Discussion and Devotional Thought of the day:.

¹⁵  But have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor him as Lord. Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, 1 Peter 3:15 (TEV)

¹⁹  God will bless you for this, if you endure the pain of undeserved suffering because you are conscious of his will. ²⁰  For what credit is there if you endure the beatings you deserve for having done wrong? But if you endure suffering even when you have done right, God will bless you for it. ²¹  It was to this that God called you, for Christ himself suffered for you and left you an example, so that you would follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:19-21 (TEV)

20      There are many people around you, and you have no right to be an obstacle to their spiritual good, to their eternal happiness. You are under an obligation to be a saint. You must not let God down for having chosen you. Neither must you let those around you down: they expect so much from your Christian life.  (1)

24    Many people ask with an air of self justification: Why should I get involved in the lives of others? Because it is your Christian duty to get involved in their lives, in order to serve them! Because Christ has got involved in your life and in mine!  (1)

Over the years, I have proposed a question to people, especially those who are struggling in life, or confused about what they should be doing.

“Why does God leave us on earth, once we’ve become His children?”

It is another way of asking what our individual purpose in life is.  Certainly it would be better for us to be in view of God as eternity will be.  To be free from the challenges, the suffering, and the anxieties of life.

So why do we remain?

For others.

Especially “those” people.

The ones who need our prayers, the ones who need us to give to them the hope we have, the very presence of Jesus Christ.   We don’t need to be here, but they need us here.  They need us to follow in the steps of Christ, even if that means sacrifice and suffering, even if that means we have to struggle with them.

As St. Josemaria says, we can’t be obstacles to them being drawn to Christ. Their eternal life or death does depend on us following Christ, of walking in His steps.

That sounds like a heavy burden, this living the life of a saint.  But that is because we don’t get what being a saint is, we have an image that is impossible to reach.  We think it means a life that is lived perfectly and without sin.

But being a saint is simply living a life with a purpose, to have a life focused on a goal.  In our case, it is living life in accord with God’s will.  Which makes the priority being patient, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

There is our purpose, whether we are a child, a retiree, a pastor, an engineer, or a fast food worker.  We are left here, to be God’s ministers, in a ministry of reconciliation.
May we be aware that God has given us the desire and the will to this.

AMEN!