I think one of the witnesses of Jesus Christ that we need to follow is Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, archbishop of Philadelphia. The archbishop writes a weekly column and it’s usually quite good and very worthy of reflection. Today’s installment is no less worthy at the start of the Year of Faith. Entitled, “The Year of Faith and how we’re called to it” is noted here, but three of the paragraphs are excerpted below. When you read the article play close attention to the quote of Henri de Lubac!
Real faith – the
kind our Holy Father calls us to — demands a keen awareness of our failures as
Christians and a spirit of repentance. It requires us to seek out who Jesus
Christ really is, and what he asks from each of us as disciples. And that
always involves the cross.
Does that sound anything like the actual tone of Catholic life in our country today? Too often, probably not. Yet that’s the life of honesty, holiness, heroism and sacrifice that God asks from all of us as a Church and each of us as individual believers in the Year of Faith.
Human beings make history, not the other way around. God made us to be happy with him; to be loved by him; and to bring others to know his love. That’s the glory of being alive. That’s the grandeur of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.