Aug. 14, 2022: 20th Sunday C
Aug. 14, 2022: 20th Sunday C
This kind of fire of Jesus yearned to set on earth can come upon our lives unexpectedly as it did for Mr. Lopez. Mr. Lopez was only 30 years old when shrapnel from a munition explosion shattered his knees. He was laid up on a bed for months of rehab. Unfortunately, there was no TV, DVD player, radio, Internet, or smartphone to pass time in the facility. There were only a few books on hand, and very uninteresting ones at that. There were only two genres of books available in the facility: romance novels and books on saints. While romance novels weren’t his first choice, they seemed at the outset, more appealing than Christian books.
A funny thing happened when he read those books.The romance novels prompted daydreams which were pleasant at first, but those pleasant feelings were quickly replaced by dryness and emptiness which left him dissipated and divided inside. However, when he read books on the life of Christ and the saints, he daydreamed about becoming a great saint. He felt his interior faculties becoming united; he felt uplifted and the inspiring feelings never left him. Through paying close attention to his mental and emotional reactions to these two very different kinds of daydreams, Mr. Lopez came to see the world and all things new through the lens of gospel values. Mr. Lopez learned that there is a distinction between a daydream inspired by a spirit not of God versus a daydream inspired by the Holy Spirit. He came to see that the spirit not of God–such as prideful vainglory, self-indulgence, complacency, easy concessions, excuses, and self-contentment–tore him away from his deepest desire to be a saint. Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit inflamed him with desires to be something more and to live for something greater than himself. Many of us now know Inigo Lopez as St. Ignatius of Loyola, a saint who gave the Church the gift of discernment of spirits and the Spiritual Exercises.
Jesus said openly and frequently that those who love and follow him will experience divisions and misunderstandings within their own families, friends, and community. A close and faithful relationship to Jesus will influence all our other relationships in terms of values and priorities. Our sudden or unexpected life experiences, too, can be an opportunity to renew our trust and love in Christ, to shake us out of our status quo and self-contentment. As someone said, “When life knocks you sideways, sometimes it’s the beginning of something new, something that takes you completely by surprise… Our hurts can be the places where we start to grow. One day you may look back with gratitude to an unwelcome event in our lives.” Difficult times can draw us closer to God, that when some of the external, superficial things that we rely on are stripped away, God is more able to speak to our hearts.
Jesus desires to set a fire of love in our hearts that will burn up our attachments to possessions and desires contrary to God’s will. When our love is for the world, our likes and dislikes sway us and divide us from within. Jesus has not come to endorse a deficient peace of our own making. Rather, he came to set our hearts on fire for the love of the Father. St. Clare of Assisi said, “Our labor here [on earth] is brief, but the reward is eternal. Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world, which passes like a shadow. Do not let false delights of a deceptive world deceive you…[How] happy [is] the soul to whom it is given to attain this life with Christ, to cleave with all one’s heart to [Christ].”
Are we experiencing a spirit not of God with signs of dryness and emptiness? Or do we feel uplifted and inspired by the Holy Spirit? What distractions in our lives do we cling onto now as solutions that aren’t healthy? Grace is needed, and we need to till our spiritual ground by consenting to the long, hard work of pruning our will in such a way that we are open to maturity. Attending retreats at Manresa, Cenacle, Grand Coteau, and ACTS help us step out of the busyness of our lives and are wonderful ways to hear God’s loving voice for us. Participating in theological formation programs such as That Man Is You, Dr. Brant Pitre’s Mass Readings Explained, Fr. Mike Schmidt’s Bible In A Year, listening to Catholic Radio, and Catholic podcasts help to transform our minds to be receptive to God’s reality. Make a simple request to the Father for the wisdom to follow His will. And, “prefer the [Father’s] advice to the advice of others and consider it more precious to you than any gift.” (St. Clare of Assisi)
