From the Bishops Summer offers time to re-examine religious priorities

Aug 19, 2010

Throughout the year, I have devoted columns or parts of columns to various vocations within the Church:  marriage, single life, priesthood, or consecrated religious life.  Today I want to reflect upon a vocation which we all share, that is, our common call to holiness.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we read the parting words of Jesus before He ascended into heaven:  “And behold, I am with you always” (Mt 28:20).  God created us in love, keeps us in existence through His love, and longs for us to accept His love and share His love with others.  The vocation we all share is to strive to live with a deeper awareness of God’s presence and His love for us.  Our God chooses not to be distant from us but longs for a personal relationship with us.  God pursues us.  Our common vocation is to allow Him to find us and embrace us with His love.

The Jewish people in the Old Testament experienced God’s nearness to them and care for them.  When the Chosen People were faithful to their covenant with God, they experienced His presence very keenly.  When they sinned and placed other gods, including material prosperity, illicit sexuality, and political power before God, they lost sight of God’s presence and love.  However, God did not abandon them, nor turn His back on them.  God remained with them, but they blinded themselves from experiencing His presence as a personal, loving God.

Like the Old Testament Chosen People, we can allow our lives to become cluttered with many things that distract us from God’s presence to us and love for us.  We can become so busy that we no longer find time for prayer.  We can even let athletics, shopping, or hobbies crowd the Lord’s Day to the extent that there is no time for the greatest prayer of all, Holy Mass.

Summer might be the ideal time to slow down and re-examine our priorities.  Is Jesus still the center of our lives?  Have I emptied myself enough of self-centeredness and self-seeking to keep Him as Lord in my heart?  Do I provide for enough time for prayer each day to let Christ, who is the Way, Truth, and Life, guide me?

“I am with you always.”  In prayer, do we come to appreciate more fully the presence of Jesus within us through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit whose fullness we received in the Sacrament of Confirmation?  Do we give enough time to quiet personal prayer and reflection on the Word of God in the Sacred Scriptures to allow our heart to fall in love with Jesus who gave Himself in love for us unto death on the cross?

The Lord gave us the gift of Sunday to keep us grounded in His love.  It is the special day on which we recall Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and His gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is the day when we gather with the community of believers to be challenged by the Word of God, to offer ourselves with Jesus to the Father, and to be nourished with the very Body and Blood of the Lord.  It is our unique opportunity to take to heart the words of Jesus:  “Abide in me and I in you” (Jn 15:4).

Holiness is not something abstract.  It is the vocation we all share to live in response to God’s relentless love for us and to share God’s love with others.  

This column originally appeared in the August 8, 2010 issue of the Northwest Indiana Catholic and is reprinted with permission.

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