Seventeenth of Year A. 11
July 2011
During my seven years in the Seminary and at regular intervals thereafter I have sat through countless lectures, talks and sermons ( or more recently what is called ‘input’) by spiritual directors and retreat givers etc. I generally ( but not always) found them pretty unexciting and unhelpful affairs and I have always wondered why.
More recently - in the past fifteen, twenty years or so - I have come to the conclusion that the reason is that these speakers never tell you what they personally believe themselves. They give you the thoughts of a variety of saints, popes, and spiritual writers but never their own personal thoughts or experiences on the matter in hand. They tell you what the Church ‘officially‘ teaches on that particular theme at that particular time but never what they actually think themselves. A bit like listening to the current party political broadcast.
Because of this I try to give you my own faith and understanding of Christ, of Christianity, of the Church, of prayer, the Mass, the Sacraments etc. This is not just off the top of my head but takes into account not only current official church teaching but also modern theological and spiritual insights which I have personally found helpful even if these are not yet fully digested and absorbed into official church teaching.
If some of you find this helpful well and good.
If some of you do not then ignore it.
In a nutshell, for me Christianity is, firstly, about freedom. Freedom from the bonds of fear - fear of God, fear of death, fear of eternal damnation, fear of Satan, fear of sin.
Secondly, using this freedom to bring light, love, compassion, forgiveness and self-confidence into the lives of those I know and meet.
If I myself fear, how can I bring freedom into the lives of others?