On Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI announced the beginning of the Year of Faith. How perfect that my year of missionary work coincides with this important time in the Catholic Church. To be honest, one of the reasons I was interested in service upon graduation and ended up with the Salesian Lay Missioners was to deepen my faith. Several months back before knowing about the Year of Faith, when asked why I joined the SLMs, I wrote “I want to be a friend to the youth and to share the love of Christ with them. Through the SLM mission, I hope to be the light of Christ to South Sudan, and in turn become stronger in my faith.” After a few weeks in South Sudan, I know this year presents the opportunity to do all this, and the outcome will be extraordinary if I am willing to work for it.
Today at Mass, Fr. David preached about the Year of Faith, however he noted that having faith is not enough. Fr. David just returned from Rome yesterday, and was actually in the front row of a conference given by the Holy Father on the Year of Faith (I think he might have a good grasp on what it is all about). While it is in fact a year for us Catholics to deepen our faith, it is also a year for us to put our faith into action. I am currently reading Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio (Mission of the Redeemer), and though only through a couple chapters, one line really stuck out to me, “Those who are incorporated in the Catholic Church ought to sense their privilege and for that very reason their greater obligation of bearing witness to the faith and to the Christian life as a service to their brothers and sisters and as a fitting response to God.” If this is not a call to action, then I don’t know what is. We have the obligation to live our lives in the service of others by living our faith. While the physical work that I do here is important and needed, even more important is making that physical work spiritually driven though faith in action.
Today at Mass, Fr. David preached about the Year of Faith, however he noted that having faith is not enough. Fr. David just returned from Rome yesterday, and was actually in the front row of a conference given by the Holy Father on the Year of Faith (I think he might have a good grasp on what it is all about). While it is in fact a year for us Catholics to deepen our faith, it is also a year for us to put our faith into action. I am currently reading Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio (Mission of the Redeemer), and though only through a couple chapters, one line really stuck out to me, “Those who are incorporated in the Catholic Church ought to sense their privilege and for that very reason their greater obligation of bearing witness to the faith and to the Christian life as a service to their brothers and sisters and as a fitting response to God.” If this is not a call to action, then I don’t know what is. We have the obligation to live our lives in the service of others by living our faith. While the physical work that I do here is important and needed, even more important is making that physical work spiritually driven though faith in action.
Fr. David preaching to the congregation
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