If you have the wisdom to know with your whole heart that you are God's child, beloved of God, then you understand that this Supreme, Sublime Parent thinks of you and holds you in existence at every moment and desires the best for you.
What is the "best" that God desires for you? The "best" is the dream that God has of you of who you can become. God desires for you to become a saint! To be holy as God is holy. To long for Justice, as God longs for Justice upon this earth. To be compassionate as God is compassionate, and full of Mercy towards all of God's creation. To be Humble, realizing that all that we are and all that we have comes from God, - and to recognize that we are sinners. God's greatest desire is for you to become a saint in your own unique way, for there has never been and never will be another you in this world. God calls you to become a saint, a unique living witness that God is alive, through your own unique life of faith and charity.
We all are on a spiritual journey. But the idea of becoming a saint can seem as daunting as scaling Mt. Everest, highest of the Himalaya Mountains.... after all, who can climb the Mountain of the Lord to behold His holy Face? Who has the endurance, the stamina, to be holy every day? To face troubles, disappointments, and set-backs with courage?
And, we do not climb the Lord's mountain alone. Someone ascends the peaks ahead of us and pulls us up. Someone walks alongside us and steadies us. We do not strive to be saints alone, because no one is saved alone. Pope Francis reminds us,
"In salvation history, the Lord saved one people. We are never completely ourselves unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual.... I like to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God's people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile. In their daily perseverance, I see the holiness of the Church militant (the Church on earth.) Very often, it is a holiness found in our next-door neighbors, those who, living in our midst, reflect God's presence." ("Gaudete et Exsultate, 1: 6 and 7.)
Today, I'd like us to meditate on what it means to be humble. To be humble has two parts: the first part is to realize that all that we are and all that we have comes from God. We owe our very existence to God, and, in reality, it is God Who KEEPS us in existence. If God were to stop "thinking" about us, or forget that we exist, we would cease to exist! Jesus, when asked about the greatest Commandment, said that the first half was to love God with our whole being!
"Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength."
When we realize that God has given us our very selves and that all that we possess is a gift from God, then in humility we dedicate ourselves and all that we own to God's service.
But, Jesus added on a second half to the Commandment, which Jesus, Son of God, considers just as important: Love of Neighbor.
"The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
We first are called to love God with immense gratitude for our existence! And, as Christians, we know that, though we each had a beginning, if we love God, and follow God's commandments, we will live forever with God in perfect peace, love, and joy. Loving God, we desire more and more to be close to God, to enter into union with God, to climb God's holy Mountain to see God's Face.
But - since every human being is created in the Image of God, is created as God's Beloved, and called to eternal life, then, whatever we do or do not do to or for our neighbors, affects our relationship with God, Who loves them as much as He loves us! This is why we dedicate ourselves and all our possessions to God's service: we chose to use our personal gifts of personality and talents and our material gifts/possessions in service to God through service to our neighbor.
The more we love God, the more we will love our neighbor, for God lives in our neighbor. The more we ascend the mountain and enter into the radiance of God's Face, the more clearly we will see God's radiant Presence in our neighbor's face. Look at it this way. When our living room is darkened because the drapes are drawn, we cannot see the faces of our family gathered there very clearly. But when the drapes are drawn and the sunlight pours in, we can see everyone's face, hair, frown, smile, or tears.
The more we live in God's Light, the more we will become aware of the ways in which we are NOT loving our neighbor. The closer we come into the Light of God's Face, the more we can see the imperfections, the sins in ourselves. Look at it this way. When our living room is darkened by the drapes being closed, we don't see the dust and the clutter so much. But when the drapes are opened, and the sunlight pours in, the dust and clutter are obvious!
How do we become "like God"? God gave us Jesus as an example, so we could become his disciples and learn from him. Jesus teaches us to be humble, to recognize that we are sinners. But - it is so difficult sometimes, to figure out how and when we are sinners! If we are consciously trying to follow Jesus, then we know that first we look towards our relationship with God, but, then we also examine our messy, confusing, imperfect relationships with others - because God lives within every human being we interact with.
How often do we lose our tempers? How often do we withhold an encouraging word? How often are we envious? How often do we gossip and ruin someone's reputation? How often do we ignore someone? How often do we act self-righteous and "look down on others" and judge them as being less perfect than we are?
"Take Five for Faith" describes our confusion about our sinfulness and God's response perfectly:
"While most of us do not commit obviously grievous sins, we still 'miss the mark' regularly in subtle ways, for example, by being angry or self-righteous. Although it is not easy or comfortable to admit that we are not perfect, our spiritual well-being depends upon it. May our prayer today be that we are made aware of the times and ways we have sinned so that we can ask for God’s mercy. For although God doesn’t wait to be asked before forgiving us, we cannot receive that forgiveness if we haven’t acknowledged our need for it."
Sometimes we think that we are not being self-righteous. But, if we are part of a faith community, consciously trying to follow the Ten Commandments and Church Laws, there is always a subtle temptation to become self-righteous. If we take God and God's Law seriously, we are quick to judge others who, to our untrained eyes, look as if they are not taking God seriously. As soon as we judge someone, we have compromised our ability to love him or her as a brother or sister in Christ.
Jesus tells us a parable to explain the sinfulness of the self-righteous and the humility of the righteous:
Gospel LK 18:9-14
Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
"Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —
greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week,
and I pay tithes on my whole income.'
But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Bishop Robert Barron observes:
"The entire point of religion is to make us humble before God and to open us to the path of love. Everything else is more or less a footnote. Liturgy, prayer, the precepts of the Church, the Commandments, sacraments, sacramentals—all of it—are finally meant to conform us to the way of love. When they instead turn us away from that path, they have been undermined.
Both St. Paul and the Gospel writers—as well as Jesus himself, of course—are intensely aware of this danger. This is precisely why Paul speaks of the dangers of the law. He knew that people often use the law as a weapon of aggression: since I know what is right and wrong in some detail, then I am uniquely positioned to point out your flaws. And when I point out your flaws, I elevate myself. In short, the law, which is a gift from God, has been co-opted for the purposes of the ego.
Reflect: How can pride stand in the way of love? Why does true humility encourage love?"
Jesus stopped "the righteous" from stoning a woman caught in adultery. Even though we think we're taking the right path on our spiritual journey, we can get off track and lose our way. How often do we "stone" people with our words or attitudes by judging the entire quality of their lives by just one part of it? "He re-married outside the Church." "She's not married and she just had a baby." "Did you see how little he put in the collection basket?" "Did you know that she only goes to Church on Christmas?" "Did you know that she just got out of jail because she stole from her employer?" "I can never forgive him for the unkind things he said to me."
We can make a legitimate judgement call that objectively someone has fallen short of following God's Law perfectly in a particular instance. But - we are not God. We cannot crawl inside that person's mind and heart and soul. We cannot judge to what extent - if any - that they have personally sinned or are sinning. We do not know their circumstances, their mental state, their emotions, their reasons for doing what they are doing, or why they have done what they have done. We do not know the ways in which God is at work in these persons' lives, in their souls. We do not know what hidden works of mercy they may be doing. And our merciless judgement that tells us to separate ourselves from their company because they are "less Christian" than we are only shrinks our hearts and will not help them. Only our loving, merciful friendship can speak to them of God's continuing love, a friendship born of the knowledge that we are also imperfect, in need of God's forgiveness. We are sinners too. We can walk together, side by side, on our spiritual journey.
We need to take time on our climb up God's mountain towards God's Holy Face to listen to one another and help each other by offering forgiveness. For, remember, no one is saved alone. St. James tells us, "Declare your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may find healing." In other words, surely God forgives us as soon as we confess our sins to God in our hearts. But - there is wisdom in confessing our sins to one another. We hear ourselves describe our sins, and we own them, take responsibility for them. We confess to another in humility, acknowledging our frailty, that we are no better than anyone else. We all need another who loves us, holds our hands, or touches our heads, and lets us know that God and the community forgive us, and welcome us back so that we can start over again. We have entered even farther into the Light of God's loving Face.
Pope Francis wants to restore the Sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation to an important place in people's lives. He says, "Let us restore to this sacrament the place it deserves in life and pastoral ministry! Receiving pardon for our sins through a priest is always a new, distinctive and unique experience. We pass from being alone with our miseries … to being raised up and encouraged by the Lord who grants us a new start.”
Pope Francis recommends that people approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation spend time looking at a crucifix after making their confession. It would be beautiful, he says, to remain with “eyes fixed on Jesus who has just set us free: no longer looking at our miseries, but rather at his mercy.”
“To look at the Crucified One and say with amazement: ‘That’s where my sins ended up. You took them upon yourself. You didn’t point your finger at me; instead, you opened your arms and forgave me once again,’” he said.
“For this is the heart of Confession: not the sins we declare, but the divine love we receive, of which we are ever in need,” Francis added.
If you are climbing up the mountain of the Lord, intent on becoming a saint, can you find both the courage and the humility within yourself to confess your sins to another? Of course you have this courage and humility within you! God lives within you, an endlessly flowing Fountain of all graces. You need only to ask God for the humility and courage, and it will be yours. Remember that God cannot forgive you until you acknowledge your need to be forgiven.
God calls you to become a saint, a unique living witness that God is alive, through your own unique life of faith and charity. But it is a long, arduous trip to ascend the mountain of the Lord to behold His holy Face. You can ascend higher if you dig deeper down inside yourself to discover God's living Presence in your heart and soul, an endlessly flowing fountain of grace.
The more you ascend closer to God's Holy Face, the more you will see His Presence in others. For you cannot love God without loving your neighbor. The more you come into the Light of God's face, the more you will see your sinfulness and come humbly to God to receive His merciful forgiveness. The more you acknowledge that you are a sinner, the more you can refrain from judging others and extend God's merciful love and forgiveness to them.
But, on this hard climb, be gentle with yourself. This meditation is from Jim Marion's lovely book, "Putting on the Mind of Christ":
"In the spiritual path we cannot jump steps. We must start exactly where we are now. Where we are now is perfect. It is perfect for the lessons the Holy Spirit wants us to learn. It is perfect in providing us with mirrors, that is, other people who reflect back to us our level of consciousness, our fears, and our strengths. . . .
"Second, we must listen to the “small still voice” of the Spirit within (see 1 Kings 19:11-13). Most of us are very good at talking . . . to God in prayer and asking God questions. But most of us are not good at listening, at quieting the mind through meditation so the Holy Spirit can direct us and answer our questions. . . .
"Third, we must work hard on ourselves. . . . Only those of us who place God first with all our hearts and souls and minds (Matthew 22:37), and who are willing to sacrifice anything or any relationship that gets in the way, are likely to realize the Kingdom [i.e., awareness of union with God]. . . .
"Fourth, we must be patient. The spiritual path takes years. . . . [We can’t] completely change ourselves overnight. Only the ego works violently, always wanting to push and shove, to hurry, to force. . . . The Spirit works very gently, never by force. Its movement within us is subtle and delicate. . . . The best spiritual practice is to do a little each day. . . ."