One of the easiest ways to tune into the Church's perspective on current issues and events is to know well the principles of Church teaching.
- In politics, we all do this.
- We know what most democrats or republicans will say about a current event, discovery or issue, because we are familiar with their respective views of the world.
- Well, the more familiar we are with the principles of our own Catholic view of the world, the better we will be able to interpret events and issues in light of that, in light of the truths that God has revealed to us in Christ.
Most of us could use some help in refining and developing our understanding of the Catholic world view.
That help is close at hand. We can find it in the Catechism.
The universal Catechism, as well as the recently published compendium of the Catechism - a shorter, question-and-answer version - is like a treasure chest overflowing with gold nuggets of truth. Unfortunately, for many of us, it's a buried treasure. We never dig into it, so we don't benefit from it.
[Here, if you have time, you can insert this anecdote, or one from your own experience.]
- A priest friend of mine recently told me an interesting story in this regard.
- He met a young Catholic couple who attended Mass regularly and were sincere in their faith. They came to him with some moral questions. In the course of their conversation he mentioned the universal Catechism, which had been published in English about three years before their conversation.
- He received blank stares in response.
- This young Catholic couple didn't know that the Catechism was conveniently divided into four parts, with a detailed outline and index for looking up specific questions. They didn't know that each section was divided into easy-to-understand, bite-sized numbers. They didn't even know that it existed! For them, it was a treasure to be discovered.
We all want and need a stable, dependable, accurate view of the world and world events [here you can make reference to the illustration you used, e.g. none of us want to be like greyhounds without a rabbit to guide us...].
We can have it if we pay more attention to what Christ tells us through his Vicar, through the official teaching of his Church. A daily dip into the treasure chest of the Catechism [or - here you can make reference to any Catechism study programs you may have available at the parish; it would also be good to have Catechisms and compendiums of the Catechism available for purchase after Mass] can do the trick.
Christ is constantly speaking to us, giving us the meaning behind the headlines.
I can think of few things that would please him more than if during this Mass we renewed our commitment to listen well.