By Rev. Joe
McCloskey, SJ
But if [the wicked] turns from the wickedness they did
and do what is right and just, they save their lives; since they turned away
from all the sins that they have committed, they shall surely live, they shall
not die. Ezekiel 18:27-28
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather,
humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not
for his own interests, but also for those of others. Philippians
2:3-4
“When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you
did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later
change your minds and believe him." Matthew 21:32
Piety
Treating everyone as
better than self is the challenge of grace.
Teresa of Avila met the challenge by saying to herself that “if you had
the same graces as I, you would do twice as much. If I had your graces I would do half what you
do.” The challenge is to have the same
mind in us that Jesus had when he emptied himself out of his “God-ness” to
be one of us. The journey into fullness
of life is giving all of yourself to the service of others. It is a gradual awakening to the truth that
perfect self-love is the love of others.
Selflessness is the discovery of who you really are by loving others
with all that you are. Christ loved us
into his life. We love God in our piety
by loving all the Christ we can be by giving ourselves away even as Christ did.
Study
Christ studied the
prophets and discovered the plan of God for himself. Human awareness takes and needs the
appreciation of the love God has for us.
We are unable to deserve God’s love because he has first loved us. God’s love is always waiting for us in his
Son Jesus. Even as the Scriptures made
Jesus come alive to what the plan of God was for him, we learn what God wants
from us in the ways Jesus comes alive to us in the Scriptures and in good
people who live the gospel message in their lives. Such people help us understand what St. Francis
was trying to teach his young disciple when he said, “Preach always and
occasionally use words.” By the example
of people who give their lives for the sake of others, we put into practice
what Paul meant when he challenged us to be like Christ who emptied himself out
of his “God-ness” to be one of us. We
find how we are meant to be spiritual people by how we put on the mind and the
heart of Christ.
Action
Our actions need be what
we say we are going to do. We need to
mean what we say and say what we mean. The
two sons of the gospel story are each half of the story of what our actions
should be. Christ has our hearts to live
in from our baptisms and we have the responsibility to live his love by living
up to his coming to make his home in our hearts. We know that where there is love, God is
there. We need to make the love of God
in us the energy of all our actions. It
is not enough for us to follow the footprints of Christ in the sands of life. We must do our part to be his footprints
wherever we go.
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