There can be some confusion which can strike us in the middle of Lent where we can try to juggle the things of God around our relationship with God. The readings strike at the heart of this over the weekend. We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind and love our neighbour as ourselves. The Ten Commandments remind us that our lives are not just our own to do with as we like but rather an act of sharing a commonwealth which is for the good of all. The question relates to how easy it is to privatise faith to my own private realm or to what I am doing and consider important.
When we gather for worship this is not just a private act created so that I can feel good but rather a liturgical gathering which seeks to discover a God who reaches out to all people over all time. There can always be a temptation to make an act of prayer which is accessible to all available only to a select few. When we celebrate Mass we encounter a God who welcomes us where we are with all our gifts and frailties. It is the place where we can bring ourselves before God and listen to the same Word spoken to us. We can offer ourselves to God so that along with the bread and wine that we can be taken, blessed, broken and given for the good of ourselves and the good of others. In receiving communion we enter into a divine communication which links us together in the Body of Christ. It is that as that body we are commissioned as disciples to take the good news to the world by our lives.
What then is our mission? It is to allow others to discover the God who draws us together. To witness with our lives the transforming power which renews us and strengthens us. In the Eucharist, we give thanks that God seeks to open the doors of our hearts for a greater good and a greater glory. By allowing God to be at the centre of our lives we can allow the life that has entrusted to us to be renewed and enlivened. May our Lent be an encounter which allows us to see how we seek to the heart of the matter and not just become consumed by the incidentals of prayer that can distract us from growing closer to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment