All things done in love, has as a goal, bringing all awareness closer into God. Educating ourselves through our action makes more clear and unified our response to God’s gift of faith, a unique type of intellectual-updating that reaches down into our core. Beyond words though, it is our faith in action, or our walking the talk, that is essential and a prime indicator of a life well lived, and coincidentally the subject of this article — Faith in Action.
During this season between Easter Resurrection and Pentecost we can celebrate with genuine honesty, what we Catholics collectively provide to large numbers of people in various ways of assistance in many forms. Collectively, and just in the USA, we currently have 6289 Catholic schools, both elementary & high-school serving 1.78 million students in 2019. We also have 260 Catholic colleges or universities serving 891,000 students enrolled in 2017. We have 660 Catholic hospitals in the USA serving one in every seven people in the USA. Our Catholic Charities collected $3.7 billion in 2017 to fund the many services Catholic Charities provide. So contrasting those shining points of light with dark troubling news; even with the current spiritual cleansing taking place and including the bad misadventures found in ancient church history, I believe we can lift-up and celebrate our Catholic achievements made today — made in common, together.
Why focus on those shining points of light? Well, there are several reasons: remembering and reporting the good we have done reinforces and strengthens our conviction to continue to do Jesus’ work; the good work accomplished together does triumph over evil, displacing it with God’s will for us to be a blessing to others. Further, we can rest assured when we pray and worship that we are indeed operating more and more in God’s will when we are experiencing life in harmony with the beatitudes. Finally, when functioning together as The Body of Christ we can envision Jesus more clearly in our lives, see and recognize Him more visibly in others, those who have been served, in our parishes, and our communities.
As Cursillistas we can celebrate these great Catholic accomplishments en vivo, because they are happening today! Praise God! Developing our own unique styles and methods of sharing this Good News is to help uplift our friends and neighbors, bringing hope. Benefits of doing this kind of sharing with others can potentially bring about: a restored faith, a more engaged Catholic, a new beginning in faith, or just a closer walk with Jesus. Sharing examples and explaining to others how our beautiful church is a positive influence in our environments, it turns-on that powerful light of God’s love, remember the beginning of Easter Vigil, — remember
the Light of the World brings our Faith into Action.
Dn Joe Frederick
