Amazing Catechists

Teaching and learning the faith together

Lent Should Be a Moving Experience

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I find it powerful and transcendent that Lent is a moving journey toward the Cross and beyond.  This “moving” however, comes in three distinct contexts.  Each context has its place in the Lenten message.

Powerful Emotion

The first context of moving evoked by Lent may certainly be the strong, somber emotion of following a friend through great suffering. The closer that friend, of course, the more intimate and proximate to ourselves that suffering should be. While we may be moved by attending the funeral of a friend’s relative we never met, we would expect to be even more moved in attending the actual friend’s funeral.  In the first instance, our love for our friend moves us to feel compassion and sympathy for that friend’s suffering.  In the second instance, that same love moves us to suffer at the loss of a loved one.  The more something touches us, the more it moves our emotions.

As followers of Christ, therefore, we should be moved by Our Lord’s great suffering leading up to and through his ultimate loving sacrifice for us.  We should be moved by being so loved while falling so short loving in return.  We should be moved by the way we have contributed and continue to contribute to the suffering of a such a loving Lord every time we offend him.

The Crucifix as the Proactive Cross

Our image of the cross is as static and fixed as to be a mirage.  We barely discern a difference between a cross and a crucifix.  The cross is love promised and the crucifix is love proven. Christ accepted his cross out of love for us and proved his love by turning that cross into the ultimate sacrificial altar.  As Catholics, we should see the cross as the setting for love and the crucifix as that love actualized.

The cross sets the table and the crucifix provides us with the meal of Our Lord’s body and blood. Without the corpus on the crucifix, the cross remains a passive symbol. It may evoke our reaction in some way, but that reaction pales in the face of what happens when we add the corpus of Christ.

The crucifix, on the other hand, turns the passivity of the cross into the action of loving sacrifice opening our path to salvation. Through the cross, our reactive passivity is transformed into proactive love. The symbol becomes the signpost.  Our Savior on the cross redefines love from simply emotion or reaction into action.  It is fine and good to love, but true love demands we act on that love. If we truly love Christ, then we will want to authentically follow him in actions and not merely words.

In this second context, then, Lent implies moving out of our comfort zones and acting on the love we have for Christ and others.  Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are made of dust but Lent calls on us to turn that dust into a windstorm of love and sacrifice.

Calendar Dates

A friend recently lamented that this year Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day fall on the same day, as do Easter and April Fool’s Day. His concern was that people might forget to receive ashes in their haste to buy flowers and candy. In fact, his teenage daughter who usually proudly wears her ashes to school was going to get them after school because she did not want to “mess up” her Valentine’s celebration in school !

Likewise, many may fear that Easter will receive a greater dose of secular mockery since it falls on the day when fools are celebrated. The irony is that Lent truly should  begin with love and call us to be fools for Christ in the eyes of this world. In a way, this year’s odd coincidences merely parallel how we should view Lent when confronting this world’s values and priorities.

It is fitting that Lent varies from year to year because following Christ is not about comfortable and predictable routines. The true follower of Christ is like a bride or groom promising love in the face of an uncertain path to a treasured goal.  While Christ should be our fixed target, the world around us often provides a moving context which we must overcome.  The ultimate message is that Christ is our fixed GPS through the changing contexts of this world.

As we move through Lent this year, let us be moved to move out of our comfort zones and help move others toward Christ.

2018   Gabriel Garnica

Turn Your Crosses into Ladders

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If Christ came to earth to teach us the way to Heaven, then we may rightly accept that his words and actions are sanctified lessons in that path.  His examples of love, service, sacrifice, mercy, compassion, dedication, and obedience to the Will of God are found throughout his life and ministry. Beyond the more obvious lessons, however, lie transcendent yet pervasive examples of how to fall. Typically, we see falls as dreaded, embarrassing stumbles to be avoided at all costs. Many times, we see them as windows to our weakness we would much rather stuff under the bed and forget or deny. Such terror in the face of falls dissolves in the face of trusting God. In that context, let me offer the following gentle suggestions.

God Fell for Us

We know that God is perfect and cannot fall but, in a sense, He fell for us from the moment He created us. We know that God loved us before He created us ( Jer 31:3) and that this love has been present in everything He has done for us ( Ps 139: 13-16).  We also know that Christ fell for us because he became one of us, while still divine as well, to defeat sin and permit our salvation.

Fall for God

There are mainly two reasons why we may fall.  We may fall due to our human weakness and sin. While we should certainly do our best to avoid such falls, the fact is that we will fall despite those struggles because we are human. The devil wants us to give up when we fall due to sin, to feel hopeless and helpless. Reconciliation offers us the way back from such falls precisely because God’s love always defeats the devil’s lies.

The second reason we may fall will be due to things beyond our control. These innocent falls are part of life. Since he was perfect and sinless, Christ never fell to sin, but he certainly fell into struggles and frustrations because he was human. St Alphonsus Liguori often tells us to offer our falls to the goodness of God’s Will regardless of our distaste for them.  People often allow injustice or misfortune to sow bitterness and resentment.  Again, that is precisely what the devil wants, so we must look beyond our human agenda and have enough trust and love of God to embrace such falls as His Will. Since God is all good, then it follows that his Will is all good. If we offer our falls as products of God’s Will, then we will come to accept them as serving some good purpose despite our distaste for them.

The Pauses That are Not

It is easy to see falls as mistakes to be avoided and embarrassing signs of our weakness. However, such feelings stem from worrying too much about what this world thinks of us or thinking too much about our ego.  Others see falls as breaks in the actions, pauses in the proceedings, intermissions or bathroom or food breaks during the play or big game. Such views help us to ignore or brush falls aside and fail to learn and grow from them.

The truth is, falls are a part of the big game and the play of life.  They are very much part of the action and players in our plot if we allow them to contribute to who we are and become. Imagine that every play or movie was all success and smiles. Such efforts would teach very little and pretend a lot. They would not be real.

The more we come to see our falls as active parts of our lives and not aberrations, the more we will learn from and, yes, even embrace them as lessons and opportunities to grow toward God.  Falls are not silent pauses; rather, they can speak volumes if we are willing to listen and act on them.

Let Your Crosses Become Ladders

St. Rose of Lima is quoted as saying that “Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.”  If we truly fancy ourselves followers of Christ, we must start seeing our crosses as ladders rather than burdens.  The key to that view is trying to see falls as opportunities to learn how to grow toward God instead of feverishly trying to avoid them like misfortunes, mistakes, or failures. By doing this, we too may sanctify the falls in our lives rather than spend our efforts cursing them.

2018 Gabriel Garnica

 

 

It’s a Wonderful Life, Charlie Brown

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I recently bumped into an old friend from grammar school, and we began reminiscing about our favorite Christmas movies. Apart from realizing that all of the candidates were over 50 years old (not surprising given what spews out today), we ended up agreeing on two winners: one originally a theatrical release and the other a now classic television offering. It’s a Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, and A Charlie Brown Christmas, starring the irrepressible Peanuts gang, could not be more different in many ways, yet together they provide a profound message that should resonate in any Christian perspective of Christmas.

Let God be your star

Both movies remind us that God should be the central navigating and guiding influence in our lives. George Bailey’s problems began when he forgot that his life’s purpose, meaning, and value was determined by heaven and not any superficial, temporary, or earthly measure. Charlie Brown struggled until Linus reminded him of the real reason for the season. Ultimately, many of our daily struggles originate from our own misguided shortcuts around God’s wisdom.

True happiness is the product of proper prioritizing

Both movies show the destructive effect of greed, selfishness, and measuring value by earthly standards. Bedford Falls could have become Pottersville if these evils had been allowed to spread, without George to stop them. Even George himself only finds true happiness when he realizes the importance of faith, family, and true friendship. Charlie Brown’s struggles with the modern commercialism of Christmas and his friends’ initial preoccupation with finding the right tree by society’s modern standards only lead to unhappiness and conflict. Ultimately, George’s frustrations melt away in the face of his realization of what really matters in this world. Likewise, Charlie Brown’s wonderfully simple Christmas tree provides an enduring lesson to everyone.

Balance ambition with grounding

In both movies, we are reminded that there is nothing wrong with trying to be better, but there is a lot wrong with losing yourself in the process. George’s dissatisfaction with his life stemmed from allowing his earthly ambition to transcend his values and God-given gifts. Charlie Brown, Linus, and Pigpen all try to be better but ultimately do best by accepting who they are and offering that to the world. True followers of Christ are most effective when they are truly following Christ and not this world. The world may mock George’s simplistic ways, Charlie Brown’s stumbles, Linus’s security blanket, and Pigpen’s dust, but that is only because it fails to value their deep dedication to who they are and refusal to surrender to society’s foolish norms. Staying true to who we are allows us to find and use our gifts for God. The value of legendary disc jockey Casey Kasem’s catchphrase reminding us to “keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars” was never more evident than in these two films.

Love and leave the justice to God

Like many folks, I enjoy watching cruel people pay for their treatment of others. Part of me would have certainly loved to see Potter in jail or homeless, after the way he treated the good people of Bedford Falls. Likewise, I do not like the way Charlie Brown’s friends get away with mistreating Charlie and Linus. Lucy keeps on pulling the football away, as Charlie falls flat, and many of the others call Charlie stupid and hopeless. I sometimes wish that those friends would look stupid or fall flat on their faces for once, so they could learn some lessons. However, the true lesson of Christmas is not revenge or payback or bitter resentment. Rather, that message is very much about love, forgiveness, and leaving things to God. At the end of the day, God just wants us to love and leave the justice to Him.

Conclusion

It’s a Wonderful Life and A Charlie Brown Christmas have survived the aluminum facade of this society’s artificial and diluted celebration of December 25th. In their own way, each of these simple, yet profound, movies reminds us of the majestic humility and transcendent simplicity of what Christmas is all about. While most of society dabbles in its annual politically-correct finger painting and bland holiday fare, these two wonderful reminders of past wisdom challenge us to hope and work for more.

 

2017  Gabriel Garnica

It’s My Faith, And I Can Leave If I Want To?

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Sermon on the Mount -Carl Bloch 1890

I recently read a piece by Bishop Robert Barron https://churchpop.com/2015/06/13/two-deadly-errors-of-liberal-catholicism/which is over two years old, yet strikes a chord as loudly as ever.  The more I thought about this piece, the more I came to realize that the errors it describes  are consistent with an increasingly prevalent weakness in our current grasp of this wonderful treasure entrusted to us by Christ.

Bishop Barron’s Insight

In the piece noted above, Bishop Barron describes two fundamental errors in modern liberal Catholicism as embodied in a book entitled Being Catholic Now: Prominent Americans Talk About Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning by Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, a 2008 effort which made it to the bestseller list. Bishop Barron observes that consistent themes in the book were first, pitting personal faith or “spirituality” against the institutional church and secondly, the reduction of the Catholic faith to simply works of social justice. He notes how destructive and distorted these two perspectives can be to the Catholic faith.

Catholicism is not Our Personal Party 

In 1963, American singer Lesly Gore recorded a number one song entitled “It’s My Party,” describing a teenage girl’s dismay at losing her boyfriend during her birthday party.  The song’s lyrics typified the stereotypical teenage obsession with self and embodied the “take my toys and go home” immaturity of those who simply leave when things do not go their way. Kennedy proudly recalls how her mom would lead her children out of church if she did not like the tone or direction of a given homily.  Many of the celebrities interviewed for the book likewise describe their disillusion and departure from a faith whose direction they did not agree with.

The history of the Catholicism is littered with those who left, taking their toys with them, or saw our faith as some adjustable personal buffet, but as Bishop Barron reminds us, that is not what Catholicism is all about.  Rather, our faith is very much about respecting the hierarchy and teaching of the church as wholly interwoven. Barron describes Catholicism, not as a philosophical or political debate party but, rather, as a mystical body whose truth emanates from a very human, imperfect, yet validly ordained clergy.  He thankfully reminds us that the inherent truth and integrity of our faith is not dependent upon having a perfect clergy but, rather, upon Christ who works through them. Ultimately, those who see our majestic faith as some toy designed to suit one’s personal taste miss a great part of what makes Catholicism so transcendent to our human distortions.

Bread Lines over Lines in the Sand

The second theme of Kennedy’s book which Bishop Barron took issue with is the notion that  Catholicism is, at its core, all about having a passion for helping the poor and marginalized. While these virtues should not be ignored, Barron reminds us that the Church’s social teaching is rooted in and subordinate to the Church’s doctrinal convictions.  We do not feed the poor simply to help out but, rather, because we are connected as Children of God. Bishop Barron notes that something is wrong when anyone who claims to have ever been Catholic describes social service in a way which cannot be distinguished from secular humanism–or simply being a nice person.  Ultimately, I see that Bishop Barron’s two insights regarding Kennedy’s book can be coalesced into one central theme, as described below.

Me, Me, Me, and Me Again

At the end of the day, the Catholicism espoused by many of the contributors to Kennedy’s book is one centered on self:  I have a right to expect my Catholicism to serve my needs and views of what is and is not important. I deserve a faith that caters to my notions of what is right and wrong. I can pretend to defend the marginalized, as long as those marginalized are wanted and convenient. It does not matter why I feed the hungry or clothe the naked, as long as it makes me feel good about myself to do it. My faith is my personal radio allowing me to switch stations when I do not like the music or, better yet, shut off when nothing suits my taste. My devotion is my business and I am certainly not going to listen to some imperfect priest bore me with things I am not in the mood to hear.

How convenient and  self-obsessed is such a distorted view of the majestic and beautiful treasure that is our Faith.

Conclusion

The other day, I was trying to get my Echo device to play a favorite song, and things were not going well.  For some reason, the device kept playing songs with similar titles but not the song I wanted to hear, so I just told it to shut up. I began to ponder both the convenience and the ironic drawbacks of modern technology and thinking. We are becoming increasingly accustomed to custom-made living, where we can adjust everything to precisely suit our personal tastes. I know many people who play board games by their own rules, leading to many arguments and lots of solitaire. Christ came to show us that it is not about us, but about God and others. Our Faith is rooted in putting God first, others second, and myself third. Ultimately, Christians do not go home when things do not go their way because they know that the only way that matters is the way to God.

2017 Gabriel Garnica

Living in the Present: The Path to Holiness

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Mother Angelica of EWTN fame once wrote that the only true path to holiness is to live in the present.  What did she mean by this?

The Past: For Educational Purposes Only

We all know that the past provides us with many wonderful opportunities to learn and grow.  Our mistakes and stumbles provide us with a great educational resource as we try to grow toward God. Everything from learning how to deal with struggles to identifying and appreciating good friends  comes from our ability to reflect on our past experiences. However, we should keep the past only for that purpose. Too many people use the past as a pit of resentments, regrets, and ruminations which get us nowhere good.  I believe that the past should be like a newspaper:  read it, learn from it, and move on.

The Future:  God 

Many will argue that we must plan for the future.  Others will add that anticipating problems is smart thinking.  While this is all well and good, the only future we should spend much time on is figuring out how to have an eternity with God. Whatever future we think about better be thought about in the context of how God is involved.  A future without God is no future at all.

The Present:  Where Holiness Lives

As Mother Angelica so often stressed, too many people lose opportunities for holiness because they spend their time digging up the past or plotting the future.  See each moment in the present as the gift from God that it truly is.  The key to finding God and getting closer to God is right in front of us each day if we only take the time to look. Remember that the past is done and the future belongs to God.  If we live with God in the present, the future will take care of itself and the past will be more gentle on us.

2016  Gabriel Garnica

Embrace the Journey and Seek The Destination

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As a child, I knew a little girl who had a little problem with her family’s vacations.  She always loved the different places they would visit, but she never enjoyed the journey getting there.  She hated long car drives, was afraid of flying, did not care much for trains, and was simply very impatient and even paranoid about taking too long to get to their destinations.  Simply put, she loved where she was going but did not love the different ways she could get there.  As odd as this might seem, many of us are the same way about a far more important trip-  our earthly journey to our eternal destination.

What Matters

We can all agree that what really matters is that we save our souls and that of as many people as God puts before us to help.  Ending up in heaven is the ultimate success story regardless of what stories we wrote here on earth. The most successful person on earth is not a success if he or she loses heaven forever.  Conversely, the biggest earthly loser is the ultimate winner if he or she gains heaven forever.  That being said, one has to wonder why so many of us worry so much about our journey rather than our destination.

Luggage over Location

Mother Angelica used to wonder why we all worry so much about our earthly journey, this pilgrimage to our heavenly home, when it is simply a path to what really matters.  I think that there are a few reasons why we get bogged down in these concerns.  First, we end up thinking that the journey is what really matters thanks to this world.  Everywhere we go, people pretend that this life is all we have, and that we better make it work the way the world wants it to work. Imagine that you only have $ 5,000 for a trip and you spend $ 4,900 on travel alone.  You won’t have much fun once you get to your destination with $ 100 in your pocket. Instead of spending most of your resources on travel, you should embrace the travel level you can use and focus on enjoying your destination instead.  I am not suggesting that you go to Mexico on a donkey, but maybe First Class with extras is not very smart if you are on a budget.

Second, I think that many people convince themselves that there is no real destination worth dreaming about anyway.  How sad for those who, consciously or not, come to believe that this life is all we have.  Knowing much better, we have no excuses to ignore or deny that we are indeed going somewhere eternally of our own earthly choosing.  Lastly, many of us lose sight of our destination because we do not keep our eyes, minds, hearts, and souls on it.  If we spend most of our time focused on our present trek without looking at where we are headed, we may not end up where we originally intended to go.

Ingredients to The Ultimate Dish

When we cook or bake something, we go out and get the right ingredients and put them together as dictated in a recipe to end up with the desired dish.  In order to do this, we need to first buy the right ingredients and then put those ingredients together in the right way.  Nobody will suggest that we simply use any ingredients we have at home no matter what because we will not end up with the right dish.  Likewise, nobody suggests that we simply buy the right ingredients and throw them on a table because our desired dish must be prepared correctly using these ingredients in the right combination.

In the same way, we must determine what gifts God has given us and how we might combine them in the best way to serve and love God and others.  If we do this, we will have the correct recipe to end up with our desired result of eternal salvation. If we do not determine our ingredients or bother to put them together for God and others, we will never end up with our desired eternal result.

Conclusion

Joseph and Mary rode a donkey through treacherous areas on more than one occasion to go where God wanted them to go.  They trusted God and knew that He would guide them to the right place.  Similarly, we must accept whatever journey God provides us to the place that really matters- heaven.

2017  Gabriel Garnica

 

Embrace Your Inner Veronica

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We all know of Veronica as the brave woman who wiped Christ’s face on his way to Calvary.  Tradition holds that she was merely a pious woman of Jerusalem. gh Tradition also holds that her veil has gone through a long journey.   There is some debate whether or not the veil held in the Vatican as authentic is truly the original.  All of that, however, does not matter in the face ( pardon the pun) of what Veronica should represent for each of us.

Charity

First, Veronica’s action was based on a powerful desire of charity toward a suffering Christ. In that moment, her only concern was helping someone in need. If we want to follow Christ, we must likewise offer instinctual comfort to those in need, be it actual or in prayer.  Such instances will be welcome and necessary breaks in the self-celebration many of us call our lives.

Courage

There is no doubt that Veronica had to be very brave to do what she did.  She could have been struck, killed, or jailed for rendering aid to Christ, but she did not worry about that.  Following Christ today requires courage as well.  We must focus on Christ and block out the distractions of this world.

Clarity

It is clear that Veronica had no doubts or confusion about the importance of what she was doing.  She clearly knew what she was doing and why she wanted to do it.

Character

The final impression we receive of Veronica is that she was a person of high character.  She was clearly humble despite her bravery, faith, charity, and clarity. There is little mention of her anywhere except in the stations and such writings as those of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.  She did not act as she did for appearance, or for personal agendas.  When one acts out of charity, faith, trust, and total abandonment to God, there is no room for personal agendas, and one will act as a true, pure instrument of Our Lord.

Conclusion

St. Veronica is the patron saint of laundry workers and photographers and, given her story, this makes perfect sense.  She reminds us that Christ will leave his impression on our souls if we only offer ourselves in his service.  If we clean our spiritual laundry and offer God as clean a surface as we can on which to do His Will, He will surely render us living representations of His teaching, and what better role can one have than that?

Gabriel Garnica 2017

Faith and Gym Memberships

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The other day I was working out at my local gym when I began to notice the various types of participants around me.  One man was sitting at his weight station looking at his cell phone.  Another was shooting the breeze with two other guys who were standing near his exercise machine.  A few folks took longer to wipe down and wipe off their station than to exercise, lifting the weight three of four times and getting up.  A guy nearby lifted far more weight than he could handle, judging by the look of death on his tomato red face.  After a few lifts he had to stop.  A lady behind me lifted a very light weight something like 40 times and left.  There were a few folks who clearly knew what they were doing, applying proper weights and technique and the right reps and sets. However, for each effective exerciser there were ten who were clueless, oblivious, lazy, creative, or any combination of those latter traits.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that I have been each of those exercisers when it comes to practicing and applying my faith.  Sometimes I am more interested in my cell phone than in praying.  I can think of numerous times when it was distracted in church speaking to someone, or when I dropped into church seemingly as a drive by visitor.  There have been times when I lifted more commitment than I could handle and gave up soon thereafter. Other times, I have been quite proud of myself for lifting the lightest burden possible a million times, as if I had accomplished anything by the process.  For every time I have been focused and effective in prayer or meditation, there have been two where I was going through the motions.

We may ask why people sign up for gym memberships and then go through the motions or do not even show up to the gym.  We may wonder in awe at how folks can attend mass once a month or less and think that they are good Catholics just for doing that.  Truth be told,  we are all guilty of doing such things with our faith.  We act as if the beautiful faith that we  have been gifted is a permanent tattoo that we can just wear and that is all.

Like it or not, we have to actually practice what we believe and preach.  We have to make our faith a real meaningful part of our life, sort of a routine on steroids that we do because we feel it, not out of some mindless habit.  We have to help anyone who asks us to explain things, or who is reaching out in general to see if the Good Samaritan story is just a myth.  Perhaps we can use this Lent to make our faith more than a glorified gym membership.  I think we can if we try.

2017  Gabriel Garnica

Divine Mercy is All About Breaking Scripts

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What is Your Script?

As I started the current new year of teaching religious education I made the usual review of incoming students’ past behavior and other issues.  I was warned about one boy in particular who had past behavior issues.  When I spoke with the boy in class, he told me that he ” was always getting into trouble” and that ” That’s just how I am”.  It became clear to me that this boy had somehow developed the self-identity as a problem and that this label was the only one he knew how to embody. I confronted him and rejected that label, telling him in no uncertain terms that he would be one of my best students by the middle of the year, which he has become.  Two other boys are showing similar issues which I hope to resolve in a similar fashion by the end of the year in May.

As I thought about what happened with the first boy in the past 5 months, I realized that Our Lord’s Divine Mercy works in just the same way with us.  As weak, defective human beings who have fallen too many times to count in the past, we can consciously or subconsciously embrace the labels of being hopeless sinners not worth the effort.  Oh, we may play the game of going to confession and trying to be better, but deep inside we may very well have given up on ourselves.  One way or the other, we may see ourselves as some old car that we do not want to get rid of and keep fixing, expecting to eventually throw in the junk heap.

We All Need Repairs and Maintenance 

In that context, we may see Our Lord as the ultimate auto mechanic and Divine Mercy as the fundamental service guarantee.  As long as we care enough to keep bringing in our jalopy to confession in a sincere effort to keep it running as God wants it to run, Our Lord will keep helping us out.  We must bring the car in and we must sincerely want to fix it, however.  God will give us roadside assistance at times and by His discretion, but ultimately we have to bring our jalopy in for service.

Reading the Right Script

In a sense, we are all actors as Shakespeare so famously stated.  We choose our roles and our scripts in this life.  We can be the true follower of Christ and follow the script that goes with that.  On the contrary, most of us very often choose what we consider more interesting or juicy roles as villains, troublemakers, pretentiously self-obsessed snobs,  manipulators of people etc.  Sooner or later, however,  those latter roles will only lead us away from God and to the ultimate off-Broadway production of Dante’s Inferno.  Sometimes, we play such roles so much that we can typecast ourselves into oblivion.

Divine Mercy is the way to break that destructive pattern.  It allows us to break the scripts in our lives which prevent us from reaching out yet again to God when we need to.  The devil wants us to give up as Judas did, but we must love and seek God with such sincerity despite our imperfection that we are able to break out of the scripts that bind us.  Armed with this beautiful gift of Divine Mercy, then, we will always be given the opportunity to rewrite our life scripts.

2017  Gabriel Garnica

 

Following Christ : Relentless Love

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I have met many people who gave up trying to follow Our Lord simply because they felt that the effort was a hopeless cause.  Mired and paralyzed in their imperfection and inconsistency, these folks grew tired of falling far short of Christ Himself.  While I pray for them and often try to warmly invite them out of their funk, I realize that their folly is more common than one would like to admit.

Got That 80/20 Rule Wrong

I once read that salvation is 80% focusing on God and others and 20% focusing on oneself.  Certainly, we all need to undergo faith and practice self-reflection to make sure we are constantly improving ourselves in the eyes of God.  Just as surely, we all most spend most of our time focusing and serving God and others by putting our faith into action.

The problem with those who give up trying to follow Christ is that they have somehow flipped that 80/20 rule around.  Whether they realize it or not, they are spending most of their time worrying about themselves and too little time loving and serving God and others.  The greatest saints in history did not worry about themselves because they were too busy loving and caring for others and serving God.  Thus, the first step to following Christ is to focus on Christ and others and worrying less about yourself.

Relentless Love over Relentless Perfection

People always hear how perfect Christ was–and with good reason. However, that perfection was born out of the fact that He is all God and all human, while we are not.  Trying to be perfect as Christ is perfect is an exercise in frustration and failure.  Trapped in a society and world which defines failure as failing to reach some stated, pinpoint target is a prescription for unhappiness.

When we look at Christ, do we see His perfection as a case of relentless love over relentless “perfection”?  Our Lord is perfect because He loves perfectly.  We are not perfect because as fallible and weak humans we can only love imperfectly.  The key, however, is that our standard or target should not be perfect love but, rather, relentless love. Christ was able to love perfectly and relentlessly.  As mere humans, we are called to stick to the relentless part and do our best with the perfect part.

Simply put, imperfect love relentlessly and sincerely pursued and practiced will get us to heaven a lot faster than so-called perfect love insincerely and occasionally practiced.  Often, it is not how well we love but how much we try our best to love better that counts.  God knows that we are not perfect, but He wants us to love so much that our imperfection does not matter.

Conclusion

If being a Christian means following Christ, then being a Christian entails falling as Christ did yet relentlessly getting up again to keep trying as Christ did. While Our Lord never made a mistake, He did fall under the weight of His cross a few times.  We make plenty of mistakes and we fall under the weight of our crosses, real or created, all the time.  The key distinction and goal to be sought here is that we must love God and others so relentlessly that getting up and trying over and over to love and serve others, regardless of our falls, is the difference that matters.

2017   Gabriel Garnica