Monday, August 6, 2019

Mathew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

Always with you

It is a mystery to me why and how the faith I hold dear is typically considered a way of believing and not a way of being and living.

Maybe it is our own fault. Thousands of books, disgorged by Christian publishers for centuries, smugly parsed the fine details of Christian doctrine dismissing all those "other religions" which believe the wrong things. 

But listen: Obey everything I have commanded, Jesus says; follow my teachings, knowing I am with you. Always.

This is not about thinking the right thoughts, holding to correct doctrines or believing a set of affirmations about who God is. It is about hearing and entering the struggle to live the way of Jesus, always knowing that the Love we have seen and known in him is ever near and always will be.

His teachings, which we are to obey, challenge every part of our lives, but they are not hard to understand: Be merciful. Show compassion. Live with generosity. Seek to forgive. Trust there is a Love who knows our needs and treasures each and every one of us, even those we do not like. But be thankful for them, too. They will challenge you to learn to live with love and justice so that you may become like the Loving Mystery, Jesus calls, Father.

And always know: I am with you, Jesus says, no matter where you are, no matter what happens to you, no matter how you feel today or will tomorrow. I am. And I am with you. Always.

We are invited to know this Love, not as an idea but as a deep interior reality. In knowing, our hearts open to become the Love who love us.

Pr. David L. Miller