"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Happy New Year!
Sunset tonight marked the Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashanah (literally “head of the year”), described in the Torah as “The Day of the Blowing of the Shofar”, a Ram’s Horn:
“Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts” – Leviticus 23:24
“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.” – Billy Graham, Evangelist
Sorry it’s a bit late this week – I had two big posts that I wanted to write at the weekend and I kinda ran out of time… :-/
Last week we heard Jesus’ parable of the two sons and the vineyard. The Readings this week also focus around the image of the vineyard…
The bold refrain of the psalm this week is “The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel”. In our First Reading this image of the vineyard is used to describe how God gave Israel every possible blessing, yet all these graces were scorned. For this, Israel will have to pay the price. Yet, in our Gospel we hear how, through the rejection of Christ, the Gentiles come to have a share in God’s Kingdom.
For this week’s Readings I would suggest reading the Psalm first since it clearly establishes the metaphor of the vineyard and explains Israel’s exodus in those terms. I would then move on to the First Reading to hear how this metaphor is also used to describe God’s coming judgement. Next, I would read the Gospel as it shows how Jesus uses this familiar image to predicts His own death. I would optionally conclude with the Second Reading.
Today I wanted to do a little bit of advertising for Instant Escriva, a website recently launched by my friend Charbel. The site provides inspirational quotations from the Opus Dei founder, Josemaría Escrivá:
Just sit at your desk and keep hitting “Refresh”… 🙂
About a month ago I received my copy of Devin Rose‘s new book “If Protestantism Is True”. I’ve been a subscriber to Devin’s blog for some time, distributed some of his podcasts at the JP2 Group and occasionally interacted with him over the Internet.
I was therefore looking forward to read his book. Unfortunately, I had Vocation Director prescribed reading this month and that had to be done first! Last week I finally completed my reading assignments and so I finally got started on Devin’s book and, since it’s nice and compact at 162 pages, I read it from cover-to-cover this weekend.
I’ve written quite a bit lately about my recent period of discernment. I’m sure I will write some more on this subject sometime in the future, but for now I would just like to mention one other thing that has come up during this time.
When I began in earnest to pray about my vocation, I contacted a handful of friends, explained the situation and asked them to pray for me. Also, during this time, when friends asked me “What’s new?” I told them about my discernment (with varying levels of detail) and some of my thoughts about my vocation.
Apart from a few notable exceptions, I noticed a consistent trend among my non-Catholic Christian friends. Whenever I mentioned the word “celibacy”, I almost immediately encountered some resistance, regardless of whether I was talking about celibate life as a layman, priest or monk.
You know what really grinds my gears? :-/
The other day I overheard a conversation during which some of my Catholic friends were speaking particularly brutally about non-Catholics and the non-Catholic churches. There was little gentleness, respect or love. There were a few cheap shots and some statements that were just plain wrong. Ironically, what I heard was reminiscent of some of the anti-Catholic tirades I’ve heard in the past…
I spent several years in Protestant circles and was greatly blessed there. During that time my love for Scripture was nurtured and I was surrounded by many, many inspiring people who lived out lives of deep prayer and courageous virtue. For this I will forever be grateful.
Ultimately, I found certain issues within Protestantism to be troublesome and some fundamental questions which Protestantism itself is unable to answer. This is why I’m Catholic. Even on this blog, I occasionally post entries in which I critique some of my former Protestant positions. However, I do hope that I always do this with respect, gentleness and love.
I still have a great affection for our separated brothers and sisters in Christ. Virtually every conversion story that I’ve heard of those who left Protestantism for the Catholic Church have expressed similar sentiments. Although they ultimately came into conflict with Protestant doctrines, they speak very warmly of their former denominations and express gratitude for the Christian witness they received there.
So, when speaking about non-Catholics and non-Catholic churches, please do so with charity. Otherwise, I may have to shout at you for a while…with respect, gentleness and love, of course 😀
