Did You Know?

Many of the insights offered can be applied in every Catholic’s life and the activities of our many ministries! Here are some samples – modified: “In discernment, when faced with two apparent contradictions or choices, the true answer is less about deciding “either-or” and more about arriving at “both-and”. This truth is deeply embedded in our Faith in the dual nature of Christ; the hypostatic union of the human and divine, that mirrors our own unitary nature as body and soul together. By putting on the cloak of humanity, God calls us to union with His divinity. . . God sees Himself united to humankind in heaven by the union of the Word made Flesh. Not either-or, but both-and.” And we celebrate this reality in a special way on this, the Solemnity of the Ascension!

“We sometimes fall into the ‘either-or’ trap, viewing our lives as a choice between “transaction” and “transformation.” This false choice can in turn lead us to misconstrue the nature of both transaction and transformation. We can be tempted to think of our ‘spiritual lives’ and our ‘everyday lives” as separate realities “either/or”.

If we separate transaction from transformation in our daily living, making it an “either-or”, we are tempted to try to define our personal transformation in merely material terms.” And there is even more. As Christians we are – every one of us – called to be witness to the transformational power of the Gospel. Which St. John Paul II called “Lifestyle Evangelism.”

“By our witness in words and actions, we invite our neighbors and our family members to our Faith and offer the eternal hope of Christ. We are sent by the Holy Spirit to seek, to see, and to serve Christ in our ‘everyday’ encounters with others, and by doing so, to experience our own transformation. Not “either-or”, but “both-and”. All of these daily encounters, though, are mere transactions without God’s transformative grace, for “we can achieve nothing of eternal value without His grace!” Come, Holy Spirit!

In our faith walk, the transaction becomes a relationship, and the relationship leads to transformation; transformation of ourselves towards holiness, of our neighbor towards hope, and of our society towards a civilization of love. Not “either-or”, but “both-and.” This is the on-going miracle of Pentecost!

We can actually see these next coming Sundays as transformational: in His Ascension to the Father, JESUS takes His Humanity into the Heart of God and becomes the “Bridge” connecting Divinity and Humanity. In fulfillment of His Promise – “I do not leave you orphaned” – without My Presence – we celebrate Pentecost. This is the bond of unity, that we “belong” to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. By the indwelling Holy Spirit we are truly ‘bonded’ to God AND to one another in the Church. On the following Sunday, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we celebrate the Reality of God: the Source of our Faith, our Hope, and our Love – and adore God is the Mystery of Unity and Trinity: His being ‘One’ and ‘Community’ at the same time!

And then to ‘seal the deal’ and to give us a very tangible experience of this Reality in our daily lives, JESUS gives us the Gift of His Own Body and Blood in the Eucharist, which we celebrate on Corpus Christi Sunday! These special Sundays reveal the personal transformation of our lives as God’s greatest gift to each of us and all of us!