“This Sacred Book is a gift from God,” said Fr. Manning on the first night of the mission. “It’s an experience of people, people like you and me who experience God, people who said ‘yes’ even though they didn’t fully know what their ‘yes’ meant.”
Focusing on several Old and New Testament people (in particular Moses, Gideon, and Mary and Joseph) who responded to God without knowing fully where their ‘yes’ was taking them, Fr. Manning showed how the Bible is very relevant to our lives today.
“In the Bible we experience people who help us to understand God’s way,” he said. Building on the importance of Scripture, Fr. Manning explained, “the Bible tells us where we should go, what we should say and do in our lives,” in both good times and when there are hardships, struggles and confusion in how God is working in our lives.
Speaking to the struggles that will come to all of us at some point Fr. Manning said, “This is what faith is about. Quiet submission to something totally unacceptable in our lives and continuing to say ‘yes’ to God.” He used Joseph and Mary as models of “believing with faith that God can take that ‘yes,’ our ‘yes,’ and do the impossible,” even though we can’t begin to imagine how it could happen.
By reading Scripture we deepen our faith and come to see how “God is calling us to follow him for something great,” said Fr. Manning. But Christianity provides us something more, he said on the second night. “There’s joy in the Bible. Christianity is a deep joy, an overwhelming joy, a confidence that God is with us. Because of this way of looking at life we’re filled with joy, and we need joy to evangelize,” he added, tying back to the Year of Faith, and the New Evangelization. This also tied in to what Benedict XVI in his homily of 12 October 2012 expressed as a hope that, through the Year of Faith, in an increasingly non-believing world, “we can again discover the joy of believing.”
Many of the parishioners in attendance at the talks found Fr. Manning entertaining (after all, Lupe the puppet did make an appearance the first night) and inspiring in discovering and deepening this joy. “His words are inspiring to read the Bible,” said Francisco Ramirez, Jr., “to get anyone to read the Bible. He’s understandable, his words in general are for everyday people.”
Lynda McAndrew said she was struck by Fr. Manning’s presentation style.
“He really helps you open up your heart and mind,” she said. McAndrew also liked how he showed, through the lives of the Biblical people he presented, “that it’s ok to be the way you are, but that it just keeps getting better and better.”
For Jorge Barrera, Fr. Manning showed him God’s joy. “He brought me a lot of understanding of what God wants from me,” he said. “The gift I want to give is to give my ears to God and share Christ, to grow in faith.”
Anne Alhadef is an instructional aide for the third and fifth grade at Sacred Heart Academy and serves as a Eucharistic minister at The Holy Name of Jesus parish in Redlands.