Fr Gerhart Habison
ARE CATHOLICS DISCOVERING
A MORE
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD?
Catholics today
are rethinking their personal relationships with the Heavenly Father. Theoretically we
tend to reflect on the meaning of relationships in human terms that constitute a common
unity such as age, interests, similar backgrounds and education. Because of these similarities we become friends
with certain people. The more things we
share, the stronger the relationship can develop. In
our spiritual union we endeavor to find a connection between ourselves and God in the same
way. We are all aware that we go to the
Father in times of need, but many have not explored the full extent of what it means to be
friends with God on a personal, one on one level. We
are created by Him in His Image, sharing something God-like without realizing this
association. This is the spiritual joining
that we are all born with, our basic link so to speak, whether it is recognized or not. Catholics are beginning to focus on this in a new
and unique way. Our Heavenly Father is no
longer that unseen entity which makes Him unapproachable except from a worshipful
distance. More Catholics are becoming aware
that unless we have a working alliance with the Father, we cannot know the joy of
fulfillment that God intends us to have. Since
the advent of Vatican II, Catholics are participating in all areas of the Church and with
new vision are seeking this fundamental liaison with God.
CatholicVu is pleased to have Father
Gerhart Habison, Associate Pastor at St. Gerard Majella Roman Catholic Church in Los
Angeles speak on the issue "Are Catholics Discovering a More Personal Relationship With
God?"
Father Gerhart was born in Vienna, Austria. He graduated from the Akademisches Gymnasium High
School, and studied at the University of Economics from 1961 through 1965. He then attended the Archdiocese Seminary in the
Ninth District of Vienna from 1969 to 1972, and the
Institute Catholique in Paris from 1973 to 1975. He
was ordained in 1976 and became a member of the Ecumenical Pro Oriente Foundation which
was founded in 1960 in Vienna by Cardinal Koeing. In
Vienna, Father Gerhart Habison spent a two and three year period in separate parishes as
Associate Pastor. He also served as pastor of
two parishes north of Vienna before coming to the United
States in 1998 where he is the Associate Pastor at St. Gerard Majella Church
in Los Angeles, California..
St. Gerard Majella Church
CatholicView: Fr Gerhart, do you feel that Catholics are
discovering a more personal relationship with God?
Fr Gerhart: Yes,
I think quite a few Catholics do seek this closer and personal relationship with God and
actually everybody should do so for a number of reasons.
One reason is to grow in the faith. Another
reason is to know more about the faith though we can never adequately understand God. However, we can know God after having been
given the grace of faith-experience. We
should try to seek a closer relationship with God and be able to talk about it, witness,
and if necessary defend our faith in discussions with Christians belonging to other
denominations or to those who belong to other religions. We all should want to be close to
God. He is the fulfillment of our life. The probably most quoted theologian of the 20th
century Karl Rahner predicted that the Catholic Church will have to become a Church of
mystics or it will disappear. Mystics are
Christians with a special closeness to God whom God grants special spiritual insights
because of their prayers, love and charity, etc. Look at Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatius.
Many of the saints were mystics and theologian Karl Rahner thinks we all
will have to develop this in order to achieve true spiritual insights.
CatholicView: What
exactly does a personal relationship with God mean?
Fr Gerhart: Let
us take the example of a young loving engaged couple: Because they love each other they
want to be together as much as possible. Doing
that they get to know each other better and better, talking to each other, showing their
love to each other in a lot of different situations which they experience together. Now
God is a living and personal God with whom we can have a personal relationship. God does not remain silent when we call on Him, He acts in our lives and His faithful see and understand.
If I have a personal relationship with God, then I
know that God is always close to me. Trusting
in God I need never fear, be angry, need never be depressed or without hope because I know God protects and guides me. He may lead me in ways that I do not choose myself, but He will always give me the strength and grace to persevere.
Look at the very pronounced example of the life of St. Francis of Assisi who had a very personal relationship with God or look at Saints of the 20th century like Maximilan Kolbe, the beatified Padre Pio and Mother Teresa. In fact the life of every saint shows us what a personal relationship with God means.
Father Gerhart Habison with
Publisher Kathy Bernard
CatholicView: Fr Gerhart, how
does a Catholic Christian develop this relationship?
Fr Gerhart: Of
course there are many approaches you can use. Invite God into your life. Get close to God by praying alone, with the
family, in prayer groups, praying in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and by
participating in Holy Mass on Sundays and if possible also on weekdays. You will want to frequently receive the sacraments
of eucharist and confession. You can also do
this by loving the word of God and reading the Bible.
You practice charity to the poor in their material and spiritual needs. You
get help by finding a priest, a spiritual person who becomes your regular confessor and
thus can lead you better in your quest for a deeper spirituality and for "a closer
walk with God". And some even look for a
spiritual director who will take time to listen and will give spiritual guidance. We know that even the Popes have always had
confessors. Pope John Paul II, our present
Pope, sees his confessor several times a week, and according to some sources every day.
Another way to
grow closer to God is by going to a retreat. St.
Ignatius calls it "Spiritual Exercises" .
We should not only practice physical excercises to stay healthy but give our souls
spiritual excercises. You go to a designated quiet place, usually a convent, abbey or a
retreat center, and you have a retreat director who either deals with a small group of
retreatants at the same time or he talks with you on a one to one basis. He helps you to find out the plans God has in mind
for you using the Bible and then you pray to find out how you can make the plans become
true in your life. Obviously our relationship
to God must be based on love, catechetical knowledge, devotion and prayer.
After His ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ, at Pentecost (see Acts 2) sent the Paraclete, His Holy Spirit
to His apostles and disciples. They were
filled with gifts of the Holy Spirit and God wants us as well to know Him. He wants us to have spiritual gifts. He wants to give us what we need to serve Him in
His church in an effective way. So if we pray intensely to know God more, God will show us
ways in which He wants us to develop a closer relationship with Him. Throughout the ages, prophets predicted that the
day would come when God would give His Spirit freely to men. Starting with the prophets in the Old Testament, those who turned to Him received the Holy Spirit
were changed. Those receiving the Holy Spirit
are new men and women with a new life.
CatholicView: It is said
that God created us in his likeness because he wanted to share a relationship with us
forever. Is this true and why ?
Fr Gerhart: Yes,
I believe that this is true. As humans we
have received from God something that you see nowhere else in creation and that is our
immortal soul which gives us the ability to know about God and to long for closeness with
God, to relate to God, and to have religion. God
revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ and in the sending of the Holy Spirit. Jesus asks us to follow Him. Accepting God's plan of salvation we can answer
His invitation and we can answer His call..
We also have an
answer to this question with Jesus' words that the reality of the kingdom of God is
already at hand. This means the relationship
with God and the Kingdom of God is something we can experience.
When we answer
God's call we remain in His likeness, in His grace; our bodies being a temple of His Holy
Spirit. And God offers us this state of grace
for eternity.
CatholicView: Father Gerhart, can we maintain and
strengthen this alliance through prayer and reading the Bible ?
Fr Gerhart: Touche'! Prayer and reading, actually studying the Bible
are certainly two basic approaches to deepen our faith and our relationship with God. Let me make a comparison: we are not born with the
ability to swim. If we want
to learn how to swim we must practice it. In the same way we have to practice prayer to
learn how to pray or we need to regularly read Sacred Scripture to learn to understand the
words of the Bible. The word of God is
powerful and will help to transform us if, spending time with it, we open our hearts to
it.
So to grow in
faith and closeness to God is a lifelong process and yet it can never be enough. But let us always be aware that with God our growth does
not depend on our merits or not even with our abilities or talents. It requires our open heart and is granted to us by
God's grace, especially through the Holy Spirit.
CatholicView: Because
God is eternal, infinite, all knowing, and ever present, how can we relate to this from
our earthly level?
Fr Gerhart: I
want to add to this statement. God's quality
of love actually is the key and the reason we can relate to Him. In John Chapter 15 it says, " It is not you
who have chosen Me, it is I who has chosen you."
And God chose us in love and revealed Himself through His Son Jesus Christ
and this revelation was continued by the Holy Spirit..
In the
Jesus is the way
to the Father. By His life, death and
resurrection He opened the way for us. And
we, in our human limitedness, could not relate to the eternal God our Creator by ourselves. This
is only possible through God's grace and His divine revelation and salvation.
Jesus chose His
apostles and taught them over three years. He
celebrated with them the first Eucharist. The
first Holy Mass. And after Jesus' ascension,
the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the disciples with Mary.
Inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit they were able to preach, to mission and to found
the Church. It is through the sacraments of
the Church that every baptized Catholic can relate to God.
But God also
chooses some to experience personal visions or to receive the charisms and gifts of the
Holy Spirit in a special way, and this gives them a tremendous and unforgettable
experience of His Being.
It is being
reported that the Christians of the first eight centuries were all charismatic and had
this extraordinary living relationship with God so that they sang in tongues after the
Gospel. Some say this was the Dark Ages but
then again maybe it was not. After that time,
the eight century approximately, the Church placed more and more emphasis on the
sacraments and the charismatic way was lost. In
the 20th century beginning in 1967 the "new Pentecost" as we can call it
according to Acts:2 has been experienced again by many Catholics.
St. Gerard Majella Church’s
Rectory
CatholicView: Does our
friendship with God gain its strength because it is Christ-centered ?
Fr Gerhart: Yes. Indeed, Jesus Christ is the way to the Father. In the Gospel Jesus tells us: No one can come to
the Father unless/except through me. Without
Jesus we could not understand God at all. But
the Holy Spirit whom He sent us is as important! God is a Triune God. It is through Christ, through the Holy Spirit and
through friendship with God that we realize that God is our Creator.
CatholicView: The bond
between God and ourselves has been compared to that of a closely knit family with the
Father as the head of it. Does this seem to
exemplify what our relationship to God is?
Fr Gerhart: The
first thing that came to my mind is that comparisons are always falling short of the
reality, especially when it is theology regarding God. Our relationship to God is one of
the creature to the creator. I think
professors of Dogmatic Theology would not favor this approach/explanation. They have different ways of comparison. But I think in the parable of the prodigal son,
the compassionate, loving and forgiving Father symbolizes God. This means Jesus used the image of a family to
teach us God's love. And so, the comparison
in that context obviously worked for Jesus, so it should also work for us. Other thoughts regarding this question came to my
mind. We often talk about the parish
community as a family and
we use the expression that we are "brothers and sisters in Christ". However for the many children who have to grow up
in dysfunctional families, without a father or with an abusive father, this comparison
will not be understood.
CatholicView: Why does our closeness to God sometimes
seem to be a faint glimmer of what it should be and how
Fr Gerhart: In
the history of God's people before and after Jesus we see a pattern of ups and downs and
actually at any time you can see people living in different degrees of closeness to God
and there can be many reasons for that phenomenon. So you can be at a distance from God
because your parents may have educated you this way or society influenced you. Trials and tribulations, also bad experiences,
subjectively speaking, many times within the church are reasons why often people fall away
by their own decision. But then, thinking about the intellectual part of it, it was left to
the 20th century to officially develop a system of atheism in the former communist
countries. This idea actually had its
beginnings in the French Revolution and its enmity to the Church and the knowledge of
which reached the masses more than a hundred years later.
Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, who died in a mental institution
coined the phrase: "God is dead". All
these influences can have their effects to make people turn away from God. If we find ourselves in such a situation we can
correct our lives by finding out that a life without God leaves us unprotected against
sin, disorientation, immorality and without sense. Ultimately
people perish by losing their souls to the enemy.
But God is
merciful and gives everybody the grace to know him, to turn to him or stay with him. It is actually our own human decision. If we open
our hearts to God, He will be close to us. If
we close our hearts, we distance ourselves from God.
In Psalm Chapter 145 it tells us: The Lord is near to all who call upon him in love
and truth. Is not the Eucharist or the
communion the sign of an unparalleled closeness to God when we are able to receive His
Body ? All we need to do is to practice it.
CatholicView:
What do you see as an ideal relationship we Catholic Christians should have
with God?
Fr Gerhart: An ideal relationship with God is staying in prayer all the time, but we should not be afraid. Prepare what you can without worrying too much. God will supply what you cannot do. Trust in God. Those who believe and are being baptized will be saved through God’s Grace through the Church. Keep up your beliefs. If you are separated through a mortal sin, don’t wait a year, go immediately to confession. Don’t lose your faith. Get a strong relationship back through the grace of the sacraments. And live the beatitudes. Be active in love towards your neighbors. Seek the gifts, charisms and fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you receive them you will be powerful and mission oriented.
CatholicView: Just as children sometimes do not
grow in knowledge, many of us as Christians follow this same pattern. We get bogged down and even though God wants us to
grow in maturity, He allows us to remain childlike in our knowledge of Him. Is this sometimes true and how do you feel about
this?
Fr Gerhart:
From my reasoning, I see two aspects of that.
We know that Jesus presented a child as a model for all believers because a
child is trusting, more or less without sin, and prepared to believe in good faith what it
is being told. Dogmatics call that
"fides qua"(that’s Latin), the quality, the intensity of our faith. In that way the question can be positively
answered.
On the other hand
, there is the "fides quae" , the content of our faith where we have to learn
what we are supposed to know about our faith. It
has to start out with what we proclaim in the creed, and the Triune God. There is of
course much more we ought to know about the Church, the sacraments, Christian moral
behavior etc. In this respect we should not
remain childlike because this would mean not knowing anything. We should make efforts to
grow in maturity and knowledge to where we
cannot compare ourselves to children. I think
then the quality of our faith should do it.
CatholicView: God wants to have a relationship with
His people. Otherwise He would not have sent
His Son to become the bridge to Him. Would
you agree to this?
Fr Gerhart:
Absolutely (Definitely). First
of all, we are God's creation. The whole
Bible, beginning with Adam and Eve shows how God tried to relate to us human beings. So He wants to have a relationship with us. The Old Testament and all the prophets tell us
that. Finally Jesus, sent by the Father,
gained for us salvation and access to the Father by His life, death, resurrection,
ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit. These
are all the steps God took for us in order to have a relationship with us. This is the
message that the missionaries of the Church have been preaching and offering to all
peoples on earth as the perfect access to God, perfect
because it was given to us by God himself.
Jesus is the sign
of the ultimate love that God has for us. Our
answer to God's love for us should be a life of love to God and neighbor. "See how they love each other" is the
well known remark of the historian Tertullian, who himself was not a Christian. He didn’t really mean it in an appreciative
way; actually he was trying to ridicule it. But
those were the words he used. So we should
have love for each other and love for God.
CatholicView:
Have some of us lost sight of our close alliance to God and
become placid in our connection to Him?
Fr Gerhart: You actually can see that distinctly in Europe and to a
certain degree also in North America. In
Europe, it seems that the people who represent and attend the churches have become tired
and old. Having been brought up in the faith
for many generations, many today take salvation and all the graces of God for granted, or
worse, they even think they do not need them which, spiritually speaking, is a deadly
mistake.
Converts from
other Christian denominations or from other religions can teach us the zeal, fervor,
inspiration and fulfillment of true believers as well as the Catholics in the young
churches thoughout the developing Third World Countries.
The foremost priority in a person’s life should be to follow Jesus Christ for
it is connected with our ultimate destiny. So
such a person will not endanger the close relationship with God, on the contrary, they
will constantly pray and endeavor to improve it.
CatholicView:
Is it difficult to re-establish trust once a relationship has been broken?
Fr Gerhart:
Among us human beings the answer is yes it is difficult if two people are
involved and are not ready to
CatholicView:
Is it true that our relationship to God depends on continual
cooperation and closeness through prayer, worship and trust in His Son Jesus?
Fr Gerhart: Yes, Certainly. Of course we worship
and trust in Jesus Christ because He is our redeemer but also we should have an openness
to the Holy Spirit. He sent the Holy Spirit when He was gone. So the third Divine
Person, the Holy Spirit, enables us as well to stay close to God. All we can or have to do
is to accept God’s Grace that is offered to us; to open ourselves to it.
We cannot cooperate with God because there are different levels. We have a covenant,
but I don’t think we are on equal levels.
In love, through
his Son Jesus, God has offered us the new and eternal covenant. If we are wise we never want to forfeit
CatholicView: In conclusion,
would you like to add any final words to this interview?
Fr Gerhart:
Yes. You probably noticed a certain perspective which I favor because of my
personal experience and so I want to talk
about my religious background and how God has guided me until today. When people say they are converts, I cannot even
say that. At one time I was a neophyte. It means newly baptized because my parents did not
bring me up in any religion. They had lost
their faith before they got to know each other and they just had a civil marriage.
God’s Grace was not involved. And
whatever their reasons, they had left the church. And
they, especially my father, thought it would be their unholy duty to keep me and my two
sisters away from the church. My parents were
successful to some extent but I found out there were people who believed in God. I couldn’t take part in religious education
or anything to do with religion. In fact, I
never saw a church from the inside. So life
without knowing God was not good and without being able to experience His Graces conveyed
through the church is a very sad life. That
is what I found out. And very early, from the
age of twelve, my biggest question was not this and that, sports or sex, it was “What
is the reason and the meaning of my life?” Because
I didn’t have one. Without God there is
no reason or meaning.
The Grace of God
reached me through various persons and events and Catholic teachers orchestrated something
in me. I was very aware of that. Friends, Catholic friends, not necessarily my
schoolmates because they were more or less like myself but others, various works of art, literature, good movies, and
gospel music made an impression on me. During
my studies of economics when I was out of high school I was touched by the media reports
about Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council and finally I decided to read the
Bible at age 21. In the newspapers, there was
a long story about Pope John and at that moment I said to myself “I’ll get myself a Bible”. I’ll buy a Bible and I will read it. Actually I had read a few verses in the Bible
before. And so, I read the Bible and was
immediately captured and overwhelmed. This
was a book with maybe twelve hundred pages which would normally take me a week to read but
I knew I couldn’t read it that fast. It would take me longer. It took me four months or more. Then the New
Testament said “Those who believe in Me and have been baptized will be saved.” I thought, “that’s for me”. Then I found a priest. The priest was not very inspiring or forthcoming
and did little to give the support I needed. So that first attempt was unsuccessful. Half a year later and after “one on one” catechism sessions with a
Capuchine Friar I received baptism on October 6, 1964.
My baptism
happened in the evening and my father found out about it and was still trying to sabotage
the whole thing but I was of age and I told him just to leave me alone. The next day I woke up and I walked around and
everything was full of light and I was filled with inner peace and harmony. I saw the same
old buildings but they looked so different and new. I
received much more than I had expected. Starting the night after baptism I found light,
confidence and serenity. These sensations
filled me
with inner peace and the joys of eucharist and confession. Later this was reinforced every time I received
the sacrament, and I compare my baptismal experience, partially at least, with Acts
2, the coming of the Holy Spirit. At
the same time I experienced how utterly deficient and empty my life had been without this
close relationship to God. I never wanted to
lose that relationship, therefore I continued to be interested in theology and soon also
in the priesthood. I knew I couldn’t
apply immediately because if you are newly baptized you don’t qualify as a candidate
for the priesthood. And so I waited until the
time was right. I was ordained a priest in
1976, in St. Stephen's Cathedral of Vienna, Austria, and was associate pastor for 5 years
and then pastor for 17 years before coming to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1998 .
Here I thank God for the many opportunities I have as a priest at St. Gerard Majella
Church to praise the Lord, to proclaim His gospel and serve His people.
Fr Gerhart Habison
CatholicView: Father Gerhart, I want to thank you for your inspiring and informative interview. I am sure our readers will learn much from your insightful answers and feel richly renewed by your personal testimony. I hope at some future date we will do this again. May God continue to bless you in all things you do in His Name.
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