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| News - Convention Saturday Homily - You Have To Believe! Fr. Emile Frische Homily - Convention 2003
YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE. Today we celebrate the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, the Mother of God. What great planning by our Committees to have our Convention begin on this day. We celebrate these two people who obviously did a great job as parents in bringing up Mary in their local culture and in their faith culture. We don’t know much about their personal lives, and so we are allowed to dream a little and imagine what things were like at that time. As an end result though, we see the fruit of their lives, their work, their prayer. Mary, their daughter, grew up knowing God and loving God. Through her study of the scriptures, she came to love the God she knew as He revealed Himself to her in and through the scriptures, and through the oral traditions of her people. Then, at the time appointed by God, she took up her mission in becoming the Mother of the Saviour. So continued her life of self giving and service. We can imagine that her parents were very much part of this stage of her life. Their story is a very real part of our history. ( In the Church of S. Maria in Trastevere – mosaics of Joachim and Anne and the birth of Mary - the dormition of Mary - Jesus’ birth - then Jesus holding Mary’s Soul before she is Assumed into Heaven.) We have a lot to celebrate. You Have To Believe. Two years ago at the Convention in Atlanta, we began an exciting journey - travelling through our history on a Grace Odyssey - a journey reminding us of God’s presence with His people. There we heard at that Convention that God was always there with and for His people, guiding, leading, correcting, encouraging, loving them. A history of Grace. A Grace Odyssey. A journey of faith and love. Today, at this stage of our journey, we look again at how we recognize God present in our history - the history which began at our baptism. That was when our Grace Odyssey began. God is present from the beginning, inviting us, challenging us, anointing us to be Jesus alive in the world today. We are challenged to claim that grace of the Risen Jesus and walk in that new life. You Have To Believe. We continue our PILGRIMMAGE today, living in Grace, recognizing who it is who calls us to journey with Him to the Father. As PILGRIMS we rely on God’s love, His grace, for the strength and purpose to complete our pilgrimmage. All along the way He has ‘rest areas’ for us, so that we can sit down and rest our weary bones, and allow Him to minister to us. He anoints our feet, our hands, our head, with love. He lets us know that we are not alone on this journey. He lets us know that others have travelled this way before us. He lets us know that HE Himself has already made this journey for us, and is now calling us to walk with Him. He lets us know that He’ll never ask us to do anything which He Himself has not already done. He’s saying to us: Trust Me. You Have To Believe. Believe what ? The Vision Statement for this Convention reads: By believing in the power of our loving relationships, we ARE Jesus alive in the world today. WOW !!!!!! We are called to journey in loving relationship with our spouse - husband, wife, our people. And, through these relationships, because of these relationships, we BECOME Jesus Alive in the World Today. Hearing that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck! Do we understand, do we realize that we are called to GREATNESS? Do we realize that we are part of something really great and wonderful? So many have started out on this pilgrim way thousands of years ago. So many will continue this pilgrimmage even after we have, hopefully, completed it. We are formed by those who have gone before us. We help form those who come after us. We have a tremendous responsibility, don’t we? We CAN do it. You Have To Believe. Let’s have a look at some of those who have walked this path – those who have shaped our history. In the Scriptures we see the way God chooses COUPLES to demonstrate His love for us. God makes known His love for His people through the love a couple has for each other. We start from the beginning of the Scriptures with Adam and Eve - 'he drew her to himself in tender love.' She ended his loneliness and filled his life with happiness. She was exactly what he needed. And, nothing brought her more satisfaction than the assurance that her husband needed her very much. What intense and indescribable pleasure they found in each other’s company. How they loved one another. They were perfect, and lived in a perfect place - Eden, which means "delight". They shared that awesome responsibility to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Eve did everything a helper would be expected to do. She assisted him, encouraged him, advised him and inspired him. She was someone special to him and he treated her as such. They were at peace with God, at peace with themselves and at peace with each other. This was truly a perfect marriage. This was paradise. How we wish it would have lasted. And then it all started to go a different direction. Because of their disobedience, they tried to cover their bodies with fig leaves, but that was not acceptable. God would later reveal that the only adequate covering for sin would involve the shedding of Blood on Calvary. Another chapter of our history. Other couples whom God puts before us as examples and models are: NOT ALL of these relationships were perfect. But, in all of them God revealed His plan and His presence. The list goes on and on - inviting you to add your names to it. You wonderful couples are called and chosen to witness, through your couple love, through your Sacrament of Matrimony , that you have the greatest gift anyone could possibly want or have. You have the divine gift within you, and, in having that gift, you are anointed and commissioned to witness to that Life of God, who calls you to be Jesus alive in the world today. What a calling ! What a mission ! Surely this is THE most incredible privilege, honor and responsibility you share as a couple. With the power God gives you, you can do it. You Have To Believe. My brother priests - don’t feel left out! (Oops, I’m telling you how to feel – not to feel!). Just for a moment reflect on the call we have – the call to relationship, the call to be Jesus alive in the world today, the call to self-sacrifice, the call to stand at the foot of the Cross each day, receiving the gift of life, and then going from the Cross to show others that they too have that Light and Life within them - that we are “God with skin on” for each other, for others. Like all the couples in the Scriptures, we too soon realize that our calling is to be in right relationship - with God, with self, with others. This is our call. This is our mission. This is the gift offered to us by God. This is the invitation we receive from all our couples in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Family - those in the Family NOW, and those who will be joining the Family in the weeks, months and years to come. We need to continually listen to the call of all the “little churches”, so that together with them, our Church will truly be Jesus alive in the world today. We Have To Believe. That is where we come to the realization that in order for there
to BE a gift, two elements are essential: Elements so obvious, so basic, that they are often overlooked or taken for granted. We hold this treasure in earthen vessels - to be lived out fully in our daily lives, recognizing the Giver, and then becoming the gift we receive - Jesus alive in the world today. What a tremendous privilege, honor and responsibility this is for us. We can make a difference. We do make a difference. You Have To Believe. How can we, couples and priests, make a difference in our world, which sets before us standards so enticing, so tempting, so mundane? We see it daily in the newspapers, on the television, on the billboards, in the shop windows - everywhere we look, there it is loud and clear saying to us: if you want to be successful, if you want to be the couple, the family that people will look up to, then, this is the car you should drive, this is the area you need to live in, these are the clothes you need to wear, this is the perfume and aftershave you need to splash on . . . etc etc etc, the list goes on and on in glorious technicolour. And yes, we are tempted and sometimes nearly buy into it all. But somewhere in our spirits we are called back to reality. A reality which is much more substantial, much more life giving. It’s someone, some couple being Jesus alive in the world today who shows us the standards Jesus has set before us. It is the Jesus within us who says loud and clear: 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life'. And we know that He will never ask us to go where He Himself has not already been. And so He asks us to follow Him on the path of Faith, Hope and Love. Pretty basic, isn’t it? We learned all that as kids or in the RCIA program. The path of Faith, Hope and Love connects us to the vision of this Convention: "By believing in the power of our loving relationships, we are Jesus alive in the world today." Faith, Hope and Love. We Have To Believe. Believe in God who calls us into existence for a particular purpose - to KNOW HIM, TO LOVE HIM, TO SERVE HIM. Remember that Catechism question from way back? Why did God make me? And we trotted out the answer: God made me to know Him, to Love Him, to Serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him forever in the next. (Top of the class!). As we take time today to reflect on that, we will be challenged
to grow. It is there that we will truly come to understand what it means to KNOW, LOVE & SERVE God. Because it is there at the foot of the Cross that we hear God say to us: I have done this FOR YOU because I love you so much. What will be my response? Surely, I will want to really get to know my God in a deeper way, through my prayer and through my relationship with my spouse and my people. To know God I need to embark on this journey of faith, hope and love, to experience Him calling me by my name. What a journey we have before us! God, revealing Himself to me in my daily prayer. God revealing Himself to me through my spouse, through my people. Wow. Awesome. As I come to really know God, I will want to love Him more passionately, more intensely. We know what it is like to be in a room full of passionate lovers, don’t we? There’s a great power there. The love is so intense because we know one another and so have the freedom to BE who we really are. There’s something else too. We share a purpose in life – uniting us in service. To KNOW God, to LOVE God, to SERVE God. We are invited - NO, we are called and commissioned to serve God through our Sacraments by being modern day apostles in our Church and in our world. MODERN DAY APOSTLES. That has an exciting ring to it, doesn’t it? It sure does, because it IS exciting. As the early apostles laboured and toiled to establish the Church, so are we called to rebuild, to renew the Church, so that we experience the enthusiasm and excitement that they had in the early Church. We can do this. You Have To Believe. By being faithful to our Sacraments we will be filled with the Spirit and Power of God who wants all of creation to be saved. By being faithful to our Sacraments, we WILL be Jesus alive in the world today. What is more powerful than that? Who would not want to join us on this journey of knowing, loving and serving God? God WILL renew His Church through us, because we are Jesus alive in the world today. We have an awesome responsibility. We have an AWESOME God. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE. Amen. Alleluia. Click here for a printable page (PDF, 97KB)
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