Good morning, Digital Neighbors!
More Thee, less me. As St. Irenaeus reminded us in the beginning of Lent that God stands in need of nothing or no one, complete unto Himself. The Holy Trinity creates out of a desire to share life with creation. While our prayers and praises add nothing to God’s greatness, He delights in our efforts to seek and please Him. He does not make it so easy that we are readily bored and discount the climb to His Prescence, nor does He make it so impossible that only the select few have chance of arriving at a personal relationship with Him.
The temptation we yield to when reading Sacred Scripture or the lives of the Saints is to think that holiness and a relationship with God is for the elite. Moses, the Prophets, and the Saints are all light posts on the way to show us how to seek God. They are not meant to be individuals of admiration for their own sake, they point beyond themselves to God. What God has done in them and through them, He wants to do in each individual, with each according to the capacity and ability that God has given to them. A secondary temptation is to think that they are the giants of spiritual life, which they are now, but they weren’t when they were alive. They were Seekers and Strivers after God’s goodness, truth, and beauty. Not that different from us. They embraced the Gospel and sought that personal relationship with God that makes us holy as we reflect His love more and more in our thoughts, words and actions. That secondary temptation is to fall into the roll of the fellow with the one talent in the parable. We bury it in the ground and give it back at the end of our service. The Master is most displeased with him.
We ought never to presume that we possess one meager talent, nor should we think that we possess an abundance that is overflowing, the truth of the matter is how much God has given to us is mostly unknown. We live a life of faith in the tension of acting as if we have an unknown abundance, but praying humbly as if we have only been granted a few. Strive mightily, pray humbly.
“In so many ways he was training the human race to take part in the harmonious song of salvation.” – St. Irenaeus. More of his wisdom is below the fold. Have a blessed day my friends and neighbors.
