10/26/06

Sorry for the lack of posting the last few...we've been busy, as a friend is dying and we've been picking up slack for each other and visiting the hospital as well.

Today's readings:http://www.usccb.org/nab/102606.shtml

St. Paul goes Oprah today...speaking of inner peace in a way.

But yet this passage from St. Paul gives me pause...I truly think this is what the crux of our faith life really ought to be.

I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Read that carefully...

He points out the need for kneeling in awe of God.

He asks for God to send us strength and that we may feel that presence of Christ in the "inner self"--a self- aware realization of the spirit.

And he states the need that for us to be rooted (note that word) in love is not merely enough. But that this rootedness needs to be linked to the actions of God's self-commuinication through Christ. And that this self-communicating love goes beyond our comprehnesion--but that the knowledge of Christ's love is indeed what brings us fulfillment.

Wonderful words...and words that I think really encapsulate the faith.

The gospel today also points out that this self-communication requires much of us--and even that God requires much of Jesus (or God demands much from Himself while on His earthly mission). God has come to be a divider and not a unifier. So some of us will not catch that self-communication...and indeed miss the message of love that God gives us and the message that we too are requried to love even those we have come to hate. A hard message indeed. Our own families may not accept that message and where does that leave us?

Jesus indeed seems sad...but yet he's forceful and almost resigned to the fact that not all of us "get it." So while divisions are inevitable..they don't have the last word. God does seek unity and want to save us all. And still, despite that knowledge, we do a good job of pushing God away.