Do I know you?
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- Matthew 25: 1 - 13
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for November 12, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Do I know you?
I remember in my first year of university, I decided to invest in learning about the faith I grew up with and more or less took for granted. So I made it a kind of hobby to check out the religion and spirituality sections in every bookstore I came across.
One day, I found a book that seemed to offer an answer to my quest to learn about what was at the heart of being Catholic. But – probably by the author’s design – there was no one “answer.” And in a sense that’s true – there are as many answers as there are people who choose to remain “Catholic,” whatever that means to them.
But the reality is that there is something – Someone – that is at the heart of being Catholic. And that someone is Jesus Christ. If having encountered Jesus is not the reason for your being Catholic, “Catholicism” is just another “ism” for you, just one socio-cultural group among many. We say we care about “vocations” – but from our own experience, we would never give our life for some thing, but only some One. And at the end of your life, who will it turn out to be that you lived your life for?
“…Since no friendship can exist or grow where interpersonal communication does not exist, mental prayer and contemplation have a vital role to play in the development of our union with Christ. We know that God will speak to us within the depths of our hearts, but in order to hear his voice, we frequently need to set aside our activities, to listen to him and converse with him.”