NOTE: Christ in Our Neighborhood is a parish-based program consisting of small groups that gather in the home weekly to discuss and pray through the upcoming Sunday Mass readings. Find out more at Christ in Our Neighborhood – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix (dphx.org)
This coming Sunday, we celebrate the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. The question the Christ in Our Neighborhood reflection asks us is: What pulls you or entices you to return to your former way of life?
I suppose what pulls and entices any of us to our former way of life is simply human frailty. The fancy theological term for that would be concupiscence. The Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve wounded human nature and led to the loss of original holiness.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.”
A good weapon in that battle is the Rosary. When we pray the Rosary, we remind ourselves 53 times that we are sinners (“Pray for us sinners now…) It’s not a bad reminder in this fallen world. We need God’s grace operating in our lives to avoid being drawn back into our former way of life that perhaps was not centered on Christ or lived in complete surrender to God’s will.
Each day, we need to intentionally choose to follow Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.
To sign up for our weekly Christ in Our Neighborhood newsletter that has everything you need for your next meeting, visit: https://phoenixdiocese.flocknote.com/CION
