I recently finished a biography on St. Philip Neri and so enjoyed reading about the love he had for Jesus and the joy he radiated. It was so refreshing and inspiring to read about a man that on fire with love for Jesus. And it got me thinking that it’s been a long time since I felt that I was radiating Jesus’ love through me.
So lately I’ve really been trying to let Jesus’ love fill me up. And I don’t mean in an intellectual sort of way, but in that my-heart-is-overflowing and my-soul-is-glowing kind of way. The way I much imagine St. Philip experienced it. And the only way I’ve come anywhere close to getting present to Jesus’ love is through gratitude.
Jesus has done, and is doing so much for each one of us every second of every day that it is so easy to overlook it, to take it all for granted. It’s so easy to forget about the burning love He first had for us that drove Him to become man and suffer the Cross. It’s so easy to miss the extraordinary love that is found in the Eucharist. It’s so easy to ignore all the aids He has given to help us make it to Him in Heaven (the other sacraments, the Bible, so many graces, prayer, Mary’s guidance, our guardian angels, the list goes on and on…). If we were truly aware of all of that each day, it would be impossible to keep our love for Jesus inside!
There was a delightful story in the book that St. Philip was so in love with Jesus, that he often had to divert his attention before Mass so that he wouldn’t go into ecstasies while saying the Mass (his favorite diversion: a book of jokes – I kid you not!)! Can you imagine being so wildly in love with Jesus that you didn’t have to prepare yourself for Mass, and in fact, had to (umm?) unprepare yourself?
Such things may seem beyond the realm of possibility for us, but Jesus is calling you and me both to sainthood. He’s calling us to be on fire for love of Him and to share that love with the world. So it is my prayer that tomorrow before we start our mornings, we can really get present to the unbounded love Jesus has for us, let it fill us up, and then share it with everyone around us.
Since St. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the greatest of all theologians, is honored today, it seemed poignant to write about him. But truly, who could do his work and its enormous impact justice?
Instead, better to let you reflect on his love for God through a prayer he wrote:
Loving God, who sees in us nothing that you have not given yourself,
make my body healthy and agile,
my mind sharp and clear,
my heart joyful and contented,
my soul faithful and loving.
And surround me with the company of men and angels who share my devotion to you.
Above all let me live in your presence, for with you all fear is banished, and there is only harmony and peace.
Let every day combine the beauty of spring,
the brightness of summer,
the abundance of autumn,
and the repose of winter.
And at the end of my life on earth,
grant that I may come to see and know you in the fullness of your glory. Amen.
Amen!!
William Law has said that the only reason we aren’t saints is because we don’t really want to be. How’s that for some cold, hard analysis? And while perhaps the gut reaction is to say he’s being unreasonable, there is truth in it.
After all, being a saint is all about one’s relationship with God. It’s easy to say we trust God, but it isn’t always easy to do. It’s easy to say we want to be saints, but are we really willing to pay the costs? To die to all of our wants and desires? To trust that everything we’ll be giving up will be more than we’ll receive? Every Christian trusts God to a certain extent, but to trust Him all the way can seem too much. There’s a point where fear kicks in and says, “Whoa, easy there. That’s taking it a little too far! Being a little too fanatical! A little too zealous!”
And so doubts creeps in – doubt about whether we can trust God. Ironically, God is somewhat at a disadvantage because it’s the unknown versus the known. We have an idea of what He promises in big, sort of generic terms, but we know in hard details what we’ll be giving up. We can imagine what we’ll be getting, but we know all the experiences we’ll be forgoing (and while sin ultimately hurts us, there is a certain comfort, a kind of perverse pleasure in it).
The average person would probably say it’s not a fair trade. In fact, so would the saint. And yet they would reach different conclusions about which is the better side.
As for me, I know I’m afraid. I’m afraid to go all in, to surrender completey. I’m even afraid to honestly look at why I’m afraid. But every day I pray that God will chip away at that fear and make me more into the person He wants me to be. I know He’ll change me because in so many ways He already has. I just have to keep letting Him. What about you? Will you let Him?
It was Mother Teresa who said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” And yet this seems to go completely against human nature. We don’t want to do small things. We want to do big things! Huge things!
I don’t know if it’s our pride or our compassion (or some combination of the two) but little things don’t seem to cut it. It’s almost as though the small things aren’t worth it, that they don’t make a “big enough” difference. We all want to change the world, but how many of us believe we can? We think in terms of the big picture, in terms of big things, and suddenly the desire for big change is overwhelmed by the size of the effort and resources and (insert your favorite obstacle here) that would be required. And sadly, most of the time, we are either paralyzed or demoralized into doing nothing.
Mother Teresa had it right (I know, hardly a shocker) – we must do small things. We must overcome the thoughts that tell us not to bother, or that it won’t matter and fight the small battles. Jesus did. We (naturally) tend to think of Jesus as rising from the dead and performing miracles, but He did millions of small things that we can look to as hope and/or inspiration when we need it.
Remember that Jesus spent 30 years in the small town of Nazareth. I can guarantee you two things. One, that He did lots of small things there. And two, that He did them all with great love. Picking up supplies for His carpentry work, going to the market, hundreds of small acts to make life easier for Mary and Joseph – there are so many things He did not fit for the Redeemer of the world! But He did them anyway, and He did them with great love. May this thought inspire us to live our lives doing the small things, since after all, “to God there is nothing small.”
If you liked this post – enter your e-mail to the right and subscribe to the blog!
Christian Living, The Saints | admin | 
September 1, 2010 9:35 pm | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe