Seized by Christ

They are experiencing Christianity as joy and hope, having thus become lovers of Christ.

Category: Community & Hospitality

  • What Does “God Loved Us First” Really Imply About How We Should Respond?

    Understanding our response to God’s initiative of love in Deus Caritas Est

    Pope Benedict XVI, drawing from 1 John 4:19—“We love because he first loved us”—teaches that Christian life begins not with obligation, but with a gift already received. Deus Caritas Est emphasizes that the initiative always belongs to God. This simple truth changes how we see love, discipleship, and mission: not as burdens we must carry to earn God’s favor, but as responses to a love that came before we even asked for it.

    1. Our Response Is Rooted in Gratitude, Not Obligation

    If God loved us first, our love isn’t about earning approval—it’s about responding with thanksgiving.

    “Gratitude over guilt”: Love becomes a joyful act, not a duty pressed by fear.
    “Freedom to love”: Knowing we are fully accepted frees us to forgive, serve, and give without fear of failure or rejection.

    2. Trust Before Understanding

    God’s love often reaches us before we understand it. That means faith begins not with full comprehension but with trust.

    “Leap of faith”: As St. Paul says, nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38–39), even when life is confusing or painful.
    “Perseverance in trials”: Because “while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), we know His love doesn’t waver in our weakness.

    3. Imitation of Divine Initiative

    If God made the first move, so must we—especially in a world where love often waits to be earned.

    “Be the first mover”: Take the first step in kindness, reconciliation, and service.
    “Mercy and forgiveness”: We love not because others deserve it, but because we ourselves have received undeserved love.

    4. Mission and Witness

    Pope Benedict reminds us that love is never private. Our response to God’s love becomes public through action.

    “Proclamation through love”: Our quiet sacrifices and small acts of care preach the Gospel more clearly than words alone.
    “Communal dimension”: In the parish, “loving first” means reaching out to newcomers, showing compassion to the overlooked, and making space for everyone at the table.

    Follow Up Question:

    Can you share an example of when someone loved you “first”—unexpectedly or unconditionally—and how that changed the way you related to them afterward? How might we imitate that in our parish community?

  • Microspheres Key to Church Renewal

    I am dedicated to helping to promote the Kingdom of God in my parish and in my diocese. My goal is to find a way to promote the faith such that by 2030, the Archdiocese would be 4 times its current size, and have 1 priest for every 100 men.

    Although my view really doesn’t  matter, I see nothing wrong with the Teaching of the Church, the Hierarchy, or the Magesterium. As far as I can see, the shortcoming is in the gap between the priests and the lay people.

    Although a parish may be the size of several brigades, it is as useless as a mob without some structure, network, and relationships.

    Unfortunately, most of the time, it seems that the only thing that separates Catholics from the rest of the world is that 1 hour on Sunday when they actually separate themselves from the rest of the world.

    If you know a tree by the fruit it produces, then you would have to say that most Catholics are unaware of the treasure that God is. They have been given a gold mine, but they act like it’s just yellow plastic.

    These days most people prefer interacting with media, rather than with other human beings, often even in their own families.

    I believe that the “Sense of Community” one has with his church or parish is directly related to the number of microsphere relationships (average of 30 minutes per week per person) he has within that church.

    Would it take a network of 5, 10, or even 20 microsphere relationships experienced as shared lives, shared service, and shared support to create that sense of community? This would create the kind of environment where Catholics could find God and respond to their vocations.

    If we could develop within the Church support groups for everyone, many of the problems that the Church now experiences would disappear.

    It was the communities of brotherhoods that allowed Civilization to survive the invasions of Europe that occurred 1000 years ago. Something of that kind will be required to survive the current assault on our faith.

    I do not believe it is necessarily the Church’s responsibility or even within their capability to bring about this change.

    Tom Neugebauer

    Seized by Christ

  • From Redemptor Hominis to a Synod on Subsidiarity

    In Redemptor Hominis, one of the first encyclicals of Pope John Paul VI, he made reference to the fact that every man is the way of the Church. This statement is to imply that Christ has entrusted to the Church the salvation of every man, so it is the duty of the Church to reach out to every man, and show them the way to Christ.

    In Gratissimus Sane, Pope John Paul II makes reference to the fact that every family is also the way of the Church.

    In addition, he said that the Family is the way that the way that the Church walks with every individual, because every person starts out as a member of a family that establishes their character, and makes them a unique person.

    However, in the last 50 years, the family has disintegrated, with more than 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce, and many children growing up without fathers. This actually creates more people with additional needs, and poorly formed character.

    100 years ago, before mobility was so common, more people lived with extended family, that provided the moral and spiritual support of an individual and of a family. It could to some extent pick up for broken family situations, but that is generally no longer the case.

    Even nuclear families are much smaller, so that is so much less the local support and council available.

    And it was typical for a family to have within it, an uncle or child or cousin that was consecrated to the priesthood. Or sisters or aunts that were consecrated. One of the most devastating effects of the reduction of the priesthood was the loss of their  moral and spiritual guidance of the family.

    With one priest for 4000 parishioners, substantially reduced family and reduced extended family, how can the Church realistically expect to walk with every family, much less every individual?

    Many years ago, I compared the organization of the military with the Catholic Church.

    In the military hierarchy, every group of 2 or 3 has a higher level to go to for support.

    Military                       # of Individuals            Catholic Church

     

    Region / Theater         1,000,000 +                       Diocese

    Army Group                    250,000                         (Deanery Group)

    Army                                   60,000 – 100,000        Deanery

    Corps                                   30,000 –   80,000        (Sub Deanery)

    Division                              10,000 –    20,000       (Parish Group)

    Brigade                                 2,000 –      5,000        Parish

    Batillion                                   300 –      1,000        (Priest Group)

    Company                                   70 –         250         (Deacon Group)

    Troop                                          25 –          60          (Small Community)

    Patrol                                            8 –          12          (Fire Patrol)

    Fire Team                                     4                          (Fire Team)

    Fire & Maneuver                         2                          (Prayer Partner)

    Soldier                                           1                          Parishioner

    I believe that the military has through many thousands of years developed the optimal efficient hierarchy structure, to provide support from the top, and successful execution from the bottom.

    For sake of reference, I added in parenthesis suggested groups where groups do not, or do not seem to exist in the Church.

    I am not suggesting that we imitate the Military, but I would like to suggest that we could do better than we are now.

    I have heard, for example, a deacon mention that there is discussion of housing priests in parish groups or subdeaneries so that they can have appropriate support and fellowship.

    I am focused on the lower levels from the deacon group and down. That is why I am working to assemble a “catechesis” related to providing support to the individual, the family, and to small communities. I’m not trying to make up anything. I am going to try to gather from the teaching from the Church. I will also make reference to articles that support it, that appear all the time in the media.

    On the other end, I am trying to inspire a Synod of Bishops to discuss Subsidiarity in general, and the sub-parish level in specific. Synods on Youth and Family  have established ongoing research of those topics. It would be worthwhile to define a starting point for developing a catechesis of Subsidiarity.

    I believe that it could, for example, lead to new projects for religious orders.

    I believe the current shape of the Church has everything to do with the resources available to work with. One can consider how many more resources would be available if the Church figures out how to walk with every man.

    Sometimes I think about the fact that if there are 7 Billion people in the world, and 1.16 B Catholics, then there are 5 persons in the world for each Catholic. That approaches a manageable group size, comparable to Christ and the 12 apostles. If only we knew how to carry that out, then we would really be able to have the Church walking with every man, in Love.

    Regards
    Tom Neugebauer
    Seized by Christ

  • Amour Laetitia Section 196 – 198

    Amour Laetitia Section 196 – 198 (Pope Francis)

    These passages talk about how the family’s small community, made up of extended family and close friends, should work.

    196 A big heart

    196.1 In addition to the small circle of the couple and their children, there is the larger family, which cannot be overlooked. 196.2 Indeed, “the love between husband and wife and, in a derivative and broader way, the love between members of the same family – between parents and children, brothers and sisters and relatives and members of the household – is given life and sustenance by an unceasing inner dynamism leading the family to ever deeper and more intense communion, which is the foundation and soul of the community of marriage and the family”.223 196.3 Friends and other families are part of this larger family, as well as communities of families who support one another in their difficulties, their social commitments and their faith.

    197.1 This larger family should provide love and support to teenage mothers, children without parents, single mothers left to raise children, persons with disabilities needing particular affection and closeness, young people struggling with addiction, the unmarried, separated or widowed who are alone, and the elderly and infirm who lack the support of their children. 197.2 It should also embrace “even those who have made shipwreck of their lives”.224 197.3 This wider family can help make up for the shortcomings of parents, detect and report possible situations in which children suffer violence and even abuse, and provide wholesome love and family stability in cases when parents prove incapable of this.

    198.1 Finally, we cannot forget that this larger family includes fathers-in-law, mothers-in-law and all the relatives of the couple. 198.2 One particularly delicate aspect of love is learning not to view these relatives as somehow competitors, threats or intruders. 198.3 The conjugal union demands respect for their traditions and customs, an effort to understand their language and to refrain from criticism, caring for them and cherishing them while maintaining the legitimate privacy and independence of the couple. 198.4 Being willing to do so is also an exquisite expression of generous love for one’s spouse.

    NOTE 223: John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (22 November 1981), 18: AAS 74 (1982), 101