Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
December 20, 2015
Spiritual Ponderings
Hunting for God’s Church

I hope you have realized by now that the title for this month’s spiritual ponderings, “Hunting for God’s Church”, was a play on Allen Hunt’s last name. He of course is the former leader of a Protestant mega-church who converted to Catholicism. He shares his stories with his readers in his book: Confessions of a Mega-Church Pastor: How I Discovered the Hidden Treasures of the Catholic Church . Let us look at a few more quotes from the book. They will be in bold and my thoughts will be in regular font.

We are on a venture, a journey of holiness, and this life is not a dress rehearsal. We are preparing for God by becoming holy and blameless.

The Catholic Church believes in the Universal Call to Holiness. It is the belief that each individual is called to be holy. Holiness is not something reserved for priests and nuns but rather for everyone. The word “holiness” derives it meaning from a word meaning “totally other” or “set apart.” For example a chalice is holy because it has been set apart from other drinking ware to hold the Precious Blood of Jesus. Catholics believe that each individual is set aside by God to become holy. We are “set apart’ in order to become the dwelling place of God and to be His messengers to the world.

There is no holiness apart from love.
Holiness is not prayer. Holiness in Catholic terms means to love like God loves. In other words to live out the law of love about loving God with your whole being, loving your neighbor, and loving yourself. Everything our Catholic faith works to help us with these three goals: love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self.

You begin to pray, you make time for worship, and eventually you develop a habit that leads you closer and closer to holiness. In doing so, slowly, almost imperceptibly, over time, you become holy. Holiness is your destiny if only you will cooperate with God. Best of all, He will make you into what He intended for you to be in the first place. The best version of yourself.
Fr. Henri Nouwen in his book Reaching Out: Three Movements in the Spiritual Life, talks about how people need to move from loneliness to solitude (self-acceptance and love), hostility to hospitality (love of others), and finally illusion to prayer (loving God for who He is and not who we think He is). As we progress in one movement we advance in the others. For example coming to see God as the loving Father that Jesus reveals Him to be in the Prodigal Son story, helps me to realize that God loves me in spite of my sins and this allows me to see others as brothers and sisters in Christ and not competition for the Father’s love. St. Irenaeus of Lyon said the “Glory of God is a person fully alive” which means the “glory of God is not someone groveling before God out of fear.

As a Protestant, I found the saints to be just like these old photos in the basement. I knew that the saints existed. After all, names like Francis, Thomas, and Catherine occasionally showed up in the literature. But I certainly did not consider them as my own family.
Saints care about what God cares about. What does God care about? Answer is us. He created us out of love. Why therefore would the saints not want us to succeed? Heaven is about being “fully alive” and part of being fully alive is about carrying for others. The following is illustration regarding the role of saints in our lives.

Many of the alumni who have attended the university before you fill the seats. The fans, the band, and your teammates are Wolverines. You are family alongside them. The Wolverine family. They want you to win. They consider themselves part of your team even though their time at the university has already come and gone. You are a part of a team who is encouraged by a huge team of fans not only in the stadium but also watching on televisions in bars and homes and listening on radios in cars and trucks all over the country. Wolverines everywhere are watching you and cheering you on.

In the same way, you are a member of the family of God, the Church. Each time you walk into church for Mass, the saints surround you. Your family stands and urges you onward toward the altar and the real presence of Jesus…
Of course, we do not worship the saints. Then again, neither do we ignore them. They are our brothers and sisters. They sit in the arena and cheer for us, and they are on our team. They have done what we hope to do.