A darkening sky. Windows alive with golden electric light. Looking up at the buildings, all concrete and glass and realizing, imagining that I am in another city, a larger city, no imagining that I am in a movie city, larger, grander, more eclectic. Looking at the pedestrians, smartly dressed, neatly dressed; looking at the shiny cars speeding through the intersections as the traffic lights change from yellow to red. This was how a visitor described the office buildings surrounding Farragut Square.
Offering hope, teaching love and forgiveness to an apprehensive, angst-ridden society engrossed in disproving everything, deconstructing goodness and holiness, depositing malignant doubt in the hearts and minds while talking peace and security. Amid the cataclysmic anxious downpour of fear and jealousy prayer can still help each person who takes the time to pray. Instability rules, encourages people to move away from their families for all types of temporal reasons. But, Christians are taught to praise God, to trust God, to love God, to obey God. These items will never change.
How do modern Christians describe their relationship with Jesus Christ, with God?
The gradual changes in the function of Christianity, as society alters, will, I hope, continue encouraging the conversion of adults. Being Catholic is a big commitment; being Catholic is offering your life to God; being Catholic is being a humble servant of God; being Catholic is learning how to love everybody and how to forgive everybody. These are just a few general statements about being Catholic.
Each Catholic interprets and practices the faith however they choose. We can not see what is in anyone’s heart. We look at individual interactions, how we talk to each other, whether we volunteer or not, whether we pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament, if we know what the Blessed Sacrament is.
Although Christianity is over two thousand years old, it is not static, not out of touch. The commandments and teachings are as relevant today as they were when they were first written. Mankind may have technology, but human behavior has not changed. The commandments can easily be expanded to fit all of the technological advances.
Since the beginning Christians have been criticized and ridiculed. At times there are lessons to be learned from the criticism. Sometimes this criticism is retrograde, irreverent, irrelevant. The basic sensibilities of love and forgiveness appear to alarm many non-believers who attack the validity of God, the Church with anger, heresy, misinformation. Humanity today faces the same problems as it faced in the past. The influence of the Church seems to ebb and flow; however, the message does remain the same. The nature and function of being Catholic involves a continual education process asking each one of us to listen to the Word of God, to contemplate about the Word of God, to apply the Word of God. Simply stated each Catholic is asked to constantly think about his/her belief in God and how to do God’s work. There is nothing decorative or extravagant about being Catholic. The principles of humility, charity, obedience remain very important and contain the essence of good behavior within the Church and in the society at large; all civilizations require good citizens who obey the law. It is in the Catholic mind and sensibility that the knowledge about the sacrifices, suffering of Jesus Christ is shared and remembered. This sensibility is plainly visible in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The mind can associate so much Church history and dogma with the Eucharist. Therefore, the importance of the Eucharist can never be denied; the Eucharist reminds us of God’s love for each of us, God’s hope for each of us; the Eucharist encourages us to share our hope, to share our love.
Christianity contains a natural appeal as it encourages love and hope. Believing in God always attracts attention.
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