About CFOTAE 2010

Education for Discipleship.

With

John Dear SJ and Roy Bourgeois MM

AAll Catholics, teachers, parents, priests, trustees, administrators, have the privilege and responsibility of helping nurture tomorrow’s Catholics. They cannot do this out of yesterday’s faith. This means returning to the fountainhead of our faith, Jeshua bar Joseph, Jesus of Nazareth.

The earliest Followers of the Way took on the might of the Roman Empire because they took seriously the teaching of Jesus and refused to fight in the Roman army. In recent years the Catholic Church has begun to return to those roots in beatifying Franz Jagerstatter in Linz on October 26th 2007.

In his 2007 book God and Empire : Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now John Dominic Crossan points out at the heart of the Bible is a moral and ethical call to fight unjust superpowers, whether they are Babylon, Rome, or perhaps even America. Through the revolutionary messages of Jesus and Paul, John Dominic Crossan reveals what the Bible has to say about land and economy, violence and retribution, justice and peace, and ultimately, redemption. He examines the meaning of "kingdom of God" prophesized by Jesus, and the equality recommended by Paul to his churches. Crossan contrasts these messages of peace against the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the book of Revelations, which as been co-opted by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify the United State's military actions in the Middle East.

When we ponder the past, we are humbled and filled with unspeakable awe and gratitude at our journey through deep time to the present moment. When we look to the immediate or distant future, we can be filled with faith, hope, and a sense of urgency to do our part in ushering in God’s kingdom on Earth. Our guide in all this is Jesus of Nazareth. Our worship of God now includes doing everything to ensure a just and thriving future for planet Earth, for our children’s children, and for everyone else’s children’s children.

Faith in our time requires us to grow up and learn and this requires we invite ourselves and our young people to embrace the non-violence as taught by Jesus and as modeled for us by his disciples Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Roy Bourgeois, John Dear, Joan Chittister and others. to relate with God in a new way. We are invited and challenged to relate as adults to an adult God, modeled for Christians in the adult life-example of Jesus.

Faith in our time also requires us to follow the example of our sisters and brothers in the communion of saints, giants like Catherine of Siena, Angela Merici, Francis of Assisi, Mary Ward who challenged the misuse of power, even when that power was wielded by ecclesiastical and not imperial Rome. Those challenges remain today in speaking to power about the abuse that centres on gender, power, and sexual orientation. Taking on these challenges is part of discipleship.