This volume in the “To the Ends of the Earth” series is a study in those godly character traits that should define us as Catholic men. It offers a challenge to take stock in who we are as followers of Jesus Christ. A man’s Catholic character is more than just a group of positive traits that define his faith and influence his decisions. Our character is a reflection of the Spirit, who has given us life and purpose. It is the breath of God that moves within us to bring the kingdom of God to life in the world around us.
This book is both a personal daily devotional and a tool for group study with other men. Each day, you are encouraged to read through the day’s devotion, pray and meditate on the message from God’s word, and reflect on the questions provided, always remembering the theme for the week and seeking to apply it to your life. It is suggested that you take fifteen to thirty minutes in the morning to complete each devotion, and then let your prayerful experience with the Lord guide you throughout your day.
On Saturday, you are encouraged to look back on your week of study, reflecting on the progress you’ve made, thanking God for the work he has done in your life, throwing any mistakes into the ocean of God’s mercy, and committing to personal goals in areas where you’d like to see improvement in the coming week.
For those who want to take things a step further, you are encouraged to keep a journal where you write your reflections, track your progress in Christian living, and dialogue with the God who is leading you on this journey of manhood. You can then use your journal to help you share your insights and discoveries with other men.
The key to growing with this study involves two things: (1) taking time to read and learn each day, and then (2) living out the message through practical acts of love. This means taking the reflection questions and turning them into action steps that you can do as you love your family, serve your parish and community, and lift up your brothers in the faith.
Once a week, you are encouraged to come together with other Catholic men to share your thoughts on the devotions, the insights you have gained in prayer, and the ways you have put these principles into practice in everyday life. The leader of your study group will facilitate a discussion, focusing on those passages, reflections, and actions that have meant the most to the men in the group. After a general sharing of thoughts about the daily devotions, the leader can focus on the Saturday “Go Deeper” questions. As each man shares ideas, the leader will encourage the other men to build on the ideas raised and add their own unique voice to the discussion.
As you make this journey, determine to spend more time in prayer, study, and worship to grow in your faith. Look for opportunities to interact with your brothers, as you build one another up, carry one another’s burdens, and hold one another accountable before God. Love your families and your communities with the same uncompromising love that Christ has poured out onto you. Look for ways to make this world a better place by being a man who represents Christ and his Church well. And look forward to all the blessings that are to come in God’s good time!
Introduction
The Character of a Catholic Man
In our world today, it has become normal to judge and label others based on things like race, sex, political affiliation, or religious beliefs. We identify people based on these characteristics, and we place them in categories and assess their worth as individuals and groups. (The color of a person’s skin, for example, becomes more important than the content of his or her character.) For Catholics, this should never be the way we view our fellow human beings. As a Church, we are a diverse people whose worth is grounded in the cross of Christ. What matters most is who we are as followers of Jesus and how we live out our lives as members of the body of believers.
Character stands above all other factors, for our true identity as Catholics lies in the character of the One who died to set us free. To be men of Catholic character is to reflect the image of Christ in our lives.
Godly character involves many things, but in a mysterious way it is all about the two greatest commandments: loving God with all that we are and loving our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Mt 22:34–40). The underlying principle for developing this godly character is the selfless, sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. We are to imitate his example in our words and deeds. As Catholic men, we must live out his call to love the lost and build up believers in the Faith. Every day, we are called to embody the sacramental life of the Church as we are broken and poured out for the world:
• Our words and deeds should be filled with passion and poetry as we witness the power and presence of our Savior to the world.
• We must cultivate a culture of love as we walk the path toward heaven with others.
• We must allow the living word of God to live within us.
• We must be disciplined disciples, men of prayer who embody the grace of the sacraments each day.
• We must be committed to the cause of Christ as we run the course set out for us by our faith.
• We must be willing to die to ourselves in order to be raised up as new creatures in Christ, joyfully accepting our calling to seek heaven with all our heart.
• We must embrace our frailty and our weakness so that God can use them to show forth the power of the cross.
• Finally, we must be lovers of peace, givers of comfort, and seekers of perfection and purity, as we daily examine our lives and join our burdens and our pain to the healing grace of our Savior. In this way, we will be able to walk with others who struggle along the same path toward our heavenly home.
As you seek to understand what it means to develop godly character, remember that the journey of faith is meant to be one of spiritual abundance, strength, and joy. Let the next ten weeks of this devotional become an awesome challenge, a test of what it means to be a man. May it shape your life and your witness to the world. Dig deeply into each of these studies, letting the word of God inform you, the Spirit of God refine you, and the love of God perfect you as you conform more and more to the image of the One who gave his life for you.
Week 1
The Cultivator
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Genesis 2:15–17
From the beginning, God called man to be a cultivator.
God placed Adam in the garden and gave him charge of it. He was to work the soil, nurture the plants, and be fruitful as he, in turn, made the garden fruitful. He was to love and protect his wife and live out the will of his heavenly Father. His work was to define his relationship with God, to help him to grow into the man he was created to become, and to live in obedience as he gave glory to the One who was the source of all his life. By his daily labors, he was to fill the earth; and together in a community of love, he was to raise up a people after God’s own heart. In short, as he completed the work God had given him, he would become complete as a man of God, building the family of God in fulfillment of God’s will.
Adam, however, sinned by disobeying God’s command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. His act of pride, selfishness, and rebellion led to sin, toil, and sadness. It led to death and exclusion from the kingdom of heaven. Because of the sin of one man, the first Adam, our daily toil is difficult, and we become weary doing it. Our original call to cultivate this world has