This is What I Learned (Day 3 of 20)

So it's actually Day 8 or something, but class, readings, and thesis writing have kept me occupied. Nevertheless, I am going to continue to post a full twenty. There is so much I'm learning out here at Franciscan, it would be unfortunate if I didn't share it!

Over the weekend, I tore through what amounts to probably one of my top-five favorite Pope John Paul II writings. (And for the record, you are officially a Catholic Dork if you have a top-five favorite of anything Catholic. Be not afraid, that's a good thing!). Anyway, what I've been reading is "Christifideles Laici"-- The Lay Members of Christ's Faithful People. For those keeping score at home, that means you. This document is all about you. And I love it! You should pick it up sometime and read about you. :)

All throughout the document, you get beautiful nuggets like this:

"The vocation to holiness must be recognized and lived by the lay faithful, first of all as an undeniable and demanding obligation and as a shining example of the infinite love of the Father that has regenerated them in his own life of holiness."

I mean, wow! Beautiful and challenging. How often do you hear in a homily that you have a vocation to holiness-- and that it is a demanding obligation. Obligation?!?! That's pretty tough. And what does this vocation to holiness look like?

It will be mystical. Not in the apparition-visionary-levitating off the ground kind of way, but in the "my heart is united to My Savior's Heart" kind of way. As that happens, as you grow in union with the Father through Christ by the Holy Spirit, the newness and the power of the Gospel will shine forth from you. In fact,

"The lay faithful are also called to allow the newness and the power of the Gospel to shine out everyday in their family and social life, as well as to express patiently and courageously in the contradictions of the present age their hope of future glory even through the frameowrk of their secular life" (14).

Does that just not fire you up? I wish I could teach this entire document to you!

And if that is not enough, so many of the teachings are so very timely. Take for example this passage-- written in 1988-- which could be so easily applied to today's political climate in the US:

"... charity, realized not only by individuals but also in a joint way by groups and communities, is and will always be necessary. Nothing and no one will be able to substitute for it, not even the multiplicity of institutions and public initiatives forced to give a response to the needs-- oftentime today so serious and widespread-- of entire populations. Paradoxically such charity is made increasingly necessary the more that institutions become complex in their organization and pretend to manage every area at hand. In the end such projects lose their effectiveness as a result of an impersonal functionalism, an overgrown bureaucracy, unjust private interests and an all-too-easy and generalized disengagement from a sense of duty." (41) - emphasis mine.

Am I the only one here taken aback by this passage? I mean, it looks like Pope John Paul II has called out big government. And not only that, he has also called out all of us who fail to be charitable during such times. It is precisely in these moments, my brothers and sisters, that we should be giving.

And you can give-- and must give-- because of your dignity:

"Let us rejoice and give thanks; we have not only become Christians but Christ himself... Stand in awe and rejoice, we have become Christ." (St. Augustine, quoted in Christifideles Laici).

What I learned today: this needs to be taught more.