Becoming fully alive requires an awakening in the human person, an awakening that I believe is happening across the globe today. God’s children are beginning to recognize in a new, and more profound way, that there is much more to life than simply surviving. Our inner voices cry out for more peace, happiness, and love. And while we often stumble through life and make an occasional wrong turn, our inner voice continually beckons us home to the peace that Jesus Christ offers. In today’s Gospel Jesus reveals to us the path to becoming fully alive.
Following Jesus
As always, Jesus is a gentleman. He lovingly, and continually, extends to us an invitation to enter into a love relationship with him. Such a relationship, while it comes with infinite divine promises, also comes at a cost. Jesus asks us to fully surrender our lives to him. Fortunately, he also shows us how to do this.
In return for our surrender Jesus Christ will lead us through the trials and tribulations of life. He will show us how to carry our crosses. And like Jesus, our crosses will become part of our spiritual journey. Remember, Jesus didn’t carry his cross for the pain that came with it, rather, Jesus carried his cross for the glory it promised. And this glory is the complete unification of our Triune God with his children.
When surrender our crosses, our pain, at the foot of Jesus’ cross we allow them to become instruments of love. No longer can they exist as a hindrance on our spiritual journey home to God, and no longer can the Evil One use them as temptations to turn us away from God. Rather, they become accelerators that support our soul’s growth and unification with God. Our crosses help us to become more “other focused” as we more fully see Jesus in one another through the lens of love and forgiveness.
Finding Your Life
As we allow Jesus to take our cross, and use it as an instrument of refinement for our soul, our false self will begin to diminish. This means that instead of looking at the world through the lens of “I want” we begin to see the world through the lens of “I love”. Instead of wanting others to do for us, we begin to ask ourselves what can we do for them.
However, before we can fully love and care for another we must love and forgive ourselves – we must take the beam out of our own eye first. This can only be done when we surrender our lives to Jesus and allow him to fully love us. Jesus wants to shower us with his healing love, even (especially) when we do not feel worthy of such love. Sometimes we falsely believe that we are not deserving of such perfect love; however, such a belief does not have the power to diminish the perfect love Christ has for us. After all, perfect love is just that – perfect. It cannot be changed because, unlike human love, it perpetually exists at its zenith.
The Value of Life
Nothing holds greater spiritual power for our soul’s growth than the life God gave us. Our life is precious – each and every life is precious. Because, after all, through our life we have a unique opportunity to grow in God’s love. And as we grow in God’s love we begin to love others more fully and God’s love expands in the world. Loving and forgiving others, especially the difficult ones in our lives, is what Jesus modeled for us. Remember, Jesus pointed out to us that even pagans love those who love them. A true follower of Christ is one who loves when it is hard to love and one who prays for those who persecute them. Throughout our lives we will undoubtedly be presented with a plethora of opportunities to learn how to love and forgive more fully.
To forfeit our life calls us to give up on love before the game is over, before we have learned how to love as our soul desires. Sometimes the world will promise false happiness in return for our life. Even Satan promised Jesus rule over all the earth’s kingdoms, obviously a promise Satan had no authority to offer. Yet Jesus didn’t forfeit. Rather, Jesus remained committed to love and God’s plan because he knew the value of his life. Our lives are also valuable and we must not forfeit them to the false promises of the Evil One.
Promises Kept
The only promises we can count on our God’s promises. We can take these eternal promises to the bank, the heavenly bank where the currency is love. And Jesus promises us in today’s Gospel, he will “come with his angels and his Father’s glory”. We will receive payment for all the good, and bad, we have done with God’s currency of love. The more love and goodness we have offered to others the more love we will receive. And yes, we will be accountable for the times we have withheld love and this is why we must turn to God for forgiveness and direction.
His Kingdom
After the Resurrection God came into his earthly Kingdom in a new way – through his son Jesus Christ. As a result of Jesus’ Resurrection we now have Jesus living inside of us. Real life is inside of us and this is why we can live fully alive today. This life, a life that continually beckons us to strive for more, calls us to desire more peace, more happiness and more love.
As Jesus spoke those words “Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom” he acknowledged that some individuals in the crowd would get to be a part of this glorious transformation. They too would experience Jesus Christ living inside of them.
By carrying his cross Jesus died so that his love would live inside of us. At the moment of Jesus’s death everything was revealed. God’s power and love were revealed – love won and death lost. A wave swept across the earth, Jesus Christ entered into the hearts of mankind. This love, and only this love, is what enables us to live fully alive.
Further Meditation
On my website I share several forms of meditation I use on a regular basis to more fully experience God that I would like to share with you. I call them Fasting of The Mind. Here is the link my friends – enjoy: Fasting of The Mind
May you and your family be blessed my friends in Christ. – Carolyn
Triune God – help us to sleep in your arms every night of our lives.
Sacred Heart of Jesus – have mercy on us.
Father God – consume us.
Holy Spirit – enter in to us.
Mother Mary – pray for us.
Saint Clare – pray for us.
