Given a Spirit of Power

In his second letter to Timothy,  2 Timothy 1: 1-8, St. Paul reminds Timothy “to stir into flame the gift of God that you have[been given] through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.”  We, too, at our baptism and confirmation and in the sacrament of the sick, have been given “a spirit…of power and love and self-control,” not “a spirit of cowardice”.  However, believing Satan’s lies that we are unable, we can allow fear to control our lives. We can shrink from acting courageously and cooperating with grace. We do just that when, for instance, we avoid asking for forgiveness from God and from those persons we offend by our words or by our coldness, by our harshness and/or  judgments.  When Satan whispers into our ears that “it is too hard,” or that “we are weak,” to do the good to which we are called, we are then being lied to by the Father of Lies.  On the contrary,  as  Paul tells us, we are able to “bear[our] share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.”  God never inspires us to do a good without giving us the grace needed to do that good.

And how do we “stir into flame the gift of God” that we have been given by the imposition of a priest’s hands at our baptism and confirmation?  By doing good, by serving others, by taking time for prayer and reflection upon the Scriptures, by receiving the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation, by engaging in reading that nurtures our spiritual growth, by gazing upon God in the Blessed Sacrament or in other places where God’s peace abounds and by letting God gaze upon us in love from the Crucifix, from the Tabernacle, from the eyes of an innocent child, by looking for God in all of creation, in all of His beloved children, and in all of the events of our lives.
 

Fulfilling God's Purpose, God's Intention, God's Idea

In today’s first reading, 2 Tim1: 1-3, 6-12, we are challenged to “fan into a flame the gift of God that…[we] possess through the laying on of…[the bishop’s] hands” when we were confirmed.  God, St. Timothy tells us, “did not give us a spirit of timidity but the Spirit of power and love and self-control.” Over and above these gifts, God has saved us and called us to be holy—not because of anything we ourselves had done but for his own purpose and by his own grace.”

Each one of us possesses “the gift of God.” We possess it, that is, it is ours. But it is not ours for our own sake. It is “for God’s own purpose and by his own grace.”  The “gift of God” that has been given us is “the Spirit of power and love and self-control,” which, by the grace of God, we are empowered to fulfill the purpose for which God put us here on earth, placed us in the family that is ours and in that part of the world where a purpose of God is not yet achieved and will not be achieved unless you and I carry it out according to God’s plan and “by the grace” of God because it has been given to us to accomplish!

That is mind-bottling!  I am not here for myself. Never was! And the purpose for which I am here is God’s purpose.   I am God’s idea, so to speak. I am who I am, I am where I am, for God’s reason, God’s intention. God has a g in mind  to achieve and that goal will only be achieved if I co-operate with Go in accomplishing it.   That is true of every day of my life: one day at a time.  May I, through the grace of God, fulfill the purpose for which God has given me this day.  May I accomplish the objective that God needs fulfilled today through me.  If  I do not achieve the objective that is God’s for me today, it will remain unfulfilled. He has given that objective of His to no one else but me.

FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON GOOD FRIDAY (Is 52: 14-15 and 53: 1-10)

God the Son treated inhumanely, disfigured beyond recognition,

On whom was placed the sins of humankind, “wounded for our rebellion,”

On whom the guilt of us all was placed, that He might reconcile us all to our Creator.

Disastrously “crushed because of our guilt” He was led to the slaughter and “never opened his mouth.”

 

“Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken” to Calvary for the

Rebellion of us all who “had gone astray like sheep, each taking his/her own way.”

“Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter house.”

“Despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering,” He was “one from whom…we averted our gaze….Which of his contemporaries was concerned

At his having been cut off from the land of the living, at his having been struck dead for his people’s rebellion?  He was given a grave with the wicked, and his tomb is with the rich…”

Yet “he had done no violence, had spoken no deceit. It was Yahweh’s good pleasure to crush him with pain; if he gives his life as a sin offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his life, and through him Yahweh’s good pleasure [our salvation] will be done.”  Isaiah 52: 14; 53: 3-10).