DAY ONE, TALK ONE - FAITH AND COMMUNITY

FR. CELSUS M. AGUISTE

The Church comes before the Bible, there never was a time when there was a Bible and there was no Church but there certainly was a time when there was the Church but there was no Bible. The Bible is our book.  When I say I am a Roman Catholic I am not only stating a fact, I am making a proclamation.  I AM A CATHOLIC, THE BIBLE IS MY BOOK AND I OUGHT TO KNOW IT.  It is the Church that gave the Bible to the world.  It is the Catholic Church that discerned which Books are divinely inspired and which are not.  

Where there is Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.  Our very basis for being Catholic is the proclamation of our faith.  The fullness of truth subsists in the Catholic Church.  Implicit in the word Catholic is the unequivocal statement of what we stand for as Catholics.   One cannot be Catholic without being a Christian. No one is born a Catholic, we become Catholic through the waters of baptism.  The waters of baptism opened the gates of heaven to us.  When we are baptized we a born into a family, into a community, into the mystical Body of Christ, the Church.  When we say we are Catholic, we say we belong.  We have faith within the context of the Body of Christ.  We do nothing on our own, it has already been done for us by God.  

We inherit the royalty of Christ but we have to learn how to walk.  As Catholics, we have certain responsibilities that come from being a member of the body of Christ. As 1Timothy 3:15 tells us, "You will know how you ought to conduct yourself in the household of God, that is, the Church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth."

We have the privilege of offering our sufferings as our sacrifice to the Father, in doing so St. Paul tells us Colossians 1:24 we complete in our own flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the Church.  We have the power and the victory within the Body of Christ.

God's promises to his people in the Church was prophesied in 2 Chronicles 7:14 " and my people who bear my name humble themselves, and pray and look for me, and turn from their wicked ways then I myself will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and restore their land."  We have the power to move the heart of God when we pray in the name of Jesus in humility.  The fruit of faith is obedience and obedience is the manifestation of our faith.  If we are Catholic then we accept the entire package.  We cannot take our faith on our terms.  We either accept it in its entirety of we reject it all.  We cannot pick and choose what we will accept and what we will set aside.  As St. Anselm of Canterbury said, "I do not seek to understand in order to believe but I believe in order to understand."

What the Church teaches we must accept and believe and we pray for understanding knowing that the Church will remain even after we have gone. It is Christ's guarantee that the Church will last until the end of time.

As Catholics, it is our duty to seek the salvation of others and pray for the salvation of those who do not yet know Christ.  We ought to pray not only for forgiveness of our sins but also for the sins of the world.  We break the power of the devil in the world when we go for Confession.  All sins whether mortal or venial are detrimental to our souls.  Venial sins when ignore have the power to subtly weaken us and erode our spiritual life.

Jesus tells us that we are the sale of the earth.  Salt preserves.  We are necessary to the world. The world can sooner do without politicians and governments than it can do without Christians. If the world were devoid of Christians it would collapse.  As members of the mystical Body of Christ we preserve the world and add flavor to it just as salt preserves and adds flavor.  God hears the prayers of His people and He will heal our land.

Change is only possible when we have a change of heart.  No government or political party can effect change only a transformation of hearts makes change possible.