WHILE enjoying a quiet dinner with the monks of St. Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, California during my day-off last Thursday, Fr. Francis, the former abbot, was on the microphone reading excerpts from the writings of St John of the Cross. I tried to catch every word that he was reading despite being distracted by a delectable meal.
Finally, some words struck me. They were about asserting one’s self, how this attitude may not be about one’s love for God, but about love for one’s self. This is true, I muse. I wonder if the achievements that I’ve made were really about my love for God and not about love for myself.
Indeed, if there is one fundamental reason why we go to Church, why we serve God and our neighbors, and why we fulfill any project zealously, it’s because of our love for God. For us Christians, this genuine love for God is the same love that we have for his begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Every good deed and any fidelity that we show to our vocation are but manifestations of our love for God and our union with Him.
I wish that we could have this feeling of love all the time. I wish that every word that we speak and every action we show would be driven by this divine love. Then we won’t be bitten by other selfish motives such as ambition, pride, and jealousy. Then our interactions and relationships with others would become pure and sincere. Then our lives would be devoid of resentments, bitterness, anger, and unhappiness.
This giving of ourselves and our lives away for the sake of God is the highest form of Christian maturity. It takes a great deal of prayer and self-emptiness to achieve it. It involves struggle and pain. But with the grace of God, we can climb this mountain of self-transcendence. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to come to this point of Christian maturity.
Having this way of being and thinking is what separates true disciples of Christ from people of worldly ambitions. They are detached from self-glory and are able to love freely and genuinely. They do not wallow in self-pity, but soars in God’s love. They are fully contented with their status in life. They do not need any title or recognition. God’s love is enough for them.
Our innermost desire and prayer should be to come to this state of Christian maturity. Then we would be ready to come to last stage of life, that is, the giving our deaths away. Amen!
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
