Where do I feel most at home?

When we return from a long trip there can be a natural desire to want to be home. It is like a beacon which grows warm within us when we are in the proximity not only of the destination but also the people who will welcome us. Jesus calls us to be at home with ourselves wherever we may be. This is not always easy because our minds and hearts can be distracted by things or places that draw us away from our natural self. In our own age, it is possible to travel to destinations far away without leaving our armchairs and become absorbed in questions which are not our own. This can consume much of our thinking and our way of being present to the world. They can at times become burdensome and seem to clutter up our lives with thoughts and feelings and questions which do not really matter. Our prayer time and our study are essential if we are to discover that place where we can be truly ourselves, unencumbered by considerations beyond our scope to solve. It calls us to live with the one central question, where do I feel most at home and how does that bring substance to my life? What is it the question that God most places on my heart and how will I live that, for the good of the world?

How do we share our life with others

How do we share our lives with others? We can at times become focused or besieged by the demands of the Christian life which confront us. Modern technology can reveal to us many good works and charitable endeavors which are all worthwhile. Like Therese of Lisieux we can want it all because we see the tremendous good which eventuates from people’s selfless actions. Yet this is not the primary call that is placed on each person’s heart. We do need a Christian community which produces tangible fruits, but we also are called to recognize that we are co-dependent upon each other. No one person has all the knowledge or all the gifts, we are called into a living relationship which shares our lives and our gifts with each other. In this giving and receiving, we realize a God who forms us into a community where all gifts of the spirit need to be present. Discipleship is not about personal advancement but a profound sharing of what has been entrusted to us for the good of all. When we hold on too tightly to the gifts we have been given, we diminish not only ourselves but also the whole community with whom we are called to share these gifts. Our lives are never just our own but how people discover the God who calls us to be present to others.

Know thyself!

Knowing ourselves can seem to be a lifelong task. Yet in the Interior Castle written by Theresa of Avila it is the essential place in which we grow in our relationship with God. Sometimes, I am haunted by the word of Jesus when he echoes the words, I do not know you. There can be a feeling if I do not know myself how can I become real to God? In a world where we can pursue phantoms of appearance or mirages of success, it is easy to become lost on another person’s journey other than our own. Jesus calls us to encounter him as our true self not as the person we believe that will be acceptable to him. It means that we need to drop the masks in prayer and in our conversation with God so that we can identify who we truly are. This does not mean that we have to engage in profound self-analysis or profound quests of self-discovery. We just need to be true to what brings us life and what avoids death for us. This is not focusing solely on ourselves but it is an understanding that we cannot live in a way which has not been gifted to us from God. Our best reflection is to look at each day and see what I can give thanks for and what brought life to me and others? By discovering what brings life we can discover who we are called to be and discover the person God knows us to be. 

Is this all there is?

There is a universal sense of a call which is more than what we are called to do with our lives. There are questions in life which are not answered, which move beyond the superficial. We know how easy it is to classify people by their work, by their successes or by what they own. There is something which allows us to be familiar with the arena in which we work, which provides us with some security and sense of worth. However, this can be sorely tested if we are asked the question about whether this is all that we are called to be? When our life is too closely identified with our occupation or our daily activity. We can start to think that we only have value when we are doing things which appear worthwhile. Yet the deeper question that Jesus asks is, who do we love when we do what we are doing? This is more than just being lost in activity but allowing us to discover that our humanity is expressed in who we love, so that we can love what we are doing. How do I understand this call that Jesus places before us?