Who we are is what we see!

When we go to the doctor it is usually either for a general check-up or because we are starting to notice symptoms which either cause us pain or discomfort. The better we are able to describe these symptoms, the better the doctor is able to diagnose what it happening. Yet the most important thing is how we respond to the diagnosis and what questions we need to ask. How we become present to our own health concerns helps us to become involved and engaged in the process of receiving appropriate treatment. It helps us to know that our health touches on physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of our lives. The ability to work holistically with the people who provide us health care can produce a good outcome.

In a similar way, our spiritual health calls us to be present as a whole person. Advent is not just a time for confessing sins, hoping that the chaff will be burnt away, it is a time for a review of life which looks below the surface and seeks to listen to the voice of God. This is not just a time to go through the motions but to seek out what God is calling us to. Reconciliation is not simply about squaring ourselves away with God but a deeper call to produce the fruits of the sacrament we receive. It calls us to open our lives to God’s grace in a way which does not just take notice of the symptoms which distance us from God and from each other. This calls us to allow God to enter into our own hearts so that we can see our lives differently.

Often we focus on what we want more than what God wants, we can easily miss the mark. God wants us to go to the heart of the matter. A relationship which can sustain us and helps us to grow closer together in faith. By seeking to be reconciled with God helps us in our reconciliation with others and inside ourselves. It helps us to become people who are more open to God’s grace which seeks to heal and reconcile all of our humanity. By showing our willingness to renew our faith in reconciliation, to become less cynical and chastened by our own coarseness, we open our hearts to become disciples. May the peace of Christ disturb you!