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2 MAY 2021 | DENVER CATHOLIC ARCH B I S H O P ' S CO LU M N W ith this edition of the Denver Catholic magazine, I am completing the telling of our story as chil- dren of God the Father. You might recall that the past two issues have covered how God brought us into existence as the peak of Creation, how we were taken hos- tage by evil and sin when Adam and Eve fell from grace, and finally, how the Father responded to our plight by sending his son into the world to rescue us through his death and resurrection. This column's focus is the final chapter: how should we respond to what God has done for us? This part of our story continually unfolds as we live our lives. We add to this narrative with each decision we make and with each day that passes. The Kingdom of God and our role in it is woven into this story, too. When we talk about the Kingdom of God, it's helpful to realize that it is a king- dom that is unfolding in history and will only reach its final form at the end of time. It is what theologians have called the "already and not yet" reality of the Kingdom of God. The Catechism describes this dual reality as follows: "By a discernment according to the Spirit, Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the Reign of God and the progress of the culture and society in which they are involved. This distinction is not a separation. Man's vocation to eternal life does not suppress, but actually reinforces, his duty to put into action in this world the energies and means received from the Creator to serve jus- tice and peace" (CCC, 2820). The famous Christian author C.S. Lewis uses a vivid analogy to describe how we can locate ourselves within the timeline of our unfolding story. "Enemy-occupied ter- ritory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great cam- paign of sabotage." (Mere Christianity). So how can we respond to all that God has done for us? How can we engage in sabotage against the Evil One? We do this by knowing what the landscape around us looks like, where we are headed – to the Kingdom of God – and how to get there. In terms of where we are, the Church is catching up to the fact that the culture has become post-Christian. Many of our institutions and structures are operating using old maps that have features on them that have been wiped out by the rising secular tides. That is why Pope Francis joined his recent predecessors in calling for a "'missionary option,' that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church's customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today's world rather than for her self-preservation" (Evangelii Gaudium, 27). Most of us have grown up in a Church that is built around maintaining its institutional presence and to a degree relying on the surrounding culture to transmit Christian values, so this shift is uncomfortable and unfa- miliar. It's also difficult because God's plan is never fully laid out in front of us. But the wonderful thing about adopting a missionary orientation is that it creates greater room for faith, trust and the action of the Holy Spirit. How to respond to God's infinite love BY ARCHBISHOP SAMUEL J. AQUILA Follow Archbishop Aquila on Social media: |