Friar’s Corner: Closer to Jesus
Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR
Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Psalm 91:1-2, 10-15; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13
Dear God, fill us with deeper faith and more understanding to know Jesus more fully and commit ourselves to live by his power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Please keep praying Chaplets of Divine Mercy for our country and the world. We are in great need.
In the Church year, we now make a great shift in our prayer. Last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we began our Lenten Season. On weekdays we began a 40-day special prayer and fasting, as did Jesus before he began his public ministry. We are invited to go deeper into a personal faith relationship with the Holy Trinity, Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
You can read about the simplified fast directives for this season in your Catholic Calendar and in other publications like your Sunday or daily missals, etc. Since Vatican Council II, with the Liturgical reforms, this season is more directed to deepening our own faith response to Jesus’ call to be holy as God is holy, being a part of the new kingdom of God.
Fasting choices
Fasting can be viewed in several ways. We could avoid eating meat on Fridays of Lent, as we used to do on all Fridays. Nutritionists tell us it is to eat fish a few times a week and those fish that feed on live things and not dead things. Perhaps a more beneficial fast would be to work at getting more numerous sins out of our life. Should we say good things that would help others and not gossip or put people down? St. Paul said in Ephesians 4:29, “Never let evil talk pass your lips; say only the good things men need to hear, things that will really help them.” This is from NAB 1970 edition. We could avoid a lot of TV and only watch good moral programs. Can we be more supportive of pro-life issues in our prayers and actions? What actions produce better results, fruit?
The major key to a deeper faith life is meeting Jesus in the four gospel stories. Who was he? Why did he come to earth? What did he do here in the gospel stories? What is he still doing over most of the world today through good clergy and so many other services? We could also read the New Testament; especially the new illustrated St. Joseph Catholic Red Letter Edition. Two great things about this edition are that all the words of Jesus in the gospels are printed in red ink and it also has better footnote and explanations.
Closer to Jesus daily
To help us grow closer to Jesus, we need to spend some daily time out of our twenty-four hours a day in prayer, (the Short Christian Prayer), reading the gospels and talking with Jesus. We could get a new daily and Sunday Missal that has all the Mass readings and more. Monthly missalettes are helpful for that month yet don’t have the same readings and feast the next year.
I also beg you to get, read and pray, “The Divine Mercy Messages and Devotion” from Marian Press in Stockbridge, MA. It gives us Jesus’ new messages given to St. Faustina in the 1930s. It has direct and simpler channels of divine power for our daily life.
To answer some of your many questions about our faith, I recommend “The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults” published by the US Bishops Conference. It is written like a parent explaining the faith simply. Of course, following these recommendations, and hopefully attending daily Mass more frequently, is far greater than a smear of ashes on your forehead.
The second reading from St. Paul, Romans 10:8-13, says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” That is far from complete. Many Catholics today have left the church, due to the sexual crisis. Although some have been falsely accused for various reasons, real abusers certainly have greatly sinned and will be punished by God. Most priests are doing an admirable job serving their flock. Let us not reject all the great blessings the “good Church” is offering us?
Putting faith into practice
We can know and believe as St. Paul says yet we need to live out of faith by our good words and actions. It is not enough to say we believe without putting it into practice. All the saints we have over these two thousand years are examples of how to put our life into merciful actions.
How do we get plugged into God more and then, when and where do we help bring God’s salvation to others? Our deeper growth gives us more divine power to help make the areas around us better places to live. Our deeper prayer also helps us fight the strong anti-god forces we see so much of in our daily news. Satan and his legions know their time is more limited and they are stepping up their attack against Christ’s church and its followers. We can assume that “if we faithfully follow Jesus,” we are guaranteed eternal life with all the angels and saints that are already enjoying heavenly bliss.
Deeper faith life brings more blessings as the prophet Ezekiel tells us in Chapter 47. He talked about the living water flowing from God’s temple. (Read also Psalm 1 and Revelations 22:1-2.) Ezekiel is told to wade in the water from the temple. At first, it is ankle-deep, knee-deep, waist-deep and then can only be crossed by swimming. Along the river grow special fruit trees. They are awesome due to the divine river. They produce fresh fruit each month and their leaves bring healing to others. If we go deeper into God’s “living water” we are then performing good works to help others and stand against the forces evil. Have a good week and better Lent.
Blessings,
+ Fr. Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com
(© 2019 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)
