Misguided (1)

I am reminded once more that it can be difficult to define what we really think and believe.
My own needs include the writing out of thoughts before being able to fully unravel them and grasp the ideas behind them. I frequently need to do this to focus my ideas, values and convictions more effectively within my own mind before making any attempt to convey them to anyone else. This need meant that the uncertainties associated with starting to write here evaporated quickly as I began to find the process both enjoyable and fruitful: fruitful in that it enabled me to clarify and better interpret some of my own thinking, and, in having done that, to find myself becoming my own teacher and learning from myself. During this process the whole experience is a soliloquy for me, regardless of the fact that I try to frame my written words as though I am speaking to someone else. That other person of course is you, the reader, whoever and wherever you may be.
Once the thinking and writing are done, the checking and final adjustments are nothing to do with what goes on within me; putting the result into some sort of order, trying to make it read like reasonable English, and then making it available here, is done for you. It is done for anyone who happens across it, but in particular for those of you who keep coming back and who take the time to read thoughtfully. I like to think you do this because you value some of what you find here, and wish to find the intended meaning of what I have written. The most worthwhile reason for anyone doing this would be that something speaks directly to your own lives, finding similar strands in your own experience and helping to bring these vague and sometimes misunderstood threads into clearer focus and deeper understanding. This is certainly how I find myself growing through the thoughts and words of others whose insights and understanding I value. Knowing that you are out there somewhere, walking with me as unseen companions, is a blessing.
Soliloquy or not, knowing that I am not talking only to myself makes the whole experience doubly worthwhile. I thank you for that.

In spite of this, however, there are times when my uncertainty is not completely dispelled. Reading through my previous post a day after writing, I felt that my words towards the end were too negative and gave the impression that I had missed an important point about the role of the laity in the Church. But almost as soon as I began to think of altering them, I realized the problem was not so much what I had actually written, as the fact that I had not written enough to convey the entirety of my thoughts on the subject.
(This is one of the difficulties with limiting the length of any form of communication; the likelihood of failing to get one’s message across in the intended way is increased enormously. I am writing brief and semi-random pieces which I believe are probably as long as most people will be prepared to read. For many they are probably already too long.)

What is our place, as lay members of the Church, in the ongoing work of Christians to bring other people to Christ and to deepen the faith of those who are already following Jesus?
If those of us who are Roman Catholics believe it to be whatever the Church declares it to be, no more and no less, then the answer clearly lies in The Catechism of The Catholic Church, and in the various Vatican documents which have anything to say on the subject.
For those of us who are not Catholics, my own assumption is that the answer will be based upon whatever the teachings may be of the particular church or denomination, blended with the particular beliefs and interpretations of the individual; the result being a greater freedom to decide for oneself what should be done.
My assumption may be wrong; I have no particular knowledge or other reason for believing as I do, and I am well aware that this is precisely the kind of pre-formed background that leads to so many of our perceived differences and misinterpretations of attitudes and beliefs. What matters is that the Christian Church, the Church founded by Jesus Christ, be unified and conformed to His will. This can never be achieved by rigidly adhering to a set of rules and by trying to bring everyone else within the same restrictive obedience, and nor will it ever result from a freedom to scatter ourselves to the winds.

There is only one Guide, Teacher and Counsellor for all who hold themselves to be members of that Church.
It is the one we read of in St John’s gospel: the one Jesus asked the Father to give us: ‘another Paraclete to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him;’ (14:16,17). It is ‘... the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name ...’ (14:26).
Jesus told his Apostles, and us, that this would be the source of our understanding of the truth; ‘... when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth’ (16:13), and that what the Spirit teaches is the fullness of God’s Word to us: ‘... all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine;’ (16:14,15).
Being guided by the Holy Spirit is trusting in Christ’s promises; it is following in the footsteps of Jesus. And faithfully following our Lord is obedience to the Father.

As we are called to follow Christ we need to be guided by those whose lives have already been placed at the disposal of the Spirit, and it is here, in lack of discernment and in our over-reliance on other men and women, that Christianity has been undone. It has been pulled apart and is no longer the Church Jesus left us with. In our struggle to understand its truth, we have torn the seamless robe asunder with our differences and with our attempts to justify our own positions. All its threads are laid out and separate across the Earth, and we know that we must somehow put them all back together. This will remain an impossibility until every one of us accepts that we do not possess the whole truth, and that we have been listening to ourselves and to the convictions of others through our inability to discern the voice of truth.
The truth we seek can come only from the Spirit of Truth.

True Christianity today can be summed up as just one thing: being led by the Holy Spirit in all things. Without this leading we merely construct a shelter for our own needs rather than for the needs of the world, and we name our shelter “Church” with little idea of God’s plans for us.

Yes; Jesus wants His church back.
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