Fr. Bob’s Corner

Gospel - Luke 12:32-48We can call ourselves Christian because we were baptized as babies, but unless God becomes real to us, and is part of our life’s journey, we are Christian in name only.
God implanted in the human heart the need to search for God on our personal life’s journey. God constantly seeks us, and wants us to sincerely seek God, truth, and God’s ways until the day we die. And of course, if we honestly do this, the God that dwells within us will be revealed, and make a big difference in how we live our lives.

Presently there is a great search and hunger for God in China (formerly an atheist nation by government decree), and it is thought by some that China will become one of the largest Christian nations in the not too distant future. (Proof to me that God never gives us up, and of who we are as human beings.) At the same time we find that citizens of many Christian nations are turning away from their faith, and dismissing their need for God. Partly, is it because we have mistaken our Christian identity and religion itself for God and God’s ways?

Most of us were baptized Christian and Catholic as babies, and it is easy for us to take God forgranted and forget that faith is an active personal relationship with God, other believers, and all we meet. It is not just a name or religion that we call ourselves, and it is far more than dogma, community, clergy, rituals, and buildings (albeit important). God wants me and you to know him in our hearts and to be very much a part of our lives.