I Desire One Thing – You My Lord!

Our Capacity for God CCC 26-30

Questions

1. When you hear the word “profess” – what does it mean to you?
2. If you combined it with the word “faith”, what does it mean to you?

Intro – Our Reason to profess our faith:

1. Faith is professed through the individual or through the Church. We profess our faith by praying out loud the Apostles Creed or Nicene Creed

2. We profess our faith through the celebration of the liturgy as we honor Christ who continues to save us. Liturgy would be considered.

a. The Mass
b. The Celebration of the Sacraments
c. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament – where we adore Jesus in the Monstrance
d. Liturgy of the Hours or Christian Prayer

3. Our Faith is professed or we say “lived out” in following God’s Commandments

4. Lastly – Our faith is professed when we pray – prayer is key to acknowledging that God exists.

Together – with these points in mind we must ask ourselves two questions:

What do I believe & why do I believe?

It is said “Faith is man’s response to God, who reveals Himself and gives Himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life.” CCC 26

5. When we live out our faith or shall we say "move towards knowing God", We profess that God exist, by our actions, by attitude, and by desire for Him. Our faith which helps us to respond.

6. God acts first in revealing Himself to us. It is not I who STUMBLES upon Him or finds Him – it is God who shows Himself to us. We call this “revelation”

Since God is greater than His creation, we cannot comprehend Him or know His will or even know who He is UNLESS He chooses to reveal Himself. It is a gradual process, a relationship in development with no end, which leaves us with this deep desire to know Him more.

7. When we respond in faith – God gives us an understanding of Himself, revealing Himself, and at the same time He shows us who we really are before Him. In knowing God, He shows us our limitations, teaching us how we should see and treat others.

Mark 12:28-34 Jesus teaches us that we must want God. From that desire, God will show us who we really are, and how we should live before Him. The second deals with how we treat others

8. In that encounter with God our lives are changed and our desire for Him becomes like an unexplainable WANTING, similar to the experience we have when we are hungry or thirsty, but GREATER!

The more I want – God gives of Himself to me, in Abundance.

9. Our desire for God becomes a search – what about this search?

a. We always search for something greater then us.

b. At first it was our parents or our guardians who cared for us, we recognized their voice when they spoke to us, then later we used our sight to see who they were – they were greater then us by the grace of God.

c. With God we do the same thing – When God speaks our soul and body recognizes His Voice because we were created by Him, so we are connected to Him. (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7)

d. Our spirit and soul supernaturally hears and desires the One we came from.

e. When I search for my parent’s voice, my eyes begin to see how they look, a revelation – their faces are slowly revealed – God does the same with us. I know His Voice, just like I recognize my parent’s voice. This begins my encounter with God.

NOTE: My response to God comes from the gift of faith. My response to my parent’s comes from human faith, which stems from that gift of faith.

We will consider three points in this lesson.

1. Our Search for God
2. How God reveals Himself to me
3. Our Response

I – Remember, the desire for God is written in your heart!

1. You & I were created in God’s image – our soul & spirit, even our flesh, because of this we search with an unexplainable desire for God.

a. Our soul knows true love and wants it badly! This is the opposite when it comes to sin. Our desire for sin could never compare to the desire for God.

b. Imagine or recall your desire for something that is temporal – it fades away while a new desire replaces it.. Question how you feel when you receive it – be it food, object, any possessions, etc – is it the same or different then our want for God?

Read the Letter to the Hebrews 8:10-11, the author uses quotes from Jeremiah 31:31-34; God will put into our minds and our hearts knowledge of His law, and knowledge of Him. This passage speaks about our desire for God, because we come from Him.

2. It is important to know & believe

a. I was created by Him
b. I was created for Him
c. And because of this, God never stops calling me to Himself

3. My very being knows that only in God alone can I find truth and happiness.

a. I will never stop searching, stop desiring or even stop hungering or thirsting for God. I want Him.

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator - Gaudium Et Spes: Vatican Council II, GS 19 # 1.

II – Take a moment & recount your past:

Have you ever showed some sign or expression of religious behavior?

When you were young did you ever prayed by yourself? Have you ever passed an area and give reverence or honor?

1. You see – many of us have shown some or maybe more then we think, an expression of our search for God. Examples of that would be: prayers to pass tests, to get out of trouble, to overcome a sickness, and more.

2. Looking at the history of mankind we can find signs of religious expression. Today, we continue to express these signs. It does not matter if it is a wrong way of doing it or the right way of doing it, what’s important is that we are religious beings who desire for God who created us..

From one ancestor (God) made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:26-28

As the fathers of Vatican II wrote in the document Gaudium Et Spes 19#1 - Pastoral Constitution On the Church in the Modern World - our relationship with God is considered to be so “intimate” & “vital” to our oneness with God.

III - But our desire for God can be: Read paragraph 19-21 in Gaudium Et Spes

1. Forgotten – God no longer impresses me, but another thing, person, or thought captures my attention, my appetite, my want.

2. Over looked - Other things in my life seem more important to me then God. My vacation, my money, my possessions, my human love, my family, and worse…

3. Rejected – Since God is not important I put Him aside like an old baseball glove, an old coach, an old TV – God for me becomes Obsolete. If God is OBSOLETE, my neighbor would be considered as well OBSOLETE. Check out this Video on YouTube called "The Obsolete Man - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3"

4. These kinds of attitudes can cause different responses.

a. I revolt against evil in the world. That may sound good, but when God is not in your life our understanding of evil and how we deal with evil becomes distorted. When wrong is done to you or others, evil acts are considered for destruction. We look at evil with an extreme view of destroying it, including the person who committed it. Forgiveness or mercy is not an option. We may neglect our own wrong doings, even ignoring correction. We can be inclined to go to any length in eliminating the evil, and at the same time, forgetting that we may be the cause or can be the cause of evil doings. Sin blinds us of my actions and leaves us to judge others harshly. NOTE: Even good can be distorted. How? If our relationship with God is lost, our understanding of what is good for us becomes subjective - I am rich and you are poor, I am better then you, my ministry is stronger, my work is better - my attitude does not elevate people, but belittles people. We look at the work of others and we see it as worthless, giving the impression that we are the best at what we do for God.

b. Religious ignorance and indifference can occur. We neglect our desire for God. When the Church, or its people reach out to us we are unwilling to serve, we do not want to get involved, we make excuses, or we simply don’t want to learn about God or even practice our faith.

This can bring confusion to the teachings of Christ. We are finding that there are many who want to serve God and His Church, but do not want to know Him. This can also lead to the thought “All Religions are the same” or “They all lead to God”. It can even lead to ones conversion to a new religion, a cult, or philosophy hostile to the Catholic Church. So called believers in Christ become anti-Catholic Christians without even knowing it.

c. You care more about the riches of the world – You would do anything to possess the world or even save it without God. The world and everything in it would be your god. Our attitude towards the poor would be “they can rot in their own hell, and I can live in my heaven.”

Question – Who are the poor? Meditate on this picture - This child represents every person who is starving for love, affection, material needs, truth, happiness, food, and everything we can provide with God's grace. The VULTURE can represent us when we simply watch and wait for someone or some group to die. Are you this vulture – waiting for a person or group to morally die, so that you can take the spoils? It is a sad thought, but so true, it almost seems that many of our Catholic leaders today have the attitude of a vulture, taking what they want, what they need, replacing with their own idea, agendas, and purpose that is so foreign to the parish life and the Church in general. They say, “We are doing Christ’s Will”, but divide people, like the Romans divided the garments of our Lord. Our unity can only be found in Love of God and love of neighbor, but without personal desires for vain glory. .

d. We as believers in Jesus become a scandal to others – those who proclaim the faith act opposite to what they preach or live by.

e. I become hostile to my religion or any religion – including its members.

f. In my sinfulness, when God calls me, I run FROM Him. I am afraid of His mercy – isn’t that STRANGE?

See these examples in Sacred Scripture - Matthew 13:22; Genesis 3:8-10; Jonas 1:3

IV – How does one feel when they search for God in their life?

1. In the Book of Psalms 105:3, it says “Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.”

2. We can remember when we were most happy. We can see this sense of happiness coming from God. He’ll remind us if we forget. If you forget God due to sin God will continue to call you back to Himself. How would you know He is calling? One can tell, with the help of prayer and discernment of our desire for God. He will go as far as sending us signs to win us back: Be it a friend, strange, animal, nature, images, objects, guardian angel, the possibilities are endless, because God's mercy is endless.

a. We desire a real life with God. In Him we find true happiness – our body and soul wants that life with God. A good example – We always believe that there is something better out there, something that gives us hope to go on. Check out this scene from Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers – Sam’s Final Words to Frodo

3. When God calls us His voice demands of our intellectual power and our will power to be ORDERED: The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that God demands “an upright heart.” He will give us the strength to carry on, even when it seems we can’t do no more

4. It is important to keep in mind with God’s call and our response, we still need the help of Christian friends. By their example we can learn to live through Him, with Him, and in Him..

WAYS TO MAKE TOPICS

FOR DISCUSSION, TALKS AND DYNAMICS
For Youth, Young Adult and Adult Groups