Daily Retreat 11/08/06
2006 Nov 8 Wed: Ordinary Weekday
Phil 2: 12-18/ Ps 26(27): 1. 4. 13-14/ Lk 14: 25-33
From today’s readings: “Be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.... The Lord is my light and my salvation.... Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple....”
Proper Perspective
Who can deny that life is horribly complicated? How wonderful it would be if everything were just simply “the way it ought to be.” Too many people underrate faith as just another major complicating factor of life, when actually, faith is the only way one can get a hold of life and put everything in proper perspective.
Because ultimately, the only proper perspective is God's perspective, and the whole of revelation is God's invitation (and recommendation!) for us to see things His way! The first reading, from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, reflects on the necessity to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” amid the trials and tribulations of life. And yet, even “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,” the light of faith shines with peace and joy which transcend the complications and bitterness of life.
So it is that every word spoken by Jesus challenges us to transcend our limited perspectives on life in favor of seeing things the way God sees them. Certainly He whose death on the Cross showed us the meaning of “God is Love” did not command us to literally hate the closest members of our family! That much is clear, although the wording of the Gospel is deliberately shocking so as to prod us to the radical realignment of priorities necessary if we are truly to embrace God's perspective, which entails demoting everyone, and everything, and our very selves, in order to truly establish God as the center of our lives. We must take up our cross then; or, perhaps we could better say, we must suffer to be taken up in His Cross, because it is only the vantage point of the Cross which gives us God's perspective.
Phil 2: 12-18/ Ps 26(27): 1. 4. 13-14/ Lk 14: 25-33
From today’s readings: “Be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.... The Lord is my light and my salvation.... Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple....”
Proper Perspective
Who can deny that life is horribly complicated? How wonderful it would be if everything were just simply “the way it ought to be.” Too many people underrate faith as just another major complicating factor of life, when actually, faith is the only way one can get a hold of life and put everything in proper perspective.
Because ultimately, the only proper perspective is God's perspective, and the whole of revelation is God's invitation (and recommendation!) for us to see things His way! The first reading, from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, reflects on the necessity to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” amid the trials and tribulations of life. And yet, even “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,” the light of faith shines with peace and joy which transcend the complications and bitterness of life.
So it is that every word spoken by Jesus challenges us to transcend our limited perspectives on life in favor of seeing things the way God sees them. Certainly He whose death on the Cross showed us the meaning of “God is Love” did not command us to literally hate the closest members of our family! That much is clear, although the wording of the Gospel is deliberately shocking so as to prod us to the radical realignment of priorities necessary if we are truly to embrace God's perspective, which entails demoting everyone, and everything, and our very selves, in order to truly establish God as the center of our lives. We must take up our cross then; or, perhaps we could better say, we must suffer to be taken up in His Cross, because it is only the vantage point of the Cross which gives us God's perspective.
posted by FrPitstick | 11/09/2006
<< Home