This is a reflection from Father Walter Nolte after reading pages 60-65 of "The World's First Love" by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, which is a wonderful book.
The word martyr literally means to witness. Members of the early Church bore witness to Jesus Christ in many ways. His Life, Death, and Resurrection were all a part of their living memory. Not only were they aware of the facts of Jesus’ Life but also many of them either witnessed them unfolding or heard first hand accounts from eyewitnesses to the events themselves.
What a great gift that was for our first ancestors in the faith to have been present at the birth of the Church. Today’s Church history was their lived experience. Their faith was formed and fashioned by men and women who physically walked with the One we all desire to follow.
We are products of their faith, beneficiaries of their witness to their lived experience. We, like them, must be willing to become part of the living memory of the Church. Our lives must bear witness to the truth that He is still with us. Our feet must stand firmly on the path for life and we must be willing to allow our hearts to be pierced so that His living water can flow forth from our lives bearing fruit for the next generation to come.
Remember, it only takes a spark to get a fire going. Let’s set the world ablaze with His love by bearing witness to it in our daily lives. Let’s be martyrs for the Lord.
God bless,
Father Nolte
After I read this my thoughts were turned to how do we witness today and especially how if the next generation are products of our faith, beneficiaries of our witness, what are we leaving them?
As I have traveled around the united states to various Catholic Churches, I have seen some change after 24 years. (This is how long I have been a Catholic now) I am going to address these here and now. Not to be critical but to hopefully bring a realization and solution to some real problems.
After we have walked into a Catholic Church and we go to sit in the pew I see less and less people genuflecting or even acknowledging the presence of the Lord in any way. Some times Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament on the altar and is not even noticed. The conversations begin with friends or family about the prospect of where we might be eating dinner after Mass or what we are going to do afterwards, or what we have done the day before. We do not fully participate in each part of the Mass. And the texting going on during Mass on our cell phones. And the dress attire. Not all of our body parts are covered. Some of the attire worn to Mass looks like we have either come from or are going to the beach. Let us not forget we are attending a banquet! A wedding banquet at that. It is not that we have to dress extraordinarily but rather appropriately. Jesus has invited us to come to the wedding feast of the Lamb in Heaven, let us show him some reverence and respect. If we go to others houses for dinner do we not do the same? At Holy mass we are not the only ones there, we have joined with all of heaven. Let us join in fully and worship rightly. Revelation 19:1-10
The other things that concerns me of what we are handing on to the next generation is the staggering rise of the Catholics who believe that NFP-"Natural Family Planning" is "outdated" , those that believe a woman has the right to choose whether or not she has an abortion, or those who support same sex marriages and the list goes on. We have all been affected by all these issues and more.
There is a great decline in standing up for and living out of the things our Lord taught us. The Catholic Church, in all her wisdom, gives us these teachings. Let us be the benefactors who hand it all on to the next generation in its purity by living our faith the way our ancestors did.
Let us not water down the Gospel! It dilutes it. Let me give you my favorite example of this. I love coffee, strong coffee. If I were to take my loved coffee in this strongest form and share some of it with another person by pouring half of it into another cup but then added water to it to make it look full what would it do? It would not taste the same at all. It might look a little like coffee. Then, what if the watered down cup was then shared with someone else and they too added water to it to make it look full and the process continued. Eventually, we would have a cup of slightly colored water to the point the next person would never know it was coffee and our taste for it might be lost. My point? If we continue to "water" down our faith, how will future generations ever distinguish it as the Catholic faith?
Let us become such martyrs that our generation now makes no mistake so the faith we hand on is one of clearly who we are and what we believe.
Let us take a long serious and truthful examination of how we are or are not living out our faith to others and for ourselves and make the necessary changes.
Let us ask God daily for the grace to fully be living examples of the true faith of the Catholic Church.
Let us live as true brides of Christ and honor him at all times in all ways.
