Corpus Christi Blog

Forming Intentional Disciples - Thresholds

05-31-2015HomiliesSteven Mandarino, Parish Manager

Good morning.  Happy Trinity Sunday!  Many of you know me, but for those who do not, my name is Steve Mandarino and I have been serving as the Parish Manager of Corpus Christi for almost four years.

If you were here either of the past two weeks, you heard Father Chad discuss a book called Forming Intentional Disciples.  If you weren’t here, I invite you to review Father’s homilies on the church website.  Also, if you weren’t able to get a book last weekend, as we ran out, we have more on the way that should be here next weekend.  We are only asking for $5 to help offset part of the cost, which is a large discount provided by Father Chad because he feels the book is so valuable in content.

Father Chad pointed out in his homily last week, one of the main aspects of the book is what the author calls the five thresholds: Trust, Curiosity, Openness, Seeking, and Discipleship.  The thresholds attempt to pinpoint where someone is at in their relationship with Jesus.  One of my favorite lines in the book states that the Holy Spirit is what guides a person through the thresholds, but that people can either help of hinder one’s progress. 

So why am I here?  I have been fortunate to be involved in many discussions about this book with the staff, the Pastoral Council, and the Finance Council.  After reading the book I was able to look back at my own personal conversion and see the process broken down by the thresholds.  Father Chad asked me if I would share my testimony to the parishioners as he thought it explained well the different thresholds described in the book.  I said “yes” even though public speaking is not my forte, which is good news for all of you because I promise to be as brief as possible.

First let me give you a little background on myself when I was at what I like to call “Threshold Zero” meaning having no relationship or belief in God at all.  I grew up without any sort of faith in my life.  In fact, the majority of my family is atheist to this day.  During my teenage and early college years the only time I heard anything about the Catholic Church was when my dad would put it down and say how awful it was.  I considered myself agnostic growing up, not willing to say there wasn’t a God, but definitely not willing to say there was.  I cared little about religion; I just felt being a “good” person was enough for me.

In my later college years, I met a girl in a Mathematical Logic class.  We both loved math and were very good at it and became friends.  I learned that she was a very devoted Catholic and through her, I eventually found myself in a group of Catholic friends.  I didn’t care that they were Catholic, but everything I had heard from my father was that they would be judgmental and try to shove their beliefs down my throat.  Being the only non-Catholic in our group, I felt like the odd man out, but they accepted me and never tried to push me to Catholicism.  In fact, they were just like any other friends I’d ever had, but they were always very caring and loving.  This is where I felt I transitioned to the first threshold of Trust.  I had a positive association with the Church even though I had no inclination to look further into it. 

Growing up I had always had a low self-esteem.  I never had any specific reason to, but I did.  After years of spending time with my group of Catholic friends in college and afterward, I began to see something in them that I couldn’t describe other than that they seemed happier than me, like they knew something I didn’t.  The only commonality between them that I could see was their Catholicism.  I wasn’t open to being religious at this point, but I believe this is when I reached the second threshold: Curiosity.  I began to ask simple questions about their beliefs and they responded only to what I asked.

God works in mysterious and wonderful ways, and I eventually reached the third threshold of Openness through one of my other female Catholic friends, that I had a crush on.  Because I was interested in her, I became interested in her Catholic faith because it was so important to her (by the way, that female friend is now my lovely wife, Jaime, with whom I have three children (the third due to be born in November!).  I was curious about Catholicism because everything my dad told me seemed false.  I wanted to find out for myself, and to spend time with this girl.  So one day I asked her to take me to Mass.  This was incredibly scary for me as I didn’t know what to expect, when to sit/kneel/stand.  But she showed me what to do and I was grateful.  I will always remember my first Mass.  It was at that time, sitting in the pew, that the Holy Spirit showed me that God was real and that he could be part of my life.  I felt drawn again to Mass the next Sunday and the next.  Even though I still felt out of place, I was intrigued.

During this threshold of Openness, I decided that I wanted to give the Catholic Church serious consideration for myself, which moved me into the fourth threshold: Spiritual Seeking.  I was seeking to learn everything I could about the Church.  My friends helped me along by answering my questions, provoking thoughts, and suggesting books for me to read.  I was particularly interested in learning about the history of the Church: how it was formed, how we came to have the bible.  I also wanted to know the reasoning behind certain Church doctrines, particularly on modern social issues, to understand why Catholics believed what they did.

After dozens of books and about two years of seeking, I finally came to believe that Jesus Christ was my personal Lord and Savior, whom I came to know and love through the Church and Sacraments.  I had reached the fifth threshold of Intentional Discipleship.  I made a conscious decision to follow Jesus and to give my life to Him.  I still waver sometimes in my being a disciple and to choose God’s Will over my own, but it is a worthy struggle.

I am grateful for this book, Forming Intentional Disciples, and what I learned from it.  Someone may have the best intentions when trying to convert someone or help them on their journey toward Jesus, but they can hinder the progress by not understanding where they are on that journey.  They might not have known it then, but my Catholic friends understood where I was at with my relationship with God and acted accordingly toward me.  If they hadn’t, I might not be here today.

I pray and hope that you will consider reading this book, not only to help you with your own personal path to discipleship, but to help those around you.  Having the knowledge from this book will help you help, instead of hinder, the Holy Spirit.

Thank you for your time!

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