Catholicism Session 1: Happy Are We

“One of the most fundamental problems in the spiritual order is that we sense within ourselves the hunger for God, but we attempt to satisfy it with some created good that is less than God. Thomas Aquinas said that the four typical substitutes for God are wealth, pleasure, power, and honor. Sensing the void within, we attempt to fill it up with some combination of these four things, but only by emptying out the self in love can we make the space for God to fill us.” - Robert Barron, Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith

We did it! Our first attempt at engaging fellow parishioners in a faith-formation programme. 12 interested faith-seekers turned up, drawn to the appeal of Bishop Barron and maybe, the idea of a free DVD viewing.

This first session focused on the Beatitudes and understanding them based on the teachings of St Thomas Aquinas. An application or takeaway for the participants would be to form meaningful New Year resolutions based on identifying their own substitute(s) for God - wealth/pleasure/power/honour.

Outline

Based on the approach recommended by the Leaders' Guide for this series, we structured the session as such -

- Intro and Opening Hymn

- Catholicism DVD – Chapter 2: The Beatitudes

- Handout – Quick recap on beatitudes

- Catholicism DVD – The Path of Non-Violence

- Discussion and reflection in small groups

Link to the session handout can be found here.

Sharing and feedback

Understandably, the participants were generally reserved in sharing their personal thoughts/feelings/problems with a group of strangers. In spite of some initial awkwardness, we managed to have a meaningful discussion. The positive feedback we received at the end of the session was affirming and encouraging!

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Summary of salient points

Notice how the beatitudes are an elaboration of the first two commandments that Jesus states as the two most important - To love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

1) Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy(Mt 5:7)

Since we received the divine life as a gift, we too, must give it as a gift.

2) Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God (Mt 5:8)

We must order our hearts towards pleasing God alone.

3) Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied (Mt 5:6)

We must hunger and thirst for God alone.

4) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (Mt 5:9)

If we are ordered towards God, we will naturally serve as a conduit of the divine life from God.

5) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:3)

We must free ourselves from attachment to material things.

6) Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted (Mt 5:4)

We must free ourselves from attachment to good feelings.

7) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land (Mt 5:5)

We must free ourselves from attachment to worldly power.

8) Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:10)

We must free ourselves from attachment to honour.

A participant shared her learning point from the section on non-violence, that although she has been familiar with the phrase since her schooling years, she now knows what "turning the other cheek" actually means. More about this in the next blog post...

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