“THE
LORD IS IN OUR MIDST”
My Brothers in
Christ,
When we face
obstacles and adversity in our lives it is very easy to forget that
Christ is with us. Our emotions get the best of us and anxiety takes
over. There is a mixture of feelings that are all negative in nature.
This is a natural reaction and a very human response. We feel alone
and think that there is no one and nothing that can take away the
pain. Even though our faith teaches us that Christ is with us always
and is there to support our through our tribulation this knowledge is
sometimes lost as our faith is tested. This happened to the Jewish
people in the desert during the Exodus and there is an expectation
that it will happen to us several times over the course of our
physical lives. Nobody is exempt from this. It reflects our fallen
nature and the separation it has caused with our God. Being sinners,
we will tend to sin more during these trials and will be tempted to
comfort ourselves with the allures of the physical world. Satan is at
work here when we are at our weakest point.
Just like our
physical body needs exercise to keep it healthy and the mind needs to
be challenged to grow, so do our spiritual lives have to be worked
and developed if it is going to grow. When we make that commitment to
live our faith our relationship with God will become stronger and we
will be more able to realize God's presence in our lives. As Children
of God, we do need validation of His presence but to see that
validation we must be prepared to witness it. It can easily be
ignored if we are distracted or preoccupied with the physical world.
The Sacred
Scriptures connect our physical need for food and water with the
necessity of our spiritual lives to be nourished. The image comes
forth in the form of Living Water. Not only did God provide the
Jewish people with water and food in the desert but he also
strengthened their faith with his presence. The water coming forth
from the rock is representative of God feeding them spiritually also.
They called out to him and he answered. He will always do the same to
us. We can call out to him and he will answer. We are encouraged to
ask the question: “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” It is a good
question to reflect upon during our times of trial. Depending on
where we are in our faith-life, the answer will be different and will
represent how we are growing spiritually. If we are weak, we are then
encouraged to cry out to him and he will respond.
When we suffer, we
need to focus on the Crucifixion Through the Crucifixion Christ will
form that spiritual bond with us. We cannot push him away and expect
that we will survive alone in our time of pain. We have received the
Gifts of the Holy Spirit and now have to learn how to use them.
Suffering will not only bring us closer to Christ but will also bring
our entire Christian Community together. When we understand our
relationship with our savior we will be more able to understand that
we should not just plead to Christ for our suffering to end but that
we may endure through it for his greater glory and our personnel
development.
Just as Christ sat
with the Samaritan women in the Gospel Reading and offered her the
Living Water he too is sitting with us to give us the same. We all
can relate with the Samaritan Women: constantly sinning and awash in
our own guilt. We know the way to redemption but still need to be
encouraged to take the path before us and put into practice what we
already know. We cannot just go through the motions. We need to turn
everything over to Our Lord Jesus Christ. All divisions and strife
will end when this is done. Christ makes all of the pieces come
together.
The water is before
us. He has offered it to us and now we must in turn drink what is
offered.
Yours in Christ,
Deacon Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment