To Whom Much is Given Much is Required

"Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more." Luke 12:48b

Many attribute this teaching of Christ's to apply to our shepherds, our priests, our bishops, our cardinals, and our Pope.  In fact the pastor who preached the homily at the Mass I participated in last night, said that verse scares him more than the Last Judgment passage that was the subject of yesterday's Gospel.  The parable of the steward precedes these statements, and the last part "to whom men commit much", seems to support that interpretation.
I am not going to debate that point, yet, I think it applies to all of us.  The "every one" part tells me that.

I think it is important to read the verse in context, after praying humbly in our hearts for the Holy Spirit to illuminate our understanding.

Here is the verse in context:

"And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating.  But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating.  Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.  I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled" Luke 12:47-49

Those of us who know we have received faith, knowledge of God, God's love, mercy, forgiveness, blessings, and some--even mystical experiences of his presence, do need to make ready and act according to his will.

As I wrote before, I think that God's will is summarized succinctly in Christ's response to the scribe that was seeking the truth about Jesus, and not to trip him up to improve his standing.  

"Jesus answered, 'The first is "Hear O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."  The second is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  There is no commandment greater than these.'" Mark 12:29-31

We know from the saints that those that love God, seek actively to cooperate with the grace of God to pray, and lead others through their prayers, sacrifices, words and deeds to Jesus.

Some see the way to do this by living a life of virtue, and speaking in uncompromising way the truths of the church in face of all opposition.  Sometimes we see this in the online discourse.  
I belong to a Catholic Professionals group on Linked In.  There was a post called "Is Catholicism an 'All or None' Proposition?"  The initial post and comments were answering in the affirmative.  Then it took a turn due to the comments by a woman who was "cafeteria catholic" at one point, until she was reached by Jesus, who she describes as finding his lost lamb, and she gives much credit to St. Therese and Our Lady.

I have been learning much lately that even if we find it easy to believe, and obey the teaching of the Church, there is a way of reaching out and supporting those still on the way that is more aligned with Christ's will, and more defeating of the schemes of the adversary to impede that path.  That is simply to follow Christ's commands above.

"Some people making cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing."  Proverbs 12:18

Quote from someone who converted to Catholicism, "Leftism was so ingrained into every element of my life, if you read, if you go to college, if you watch TV the messages are so pervasive and powerful and repetitive. They always say 'leftism is good and compassionate, conservatism is evil and repressive' and they say it in so many ways, under so many guises, telling so many versions of the same story in which the poor, innocent woman/person of colour/gay person/progressive thinker is victimized/oppressed/violated/ by the forces of conservatism. To believe otherwise is to risk crossing over to the evil side. They believe they have the monopoly on compassion and if you oppose them, you oppose compassion and goodness itself.

It was only from the intercession of the Holy Spirit, who skewered me right through the heart like St. Teresa, that I became willing to let go of all of that programming and accept Christ as He was, and the Church as it was. But it was a slow and painful process."

I don't want to be an obstacle to the work the Father is doing to draw these lambs to his Son. I want through my prayers, actions, and words to show sensitivity, love, and compassion that negates the leftist propaganda so I am not in conflict to what the Church, and its head, Our Lord Jesus, taught us about loving and showing compassion, using the Good Samaritan as our example.

As recently as a week ago I realized how insensitive and hurtful my words were when they were coming from understanding of the moral teaching of the church, but detached from the work of love in my heart.  I have been given much, and much is expected from one that has been loved and given as much as I have received.  I was not speaking from the love kindled in my heart from the flames of love emanating from Jesus's Sacred Heart.

What I didn't realize was that when I was speaking in that way, I was playing into the image that conservatism is close-minded, lacking in compassion, ignorant and uncaring of the suffering of others.  I also was speaking from pride rather than from love.  I was not seeking to understand or to console as St. Francis prayed.

Here are some scriptures that the Holy Spirit directed across my path while I was learning this lesson.  I hope they will benefit you, and bring great glory to our King, as you seek to serve the Lord by loving as you have been loved.

Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them."  Luke 11:46

"So now I am giving you a new commandment, Love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other."  John 13:34

No one has ever seen God.  But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 1 John 4:12

How can we show that God lives in us, and how can we bring his love to full expression so that we are used by God to love and lead others to his Son?  I think the answer is in these two verses among others:

• He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.  Psalm 147:3
• I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.  Isaiah 57:15

If we engage in debate from position of pride and desire to win with better logic, or emotional persuasion that isn't rooted in really loving the other we are missing the chance to let his healing reach the brokenhearted.  God wants to restore the crushed spirit and revive the courage of those who know that they are apart from him, and really want to have a restored and fulfilling personal relationship with him again.

Only if we act in faith and love, rather than pride and cold logic can we cooperate with God's will.  He wants what Paul prayed:

And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  Ephesians 3:18

Sometimes we use words that are not abrasive to us that are on the comfortable, right side of church teaching.  We sometimes forget that if it were not for the work of grace, and the prayers of family, friends, and the saints, we might have some of the wounds borne by those we are to love with the love and mercy we have received.

Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.  Romans 12:18

Don't use foul or abusive language.  Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.  Ephesians 4:29

We may use language, or act in a cold, "too bad for you" manner that shows we are not heeding these piercing (at least for me) words of St. John:

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.  Yet I am writing you a new commandment, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.  He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still.  He who loves his brother abides in the light, and in it there is no cause for stumbling.  1 John 7-10

In this upcoming election season, the liberals are going to be more vocal and more cooperative with the adversary in trying to portray things we know to be contrary to the teachings of the church as wrong, and that in our consciences formed by the light of the Holy Spirit and the gift of receiving true moral teaching, as sin, evil, and destructive.  How will we help draw our brother into the light.  By a cutting remark (see above Proverbs 12:18), or by praying to the Holy Spirit for help to understand and console, and bring them to his Word and to his Church for healing and strength from the great sacraments of Confession and the Holy Eucharist.

And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.  1 Thessalonians 3:12

Don't just pretend to love others.  Really love them.  Hate what is wrong.  Hold tightly to what is good.  Romans 12:9

There are 'friends' who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.  Proverbs 18:24

 

The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.  Proverbs 27:9

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Ephesians 5:1

Our people must learn to do good by meeting the urgent needs of others; then they will not be unproductive.  Titus 3:14

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  1 Corinthians 13:7

God is Love and God Loves Me

"In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

"God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)

It is Sunday and as Sunday is the beginning of a new week, and the first day of the rest of our lives, thought it would be good to post on the most foundational truth we need to absorb, and believe with all of our hearts.

Christopher O'Donnell, in Life In The Spirit and Mary wrote:

The fundamental truth of God's personal love for each one of us is a necessary foundation for any spiritual growth whether a person is enmeshed in sin or growing in higher states of prayer, it will be a necessary support for advancement.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father . . . " (James 1:17a)

We know this is true that all the gifts we have, from existence, free will, our families, the gift of faith, hope, and also even the obstacles to faith and hope are gifts coming down from the Father.  The obstacles aren't always what we would call good and perfect, but they too are gifts.

Sometimes we are dealt a blow, and usually it is a series of blows in life that clouds us to the most beautiful of all realities, God is Love, and God Loves Me.

Today, hear God telling you, "I love you, (insert your name here).  You know this is true, but do you really understand it?  Ask me to help you understand it."

Pope Benedict XVI wrote two of the most beautiful paragraphs in print on this most essential truth of our existence, our past, our present, and our future in the Introduction to his Encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love):

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”.

We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. Saint John's Gospel describes that event in these words: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should ... have eternal life” (3:16). In acknowledging the centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel's faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth. The pious Jew prayed daily the words of the Book of Deuteronomy which expressed the heart of his existence: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might” (6:4-5). Jesus united into a single precept this commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbor found in the Book of Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18; cf. Mk 12:29-31). Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.

If I really believe and rejoice in this personal love of God for me, it is motivating.  I want to show God's love, God's goodness, Christ's meekness and strength to those connected to my life.  

We who have been grasped by the love of God in the person of Christ Jesus, Our King, want to respond by cooperating with the grace and work of the Holy Spirit in us to draw others to Him.

How has the truth that God is Love and God loves You been the starting point for a new life in the Holy Spirit, where you are filled with joy to say, "Jesus is Lord"?

If you don't yet have that joy in your heart, and you can't seem to believe in this truth, what is in your way?

When Jesus taught the crowds, and when he talked to individuals we read how his teaching and his presence makes a deep impression on them.  Many times crowds forgot about the essentials of food to stay and hear him teach.  We read about some cutting a hole through the roof of where he was so they could get their paralyzed friend to him to be healed.  Miraculous conversions occurred, like we hear in the conversion of Zacchaeus.  The Gospels are filled with people either coming to Jesus or him coming to them, for example the woman at the well, and they are not the same afterwards.

Fr. Bartunek had a great take on this:

"Whether we realize it or not, in our hearts we yearn for God, and so when we come into contact with someone close to God, our hearts are moved.  When the crowds came into contact with Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, their hearts burst with astonished joy."

Part of that explains why it is so easy to love Mary!  She is so close to God, our hearts are moved!  It is also why I can read some of your blog posts and comments and my heart is moved.  You are writing out of hearts that are filled with God, and in response to the love you have been shown.

For those of you that rejoice that God is love and God loves you personally, I hope you will be encouraged in your calling to continue spreading that love and your gift of faith in all the ways God provides you the opportunity.

For those who want to believe, consider that if you are looking to be reassured of God's love, it is really in response to him reaching out to you.  Also please consider that not once in the Gospels was there a person that turned to Jesus, that he did not help.

Jesus always wills to HEAL us.  Some of us may need physical cures, or want physical cures for others.  This may or may not be willed.  This isn't always easy, and is sometimes upsetting.  We want to yell out, "Hey Jesus, you healed the blind men, the paralytic, the leper, the mother-in-law, why not me?  You raised several people from the dead, why not this person?  You love them too, right?"

I am not God, and I am not adequate to answer questions like that in a satisfying way.  I do believe with everything in me that a) God does love you in a more profound, and infinitely wonderful way than you will be able in this life to comprehend, b) I am confident that if you turn to Jesus and ask him, Jesus will heal you on the inside--in your heart and in your mind.  The key thing is to acknowledge your need for him, and come to him in confidence and humility, and then I am confident he will heal you.

If you want to read more about why you can be confident in God's Care of you, please look here.