TABLE of CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. THE MYSTERY OF FAITH 3 SURPRISED BY FAITH FAITH: THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME LIVING BY FAITH THE CONTENT OF FAITH 2. MATURE DISCIPLESHIP 15 CALLED TO COMMUNITY CALLED TO LOVE IN SERVICE CALLED TO SACRIFICE CALLED TO RESPOND 3. LIVING THE MYSTERY 24 THE LIFE OF FAITH MARY MODEL OF FAITH EPILOGUE: HERE I STAND 4. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE YEAR OF FAITH 29 To view a reading of this Pastoral Letter please search YouTube or Google for: “Bishop Jason Gordon Lord Increase Our Faith” it is broken into three parts. 1 INTRODUCTION “Lord, increase our faith” (Lk: 17:5), this is the cry of the disciples when con- fronted with a tough lesson from Jesus on forgiveness and scandal. This is our cry when faced with the challenge of being disciples for Christ in the Caribbean today. It may seem that this challenge is beyond our means, resources and for many of us our imagination. The challenges with which we are faced are at all levels, the family, school, parish and wider society. In our families, schools and parishes we appear no longer to know how to lead our- selves or the next generation towards mature discipleship in Christ. In families where parents are devout Catholics, many children no longer practice the faith. Schools that have a great reputation for academic excellence have recognized that many of today’s students are not living by the standards of excellence that the school has held for a generation or more. The parish that used to be a meeting place for Eucharist and religious formation has lost its prominence; many Catho- lics no longer practice their faith by participating in the Sunday Eucharist. Today we are faced with new challenges. With all the modern means of commu- nication bombarding us, it has become difficult to hear and receive the Word of God. As we face these challenges we hear the reassurance of Blessed John Paul as he reminds us of God’s constant refrain; “Be not afraid”. His call to the Church to launch out into the deep was a prophetic call to re-engage the mission by allow- ing the Lord to lead us where we would rather not go. Now one decade later, with the New Evangelization in sharp focus by the Bishops in Synod (2012), our Holy Father Pope Benedict is launching the Year of Faith in preparation for the New Evangelization. Pope Benedict XVI has said that the New Evangelization needs to speak to the heart of the people of this generation. I invite you to use this year of faith declared by the Holy Father to make a con- scious decision for the faith; to study and live the faith as set out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that was handed on to us from Jesus to the Apostles to our present generation. I have written this pastoral letter for the Year of Faith which seeks to propose the message of Christ and His Church to the peoples of Barbados, and of St. Vincent and the Grenadines as we seek to respond to Christ’s call of forming mature dis- ciples. I urge you to read it and to ponder upon its content. I would like families, groups within the parishes, and all Church groups to discuss the letter. This can be a great opportunity to deepen our faith and to find creative ways to hand it onto the next generation. 2 1. THE MYSTERY OF FAITH SURPRISED BY FAITH When last were you genuinely surprised, completely taken off guard by life or by your friends? How did it feel? Was it a good surprise or one that left you perplexed, sad or shocked? To be open to faith we need to be open to surprise, open to the mystery that life is, open to the unexpected which will become part and parcel of our day. We have become so accustomed to be- ing in full control of our lives. Faith requires us leaving control and safety behind as we journey to Christ in faithful discipleship. To be surprised you have to wonder. You have to be capable of admiration for the beautiful, the unexpected, the unfamiliar and the unexplainable. In his classic work “The Little Prince,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry explores this theme as the Little Prince who comes from a small planet with one rose tree and many sunsets in an hour is surprised by the strange and unexpected ways of the adults of Earth. He says: “Grown-ups never understand any- thing for themselves and it is tiresome for children to always and forever explain things for them. Speaking to the fox he says: “People where you live, grow five thousand roses in one garden... yet they don’t find what they’re looking for... They don’t find it,” I answered. And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose or a little water...” “Of course,” I answered. And the little prince added, “But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.” We grown-ups have become tiresome; we have lost the sense of mystery, the ability to be surprised and to wonder. Yet we live continually in mys- tery, the mystery of the Universe, of our bodies, of our civilization. More fundamentally, the mystery of God who became flesh and dwelt amongst us. These mysteries can only be seen by the heart. So we turn to the loving embrace of Mary who pondered the mystery in her heart asking her to inter- cede for us as we seek to open our hearts to be surprised by faith. 3 In their filmThe Journey of the Universe, Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker explore the mystery of the world in which we live. If at its beginnings the universe expanded one millionth of a percent slower it would have collapsed back into itself. If however it expanded one millionth of a percent faster it would have pulled apart and exploded. The universe is expanding at exactly the precise rate required to create a habitable space for intelligent life. To see the beauty, the vastness, the complexity and yet the simple elegance of the universe must leave us with awe and wonder, if we see it with the heart. Only the heart can respond to the words of William Blake: To see a world in a grain of sand And the heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour. Karl Rahner has described the modern inability to be surprised and to wonder at mystery as the “eclipse of Mystery”. Rahner uses the term “wintery season”! Modernity has forgotten the art of living in and with mystery, deep mystery. The meaning of life is being reduced to what can be concretely experienced, seen, or scientifically proven. Practical reason has become the highest good with efficiency becoming the core value of our civilization. In this late capitalist, materialist phase of Western civiliza- tion, the rap artist “50 cent” proclaims the creed: “Get rich or die trying.” Pope Benedict in his Letter to Artists, 2009 says: If we acknowledge that beauty touches us intimately, that it wounds us, that it opens our eyes, then we rediscover the joy of seeing, of be- ing able to grasp the profound meaning of our existence, the Mystery of which we are part; from this Mystery we can draw fullness, happi- ness, and the passion to engage with it every day. In Baptism we were initiated into mystery, we became Children of God, we were anointed with sacred chrism to be Prophets, Priests and Kings. We were set aside for nuptial union with God. In Confirmation we received the Holy Spirit the seven-fold gift of God – Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord, giving us both the gifts for mission and the fruits for sanctification. In the Eucharist we are fed on 4 the substance of God, the body and blood of Christ. We witness in each Mass the selfless offering of Christ to us and for our salvation and that of the world. We lack nothing! The Second Vatican Council spoke of the Eucharist as the “source and summit of the whole Christian life (Lumen Gentium 11).” The Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1324 commenting on this says: The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life”. “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.” This statement is at the heart of our reflection on faith. As source, the Eu- charist is the point of beginning, the place from which Grace springs forth ever new. As summit it is the point to which the whole Christian life flows, the high peak to which we are all destined. The Eucharist is the Real Pres- ence of Christ, the pre-eminent sacrament, the one from which all others draws their inner meaning. It is the pre-eminent space for the encounter with Christ. There are few commands that Christ has given us, among them, celebrat- ing the Eucharist (Lk 22:19), making disciples (Mk 16:15ff), caring for those on the fringe (Mt 25:31-46) and taking Mary as Mother (Jn 19:26- 27). In the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, when challenged by people leav- ing him because of his teaching on the Eucharist, Jesus does not waver, nor change his teaching to make it more culturally acceptable.