By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed
and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back
on your own. Then your light shall break
forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication
shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Isaiah 58:7-8
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and
my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but
with a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on
human wisdom but on the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:3-5
You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Matthew 5:14
Piety
The good that we do out of
Piety flows out of our awareness of what needs doing for the hungry, thirsty,
sick, homeless and imprisoned. Piety is the strength and the fullness of our
efforts to live our lives in the name of Christ. When we do so the glory of the Lord is our
rear guard. Then our light will break
forth like the dawn. The light of Christ
will arise out of our hearts and our darkness will be like the midday. Our gloom will be driven out of our lives by
our piety.
Study
Study is how we find the
presence of God in our lives. It is one
thing to know that each moment in its newness had the fullness of God in the
newness of his love of us. How we
identify that presence is what we do when we look beyond appearances. The deepest study is looking at our world
with the eyes of Christ from his cross. Every
evil of our world has a new meaning in our awareness of his dying for us. It is not with sublimity of words or of
wisdom that we uncover the glory of God in Christ catching our eyes from his
cross. His dying for us teaches us how
to appreciate the love that is in our giving our lives for each other. He calls us by our study to become his
suffering for the mystical body of Christ which is the Church. How we love the Christ of the Church is how
we become the Mystical Body of Christ by our suffering in the name of Christ. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. We preach Christ crucified and become in the
offering of our lives for others his love to the world. We make up what is wanting to the suffering
of Christ by being his suffering for our world.
Vatican II defines the Church as the people of God. The people of God are the Mystical Body of
Christ.
Action
The Spirit and the power
of our actions in the name of Christ rest on our love for each other. There is no greater love than the giving of
our lives for another. The challenge of
our lives is to love as Christ loved. The
throne of Christ is his cross. How we
take up our crosses in his name and offer ourselves for each other is how we
preach the mystery and the power of Christ.
It is not what we are doing that defines the value of our lives but with
how much love we do what we do that makes the difference. We salt our world with the crosses we carry. It is not important what we are doing, but
rather the question of the value of what we do is found in how much love we do
what we do. We must not hide the love of
Christ in our love for one another. We
must let our love shine out as the glory of Christ in what we sacrifice of our
comfort for the sake of the better world that Christ brings.
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