Being Led to God - Part Five

We live in a time where technology is supposed to connect people instantaneously and yet there has never been such a time with so much incredible anxiety, loneliness, and lack of peace. In concluding this five part series, I sense it’s appropriate to start by addressing the great need to become much more grateful. It’s through gratitude we unite; heart connects to heart. It is through the expression of a personal encounter in human need a truer community is forged. If indeed freedom is to be cherished, then let us realize where freedom stems. One is free to give or not and another is free to appreciate and accept or not, both are tied to gratitude. The mystery of God’s love requires one to know, accept, and confess: You are God and you are enough. You willed that I should have life and I thank you.

From gratitude stems unselfishness. What is self? One exists and they are a distinct human being. They have peculiarities, talents, possibilities, limitations, and feelings. They are capable of many things. Their heredity, temperament, desire, environment, and physical/mental/intellectual capabilities influence their decisions. The world suggests we turn in on ourselves – you are number one and you can become anything you want. But Jesus says: Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Mt 10:39). Jesus is suggesting, the more you seek God the more you move away from yourself, in doing so you truly find yourself in God. It is in expressing God with one’s life that they become a saint. To become the best one can be, one must attain more and more virtue. Virtue is not a man-made invention, it is of God. Virtue is God’s goodness reflected in us in a particular way.

If you are not aware, there are recent studies indicating our wellbeing requires looking closely at animals, so we might become more human. Let’s be clear, Catholicism is not opposed to evolution, science is to be embraced. But the claim that we are a part of a species like other animals is false. God created you to be an individual. God created you for a relationship with Him. Through everything, God will speak to you. A life is meant to be about carrying on a dialogue with God. And if you haven’t noticed, as God becomes less and less important to people, human beings are being reduced more and more to things. The less one thinks about God, the more they will treat humans as things. Before we become too self-righteous, it is easier than one might think to lose your way. In the manic desire to become more and more, the truth of God is being altered. To be interiorly present to God is the only way to counterbalance the pull from all the attractive and stimulating things of this world.

Words are basic to life, but so is silence. Some of what we experience in life isn’t meant to be verbalized. The one who has to always speak isn’t really in control of them self. Only in silence do we attain the presence of God. Without truly being present to God it’s easy to redefine God and ourselves to fit one’s lifestyle or desires. God is much more than a feeling or an idea. God is a reality. External noise is only a part of our problem and not the more difficult part. Inner turmoil: thoughts, desires, restlessness, worries, and burdens are our bigger challenge. We waist an enormous part of life by not being able to be silent, for striving to become silent is learning to be more human.

Freedom does have to be defended, but freedom does not come from you or I. Freedom is a gift from God. Just like the sins we commit we commit by freedom given to us, God’s love is freely given too. You and I are free to receive this love or not. You and I are free to love or not. And there is nothing you or I can ever do to save ourselves. Christ the Redeemer presents God’s justice to us. It is God who accomplishes Justice before God. God consummates his love in this justice. Our existence is entrusted to us, as the world has been entrusted to us – cultivate it and keep it. The last and most precious gift of God’s love is placed in our free hand that we might choose it. God stepped into your and my existence, he became human and has given us the freedom to choose to let him live in us or not.

One of the most critical questions we can ask, is the one Pilate raised: What is truth? This five part journey Being Led to God was meant to point to some deeper truths worth contemplating: How does patience affect the relationship of God and us – to us and God – to us with each other? What do I truly prize in this life? What does it mean to exist through God? How does one who lives more simply attain more value? No God no virtue – why? How is it that the degrees of virtue attained are exclusively tied to the degree of love of God? How does connection to God determine one’s level of  peace? Does love of family, friends, and enemies have anything to do with virtue?

A final thought: God’s grace is amazing! God’s grace is enough! God’s grace is abundant! May our hearts be pried open so we might become disciples in the likeness of Christ - consumed by God’s love!