Who We Are — Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, June 10 to 16, 2012 (Tenth Week of “Ordinary Time”)

This feast tells us who we are. We are people who have become the body of Christ through the blood of Christ.

We did not become Christ’s body by “entering a second time into our mother’s womb and being born again.” Nicodemus had that right (see John 3:1 ff.). We are not ‘reborn” as the body of the baby Jesus.

Nor do we find our identity in following the words and example of Jesus “teaching... proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing people” in his ministry. We are not a “body politic,” as defined in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780: "a voluntary association of individuals... by which the whole people covenants with each citizen and each citizen with the whole people." Our covenant to live, not by human laws but by the word of God, does not make us the “body of Christ.” Nor does “joining the Church” by voluntary acceptance of her teachings, authority and structure.

We have to be “born from above.” By “water and Spirit.” We must go into the waters of Baptism as into the grave, die with Christ and rise with him. The Jesus whose body we are is “the one who came by water and blood; not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.” The only “body of Christ” we can be is his risen body.

To be this we first have to die. This is the significance of the blood sacrifices that sealed the covenants between God and Abraham, God and his people (Genesis 15; Exodus 24). By killing animals as symbols of themselves, the people expressed that they were not just pledging to God the behavior specified in the Covenant, but giving their whole selves to him: their being, their lives — as God was giving himself to them: life for life. The Covenant was a mutual pledge, not just of behavior for behavior, but of being for being, life for life. To keep the Covenant it was not enough to keep the rules. The Covenant meant mutual giving of self; living in total union with God.

This union would be brought to fullness only when the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” was revealed: the “favor” of actually sharing in the divine life of God by being incorporated into the body of Jesus on the cross, dying with him, and letting him rise from the grave of Baptism in us, to continue his life and ministry on earth in us as his risen body.

The Feast of “Corpus Christi” is the feast of “the Body and Blood of Christ.” We celebrate, not only his body in Eucharist. We celebrate ourselves as his body — his real body, risen from his blood.

Any comments? Share them with us through the COMMENTS link.

We Are Relationship — Trinity Sunday, June 3 to 9, 2012 (Ninth Week of “Ordinary Time”)

To live as the “risen Christ,” we must live as Father, Son and Spirit interacting with each other. Does that sound complicated?

It should. God is “mystery” — not truth that is unknowable but Truth so “infinitely,” “boundlessly” knowable that it “invites endless exploration.” The key to knowing God (and ourselves as created in the image of God plus sharing his own divine life by grace) is to explore how in God “Being Itself” is the reality of Three Persons who, though One in nature, differ from each other by the way they interact. That is, by relationship. What makes the Father “Father” is his interaction with the Son and Spirit. The Son is “Son” (or “Word”) because of his unique relationship with the Father and Spirit. The Spirit is “Spirit” because of his special interaction with the Father and Son. (Notice we are using “relationship” and “interaction” interchangeably). That is about as clear as light so blinding you can’t look at it, but it does give us something to work with. In a nutshell, the key to personal “be-ing” is relating, interacting. We are persons, and create ourselves as the persons we are becoming, by the way we “relate” — that is, interact — with others. To “be” is to relate, interact.

Did they teach us that in religion class?

Actually, they did. The Great Commandment is the rule for interacting with God: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart....” And all the other Commandments are ways of expressing love in our interactions with people. Check this out: go through them, seeing each one in this light. It is enlightening.

The Responsorial invites us to know God by focusing on his interaction with us: “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.” So does the first reading: "Ask now... Did anything so great ever happen before?... Did a people ever hear the voice of God... as you did, and live?” And the second: “You received a Spirit of adoption... The Spirit himself bears witness....”

The Gospel tells us how, as the risen body of Jesus, we need to interact with others: “Go, therefore, and make disciples....” This means to bring others into participating in the divine interaction that is the life of God: “...baptizing them in the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

To live as a human is to interact with others. To live as Christ is to interact with the Father as the Son does, and with both Father and Son by the unitive, “joining” power of the Holy Spirit. To interact with others by “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is to let the Son in us express to them the ‘love of the Father,” drawing every person we deal with into “communion in the Holy Spirit.”

To live is to be caught up in the life of the Three Persons going on inside of us — in their relationships, their interaction — and to interact in the same ways with other people.

This might sound a little mystical, but that is what our graced, divine-human life is: a mystery that invites “endless exploration.”

Any comments? Share them with us through the COMMENTS link.

Risen to Renew — Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2012 (Eighth Week of “Ordinary Time”)

At Mass, always read the Responsorial verse first: it gives a key to the readings. It tells us what the bishops saw in the first reading that made them choose it as a “match” for the Gospel.

For Pentecost Sunday it is: Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth. The theme of the Mass readings is renewal — the confidence of hope based on faith that God is transforming society, correcting cultural assumptions, reforming social structures. Establishing the reign of God on earth.

But he is doing it through us — Christ’s risen body, empowered by the Holy Spirit poured out into every Christian heart. If we are “renewing the face of the earth,” it is because we are in touch with the Spirit in us. If we are not changing anything, we need to establish contact with the Holy Spirit. How do we do that?

The first step, as always, is just to believe. Believe Jesus was speaking to every baptized person when he said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you... Receive the Holy Spirit.” We need to believe in, accept, and dedicate ourselves to our mission.

Our mission is determined by where we are. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues.” And people “gathered together from every nation under heaven... all heard them speaking in their own language.” That is the key to the “lay apostolate.” The laity are everywhere; in every event of family and social life; in every business and occupation. And whatever they are a part of, they can “speak the language” of those who are there. But only if they are “filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Paul’s letter says all of us have the Spirit, but in different, particular ways: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; different forms of service... But to each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” We just have to identify our gifts, the way the Spirit can act through us. Act where we are through what we are, both by nature and by grace.

How can we know how God wants to use us?

The first step is obvious: We ask. Every morning, say the prayer:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful,

and enkindle in us the fire of your divine love.

Send forth your Spirit, Lord, and our hearts will be regenerated.

And you will renew the face of the earth!

Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit you instruct the hearts of your faithful. Grant us by the same Holy Spirit always to do what is right and just, and always to rejoice in his consolations, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jesus promised: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” Throughout the day, pay attention to your feelings. The Spirit usually speaks by increasing or diminishing our peace.

Any comments? Share them with us through the COMMENTS link.

Who Is On The Other End Of The Yoke? — Easter Week Seven, May 20 to 26, 2012

To live the risen life is not to “imitate Christ.” It is to be Christ and act as Jesus himself in everything we do.

This can be daunting. But it isn’t if we let Jesus act with us, in us and through us, keeping ourselves conscious of his presence by saying the WIT prayer all day long: “Lord, do this with me, do this in me, do this through me.” What makes his “burden light” is that Jesus carries it with us. His “yoke is easy” because it joins us to him. To shift the image, to let Jesus act with us, in us and through us all day is to be “joined to Jesus at the hip.”

But we have to know him. We need to know this person who is our yokemate, our partner, who co-carries our burdens and “co-operates” with us, in us and through us in all we say and do. We don’t appreciate having Jesus as a “friend by our side” if we don’t know him as a friend. And the key to this is knowing how he thinks.

How can we know that? Jesus is God. The Father himself said, speaking through Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” And Jesus said, “No one knows the Father but the Son.” To know God as he is, you have to be God.

But Jesus added: “...and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus has revealed the Father to us by sharing his own divine life with us, including his own divine act of knowing the Father (we call this the “gift of faith,” the gift of divine enlightenmemt).

And when Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father,” Jesus answered, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’”? The Father is revealed in the words and actions of Jesus. The divine is made visible in the human.

Jesus went on to say, “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”

That is the key. Jesus has made known to us the thoughts of God; his own thoughts and the thoughts of his Father. We can find them written in his words. All we have to do is read them.

And when we do, the Holy Spirit will help us understand them. Jesus promised it. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” The Trinity of God himself, Father, Son and Spirit, will work together to let us know and understand the thoughts of God if we read his words.

Then we will know the true personality of the “friend by our side.” We will know Jesus, not as his servants, but as his friends. If we choose to read his words.

That is the next step into living the risen life. Do we choose to read the words of God?

Any comments? Share them with us through the COMMENTS link.

A Hesitant Step? — Easter Week Six, May 13 to May 19, 2012

Did you use the WIT prayer (see last week)? If you did, you had the mystical experience of growing in conscious awareness of the mystery of your lived union with God, the mystery of the “risen life.”

I have only heard one objection to using this prayer. A man in Tupelo, Mississippi, raised it during a parish mission: “If I say all day, ‘Lord, do this with me, do this in me, do this through me,’ I am laying it on myself to act like Jesus all day long.” He added: “That’s a pretty heavy load to carry.” And it seems to be.

On the other hand, this is exactly what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing by insisting on their strict observance of all the Jewish laws: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.”

Of himself and his Way Jesus said: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

We can’t deny Jesus asks some pretty demanding things. But his “yoke is easy” because he is carrying it with us. That makes all the difference in the world.

We are the risen body of Jesus. Whatever he asks us to do, he will to do it with us, in us and through us. He promised before his death, “I will not leave you orphaned.” Or, in other translations, “I will not let you be without a friend; I will not leave you desolate or comfortless. I will come to you.” He will come with his Spirit:

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

To live constantly in awareness that Jesus is with us, filling us with his Spirit, acting with us, in us and through us in everything he asks or moves or challenges us to do, this makes all burdens light. His “yoke is easy” because he is carrying most of it.

We are talking about a mystical experience! Without the experience, the conscious awareness, of doing everything with Christ, living “in him” as a branch on the vine, as a limb of his body, and acting always through the power given by him, of course the Christian Way is impossible. It has to be a mystical experience.

Those who reduce it to law observance, who focus only on keeping the law in their own lives and in the way they preach to others, are a death virus in the Church. Those who experience only the burden of the Church’s laws, and the coldness of those who insist upon them, are leaving the Church. Or, if they remain, they are living with so little love, joy and peace that they drive others to leave.

Try the WIT prayer. Whatever you find difficult, say, “Lord, to this with me, do this in me, do this through me.”

And share the results with us in the COMMENTS link.

The First Step — Easter Week Five, May 6 to May 12, 2012

Have you “begun to begin” a life of planned, intentional spiritual growth? Did you take a minute to make up one “play” that you think is giving, or will give you, “forward motion” toward total knowledge and love of God?

What “play” would I suggest? This is a “first step” idea. It may look like a baby step. At least it is easy.

Say the WIT prayer all day long. Before you open your eyes in the morning, say, “Lord, I give you my body, as I did at Baptism. Live this day with me, live this day in me, live this day through me.”

That is the WIT prayer: W-ith, I-n, T-hrough.

If you like, you can add: “Let me think with your thoughts, speak with your words, and act as your body on earth.”

Keep saying it. Form the habit of saying the WIT prayer before everything you do, all day long, “Lord, do this with me, do this in me, do this through me.” Every time you go through a door, pick up a telephone, sit down at your desk or get up from it. Every time you put on your coat or start your car. Work at forming the habit. Use “gimmicks” to remind you until it is something you do automatically. Put a handkerchief on your doorknob or telephone. Program your watch to beep every hour. Make it your password. Attach a cross to your car keys. Do whatever works for you.

Say the WIT prayer all day long until it is embedded in your mind; until it is your underlying awareness in everything you do.

There it is: the resurrection. Jesus risen and continuing to live his life on earth in you. You risen with Christ and living now in a way that is both human and divine in everything you do, because by Baptism you have “become Christ.” If you keep saying this prayer you will grow into awareness of the mystery of your life, your true identity. You will say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” And you will become more constantly aware of the true mystery of your identity, the mystery of your existence, the mystery of your life as one who has received through Baptism the divine life of God.

This is — although the words may sound strange to you — an ongoing mystical experience.

And it is the first step to make if you want to grow into the “fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of love.” 

The ball is in your court. You can hit it back or just stand there and watch it go by. But if you are reading this, my guess is you will take a swipe at it.

Share the results with us. Tell us what you use to remind you to say the WIT prayer and how it has helped you.  Use the COMMENTS link below. We’re all in this together.

For Grave-Leavers: “Now What?” — Easter Week Four, April 29 to May 5, 2012

What do you suppose Lazarus did when Jesus brought him back to life? Just pick up where he left off?

And Lazarus was not “risen” as we are when we die and rise with Christ in Baptism. He just rose to continue his human life. We rise to begin living the divine life of God. We have “become Christ,” who was God the Son, the “Word” made flesh as a human, with a human body, mind and will.

Jesus was God acting in and through a human body. That is what we are called to be. But we do it through partnership with Jesus. We do it by letting Jesus act with us, in us and through us in everything we do. We are divine because Jesus shares his divine life with us. We act as God through surrender to God acting in us.

Can we just “do this”? Can we live as God just by “doing what comes naturally?” Or do we have to learn it? Learn how. Be trained, formed to it. Do we need a “formation program” for living the divine life we received in Baptism?

Let’s be clear. “Formation” doesn’t just happen. Sure, we get some idea of how to live as Christ, and we grow into some likeness to him, just by doing the normal “Catholic” things: saying our prayers; participating consciously in Mass; receiving the sacraments with awareness of what we are doing; responding with a “Christian conscience” to the challenges of family and social life, business and politics. We all get some “religious instruction,” and some even read the Bible. This is all formative, but it isn’t formation. Formation has to be intentional. We have to intend to reach a goal. We have to know we are working toward something; know what we are doing and why.

For “formation” we need a plan. We have to know what the goal is, what the “first step” is, and what steps to take after that. We need a “map” to keep us on course. We need the encouragement that comes from knowing we are getting somewhere, making progress. We need to count milestones.

And we need a plan that is easy to begin with. We can’t just “leap off” into heroism. If we are told we have to be perfect from the beginning, we will never start.

We need a plan that shows us clear, concrete, simple steps to take. One that doesn’t focus on the whole goal to begin with, but on intermediate goals, “objectives” to aim at that we can achieve one at a time. Baseball is less about homeruns than about getting on base — one base at a time. Most plays in football are designed to make yardage, not touchdowns. Spiritual formation is the same: sometimes all we are hoping for is a first down.

We need a plan that will keep us moving down the field.

Stop. Do you know what the biggest problem is here? Do you know why no parish or diocese has a plan, a serious, systematic plan that aims at the spiritual formation of every person in the pews?

It is because no one is teaching the principle of forward motion. We don’t have a plan, because we don’t have a goal. We don’t ask for a map, because we don’t think we are going anywhere. Catholics don’t know that the only authentic Christian life is a life of growth. At least, not growth to “the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of love.” Spiritual progress means getting up to par, overcoming sin, “keeping in bounds.” Imagine a football team whose plays were all designed just to keep the runner in bounds. That is the way most Catholics play the game.

Take a minute. Make up one “play” that you think is giving, or will give you, “forward motion” toward total knowledge and love of God. Run it all week. Share the results with us through the COMMENTS link on the blog. Then see what the next blog suggests.

The Price and Profit of the Risen Life: Easter Week Three, April 22 - 28, 2012

Let’s explain the Good News by presenting it first as bad news. Paul did: to live the risen life we have to be “crucified to this world.”

Jesus did:

Those who want to save their life will lose it.... None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.... carry the cross and follow me.... hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself.

If we don’t appreciate how bad the “bad news” is, or how much it costs to buy the “pearl of great price” and the field that contains the “buried treasure,” we can’t appreciate how good the Good News is, or how much the pearl and the treasure are really worth.

In spirituality as well as in business, you only get what you pay for. Call that bad news if you wish.

But let’s look at how good the Good News is.

Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.... Those who lose their life for my sake will save it.... I came that they might have life and have it to the full — both here and hereafter. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.... As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love....

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives....

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.... You are the light of the world.... When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.... If you are truly my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free....

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.... The Holy Spirit will teach you everything, and guide you into all the truth.... The Holy Spirit will teach you what you ought to say.... It is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.... I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.

Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Is this our experience of Christianity? Notice the italicized words. None of them makes sense except in a context of mystery. Nothing Jesus promises above is just the fruit, the result or consequence of living a “normal,” good human life. We are talking about the mystery of divine life here. Of life we can only have or understand as sharing in the divine life of Jesus himself. Living the risen life by letting Jesus live and act with us, in us and through us in everything we do.

So it is obvious Christians are not called just to live normal human lives. But what, in parish ministry, calls us to more than this? When are Catholics told they are expected to “be Christ” in everything they say and do? When are they told they are not disciples of Jesus Christ unless they are constantly poring over Scripture to learn the mind and heart of God? When are they urged to live up to their baptismal consecration as “prophet, priest and king”? When have these words even been explained to them?

Let’s be brutally honest. If not, we will be brutally disappointed. It is already happening: One third of Americans baptized Catholic no longer call themselves Catholic. Of those who have become Protestant, seventy-one percent say it is because “their spiritual needs were not being met” in their parishes. Why? What is missing? What should we do?

We are oblivious to the obvious. The bishops at Vatican II said it is “evident to everyone that all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of love.... Every Catholic must therefore aim at Christian perfection.” Is this really obvious? Neither the bishops nor the pastors are taking it seriously. Not one Catholic parish or diocese has a systematic plan of integral spiritual formation designed to engage every person in the pews. You don’t believe this? Name one.

We can’t reach the goal of perfection overnight. And if we don’t even accept it as a goal — personally, intentionally — we won’t reach it at all. But how many parishes preach, push or promote this goal? How many offer a practical means to achieve it? (And don’t say, “We offer word and sacrament.” That obviously isn’t working).

“To fail to plan is to plan to fail.” We are failing. The next blog will talk about planning.

The Risen Life: Easter Week Two, April 15 - 21, 2012

We “dumb down” the mystery of our Baptism, and the mystery of Christianity itself, when we say we are called to live “a good life,” or even — with the meaning the words have for us — a “good Christian life.”

We are called to live the “risen life.”

Meaning what?

Meaning we can’t even begin to live an authentic Christian life, or even begin to understand what Christianity is, unless the way we live is mystifying, both to ourselves and others. A life that doesn’t make sense by normal human standards. A life that “normal” members of society would not accept for themselves, desire for their children, or be comfortable with in us. Does that sound ridiculous?

How about “life on the level of God”? The “life of Jesus himself”? A life we can only explain by saying what St. Paul said: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”

Are you comfortable saying that? Is that your normal way of thinking about yourself? Of describing your daily life?

If I am authentically Christian, my life can only be understood or described as a risen life. A life that Jesus Christ himself, risen from the dead, is living in my body. Which is his body; his real body. Living with me, in me and through me. Speaking with me, in me and through me. In everything I do, Jesus acting with me, in me and through me.

A life in partnership. A life of two-in-one. A life I am never living alone, in which I am never acting by myself. St. Paul challenges each one of us: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?”

“To me,” he says, “living is Christ.” Everything this world has to offer is so unimportant for Paul that he adds, “and dying is gain.”

Does this sound extreme? Radical? Far out? If it does, what more proof do you want that the Christianity we were taught was simply false? Its mystery “dumbed down.” Its demands watered down. Its differentness played down. Its rewards relegated to an unreal and remote “hereafter.” A “marked down” Christianity.

All we can hope to do right now is raise a question. A question that should “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” If Christianity is so undemanding, if Christianity is compatible with a “normal” life in this world, why did Paul say: "I have been crucified with Christ?” And that, for all of us, “our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved?”

If we have not been “crucified” with Christ, how can we say we have “risen” with him? What are we talking about?

Can we just raise the question? Just think about it?

Paul said, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Do we think he was just talking about sex!

Yes, we are conditioned to think that way. But for Paul — and Jesus — the “flesh” was much more about the really serious sins — desire for riches, prestige and power, desires taken for granted in society and even in the Church — than about the weakness and immaturity of sexual gratification. Preoccupation with sexual sin is deceptive: it distracts us from looking at the sins that are most “deadly.” The lethal ones. Position, prestige, power.

Jesus described the life he offers as being of such value, that those who appreciate it will “sell all they have” to acquire it.

Have you done that? Are we doing that? Were we taught to do that?

Think about it. Can we be living the “risen life” if we have not died? Died to everything in this world?

Think about it. And tune in to "next week's thrilling episode" in the "New Evangelization."

The Good News: Easter Week One, April 8 - 14, 2012

Jesus and John the Baptizer both began their preaching with the headline: “Change your mind about everything (the meaning of “Repent!”) — the reign of God is beginning.” Not so the Apostles. Their headline was, “Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! And we have risen with him.” This is the headline news, the “big story” of the Good News. It is — it has to be — the key to the “New Evangelization” that is beginning in our day.

The Apostles just preached the resurrection of Jesus himself. Beginning with Peter on Pentecost, they spoke as eyewitnesses of its reality:

Listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth... you crucified and killed.... But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power....

This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out [on us] this [gift of the Spirit] that you both see and hear (Acts 2:22-33).

Paul, as “theologian of mystery,” went further. He proclaimed the mystery of Baptism, that when Christ rose, we rose in him:

When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.... God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross....

And Paul drew the logical conclusion from this, which gives the key to the whole of Christian life on earth:

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 2:12 – 3:3).

We have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).

We haven’t preached this. We haven’t taught it. We haven’t explained it. We grew up thinking we were living like Christians if we just kept out of sin. No one told us that to be Christian means to become Christ. (Shocked? See Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 795). Baptism means we let Jesus Christ rise from the dead in our bodies to continue his life and mission in us.

To “die with Christ” in Baptism and rise with him means we have nothing on this earth to live for except to let Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, live and speak and act in us. With us, in us and through us. That is all. To live for anything else is a denial and rejection of our Baptism. It is to refuse to live the new life we receive through union with Jesus Christ as his risen body.

We never heard this. And because we haven’t heard it, we are not living it. Because we are not living it, we are not evangelizing. No one sees the Good News made visible in us.

That is why four popes in a row have said we need to be “re-evangelized.” Catholic life today has to begin with hearing the Good News.

That is what these blogs are going to present. Stick with them if you have the courage for it.