Maintaining Union with God “in Christ.”
by Fr. David M. Knight
Monday, November 18, 2024
Thirty-Third Week of the Year
The Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles; USA: Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, Virgin
Rv 1:1-4; 2:1-5/Lk 18:35-43 (Lectionary 497)
Revelation 1:1 to 2:5: The spiritual writers use a Latin phrase, “effusio ad exteriora,” which means “poured out on, lost in, external things.” This may be what the “presiding spirit” of the church in Ephesus had fallen into.
Jesus praises the external things his minister is doing: “works,” “labor,” “endurance of hardship,” the “testing” and exposure of those who claim to speak with authority but do not.
The problem is, “You have turned aside from your early love.” In the midst of all we do for God, and especially if we are in conflict with others, we need to cultivate deep, personal, loving union with God “in Christ.”
This is the foundation of all and the heart of all. But we can get so caught up in “issues” and tasks and “obligations,” administration, and even the externals of ministry that we forget continual awareness of Christ acting with us, in us and through us—without which all we do tends to fall toward the level of the merely human, a burden to us that fails to lift the burdens of others. Like counterfeit bills that don’t pay what they say. Only love gives life: the love of Christ living and loving within us.
Let’s not be unrealistic. No one can be consciously thinking of God all the time. We do and should get absorbed in what we are doing. But that absorption should be within a general, all-pervasive, habitual absorption in being Christ, knowing him and the Father, living by the “Gift of the Spirit.” Thus underlying awareness is something we need to cultivate by individual actions we commit ourselves to doing as part of our daily routine, We need to build in moments of prayer during the day: short prayers when we awake, get up, go to work, pause between tasks, answer the telephone, open a door, receive a client or visitor, return home, go to bed at night. These are actions like kissing a spouse or child, saying “Good morning” and “Good night.” They can become routine; but they do keep us aware. Without them we forget what others—and God—mean to us.
And there have to be moments of deep conversation with God, as with a spouse. If not, our relationship becomes superficial. We need moments of passionate expression, as we do in marriage. Moments when the depth of our understanding and love becomes vivid. And we have to celebrate, as we do anniversaries and special events. The possibility for all of this lies in the Mass, if we know how to participate.
Luke 18:35-43: If we have enough faith to cry out, Jesus will make us see.
Initiative: Use the WIT prayer all day long. “Lord, do this with, in, through me.”
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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