Benedicamus Domino!
In my last post, I spoke about praying with boldness and how it has to do with knowing ourselves to be weak but relying on God's strength to take that weakness and transfigure it, and I also touched on what it is to offer oneself to God, even leaving aside one's talents, time, labours and skills. As it happened, just after that post was published, a very apt quotation came across my Twitter feed, again from C. S. Lewis. He writes: "Christ says. 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your time, money, and work. I want YOU.'"
It is a temptation to clothe oneself in good works, to tithe to one's church and to give to the poor, and even to volunteer at the local soup kitchen, and thereby to feel that one is doing 'one's Christian duty.' Indeed, these are valid and helpful ways to spend our time, but are they 'our Christian duty?' I think that they should be some of the fruits of our true Christian duty, which is simply and solely a moment-by-moment offering of ourselves to God.
So, how do we accomplish this seemingly lofty goal? Isn't it only the saints who can truly offer themselves to God? How can God really want us if we are lazy or selfish or angry or sad or jealous? Shouldn't we be doing something to make ourselves fit to be loved by Him?
The answer to these questions is simple. The fact is that God sent His Son to help us to change, and He expects us to offer ourselves, including our egos which make life so difficult for us, to Him as we are, and it is this offering which allows Him to work in our lives to change us for the better and to prepare us for another, deeper life after this one. First, however, we must allow Him to let us make our lives deeper on this side of the grave. This is why the saints are saints. They have allowed themselves to be deepened and changed by God and have let their egos stand aside in favour of God's love working in them.
I have often asked myself what it means to love God. We are told to "love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength" in several places in Scripture. Still, what does this mean? It can't mean simply a feeling of affinity or friendship, because there's no way for us to feel akin to God in our current state of being. I mean, if we did have that feeling, we would descend into the depths of pride and lust for power and it would be difficult for us to turn back from that path. It wouldn't be impossible, but it would be difficult. So, while a lot of human love has to do with affinity and friendship, is that truly what it is to love?
One thing that Christ did when He came to us was to show us the meaning of love, and He did that in the garden after the last supper. First, he asked God to take the crucifiction away from Him, but then He offered Himself, saying: "Thy Will be done." In showing us this, He showed the conflict between the ego and the true self, the human and the divine wills, which are--in a sense--struggling for mastery in each of us. Love is about offering, about giving of the self, and loving God is about giving the self to Him and letting Him give Himself to us. This can only be done when we begin to know ourselves and to realize that we need to be changed by One greater than ourselves. He truly wants us, warts and all, and until we can accept this amazing kind of love, all the good works in the world will not truly accomplish the change which God wishes us to experience.
There is much more that could be said on this subject, but I think we'll leave it there for now. Till next time!
Deo Gratias!
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