We always seem to have this great need to want to be in total control, don't we? It is a distinctively human preoccupation. There is no greater need for this than during this period in time, when things and events are running out of control and people and world leaders running all over the place to seek answers and solution to the current world's ills. The more control and tighter rules, the better. To some extent, that may be needed, especially to curb our excessiveness and arrogance.
But what about control within the day-to-day living, namely the active state where we are generally in control of our normal lives and busy doing and going about our 'busyness' looking after our families and work or engaging in any other responsibilities within our scope of capabilities? What happens when that control is suddenly taken away from us and we no longer 'call the shots'?
I once had a conversation over lunch with another priest friend about my concern on how the Church is being harassed, 'persecuted' and not given its due respect these days and how the general concensus of what the Pope says concerning certain difficult matters on morals as been slighted, ignored or misunderstood. My friend then said something that struck me like a thunderbolt: "You are not thinking like God does".
Sure, the Church and her members are facing some of the harshest attacks the world has mounted in recent years, but that doesn't mean we are left beaten and lost and the end of the story for all of us. It is in this situation, that the Passion of Christ becomes a significant 'template', as it were, to use in approaching on the direction we should a
ll move. Our God is not a silent God who leaves us on our own. He is in control and He will certainly have the final word. Meanwhile, as we do our part to make the world a better place for all, we must also respect the area of God's work where He will do His Part. Jesus, the Son of God, knew his Father explicitly that he faced his eventual death with a passiveness that made the soldier by the cross later to utter, "Surely, this is the Son of God!" (Mt 27: 54, Lk 23: 47, Mk 15: 38)
For all the activity that we can or should do, we must also allow, for an eventual point in time where we cannot do anything anymore. At that time, God takes over.
It may be about the Church or it may just be someting simple as with our own lives when we begin to lose our faculties and face the eventual end. To understand the Passion through the passivity of Jesus as given in the celebration of Good Friday today would bring us a long way to our understanding of letting go when the time comes. For all that is worth, I believe our Holy Father understands all this and continues on his way to be the sign of contradiction, that Jesus himself was, in the world today.
(update: the people of L'Aquila buried their dead today. We pray for those who have died and that God in his own mysterious ways will enfold and bring them into his kingdom of light and love)
But what about control within the day-to-day living, namely the active state where we are generally in control of our normal lives and busy doing and going about our 'busyness' looking after our families and work or engaging in any other responsibilities within our scope of capabilities? What happens when that control is suddenly taken away from us and we no longer 'call the shots'?
I once had a conversation over lunch with another priest friend about my concern on how the Church is being harassed, 'persecuted' and not given its due respect these days and how the general concensus of what the Pope says concerning certain difficult matters on morals as been slighted, ignored or misunderstood. My friend then said something that struck me like a thunderbolt: "You are not thinking like God does".
Sure, the Church and her members are facing some of the harshest attacks the world has mounted in recent years, but that doesn't mean we are left beaten and lost and the end of the story for all of us. It is in this situation, that the Passion of Christ becomes a significant 'template', as it were, to use in approaching on the direction we should a
ll move. Our God is not a silent God who leaves us on our own. He is in control and He will certainly have the final word. Meanwhile, as we do our part to make the world a better place for all, we must also respect the area of God's work where He will do His Part. Jesus, the Son of God, knew his Father explicitly that he faced his eventual death with a passiveness that made the soldier by the cross later to utter, "Surely, this is the Son of God!" (Mt 27: 54, Lk 23: 47, Mk 15: 38)For all the activity that we can or should do, we must also allow, for an eventual point in time where we cannot do anything anymore. At that time, God takes over.
It may be about the Church or it may just be someting simple as with our own lives when we begin to lose our faculties and face the eventual end. To understand the Passion through the passivity of Jesus as given in the celebration of Good Friday today would bring us a long way to our understanding of letting go when the time comes. For all that is worth, I believe our Holy Father understands all this and continues on his way to be the sign of contradiction, that Jesus himself was, in the world today.
(update: the people of L'Aquila buried their dead today. We pray for those who have died and that God in his own mysterious ways will enfold and bring them into his kingdom of light and love)
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