Luke 11: 29-32 FREEDOM TO LOVE
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I have found freedom and I have found meaning. Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. How often do I repeat these words and I find the strength and courage to follow the Way - His Will, the Truth and His Life?
Yesterday was a long day that got even longer. After celebrating the seven o'clock Mass at St. Ann I went to visit a beautiful family nearby and they provided me with a much needed hot meal, fantastic friendship and wonderful conversation. As I was driving home, ready to complete the day with an early evening rest (it was already 11:20 pm), I received a text message from a young student I had first met at the minor seminary. A great young man who is currently a freshman studying Philosophy at the University of Dallas. He wanted to get together and talk. I know my schedule well. It was now or not for a few weeks. I was so happy to hear from him after a couple of years of minimal contact. I asked him if he was getting ready to go to sleep. I should have anticipated his response. After all, he is a College student. "Father, the evening is still young." I'm not sure if it was the Holy Spirit or the spirit of stupidity but I found myself making a U-turn and telling him I would be at UD in twenty minutes. I think this all began when I watched at least 10 times the latest Don Bosco movie. I really love this Saint and I truly love the youth. But I have to remind myself that I'm neither.
Our conversation was very philosophical. He is searching for the truth and yet cannot find it. He has placed all things in doubt, even his own existence. He is an extremely intelligent young man but I think his studies have led him to think a little too much and to assume a little too little. During our conversation I was reminded of the words spoken by Festus as he interrupted Paul's defense of the faith. "You are out of your mind, Paul! Your studies are driving you insane" (Acts 26:24). Of course the major difference between Paul and Festus was that Paul had found the truth, first through a revelation and then by reflection. Whereas Festus continued to rely too much on study and not enough on the big elephant in the room: the death and resurrection of Christ and the birth of the Church. The truth is that God has every right to reveal himself to the world. And what he has revealed is the greatest revelation ever to man: God is love. My suggestion to this young man was not to follow the sheep and attend Mass, but rather to begin to love. "If you love, then you will discover God because God is love and we were made to fall in love. That is, we were made to fall in God's arms.
If I do not know God and what He did, then I will not know who I am and what I should do. If I do not know who I am and what I should do, then I will end up hating who I am and wishing I was never born. Eventually, I will end up hating myself and all those around me. God is love and we were created to love and be loved. We can never forget the big elephant in the tomb!
We look for signs, but signs will never be enough. They weren't enough for the Pharisees and the Scribes and they will never be enough for me. We look for wisdom, but we will never be as wise as the wisest of men, or as wise as God. We are finite and He is infinite. We are a bug and he is a Giant. But He became finite so that we could become infinite.
Blessed be the name of the Lord forever. Blessed be His name, Father and Love. We are children of the Light - free to love and to be loved.
Source: asatru-religion.blogspot.com