29th Sunday in Ordinary time (Year B) 2012

Twenty-ninth Sunday (Year B)

 (Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45)

St. Matthew (6:33) tells us that Jesus once said:

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. 

In today’s Gospel reading we are told of two brothers apparently following that advice; James and John, members of Jesus’ most intimate circle of disciples, ask for a place, a really special place, in the Kingdom:

They said to Jesus, "Grant in Your glory that we may sit, one at Your right hand and the other at Your left."

However, in their eagerness to set about seeking the kingdom of God, as Jesus said, they failed to take sufficiently into consideration the fact that He also taught that the search for the kingdom of God should go hand in hand with a search for the righteousness of God:

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. 

James and John wanted Jesus to grant them prestigious seats in the glory of God’s Kingdom on the basis of favouritism or special privilege; Jesus said that they were not His to give in such a way, they could only be bestowed on the basis of the righteous judgement of the all-holy God.

The brothers had asked for something good in the wrong way: asking for places in the Kingdom of the heavenly Father, without manifesting a corresponding desire to share in His righteousness.  This is clearly shown in their glib response to the awesome question Jesus subsequently put to them:

Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

They immediately answered that they could indeed drink His cup and be baptized with His baptism; and they said this on the basis of their own self-confident appreciation of the love they felt for Jesus.  They were doing just what Peter would do later on:

Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death; even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!  Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be."  (Luke 22:33; Matt. 26:35; Mark 14:29)

Then, however, Peter would be speaking after hearing that Jesus was being threatened with death: it was a spontaneous and heartfelt protestation of immediate concern and love.  It was, indeed, also an ill-considered promise of personal fidelity far beyond him, but Peter could be excused somewhat in that over-statement and over-appreciation of his own powers because he was being impelled and compelled by his anxiety for Jesus under threat of violent death.  James and John, however, had no such laudable motivation for their considered, over-zealous, and over-confident words, unduly, though not exclusively, motivated by the desire to be greatest, which, Mark tells us, had already shown itself previously:

Jesus asked the disciples, "What were you arguing about on the way?" But they remained silent.  They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. (Mark 9:33-35)

Despite Jesus’ explicit teaching – if anyone wishes to be first of all he shall be last of all and servant of all -- James and John still hankered after the position of the ‘greatest’.  As yet, they knew little about seeking the righteousness of the Father, and Jesus would have to teach them about it to the very end, as we find at the Last Supper in His sacerdotal prayer before the whole gathering:

Righteous Father, the world does not know You, but I know You; and these  k+

now that You sent Me.  I made known to them Your name, and I will make it known. (John 17:25-26)

Jesus consistently attributed nothing to Himself, openly saying:

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44)

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to Me, because I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of the One who sent Me. (John 6:37-38)

Clearly, Jesus did not consider that, whether by His preaching, His miracles, or by His Personality, He would effectively and decisively draw disciples to Himself; no, only those sent by the Father would come to Him until such time as He Himself should be lifted up (John 12:32):

            When I am lifted up from the earth I will draw everyone to myself.

A like attitude, concern, is manifest in Jesus’ death.  We were told in the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Suffering Servant, the future Messiah … concerning Jesus:

            The LORD was pleased to crush Him in infirmity.

Though Son and Saviour, Jesus did not take upon Himself weakness, suffering, and grief; it was the path traced out for Him by His Father.  He was indeed prepared for it but He did not seek it out … all He wanted was to do His Father’s will: He would lovingly accept it in fulfilment of His Father’s plans, for His Father’s glory, and as the supreme human expression of His love for and trust in His Father.

And so the prophet went on:

If (in loving response to His Father) He gives His life as an offering for sin, He shall see His descendants in a long life.

All would then happen, the prophet tells us, in such a way that:

The will of the LORD shall be accomplished through Him.

That was His example of seeking the righteousness of the Father; an example that needed to be closely observed, secretly pondered, and ultimately imitated, by those impetuous brothers James and John, as indeed by all the disciples.

 However, Jesus could only guide to such sublime perfection disciples who were eager to learn: and that is why He was secretly pleased with the ardent desire of Peter, James, and John, and indeed of all His closest disciples, to be great in the Kingdom of God.  Initially, through their ignorance, such desires appeared to be little better than merely human ambition seeking superiority and precedence; Jesus, however, knew that deep down they were the expression – temporarily tarnished indeed -- of the disciples overwhelming desire to share with Him, to be united, as closely as possible, with Him, on earth as in heaven; and such desires could -- like diamonds -- be skilfully cut and purified before finally being polished to perfection by the divine artificer.

Today, however, few want to be great in the kingdom of God; so very few have faith in, and love for, Jesus deep enough to make them long, desire, and ultimately will, to cling to Him in their passing experience of earthly sufferings so as to share with Him in His eternal, heavenly, glory.  Such a desire is fundamental, and the lack of it cannot be compensated for easily or quickly, just as an athlete cannot train without first having a good bone and healthy muscular structure to begin working with.

At times this apparent lack of love for, commitment to, Jesus results from a relatively innocent and understandable fear of standing out from friends for fear of losing their companionship: this can happen easily enough with young people today.  Again, there are others ... good, Christian and Catholic people … who tend, in their spiritual naivety and ill-conceived humility, to think along lines such as: “Who am I to think that I can become anything special?” They are right to a certain degree, of course; but they are, more seriously, wrong; since God is the supreme potter with the unique ability and exclusive right to shape His chosen clay as He wills:

According to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus Our Lord. (Ephesians 3:11)

And there are yet others who, amazingly, seem to think that to aspire higher in their spiritual life would somehow be pretentious disloyalty to themselves: “This is my character, if I tried to be otherwise it would not be the real me!”

Whereas the young persons’ fear of standing out, alone, is understandable, bearing in mind the general weakness of our human nature and their own personal immaturity and lack of experience; with the other two examples, however, we find the Devil more insidiously at work, doing what he usually tries to do: pass himself -- his suggestions and his impulses -- off as virtuous, even holy.

People of God, all of us, like James and John, have faith in Jesus, and all of us, on the basis of that faith, should want, indeed aspire, to be true disciples of Jesus, longing to be as close to Him as possible here on earth and for all eternity, because our supreme destiny is that we be found, in Him, to be true children of our Father in heaven.  A desire for such greatness is no disloyalty to our fellows, neither is it a forgetting of our true situation, or a lying representation of our real self; rather, it is the only true recognition of, and response to, the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God, and that we have been redeemed by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Our Lord for the glory of His Father and the fulfilment of our God-given being. As you heard in the second reading:

Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

Yes, let us, out of love for Jesus and our heavenly Father, strive to follow where He has gone before us.   Do not let the Devil -- with weasel words of mock humility or serpentine suggestions of twisted fidelity -- try to persuade you to idly and comfortably go through life like everybody else; or, under the devilish pretext of remaining true to yourself, lead you to neglect the God-given opportunity to discover and realise your only true self, originally planned for God’s own presence, and created in His own likeness.  God has, indeed, made you in His own image: you are individuals, not like anyone else, and because Jesus has died for you personally, He alone commands your supreme loyalty.  He has risen and gone to heaven to prepare your place in heaven: do not betray Him for the sake of what would be, ultimately, a contemptible fear of standing out from others or a ludicrously tragic self-deception trade-marked by Lucifer himself.  Only when you strive to follow Jesus with your whole heart will you find your true self, divinely commissioned before time began; only when you commit yourself, alone with Jesus, to the Father, will you become a member of the heavenly family with the hosts of saints and angels for your true companions and enduring friends.

This living of the Christian life, this chosen contentment with Jesus above all, for the Father, might indeed bring the cross into our lives as you have heard from today’s readings, but it is the Cross of Jesus, and our bearing and sharing in that Cross is really our passport to eternal life and fulfilment:

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:16-18)

28th Sunday in Ordinary time (Year B) 2012

   Twenty-eighth Sunday (Year B)    

(Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30)

My dear People of God, we heard in the second reading:

The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart;

And, in our passage from the Gospel we learned something of what those words meant in real life with Jesus:

Jesus, looking at (the young man), loved him, and said, "You are lacking in one thing.  Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow Me."   At that statement his face fell and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus then spoke of the Christian life in a manner somewhat alien to modern ears:

(The disciples) were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,  ‘Then who can be saved?’   Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.  All things are possible for God.’

Today many, aiming to make Christ and the Gospel popular, present the Christian life as something almost second nature to us, and the salvation offered by our Christian hope they portray as a reward to be almost automatically acquired after a life of even minimal devotion.  Moreover, their use of Gospel words such as ‘love’, ‘peace’ and ‘joy’, to express the nature of that reward, is usually so jejune,  being coloured with predominantly human -- both emotional and sentimental – overtones, that there would appear to be no possibility of conflict between our  human aspirations here below and those promised heavenly realities, apart, of course, from their heavenly abundance and eternal permanence.   For example, God loves us His children, and we of course, loving our children, give them all we can; we like to buy for them whatever they think they need or whatever they see that other children have and apparently enjoy; surely that is what love involves?  We likewise always seek to understand their childish failings and would never demand that they show more obedience or learn to practice self-discipline, for that might cause upset and disturb the ‘peace’ in our family relationships generally; and ‘peace’, of course, is a Gospel word for a most desirable heavenly reality.  In like manner, the ‘joy’ imagined by these promoters of popular Christianity adds -- they confidently assert -- to the richness of our personality here and now on earth, and thereby, inevitably, to the fullness of our preparation for heaven.  How in heaven (!) then, could self-forgetfulness, let alone self-denial and self-discipline, ever be imagined to promote mankind’s true fulfilment?

This popular presentation of the Gospel is seen to be an emasculated and inauthentic version, when, thanks to Mother Church’s use of her Scriptures in the liturgy, we listen again to Jesus’ own proclamation of the Gospel of salvation:

For human beings (salvation) is impossible, but not for God.  All things are possible for God. 

The rich young man had, according to the Law, lived a very good, and moreover, very rich and fulfilling life; but now he discovered that his appreciation of the word ‘good’ was too superficial and even somewhat blasphemous, for Jesus said:

            Why do you call me good?  No one is good but God alone.

Again the young man believed he had always loved God supremely, but Jesus went on to say:

You are lacking in one thing.  Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow Me.

Those words pierced the young man so deeply that, we are told:

At that statement his face fell and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

He went away because he had just been brought to realise how much he loved his earthly possessions: those earthly possessions ultimately meant more to him than his heavenly aspirations.  He went away sorrowful because he knew that he was turning away from the best option; for the call of Jesus to personal discipleship was, he realized -- while not a command -- certainly an offer, and an awesome opportunity.  He could not however, turn his back on his money and all the good things of life on earth that it afforded him: above all, perhaps, that prominence which brought him the esteem and admiration of others.

If you now recall how we began Mass you will remember that we said, Lord, you were sent to heal the contrite, and then we went on to add: You came to call sinners.  Many tend to think the contrite are people like us, who go to Church; while the sinners are those others to whom the Gospel is an unknown message to be preached in the streets of our cities, along the highways and byways of our countryside, and in the mission fields, be they in deepest Africa, or furthest Asia.  That, however, is a mistaken idea, because Jesus is continually calling all of us, contrite and sinners, to open our hearts and minds ever more and more to the healing power of His love.  The Word of God proclaimed at Mass,

(being) sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart,

is meant to pierce all mankind and, having penetrated through manifold layers of human sinfulness, self-satisfaction, and personal ignorance, to thereby enable each and every one of us to see the truth of our own condition more clearly, just as it did with the rich young man.  That young man had to be shown the depth of his attachment to money, not indeed to humiliate him, but that he might become able, first of all to appreciate and then to respond to, a yet higher vocation in life here on earth, namely, with Jesus, to learn of and love the Father above all else; and in Jesus, to attain to eternal life and glory before the Father in heaven:

Sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow Me.

Now, Jesus does not say the same words to everyone who turns to Him for salvation. The Word of God, which Mother Church proclaims here at Mass and throughout her liturgy and public ministry, can be of special significance for any and every one of us who hear it, at any stage in our life, ever seeking to open us up to ourselves anew, showing us how much His healing is still needed in our lives, and thereby enabling us to respond to a further call – more demanding, yes, but also more fulfilling -- from Jesus.

Jesus, remember, does not look bleakly at us with a cold eye and critical appreciation, for we have been called and guided to Him by the Father:

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44)

Therefore Jesus loves us, just as He loved the rich young man, as we heard:

Jesus looking at him, loved him.

Jesus loved him because He saw what He could make of that young man if he were to become His disciple, He saw the glory that young man might give to the Father.  And so, the Word of God penetrated to the core of his being for his greater blessing; if only he would accept that Word and the revelation of himself generated by it.

People of God, never turn away from God’s Word heard or read in the Scriptures and in the teaching of the Church: never turn away from it because it makes you feel uncomfortable, because Jesus does not seek or plan our ultimate discomfiture.  He loves us and wants only to help us glorify the Father together with, and in, Him; to lead us to the fullest realization of our divine potential.  To that end we must never forget what we heard in the second reading:

There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Like foolish children, we simply do not know either the truth about ourselves, or what is truly good for us.  All things are naked and open to the eyes of God, and His holy Word comes to us, at times, to cut us to the quick and thereby help us first to realize, and then hopefully to embrace, what is best for us; for:

(It) is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow;

it is, however, only piercingly sharp at those times when God wants, by that Word, to help us, as Scripture says:

            (to) discern the reflections and thoughts of (our own) hearts.

And this He does because, to all those who will lovingly accept His Word and humbly acknowledge what they have been led to recognize about themselves, the words of the prophet Malachi will apply, who declared in the name of the Lord:

To you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. (4:2)

People of God, if you would truly appreciate the dignity of your calling as Catholic disciples of Jesus, then pray that you might be so privileged as to allow the Word of God to do its work in you.  Do not reject its sometimes piercing and penetrating smart, for ultimately it will bring the healing for which you long.  Remember the advice given us in the first reading from the book of Wisdom:

The spirit of wisdom came to me; (and) all good things came to me along with her: in her hands uncounted wealth. I chose to have her rather than light, because her radiance never ceases. (NRSV)

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Twenty-seventh Sunday (Year B)            

    (Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-12)     

Our readings today are quite clearly and deliberately centred on the relationship between man and woman that we call marriage.  It is such a mysterious, yet natural, relationship -- involving deep passions which promise great joys but also occasion deep sorrows -- that it is understandable that there have been and still are many wrong ideas and false attitudes in its regard. However, by considering this difficult but fundamental relationship we can gain deeper insight into the nature of our Catholic faith, so let us proceed.

Jesus told the Jews that they had, so to speak, twisted Moses’ arm into his giving them an inauthentic attitude to both the divine purpose and the human experience of ‘marriage’; an attitude which, by making it easier to get out of arising difficulties, only served to prevent them from being able to appreciate and attain the true beauty and fulfilment of that relationship.

According to Protestant teaching the fullness of Christian doctrine is to be found in the Bible expressed in the written words contained there; and because the words are there to be seen and read by all, a devout Christian can appreciate the Scriptures as both the source of what is generally acceptable belief and practice and also as the quarry where he can discover his or her own variations.  Of course there are some difficult passages which might need explanation but, fundamentally, such difficulties do not affect the basic position which is, that what one can see and read in the Bible forms the basis of belief, and my serious belief is as good as anyone else’s because it is my personal and sincere response to what is written objectively in the Scriptures.

It has never been like that in the Catholic Church … and remember, the Christian body of believers in Jesus has always been called Catholic;  indeed, before 1054 it had no other title whatsoever, being simply known as the Catholic Church.  And so it is today, to the extent that we always consider ourselves as Catholics, members of the Catholic Church, even though others in our Christian fraternity insist on referring to us as Roman Catholics.  We are not ashamed to be called Roman Catholics, for, understood aright, it is quite true; but we are most of all attached to that title which has always been ours, Catholic.

Now, Catholics are, and always have been -- first and foremost -- hearers of the Word of God, not readers of it:

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"  But they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:14-18)

It was ever so, even in the very founding structure of the Church: preachers, as you heard, had to be sent, and those originally sent by Jesus Himself were the Apostles proclaiming the ‘gospel of peace’; and as a consequence of that original Apostolic mission those Churches were called Apostolic Sees that had either received the Gospel from such an Apostle, or had developed a specially close and proven historical connection with one, that other centres of Christianity did not have.  Such Apostolic Sees – having heard and received the Gospel from Apostolic preachers -- were accepted as the criterion for catholicity.  Churches not thus founded on or by an Apostle were regarded as members of the Catholic Body only if they were in communion with those Sees properly called Apostolic; and it was supremely the Church at Rome -- recognized as founded upon the two supreme Apostles, Peter and Paul -- that was regarded as the God-willed witness to Catholic Truth and ultimate criterion for membership of the authentic Catholic Communion.

In that Catholic Communion our initial, original, Scriptures were the Jewish Scriptures in the Septuagint Greek translation which Mother Church subsequently termed the Old Testament, because she regarded them as God’s revealed word only as read and understood in the light of Jesus.  Those Jewish Scriptures, she believes, are an imperfect revelation only because they are preparatory: they are preparing the way for the coming of Jesus and can only be understood aright when interpreted in the light of His Person, His Good News, and His history.  Our New Testament Scriptures, on the other hand, are final; and apart from the fullness of Old and New Testaments together, there is no other divine revelation to be found or to be expected.

Nevertheless, they too need to be understood, interpreted aright, for, since they are a witness to the original Gospel proclamation made by Mother Church before anything was ever written down, they are always to be understood according to the Church’s Rule of Faith which gave them birth and which they were originally meant to express, extend, and preserve. 

Therefore, in our attitude to marriage, we Catholics cannot accept the Jewish approach condemned by Jesus, nor can we adopt a Protestant attitude which allows an individual to read the Scriptures and ultimately form his own opinion about ‘my belief’.  As Catholics we receive our Christian identity and life by our faithful response to the Church’s Rule of Faith, for, we are ‘hearers’ of the living Apostolic preaching not ‘readers’ of ancient and unchanging books: for those books, supremely venerable though they are for the divine truth contained in them, are only infallible as guides when understood in accordance with, and as expounded by, the living Rule of Church Faith.

Many today seem to assume for themselves the title ‘catholic’ while having but a minimal concern with faith.  They are not ‘hearers’ of the Church’s proclamation of the Word to which they have obediently committed themselves in a response of faith; neither they are ‘readers’ of the Word, who can, at times, be so devoted to what they read that they are willing to sacrifice all except that right to personally quarry their own beliefs from the Scriptures.  Rather, they are seekers of a message of pleasant and peaceful accommodation with the world around them, along with the additional spin-off of a certain measure of personal spiritual comfort.  They don’t want to hear the Gospel, they don’t even want to read the Gospel, they prefer a gospel they can ‘feel’. 

There are others today who  are shown to be of this persuasion by their habit – perhaps unconscious – of giving their attention, first of all, to weighing up, assessing, the person of the messenger and critically studying his style of presentation before attending to the message itself: they want first impressions to persuade them to like the person of the priest or find his presentation  interesting and attractive before they attend to his message; and only if those first requirements are fulfilled will they seriously consider giving both hearing and, perhaps, even a measure of  commitment to the message thus acceptably proclaimed and presented to them.

However, for us Christians and Catholics who are hearers -- people called by God through the proclamation of messengers sent by Him -- it is the message of God’s Good News that counts.  That is precisely the nature of our vocation: we hear the word of God, and we recognize it as the word of God, thanks to the Spirit of God given to the Church and working within all whom the Father calls to faith in His Son.  And if -- once having been reborn through faith in baptism -- we are to become mature children of God, we have to be able to recognize the message proclaimed by the Church as Jesus Himself addressing us through the words of her proclamation:  He is the Speaker to Whom we attend, His alone is the message to which we respond; all that we can require of the messenger is that he has the necessary authority to back up his message, for Jesus Himself always spoke with authority.  Such required authority, however, is not to be accorded him by listeners who like his personality or his presentation, but by the Church of Christ which, able to back-up his sincerity, guarantees the authenticity of his teaching: 

We are of God.  He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us.  By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

He who is of God hears the words of God; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.  (1 John 4:6; John 8:47)

To put things very simply and somewhat bluntly, it is a matter of distinguishing between the provisional packaging and the contents which abide.  If the packaging is attractive it helps, but the contents, God’s gracious gift, are alone what matters.

The attitude of wanting, demanding even, to be superficially pleased before considering the message or receiving the gift, can have most serious repercussions even to the message of faith itself.  Take the example of the Pharisees questioning Jesus in the Gospel:

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?" They were testing Him.  He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"  They replied, "Moses permitted a man to write a bill of divorce, and dismiss her."  But Jesus told them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment.”

Jesus, on the other hand, taught:

From the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.  ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined 'to his wife and the two shall become one flesh'.  So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Then He went on to add the most solemn words of all:

Therefore what  God  has  joined  together,  no human being must      separate.

In our modern society, however, as the appearance of either spouse becomes less pleasing or attractive over the years, or when other difficulties inevitably surface in the course of their shared life, many -- who through selfishness and superficiality have never recognized any call to re-assert and confirm their original commitment, and who now no longer acknowledge any obligation to give as well as to receive -- abdicate their own, personal, responsibility for the permanence and beauty of the bond which they sealed before God Himself, and seek a totally pagan freedom for personal whim and pleasure, immediate advantage and seeming convenience.

The Chosen People -- a people formed and prepared by the grace of God over two thousand years to enter into and maintain a unique relationship with Him and thus to hear, recognize, and proclaim His Law of truth to all the nations -- had likewise turned out to be an unfaithful spouse, entering into illicit relationships with the gods of the surrounding nations.  Failing to hear and respond to the word of the One, Redeemer-God proclaimed by the prophets whom He had raised up from their midst, they ultimately, despite their being the Chosen People, rejected that proclamation because the Messenger – the very Son of God Himself -- did not come up to the expectations they had so sinfully indulged for so long.

Dear People of God, in Mother Church we have to become children of the truth:

Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.  (Mark 10:15)

As new-born babies, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (1 Peter 2:2-3):

As children of God, we have to long for God’s truth, we cannot pick and choose, even from such a quarry as the Scriptures, to form our own beliefs; we must embrace the Apostolic Faith offered to us by the continued proclamation and preaching of the living and universal Catholic Church. 

Mother Church, ever rejoicing in the divine truth of her Gospel message which is the word of God amongst us still, lives by the Word she proclaims, enabling us who are born of her proclamation to be born alive; let us therefore, endeavour -- in the power and beauty of that living truth -- to love the Lord at all times, to seek His blessing in all circumstances, and to praise and proclaim His glory before all peoples.