October 19, 2012

Letters to the Editor

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Obedience is the key to living out our faith

A key attribute of all the great figures from biblical times and throughout Church history is that they were obedient to the will of God: from Jesus himself—“Let this cup pass from me, but not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42), to Mary—“I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38), to Abraham, willing to sacrifice his own precious son in obedience to the instruction of God, to Jonah, a reluctant but ultimately obedient prophet to Nineveh, to St. Paul, to Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, to Pope Benedict XVI, who simply wanted to retire to write and travel the world with his brother, but instead accepted the call and the responsibilities to be the head of Christ’s Church on Earth, and on and on to countless others.

It seems that those times we struggle the most spiritually as Catholics even today—perhaps especially today—are those times that we can’t bring ourselves to humbly be obedient to God’s will and to the teachings of his Church, that is, to the teachings of the Holy Spirit acting through the Church, arrogantly convinced that our own way or understanding is better.

- Doug Petroff | Indianapolis

 

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