Franciscan University Presents: Challenges of Faith in Our Time

the early days of the church Christians face the enormous task of bringing Christ to a world that did not know Christ today Christians face an equally daunting challenge to realize a world that has all but forgotten Christ join us as we examine our call to remember Jesus Christ with our special guests father enero contella Meza preach it to the papal household I'm father Michael Scanlon Chancellor of Franciscan University in Steubenville Ohio and you're watching Franciscan University presents stay with us we're talking about challenges of faith in our time we have a regular panelist here dr. regis martin professor of systematic theology here at Franciscan University and dr. Scott Hahn professor of biblical theology here at the University and our special guest and good friend again for the renetto contella Meza and OFM Capetian for Pryor he holds a doctorate degree in divinity and in classical literature you've served as professor of history of ancient Christianity here at the Catholic University in Milan and in 1980 you were appointed by Pope John Paul the second has preached it to the papal household and you still serve in that capacity which is remarkable but we won't comment further right now you preach a weekly sermon in Advent and Lent in the presence of the Pope as well as Cardinals bishops and other prelate and you also have a weekly programme on Italian state television and you of course have been author of many books including remembered Jesus Christ responding to the challenges of faith in our time and we want to launch our discussion today on that but give us some background on these meditations from your book you know you prepared these for the Holy Father at one point and the papal household what is it like to prepare a retreat for the Pope well first of all let me say something about this ministry preacher to the tribal household as you have said that me it means that I give a meditation every Friday morning to the Pope on the cárdenas and so on and I try preparing for giving these meditations I try to adjust to the particular graces or challenges the church's experience and at that time for instance this particular series of meditation was given the first year of the pontificate of benedict xvi so I remembered that Jesus founded the church upon an act of faith so Peter on the on the divinity of Jesus so I thought it was a good way of helping a new pontificate by Sterling a big strong act of faith on the divinity of Jesus and this was the main main inspiration main main desire the parently change with what they invited you back you've done this more than once is a right oh yes I've been doing that for the last 32 years now never a preacher lasted so long and I have an explanation for that I think the purpose realized that this is the place where father Candela Mesa can do less harm Jamie under control a short leash as we say what a what a great gift it is and what a you know how much you must depend upon the Holy Spirit the freedom that you have for the Holy Spirit to guide you in speaking to the successor to Peter and to figure out to discern from the Holy Spirit what it is to do thoughts helped me a lot one is that I have not to preach my personal message or my philosophical system just the word of Jesus a message of Jesus and as I believe that Jesus asks words of eternal life so this gives me assurance the second LP is the Holy Spirit precisely because after preparation of the reading you need fire from from one eye I very often quote the passage where the prophet Elijah is preparing the wood for the sacrifice but he weighs form the fire coming my my preparation is like gathering food but unless the five comes from from heaven it will there there will be no flame that is a good reminder for all preachers I know that there's a sense certainly that you depend on the spirit to sustain you in this ministry but there's also a sense that the spirit depends on you to carry it out to be charged with this particular mission to speak the MOE juice the convicting word that the Pope needs to hear that must be that must be sort of terrifying not exactly the just the first moment for the first time I had to speak it was Lent in 1980 I remember the first three or four minutes being a little nervous excited anxious anxious but later on I was very relaxed I must say that the Pope helps a lot in this because he is like a Christian among other Christians at this moment you hope and listening with a greater merely I speak very with pleasure of this ministry of mine because he tells more about the Pope then above the preacher yeah you nail it a of the Pope coming to listen to to the sermon or a symbol preacher pleased over the Catholic Church there's a there's a reminder of this in the Gospel of John as you know you know you could ask the question who preaches to Peter you know who preaches to the Pope and yet in the Gospel of John as you know Peter depends upon the Beloved Disciple to figure out who it is that will betray Jesus in John 13 he depends upon the Beloved Disciple to get into the courtyard of the priests there in John 18 the doom that's right to get to the tomb John gets there first but let's Peter go in and then likewise aboard the boat it is the Lord says John and I think that's the role that you have to continually remind Peter to look out and to see that it is the Lord who loan can make that catch of fish possible so getting to those meat of what you preach what's the biggest challenge to faith in Christ today in modern times what do you see in as the biggest obstacle and challenge out there that has to be confronted this is a topic I dealt with especially last Advent in view of this effort for a new evangelization and the creation of the new Pontifical Council for evangelization I started trying to single out the main main challenges the obstacles to the faith and I thought that three there are three main challenges at Asetek scientism a secularism and rationalism scientists and secularism and rational Israelite not rationality rationalism f-secure ization but secularism not science but scientism which is dafair certainly well do you think you've successfully met those challenges in the book that is under review today that we're talking about this I Delta not special in this book but in a series of meditation I get laughed at them which are in in in in Internet also but in this first series which is created in and remember Jesus Christ I try to create the general framework of our modern and preaching of the gospel well you know father I was much obstruct by your thesis that what the church needs now is a charismatic moment a kind of still point of and you cite the poet Peggy that lovely image of the boat the ship that that sort of pierces the ocean like butter and that point creates this swath of water and way in its place what matters is the still point the charismatic moment could you talk about the well the presupposition of this is that we are living in a world which resembles the word of the Apostles they were facing a pre-christian world pagan world and we are facing a post-christian world in his innocence in a certain sense so we must start again from the beginning the day of Pentecost Peter didn't start saying what they shall had to do he started the saying to remember Jesus Christ remember this man went around doing well to everybody well you killed him God raised him to to life and for that reason you must know that God as appointed this Jesus whom you have ratified both Lord and Messiah so so we must start again with the person of Jesus Christ everything that comes after so that it's it's not primarily a confrontation of the culture in terms of what they have to do but a contemplation by the culture of what Christ has already done in his death and resurrection precisely because of what we cannot do apart from Christ I especially appreciate something that comes near the climax of your book we're after citing Deus Caritas asked you then refer to Pascal and to the orders of the physical order of physical greatness strength wealth and then you also see the beauty that's right and then you speak of the the order of genius intelligence and how much the world seems to prize those two orders in terms of beauty in terms of strength in terms of wealth in terms of intelligence and genius but the third order is the order of love and these are these are both ordered to that and yet the world seems to be locked up in that and as you mentioned scientism you know rationalism secularism are absolute izing these orders that are good but relative whereas the absolute order of love that's what Christ embodies and what Christ alone gives to the world without which the world will die continually and I think that you with such simplicity you have put your finger on precisely what Jesus wishes to say through the whole mystical body the totus Christians to the whole world you remember Scott that I don't know if you read the kavadis this beautiful or northern there is a moment when when I began addresses Peter and says to Peter Greece has given us wisdom romans F given us power what do you give us your questions and the answers precisely love right well you know Pascal insists that there's a radical discontinuity among those three orders and and that has let me remember a kind of rupture between nature and grace which is pretty provocative I think as if to say look you accumulate all this luster and prestige and power and beauty and yet not a scintilla of it can give you the order of charity you need a qualitative leap right off the page you need grace and grace has to burst through the clouds of this world you're saying that's what we need now this is this is important because you know I'm a Thomas and I love st. Thomas but many Thomas forget that okay grace builds on nature but not until Nature has been crucified and resurrected you know and and this is why we're not opposed to rationality but rationalism that is a reason that is closed in upon itself science that is exclusively scientific you know and I think that the the beauty of Jesus as you preach him is to show that there's nothing more reasonable than being open to the truth of God even if reason cannot demonstrate it reason can die and rise to a whole new truth but the key I mean you're saying the key is the centrality of Jesus Christ now why I do we find people ignoring Jesus Christ when they talk about faith and religion and the rest are they unaware or they just passed it on well why don't they sent her in on Jesus Christ she's father Michael is a key point I try to deal with in in the book the three main dialogues going on in our modern culture exclude Jesus the dialogue with science faith and science science is interested only knowing if there is a creator or the world is the result of chance and necessity so Jesus is not mentioned of course the problem is it was a very secret or not really in the dialogue with philosophy again philosophy is not interested in historical events but in metaphysical ideas so Jesus is completely in ordered in the dialogue between religions the inter-religious dialogue so we speak what we have in common peace moral on even the belief in God but Jesus of course is completely excluded so we don't realize that Jesus is practically absent in our in the main circle of our culture and a simple and Sanjana and all the New Testament tell us that faith which saves is faith in Jesus Christ which doesn't mean that goddess is forgotten precisely this is the plan of God that through the son we should come to nobody comes to me nope nobody come to the Father unless through me so when we come back we want to talk and center right in on that proclaiming Jesus Christ how is it done - how does it fit our lives stay with us I need to dilute the culture of death in the medical field and I really want to be a physician who takes care of people instead of just treating symptoms and covering up symptoms because there's more to a person than even just in their physical health I'm a theology major and I just got hired for a job back in my home state of Texas as a children's director of religious education and what I would like to do with that is to let Christ's light shine through me to others so they can only see Christ and not me this university is different because not only it's going to sound cliche but that academically challenging passionately Catholic like it's not a lie it's it's a it's a academically prestigious school but it has this Catholic environment that is unlike anything else I've ever seen or experienced firsthand priest very available to hear confessions in just spiritual direction you know do the sacraments Franciscan University is academically challenging and passionately Catholic talking about challenges of faith in our time with a very special guest father a narrow Allah Meza and preacher of the papal household and and when we left off we were talking about the need to proclaim Christ today and in your book use pinpoint or zero in on kerygma explain for us how you see the kerygma as needed to be proclaimed and how is that going to launch us as as you know kerima simply mean means cry loud voice but the increase in language it has ended up meaning the special cry which contains the most important message on earth that Jesus died for our sins rose again for our justification the kerima is the starting point of our face because faith christian phases Kierkegaard the philosopher Keoghan said Christian faith is not about a doctrine is not a doubting is a person and the kerima precisely puts us in touch with the person of Jesus Christ in ancient the early times of the church the apostolic times there was a clear distinction between kerygma and dedicate the right the carrier is the proclamation of historical events attached with the meaning of this Aaron died for our justification died for our sins he rose for your justification why did occur meant the teaching moral teaching formation even what we could call today mystics or ascetics but the point is that faith according to the opposes blossoms only in face of the carrier they did occur which nowadays would be catechesis moral teaching comes later to form the face already started this is why we need to go back to the carrier we are in a world in which the majority has no personal contact with Jesus so to multiply the teachings even moral tissue before a person as I accepted Jesus in his life is an is useless my opinion is this I think strikes us is pretty self-evident doesn't it that you have to recover a sense of the point of origin the beginning back to bedrock the source and that's the charismatic eruption this flash point Jesus is Lord that's the source the seminal point and everything else is a flowering of that initial German ativ thrust from heaven onto planet no I did we loose leave that now there is an explanation for that we lived for centuries in a in a society which helped people little by little to come to faith to develop faced received embodies family school society we're Christians and this is why there was less necessity to put to put at the center this initial initial act of faith but we the situation has changed we live no longer in me in a christianity regime and this is why to prevail proclaim declare EEMA has become now urgent as it was even for the apostles you know before vatican ii in the 1950s there was an awakening in europe that was also here in the US known as the charismatic movement and Hoffenheim and others in Innsbruck and and it was exciting vagine II also seem to draw that into his work and you know when I when I was coming into the church twenty-five years ago I remember realizing yes well I becoming Catholic I don't lose the centrality of Jesus I personally and the personal relationship with Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord but there's so much more and yet when you become a Catholic you often have a sense that the church's theology and the controversial moral teachings almost obscure the person of Jesus that all we ever hear about our look at the Church's teachings look at all of this complicated doctrine and this is why we need to get back to Jesus the person who is the son of God the personal relationship that draws us into the family of God but you know you reminded us a moment ago of something really crucial that evangelizing is not the same as catechizing but when you evangelize you cry out you proclaim the charisma of what Jesus of what he's done but who he is and then after evangelizing you enroll in the catechumenate your your catechized but even that is an unending itself because you then receive the sacraments of initiation so you have the Evangel of what is preached you have the catechesis of what is taught but you have misty goji we have people drawn into the mystery of Jesus so that you don't leave behind the person or the personal relationship you enter much more deeply into the mystery of that communion this if I may say Scottie's precisely the difference between the Catholic spirituality and stuntman which means that our reaches this reaches of doctrine institutions and canon law is a riches and a splendid heritage but it can be in danger and in the obstacle because people are unprepared to receive all this but if we start putting the foundation Jesus Christ then all the rest is an immense riches like while usually I love very much I a great friend from foe with evangelicals opened the courses very often they they invited me to address them but I said some time to talk to them in your meeting you always go go back to your first conversion and they do right everybody tells about is convert but this is a beginning we can be mistaken this is not the fulfillment this is beginning after that there is all the gospel to go through the attitudes the the dark night of the Spirit to reach the perfection that the Catholic Church has the means to bring a personal gesture the first conversion but the fullness of Christian life but this provided we we put the foundations in the in that and sense we depend on them on the Protestant to reapply she ate this right first conversion but yet but the presupposition is you don't get the fullness until you first have the encounter with the event of Jesus is in this charismatic moment you have that wonderful image of this immense weight of brocade that sits on the priest and if you impose that on an infant it's gonna just crush him annihilate him and I guess we're all children and we have to return not to you but to that point of origin well in in relation to God I hope I hope i acquire that childlike simplicity that hunger I mean in a way Christianity began with just one woman there's young Jewess this maiden Mary who experiences the Holy Spirit who impregnates her with the Word of God himself and then she tells Joseph and now you've got two people two Christians and so it goes it radiates out from that Center we have to return to the center but what is important is to know that this foundation the centrality of the Academy is not just put once at the beginning it must always always be there it's not forgotten you start and then the beginning is very important ever behind you it's always central even though every day has to begin what are the obstacles to proclaim to proclaiming this keurig mathy of Jesus Christ why do we have difficulty in having a receive today well for the my there are many guys I know man in general is this materialistic culture we are living in which make makes people indifferent indifferent to to spiritual and the lesser person us in ear open we proclaim in vain the caring man if nobody we should try to to take advantage of some occasions we have to proclaim the caring when people are more ready to listen to a message in my opinion one of these occasions are the funerals funeral because at weddings and First Communion people are usually distracted many other but at funerals they they they have mindfulness because in the presence of a dead person everybody is reminded of his or her destiny yeah it only only Jesus as an answer to give to this problem of death only Jesus and you know we have to remember that Jesus was himself a kind of impediment he was a stumbling block to others and and I think you quote Joseph Ratzinger from introduction to Christianity who does ask the question it is expecting a lot of people to return to that flashpoint and to think that everything is reducible to this still point in the great sea of history that scandal of particularities that everything converges upon that point this historical figure this human being Jesus in whom we encounter the very ground of being God himself logos that's asking a lot of people why do you think Jesus rejoiced so much when Peter said that you are the Messiah the son of the Living God why because this is the real point when a person comes to faith in Jesus as son of God as the only way a life and truth then that is centered the truth and it was a fruit of grace I mean it wasn't man told it was blood has not revealed but nevertheless a person must be open right must be ready because the grace of God always works without only obstacles for people being ready you know you know culture why can't that proclamation of Jesus's personal Savior and Lord be done and received what do we see in society that prevents that there are obstacles in society for the meigan but there are obstacles in yes if we proclaim the kereama out of taking from the books and program to the people it doesn't pass through the fire of the Spirit the kerima doesn't touch the hearts why 3,000 people were cut to the heart the day of Pentecost because Peter was speaking in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit so the problem is not just in the world the problem is also in the church how many of us are ready to give up any any any preoccupation of their name or making a name or making receiving of applauds are ready to lose everything to proclaim Jesus in you you identify two moments of conversion for Peter on the one hand Jesus excitement over Peter proclaiming you are the Christ the Son of Living God and yet in just a few verses after Jesus says the Son of Man will be delivered up and crucified Peter says no and Jesus has to say get thee behind me Satan and so precisely the second conversion that occurs through the humiliation of denying our Lord and then being asked three times by that same charcoal fire as it were to reaffirm and then the power of the Holy Spirit is really indispensable not only for the second conversion but also for launching the church's apostolic mission that witness to Jesus has to be as supernatural as our own you know our own conversion our first conversion and I think this is why we find ourselves today we're you know we're evangelizing the baptised we're evangelizing people who've been sacramental eyes but have not been evangelized who need to be spiritually reawakened and brought back to the center this is actually Scott you remember the difference before Pentecost Peter objected to Jesus suffering right but after Pentecost he he was ready to endure every every shame and persecution for the name of Jesus Pentecost is the key another point another to answer your question better Michael is that we must program the Karima with love right we must start loving the people love the church must show love Jesus came to the world because he loved the world and unless there is love our understanding compassion the water will see in the in the church only in ethical agency which judges and where we're going when we come back we want to talk about how to imitate Christ and how to do this in an effective way making Jesus the center stay with us I had a patient 12 year old boy and I came in there and apparently he had a nurse after me and he said that he just wasn't treated with the same dignity not saying that that was all me it's just the way I was trained for instance can train me that way someone has to make some noise that people out there being treated unjustly even though they're the smallest of people even though they're the people that are the most vulnerable you know things like that so what I plan to do is to take what I've been taught here at the University and though and then go get formed to pass the bar to be a lawyer to have the specific set of tools in which I can change policy which I can change legislation which I can do these things explore the treasures of your Catholic heritage on a Franciscan University pilgrimage led by inspiring spiritual directors you'll walk in the footsteps of saints and martyrs in the Holy Land Poland France and Italy and you'll deepen your love for Jesus Christ through daily mass confession prayer and the joy of Christian Fellowship let Franciscan University lead you on a pilgrimage of faith find out more at Franciscan edu slash pilgrimages talking about challenges of our faith in our time with a special guest father an arrow come to the massive preach of the papal household and we're talking now on how to imitate Christ and and in your presentation and book you talk about starting with Gethsemane and that isn't what we usually hear so why did you pick that and why is that key well follow Michael one reason is that this second series of meditation was given during Lent so this is why I focused a on the Passion of Christ but get so many us and nevertheless something to say in this line because it's about obedience that the point that makes the great message of Gethsemane is that Jesus entered this struggle saying not my will but your will and everything which follow it is based upon this act of faith what saved us is precisely this acceptance of Jesus to die to die st. Bernard used to say that it was not so much the death of Christ which saved us as the obedience unto death Jesus Christ obedience and content is more important so following the obedience and of course obedience is for us all so the first point where we shall imitate Jesus obedience but obedience I maybe I will have an occasion to explain what kind obedience there are many obedience beings to the rules pigeon-toed superiors and there is an obedience to God and what makes this this gesture of his obedience so impressive is that it's against the grain of his own human will his inclination his fear conspire to ask him indeed to move him to cry out to the Father if this be possible could this chalice be postponed it must I face it but he submits in in loving humble obedience and that is very moving because most of us events that kind of resistance in the face of fear or danger or temptation well rages I have seen the best explanation of precisely this in the last book of Benedict 16 Jesus Christ the dogmatic explanation of what happened and he gets Emily how Jesus had to to lead his humanity to the point of a accepting the will of God it was enacted a human act of obedience a divine act obedience made with a human right the key yeah married with a human you also simplify that here you know so that on the one hand all the doctrine of Christology can sometimes obscure Jesus but on the other hand just trying to understand Jesus without the help of the Church's teaching is humanly impossible now so you know Maximus the Confessor the drama there in the Garden of Gethsemane because it isn't it isn't the father versus the son in a tug-of-war it's the Divine Will which loves in a divine way holding nothing back to love like that you have to be God but to transfer that to human nature has to be a struggle and it's precisely the struggle of a of a divine son who has assumed the fullness of our humanity not just a body you know like you put on a glove but I mean the soul and not just the soul but the will that has a healthy revulsion towards suffering and dying there else there has to be the struggle otherwise it's not authentic it looks as if Jesus is just an automaton it's not theater either light and and you know the divinity overwhelms and absorbs the humanity I don't know if you've ever seen that movie of gods and men which has made something like Justine may journey an explainable in the on the on the plane that well I could see this is about it's about a group of Trappist monks in north africa algeria who are threatened by islam fanatics and in fact they're butchered at the end but what makes it so moving is the human struggle the drama as it unfolds they don't want to die they resist and they wish they could be elsewhere but in the end they face they face this crisis and they go out like like angels but they suffer like men and it's very eloquent yeah I think that that gives us a kind of glimpse of something of the abyss that Jesus entered in dates an abyss much is what we identify with is Jesus's agony and gets M&E that there are times when we have to go through that struggle to see we know a little faith yeah you know you asked about obstacles to believe ya know clearly since we all have a Gethsemane and we discover that we're also called to carry a cross you know it's a wonder that anybody believes but you know it really is because what we're called to give consent to at one level is inevitable you're going to have to suffer and die anyway but to embrace the cross and to see that as the source of salvation you know is so good will during these mere natural reasons yeah up to the head yeah but the presence of God within us and grace I love that's poured out in our spirit and our spirit can lead us through that time this is the tragedy because the world must pass through gates M&E sooner or later they're suffering the illnesses and death but when people are left alone without faith this is the the tragedy in face gives us that this immense privilege of transforming suffering into glory you quote st. Paul I think in your book well quite often you do but but one text in particular up you are not your own you were purchased at a great price and so glorify God in your body the sense of being bought by Jesus the ransom that he becomes so that we are somehow set free that is freeing that's very liberating to know that I belong to another and what a price he paid to set me free I mean that I think should fill us with a sense of gratitude that would help us to walk through these dark nights that is a painting of a Norwegian painter Moog the screen I don't know if you know the screen as a person on a bridge or holding his head and uttering a screaming Indian void the void you sometimes I quote this painting because it is the described situation of the world once we are for what the karamja they have the scheme right hope the kerima is a a cry which gives hope the modern world having forgotten the kerima is now stealing with the scream uttering desperation because this is an appending which is suggest desperation spare despair and this is why we we must preach the caring one maybe some people are ready to accept the kerima because they see it unless there is a cry full of meaning we will cry out despairing in vain in the world unknown you know when Pope Benedict was in the zoo he made this comment that that suffering without love is unendurable it leads to despair but but love without suffering is empty its words you know but love is what transforms that suffering into sacrifice into the passion of divine redemption and you know again it's people avoid suffering they avoid talking about it they don't want to look at it yes and when they finally have - it just leads in yeah they fall they deny God they can be cynical and embittered and yet this is where the Holy Spirit touches not just them but as you say us because we can be strong in our doctrine but then so weak we are caught off guard by Gethsemane and and just want to give in to despair and we need the Holy Spirit then and we go through many gifts Emily's not just one as appreciate I always realized that what we are saying we are the first listeners we must be in first to listen because the message is always coming back to us well that's this notion of the charisma a great American writer Mark Twain used to say that nobody is converted after the first five minutes of a sermon so you've got to move in quickly for the kill you've got to arrest the attention of your audience straightaway because after five minutes they're gone they're elsewhere but the keurig Meadows it need five minutes I hear proclaim it in the space of a nanosecond Jesus is Lord that's it the reason is that there is intrinsic power in the caring man is not just our proclaiming uttering it the kuruma is filled with the power of God I sometimes in my ministry I have almost touched this when I am just preparing to after to pronounce the karamja I can feel myself in a different dimension and people staying in in a in and I can't explain that without thinking that there is an intrinsic power work in the karamja and we should rely upon precisely this well you use the word explosive it has this property it exposes it's not a dialectical are propositions he say he knows all the penetrates the kerygma is essential but in defense of those who preach more than five minutes right there is you need some tools of instruction and decay and application and all sorts of ways of fitting the kerygma into your life that's right because father counselor Meza preaches for more than five minutes and still is endowed with the Holy Spirit in the sixth minute and I think of st. Paul who preached on and on for hours until eutychus fell to his death and then the power of the kerygma is manifested as Paul raises him from the dead you know so the the word whether it's short or long is eternal and it's abbreviated no matter how long or short it is that we've but you know you beautifully described Christianity as beginning not with what we're expected to do but rather with what God has already done and that empowers us to do it but first we need to hear that good news yes I carried the cross for you I set you free yes this is a a a point which is very very close to my heart and there is hardly a sermon where I don't mention this point this is the difference between Christianity and any other religion or religious philosophy every religion starts telling people what they must do to be saved your duties either intellectual speculation or ascetic motive schedule Christianity doesn't start telling people what they must do it starts telling people what God has done for them so this is so elementary but so necessary to remind that Christianity starts with the gift not with the duty the commandments comes later of course people immediately say but there is a first most important commandment to love God yes but the order of Commandments is second before there is praise he has taken the initials know this I know we got resource Gianna t is the least labor intensive spirituality it all begins with what God has done that's the catalyst and the principle of our our morals is gratitude right it's pretty don't know how you know it's also cruciform 'ti right so so no other religion is more like labor-intensive because Christ is the one laboring in us and through us by the Holy Spirit but let's not kid ourselves no when we proclaim the cross it isn't just Jesus dying so we don't have to if Jesus dying so that we can now die in a holy loving way every day but this is beside why why so many people reach this this Christian attitude we are still in the Old Testament we struggle to put together some good work something to present to God and it is much much easier to work or presentable you quote say Bernhard my merit is his mercy oh god that's that's that purse pant to take those thoughts for our viewers as to how they can move on with this message stay with us nursing doesn't always the funnest job it's a lot of dirty work and you see a lot of things you don't really expect to see all the time so just going into it with a christ-centered focus definitely helps you get through the day it's a vocation not just a job I know that what's being taught here is Catholic and that is what I believe until the church teaches we're Christians little Christ we don't go around always talking about Jesus but Jesus is always at the heart of every conversation because our relationship is built on Christ the same way this school is built on Christ after we've come here and gotten our formation and grown in our faith we're called to go out and share the truth Jesus Christ with the rest of the world Franciscan University is academically challenging and passionately Catholic we come to the final segment here on the challenges of faith in our time with our special guests whether an arrow cantaloupe esta we're going to ask each panelist to kind of give a summary here or takeaway thoughts so that we can all launch forward with this message Regis I mean how does one measure the depth of the ocean you just plunge in and and father kantola Mesa were so grateful that you've come to these alien Shores from Italy to speak to us because you speak with such wisdom and and winsomeness about these profound matters that I wish I were Pope because then I could listen to your families all the time and I would take notes maybe more copious than those taken by the present Pope a couple of images come to mind that that were plucked out of the narrative of your wonderful little book of the example of st. Paul you talk about his righteousness and then he encounters Christ and it's as if he had this this tiny flame this miserable candle moving through a deep dark forest late at night and it scarcely illumines anything and then suddenly the dawn of the Son of God blazes forth and he doesn't need the candle he doesn't need the righteousness he now has grace he has Jesus and it transforms his entire life and as we know it changes the whole landscape of of Christian history Christian experience the other image I think is the legend that you sight of Christmas Eve which is so moving so touching the shepherds they all race to a child at Bethlehem and they're laden with presents and they can hardly wait to heap all of these gifts at the foot of this child but there's one shepherd who has nothing and when he arrives he's really crestfallen because he has nothing to offer but Mary who's busy collecting all these gifts no is that he has empty hands and so she entrusts the Child Jesus to this humble Shepherd and the point is so obvious if you're empty if you're transparent if you're hungry and thirsty and you need everything because you're a beggar who's got nothing then you're likely to receive the Word of God and and that's that's everything and you've distilled it so remarkably in this book thank you very much well that's quite a summary there well done there Wow building on that it's it's helpful to remember Jesus because that way we never forget we are still beggars we never cease to be beggars we never cease to need to be really convert it and the the priority of Jesus reminds me that that evangelizing sharing the good news the charisma has to come before everything else or everything else is off center it's eccentric this is the center and the source but once we do that you know far from diminishing the importance of catechizing evangelizing then invests the truth that is taught in catechizing with this eternal value and then likewise mr. Gogi to train adult Catholics in the mysteries of the sacraments and the the mystery of who God is eternally as Father Son and Holy Spirit you know this is so much more than dogma you know and and this fits a person relationship because it isn't just a personal relationship but it has to start there all the time I have a person relationship you know with a clerk in a store where I buy things on a regular basis but I have a covenant relationship with kimberley but not until we were courting and then we were engaged and then we were married you know and that's that three-stage process of evangelizing of catechizing and then sacramental izing courtship engagement and marriage leads us into communion and yet even after 32 years of marriage we need to renew the wellspring of our romance we need to go back to robery met we need to reminisce we need to celebrate anniversaries this is what the church is for to really renew the wellspring of a divine romance that should always catch us off-guard it always seemed like news good news but news you know something that strikes us as being something that never gets old and you do that and you don't just do it in a book you do it for our Holy Father and words can't begin to express the gratitude we feel in our hearts for your faithfulness in that service as good as caught that you you mentioned Maria just a symbol of our relationship with Jesus because this is what marriage is meant to be a way to to grasp the mystery great mystery of the love between God and and us you mentioned the example of Paul yes the the encounter with Jesus clearly divides the life of Paul into two parts I used to say that every person divides he is whole herebut life into two parts usually it's Maria John they say before marrying and of your marriage for us is ordination so we divide our life saying before my ordination and after marriage for poor Paul teaches us that there is one event which really creates in and before and after and it is a personal encounter with Jesus this this phrase a personal encounter with Jesus can be done become a slogan but it is not a slogan it's falling in love is falling in love the problem is really that Jesus loves us more than you love Kimberly Kimble loves you Jesus loves us with the fullness of love all the delicacies the nuances of love and he is waiting for people who respond to this love and our message in any in any occasion should be to convince people that they are loved by Jesus who died for them no matter what they have been in the past or no matter what they are if they except this incredible love of Jesus their lives will be changed as I must confess my life has been changed very good life-changing that's what it's all about in knowing the charisma the great message of Jesus Christ and we have your book here remembered Jesus Christ responding to the challenges of faith in our time by Renato contella meses so well done published by word and we have for you as our viewers this handout Jesus of Nazareth one of the prophets it's a father contella message first Advent sermon to the Pontifical household you ever thought about what you'd preachers say to the whole household of the Pope the Cardinals bishops all these together wealth this is what father and Niro has said there of course is not just one of the prophets Jesus it's a fulfillment yes but it's a marquis just puts them within reach that is prophesying for us there which is so important and I found in my own life going back to the kerygma is so important and preparing homilies always looking it is there a proclamation of Jesus Christ there yes there can be good teaching and good application but the heart of it is still to be a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and to proclaim him to the people so until next time may the Lord bless you and keep your show is facing a mercy on your turn his countenance to you and give you his peace may the Lord bless you Father Son and Holy Spirit and we will send you this for you they asked to receive a free handout on today's topic or to purchase a video of this show call eight eight eight three three three zero three eight one that's eight eight eight three three three zero three eight one or call seven four zero two eight three six three five seven email your request to presents at Franciscan edu or write tune Franciscan University presents Franciscan University of Steubenville one two three five university boulevard steubenville ohio four three nine five two you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

Views: 12,981

Rating: 4.7818184 out of 5

Keywords: Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, Catholic, college, Franciscan University Presents, Fr. Michael Scanlan TOR, Dr. Regis Martin, Dr. Scott Hahn, Faith, Challenges, Modern Times, Third Millennium, EWTN

Id: KkrGecY3gPM

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2013