III Advent : Gaudete Sunday

2 Now when John had heard in prison the works of Christ: sending two of his disciples he said to Him:
3 Art thou He that art to come, or look we for another?
4 And Jesus making answer said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. 5 The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them.
6 And blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in Me.
7 And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: What went you out into the desert to see? a reed shaken with the wind?
8 But what went you out to see? a man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments, are in the houses of kings.
9 But what went you out to see? a prophet? yea I tell you, and more than a prophet.
10 For this is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before Thy face, who shall prepare thy way before Thee.
11 Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.
13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John:
14 And if you will receive it, he is Elias that is to come.
15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

~ Matthew 11 (Douay-Rhiems)

Today's (new rite) Gospel reading is one of my very favorites. "Art thou He that art to come, or look we for another?" We can hear the questioning in the Baptist's voice, the anxiety over whether his Cousin is truly the Messiah. Isn't that all of us, at times ? "And blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in Me. " I think of this verse often, when some "victim group" or other is offended by a teaching of the Church-- or even the celebration of Christmas itself. Lord Jesus, let me never be scandalized in (offended by) You. And more especially, help me day by day to never cause You scandal. The Feast of the Incarnation comes quickly, dear friends !

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

My apologies for such laxity in writing this week. Let me see if I can get back to the story :

Well, I got sober and joined the Evangelical church of my friends, and I am near the end of my story up to this point. Although I have tried to be an active partner of the Austin Stone, I have continued to go to Mass and read up on the Catholic faith. For the last three years I have had one foot in the Evangelical tradition and one foot in Rome, and I will never regret this time with the Evangelicals. I have learned a great deal-- nearly everything I do know, in fact-- about what I call "ambulatory Christianity" (the Walk of faith) from this church, and I have gained a respect and love for the Evangelical tradition that I would never have had. Indeed, I consider myself an Evangelical Catholic, and I hope to never lose that sense of my faith. A good exposition of what that actually is can be found here : http://www.stmarysgvl.org/discipleship/evangelical-catholicism

I have never been to this parish or met any of her priests, but Fr. Newman and Fr. Longenecker seem to have an excellent take on the faith and one that I will try to emulate as a full-fledged Catholic. (I highly recommend any of Fr. Longenecker's books-- he's an exceptional apologist.)

So what's so great about The Austin Stone ? It will be very hard to give a full answer to that question for those who can't experience it firsthand. First, here's the website : http://www.austinstone.org/

I actually have a "life story" on the website, which will probably be coming down, or at least revised, in the next month or so when I resign my partnership. I closely mirrors this one, but with a less Catholic bent (!).

I encourage all who visit here to go to the Stone's website and check it out, especially the sermons of the lead Pastor, Matt Carter. He is a truly gifted preacher, in style and content, and an authentic man of God.

The theology of The Stone is, like most Evangelical churches, rather Calvinist. Not overwhelmingly so--i.e., it isn't preached all, or even most, Sundays. But it is there, and The Stone's leaders have arrived at that theology in an entirely honest way. Calvinism is a very logical theology, much like Catholicism-- except that Calvinism starts with a flawed premise :
"God always exercises His sovereignty, in all things, at all times. And sola Scriptura can prove that." Unfortunately, it makes God out to be a rather unpleasant Deity, one that we as Catholics have great difficulty believing in. But Christ and the Gospel are preached with truth and clarity in every other respect, and the Reformed theology is not something that is headlined very often. The church is most definitely not anti-Catholic, in that never have I heard a nasty thing about The Church in all my time there. My switching over to Holy Mother Church will not thrill them, make no mistake-- but neither will it be occasion, I hope, for mourning and gnashing of teeth. We shall see. I plan to write my letter of resignation right after Christmas. I dread it, but it must be done.

More soon...