Saint Frances Cabrini Parish

Father Kleppner - January 7, 2007
The Christmas Season is filled with wonder. The Preface of the Christmas Mass proclaims that in the wonder of the incarnation our God became visible in the Child of Bethlehem and so we are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see. Today we celebrate the great solemnity of the Epiphany. A star of wonder led searching wise men to discover the Savior of the world. The wonder of our Catholic faith draws us closer to the Prince of Peace and the Lord of Life. As we begin a new year, I share with you the reflections of Bishop Paul Bradley on the wonders of our Catholic faith.

Reconnect with faith that is one, holy, catholic, apostolic

In this day and age, it is easy to get lost – in more ways than one. People today move from place to place in a way that our grandparents might never have imagined. The person who is born, raised, married and, yes, buried in the same parish is pretty rare now. Many people might belong to 10 or even 20 parishes in a lifetime, depending on how many times job, family or just the itch to move on can take you across the city or across the country.
Sometimes in that process, people can get lost in the sense of losing connections with people and circumstances of the past; sometimes in that process, people can even get lost, or get separated from active participation in the practice of their faith.
Wonders of our faith
As we pray regularly in the profession of our faith, “We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.” What do those “wonders of our faith” mean for us in our day to day lives?
One of the wonders of our faith is its oneness – its unity. Not a unity defined by marching in lockstep, but a unity in, and through, Christ. We can experience the faith through the lens of a hundred cultures, but remain one in Christ. In the church we find a fundamental unity of an eternal magnitude. Our individuality is not erased in that unity, but rather completed in the body of Christ.
This unity is not a blind act of faith. In fact, the church demands that we use our intellects, to know our faith and know how to apply it in our lives. This makes us free to really think, rather than act like those trapped in propaganda of the times, getting their views from the “one-trick pony” of contemporary culture.
The wonder of our faith is also that it is holy. It is holy because it is the church of Christ – holy because its founder and his teachings are holy; holy because of the Spirit who guides it; holy in its worship; holy in its sacraments; and holy even in its members, who are baptized into Christ and who are called to live lives of holiness.
An additional wonder of our Catholic faith is that it is catholic, that is, truly universal. No matter the parish that we attend, no matter in what city, county, country or culture, the faith we are taught and believe is the same, as are the sacraments that we celebrate together. The Eucharist – the central act of our Catholic worship – is the same whether it is celebrated in Pittsburgh, Prague or the Philippines.
The wonder of our faith is that it crosses culture and history. The centrality of Christ, the teachings of Christ, are not confined to any one era or any one people. The church is catholic, that is universal, because it is grounded in Christ, and Christ is eternally present in it. The church is universal because the message of Christ was meant for everyone, not for one time, not for one distant corner of the world in which he lived in history. While we live the faith in so many different cultures, our faith is never confined to one culture. This “universality” of our Catholic faith comes from Christ, whose life is meant for all people and for all time.
Finally, there is a wonder to our faith in what we call its apostolic nature. The church is apostolic because it traces itself to the church taught and lived by the apostles, who received their mission from Christ.
Applying Christ’s teachings
From this apostolic nature of our faith, we know that the essential teachings we live by and celebrate each day are the teachings of Christ. This “deposit of faith” is preserved by the church.
But the wonder of our faith is also that this does not make our beliefs a museum piece, frozen in time and passed from generation to generation like some untouchable heirloom. Rather, our faith is vibrant. The apostolic mission of the church is to present and apply the timeless teachings of Christ everyday. The apostolic mission of the church is constantly engaged with our world, applying the teachings of Christ to the new circumstances we face everyday. That is why the church is able to speak to the world of science and medicine, the popular culture, as well as the political world in 2006, just as it spoke to the world of the 19th century, and just as it will be able to speak to the world of future generations.
If you are connected to a parish, but have not been participating in the faith life of that parish lately – if you’ve gotten a bit lost or disconnected – I would encourage you to get reconnected. The church wants to see you back, sharing in the wonder of our Catholic faith: a faith that is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.

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