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“According to Your Faith, So Let It Be” (Mt.8:13)

It is in our social environment not at all a matter of course to trust people. How often is our trust in others betrayed? But as foolhardy as it is to blindly trust people, so destructive can it be to face the whole world with distrust. And yet, these days this happens everywhere, people against people, party against party, all against all. Even in our own circles individuals are divided by distrust. And that does not go away by itself, even though in the Act of Consecration of Man we are reminded of Him “who makes hearts to be at peace, strengthens wills, unites mankind.” Why then do we not succeed in becoming one?

We can only connect with people who have different ideas when we really search for the essence. The essence—that is Christ in us. Easily said—hard to achieve. For how often is that essence hidden behind outer appearance? In our world, where everything is focused on tangible results, we are all in danger not only of losing our essence, but even of burying it. But if that ever happens—even what was buried can still be raised from death. Look at the world through the eyes of Christ. Most of all, look at your opponent through His eyes—and you will help him to come back to himself again. Have you prayed for your enemy? Have you forgiven him, because he has become a debtor just like you? Do you put your trust in the essence that will sooner or later come to light?

In the tragedy of life it can come to the point that a person loses himself and doesn’t even know that he can’t find himself. Even then, I can still find him: in my faith, in my hope, in my love. This most profound trust is what Christ asks of his followers.

When He was still living on the earth, people often listened to Him with the usual distrust and disbelief. That is how people are, even then. But when an individual recognized Him and believed, He could achieve miracles in the life of that individual. To such a person He could say: “According to your faith, so let it be.”

Now that He is come again and goes with us all our days, He asks of us: “Recognize Me—even though I am hidden in the least of your brothers and sisters.” And if we do recognize Him there, He can say to us also: “According to you faith, so let it be.”

-Rev. Bastiaan Baan, January 31, 2021

February 1, 2021/0 Comments/by CCNA

Blog, Homilies

“And His Disciples Believed in Him” (Jn.2:11)

“And His Disciples Believed in Him” (Jn.2:11)

In a society where everything is focused on visible, tangible results, we all actually live according to the principle of first seeing, then believing. Whether we want to or not, we have in a certain sense all become materialists. We want to see, hear, touch and taste—then only do we believe that something really exists.

Thus it goes at the wedding in Cana: the disciples see and hear—and not until it has passed the test of their senses, and they have drunk, do they believe.

Just like doubting Thomas, we can stay at a distance, ask critical questions, and have doubts. But we can also, if we want to, take the test. The test—for us that is the service at the altar. The Act of Consecration of Man has been given to us to learn to believe through all our senses. Whoever does not want to take in the words, but judges like an aloof spectator, remains on the outside and cannot believe. But experience teaches that the presence of Christ can be recognized, heard, touched and tasted. At the altar He manifests His Light Being day in, day out—until we become His disciples and believe in Him.

And whoever has once recognized Him in the bread and wine can, just like doubting Thomas who sees, hears, and touches Him, affirm with heart and soul: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn.20:28)

-Rev. Bastiaan Baan, January 24, 2021

January 25, 2021/1 Comment/by CCNA

Blog, Homilies

And His Mother Kept All These Words in Her Heart

And His Mother Kept All These Words in Her Heart

Lack of understanding separates people all over the earth. It causes barriers between individuals, groups, and peoples. Wherever we go, everywhere on earth we see the tangible results of these invisible hurdles. Lack of mutual understanding can escalate so badly that people exclude each other or threaten each other’s lives. Each of us, whether we want to or not, forms part of the collective confusion of thinking that shuts out those who have different ideas. Before we know it, we are involved in a conflict by spouting a judgment or taking sides.

How will these separate worlds ever come together again? How can we ever understand what the other actually wants to say when we are always kept apart from each other by walls, words, judgments, and prejudices? Most people take the easy way: they turn away from their opponents as if they don’t exist anymore. However, sooner or later the confrontation will begin again.

Perhaps we have to look for a different place to put the words and ideas we don’t understand—somewhere beyond our lack of understanding. The gospel shows a way to find such a place for all we don’t understand. When the child Jesus, after having disappeared without a trace, returned to his parents after three days, he spoke words no one understood: “Why did you look for me? Don’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk.2:49) The gospel has an extraordinary expression for the way His mother received these enigmatic words: “His mother kept all these words in her heart.” (Lk.2:51)

No more than this and no less than this is needed to create a space for all that we do not understand—even for the injustice that happens in the world. Bear it with patience. Take it into your heart. Sooner or later life itself will give an answer to the riddle you were given.

–Rev. Bastiaan Baan, January 17, 2021

January 18, 2021/0 Comments/by CCNA

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