Workings of God from the Parish Mission

12-18-2016Weekly ReflectionFr. Chad King

For those of you who were not able to attend the Parish Mission earlier this month, I wanted to highlight some key points and share with you some of the fruit from it.

Deacon Keith Strohm, who also presented last year's Advent Mission, came with a friend of his, Kristin Bird, a young lay-woman who is the director of Burning Hearts Disciples. Even though it was called a Mission, it was more of a retreat, as everyone had an opportunity to truly encounter the Holy Spirit and receive healing from our Lord.

During each day of the Mission/Retreat, Dcn. Keith and Kristin talked about some of the lies that Satan has told us from the beginning of the Fall and which many of us have believed for so long. Lies about who we think God is and who we think we are. The first lie was that we are unloved and are not lovable. Satan tries to make us think that we are not worthy or are not good enough. When Satan tempted Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he said that if they did, then Adam and Eve would become like God. This lie made them think that God doesn't want them, that they aren't good enough to be like Him, and that's why He doesn't want them to eat from that tree. Even though Adam and Eve thought they weren't good enough, indeed God saw their creation as "very good." In reality Adam and Eve were already made in the image and likeness of God, they already enjoyed the fullness of God's love because that is the way God chose to make them. This truth is revealed to us in our baptism—that we are God's beloved, that we are His sons and daughters. We are indeed so intimately loved by God.We are made to love and to be loved, we are made for a loving relationship with God and with others.

Dcn. Keith and Kristin also helped to untwist the lie of our loneliness by revealing the truth that the isolation and aloneness we feel is a result of our shame and guilt. In our shame and guilt we only keep ourselves away from God and from each other and tend to isolate ourselves thinking no one else understands or could forgive us. By holding onto the shame, we do not open ourselves up to anyone and thus stay closed to the healing love of God. Another of the lies was that God doesn't care about us because we suffer. Many people blame God for their own suffering or the suffering/pain/death of a loved one. However, none of the bad things that happen to us are willed or desired by God. God didn't create any of us to suffer, we simply live in a fallen world. Many Christians have heard to "offer up their suffering" — which they think means to just "suck it up and deal with all the crosses." Throughout Scriptures, though, when Jesus says to "carry your cross," he isn't talking about our sufferings, but rather, the difficulty of being a disciple. There are so many sufferings which God doesn't intend for us to have, but that we don't let Him heal. For those that He doesn't heal, there must be a greater reason and purpose for our suffering because God does nothing but love and desires us to be healed. Those who were at the mission could call to mind their suffering and ask God where He is in it. One person felt that He was right there through it. Another appreciated the purpose of the Cross in a new way and realizedthe love of God through the suffering, death, and the resurrection of Jesus and Mary's experienced of it.

Fruit from the Mission/Retreat: Not only have I hear d fr om almost everyone who was there how good it was and how they thought it was the best retreat yet, one woman said to me that she now understands in her heart what it means for her to be a daughter of God. One man who is in the RCIA process of entering full communion in the Catholic Church shared how, through one of the prayer times, he felt the burdens he has been carrying from his past be lifted and now truly feels lighter. On the final night of the Mission/Retreat, those present had an opportunity to be prayed with. Everyone I spoke with who was there expressed that they truly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Since that powerful night, I personally have heard of two people who were physically healed that night—or at least symptoms they experienced daily have suddenly disappeared since that encounter of our Lord. I firmly believe though that everyone whowas there was healed in some way- particularly spiritually- the most important healing.