On Friday November 14, 2014, Jesus the King Church hosted another video-event on the growth of the Church in the world from the early Biblical testimonies of the Apostles. The video featured the lives and struggles of St. Peter and St. Paul in a lively documentary recorded in old cities they preached in. It was narrated by Fr. Robert Barron in the extremely popular Series "Catholicism."
On Pentecost Peter spoke about the risen Christ to thousands gathered from many nations for the feast. When they heard him, Luke writes, "they were cut to the heart" (Acts 2: 37) and three thousand were baptized in one day!
Another great Christian witness is an ordinary man who, in his conversion, sought to find God in all things...
Ignatius Loyola was brought up in Spain. The founder of the order of the Society of Jesus in the 16th century was not born a monk. He was born to a Basque noble family, a man of pride ascending the ladder of fame in Spain, then manifested in the military honour and power of knights, and the dating of nice girls until he was seriously wounded in the battle of Pamplona in 1521. In Ignatius of Loyola we see again the power of the transformation God uses in us -weak humans - so that we can become one day united to him in Christ. God who is the eternal Mystery is also the approachable father who calls everyday his servants to become closer to his eternal Son.
While being hospitalized, Ignatius read De Vita Christi written by the influential theologian Ludolph of Saxony and there he contemplated in a vision the "discernment of spirits." From the hospital emerged the conversion to Christ when Ignatius experienced the joy of being with Christ and likewise the experience devoid of joy when he projected his glory without Christ. True joy is a fruit of the Spirit as written in the New Testament. And here Ignatius discerns the true joy which will carry him, with some friends, to Jerusalem and then to Rome. The Jesuits or Society of Jesus, approved by Pope Paul III in 1540, were active in the Counter Reformation preaching. They carried the missionary work to China in the Far East, to the Middle East, and the New World. Ignatius of Loyola was beatified and then canonized in 1622. In his active life as a disciple of Christ, Ignatius educated many followers in the Exercises. The Jesuits have been at the forefront of Catholic education. Not an easy task in an increasingly secular environment, they continue to teach and found universities and schools in the entire world. Among them you will recognize such giants as the twentieth/21st centuries Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, John Courtney Murray, and Avery Dulles with their suffix S.J. or sj which means Society of Jesus.
And finally we move to today...
And finally we move to today...
Let us only review the great testimony by Christian children who were killed recently by extremists before the eyes of their horrified parents in Iraq and Syria.Those kids could not betray their faith in the face of death. Or let us count the Christian girls raped by Boko Haram and other terrorists in Nigeria and beyond. In spite of human weakness, heroism is manifested everyday by ordinary persons who clothe the naked, and feed the hungry. What Mother Teresa sought is now being done on a larger scale. Heaven celebrates the little ones.
Is it possible that Christianity dies? Not really. The scores of missionaries come today from Asia and Africa. They are here to stay and move when needed and where needed. In America alone, in spite of evil, the academia and media dedicate new channels for Catholics because they know their global reach and their religious roots. In Europe, Catholic schools are filled with Muslim students.Their parents insist on giving them the good education found in Catholic schools and universities. It is quite possible that the new evangelization will be carried out by Muslims converted to Christianity. In a recent homily Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. cites an Egyptian Muslim, Nahed Mahmoud Metwalli, who converted to Christianity and wrote a number of books: "Ma rencontre avec le Christ" and "Islam encounters Christ."
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