Archived Article: This Transitory Life

(This article was printed in the August 16, 2009 edition of SpiritAlive! and was seen by the brothers at that point.) The life we live, brothers, is the life of those longing, pushing, hoping, and praying to be fully born into Glory. As I sit in the quietness of this day and look about me, there is nothing I see that is not passing away; there is nothing I see that I cannot do without; everything around me – save the precious souls the Lord has graciously placed in my life – is worthless. “In the end,” Saint Paul reminds us, “there are only three things that last – faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.” If that’s true – and I know it is – then my whole life has to change. I have to stop thinking of what I want, and start thinking about what God wants. Why God? Because “God is love.” Because “our lives are hidden with God in Christ Jesus.” Because “our hope is in the Name of the Lord.” I have discovered, often very bitterly, over the past few years that what I lack – what is withheld from me or taken from me – is often the very thing that would have hindered my understanding of God’s love. In fact, when the truth is told, the very experience of being ‘deprived’ of something brings me closer to the heart of God. The act of willingly surrendering to deprivation and suffering – which certainly is not something we seek in and of itself – is the very means by which we come to understand the deprivation and suffering of our Lord Jesus. It’s also the means by which we are joined to Christ in his sufferings, that we might be raised with him into glory. I have learned to think of this transitory life in the following manner: This world in which we live is but a womb. Those who want nothing to do with God and his call in their life are like those who really don’t care about seeing the world outside the womb. They have made the womb, rather than the life beyond it, their home. In so doing, they are failing to develop the requirements for life beyond the womb. When their time comes to be born, they are like the baby that is still-born – dead at the moment of birth. Such people are lost eternally when they leave the womb of this earthly life. For those of us who say “Yes” to Jesus while we are still in the womb of this earthly life, we are more or less developing and growing like a healthy baby. From the moment we say our “Yes” to Jesus, we begin growing and moving – hopefully and confidently – toward the birth canal. To the extent that we desire to see the world beyond the womb – the world that God is promising to us – we begin to look at the womb as nothing more than a place of pilgrimage. It’s no longer our home, our haven, or our ‘heaven’. But sometimes, because we get wrapped up in the gift of the womb that God has provided for us, we forget that our focus is to be on the Giver, not the gift – especially not a gift intended only to be ‘life-support’ for our journey toward real life. I have heard estimates from various followers of Jesus claiming that anywhere from 50% to 90% of all Christians have fallen into the trap of loving the gift more than the Giver, the womb more than the life beyond the womb. I would believe it – I’ve done it. Having done it, I’ve had to repent of it. Having repented of it, I have to continually be vigilant against it. This life – with all its beauty, joy, sorrow, and emotion – is not the end of the road for me. But neither is it meaningless. As I grow in the things of God, I learn to give him ever greater glory for what he’s done and how he’s done it. I’ve learned to proclaim, “how great thou art!”; to humbly sing, “I surrender all”; and to understand what it means to “rescue the perishing.” Brothers, we have been called together, not by the actions or thoughts of men, but by the love and desire of God. We have been called together to see and understand our lives for what they are – for what God intended them to be. Even as we begin to develop in this womb of life and move confidently toward our birth into God’s amazing glory, we learn to say “I love you” in a way that’s totally foreign to the world around us. We learn to say it in the way Jesus said it – and still says it. We learn to say “I love you” by the surrender of our lives, our desires, and our selfishness. When people who know and love Jesus say “I love you”, what they’re really saying is “Come with me, don’t get stuck here, there’s glory waiting!” In fact, it’s through that kind of love – that self-giving and sacrificial love – that we begin to see a glimpse of glory here in the womb of life. We see it when we worship. We see it when we welcome someone who’s been ripped apart by the circumstances of life. We see it when we say “Jesus, I love you more than all of this.” Most of all, we see it in the eyes of a brother or sister who finally realizes that they’ve never experienced real love until they’ve looked into the eyes of Jesus and heard his promise of welcome. Brothers, there are three ways in which we can experience and share the love of Jesus. First, we can commit ourselves to the vocation (work) of prayer. We have time on our hands. To say it a another way: Unlike the world beyond these walls we are keenly aware of what it means to be in a womb, waiting to be born. Since God never wastes an opportunity, neither should we. WE CAN PRAY – and we can do it without ceasing. That's something the busy and misguided world beyond these walls often will not do. Second, we can experience and share the love of Jesus by committing ourselves to the vocation of worship. Worship is both work and mindset. It is work in the sense that it is the supreme sacrifice we can offer the Lord. It is our saying to him “You’re more important than TV, sleeping in, or anything else that enters my mind.” It is a mindset in the sense that whatever we worship becomes supremely important to us – it becomes, if you will, our god. Brothers, let God be our god and let us share him with the world! Finally, we can experience and share the love of Jesus – true Charity – by giving of ourselves for the needs of others. Our options are limited for doing so in this place. But may I suggest that until we learn the primacy of prayer and worship in the life of a believer, we will never be able to deny ourselves and share in other ways – not even when we move beyond these walls. Brothers, our care for the lost and those who are struggling to grow in Christ must begin on our knees – both in private times of prayer (the Daily Office) and in the Mass. I suspect that you have come to Mass today, or are reading this, because God is calling you and because a brother in Christ has cared enough to share his vision of life beyond the womb with you. I urge you, with all that’s in me, to “seek the Lord while he wills to be found.” God bless you, brothers, as you worship today, pray throughout this week, and share the Charity – love – of Jesus with hungry souls! Father Todd Boyce, Vicar The Fellowship of Saint Joseph Sunday, August 16, 2009