Growing in the Faith
IF IT’S GOOD FOR THE CHILDREN
You may know that we design a customized curriculum here for the children of our Faith Formation. Last year we taught seven months on the seven Sacraments. This year is on the seven virtues.
What we would like this year is for all of us to benefit from our evangelization and catechetical efforts. We get so excited when preparing the lessons that we say, “I wish the whole parish could hear this!”
To that end, please know that the lessons and themes of the men’s and women’s group this year (previously the Men’s Roundtable and Women of the Well, now called “The Way”) will also be on the seven virtues.
In addition, there will be a monthly one-page teaching in the bulletin on each lesson with a corresponding page on the website, and references to them in my homilies and Petersboat podcast.
The hope is that this can be for us a kind of ongoing adult education formation as well here in the parish. Thanks for your openness to our efforts to find new ways of communicating and growing in the Faith.
“JUSTICE ONE” EXAMPLE
Here’s an example from our first lesson on the virtue of Justice, being taught during October.
Animals react, led by their feelings.
Man is designed to respond, led by his intellect and will.
A virtuous man subjects his feelings to thoughts and decisions.
Justice is a natural sense in all men of what is fair and unfair.
Because of sin, however, our natural response of anger toward injustice, for example, is in need of redemption, lest we react like animals, which are led by their feelings and instincts.
For instance, Justice is often considered to be revenge.
We say we are “justified” in merely retaliating.
It has long been said, “An eye for an eye.”
In this age, however, Christ has died for the offenses of man.
Therefore God’s own divine Justice and Mercy “have kissed.”
Now truly “just punishment” must be directed above all toward the conversion of the man, not mere retaliation against him.
Hopefully that example from the lesson on the virtue of Justice sparks something in you, perhaps questions and the desire to go deeper. That would be great.
WHAT GOOD ARE THE EMOTIONS ANYWAY?
There are many reasons we may grow to resent our emotions. Obviously, the feeling of pain is unpleasant; it is quite natural to want to avoid pain, or at least to alleviate it in ourselves and in others.
And yet even pain is something God created to be of some good to us. It indicates the location of the place that needs healing. Something that is wrong can be set right thanks to pain.
Sadness works in a similar way; it’s a spiritual pain. And it’s important to ask why we are sad if we are to locate the wound in our soul and offer that place to God for His grace and healing.
But even those emotions that are pleasant, since they are conditional, can turn to the feeling of betrayal, and so we tend to resent them too if only because they are temporary and passing.
So what good are the emotions? On their own they are useless, simply because if there is no intelligence or will exercising dominion over them, there is no one putting them to use; therefore they are useless.
But if we overcome our fear of them, we can put them to use, and they enable to us have compassion when it is just to do so, to celebrate when fitting, as well as to defend the oppressed and protect our family.
I think one way to understand the freedom that God wants for us (that Christ was sent from the Father to make possible for us) is that it is new grace being given to us after our natural birth, which accomplishes the re-ordering of our lives by enabling us to subject our emotions to our intellect and will, to wield them.
It’s freedom from the fear of our emotions. Now we can cry; we can laugh; we can get angry; we can even feel sad. With God’s grace we can wield all of our emotions toward some good. We don’t need to hide or numb them, nor be ashamed of them. +