{"id":39806,"date":"2013-06-06T08:30:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T13:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=39806"},"modified":"2013-06-06T11:12:24","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T16:12:24","slug":"four-keys-to-setting-our-families-ablaze-part-1-of-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/06\/four-keys-to-setting-our-families-ablaze-part-1-of-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Keys to Setting Our Families Ablaze – Part 1 of 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bonfire\"<\/a><\/em>I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! (Luke 12:49)<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus desired then, and He desires now that a fire be kindled on earth.\u00a0 Today, as much as at any time before in history, we as Catholics, as Christians, must take these words to heart.\u00a0 We must “rekindle the gift of God that is within” us (2 Tim 1:6).\u00a0 We must set the world on FIRE for “God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7).\u00a0 This fire begins in our hearts and spreads from person to person.\u00a0 This fire must begin in the family for it to be kindled in our nation.\u00a0\u00a0 As Blessed John Paul II said, “as the family goes, so goes the nation”.<\/p>\n

Our family loves to attend the Easter Vigil.\u00a0 One of our favorite parts of that particular Mass signifies this reality.\u00a0 From the Easter candle, small candles are lit from person to person as people share their little light with the person next to them, turning a dark unlit room into a Church aglow with light – light coming from hundreds of little candles working together to overcome the darkness.\u00a0 Our domestic churches, our families, our homes must also become aglow with the light of Christ.\u00a0 They must be set on fire and light up this world of darkness.\u00a0 Just as the candles are lit from person to person in the Easter Vigil, so must our domestic church be brightened by people sharing their light with the person next to them – husband with wife, wife with husband, parent with child, child with parent, and siblings with siblings.\u00a0 As such, parents must enkindle the fire. \u00a0 God calls them to fan into a flame, to rekindle the fire in their homes. Using the acronym FIRE, here are four keys to setting our domestic churches ablaze in order to brighten the darkness of this world:<\/p>\n

“F” stands for Faith – <\/strong>Faith means more than simple belief for “even the demons believe” (James 2:19).\u00a0 It means trust – trust in a Person and trust in everything that Person has revealed.\u00a0 In other words, as Christians, we have faith in Jesus and<\/strong> <\/em>in the faith He has revealed.\u00a0 St. Paul says, “we walk by faith, not by sight”(2 Cor 5:7).\u00a0 To walk by faith is to walk by trust – trust in the Person who leads us and in the directions he provides for us.\u00a0 Have you ever asked your child who cannot swim to jump into your arms while you wait in the pool below because you say you will catch him?\u00a0 He must trust both you and what you say.\u00a0 The two go hand in hand.\u00a0 When he jumps, doesn’t it bring you joy?\u00a0 When he doesn’t, isn’t there a twinge of sadness?\u00a0 Maybe this is what Jesus had in mind when He said, “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).<\/p>\n

“I” stands for Integration –\u00a0 <\/strong>Faith must be put into action.\u00a0 The child must jump into your arms.\u00a0 The child can say he trusts, but unless he jumps into your arms, you have no proof that he does trust you.\u00a0 Integration means that what we believe shapes our thoughts, words, and deeds.\u00a0 To say, I believe and not to act is of no benefit to ourselves or to others.\u00a0 St. James puts it this way, “faith without works is dead”(James 2:17).\u00a0 As humans, God has given us souls and bodies – souls to think and to will and bodies to act.\u00a0 Faith remains invisible until it is integrated into our lives.\u00a0 God entrusted to us our bodies in order that we can make the invisible, visible.\u00a0 We know this intuitively.\u00a0 Who hasn’t been told, “don’t tell me you love me, show me”?\u00a0 The word, love, remains a vague and amorphous thought – a mere idea – without a body to show what it means.\u00a0 Just look at a crucifix.\u00a0 Jesus says, “if a man loves me, he will keep my word”(John 14:23).\u00a0 Keeping His word means putting It into action, keeping It, integrating It into\u00a0 our lives, living the Faith, dying to ourselves.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

“R” stands for Relationship –\u00a0 <\/strong>Faith and integration are, to some extent, individual keys – things that I can, in a sense, do by myself.\u00a0 The last two keys have to do with others.\u00a0 We are created for relationship with others – with God, with our spouses, with our children.\u00a0 Faith and integration mean nothing if they do not involve relationships with others.\u00a0 In fact, we cannot even come into existence without a relationship between two people, without others.\u00a0 Once we do come into existence, we cannot survive without others.\u00a0 From conception to death, we depend on others, and others depend on us.\u00a0 As the poet said, “no man is an island unto himself”. \u00a0\u00a0 As such, relationships must be built for faith and integration to occur.\u00a0 If the child knows that the woman in the pool below is mommy – the woman who has fed him, changed his diapers, bandaged his skinned knees, if she is someone with whom he has a trusting relationship, he can trust her and her word.\u00a0 He can jump into her arms.\u00a0 Faith and life intersect in and through relationships.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

“E” stands for Evangelization – <\/strong>Once we trust Jesus and His word, once we put that faith into action in our lives, and once we build and cultivate relationships in and through this “lived” faith, we now can turn to evangelization – to getting the message out to others.\u00a0 And what is the message?\u00a0 What is the Good News?\u00a0 What is the Gospel?\u00a0 It is only one Word, one Person.\u00a0 The Good News is Jesus.\u00a0 Through His Life, His Passion, His Death, His Resurrection, and His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father, He reveals to us that He, that God, is trustworthy.\u00a0 He reveals to us the truth about God and about ourselves – the truth about Life and Love.\u00a0 He reveals His desire to be in relationship with us, with you and with me.\u00a0 How do others come to know this Gospel?\u00a0 By our lives.\u00a0 In our relationships.\u00a0 Are we trustworthy?\u00a0 Do we live what we say we believe in our every day actions and decisions?\u00a0 Do others know, by our words and actions, that we will be there to catch them when they jump?\u00a0 Ultimately, evangelization is being Jesus to others and seeing Jesus in others.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

These four keys, if put into action in our daily lives, will set our families ablaze, shine light into the darkness of this world, and eventually begin to turn the tide in today’s culture.\u00a0 The next four columns of this five part series will focus in more depth on each of these keys individually and provide you with practical ways of putting these into action in your own lives and homes.\u00a0 Please join us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! (Luke 12:49) Jesus desired then, and He desires now that a fire be kindled on earth.\u00a0 Today, as much as at any time before in history, we as Catholics, as Christians, must take these words to heart.\u00a0 We must “rekindle… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[671],"tags":[51,127,62,50,2890,1728,1727,720,165],"class_list":["post-39806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-column","tag-catholicism","tag-children","tag-evangelization","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-family-relationships","tag-integration","tag-parenthood","tag-parenting","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t