For the past year I have been teaching a group of catechumens. Catechumens are persons receiving religious training before coming into the Catholic Church. When I receive the lesson plan, I do not take it lightly. I study, and I review it until I feel confident to teach the new potential members. I explain the Scripture, give history about the Scripture, and share personal stories. I fear, for my accountability is to God, and want to make certain that what comes from me is from the Lord.
This Sunday, one of the Mass readings was on the multiplication of the loaves and fish from John 6:1-14. In this Scripture many of Jesus’s holy attributes are revealed. He’s testing his disciples when He asks them how are they going to feed so many. Jesus was training His disciples on the process of miracles. He was teaching them to operate in the supernatural. How do you explain a miracle? We don’t! We believe that it was from God. We learn to trust that all that we have is because He has entrusted us with this. All of our giftings are from Him, and our calling is from Him. That still small voice that tells you to do what’s right is from Him. We cannot take credit, or we might get all puffed up and think we did it on our own. Sorry, it was not you but our Lord that allowed these blessings. The Word of God says that He fed 5,000, but in reality it was more, because the women and children were not included. With 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread everyone ate, with 12 baskets left over. This miracle is the only one that is mentioned in all four Gospels. Why? Because we need it pounded in our brains that God will supply and multiply our every need.
The second reading was from Ephesians 4:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:
one body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
This is a recipe for living. The first part of the instruction is to be humble. I asked the students in class, “What is humility?” The answer that came from one of the students was filled with godly wisdom. He said, “Every day I pray for humility, because I want to excel in my job.” It the second ingredient is gentleness, and you must first be humble to be gentle. Then the third part of the recipe is patience. How do we attain patience? Patience is what builds our character. As grown as I am in the Lord, I still have a long way to master patience. The last part of the recipe is love. We will never fully succeed in our calling without the love of God. When we love we have peace.
I love to sleep, but in order for me to attend daily Mass, I must be up by 5:45 AM to make the 6:15 AM service. Breakfast is my favorite meal, but I put it off for another hour so that I can stay after Mass for Adoration. Adoration is being in the presence of God. I pray, I write my Blog, and I pray more. It is through this training that I am moving up in the ranks of His mighty army. Experiencing the powerful move of God in my life has left me yearning for more, I can’t get enough. I hunger for His presence, and when I miss Mass, I feel a void.
Our minds are more alert when we are learning and teaching. Why? Because the Lord is entrusting us with more classified information. We need this type of tactical training to teach God’s truth and shine His light in the darkness that covers this world.
