Personal Ambition Minus God

In the first reading for the feast of Pentecost, Gen. 11: 1-9, we are shown the time when "[t]he whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While the people were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.They said to one another, 'Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.' They used the bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.'....The Lord came down.... [and] said: ....Let us...go down there and confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says.'"

What a familiar scene. Here we are in 2017 and the slogan being tossed around by our leaders is: Let's make America great again."  That goal is not much different from "Let's make a name for ourselves."

What a foolish people we are when our sole goal  is  to "make a name for ourselves," "to make America No. 1." Becoming #1 is not what Jesus teaches us in the Scriptures or by His life here on earth.  Are we not being tempted the same as Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan when Satan said to them: "...[Y]our eyes will be opened and you will be like gods" (Gen 3:5).  What is happening to us, I believe,  resembles what happened to the people in the land of Shinar, that is, many are becoming more and more confused. Like Adam and Eve, however, I hope that  "our eyes [will be] opened [in time] and [we will realize] that we [are] naked, (Gen 3;7),  as the Holy Spirit is poured out upon us anew this Pentecost.

Your thoughts?

Reading Signs of Our Need for God

In today’s first reading, Ephesians 4: 1-6, Paul addresses us from his prison cell, urging us “to live in a manner worthy of the call” we have received, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another [and ourselves] through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit though the bond of peace….”  Sometimes the most difficult person toward whom to be patient and gentle is ourselves. We make good intentions and break them. We pledge to do better and break that pledge. We get up in the morning determined to accomplish far more than we may be capable to accomplish  that day and, sure enough, the physical energy or emotional stamina is lacking.  We promised to not be obnoxious or demanding or controlling and, guess what, we are obnoxious, demanding and controlling when we do not want to be. Or we desire to be assertive and to stand up for ourselves and we slide right into being submissive and demeaning of self when we need to be strong on our own behalf. 

The challenge? To realize that our weaknesses are God’s strength, that our failings are a reminder of our dependence upon God, and that, when our fallen nature raises its head, we are to remember that God’s grace is sufficient for us. God, in fact, uses all of the circumstances of our lives to bring us salvation.

May we be graced to read human nature in the light of how God sees us and may we become as proficient in reading human nature as we are in reading the conditions of the weather.  As Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel, Luke 12: 54-59:  “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain—and it does,”  so when you see how weak and fickle you can be, may you say immediately: “My weakness, O Lord, is your strength!  I need your help, O Lord!”

Letting go of our illusions

In this morning’s meditation, I reflected upon “The Teaching of Disillusionment” from Oscar Chamber’s My Utmost to His Highest. I quote: 

 “Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from those deceptions….[T]he disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, [including ourselves] yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism.  Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions.  We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another.  According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious and cowardly [and we can easily apply this perception to ourselves, as well].

“Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life….There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ…Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God, and in what God’s grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone” [including ourselves] (My Utmost to His Highest, July 30).

May our confidence in God, “in what God’s grace could do for anyone” become so strong that we never, never despair  nor ever, ever give up “hope for any person,” never give up hope for ourselves.  God brings each and every one of us closer to Himself in the sufferings we endure, in the sufferings we bring to the foot of His Cross.