These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
We walk by faith, not by sight.
(2 Cor 5:6-10)
To walk by faith and not by sight is to be Catholic. We celebrate the Sacraments . . . and the Sacramentality of Life itself . . . and experience God’s grace.
The love of Christ impels us,
once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;
therefore, all have died.
He indeed died for all,
so that those who live might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
(2 Cor 5:15-21)
The feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is followed by the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As Saint Paul reminds us, “the love of Christ impels us.” Mary always leads us to follow the love of her Son who gave himself for our salvation.
May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
(Eph 3:8-12, 14-19)
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus invites us into the mystery of the Incarnation—that our God has a human heart.
For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord,
and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.
For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness,
has shone in our hearts to bring to light
the knowledge of the glory of God
on the face of Jesus Christ.
(2 Cor 3:15-4:1,3-6)
"The glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ" . . . that glory shines all around us . . . in the faces of all our brothers and sisters, especially the most vulnerable and hurting.
God has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant,
not of letter but of spirit;
for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
(2 Cor 3:4-11)
It always saddens me when good church folks want to follow the letter of the law instead of paying attention to the Spirit that “gives life.”
