Created to Know God

we're seeing a radical collapse of Christian culture in the world today humanity is losing its bearings its direction because it's walking in the dark a lot of people aren't seeking God sincerely God wants to give a gift to the human race through Jesus in him there is no darkness in God alone his light in God alone his life he wants to live his life in you and through you and extend it to the whole world to be Christian means to live by the shirt to walk by the spirit that's what Christianity is all about is saving people Jesus is inside knocking on the door he wants to come out he's alive he continues to say the kingdom of God is at hand because the king is on the throne hey welcome to another week of the choices we face I'm really happy that father John Ricardo has agreed to be with us again and for those of you don't know father John he's the pastor of a parish in Plymouth Michigan our lady a Good Counsel just down the road from us in Ann Arbor it's just a good friend to renewal ministries and a great force for renewal and encouragement in the Archdiocese of Detroit welcome father John thank you all to do with it hey let's talk about what's going on in the church today what's happening I mean it seems like it's a confusing time so many currents this way in that way we're we're still kind of recovering from the whole you know sex abuse scandal we're still traumatized by closing schools and closing parishes and you know priests are getting fewer and the responsibilities are getting bigger and you know the world's getting more engulfing Catholic laypeople like what's going on believe doesn't yeah well what's going on Jesus as Lord we know that we know the Lord's got a plan we know that we know the law it's in the Lord's hands but give us a little perspective you know I'm sure people asked you repeatedly as they do me you know Ralph what do you think is the crisis in the church yeah you know and I've been asked on how many times that question over the last number of months and and I've prayed an awful lot about it too just trying to ask the Lord Lord would it what's really the problem going on and lots of things come quickly to mind I'm sure you know certainly the scandal the sexual abuse among the clergy and whatnot if I would ask a handful of people in the parish almost all of them would say that's the problem and hands down that's the problem you know then to maybe some other folks who go other problems the bishops handling of the you know the sex abuse skill or some of us might say it's the the problem is really the failure of the lady to seriously be about the work of evangelizing and sanctifying and renewing that sort of expecting the priest through everything yeah you know you know you're out there I'm not I'm supposed to equip you for the work of ministry yeah you know to feed with the sacraments to feed with good teaching but so that you can change the world some people might say that's the problem yeah I'm asking a group the other day and they said well the problem is you know decades have poorer at least questionable catechesis you know what around with trans and scissors and we can certainly accept that as part of the help that's for sure you know Isis in the real presence yeah you know rampant moral relativism yes yeah yeah as I've been increasingly so is I've been praying about this the the line that jumps out at me is a line from Hosea and Hosea for I think it is mmm where the Lord says to the Prophet this is you know what 500 years before Jesus huh and he says my people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge mmm-hmm and for me anyway is I've been as I look back at my own life before I was ordained and my kind of life wandering around in the faith and what I saw in the church and the games I played when I was a you know in the church at the time and certainly from my life as a priest the last 14 years mm-hmm and there's something that just rings true like that's that's not only the crisis in the church that's the root of all these other crises my people are being destroyed or perish are you dying yeah for lack of knowledge now I mean I think it's important to kind of back up real quickly and go knowledge in the scripture is not data mm-hmm I mean I don't need more delicious information my phone's ringing all day long my emails overloaded like yours you know I've got however many papers that come across my desk and newspapers and magazines and websites and whatever I don't need more data yeah knowledge in the Bible it's always relational mmm-hmm it's always it's intimate uh-huh so you know the old translations of Genesis that some of us used to have for example you know an Adam knew Eve and Jill birthda Cain yeah that's knowledge yeah it's a profound intimacy personal the Lord saying my people are being destroyed because they don't know me mmm they don't have a profound friendship with me mm-hmm I heard somebody say not too long ago this just really hit me said um there's an inherent danger in baptizing infants hmm and you know no question it's it yeah sure no that's right real question that it's to practice the early church that's not the point yeah but there's a danger dangerous he went on to say that it's it's very possible for a child to be brought to church be baptized grow up go to Mass maybe every week mm-hmm and never make a decision for the Lord ever yeah I mean how many you know countless people like this I'm sure this this was my life you grow up well this wasn't in my life entirely but I know lots of people like this you grow up you're baptized or you're baptized you grow up you come to church most of the time not every week but most of the time then second grade comes you make your first communion and then you pretty much check out for about six years yeah and then you show up for confirmation which is supposed to be the time you actually make a decision to follow the Lord yeah for how many eighth graders or ninth graders is it a serious time of discernment to follow the Lord it certainly wasn't for me yeah well that's father John that's really one of the things I've been thinking about a lot recently you know in my class at the seminary I have you know youth ministers and D Ari's and they're telling me that after confirmation maybe 80% of the kids stopped going to Mass and and and a lot of their parents weren't going to mass at the beginning so they're just kind of like following the example of their parents in a way and they look at confirmation as the last thing to check off on their list that they have to do but but how could they even understand what the sacrament is that they're receiving again which means a deeper commitment to Christ that embrace of taking your part in the mission of the church and evangelization and being willing to suffer difficulty for Christ it just almost seems like it's I don't say a joke or a tragedy or something is really wrong it's superficial and tangential because those kids leave graduation they go to high school then they go to college and they pretty much stop going to church altogether mm except when they come home there's a parent's maybe Christmas Easter then they get married they get married we're in the church of course there's nothing where else would they get married yeah they have a child they present the child for baptism why because that's what we do and the cycle just keeps going and going and going you know I know countless people like this the church is full of people like this I was like this yeah in many ways - they get in having a child all that kind of stuff that's what the church is full of for someone who's like that what could being Catholic possibly be except rituals externals cultural things which then gets watered down to a very superficial faith mm-hmm when we simply ask well doesn't God just want us to be good yeah and then not to diminish it there's some genuine faith or they believe in God they believe in Christ they just don't know very much who God is or who Christ is and what it's supposed to mean for your life right yeah a lot of times it's having information about what Catholics believe and believing like Catholics believe but not with that kind of trust that with a kind of relational kind of you know faith yeah and and don't get me wrong being good is very important it's good yeah good as ego is good to be good it's really good to be good it's it's a most important yeah but that's not what it means to be a Christian uh-huh yeah because there could be good pagans that's right good oz means to be a cream is to follow the Lord it means to make a decision for him it means to to surrender my life to it means to acknowledge all that he has done for me and in gratitude to pour it all back to him mm-hmm which of course is gonna mean he's gonna take over my life so I'm gonna be good yeah but that's what it more for your bodies as a living sacrifice exactly yeah that's what it means to be a real Catholic yeah that's the crisis I think well how do we get from here to there maybe you can share a little bit your own experience your own parish like what you're doing to help people kind of come to the knowledge which will bring life to them you know well we got to do a number of things I mean maybe first and foremost you know Pope John Paul said and over millennia when you went eh that our parishes have to become schools of Prayer hmm I'm more and more struck I got a school too you know so K through 8 600 plus kids and prayer is not intuitive for a lot of people certainly not if it's not modeled at home yeah so we got to model it a lot of people who are going to Catholic school now or going there because it's a better education or better discipline or sports programs source program you know friends go there you get into college you know it's what but what we're trying to do is just to drive home what's Catholic about a Catholic school does it mean to be a Catholic school by all means we're going to gauge the intellect we're going to involve the mind we're going to seek truth hmm we're going to participate in sports in a particular way we're going to interact on the playground in a particular way but above all I want kids to come out of a Catholic school having met God yeah so and I can't catechized I can't teach you the faith if you haven't met him mm-hmm and we often presuppose that we're catechizing people who have met him mm-hmm but they have it and so so therefore what they hear about the teaching of Christ they're not that interested in it because they don't know who Christ is it's just another subject yeah more yes more more information I guess to pass the exam on yeah so I think we're trying to teach kids how to pray we're just trying to model it for them that's one of the things we're doing and we're trying to do that as a parish yeah which is bearing a lot of fruit then we're trying to take the faith I mean for me anyway um the faith just wasn't understandable to me and I know tons of people my own age mid 40s whatever late 30s late 40s they've never really looked into well what does the church teach that about whatever yeah so we do these ongoing as I've explained to you before you know we used to call them our CAE for Catholics no it's kind of like Catholicism for cradle Catholics know so let's break open the Catechism where the scriptures or whatever's going on in the culture in a way that now you want to know because now your kid is you know about to make confirmation they're asking you questions and you've never really answered that question like well I go to confession or is the Eucharist just a symbol or is it really the body blood soul and divinity of Jesus or Mary was assumed I mean where do you see that but I mean whatever it might be a contraception you name it whatever the topic is uh so we'll just take apart all the topics that are the faith and break them open for adults in a way that's understandable intelligible and that is applicable to my life yeah so we're trying to do things like that but all of that is driven towards helping me come to meet him because at the heart of all this is the fundamental conviction that until you meet him you really don't know how to live mm-hmm you don't know what life's about yeah you were created to know God yeah that's the purpose of life yeah you discrete or reservist in life is to know God know and some people can hear that and go well yeah but I mean what can that really do for me but you just think immediately of well he ever moved to a place where you didn't know anybody you felt all alone and you had no friends and can you remember what it was like to have made a friend you imagine what it's like or do you remember what it's like when you met your wife or you met your husband you know or you met your best friend and the transformation that they made before you met them you thought you were living fine yeah but once you met them you sit back and you go whoa how did I ever live before yeah yeah well it's exactly the same with well it's not exactly the same it's infinitely more so with yeah yeah having met him now we should be asking ourselves how do we live before yeah well you know by the grace of God the Lord brought me into that kind of relationship with him and I don't know how people live without it I really don't I mean like I don't know how people stay married without the Lord I don't know how people stay saying without the Lord you know I don't know how people stay free from addictions without the Lord I don't know how people stay I don't think they do I think they does yeah and I know lots of people who are apparently very happy and I don't deny that in the least but its existence in comparison to this Jesus has what I have come that you may have abundant life yeah I have it to the full yeah abundant life yeah and and the perception of so many people was that the gospel was less mm-hmm not more yeah but it's not less yeah you know Benedict when he the Holy Father when he came here I think it was in New York he was this great image of how the faith from the outside is much like a stained-glass window I think he's quoting somebody else here buddy he says you know you look at a stained-glass window in a church from the outside it just looks dull and dreary and and whatever then you walk into the church you know the light shining through it you just blown away by the Buda yeah so the faith is just like that from the outside it looks like less drab yeah you Christians you don't have any joy no happiness you know if you weren't there you could be over here doing all the things that we're doing and you really have a great time ending up in oceans and rehab centers yeah yeah right we know for instance the sale said something almost identical I don't know if that's what inspired Benedict or not but he says when you're looking at the Christian life and outside you see the sacrifices you see what you give up when you're looking at for the inside you see what you're receiving you see what God's given you and how what you're giving up was an obstacle to the the greater happiness and greater love a greater joy that that the Lord wanted to fill those places yeah so same same image it looks like maraton yeah you know somebody who's not married looks at a married couple their up night you know because the child is awakening oh my gosh it's gonna be you know tedious or how do you get up you don't sleep and the person who's married with a child is saying this is my child yeah yeah I'd rather you know there's a part of me they'd rather be sleeping but this is my child it's a delight to wake up uh-huh and to care for him or to care about her I mean this is this is flesh of my flesh here yeah yeah so we know what uh you know another part of the crisis and it's related to what we're talking about is at least the United States we have less priests than we used to have and we got more people and you know I'm just concerned about the load on priests you know and and you know in our own area you know we're having priest to get ordained and then they're made a pastor pretty soon and then there's two other parishes they're asked to take care of as well you know and I'm going to take a little break now we're gonna have a little spot where it talks about encouraging our priests and praying for our priests I really feel like we need to do that as we do and let's listen to this message then we come back maybe we could talk a little bit about that each day the world is blessed by the heroic dedication of holy Catholic priests serving in our parishes and religious orders in nursing homes and hospitals and as military chaplains around the world since the secular culture is often quick to criticize Catholic priests it's so important for us to offer our prayers and gratitude for the countless holy Catholic priests who serve humanity with courageous virtue and dedication to Jesus in the gospel encourage priests org was launched by the Catholic media apostolate Catholics come home org during the year for priests to support our priests and promote vocations by visiting encourage priests org you'll be able to help the priests in your life through spiritual bouquets written or video greetings and collar holler e cards let's pray daily for our seminarians priests bishops in our Holy Father who bring us the sacraments and help guide our path to heaven thank you for joining us in this apostolic mission of encouraged priests org and Catholics come home done working well you know part of the crisis that we're talking about you know God's people perishing for lack of knowledge it's related in some way to the clergy because priests are supposed to be helping people come to that knowledge but priests themselves have been really under attack and you know and the whole clergy sex abuse scandal and the shock of that and the embarrassment of that and the confusion of most God's people about that you know how do we relate to priests how do how are how are priests feeling you know we're a priest at these days and how are they how are they handling the crisis that's going on well I tell you for me anyway you know I am at one of the same time exhausted and rejuvenated mm-hmm so I'm privileged to have a couple of younger guys with me in the parish show that I'm at right now and I often use with them your priest yeah yeah younger priests and it's not a real flattering image maybe as you can write right out of seminary but to be a priest is something like being a garbage man you know so yeah are they long yeah I just kind of sit in garbage you collect garbage garbage could be anything from you know death and cancer to you know a marriage in crisis to addictions to to whatever I mean it's it's all the gamut people angry at the church that's right yeah and so all day long people complaining about the school yeah you name it they're complaining about and and whatever experience that we have father you're homilies are too long too long they're too short yeah no six yeah ever alright right so we just sit in that ya know and it's usually like all day on the half hour yeah so the key to that the only way to stay sane with all that is you got to pray yeah and I mean pray you know so the essential thing for the priest is is the Holy Hour yeah and the Holy Hour is something like I just unload the garbage truck yeah yeah at the dump which as the Lord says I'll cast your burdens upon me it's right because I care about you that's right yeah and I just bring it all to the Lord and that's what I'm supposed to do I bring everyone to the Lord and go Lord I can't do anything with us you know you can't you're the Lord of history yeah you can take care of this marriage you can take care of that addiction you can be with that person in the throes of death yeah you can comfort that Widow yeah I can't do anything but I'm bringing them to you yeah and that's that's that's the glue of the day how much the first part of my day and then you go back and get more yeah so that's what we need to do priests yeah we have to be we're not social workers yeah people come to us because they perceive that we know God yeah yeah and that we can help yeah if I don't know him I really don't have anything to offer because I'm not that smart yeah I don't have a whole lot of wisdom yeah but he does yeah we just got to put it in place huh yeah then the whole obviously the that prayer is just as essential for you in the lave vocation as well just because you're married or you got kids doesn't mean you you don't have to pray you as you click garbage at work or garbage at home or garbage out in the street or the day refers just in my own heart yeah yeah you're all right yeah right right right so you got to pray too but then we got to be praying for each other yeah you know so we're I think most people readily perceive I hope anyway how much we're praying for you mm-hmm we are entirely dependent on your prayers for us mm-hmm and for whatever reason you know these last number of decades maybe especially in the American church mm-hmm there's been kind of a divide or a wall or a suspicion between clergy and lay yeah it's got to go yeah we're on the same team that's just good yeah you're the leader of our team but we're on your team and we need to he's the leader of the team yeah for you I'm a shepherd it was a past or whatever but with you I'm a sheep yeah as agustin used to see yeah so we're all sheep we're on the journey together different roles were on the journey together yeah and and I think we was mission together yeah we're on the mission of telling people about him and what he's done for you yeah so please God in these days and increasingly so in the years ahead we're just going to see a stronger and stronger genuine collaboration mm-hmm between lay faith hill and the ordained you know not where people mistakenly think well that means I've got to be making you know whatever decisions about who's becoming a bishop or whatever in the right enuine collaboration a sense of we're praying for one another yeah we're serious about serving the Lord together I'm able to hand off to you things that you can do far better than me yeah and I'm on the lookout for people in the parish with particular gifts yeah to put in different ministries yeah because not only can I not do it all in terms of time I can't do it all in terms of town I don't have that kind of tea but the body of Christ has all these gifts yeah and all this diversity of blessings we just kind of we got to find a way for the Lord to exploit it all in the best sense yeah and I hope we're going to begin to see that more and more yeah well you mentioned earlier that passage from Ephesians where it talks about the leadership gifts that Christ gives the risen Christ gives to the church apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers and evangelists not to do all the work themselves but it says to equip the Saints for the work of ministry you know - now that's a little hard for us to take as laypeople Saints you know who are the Saints you know what the baptized the ones who have become holy because they've been plunged into the life of Christ and they may not be canonized saints yet but they're they're on the way and they're holy because of the relationship with Christ and they're in their faith and so the job of the ordained leadership and the in full-time leadership in the church you know is to not do all the work of the church but to help all us baptized to awaken to our gifts and our call and our mission are called the holiness and our qual to take part in the mission of the church yeah and nothing nothing makes greater joy inside a priest than to see that happen yeah to see lay people awakening to who they are in Christ and taking their place in the battle taking their place in the mission my parents used to have in their house a plaque that said it's the quote from one of John's letters on that I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk with the Lord oh yeah yeah and and as a priest now yeah how much that line resonates with me every time that I see somebody come in and go father you know I just used to hear all this I thought it was all words I've met him yeah and my life's different yeah met him yeah it'll never be the same again yeah well and that's just an exhilarating experience for us of going you know to bed that night thanking the Lord yeah Lord you've broken into yet another life yeah and you know you know the scripture says you know there's such joy in heaven when one sinner returns you know such joy and the heart of a priest or in a heart of any Christian when somebody turns to the Lord you know and becomes alive in Christ you know it's it's it's one of the happiest things in the world slowly yeah what's what keeps me going all the times just to see the Lord faithfulness his perseverance is breaking through the Hound of heaven capturing yet another one okay you know we only have a few minutes left but some of us are on parishes where that's not the vision the priest has you know and maybe he's you know it doesn't have all the gifts so maybe he's not encouraging laypeople or whatever what would you what advice would you have for somebody who's at a in a parish where you're not the pastor well hey even here in the pear especially if in the Paris were on the pastor yeah I mean the advice it'd mean it's so easy for us to complain that's what we like yeah yeah complaining won't do any usually won't do any good I'm complaint of the Lord yeah you know in other words pray yeah I mean the the guy who lovingly resent this pastor to the Lord that's right the help ask him to renew his is his own commitment to the yeah yeah or the guy's been in the trenches for however many decades yeah he's tired yeah give him what he needs he feels all support he's gonna be his prayer life's dead yeah maybe he's maybe he's been rejected by people maybe his parishioners have have driven him to discouragement yeah so just as we're praying for folks to really meet him yeah don't presume your pastor has met the Lord recently yeah yeah right that today when he celebrates mass it won't be rote yeah okay that pray that is he needs and proclaims the gospel the Lord oh really speak to him yeah you know to me hey that as we handle the body of Christ we'll be awed again yeah what we're doing that's wonderful father John that's really it's really a great great suggestion really you know I'd like you to be able to pray for people who are with us today but I'm going to tell them about a resource that we're offering I've written a new booklet called new Pentecost and we really like to make it available to you as a gift we're going to give you the information about how you can do that because this is a key to the renewal in to the crisis of the church a new Pentecost for Pope's in a row have now asked us to fervently pray for new Pentecost they know that what we need is an outpouring of God's Spirit I've written the booklet about what this new Pentecost is and how we could personally appropriate more of the Holy Spirit we'd like to make it available as a gift from us to you just call 1-800 to a two four seven eight nine or go to our website renewal ministries dotnet click on new booklet and we'll send you your own copy come Holy Spirit hey good to have you with us today and its really great to have father John with this father John you know those last things you just mentioned about what we can do about when were difficult parish situations and lovingly hold up our pastor and ask God to help them is really really great anything else you like to say to folks before we leave today you know I think just keeping in mind at least what we've kind of talked about as as the crisis or at least a significant crisis I just want to you know really encourage everybody here think about three things huh how well do I know Jesus I mean really and ask yourself how would I like to know him and then think about what I need to do to make that happen you know so some of us maybe we're really not praying or maybe we're just saying prayers you know we're not our hearts not involved it's all just kind of become rope maybe it's a time to rejuvenate the the prayer part of our life so that it's not rote so that my heart's really involves that I'm unconsciously talking to the Lord and listening to him reading his word maybe it's a commitment to return back to confession maybe it's a you know some good spiritual reading something to really break open the life of Jesus in a way that you've gotten accustomed to and and whatnot but but don't let's just don't fall prey to the idea that there's not more to know because it's a person it's a relationship relationships if they're not grown they're dead and our relationship with the Lord has got to grow so make us a goal among all the goals that you've got for the year that were in the midst of Lord I want to know you and and and you want me to know you so help that to happen amen thanks again father John really appreciate you your life in your ministry my pleasure hey next week same time same place the choices we face you

Channel: Renewal Ministries

Views: 22,513

Rating: 4.8981819 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: CFLX0ai1q8E

Length: 28min 31sec (1711 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 25 2016