Learn Your Faith Homily Part 1

by Fr. Michael A. Van Sloun

The Twenty-First Sunday Or Ordinary Time, Year A
Is 22:15,19-23; Ps 138:1-3,6,8; Rom 11:33-36; Mt 16:13-20

Higher, Hotter, Brighter
Stoking Up The Turn Up The Flame Campaign

Sunday, August 24, 2008, 8:00, 9:30, 11:15 a.m., and 6:00 p.m. Masses

 

Our Turn Up the Flame spiritual capital campaign is “hot stuff!”
This is all about being “on fire” for our Lord, Jesus Christ!
  Jesus wanted Peter and the other apostles to be “on fire” for him.
  And, Jesus wants you and me to be “on fire” for him too!
  God wants nothing to do with lukewarm.  Nothing!
  In fact, an angel of the Lord appeared to John in a vision and said,
    “I wish you were either hot or cold.
      Because you are lukewarm, neither hot or cold,
      I will vomit you out of my mouth” (Rev 3:15,16).
Puke.  Yuk!
Turn Up the Flame is anti-nausea medication for God.
  We don’t want God to get indigestion over how half-hearted we might be.
God is not looking for lukewarm or mediocre out of us.  Oh, no!
When Jesus asked Peter and the other apostles,
  “Who do you say I am?” (Mt 16:15),
  he was looking for a stronger, firmer commitment from them,
  and Jesus is looking for a stronger, firmer commitment out of you and me.

Are you up to this?
Let the Church say, “Amen!”

No matter how strong our faith may be,
  it can and must grow stronger.
No matter how much you or I may have turned up our flame so far,
  our flame can go:  HIGHER, HOTTER, and BRIGHTER.

HIGHER, HOTTER, BRIGHTER is the slogan for the next phase
  of our Turn Up the Flame spiritual campaign.

So, how hot have things been so far?
The factory that manufactured our fiery red-orange wrist bands caught fire and burnt down
  shortly after they completed our order.  Maybe they turned up the flame too high.
Unbelievable!  You can’t make this stuff up!
We distributed 6000 wrists bands last February and March, and we ran out.
There were many requests for more, so we placed another order,
  but the factory decided not to rebuild, and they’ve gone out of business.

If you have one of the original red-orange wrist bands, hang on to it.
It is a limited edition, never to be duplicated, and sure to increase in value.

But not to worry.
If you don’t have a wrist band, or if you wanted more,
    we’ve gone to another supplier,
  and the new wrist bands have arrived are available in the FCC after Mass today,
  and like before, there is no charge.
The new wrist bands are fire-engine red.
They are imprinted with our spiritual action plan for the coming months:
    Learn Your Faith.

There is a Master Plan for our three-year Turn Up the Flame campaign:
  Year One, this year – to better Learn Our Faith;
  Year Two, next year – to better Practice Our Faith;
  and then, Year Three, the last year – to better Share Our Faith.

There are a couple very problematic misunderstandings about the faith formation process.

One misunderstanding is that religious education is only for school-age children.
  Nothing could be further from the truth!
  Learning about our faith is for everyone, of all ages, not just school-age kids.
  It starts with very little children, long before they go to school, as they learn how to talk:
    “Mommy!”  “Daddy!”  “Jesus!”
  Learning about our faith starts at the earliest ages, even before pre-school programs,
    and it continues to one’s senior years.

Another misunderstanding is that the main place
  where faith formation or religious education takes place
  is here at church or in the school.
Wrong!
The main place where the faith is learned and then practiced is in the home,
  and the programs here at church are supposed to support what happens at home.
And we have excellent programs here at church.

The new wrist band is imprinted:  Learn Your Faith.
Every one of us can learn more about our faith.
One of the great advantages of being such a large parish
  is that we are able to have so many faith formation program offerings.
We have a new brochure as an insert in this week’s parish bulletin
  that provides an overview of many options available here to Learn Our Faith.
Please take a look at this, and select at least one thing for yourself.

This week is the beginning of the State Fair.
This weekend we are having our own “fair,” a “Faith Fair” in the FCC after Mass,
  and there are tables, exhibits, on various aspects of our faith formation process.

During Year One of Turn Up the Flame,
  there are a number of options that come very highly recommended to you.
Number One, on the back panel of the brochure, even before you open it up,
  is Bible Study.
If you want to better Learn Your Faith,
  a great starting point is to learn more about the Bible.
If we want to learn about Jesus, we must read and study the gospels.
If we want to learn more about God and what the Church teaches,
  we need to study scripture from Genesis to Revelation.
Our parish has a couple of wonderful options for you:
  my program which at is offered twice a week, on Wednesday evenings and Friday mornings;
  and the Bible Timeline which is offered on Thursday evenings.

My Wednesday and Friday program is quite unique.
  Very few priests offer Bible Study.
  Very few priests have religious photography as a hobby.
Most programs are “canned,” they use someone else’s written explanations,
  but I write all of my own commentaries.
In other programs, the author is not present,
  but here at St. Stephen’s, the author, me,
  does the presentation, facilitates the discussion,
    and I provide plenty of opportunity for questions and answers.
Our program is Lectionary-based, it uses the readings for the next weekend’s Mass,
  so not only do people learn more,
    they are better prepared to worship with greater understanding the next weekend.

Last Sunday I was called to an emergency at Mercy Hospital
  to administer the Sacrament of Anointing to a man dying of liver cancer.
He’s a very nice fellow, Harold, and I’ve known him for a number of years.
Harold is not long for this life,
  and he really caught me off guard with something he said.
“Fr. Mike, I’m going into hospice tomorrow, and I have a regret.”
“And Harold, what’s that?” I asked, not having any clue what it might be.
And he said, “I regret that I never attended your Bible study.”
This dying man wasn’t just blowin’ smoke.  He was very sincere.
One of the bigger mistakes that we can make in life
  is to put off the most important things too long.
Please, don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do now.

Another blessing of being at St. Stephen’s is that there is another option for Bible Study,
  called the Bile Timeline, developed by Jeff Cavins,
  who has been on EWTN, and has a national reputation.
His program is on DVD.  He has written a workbook to go along.
  It provides an overview of Scripture.  It will be offered on Thursday evenings.
There are information tables on both Bible Study programs at the Faith Fair in the FCC.

The second aspect of Learn Your Faith that comes very highly recommended
  is our faith formation offerings for school-age children.
The brochure is a complete listing of the rich array of our program offerings:
  Sunday School, Elementary formation,
  Middle School formation, Middle School Madness,
  Faith at Home, high school small groups, Teens in Action.
We have the sacramental preparation programs for
  Baptism, First Eucharist, Confirmation, and First Reconciliation.
We have youth activities:  The Refuge, The Edge.
We just completed the summer youth programs: 
  Vacation Bible School, Summer Stretch, the Mission Trip.

There are information tables on every one of these programs at the Faith Fair in the FCC.
Moms and dads, if you have signed up your children already, thank you.
Moms and dads, if you haven’t singed up your kids,
  you can do so at the Faith Fair in the FCC immediately after Mass.
My young friends,
  please, Turn Up Your Flame,
  please, Learn Your Faith,
  and have a great attitude and be excited about Faith Formation classes this fall.

A third aspect of Learn Your Faith that comes very highly recommended
  is the RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.
We need to make a big parish-wide push for this.
The RCIA is intended for three special groups of people:
  for Catholics who have not completed their Sacraments of Initiation
    (Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation),
    for Catholics who are baptized but have not made their First Communion,
    or for Catholics who have received Baptism and Eucharist, but are not Confirmed.
The RCIA is also for non-Catholics who would like to become Catholic;
  and for the unbaptized who would like to be baptized.
At every Mass we have a large number who fall into one of these three groups.
  If you do, I would like to invite you to make your move now.
And for those of you who are fully Catholic,
  maybe you know someone you could possibly invite to participate in the RCIA.
The contact information for RCIA is on the inside flap of the Learn Your Faith brochure.

Finally, the fourth and last aspect of Learn Your Faith that comes highly recommended
  is spiritual reading.
The importance of spiritual reading is not covered in this brochure
  but rather on the front page of this weekend’s parish bulletin.
All of us do plenty of reading to stay informed:
  newspapers, magazines, Internet, text books, road signs, TV, instruction booklets.
If we want our faith to be alive, we need to Learn Our Faith,
  and one of the best ways to do so is spiritual reading.

 

The State Fair may have started on Thursday,
  but we have a fair going on here too,
  our Life-Long Faith Fair in the FCC after Mass.

You can meet and welcome our new Faith Formation direction, Kathleen Groh.
There are tables where you can learn about all of our faith formation programs.
You can register for Bible Study.
You can register for Faith Formation classes.
There is hospitality, refreshments.
There are door prizes.
    You get a ticket or a chance at every info table that you visit,
      and the tickets will go into a big drawing.
    Adults, the two winning tickets will get $50 gift certificates at Boston’s.
    Kids, the ten winning tickets will get a $5 gift certificates to Dairy Queen.
  The drawing will be after the 6:00 p.m. Mass on Sunday,
    and you do not need to be present to win.
The new red wrists bands are also available,
  but only in the FCC, not at the church exits.

Please, please, let’s better Learn Our Faith.

My friends,
  Turn Up the Flame is the most important campaign that I have ever brought before you.
This is not about fund raising, it is about faith raising.
This is “hot stuff!”
This is all about being “on fire” for our Lord, Jesus Christ!

No matter how much you or I may have turned up our flame so far,
  our flame can go:  HIGHER, HOTTER, and BRIGHTER.

Jesus wants us to be on fire for him.

Are you up to this?
Let the Church say, “AMEN!”