Joan Sobala's "Fresh Wind In Our Sails" programs 

Free for Everyone's Access

Recently I’ve taken on a new ministry as temporary pastoral administrator at Nativity in Brockport, New York. The learning curve is steep and quick, and the amount of names and information to cram into my mind is very large.

You know what factor of this new time has pushed me into new lines of thinking? Codes, access numbers, PINs and passwords.  They govern our passage through so many doors. I needed to learn, retain and use at least ten new ones for garage doors, security systems, websites and specialized documents.  A friend of mine has her access list on her computer: three pages of them.

So what I have been thinking about, then, is what is free for everyone’s access? Air, the weather, the ideas, inventions  and discoveries of the centuries, library books, certainly, and most certainly God’s presence and gifts.

            Freely have you received, freely give, Jesus says in Matthew 10.8.

            You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (Jn.8.32)

            To the thirsty I will give freely from the font of life. (Rev.21.6)

            Christ has set us free, so stand firm and do not submit again to the

                                             yoke of slavery. (Gal.5.1)

The freedom of God is given to us not to be kept for ourselves, but to share with others so that they may  become free as well.

Let’s think about that as we enter the world of access prohibited without a code.

Finding God

Hello, Reader!

On this Labor Day, 2013, I put out the first of my occasional blogs. My umbrella for this series is the work of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Rochester.

It’s our hope that you and I, all of us, find fresh wind in our sails, as we enter the fall season in the company of our God.

            Some of these pieces will be short, others a little longer but all with our daily relationship with God in mind. We may find that God feels elusive to us, as we are absorbed with the other in our lives.

The other person :

Having lunch with A and spending most of the time on a cell phone with B. Who is the other?

             The old man with the cane in the city square of Siena couldn’t cross over to the shops easily.  It was a combination of his disabilities (like the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethsaida) and the ferocity of the packed populace around the square in the spirit of the horse race called Il Palio. Ten minutes elapsed.  Then, as I watched from a distance, two young people noticed this hesitant old man and escorted him with delightful flourish. It made the old man smile. Others, too.  Me, too.  God was in the city square of Siena.

            Throughout his ministry, Jesus grew to be aware of the other: the person in the crowd, the child, the foreigner, the stranger within his very own disciples.

            Is the other place the fleshpots of Egypt or a big new world where grace is valued and laughter is abundant?

            Is the other time the way we always did it? Or is the other time when God saw me through and washed me with newness?

            Is the other in my present moment? In this person? This place? This time?

           

The turn into September is, for us, a new season, a new day, and perhaps, a graced new look at the other.  A new awareness of our God.

            Lord, Jesus,

            I believe You love me, and

            You are lover of the other as well.

            Let  me be conscious of the other,

            however the unexpected other comes to me.

            There, may I find you anew.              

~By Joan Sobala, SSJ