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Do I Really Trust in God, or Something Else?
So there I was this morning, slowly waking up, reading through the office of readings for the day, and then there was this little line right before the readings from Sacred Scripture. "God's word is alive; it strikes to the heart. - It pierces more surely than a two-edged sword." If I had to guess this comes from the psalms, but I wasn't able to track down precisely which one. Anyway, this struck home because, first, I was about to read from God's word, in this case it was from Paul's Second letter to the Corinthians, and second, I had recently listened to a Lighthouse Catholic Media CD in which the speaker related how, over the course of a month or so, meditating on the scripture readings from Mass each day had a profound impact on her life, and completely switched her from being a somewhat complacent Catholic to being on fire for the teachings of the Church and totally living her Catholic faith.
OK, so there I was just waiting for the excerpt from Paul's letter to jump up and scream at me, and this is what I read:
"Brothers, we do not which to leave you in the dark about the trouble we had in Asia; we were crushed beyond our strength, even to the point of despairing of life. We were left to feel like men condemned to death so that we might trust, not in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. He rescued us from the danger of death and will continue to do so. We have put our hope in him who will never cease to deliver us. But you must help us with your prayers, so that on our behalf God may be thanked for the gift granted us through the prayers of so many." - II Corinthians - 1:8-11
I guess it jumped out at me a little, you know, I needed to trust in God. But I was kind of like: yeah, God, I already knew that bit, You have to be my defender, shield, etc. - where is the shock factor, the point for me, the striking to the heart? But, God had bigger plans for this verse - I just had to wait a bit...
So 10 minutes later I was down in the kitchen eating breakfast (which was quite the treat today: french toast bake), and I flipped through the Catholic Times (which is the Springfield Diocesan paper). I saw that there was an article on Pope Francis' recent address to seminarians and novices on July 7th. Of course, since it was from the pope and addressed to me (or people like me anyway), I decided to read it... (Some excerpts, as taken from the Catholic Times).
"Some of the greatest dangers standing in the way of a happy religious life are materialism and a culture that believes nothing is forever... [yep, I already know this...]
Even religious men and women have to avoid the temptation of thinking "the latest smartphone, the fastest moped, and a car that turns heads" will make them happy... [wait a second - no smartphone, no nicer car... I thought materialism just applied to rich people, and really fancy cars, and million dollar vacations, that sort of thing... I thought materialism didn't apply to me...]
True joy doesn't come from things or "living on the edge,"... "Opening up to [Jesus'] love and divine call is "the secret of our joy," ... "Don't be afraid of showing the joy of having answered the Lord's call," [The pope's message is starting to hit home. Whenever I see a priest, seminarian, or sister who is absolutely, totally, joyful I want to know where it comes from. I think the pope has told me the obvious here. True joy is found in following Jesus Christ.]
And that brings me back to where this post started: "so that we might trust, not in ourselves, but in God". This is a point where I know, personally, that I need to work on. I am always researching the latest gadget, laptop, cool gizmo, or better car, and I think that I need to rethink my priorities. It's about time that I started applying these thoughts to myself - not just to the abstract everybody else. I really wanted to say that the pope was talking to other people, maybe cardinals or something, but then I saw that he was speaking to "Seminarians and Novices" - this definitely applies to me. That striking to the heart really happens. Reading Scripture and applying it personally isn't always fun and fluff. Following Christ completely involves sacrifice along with joy.
As always, it seems that I am coming to the end of a post without it feeling completely finished. I'll have to work on that I guess... I have found that applying the principals that I sometimes write about in here are a bit more tough when applied to myself. Ah well, the challenge goes on...
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