Cooperation Not Transformation

My co-facilitator asked our group, "How many of you read the Bible?"  The people I was standing next to mumbled their responses, but I distinctly heard, "It's too hard."

He continued on about how much he enjoys reading the Bible every day...blah, blah.

But I couldn't get that short sentence out of my mind, "It's too hard."  What did he mean?

There are all kinds of translations, fer cryin out loud!  You could even read a children's Bible!  What's the matter with people?

I've been thinking about "It's too hard.", all week.  I've come to the conclusion that the person who said that, probably hasn't really tried.  Not really!  The Bible he looked at probably used more difficult language than we commonly use.  That person was simply intimidated.  He looked and gave up.

Obviously, since he came to our Adult Faith Formation, he is open to being transformed.

Mmmmm.  Maybe not.  His heart and mind are open a crack, but not all the way.  He wants what he wants to change and learn, but he's not open to a complete transformation by God.  IOW, he wants God to cooperate with him, not transform him.

This is what we Faith Formation Facilitators have to address before we teach anybody, anything.  People don't want to change that much.  They want to be better people and grow closer to God, but not too fast and on their own terms.

Yesterday was the feast of St. Martin de Tours.  He did many wonderful things.  When he was dying, his followers begged him to fight death.  They wanted Martin to live longer to help them.  This was Martin's prayer:

Lord, if your people still need me, I am ready for the task; your will be done.

How's that for being open to God's Will!  I think our lesson plan should be a lecture on being open to what God wants us to be, not what we want to be.  We need to pray for God to transform us to do His Will, not ours.  

God Kisses Better

My “cloistered brothers” were recollecting when they first encountered God.  Some felt peace, saw light, heard joy, in various circumstances.  Some were in accidents, some while attending Cursillo, some participated in a healing service, and some were reading scripture.  

The memories soon changed into life after encountering God.  My brothers spoke of feeling protected, not alone, or God has my back.  There were frequent references to God’s plans.

 

We realized that we were speaking as if God planned this to happen, which isn’t true.  We very well could have chosen not to be receptive to the Holy Spirit.  We could have shaken off whatever grace filled promptings that were blessing us.  But we didn’t.  We freely chose to accept God.

We were sounding like we had no choice--that we were predestined to such and such behavior.  Just the thought evoked laughter because with our history, we were more than likely to choose the wrong way.  (So much for predestination).

The way to look at it, we concluded, was that we freely chose, but accepting God and His Will, made it better.

 Oh yes, it makes all the difference in the world.