The Meaning of Life (pt 2)

This post is Post # 2 in a 3 part series on the meaning of Life.

See Part 1 Here: The Meaning of Life (pt 1)

As I have stated in my previous post the church gives us the very clear and simple meaning of life- To know, Love and serve God in this world, so that I can be happy with him in the next.
In this post we will examine how we can better show Love for God.

In our lives God has strategically placed people in our path, some we encounter become good friends, others we encounter we barely notice or pay any attention to and still there are some that we would rather completely forget even exist. Yet Christ calls us to show his peace and love to everyone, without exception.

In the hustle of the day its very easy to forget that I am suppose to be a living example of the Cross, that I am suppose to Put on Christ in everything I say and Do. The creepy guy at lunch deserves a smile, a hello, a kind word, just as much as the pretty girl at the bank. All too often I catch myself picking and choosing who I am most comfortable around, who conforms to my ideas of "Normal", and I do this without even thinking about it.

Everyone has likes, and dislikes. These likes and dislikes are what we are born with, what we become accustomed to, most of the times we have no rhyme or reason as to why we like or dislike the things we do. The likes and dislikes are in our nature,and feelings, these are things we have no control over.

This is what makes love all the more powerful, because love is not a feeling- love is a choice. In choosing to love someone we accept them for who they are, we love them for all their likes and dislikes, their positives and downfalls. This is not always easy and this is what makes love a virtue. Our lord command us to love one another as he has loved us, and that love lead him to the cross, it is this command that we must strive to live everyday. With the command of love we are forbidden to judge.

When we truly live our faith, and we are loving God as we are called, others should not be thinking that they just met Christopher, rather that they just had a true encounter with Christ and his love.

"And now there remain faith, hope, and love, these three: but the greatest of these is love"
1st Corinthians 13:13

Are we All Welcome?

A Catholic man has written into a Catholic online forum, he had an amazing "day dream" during communion the other day about how, "whereby Christ in the Flesh walked into the Church. Everyone filing up to Communion stopped dead in their tracks, turned around towards Him and began pressing back to reach Him. I, however, remained sadly rejected in place." he continues, "At that moment, someone in the crowd grabbed my arm and said, "C'mon! It's the Lord"! I explained that I couldn't go to Him because I was in sin. At that, many of the people who were pushing their way back to Him, had overheard me and began explaining that it's for the worst sinners that He came, and that He didn't want anyone kept from touching His garment. No one held me back from receiving Jesus. I was urged to go right up to Him and touch his garment, to be nourished, to be cleansed."


This man brings up a good question....
But Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P. provides a better answer:


"The Church doesn’t hold the worst sinners at arms distance, the sinners themselves do. The Church isn’t forcing them to sin. They are doing that quite on their own.

The Church does not withhold the Lord’s compassion any more than He did. But He was only compassionate with those who were repentant and then He warned them not to engage in such activity again.

Actually when you were waiting for an annulment, you could have received Holy Communion if you were not having marital relations with someone with whom you were not validly married. Perhaps you didn’t know that to do so is a mortal sin. One cannot profess one’s unconditional love for the Lord while at the same time engaging in sinful activity. THIS is where it can’t be both!

The Church wasn’t politely holding your arm. You could have gone to Confession and determined to live celibately until you were validly married—and then received Holy Communion. Many do. Unfortunately, often priests fail to tell people this."

Quotes Taken From:
SOURCE: Do we really want unity among the faithful?

Love

With Divine Mercy Sunday coming up I wanted to touch on the subject of Love,

It seems today most people have a hard time loving, their spouse, children, neighbor, themself's and most of all God.

Love is a gift from God that we can freely accept or reject, if we chose to reject Gods love that does not mean that he stops loving us. We are told that God Infinitely loves us more than we love our self's

I feel in todays most secular society with the increase in depression, anger, suicide, these people are victims of rejecting Gods love, maybe not fully of their own choice- possibly were abused mistreated.. etc.. therefore have no love for self. let alone God. These people need to hear the Good work that God's love is infinite, ever loving ever forgiving, always there for you.

This message must be spread out to the most lonely, wretched soul's and we must find a way to show them God's love so that they fully feel it deep down where its possible no love has ever reached.

What are some ways we can express our Lords never ending love to those who have never felt true love?

How can I personify God's Love? Let Us Pray for Our Brothers and Sisters that If today they hear his voice, Harden Not their hearts.