28 August 2017 - were they not in you

Today's Readings

Are we blind guides? We are if speak mostly of rules and not enough of relationship. If we are telling people about their obligations to temple, to gold, and to altar, without telling them how to know the one who dwells in that temple and is worshipped on that altar and with that gold. The temple, gold, and altar have immense value when at the service of relationship. But this gospel proves that we can use any legitimate good to distance ourselves from God and excuse ourselves of our obligations toward him.

This is a sign that we have two much of the letter of the law. We need to receive more of the conviction of the Spirit.

For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.

The conviction and power of the Holy Spirit keep the message safe from becoming a mere vanity project for us. It gives us a faith which works in labors of love. It gives us a hope that bestows endurance on us when we would otherwise be tempted to turn aside. 

We are going to worship something. It will either be God or the inconspicuous idols of modernity such as comfort and entertainment. Let us turn entirely from those idols. Rules are not enough to save us when we think about why we should change the way we actually spend our time day to day. Once we get into that sort of nitty-gritty we are at the peak of our readiness for talking ourselves out of and excusing ourselves from our obligations of faith, hope and love. If idols are first at such times we fragment. We can serve entertainment with part of our heart and God with the other, we think. But it is always false. We must serve God alone. We only find the blessings of legitimate lesser good's when they are given to us from his hand.

For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.

This is the secret that Saint Augustine writes of when he says:

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. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.