I was driving down the highway the other morning and heard the song On Fire by Switchfoot. It reminded me of a haunting comment that someone made a week or two ago about having problems with the Church.
They tell you where you need to go.
They tell you when you need to leave.
They tell you what you need to know.
They tell you who you need to be.
But everything inside you
knows there’s more than what you’ve heard.
There’s so much more than empty conversations
filled with empty words.
And you’re on fire
when He’s near you.
You’re on fire when He speaks.
You’re on fire burning at these mysteries.
Give me one more time around,
Give me one more chance to see,
Give me everything you are,
Give me one more chance to be near you.
When everything inside me
looks like everything I hate,
You are the hope I have for change,
You are the only chance I’ll take.
And I’m on fire when you’re near me.
I’m on fire when you speak.
I’m on fire burning at these mysteries.
I’m standing on the edge of me,
I’m standing at the edge of everything I’ve ever been.
And I’ve been standing at the edge of me,
standing at the edge.
I imagine that I am like most people and have my problems and challenges with particular tenets of the church. But these are my problems, not the church’s.
I will re-word this and say that I am the one who has to move toward God. I have to change. He is not going to move towards me and change everything just to suit my fancy, my opinion, or my culture.
Christ became what we are so that He might make us what He is.
The wonderful thing is that He will help you move toward Himself, if you’re on fire. Just ask Him to help.
In a timely piece, Fr. Jim wrote about the concern of twice-a-year Catholics in Not Quite Where We’d Like Them to Be: Thoughts on the Practice of the Faith. (I assume this is a problem in other denomination too.) Fr. Jim also posted an inspiring Christmas sermon.