Who is the greatest leader among us with regard to your salvation? Is it the Pope, who has the responsibility of giving us holy and good bishops. Is it the local bishop or parish priest? Or maybe it is your mom and dad who had you baptized and who promised to take you to Church and Faith Formation classes and other opportunities until you be-come an adult?
Actually, the greatest leader among us with regard to your salvation is yourself.
After reaching the age of reason, age 7, every person is ultimately responsible for following Jesus Christ in his Catholic Church by praying daily, worshipping at Holy Mass weekly, serving him in others, and obeying the truth with love to the best of your ability that the family of faith hands on to you to the best of their ability. The reasonable expectation is that our ability grows with time and practice.
You can have the holiest Pope, saintly priests and parents, but if you do not let Jesus Christ enter your heart with love, you will not know how to grow in loving and serving him until perfectly doing so in fullness of heaven. Of course, it helps when you have official leaders of the Church and family members and friends striving to grow in the divine virtues of faith, hope and love, but ultimately you are responsible for your own growth and response to God’s call to love God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself, just as Jesus and Mary perfectly did.
You can have the knowledge of the faith, memorize all Ten Commandments, Eight Beatitudes and prayers, but if you do not practice the faith by growing in hopeful and loving service of Christ and others, you will not bear the abundant and everlasting fruit that God wants you to enjoy forever in heaven.
Every good priest wants their young parishioners to have true and everlasting happiness, and that is why priests, parents, godparents and all maturing members of the parish want children to encounter Jesus Christ in each family member, in daily prayer, in holy friendships, in the reading of the Bible, and especially in the Sacraments, for Jesus is truly present for us in the seven sacraments.
As I reflected on today’s Gospel of Jesus wrapping his arms around a child, I remember being wrapped in my dad’s arms as he showed me how to tie my shoes. His strong caring hands would show me how to make a tree and have the rabbit run around the tree and go up through the hole and then how to carefully pull it up by the ear to get two
rabbit ears.
My dad was proud of me when I was able to do that on my own. He was even more proud of me and my younger brother Matthew when we took the initiative to clean and organize our garage. When we finished, my mom gave us thanks and hugs and my dad reaffirmed that we did a good job, something above and beyond our normal daily chores.
As we reflect on today’s Gospel, can you imagine who that child was that Jesus wrapped in his arms amid the Apostles? That boy or girl might have had long hair or short, was tall and skinny, or short and stout; we do not know. We do know that the child allowed Jesus to wrap his arms around with love and innocence, to guard and guide that child, and expected the apostles and all his disciples to welcome all children with love and reverence.
We also know that you and I, and everyone, needs to let Jesus wrap us in his love and truth because that is what you do with gifts, you wrap them so that they can be received by the right person at the right time with modesty and care.
The greatest leader among us is truly Jesus Christ who sets us in the center of his Apostles, his one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church; and all those who truly follow him will pass on the true Christian faith and love of God by following his Holy Commandments, revering his seven Sacraments and learning how to be present to each other to affirm and secure the dignity of God’s grace and innocence within each of us.
Jesus Christ’s one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, built on the Apostles who are succeeded by the Pope and Bishops of today, is necessary for our salvation, for Jesus serves us through his Mystical Body, the Church. Each of us is called to follow the voice of Christ, the divine head of the Catholic Church working through her leaders, and respond by leading a holy life, a life open to growing in Christ’s divine gifts of faith, hope and love.
When we take the initiative to lead a holy life by following Jesus and Mary, we will desire to pray daily, worship weekly, study our faith, not be afraid to ask good questions and help others to come to know the great gift that they are and can become amid his one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Peace in Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Fr. Thomas McCabe
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