Wiring Our Souls For God
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you”
In today’s Gospel (John 15:9-17) we are reminded of God’s unconditional love for us as well as our obligation as authentic Catholics to emulate this love by in turn loving our neighbor as ourselves.
How do we remain in Jesus’ love? We accomplish this by keeping His commandments, and Jesus reminds us that in keeping His commandments, His joy will be in us. Joy can be found in God alone; our souls are wired for God, eternal joy our ultimate destiny.
In a world which preaches the unbridled pursuit of one‘s own personal pleasure and enjoyment as the roadmap to self-fulfillment and self-actualization, this notion of abiding by a set of very exacting and unambiguous laws can run counter to the aforementioned secular message, so much so that the very act of surrendering one’s self to God is a tremendous act of faith in and of itself.
But within God’s Commandments resides the truth, and nowhere has the saying “the truth shall set you free” ever been more poignant then when one dedicates one’s self to the pursuit of God’s Commandments, rooted not only in the everlasting truth but sealed with the Blood of the Lamb in the ultimate act of selfless and pure love. Abandoning the Commandments plunges one into slavery, beholden to vice and disordered affections. Never in the history of our world has this been more prevalent.
Jesus in fact chooses all of us from the world, to go and bear the fruit that will last. It’s in answering this call amidst the many roadblocks, distractions, temptations and setbacks that we come to understand the truth within ourselves, for the truth is in fact written on our hearts. He will not abandon us, for His love endures forever.
As our Church pauses to celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Matthias, Apostle and Martyr https://discover.hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/Saint-Matthias-So-Much-More-Than-Trivial, we are reminded of those who came before us, those who “set the table“ so to speak. This too is our calling; to go out and bear fruit...fruit that will last (John 15:16).
Saint Matthias, pray for us!