I know I have everything I need. And yet humanly I still sometimes think I need more –more things to possess, more places to see, and more time to do it—whatever “it” is. Therefore I struggle internally with my personal desires, forgetting to be thankful, and to enjoy, not only all that I have, but all that God has promised.
And
if you are reading this, you too have everything you need—food, shelter and if
you desire and ask, God’s love. For if you have internet and email you also
have a roof over your head and food on your table. And we all have God, who is
Love, if we have faith in His presence and belief in His forgiveness.
But
knowing that doesn’t mean we won’t still “want” more.
Yet
we don’t need more, as much as we are MADE FOR MORE.
“The
world would be better off if people tried to become better. And people would
become better if they stopped trying to be better off.” Peter Maurin (Together with Dorothy
Day, Maurin helped found the Catholic Worker Movement who’s mission it is to
provide food, clothing, shelter and sometimes work, in 185 cities around the
world with very little administration, because of their faith.)
Jesus
told his apostles (and us) to pack light: “He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick-- no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.” Mk 6: 8
Can we leave all the earthly behind and trust that He
will provide for all of our needs, both earthly AND heavenly?
Our lives here on earth must be “made for more.” And in
order to be more, God must be our “more!”
So by praying His famous prayer, we have been promised
everything here on earth: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Mt 6: 11
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the
heavens” Eph 1: 3 May we never want “more” here on earth, help us to be
satisfied. Thank you for every “more” that I have, especially Your wisdom and
awe in my life. Help me only to want more of you here on earth, for my own
spiritual fulfillment and the fulfillment of others, so that I may reach my
promised destiny of heaven. Amen.
I recently made reference to the evils of “socialism.” I
believe social justice is a balance between being able to speak AND LIVE our
faith and physically survive in this world.” And I believe without freedom of
religion we will not be able to physically survive here on earth—because I
think it is more important to survive in heaven than it is to survive on earth.
(See CCC 2425, 2426)
I would urge you, therefore, to read
the following as it can be said no better scripturally than through the
Catechism of the Catholic Church: (my “emphasis” would be the “short
version”). (Paragraph #’s are in Bold,
the annotations are the Scripture references below. This will also link to the
Catholic/Christian definition of “socialism,” referred to above, CCC 2425,
2426) www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church
. (Section 7, Chapter 3, Article 3, Sub-section IV)
2830 “Our bread”: The Father
who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life requires—all appropriate
goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that
cooperates with our Father’s providence.115 He is not inviting us to idleness,116 but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and
preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God: (2633,
227)
To those who seek the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since
everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing, if he
himself is not found wanting before God.117
2831 But the presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up
another profound meaning of this petition. The drama of hunger in the world
calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their
brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the
human family. This petition of the Lord’s Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables
of the poor man Lazarus and of the Last Judgment.118 (1038)
2832 As leaven in the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth
“rise” by the Spirit of Christ.119 This must be shown by the establishment of
justice in personal and social, economic and international relations, without
ever forgetting that there are no
just structures without people who want to be just. (1928)
2833 “Our” bread is the “one” loaf for the “many.” In the Beatitudes “poverty”
is the virtue of sharing: it calls us to communicate and share both material
and spiritual goods, not by coercion
but out of love, so that the abundance of some may remedy the needs of
others.120 (2790,
2546)
2834 “Pray and work.”121 “Pray as if everything depended on God and
work as if everything depended on you.”122 Even when we have done our work, the food we
receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it and to
thank him, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals. (2428)
2835 This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to
another hunger from which men are perishing: “Man does not live by bread alone, but... by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God,”123 that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit
he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort “to proclaim the good news
to the poor.” There is a famine on earth, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words
of the LORD.”124 For this reason the specifically Christian
sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: The Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the
Eucharist.125 (2443,
1384)
2836 “This day” is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord,126 which we would never have presumed to invent.
Since it refers above all to his Word and to the Body of his Son, this “today”
is not only that of our mortal time, but also the “today” of God. (1165)
If you receive the bread each day, each day is today for you. If Christ is
yours today, he rises for you every day. How can this be? “You are my Son,
today I have begotten you.” Therefore, “today”
is when Christ rises.127
2837 “Daily” (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the
New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition
of “this day,”128 to confirm us in trust “without reservation.”
Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and
more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence.129 Taken literally (epi-ousios: “super-essential”), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the
“medicine of immortality,” without which we have no life within us.130 Finally in this connection, its heavenly
meaning is evident: “this day” is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of
the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the
kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to
be celebrated each day. (2659,
2633,
1405,
1166,
1389)
The Eucharist is our
daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its
effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made
members of him, we may become what we receive.... This also is our daily
bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and
sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.131
The Father in heaven urges us, as
children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the
bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion,
baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes
the faithful each day with food from heaven.132
115 Mt 6:25-34;116 2 Thess 3:6-13; 117 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat.
21: PL 4, 534A;118 Lk 16:19-31; Mt
25:31-46;119 AA 5; 120 2 Cor 8:1-15; 121St. Benedict, Regula, 20, 48; 122 Attributed to St. Ignatius Loyola,
cf. Joseph de Guibert, SJ, The Jesuits: Their Spiritual Doctrine and
Practice, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1964), 148, n. 55; 123 Deut 8:3; Mt 4:4; 124 Am 8:11; 125 Jn 6:26-58; 126 Mt 6:34; Ex 16:19; 127 St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 5, 4,
26: PL 16, 453A; Ps 2:7; 128 Ex 16:19-21; 129 1 Tim 6:8; 130 St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Eph.
20, 2: PG 5, 661; Jn 6:53-56; 131 St. Augustine, Sermo 57, 7:
PL 38, 389’; 132 St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermo
67: PL 52, 392; Jn 6:51. www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church
May you be blessed
with God’s “more” this week,
In Christ,
Charlotte
No comments:
Post a Comment