The Gospel reading on Sunday had so many lessons for all of us. The one that struck me the most is the plight of the blind man. When Jesus restored his eyesight, the first thing he saw was the face of Jesus. What a beautiful sight that must have been. It certainly made me think about my afterlife. I hope that when I leave this life and wake up in the next, the first face I see is that of Jesus. It also made me realize that I must work at getting to see His face everyday. Little things matter just as much as big things. No, I am not murdering anyone but is my tongue causing harm to someone? Do I conduct my life so that others know I am a disciple of Jesus? The lesson of the Gospel that also stuck with me is that we care too much about what others think of us. As soon as we sense that someone is not going to like us, we begin to structure our lives to maintain that relationship. Why don't we do that with God? That is the ultimate decision about anything we do. What does God think? Am I representing God in all that I do? I am not saying that we shouldn't have strong relationships. What I am offering is that we must not be constantly concerned about what others think of us. By focusing on God and the Gospel message that Jesus shared and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us, everything else will fall into place. The people that God wants us to be around will be drawn to us. And in the end, that will allow us to have our sight restored and see the face of Jesus. I also wanted to recommend a website to you that I learned about listening to Catholic radio this morning. Take a look at prolifecatholic.com and see how you can make economic decisions that further the mission of the Church that Jesus built.
Kurt Hilgefort, is a Catholic father of six who publishes his thoughts on his blog Shadows of Augustine . He responded to my seven question survey with the following answers. Kurt is the first layperson to respond to the seven question survey and I think that his experience is extremely relevant to me personally and I hope that you are inspired by his thoughts as well. If you would like to respond, please send an email to fellmananthony@gmail.com with your thoughts and I will be happy to publish them as well. 1. What is the biggest challenge to your faith that you have faced so far? The biggest challenge for me has been the whole dying to self thing. On an intellectual level, there are no barriers. It comes down to a matter of accepting the authority of the Church that Christ founded upon Peter. My challenge is not in the intellect, but rather in the will. The challenge for me has always been to continually seek conversion. I want to be transformed, but I want it to be over all ...