WE need to be wary of our tendency to
confine our spiritual
life to the equivalent of the comfort zone. This happens when we
equate our spiritual life with taking care simply of our personal
affairs, concerns and problems.
In short, we think of God and go to him only when we have
personal predicaments to sort out. We forget about what God really
wants from us. We forget about what the others expect from us.
It´s notoriously one-way, highly localized instead of going
global, self-centered instead of strengthening one´s relation with God
and others that underlies it. It is shallow, narrow, vulnerable to all
sorts of dangers like superstition, complacency, heresies, etc., and
incapable of facing problems and fullfilling the other Christian
duties.
This is a common phenomenon that we need to be more aware
of, since it has become so ordinary like air that we hardly give any
attention to it, much less, feel some concern over it. It doesn´t give
us even the slightest jolt.
Our Lord himself was faced with the same phenomenon even
among those close to him, his apostles. Many times he had to correct
them, expand their faith and understanding of things, and even scold
them.
Remember the time when the apostles were arguing who among
them was the greatest. Then the mother of James and John simply wanted
to have her sons seated by the side of our Lord in heaven.
Philip also asked Christ to show them the Father, which
provoked our Lord to tell Philip, ¨After I have been with you all this
time, you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father.¨ (Jn 14,9)
Then Peter received a strong rebuke when he attempted to
dissuade Jesus from going to Jerusalem to face his death. ¨Get behind
me, Satan, you are a scandal to me...” (Mt 16,23)
There´s a strong tendency for people to simply go
individualistic in their spiritual life. It´s true that the spiritual
life is always personal, but it also has other dimensions. When people
only talk about their problems and fail to enrich their spiritual life
with the other elements that go into it, we have a problem.
People often fail to realize that many of their weaknesses
and failings persist because they do not allow their spiritual life to
take on the other fundamental elements. They may pray, but they don´t
deepen their faith. They like to develop virtues, but they don´t like
to exert effort, to offer sacrifices and to be tempted and tested.
They want to be holy, but they don´t take care of their
ongoing formation, nor submit to a plan of a life of piety. They want
to be generous, but they don´t want to be demanded upon or to be told
or to be given problems and challenges. They want to be
contemplatives, but they neglect their duty to be active in their
secular responsibilities.
We need to demolish this kind of mentality that sadly seems
to be mainstream nowadays. We won´t progress spiritually that way. On
the contrary, we can go deeper into trouble and yet thinking that we
are still ok.
This is the unkindest cut we can suffer when we have a
spiritual life that is revolving around ourselves. Let´s remember that
pride, error and blindness can take on the appearance of holiness. If
not corrected, that predicament can become invincibly unsolvable.
St. Paul always encouraged that we try to pursue Christian
maturity, to the point that God becomes ¨all in all,¨ and that we
become ¨a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of
Christ.¨ (Eph 4,13)
For this, we should know some fundamental and indispensable
aspects of Christian life, like the truth that Christian life is a
participation in the Trinitarian life of God who is one yet three
persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We need to develop a sense of our filiation to God the
Father, the urge to follow and imitate Christ who is the perfection of
our humanity, the skill to deal with the Holy Spirit who is our
sanctifier, the divine gift that brings God to us here and now.
We need to develop the sense of the ecclesial and secular
dimensions of the spiritual life, keenly aware of our duties in the
Church and in the world, evolving a sense of the relationship between
time and eternity, the material and the spiritual, the world and
heaven.
Filling out and activating our spiritual life is an endless,
exhilarating affair!
life to the equivalent of the comfort zone. This happens when we
equate our spiritual life with taking care simply of our personal
affairs, concerns and problems.
In short, we think of God and go to him only when we have
personal predicaments to sort out. We forget about what God really
wants from us. We forget about what the others expect from us.
It´s notoriously one-way, highly localized instead of going
global, self-centered instead of strengthening one´s relation with God
and others that underlies it. It is shallow, narrow, vulnerable to all
sorts of dangers like superstition, complacency, heresies, etc., and
incapable of facing problems and fullfilling the other Christian
duties.
This is a common phenomenon that we need to be more aware
of, since it has become so ordinary like air that we hardly give any
attention to it, much less, feel some concern over it. It doesn´t give
us even the slightest jolt.
Our Lord himself was faced with the same phenomenon even
among those close to him, his apostles. Many times he had to correct
them, expand their faith and understanding of things, and even scold
them.
Remember the time when the apostles were arguing who among
them was the greatest. Then the mother of James and John simply wanted
to have her sons seated by the side of our Lord in heaven.
Philip also asked Christ to show them the Father, which
provoked our Lord to tell Philip, ¨After I have been with you all this
time, you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father.¨ (Jn 14,9)
Then Peter received a strong rebuke when he attempted to
dissuade Jesus from going to Jerusalem to face his death. ¨Get behind
me, Satan, you are a scandal to me...” (Mt 16,23)
There´s a strong tendency for people to simply go
individualistic in their spiritual life. It´s true that the spiritual
life is always personal, but it also has other dimensions. When people
only talk about their problems and fail to enrich their spiritual life
with the other elements that go into it, we have a problem.
People often fail to realize that many of their weaknesses
and failings persist because they do not allow their spiritual life to
take on the other fundamental elements. They may pray, but they don´t
deepen their faith. They like to develop virtues, but they don´t like
to exert effort, to offer sacrifices and to be tempted and tested.
They want to be holy, but they don´t take care of their
ongoing formation, nor submit to a plan of a life of piety. They want
to be generous, but they don´t want to be demanded upon or to be told
or to be given problems and challenges. They want to be
contemplatives, but they neglect their duty to be active in their
secular responsibilities.
We need to demolish this kind of mentality that sadly seems
to be mainstream nowadays. We won´t progress spiritually that way. On
the contrary, we can go deeper into trouble and yet thinking that we
are still ok.
This is the unkindest cut we can suffer when we have a
spiritual life that is revolving around ourselves. Let´s remember that
pride, error and blindness can take on the appearance of holiness. If
not corrected, that predicament can become invincibly unsolvable.
St. Paul always encouraged that we try to pursue Christian
maturity, to the point that God becomes ¨all in all,¨ and that we
become ¨a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of
Christ.¨ (Eph 4,13)
For this, we should know some fundamental and indispensable
aspects of Christian life, like the truth that Christian life is a
participation in the Trinitarian life of God who is one yet three
persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We need to develop a sense of our filiation to God the
Father, the urge to follow and imitate Christ who is the perfection of
our humanity, the skill to deal with the Holy Spirit who is our
sanctifier, the divine gift that brings God to us here and now.
We need to develop the sense of the ecclesial and secular
dimensions of the spiritual life, keenly aware of our duties in the
Church and in the world, evolving a sense of the relationship between
time and eternity, the material and the spiritual, the world and
heaven.
Filling out and activating our spiritual life is an endless,
exhilarating affair!
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