God makes an election for us

When we reflect on where God is present to us in lives we often look at whether people make us welcome or unwelcome by the way they treat us and choose to be present to us. The Gospel is not simply about being nice to others but considering what is fundamentally important to us. This will probably play out in our hearts and minds as we examine the results of votes taken both in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Spain. Each seems to deliver more uncertainty and answer a particular question but not the fundamental question of how we are called to be present to others. They can reframe reality but they do not change who we are called to be.

What is considered important is to remember that God makes an election for us. “Peace to this house” and if a person of peace lives there it will be accepted and if not then the peace will come back to you This changes in how we are called to become aware of God’s spirit at work in us and within our communities. What brings us consolation rather than desolation. This view strongly echoed in the Gospel is that we take hospitality both in what we have to offer and in what we have to receive. We can be a leaven within our community which seeks to become aware of how in working for peace and in offering hospitality to all, we encounter that God’s kingdom is very close to us.

Do we seek the common good or our own interest?

Do we seek the common good or our own interest? We are often called to consider what is our next step in life and we have to consider this central question. What seems to be of immediate benefit to me and what is the best way of living my life. It is the difference between the urgent and the important. We know that there can be many things that press in upon us and demand our attention. These can at times seem to overwhelm us and consume our energy.

However what acts as the foundation of our lives can be the touchstone of who were are called to be. As Pedro Arrupe SJ reflects in Finding God in All Things: A Marquette Prayer Book published in 2009 by Marquette University Press:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

Who do you say I am?

We do not enter into a relationship with Jesus as a theoretical concept or as an idealised person. The encounter with Jesus draws out what is best in us. It calls us to ask questions of who we believe him to be. He encounters each person as they are, not as they think we should be for him. This encounter can be life changing because it starts to recognise that we do not have to measure up to an arbitrary standard of behaviour before he will love us. He loves us so that we can discover what will bring hope and life to our hearts so that we can share it with others. This often means allowing him to struggle with us against believing the world revolves around me to discovering that our lives are called to be centred on God. This loving surrender to his guidance can often feel like losing the things we hold on too tightly to a discovery of what we can truly value. Our way of life is one of constant surrender to a life which is held lightly and not grasped as our own possession. In discovering this freedom we enter into a deeper communion with God and with each other. This is not done by comparison with each other but a willingness to companion each other on the road.

Jesus makes us uncomfortable so that we can discover a living relationship with God

There is a story of an alcoholic who was well known in town. People would make fun of him and talk behind his back. Occasionally he would try to go dry but this would make people uncomfortable because he would no longer be the butt of their jokes. Then he would fall back into old ways and people would be happy to talk about him again. We know that the 12 steps program helps people to find ways of living with their own weakness and vulnerability. But an important part of the program is a friend and mentor who walks with them. This person can be like Jesus to them as they do not put on airs and graces but love the person as they are not as we would have them be.

This is precisely the situation that we read in the gospel for this weekend. We can become comfortable with another person’s sin because it stops us from reflecting on our own. We can start to become proportional in our approach to God when we start to say that at least we are not as bad as another person. Yet Jesus does not look at our sins but how he has the greater gift of inviting us into a living relationship with God. This is about responding in faith to God’s love which is abundant. By discovering that we are loved by God our hearts are enlarged so that we can love others and walk with them.