Knitting a Conundrum

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?"

And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live." Luke 10: 25-28 RSV

The basis for holy living: Loving God and loving our fellow man. It sounds so easy and is so hard to do. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God. In practice, learning to do it is hard, the work, as Cardinal Newman put it, of a lifetime. St. Paul once said "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." (Romans 7:15 RSV)

This is a growing experience. We are given many examples of how to behave, what to do. A good keystone verse is also in Romans: Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good (Romans 12:9 RSV).

We know what we are supposed to do. We know that the grace of God will work through us if we are open to him. How to get started?

Pope Benedict tells us: Holiness grows with the capacity for conversion, repentance, willingness to begin again, and above all with the capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness.

How do we open up?

Love. Sounds trite, reminiscent of the Beatles singing, "all you need is love," but it really is the door.

Love the Lord with all you have. What you have may vary from time to time, and you will find as you go down this road, your love changes with time, but the bedrock of the Christian walk isn't rules or magic formulae, or ritual purity. It is the response of a loving heart to the love of a God who emptied himself to enter into creation there to die for us, out of love. This is why Catholics spend so much time pondering the mysteries of the Crucifixion...because this is our salvation. This is the gift of our Bridegroom.

Then:

Look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for all.
St Teresa of Jesus, OCD

This is the hardest part, IMHO. Seeing Jesus in the face of the one who frightens us, or hates us, or is irritating is hard work. Only through being open to God's grace will we make progress in that, and that means being focused on our Lord, who loves us.

The world currently tells us a big lie. It proclaims, in a gleeful, silly voice, "It's all about Meeeeee...." but it isn't. That's the trap. It's never been about "Me." From the beginning, "me-ness" has caused the human race grief after grief. "Me-ness" is what the story of the Fall is about. "Me-ness" is Cain slaying Abel.

Salvation, hope, peace didn't come in "It's all about me." It came in "Not my will, but Thine."

Labels: Love, Ways of Holiness