28 August 2013 - you were with me

28 August 2013 - you were with me

Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

We are called to live a life of harmony between appearance and substance.  When we hear this we can scarcely imagine wanting anything else.  Yet when we live aren't we a lot more worried about how things appear?  Aren't we trying to please men rather than God?  How we want to appear may differ. We may want to seem nice, cool, intelligent, or holy.  It may be something else.  But this motivation is assuredly within us, fighting our attempts to live selflessly the way of holiness.  We can't imagine that we could shed the prophets blood.

‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’

Before the cross will we really speak up for Jesus, or will we fear the crowds as Pilate does?  We want the image of someone who would speak up for Jesus.  But when our appearance (and therefore the comfort it ensures) is on the line what will we choose?

So how can we "walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his Kingdom and glory"?  Is it just too much for us, when everything is on the line?

 The answer is in the word of God.  We need to receive it "not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe."  We have a tendency to hear divine words as if they are human and human words as if they are divine.  Let us set aside are over abundance of human words and enter in to the God's word so that we may be purified by it.  It does this itself.  It is at work in we who believe.  It pierces the soul and spirit, of joints and marrow.  It itself discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart (cf. Heb 4:12).

Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there.

If we long for this presence we can find it truly in the Word of God.  This may not be our typical experience at bible studies.  Yet because the Scriptures are not a merely human word they actually makes present what they contain.  And what is the content which God's work makes present?  He himself is that content!

Let us heed the words of St. Augustine to meet God within rather than losing ourselves in appearances:

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. 

And let us be confidence that he can even penetrate our deafness.  Just as he enlightens the blindness of St. Augustine he can enlighten our blindness, too.

You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. 

The presence of God's word in us can make the darkness of our intentions into the brightness of holiness and integrity.

For you darkness itself is not dark,
and night shines as the day.