Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - July 21, 2022
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
We know of various saviors and religious teachers whose teachings have survived, in fact flourished, for many centuries in various parts of the world. In Acts 5 the Jewish teacher Gamaliel tells his fellow Jews, upset about the teaching of Jesus, that if these teachings are from God there is nothing they can do to prevent them from flourishing. The teachings of the Buddha, of Mohammed, of the Bhagavadgita have all flourished and continue to influence new generations.
Therefore? In our time after centuries of a much narrower attitude, the Catholic Church in its weightiest pronouncements (those of Vatican II) went on from this to say that it “rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions.” Further, these religions “often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all people.”
“Catholic” with a lower case “c” means universal, all-embracing. How refreshing and expansive if we were to rediscover more of this generous self-understanding in the word Catholic. How did Catholic ever come to mean restrictive and narrow as it does for some? Our faith in Jesus Christ if rooted deeply in prayer and reflection on Scripture does not require a hostile attitude toward other religions. Rather it should give us the self-confidence to see them, to study them and use the elements they contain of insight into God, the meaning of human existence and how to live.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
