Homily for the Feast of the Presentation at St. Joseph, Athens GA by FatherGaurav Shroff

Homily for the Feast of the Presentation at St. Joseph, Athens GA by FatherGaurav Shroff

The Master Builder and His Work

***Pardon me...
This article is under construction and is not yet finished.
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When one beholds the works of the Hand of God all around us, one can not be anything but dumbfounded and amazed by the intricate detail of organization and beauty. Whether one is looking at a waterfall, a snail or the circulatory system of the human body....

Article summary:
- God's work is amazingly organized, serves a purpose, proclaims His Glory, etc.
- We know a lot about Him through His creation...to a non-Christian, His Creation is the only clear Truth one can know.
- any good student should recognize His handiworks vs an imitation and His modus operandi.
-as Christians we know that Jesus is God and Christ is the builder of His Church.

- therefore we should be able to recognize His handiwork in the Church.

- all we know about Christ is revealed to us by the writings of the Apostles, through the Church (Ephesians).

- if God was to build a Church how would He do it?

- what is a Church? Those who are called out.

- He built one before in Israel? O.T. even refers to Israel as His Church.

- In Israel, God established leaders with His Authority and Succession.

- Christ clearly established leaders, even more clearly than in the O.T. shared His own authority.

- All who admit this (Orthodox and Catholic) believe Rome to be the heir to the see of Peter, the head of the Apostles.

***It is because we can trust in Christ and His very own words, that we know how He, the Good Shepherd would build His Church and guide her. He would protect it, correct it, endure it. He would not take away Her Authority without signs and wonders and give it to another (the early "Reformers" believed they were given this Authority (redefined), later reformers were the ones who believed this authority never existed. 

He led Israel the same way He has led the Church. Sinful men in a hierarchy who have full Authority from God. (He sometimes condemns these men but He never has a kind word for rebels). The difference is, this leadership has been more stable, Universal and more trustworthy...there are problems that arise but the appointed leaders are never conquered. The Body of Christ like an injured human body, it can display weakness and damage but the body heals and compensates for the injury to work toward order.

- Christ would not rule through chaos that works toward more chaos.

Christ would not abandon His Church. Christ is not a liar.

If God wants to be knowable, than He would establish a Church (the Body of the Son, who is the Truth) that is knowable.

Many others claim the the Bible is the only trustworthy rule of faith. Would God now in this Church (Israel version 2.0) provide only a document that was not available to the average member for 1500+ years as the one and only means of knowing His revealed Truth, as interpreted by each member.

- if so, what would this document include that a Master Builder would deem necessary for His followers to know? Would He not make it  unambiguously clear with little room for debate; like a ruling legal document for a nation, a Holy Constitution to rule His Church.

But this is not what we have in the Bible at all. Instead we have five books of historical accounts, four, but especially three, of which mostly repeat the same stories and teachings, in different orders, sometimes even seeming to contradict one another a little.

- we have many letters from party A to party B regarding issues (false teachings, rebelliousness, discord, etc.) we don't fully understand. These letters also refer in general to the importance of following teachings and traditions that were taught in previous personal visits, teachings that are not spelled out.

- Would there be no clearly laid out list of what one needs to do to have eternal life...so that you would not need to be a "scholar" to ascertain the real way. Is it:  follow the commandments, believe and be baptized, call on the name of Jesus, eat His flesh, etc?

*Side note - if the "plan of salvation", as interpreted by each Christian tradition, were a mathematical word problem (in some sense they are just that) what would you get if the factors were deconstructed, the factors removed from our biased words? If you tried to prove their answers from raw data, who's solution would be correct.

My Parish's New Parochial Vicar

St. Joseph Catholic Church in Athens,GA is getting a new Priest this August. From what I have heard and read of him, he is the type of priest so many devout Catholics have been praying for...Praise God. He loves Christ deeply, has a heart for evangelization, is theologically sound, is faithful to the Magisterium and has a reverence for the small "t" traditions of the Church (i.e. music, liturgy).

Here is his conversion story

Here is an article from the newly ordained Fr. Gaurav Shroff.

http://www.hprweb.com/2012/12/the-munus-regendi-of-the-priest-and-the-vocation-of-the-laity/

Miscellaneous Links

The Apologist's Most Important Tool
http://www.catholic.com/blog/trent-horn/the-apologist%E2%80%99s-most-important-tool

Links to Various Conversion Stories

Jeffrey A. Tucker - OPC
http://www.reformed.org/webfiles/antithesis/index.html?mainframe=/webfiles/antithesis/v1n5/ant_v1n5_why.html

Historical Conversions
http://beutel.narod.ru/write/convert.htm

The Venerable (and Quotable) Pope Paul VI

" Not to preach the Gospel would be my undoing, for Christ himself sent me as his apostle and witness. The more remote, the more difficult the assignment, the more my love of God spurs me on. I am bound to proclaim that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of him we come to know the God we cannot see. He is the firstborn of all creation; in him all things find their being. Man’s teacher and redeemer, he was born for us, died for us, and for us he rose from the dead.

All things, all history converges in Christ. A man of sorrow and hope, he knows us and loves us. As our friend he stays by us throughout our lives; at the end of time he will come to be our judge; but we also know that he will be the complete fulfilment of our lives and our great happiness for all eternity.

I can never cease to speak of Christ for he is our truth and our light; he is the way, the truth and the life. He is our bread, our source of living water who allays our hunger and satisfies our thirst. He is our shepherd, our leader, our ideal, our comforter and our brother.

He is like us but more perfectly human, simple, poor, humble, and yet, while burdened with work, he is more patient. He spoke on our behalf; he worked miracles; and he founded a new kingdom: in it the poor are happy; peace is the foundation of a life in common; where the pure of heart and those who mourn are uplifted and comforted; the hungry find justice; sinners are forgiven; and all discover that they are brothers.

The image I present to you is the image of Jesus Christ. As Christians you share his name; he has already made most of you his own. So once again I repeat his name to you Christians and I proclaim to all men: Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, Lord of the new universe, the great hidden key to human history and the part we play in it. He is the mediator - the bridge, if you will - between heaven and earth. Above all he is the Son of man, more perfect than any man, being also the Son of God, eternal and infinite. He is the son of Mary his mother on earth, more blessed than any woman. She is also our mother in the spiritual communion of the mystical body.

Remember: [it] is Jesus Christ I preach day in and day out. His name I would see echo and re-echo for all time even to the ends of the earth.". (from a homily delivered in Manila, Philipines. November 29, 1970.)
 

The Quotable Blessed Mother Teresa

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"Never let anything so fill you with pain or sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ Risen!"

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"God has not called me to be successful. He has called me to be faithful."

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A poem found written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta:

              People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.

            If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

            If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.

           If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

            What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

            If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

            The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

         Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

         In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.

-this version is credited to Mother Teresa