The Pope is Right

So... my neighbor's mail was delivered to my box by accident a couple days ago and it was a copy of a newspaper called "One Voice" which is "The Newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Birmingham In Alabama". (Vol. 41, No. 31, September 2, 2011 - so as not to be guilty of plagarism as I quote from the article in a minute!) I decided before I returned it to its rightful owner, I would read it. There were some interesting tidbits, but I was especially interested in an article called "Cradle Catholics Haven't Done Enough to Evangelize, Pope Says". When I think of Evangelism, I don't generally think of Catholics.... so my first opinion was that the Pope was probably right. ;-)

But then I also found some of what the Pope had to say to be very convicting for us "Cradle Church of Christers" or just Christians in general.

Here are the highlights:

"Cradle Catholics haven't done enough to show people that God exists and can bring true fulfillment to everyone."

"We, who have been able to know (Christ) since our youth, may we ask forgiveness because we bring so little of the light of his face to people; so little certainty comes from us that he exists, he's present and he is the greatness that everyone is waiting for".

Ouch.

The day's reading was from Psalm 63... "the soul thirsts for God in a land parched, lifeless and without water". He asked God to "show himself to today's world, which is marked by God's absence and where 'the land of souls is arid and dry and people still don't know where the living water comes from'. May God let people who are searching for water elsewhere know that the only thing that will quench their thirst is God himself and that he would never let people's lives, their thirst for that which is great, for fulfillment, drown and suffocate in the ephemeral'.

That part gets me because I, myself, when I am thirsty, search for that water "elsewhere", I suffocate in the ephemeral (the temporary) when I KNOW only God can really quench my thirst and it is not God's will that I live without The Living Water. How can I be showing others what they need when I don't even grasp it myself?

"We want to ask (God) to forgive us, that he renew us with the living water of his spirit and that he helps us to celebrate properly the sacred mysteries."

Celebrate properly the sacred mysteries! Isn't that beautiful? Yes, Lord, renew me with the living water of your spirit so I can celebrate and be a better representative to a dry and weary land where is no water.