This process of making changes in our lives, having a new outlook, repenting, converting, turning over a new leaf — all render the command, metanoeite — that we find at the beginning of the mission of Jesus as it is presented in Mark's gospel (1:15): "Repent (metanoeite) and believe in the good news."

Renewing our language

Renewal can take many forms: fasting, prayer, and alms-giving. These are the three classic Lenten practices.

But renewal can also take the form of becoming less sloppy with our language.

Language, as we use it in our everyday conversation, is usually imprecise. We use words without thinking about whether or not we are being true to what we mean or just using familiar short-hands.

Moreover, a word I associate with one meaning can convey a very different impression in the mind of the one listening to me.

Therefore, being careful with our language is a type of ascetic practice that can be an important part of our Lenten renewal.

But do we need to do this?

Surely most of the words we use, even within Christian discourse, are clear and unambiguous!

But it is a simple fact that words often become tired!

What might be a life-giving word that communicates the mystery in one age, is just religious jargon in another.

I suggest we just think about these two words: "Christ" and "Church".

"Christ"

For many people, this is just a name or a surname! It answers the question "who is the central figure in Christianity?"

So we say: "in Christ's time" or "as Christ said" or "Christ is".

But the name of One whom Christians look to as their Lord is Jesus. His name was Jesus and he came from Nazareth.

So let us call Lord by his name when we want to name him: Jesus. Jesus is the name of the saviour "for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

What we declare to be the heart of our belief is that Jesus is the Christ - the anointed of the Father. The Christ, Jesus, is the one who presents us to the Father.

"The Christ" along with "the Lord" are the fundamental titles we give to Jesus.

The sloppiness of using "Jesus Christ" as the equivalent to "John Smith" results in our forgetting that when we want to refer to a historical individual, a rabbi from Nazareth, we should use his historical name.

But when we want to confess and relate to him as our hope and the one who presents us to the Father, then we should make our confession that he is, for us who are baptized, the Christ/the Anointed One/the Messiah.

At Eastertime the lectionary presents us with a continuous reading of the Acts of the Apostles, so let us note this "ideal sermon" that Luke — the author of Acts — places on the lips of Peter.

This is the first sermon preached on the day of Pentecost and its conclusion is worth quoting:

Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ' (Acts 2:36).

"Church"

The word means an assembly of people, a gathering, a group with a common identity.

But as we often use it, it means a building, an organization, or a shorthand for an ideology.

Well, surely, only those outside would confuse the community of the baptized - either in one place or the whole oikoumene - with a building!

Here is a little test.

Watch and listen for all the uses of the word "church" you hear or read between now and Easter.

How many times will it be for a building?

"The Easter ceremonies will not take place in this church but only take place in the parish church this year," said a message on a notice board I saw yesterday.

How many times will it be used as an abstraction? For instance, "we must guard the separation of Church and state".

How many times will it be used for the structures that minister to the churches? "The Church should speak out clearly," we might say when, in fact, we mean the pope or a bishop should speak out.

Watching our language

I recall the number of times I was told as a child, "Watch your language!"

It was far more profound advice than I realized because sloppy language is often a sign of sloppy thinking.

Sloppy thinking in matters of faith can be a betrayal of the good news.

If we all are careful in how we use these two words — Christ and Church — we might find that we have helped people deepen their understanding and overcome their denominational fears - if they are already Christians.

And we might discover that we have helped those who are not Christians get a better insight into what Christians actually believe.

• Thomas O'Loughlin is a presbyter of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and professor-emeritus of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK). His latest book is Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking Up Pope Francis's Call to Theologians (Liturgical Press, 2019).

The history of our Church belongs in that covenant, the unfailing promise of love. Quite simply, God is in love with us, whether we are aware of it or not. When the word "covenant" is considered in a deep place of meditation, we find our hearts are filled with the light of God's presence.

There is a sense of spaciousness, of warmth, of loving connection with all creation. And while no words can accurately describe an experience beyond language, for me, the word "covenant" is a doorway to it. That word holds a promise that can never be broken.

Another doorway word is "transfiguration." The story of Jesus' moment of glory on the mountain holds an important lesson for us all. Why did Jesus go up the mountain that day? We don't know. But he often went to a wilderness place to pray, and he probably knew the mountain well.

At this time, however, Jesus was nearing his death and carrying the burden of that knowledge. His disciples didn't understand. He must have been in a very lonely place.

On the mountain, he was given a for-taste of his resurrection. It was a glorious moment in which he went beyond the boundaries of his human senses to return to the spiritual realm.

That must have been a huge experience for Jesus. So, what happened next? The two disciples acted as we probably would. They wanted to hold on to the miracle by making shrines, three tents on the mountain.

But Jesus? No, he immediately went down to the plains, back to his life of compassion and healing.

I'm a bit like those disciples. Little tastes of God can lead to an addiction to sweetness, a fondness for the mountain experience. I admit I am very fond of what I call spiritual pavlova. I want to linger with the sacred moment and build little shrines in an attempt to hold onto it.

But I know that the mountain experience exists so that it can be taken to the plains to people in the everyday busyness of life. That's what "call" is all about. We witness Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, and afterwards, we all go with him to the plains.

To use another image, we are like little paper cups under a waterfall of love. We get filled. We get emptied. We get filled again. And we know the rightness in the process.

It's all about covenant. It's all about the mountain and the plains.

It's all about God's Love.

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

"In the history of the Church there have been two classes of Christians: Christians of words — those who say, 'Lord, Lord, Lord' — and Christians of action, in truth," he said.

Pope Francis was commenting on the passage from the Gospel of Matthew on houses built on rock or sand at a morning Mass celebrated in Casa Santa Marta.

Those Christians who are all talk, he said, fall into two categories.

He defined one group as "gnostics" who, instead of loving the Rock that is Christ, "love pretty words" and follow a "liquid Christianity".

These superficial "Christians of words" are "floating on the surface of the Christian life", he said. "And this has happening and is happening today: being Christian without Christ."

He defined the other group as "pelagians", who "believe that the Christian life must be taken so seriously that they end up confusing solidity and firmness with rigidity. They are rigid! They think that being Christian means being in perpetual mourning."

This group, he said, "stare at their feet" and do not know how to enjoy the life that Jesus gives us because they do not know how to talk to Jesus.

There are "so many" of these Christians, the Pope said, but "they are not Christians, they disguise themselves as Christians".

"They do not know what the Lord is, they do not know what the rock is, do not have the freedom of Christians. To put it simply 'they have no joy'."

"They are the slaves of superficiality … and the slaves of rigidity, they are not free. The Holy Spirit has no place in their lives. It is the Spirit who gives us the freedom!

"Today, the Lord calls us to build our Christian life on Him, the rock, the One who gives us freedom, the One who sends us the Spirit, that keeps us going with joy, on his journey, following his proposals. "

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Vatican Radio

Image: Catholic Herald

Samuel Jaramillo, an orphan who lives with his grandmother and aunt in the city of Medellin, Colombia, has become an Internet hit since family members posted YouTube videos showing him pretending to celebrate Mass.

Garbed in child-size priestly vestments for his YouTube Mass, the youngster uses the words, intonations and gestures of an experienced priest.

According to his relatives, last Christmas Jaramillo did not ask for toys like most children his age. Instead, it wanted "priest's clothes" and the objects necessary to "celebrate" Mass.

"This isn't something we taught him, and we don't even attend church," said Jaramillo's aunt, Elizabeth Rojas Arango.

Jaramillo goes to Mass every Sunday and on Tuesdays with his grandmother, Rosa Eva Arango.

Rojas Arango said the decision to post videos of Samuel's YouTube Mass was not "to try to make him popular, but because they are moving".

A local priest, Father Daniel Monsalve, noted Jaramillo's "passion for what he says and the tenderness that inspires him" in the videos.

"Amid a changing world that is at times indifferent to religious matters, this child appears as a testimony of love for God and fascination for sacred celebrations, most certainly fostered by those who care for him and by the priest of his parish," Father Monsalve said.

Cases like that of Jaramillo "should not only awaken religious fervor but also serve as an example for the promotion of priestly and religious vocations, supported always by the encouragement of parishes, seminaries and houses of formation", he added.

Faather Monsalve said that when people see Jaramillo, "They will be amazed and will be unable to resist clicking on ‘Like' or ‘Share'. However, it will be God who continues speaking to humanity through the nobility and humility of his littlest children, the favourites of the Kingdom of Heaven."

In an interview with RCN television, Jaramillo said he wants to be a priest when he grows up.

Source:

Catholic News Agency

Image: UCA News