Friday, September 22, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Living in this world together
Arguments can bring us to envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions and mutual friction. Thus we are deprived of the truth.
And this can happen between friends and family, often the result of misunderstanding and a lack of communication. In this environment, it is all too easy to assume the worst.
But assuming the best is the only way to live. To love our family and friends, look past misunderstanding, is sometimes all we have. This is far more precious and reliable than mere possessions.
For we brought nothing into the world, just as we shall not be able to take anything out of it. If we have food and clothing, we shall be content with that.
Here is a question for me today:
Which is more confounding:
the unfairness of life,
or the constancy of God’s love?
When I remember God’s love and its never-endingness, I move past my own anger and frustration and overlook that of others. Of course we have many difficult moments in our relationships. Much comes at us that is unfair. But God rubs our shoulders, a simple earthy reminder of how close He is, especially now.
Franciscan sister Ilio Delio speaks about the paradox which keeps us at distance from each other:
I think our greatest fear is our deepest desire: to love and to be loved. We long to be for another and to give ourselves nobly to another, but we fear the cost of love. Deep within we yearn for wholeness in love, but to become more whole in love we must accept our weaknesses and transcend our limits of separation in order to unite in love. Sometimes I think we choose to be alone because it is safe. But to be comfortable in our isolation is our greatest poverty.  Â
Compassion transcends isolation because the choice to be for another is the rejection of being alone. The compassionate person recognizes the other as part of oneself in a way that is mystical and ineffable. It is not a rational caring as much as a deep identification with the other as brother and sister. This is love that transcends the ego, and it is love that heals.
I look back at today’s question. Which is more confounding – the unfairness of life or the constancy of God’s love? One follows upon the other. Even when I know we need each other to face the unfair together, I am afraid. Who is trustworthy? Am I? Are you?
In the most difficult times, it’s only God that we can trust absolutely. In his arms my fear will break. Sr. Delio says when this happens, my “rational caring” is replaced by “deep identification with the other as brother and sister.”
In no way can a man redeem himself, or pay his own ransom to God. Too high is the price to redeem one’s life; he would never have enough. Lay hold of eternal life. This is the life to which you were called when you made the noble confession.
(1 Timothy 6, Psalm 49, Matthew 11, Luke 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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