Friday, October 10, 2014

Living by Faith in Christ Jesus

"...the one who is righteous by faith will live," St. Paul tells us in today's first reading, Galatians 3: 7-14, and reminds us that "Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us."
For years in my spiritual life I believed that the law would save  me.  I believed what I heard so often: "Keep the rule and the rule will keep you," a principle taught by directors of spiritual formation in the late 50s. The truth of the matter was that the rule did not keep me, did not save me. Jesus did. I had to unlearn that teaching and learn to put my faith in the Lord, not in any rule.  To this very day, when I fall flat, when I am disappointed, left down, it is because I believed in some rule to be operative: that of justice,  of fairness,  of generosity, and of genuine caring. The principles I think are functioning, and to which I often cling for "salvation," are not functioning in many circumstances of life. Over and over again,  I need to learn to focus on Jesus, to cling to Jesus, to trust in the Lord. The Lord alone saves me from myself, from succumbing to my frustration, from losing my peace. In Christ Jesus, in looking to Him alone, in believing in Jesus and His promises,  I "receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal 3: 14).  That promise is the saving graces I need to be a true disciple of Christ, to be clothed in Christ, to give birth to Christ in a godless world, in a world that glorifies  humanity instead of God and, if I am clinging to it, am likely to glorify myself in a spirit of grandiosity and not the humility of Jesus.

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