When you were a child or at some other time in your life, did you learn the ABCs of the Christian life? If so, you have been fed milk (1 Cor 3:2).

What did you do with your milk? Were you as eager as a newborn baby for more "milk of the Spirit to make you grow unto salvation?" (1 Pt 2:2) Have you digested your milk and become rooted in the Christian life? (see Mk 4:16-17) Have you grown strong because of the milk of the gospel? Or did you throw up the milk because you are spiritually "lactose intolerant"? If you are not ready for solid food (1 Cor 3:2), this means you are "still very much in a natural condition" (1 Cor 3:3), "your behavior [is] that of ordinary men" (1 Cor 3:3), and you are prone toward divisiveness, "jealousy and quarrels" (1 Cor 3:3). Therefore, your relationships with God and everyone else are going to leave a lot to be desired.

You cannot go on like this. "You need to have someone teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God; you need milk, not solid food" (Heb 5:12). This time we pray you will digest your milk and grow by training your faculties "to distinguish good from evil. Let us, then, go beyond the initial teaching about Christ and advance to maturity" (Heb 5:14—6:1). "And, God permitting, we shall advance!" (Heb 6:3)

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, February 7, 2002

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, February 12, 2002