{"id":44081,"date":"2014-02-26T09:36:40","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T15:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=44081"},"modified":"2014-02-26T09:36:40","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T15:36:40","slug":"seminarians-reflection-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/seminarians-reflection-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"A Seminarian’s Reflection on Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lord Our God, Our Father, sees all things. No matter how much we try to hide \"my<\/a>from him, and no matter how much we might think we are doing things in secret, he sees all things. Night is not dark enough to hide us away from his loving view. He does not look upon us to judge us and condemn us but<\/span> rather to show us his immense love and mercy. But, if we do not change our ways of seeing things, Like St. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, to look at things in a spiritual way, we shall be lost forever and frustrated at the fact that we shall see God’s gaze as a gaze of damnation. God’s love is like the warmth of the Sun, nothing can hide from the heat. Even if we were to run into a cool room, there is still warmth that threatens to warm the room. God’s love is ever engulfing and knows no boundaries. Even if someone refuses to accept the love of Our Father or believe that he is there, God loves and shows his presence at the moment one simply glances<\/span> in his direction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Lord knew us even before we were conceived in the womb of our mothers. It was he that molded our bodies and created our souls. He is the origin of our lives. We might believe in the Evolutionary Theory but God is the ultimate creator of all creation and he continues to hold them in being. Nothing can exist without the loving hand of God upon us daily. If the Lord were to forget us, we would cease to exist and we would come to nothing. But God remains and<\/span> for this reason we are given life, new life, daily. The Lord knows all our actions and all our thoughts. He sees in our inner most<\/span> being. He knows our rising and setting, he knows our beginning and our end. We, because we are finite and can only know our present, because since our intellect is to<\/span> infantile at birth, can never fully comprehend the works of the Lord. To try to comprehend his mind is trying to take the entire ocean in our hands, the moment we think we have something, it slips through our grasp. We can only have faith that one day the Lord will, should he grant it, share with us his thoughts in eternity, but there his thoughts will not matter to us because we will be wrapped up in his eternal glory, we shall be in extreme awe at<\/span> his majesty, praising the God of the Universe, the mighty King!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why did the Lord create us? Did he create us to suffer? Did he create us to be slaves for him? No, God created us to share in his beatitude. God ordained man to love and serve him according<\/span> to free will. What good would it have been if our Loving Father would have forced us to love him? Imagine that someone you love is forcing you to love them, would that be true love? The answer is absolutely no. Love is a free gift of oneself to the other. For this reason God created all things, visible and invisible, all were created through him, all were created for him, the Lord Jesus Christ, was before all else that is, he had his being from the dawning of time. It was because of him that we were rescued from the darkness of life, a darkness that we, humans, brought upon ourselves through our sin, the sin of pride. The Lord took on our sinful flesh and with it took on our sinful nature so that through his death he might bring our sin to death and raise us to new life through his resurrection. He, the first-born of the dead, conquered death and brought us to life everlasting, so that anyone who believes in him might have eternal life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For this reason we are moved<\/span> to fill the earth with the praise that comes from heaven. When we join in our praises on earth, especially and most importantly in the mass, we join the heavenly hosts in adoring and praising his Majesty. Imagine that someone you loved dearly was given over to death for the sake of another. Say that your loved one was a person of great virtue and did good for all people, but at the moment that another was about to die, your loved one took their place to save them from their own death. Then, the people around made him to be the level of a hero and promised your loved one that they would hold what he asked of them to remember the sacrifice that he did for that person. But, after thousands of years, that all dwindles and people begin to mock and mimic, they begin to complain about how things are done, they miss the weekly celebration because it doesn’t do anything for them. What would you say? How would you feel? Jesus Christ, the beloved of Father God, is that loved one that gave his life for all mankind, but yet, we stray away from him. We leave him at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass alone and without consolation. If only we would take time to spend time with him. Since God is outside of time, he transcends Chronos and lives in eternity, we can still go back to him in the garden, before the Sanhedrin, at Calvary and even in his tomb. But we don’t, we allow our daily struggles and daily tasks to take priority over our Lord.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our Lord, in his infinite mercy and love, took on the eternal priesthood so that anyone who comes to believe in him might be able to approach the Father through him. Our Lord Jesus is constantly interceding for all mankind and how he \u201cthirsts\u201d for us! He calls us to his side when on the cross he says,<\/span> \u201cI thirst\u201d. He calls all of us, sinners, to repent and come to him. On the cross when he cried out, \u201cMy God, My God, why have you forsaken me\u201d, he did this not because God had abandoned him, for how would that be possible if he was God incarnate, but he did it because he was showing us that he too understood our struggles of doubt. The Lord understands all our weakness for<\/span> he experienced them all. And because he understands them all, he yearns to heal us and make us<\/span> completely his own.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When we say that we are completely his own that does not excuse us from not having suffering<\/span> in our lives. Suffering is a redemptive instrument. When Christ spoke to his disciples he<\/span> said, \u201cIf you want to follow after me, you must take up your cross\u201d. He did not make any excuses about the struggles that we would face in life. He made it clear that we must suffer. Now, suffering is not a solely Christian ordeal, it is a universal, human ordeal. All people suffer, the Christian, the Jew, the Hindu, the Muslim, the Atheist, etc… All have suffering<\/span> in their lives, the question is, is that suffering leading us to a better life or is it making us bitter and stagnant? Christ taught us how to suffer and to use that suffering for our edification and the conversion of many. Let us follow Christ in his example and let us offer up our sufferings so<\/span> that we might bring other lost sheep to<\/span> the flock of Christ. For Christ knows that the sheep of his flock know him and he knows them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lord Our God, Our Father, sees all things. No matter how much we try to hide from him, and no matter how much we might think we are doing things in secret, he sees all things. Night is not dark enough to hide us away from his loving view. He does not look upon… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"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,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","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":[671,90],"tags":[55,50,1747,156,859],"class_list":{"0":"post-44081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-column","7":"category-faith-blog","8":"tag-catholic-2","9":"tag-faith","10":"tag-father","11":"tag-god","12":"tag-spirituality","13":"entry","14":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":365948,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/meditation-emotions-part-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":44081,"position":0},"title":"Meditation and Emotions (Part II)","author":"Rachel","date":"February 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a follow up to my last post, Meditation and Decisive Times, where I attempted to sketch the basics of what it means to meditate on life,\u00a0as a way to grow in love and closeness to God, and a way to help foster a deep and integrated inner life.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/tumblr_n6eszmeQMR1st5lhmo1_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/tumblr_n6eszmeQMR1st5lhmo1_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/tumblr_n6eszmeQMR1st5lhmo1_1280.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/tumblr_n6eszmeQMR1st5lhmo1_1280.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/tumblr_n6eszmeQMR1st5lhmo1_1280.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":139796,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/08\/the-beauty-of-the-dark-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":44081,"position":1},"title":"The Beauty of The Dark Night","author":"Josue","date":"August 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Saint John of the Cross has a reputation for being a guy who does not care much for your feelings. His name sometimes sounds like a penance.\u00a0People hear \"dark night\" and think of an isolated exile with little or no hope. 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