How do we measure
our spiritual maturity?
How do we know that we have grown
in our Christian life? Our faith
is not based simply on some philosophical
considerations of the Gospel. It is true
that reason is important for us in
understanding our faith. But faith goes
beyond reason. And therefore, if we just
base our faith on philosophy, then
indeed, we will never be able to arrive
at the fullness of faith.
If our faith is just founded on
reason alone, then there are many things
we will never be able to explain. How
do you
explain the Incarnation?
And so too for the Resurrection, the
Holy Trinity, God the Father, the Son and
the Spirit, three persons in one being,
how do you know,
how to prove?
Again, that requires faith. The
sacraments require faith, that whenever
the sacraments are
celebrated,
Jesus is present. So, my dear brothers
and sisters, yes, a philosophical faith
alone will not help you to arrive at a
Christian maturity of what faith entails.
This faith must be a personal faith, not
just an intellectual faith. Even the
devil can confess that Jesus is the Son
of God. So, just because you confess
that Jesus is the Son of God, that does
not make you a Christian. That does not
make you a Catholic. There is a great
distinction between believing in God and
believe God. Believing in God means to
say, we trust the person entirely. We
surrender our entire life to Him.
That is why in the Creed we say, "I
believe in one God." We never say, "I
believe one God." To believe God means
simply to believe it as an intellectual
data. This one does not requires faith, no
personal commitment. So, there are many
Catholics, they only have intellectual
faith about Christ. It's all about some
information, but they don't subscribe to
the information, the objective faith in a
personal manner. The devil knows the
truth, but they do not worship Jesus.
They know that Jesus is the Son of God. Did they
bow down in worship? No. And same thing
too. There are many Catholics, there are
many non Catholics as well, they know
about Jesus. They have studied about
Him, but they never confess that He is
the Son of God. It must be a personal
faith. If you think that you have
Christian maturity, then you need to be
conscious of your identity. And what is
our identity? Children of God, sons and
daughters of God. If you think you have
grown in Christian maturity, you must be
able to judge everything with the Spirit
of God. How do you judge the values of
the world? If the values of the world
are your values, then surely you don't
understand. You don't have the Spirit of
God in you. To say that we have grown
in Christian maturity, means to say, from
now on, everything we look at, every
discernment is always from the
perspective of Christ. What does Jesus
think? What would Jesus do? How does He
respond? That is what it means. So, when
we see everything from the Spirit of
Christ, we look at every situation,
especially today, the values that the
world are promoting, to know whether
they are truly good for us or
apparently good only, but will destroy
us in the long run. We must have the
Spirit of God. Without the Spirit of God
resting in us, we will never be able to
see things through the Spirit of God.
That is why it's very important for us.
We must always be receptive to the
Spirit of God. That is why we need to
keep ourselves pure, keep ourselves
connected with the Lord through prayer,
through the reading of the Word of God, so that
we will put on the mind of Christ. If you are
a person who doesn't pray, who doesn't
make himself available to God, how can
he think like God. He cannot. He only reads
the newspapers, reads the internet,
everything about the world from the
world. If we truly want to cultivate the
Spirit of Jesus in our hearts, then we
need to be in touch with His Spirit
through the Word of God, through the
Eucharist, through contemplation. So, my
dear brothers and sisters, how do you
know whether you have truly grown in
Christian maturity? The answer is clear.
Do you really believe that you are the
son and daughter of God? Have you claimed
your identity?
If you are proud of your identity,
conscious
of this identity, you will live as a
child of God, as a son of God, a daughter
of God without fear, because you know
that the Father will always be with you.
