Monthly Archives: August 2020
The King, the Missionary and the Priest walk into…
Devotional Thought for Today:
1 First of all, I ask you to pray for everyone. Ask God to help and bless them all, and tell God how thankful you are for each of them. 2 Pray for kings and others in power, so that we may live quiet and peaceful lives as we worship and honor God. 3 This kind of prayer is good, and it pleases God our Savior. 4 God wants everyone to be saved and to know the whole truth, which is, 5 There is only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human, and he gave himself to rescue all of us. 6 God showed us this at the right time.
1 Timothy 2:1-6 (CEV)
“I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Rheims Cathedral where I was crowned. It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a Kingdom. This last I shall lose at death but the other will be my passport to an everlasting glory.” (St. Louis IX, King of France)
746 From there, where you are working, let your heart escape to the Lord, right close to the Tabernacle, to tell him, without doing anything odd, “My Jesus, I love You”. Don’t be afraid to call him so—my Jesus—and to say it to him often.
In the same spirit of humility he directed in his will that the following inscription and noting more should be vut on his gravestone:-
WILLIAM CAREY, BOTRN AUGUST 17th, 1761.: DIED-
“A wretched, poor, and helpless worm…on Thy kind arms I fall.”
The king and the missionary knew the same thing.
They understood what truly mattered in life. Both had amazing successes, and failures beyond imagination. They were known and loved by some of those they served, and hated by others. Neither was perfect, yet both knew what mattered in their life, to the extent that I would hold their words up to you, and ask you to come to similar conclusions.
The same conclusion that St. Josemaria urges us, even as we work diligently, to let our hearts escape into God’s presence, and declare boldly, “my Jesus…”
You see that is what the great missionary to India meant, as he fell into the arms of Christ. Nothing else in his life was worth recognizing, save that. The King, choosing more important the moment where the Father unites him to Jesus, in the death and resurrection of Christ, (see Romans 6, Colossians 2) says the same thing.
Everything that is critical in life boils down to to that point, where Jesus makes us His people.
This is what we need to pray, that as God is revealed to people, that they know His love, and His mercy, so shown to us at the cross.
It is the presence of God that we need in our lives. That is where everything changes. To realize that is what Jesus gave up to gain for us, to be welcome there in the presence of the Father, to be drawn into the glorious love in which the Trinity dances, this is everything.
That is the point of the religion we call Christianity. Not to just explore where we have come from as humanity. Not just to reign in behavior, teaching people how to be good to each other.
Our purpose is that everyone, from people in France and India, clergy and politicians and those they lead, know the miracle of being welcome into the presence of God!
This is why we pray for people, surely asking for God to help them in their times of being challenged, but that they might now Him as well.
So my friends pray for all… and pray they come to know the living Lord Jesus, and then together with Louis, and Josemaria, and William, find the peace that passes all understanding, as we experience the Love that goes beyond explanation.. and know I pray you know this too!.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Spurgeon, Charles. Morning and Evening – Morning, August 29, Logos Edition
Hope For Those Who Weep for the Lost…
Devotional Thought for This Day:
15 In Ramah a voice is heard, crying and weeping loudly. Rachel mourns for her children and refuses to be comforted, because they are dead. 16 But I, the LORD, say to dry your tears. Someday your children will come home from the enemy’s land. Then all you have done for them will be greatly rewarded. 17 So don’t lose hope. I, the LORD, have spoken.
37 Can you measure the heavens? Can you explore the depths of the earth? That’s how hard it would be for me to reject Israel forever, even though they have sinned. I, the LORD, have spoken.
Jeremiah 31:15-17, 37 (CEV)
743 If you put your mind to it, everything in your life can be offered to the Lord, can provide an opportunity to talk with your Father in Heaven, who is always keeping new illumination for you, and granting it to you.
Maybe it is a once dear friend who loved the Lord in a way that inspired others. Maybe it was a cherished mentor in the faith, a professor who taught you more than you ever realized. Maybe it is a parent, a child, a cousin, even a spouse.
Most of us have someone who has rejected God, or is struggling with His way, and so rejects the gifts of forgiveness and mercy, who rebel against God. Perhaps there is a reason, a church, a pastor or priest who has caused them pain.
WE all have a person who has wandered, even as many of us have. Our reaction is usually the same as grieving the loss of physical life, for we realize that eternity is at stake… We may not want to say it is the difference between heaven and hell, yet our heart fears that consequence.
The words of the prophet Jeremiah are so appropriate for those who watch with tears, those who attempt to wander away. The need to hear God say “dry your tears, they will come back” is real, to allow God to comfort those who worry, who deal with anxiety over those they care about.
The second part of the selection, where God reminds us of His power, and the inability of man to completely reject them is even more comforting. It tells us how much God is willing to pour into calling the people back. Despite their sin, God will continue to work in their hearts.
So then, how do we deal with the trauma we see in their lives? Josemaria’s words comforted me this morning. We talk to God about it, we spend time offering the person, and the situation, and our hearts, batter and torn, to Him. It seems counter-intuitive to offer such to God as a sacrifice, but it is the best we can do. We are His children, and our Father wants to fix what is broken in our lives. He wants to recreate, to show the craftsmanship He finds joy in…and as we give into His care those we love, whom we worry about, we can realize peace. He died for them, that they may live.
Lord, help us give you our brokenness, help us place in your care those we would see return to the joy of your salvation. For Your love for them is even deeper than ours, and You can reach them. Help us to trust You, and in Your love and work in all our lives! Amen!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Thoughts after Twelve Years in One Place
Devotional Thoughts for this Day
My friends, even though we have a lot of trouble and suffering, your faith makes us feel better about you. 8 Your strong faith in the Lord is like a breath of new life. 9 How can we possibly thank God enough for all the happiness you have brought us? 1 Thes. 3:7-9 CEV
Like homing pigeons flying home, like iron filings drawn irresistably to a magnet, like solar flares falling back to their parent sun from which they had sprung, lovers of God become one with the fire of their Beloved. The twentieth-century British poet Stephen Spender wrote their epitaph: “Born of the sun, they travelled a brief while toward the sun and left the vivid air singed with their honor.”
That is what a Christian is. Not to be one is life’s only real tragedy.
Twelve years ago today, two friends, I knelt down and my District President installed me as the pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Cerritos. A few weeks before that, the church had laid to rest a beloved retired pastor and his wife. Within three months, I would bless the graves of another couple. And over the years, there have been a lot of deaths, people that had become not only parishioners, but good friends. There has also been trauma that scars one deep, and ministering to those broken by such, has been commonplace. Enough so that prayers start ascending every time the phone rings, or a text message beeps.
It would be lying to saying this has been an easy time. It would also be lying to say this time has not been a huge blessing. My devotional reading this morning explains why:
It is all about the faith of the people I see, a faith that is lived out in the midst of trauma, in the midst of sacrifice. A faith that keeps coming back to God, must as Kreeft’s pigeons and iron filings being attracted to their “home.” There is a joy in this, even amidst the shared tears. There is a confidence, born out of the Body and Blood of Jesus in which we share, that even the tears are somehow beneficial.
The ability of people to depend on God in this time is what lifts me up. Just as it did Paul, to see people being sustained by God, to the point where they are ministering to others during their own trauma, is the best feeling a pastor can observe. It is what sustains us, as we see the effect of them being drawn back to God.
This is how, after 12 years, I can look to the future.
Knowing the response of those to whom I remind, “the Lord is with you!”
And knowing they are right when they answer back, trusting in God, “and also with you!”
Lord, as we go through these days, help us to continue to help each other, trusting You to show us their needs, and empowering us to meet them. Help us set our own brokenness aside, help us to leace it there… knowing You are healing us in this time. We pray this, in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Amen!
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 93.
Do We Make Church Boring?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
Never give up praying. And when you pray, keep alert and be thankful. 3 Be sure to pray that God will make a way for us to spread his message and explain the mystery about Christ, even though I am in jail for doing this. 4 Please pray that I will make the message as clear as possible. Col. 4:2-4 CEV
736 Your life cannot be the repetition of actions which are all the same, because the next one should be more upright, more effective, more full of love than the last. Each day should mean new light, new enthusiasm—for Him!
God designed all finite things to be eventually boring because He designed our heart with an infinite hole in its center, a hole that cannot be filled even with the whole enormous but finite universe. There is a Black Hole in our heart analogous to the physical Black Holes in intergalactic space that can suck all the matter in the universe into themselves. This spiritual black hole is the restless heart that will not and cannot rest anywhere except in God, its home.
Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease except they are in a state of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from him they lose their peace. The nearer to him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven; the nearer to him, the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of life, and vigour, and joy, for these all depend on constant intercourse with Jesus.
There is a challenge in leading worship, and in leading a church. It is all to common to get in a rut, to try to do the same pattern of worship faithfully. But as St. Josemaria points out, we can’t just be repeating everything, over and over.
Please be careful, I am not advocating changing the church service every week, but to engage in it better every week, To be more effective and build the enthusiasm in the service. Not just an upbeat sense of enthusiasm, but an enthusiasm, a desire, a will that is focused in on being in the presence of Jesus. For in His presence, together, being cleansed by His blood, by being fed on His word, by being united together in Him, each week can be the same thing, done in a way that continually draws people closer.
This is the same for private life, as the black hole is filled with the presence of God, the only thing that can fill it. It is no different to say “never give up praying” as it would be to say, “never stop being aware of being in the presence of God” for both are the same thing.
The way to keep from getting into a rut in either your devotional life, or in church is to remember Who you are talking too, Who you are walking with, to realize what happens as you draw nearer to Him. Pray for your pastor and worship leader to help you realize that you are in God’s presence, not just in theirs! (They should be like waiters in a restaurant – you should know they were around, because of Who has been brought to your attention – but Who is brought to your attention is the focus, and the reason you are there!)
Let God fill you! Let God bring about your healing, as you realie He is forgiving and sanctifying you.
Sing, pray, listen, with the knowledge of His presence…
Church and private prayer will never be boring then… you will desire it more and more. And the day you don’t, just refocus on Jesus.
AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 89.
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
A prayer…about prayer
Devotional Thought of the Day:
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. Ephesians 6:18 (NLT2)
738 I will never share the opinion—though I respect it—of those who separate prayer from active life, as if they were incompatible. We children of God have to be contemplatives: people who, in the midst of the din of the throng, know how to find silence of soul in a lasting conversation with Our Lord, people who know how to look at him as they look at a Father, as they look at a Friend, whom they love madly.
The more I read about prayer the more I understand why people are confused by it. Presently I am taking a class on Spiritual Formation, and most of the texts approach the subject rigidly as if spiritual disciplines need the same approach that a Marin Drill Seargent would use!
I understand how that comes about, the person teaching so wants others to have the benefit of praying that they will use at means at their disposal to get people addicted to it. The disciple is not encouraged to pray, they are manipulated to do so. sometimes that is by sheer guilt, and other times by promises that scripture doesn’t make. (The most recent was sharing anecdotal evidence that linked prayer to church growth, leaving the reader to believe that their lack of prayer was the reason they didn’t have record numbers.) We may be sincere in our desire that all men pray, but sincerity does not always mean we teach it the right way!
So how can we encourage people to pray? How can we share with them the peace that comes from communing with God, even if for a few moments in the heat of the day?
I love St. Josemaria’s approach. Indeed, that was how I found his writings, looking for ways to encourage lay ministers and deacons to spend time with God, while they work so hard in secular jobs. As disciplined as the people in Opus Dei are, my experience with them is that they embrace prayer with joy, not as a duty, but as the most pleasing moments in their day. This was true when I was in Italy, and saw the church in their offices there. Our “guide”, who took time away from other work, gratefully allowed us to spend time in the sanctuary praying, as it allowed him to do the same. It was a blessing to pray in the sanctuary, rather than just at his desk!
Years later, I realized that he talked of praying at his desk as if it was so common.
How I long that we do that in our lives, to grasp at the precious moments of prayer, as we would a love note from a spouse or the hug of a child. For that is what prayer is, a moment to share in the love between God and us.
Somehow, that is the message we need to share, inviting people into the time of prayer, sharing with them the peace and comfort we find, as we meditate on God’s love, and lay our burdens on Him.
Then the verse from Paul’s writing isn’t burdensome, but a joy to see fulfilled in our lives.
Lord Jesus, help up not only learn how to pray, but how to lead others into a life of prayer, meditation, and constant communion with You, and the Father and Spirit with Whom You reign, ever One God, AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Is This What We Should Pray for?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: 6 Christ was truly God. But he did not try to remain equal with God. 7 He gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us. 8 Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross. Phil. 2:5-8 CEV
Do you believe that your sins are forgiven, and that Christ has made a full atonement for them? Then what a joyful Christian you ought to be! How you should live above the common trials and troubles of the world! Since sin is forgiven, can it matter what happens to you now? Luther said, “Smite, Lord, smite, for my sin is forgiven; if thou hast but forgiven me, smite as hard as thou wilt”; and in a similar spirit you may say, “Send sickness, poverty, losses, crosses, persecution, what thou wilt, thou hast forgiven me, and my soul is glad.”
When people talk about Philippians 2, they usually mention the incredible description of Jesus found in verses 6 through 11. It is an ancient hymn, sometimes called the Carem Christi.
But we forget that it is an invitation.
An invitation to suffering. An invitation to love like Jesus loves.
An invitation to know the love of Christ, to know it so intimately that you don’t reject pain and suffering for the cross, but embrace it, s Jesus did, for the joy that it will bring.
That is the point of that hymn being shared, to help us learn how to embrace the hard things in life. To see them as the opportunity to imitate Jesus!
This is possible for the very reason Spurgeon notes. We realize what it means that we are forgiven, that our relationship with God is perfect and new. Everything that was broken has been healed, everything that was corrupted was restored. How amazing this is! How incredible! It can and should overwhelm us as it becomes more clearly revealed.
Even to the point where we “ask for it!” We ask for the pain, the suffering, whatever it costs to help others come ot know God’s love. For it is worth it, all the suffering, even martyrdom, if through it one person comes ot know the Lord’s love for them.
As we suffer, as life hauls off and wallops us, we begin to understand the cost to Jesus of living us, and that love, not our own strength, sustains us. Not only sustains us, but empowers us as we realize what it all leads to, the vision Paul used in the next chapter,
10 All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, 11 so that somehow I also may be raised to life. Philippians 3:10-11 (CEV)
I pray that you and I will come to want to suffer and know the power that raised Christ to life. AMEN!
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
Appropriate Ministry
Devotional Thought of the Day”
11 Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, 12 so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong. 13 This will continue until we are united by our faith and by our understanding of the Son of God. Then we will be mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him. Eph. 4:11-13 CEV
Agape calls for kindness on some occasions and harshness on others. To give kindness when harshness is needed is no more agape than to give harshness when kindness is needed, for agape means going by the needs of the other, not the inclinations of the self.
There is a burden placed on all those in ministry, the “so that” of verse 12 – that His people would learn to serve and the church would go strong. Unity in depending on God, and understanding who Jesus is (to humanity) is the measure.
That is a lot of weight to carry, especially as we are sinners dealing with sinners. It calls for an amount of love that can only be considered “divine”. A love that knows when it is necessary to be harsh, and a love that knows when it is necessary to be gentle. A love that knows when steps to maturity are baby steps, and when to be the drill instructor pushing them to run another five miles. This is what appropriate ministry is. Knowing when and how to help people love each other, and meet real needs, no matter what the cost.
Notice I didn’t say knowledge to know these things. I said love, or Kreeft’s more specific term for this love, agape. The kind of love that sacrifices everything, because the person loves needs it. The kind of love willing to be hated, if that is the cost of helping.
It is this love which must compel our actions, not just our minds.
The cost of this can be beyond measure. Paul indicated the extent of that payment in Romans, he would give up his soul, if possible, if only the Jewish people could know and walk with the Messiah. Moses pleaded like that, as did Ezekiel, Jeremiah and so many of the prophets.
Here is the flip- this isn’t just the burden on pastors and prophets, evangelists and apostles. It is a burden all believers should have, for those who are lost. For this is God’s burden for us. It is a burden that comes from realizing what God has done in our lives, what He is doing, and seeing others whose lives are shattered.
Pray for your pastors as they bear this burden… and share in it… for you know the love of Christ for you, and for those you are to minister to…
We all need it.
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 75–76.
The Deep Water: A Sermon on Psalm 18:1-16
The Deep Water
Psalm 18:1-16
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ inspire you to relax and wait to be saved when you find yourself in deep water!
Where is the Lifeguard? Where is God
Picture this, you are out on a boat in Newport Harbor, not far from the harbor patrol docks and you see water shooting up from the bottom of your boat with more pressure than a firehose!
In a minute, you are in the water, and you can see the shadows of the boat as it sinks to the bottom of the channel.
You know the lifeguards are there on the dock, but what do you do until they arrive? How do you stop panicking? How do you stop from drowning?
I think we are in a time like that spiritually now, and it is not the first time. Peter saw that in the gospel, but his rescue was a second away. David wrote about such a time in Psalm 18, and that is where we will be this morning.
We are going to look at the problem verses in all of this, the one that hurts, the one I struggle with… especially in this time.
11 He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dark rain clouds. 12 Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him and rained down hail and burning coals.
Why would God do that? Why would He hide himself and His Glory, and how do we “keep the faith” in that time?
Is God doing that now? Is He shrouding Himself, casting a veil, and how are we supposed to keep the faith in these days?
The Timeline
It wasn’t always that way in the Psalms! In the first few verses, David starts out praising God the Father. He praises Him for the strength and protection God provides, and how God saves him.
These three verses rock! This is the stuff we know, the stuff we praise God for, but then in verse four, everything shifts, and something else dominates David’s view,
“The ropes of death entangled me; floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path”
Gulp!
And then the cry for help goes out in verse 6, and all heck breaks loose.
Earthquakes, Smokes and fire, storm clouds, in verse 9, hurricanes and more dark clouds, hail and thunder and lightning, and the oddest sea storms ever!
And in the middles of it, God shrouds Himself, He’s coming but the storm veils His approach. All we have to rely on is His promise to save us…because we can’t see Him….
and in the face of the storm, we sink like Peter.
We think we shouldn’t sink, we think we should be stronger than that. And there perhaps, in our panic, is the biggest problem,
We want to put faith in our ability to depend on God, rather than in His promise. And the storm is too great! COVID is too damaging, and the other issues, financial pressures, family challenges, health problems, and everything else just keeps knocking us down.
We try to fight, we try to struggle, we try to make sense of it all, and in the meantime, we are over our heads in deep water…
He is rescuing us?
If you learn to swim, you probably heard the direction to simply relax, to get rid of all that is weighing you down, and wait for someone to help.
Spiritually, we need to do the same thing, to realize that help is on the way, to trust in its promise, and be still and know that He is God.
That is how we deal with a time like this. That is what Hebrews teaches,
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT2)
In other words, what the Psalmist says, “16 He reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters.”
We need to keep our eyes out for Jesus, to have confidence in His ability to rescue us, to deliver us, That is why he embraced the cross! That is why He looked forward with it so that He could pull us out of the deep water that we get ourselves into, those times when sin and Satan and death wrap themselves around us and pull us down deep.
The Holy Spirit will cause those promises to come to mind, the ones we read and hear about when times are good, the ones we pray through week in and week out 70 feet or so that way…
We need to remember God has delivered His people, and He’s used the storms to help them. I don’t think Peter would have been the Apostle he was if Jesus hadn’t delivered him from the deep water. I know my confidence is there or will return when I get to commune with you and you all remind me that, “The Lord is with you”.
We just have to move slowly, look for others drowning and help them to calm down and float on the water, reminding them that Jesus is our savior.
There is our hope, in times where sin and Satan and death, or COVID or anything else threatens to overwhelm us…
God will lift us out of the water….
for He loves us and is with us…
And as we know that, a peace comes over us, His unexplainable, phenomenal peace… in which we are kept and guarded in Christ Jesus. AMEN!
Where is God in ALL THIS? A question I hope those around me don’t need to ask…
God, who am I?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
Long ago you went to Egypt where you lived as foreigners. Then Assyria was cruel to you, 5 and now another nation has taken you prisoner for no reason at all.
Your leaders groan with pain, and day after day my own name is cursed.
6 My people, you will learn who I am and who is speaking because I am here. Is 52:4-6 CEV
2195 Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord’s Day.
447 After seeing how many people waste their lives (without a break: gab, gab, gab—and with all the consequences!), I can better appreciate how necessary and lovable silence is. And I can well understand, Lord, why you will make us account for every idle word.
The last question I want to be asked in all this COVID19 time is, “Where is God in all of this?” And the reason I don’t want it asked, is because if it is, then we, as the church, haven’t done what we are called to do. We have failed to love both God and our neighbor who asks! Let me explain…
The people in Isaiah’s day must have felt like the balls in a game of pool at the break. Assaulted by force from one direction, they were bouncing off the walls and each other. After watching the 10 tribes get taken into captivity, then being attacked themselves. Going through leader after leader, some who followed God sometimes, others who did so in name, and others who turned the entire nation away from God, they knew how the balls felt, and their tight community was shattered.
I think we are in a similar time, as we just start to adjust to getting smashed when we bounce off another wall, and then another, and crash into each other.
We are all tired… weary…broken… and at times, getting on each others’ nerves.
Our leaders, both religious and secular are struggling, groaning, and in their pain, yes, they often curse God. Or they curse those people (including themselves ) who God has created. There is little difference, for cursing God’s creation is cursing Him.
That is where the point from the Catholic Church’s catechism comes into play. These things we do, they stop people from finding the rest they need in Christ, they block people from finding the peace that gathering with fellow believers would encourage. Our complaints, our cursing, our inability to be still and silent, and know He is God prohibits others from finding the same.
If people are asking where God is, we have to ask ourselves if we are blocking their view of Him. They can’t see Him because we are in the way, with our griping, with our complaining, or protesting how we are treated, or in the way we react to those who do.
We need to find the promise at the end of Isaiah’s quote. We need to remember who God is, as He reveals himself and we see His love for us. He did this at the cross, and yet the Spirit does it each and every day.
He is here… with us,
Here is here… and will heal us.
He is here…
Slow down, stop talking – and point people to Him, and let them know the love and healing that is happening in our lives.
Let them know God is with them, show them His work done by your hands, His words said by your lips, as you go to them. Then rejoice, for they will show you His work in them as well.
Lord Jesus, help us reflect Your love into the darkness of our time, as You have in the past. Help us not to block people’s view of You, but show them Your work in their lives. Bless us, as You have promised with hearts and minds captivated by Your inexpressible peace. AMEN!
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 529.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
What it really means to be “Spiritual”
Photo by Wouter de Jong on Pexels.com
Devotional Thought of the Day:
My friends, you are spiritual. So if someone is trapped in sin, you should gently lead that person back to the right path. But watch out, and don’t be tempted yourself. 2 You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand. 3 If you think you are better than others, when you really aren’t, you are wrong. Galatians 6:1-3
Finally, there is a mind-boggling mystery about agape which we must look into. Somehow when we love we really give ourselves away. We do not just give of our time or our work or our possessions. No, we give ourselves. How can this be? How can I put myself in my own hands and hand it over to you?
430 Jesus, may I be the last in everything … and the first in love.
There are people who claim to be spiritual, not religious. I get it, organized religion is a challenging thing to be part of, and I am a pastor. (Not to mention having a role in the bureaucracy!)
I often wonder what it means to be spiritual because when I ask, the answers are more nebulous, very loosely defined. Some might even say to be like Jesus, loving everyone.
The passage above in red, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the people of Galatia, puts some meat to the skeleton of “being spiritual.” Spirituality doesn’t turn a blind eye to sin, it gently restores the sinner. It walks with them, working to bring about their healing, revealing to them that God will forgive them.
This is spirituality, this is the point of holiness, and why it makes a dramatic impact in not just your life, but in lives. This is the greatest gift you can give someone, a gift you can give to family, neighbors, co-workers, and even your enemies.
This, of course, is easier said and done, which is where the other two readings from this morning come into play. In order to see this spirituality grow in our lives, we have to put the other person’s good before our own. We have to think of their eternal welfare as being more important than our comfort.
If this is what it means to be spiritual, then I am all for it, but we need to pray more, and spend more time in scripture, and receive the sacrament as often as possible. We need to know the comfort of the Holy Spirit, we need to find the strength of God in our lives, to set aside all of our own self-centeredness. But it is there, in the confidence of knowing God’s presence, that this all occurs, that this all happens.
This is spirituality, to love them as Paul loved the Jewish people who would give up his life and soul to save.
It is time for this kind of spirituality to infect the world again… starting with you and me…
Lord have mercy on us all! AMEN!
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 67.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
