Cleanse Our Consciences

January 24, 2009

Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. Hebrews 9:13-14

He came home. Again (the) crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Mark 3:20-21

Piety

I recommend to you holy simplicity. Look straight in front of you and not at all those dangers you see in the distance. Let us be firmly resolved to serve God with our whole heart and life. Beyond that, let us have no care about tomorrow. Let us think only of living today well. Let us not doubt that God will provide more for us tomorrow, and all the days of our pilgrimage. (From a letter written by St. Francis de Sales in 1603 to the daughter of a friend. Reprinted in Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary.)

Study

Yesterday, Christ took the disciples up to the mountaintop to “ordain” them into the ministry of preaching and healing. However, any trip to the mountaintop also requires a trip back down to earth. Today, we are back down to earth seeing the nitty gritty details of ministry to crowds.

Rather than separating us from the world, Christ wants us to be a part of the world. However, when we do that, he wants us to think like he does, not like everyone else. We are not to follow the crowd but to think independently of others.

Jesus seems to spend a lot of time in crowded houses as word spreads of his ministry and healing. We encounter people lowing paralytic patients through the roof. We encounter annoyed relatives who come to pay a visit to Jesus and can not even get into the house because there are so many people with him. Word of his miracles continues to spread like a brush fire in a dry California spring.

As the people of Judea get a taste of his teaching, more and more people want to feast on that. They want to hang out with their new friend. People stream into the house in such a multitude that his relatives react to Jesus like he is some kind of crazy, eccentric Uncle Tony. “He is out of his mind.”

When we or they judge Christ’s actions by the standards of the world, then we might agree that Jesus’ mind is not of this world. His thoughts and actions are separated from the world. More correctly we might say “He is out of this world.” Jesus is in a world alone and apart from us even though he lives among us and within us.

Action

When we let Christ into our lives, Christ returns the hospitality. Jesus invites us into his life so much so that none of the expected relatives we might find there can enter because life gets so crowded. We are not ABLE to do the normal things we would and could do in the course of a day…like eating, sleeping, etc. Life becomes inconvenient for us the more we accommodate Jesus and makes it convenient for the poor the more we fail to accommodate the rich.

What conveniences are you willing to give up for Jesus? What normal activities are you willing to let Jesus crowd out of your life? Spend some more time with Jesus by spending less time doing worldly activities like shopping and driving and more. Maybe you can spend a few less hours in front of the television and a few more in front of the Bible. Maybe you can spend a few more hours in the presence of God through prayer or chapel visits. Maybe you can spend an extra half hour in service to others and putting aside your selfish desires. Let Jesus crowd one of these behaviors out of your life.