God Chose Us in Christ July 16

Let us pray:
Restore us once more, God our savior; abandon your wrath against us.
Will you be angry with us forever, drag out your anger for all generations?
Please give us life again, that your people may rejoice in you.
Show us, LORD, your love; grant us your salvation. (Psalm 85)

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/071606.shtml

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

God chose us in Christ. When I recall how sides were chosen in games when I was young, I remember how I always wanted to be chosen early. I did not want to be the last one chosen because chosen last seemed pity.

It seemed a negative and meant you were not as good as the rest. It is not so with God. He chose us from our mother's womb. Long before we could do anything were chosen in Christ. It is Christ we have to share.

By our Baptism we are re-born in Christ. He is our very life and he is what we best have to share. When someone accepts us in his name, it is Christ they are accepting. Our whole lives are summed up in Christ. We are created to the image and likeness of God in Christ. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit. God dwells within us.

In some Christ is a prisoner of the heart. To hold unto Christ we have to give him away. Not to share Christ is to constipate his life in us.

Sometimes it might seem we have steel bands around our hearts. It is not the easiest thing in the world to proclaim Christ by our lives. The challenge of Christ is to love one another as he has loved us. We love Christ when we give our lives for one another.

The challenge is to take up our cross and to follow Christ. I do not have to look for difficulties in life. I need only to learn to spiritualize the difficulties in my life I am not able to do anything about. I use them not only to expiate my own sinfulness, but to take away the sins of those around me who are part of my life. When I am giving my life for others, I am loving as Christ loved. The least thing I do for the little ones in my life makes a difference because thus the ordinary is made extraordinary.

Action

How are you planning to make the "ordinary" into the "extraordinary" for someone in your life this week?