This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
Let’s be honest: St. Paul might not get an “A” in Advanced Writing class at Harvard. He’s guilty of a run-on sentence here and there. Sometimes there are different concepts combined into one sentence. To be fair, he did his writing at a time when standards were a bit different. Anyone who has studied classical Latin knows that run-ons were the order of the day.
This makes it all the more fun to tease out the depths of his heart through his words. His theology is rich; his spirituality, profound.
For example, what do we take from these words?
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
For God is the one who, for his good purpose,
works in you both to desire and to work.
Do everything without grumbling or questioning,
that you may be blameless and innocent.”
So, so often we think our work as Christians is to try to deduce moral perfection and work toward it. But there is a reason to be fearful, to tremble, to stand in awe. It is a joyful fear, if there is such a thing; a joyful awe. The awe-inspiring thing about Christianity is that “God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.” This is why we must not grumble or question. Ours is to draw near to Him, as near as we can possibly come each day. Approach the Eucharist and dialogue with Him in the intimacy of our hearts after Communion. Spend solid chunks of time with Him in dialogue and prayer. And then, ours is to trust Him, in fearsome awe: For He is the one who, for his good purpose, will create good desires in us and accomplish what He wants in us. He has got it all figured out.
So much better than trying to inject exquisite, cold, dry little moral niceties deduced from our own two-dimensional intellect into our day, as some sort of substitute for true meaning. He alone, and what He does in us, is that meaning.
In the Gospel today, Jesus furthers our understanding of why we are to approach our Christian vocation with fear and trembling, and He does so in a rather sobering way. We are to be willing to sacrifice even the noblest things that are dearest to us for Him, as we take up a real cross of suffering in life to follow Him. That work that Paul describes God doing in us in not always fun, and is certainly not easy. It involves the cross of radical detachment.
But, as Paul elsewhere says, “If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him.” And what a glorious life it is–even here on earth, so much more fulfilled and happy than a life without Him. With a yet far happier and more glorious eternal life to follow.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: The path God has planned for each of us is awe-inspiring. On the one hand, filled with His tender and loving guidance, which itself is the source of our happiness. On the other hand, full of increasing detachment, sacrifice, and some suffering as well. Think of Jesus in prison on the night before He died. Talk to Him there. In the intimacy of that setting, ask Him how better to take up your own cross and follow Him.
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