Writers and speakers tend to go through phases where we repeat themes. The current theme for the diocese of Reno Nevada is discipleship and apostleship. This Sunday, Bishop Emeritus Philip Straling celebrated the 9:30 Mass. He began his homily by discussing a parish in San Diego when vandals broke a statue of Jesus by removing its hands. The parish priest argued that the statue should remain as is. We are the hands of Christ in our world.
The theme of discipleship and apostleship is about discipline and going out. We must be a lad all of our lives. Jesus tells us, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” The Hebrew word for a child is “ילד,” “A lad.” We must be disciples, always learning, using Lectio Divina, reading Torah, Prophets, Writings, Gospel, Epistles, and Catechism to learn our faith.
We are apostles/“Sent out.” Bishop Straling related how the first reading refers to the story of Jonah whose name in Hebrew means “Dove.” The Dove also represents the Holy Spirit. “Spirit” is a fancy Latin word meaning wind/moving air. Mark 4 is the parable of the Sower. In the story, good soil is spirited/aerated. Bad soil is as a path/trampled down/hard, a rock, hard, and soil made hard with the roots of weeds. We need to be spiritual/soft, and like Jonah, fishermen. Nineveh is Aramaic for “Fish City.” If we take the spirit God plants within us and go in other directions, a live fish will swallow us, returning us to our job of converting others.
The Navy has a process to advance raw recruits through its ranks. Sailors must take classes in military/civic and vocational standards. This is discipleship. They must also show they learned their discipline through performance reviews. These reviews include military and vocational standards. The current Navy advertising theme is, "A Global force for good." This is apostleship.
Latin has a word, “Profession,” “The way we profess our faith.” Latin also has “Vocation,” “Our calling.” Our vocation as plumbers, pipefitters, managers, and secretaries, is our calling to show our faith. Whether we like it or not, and whether we know it or not, how we behave in our work lives, and in our private lives, reflects upon ourselves, and our Catholic faith.
Being a secular professional means being cold and uncaring, a machine more concerned with the welfare of unseen and nameless stockholders. Being a Catholic/Christian professional means being spiritual, soft, having the spirit of the Personal Name. This is a spirit of wisdom/skill, of building up our charges/ understanding, A spirit of counsel/being like a tree, soft on the outside, strong on the inside, and of strength, a spirit of knowledge/a collection of experiences and of looking to the Personal Name. It also includes: a spirit of love, joy, peace, long spiritedness, sweetness, and a loving heart, faith, hope, deep spiritedness and Zen. Galatians 5:22-23
Let us go out into the world, showing our belief in the Physical Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, by showing this faith in our personal and professional lives.
Comments