Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 29, 2015 - Thursday in the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 8:31b-39 and Luke 13:31-35]"If God is for us, who can be against us?.....For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." [Romans]
This is one of the most impassioned and "poetic" passages in Romans. Put simply, if God has given God's only-begotten Son for us, we are joined to Christ. Nothing can separate us from Christ unless we choose separation. Our "default" relationship is one of love and union. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae, states that the New Law of Christ is nothing less than the Holy Spirit working in our hearts through faith in Christ. That new law is love of God and neighbor.
C.S. Lewis was once asked by someone, "How do I know that I really love God?" Lewis responded (I can't quote exactly), "Assume that you do love God and act accordingly." It seems amazing that so many even faith-filled people will try to keep God at arms' length and be satisfied with occasional piety that satisfies a canonical minimum. Perhaps we should think about a line from a spiritual diary that the great Southern Catholic writer, Flanner O'Connor kept one year: "God is feeding me, and what I'm praying for is an appetite." We start with the divine embrace. Why are we struggling against it? AMEN