Whispers from the cross January 17, 2010 It can happen that a follower of God hears a call to service. It is an accurate call. He chooses well and answers with a yes answer that draws the follower into God’s work. But, if there is no proper formation and guidance, that follower can embark upon this lifetime of service with no real relationship with Jesus Christ. I think this might happen more than we know. That is not a good thought, or a restful thought, but I think it might be true. What do we have then? A good person, committed to Christ, who does not know Him and who is destined to fall into disappointment and possibly cynicism. It is not enough to talk about holy concepts. One has to live holy concepts. Some of the people who speak with the most knowledge are absolutely lost when it comes to living these concepts and that is because they lack an honest and vertical relationship with Jesus Christ. This is not a statement of judgment, but warning. We must first be alert ourselves to the symptoms that our vertical relationship is disconnected. We must be alert in a daily way. And next we must be alert to the symptoms of this in others with whom we serve or for whom we are charged with supervision. Sometimes a person can be doing a very good job but be dreadfully sad on the inside. A priest once confided, “I really don’t know what I’m doing here.” This was a perfectly natural need for renewal, of course and this priest was serving seamlessly for years, but he had become temporarily disconnected from his relationship with Jesus. The service of a wife must be ordered to her husband through Jesus. If the wife gets too busy about the work, she can forget about why she is doing it. She is part of a sacramental union for which she will be called to give an account. How sad will it be if, upon her death, she offers Jesus a house that was orderly and a husband who was unloved? We must each consider this very seriously. Whatever the vocation, it cannot be about the work first. It must be first about the why of the work. Why are we doing this work? Who called us into it? Whose work is it, after all? Is it our work? We can only offer limited humanity which is self-serving. Or is it God’s work? If so, we had better remain in the closest possible contact with God so that we are offering God in the work. The vertical relationship insures that Jesus Christ flows through us and insures that we remain on course, never losing the way. Jesus, during His time on earth, was really with the people in front of Him. A vertical relationship with Jesus will insure that we are also truly with the people in front of us in a loving way.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 23:00:00 +0000
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