DEACON TOM ANTHONY

Thursday, November 14, 2013



Christian Love can overcome all things when we act on the presence of God's Love within ourselves. God is perfect and thus his love is perfect also. Through this perfect love he created us. When we love, it is in reaction to his love and is an expression of it. This love can move us to become closer to God and everyone whom we encounter in our lives. Every interaction and every conversation can then be a product of the perfect love of God. Through this understanding we are all capable of living a happy wonderful life with God central to our existence. We can also further understand our birthright as Children of God and fully appreciate his beautiful creation around us which we are an intricate part of.

To achieve this state of being can be very challenging. There are forces at work in the world that prevent us from fully experiencing this life with God. We all are engaged in a spiritual battle within ourselves between good and evil. We are constantly tempted by Satan and our fallen nature to turn away from God;immersing ourselves in the pleasures of the flesh. Even though these pleasures may offer us temporary gratification, they are no replacement for the ultimate experience of living a life with God's love. We must understand that whatever this material world can offer in the form of pleasure is a poor substitute for the ultimate pleasure of being in a state of grace with God.

We all know that engaging in sin will destroy us. Reacting to the presence of temptation by surrendering to our physical desires for stimulation and earthly pleasures without the presence of God is a self-destructive act. Yet, if we do not have a relationship with God which offers many gifts including Understanding and Wisdom, we naturally refuse to acknowledge this. We do not have the strength and fortitude to fight off the temptation to surround ourselves with that which will be the cause of our downfall. We choose to accept these corporal gifts from Satan and therefore refuse to call out to God for help. While this is occurring, God is constantly pleading for us to run to him for protection and love. Yet, the more we sin, the more we become unaware of his call. We make ourselves deaf to his shouts and blind to the beauty of his presence all around us.

When we have erased God from our lives there is nothing else there but a major void which then can be filled with evil, evil acts, and sin. Unbeknownst to us, we have then welcomed Satan into our lives with open arms and have embraced him as our God. He, instead of God, becomes central to our existence and we act out our behaviors and sins in his name. We acknowledge him, instead of God, by sinning and engaging in behaviors that we know are not what we are expected to do being God's children.

We are taught that when we suffer to turn to God for comfort. We then adjoin ourselves to the Crucified Christ; carrying our cross towards Calvary and experiencing The Passion with him. When we ignore God and instead choose to carry out actions contrary to our expectations as Christians, we are actually becoming one of those crucifying Jesus: spitting in his face and abusing him to the point of death. Imagine our arrogance that we would actually rebuke our creator and insult him by choosing the path of darkness over the salvation which he offers all of us. When we don't love God and ignore him we are doing the same thing.

It must be understood that God loves us so much that he tolerates even this. He is patient and kind. He endures the abuse because he understands the conflict and war that rages in each and every one of us. He wishes to lend us his support and strength if only we ask for it. When we finally admit that we cannot be our own God and that the pathway of sin leads to destruction, we can then make a real commitment to God. This is the first step in a transformation that will affect our entire life for the better.

There is also a warning that comes with this transformation. God can and will shape us like earthen vessels our entire life. This is what a journey of faith is all about. When we cry out to God for help we need to dedicate ourselves to this transformation exactly the same way we dedicated ourselves to sin and debauchery in the past. It is impossible to serve two masters as Jesus himself has told us. If we choose God we must then really choose God. We can then arm ourselves for battle, for the other master, Satan, will not readily release us from our life of slavery and sin. God is the liberator and he will be challenged by the slave-master.

The number of masters is very significant. There are indeed only two. In other words, anything and everything that is done without God in mind is then the dominion of Satan. We are then presented with a choice:

Whom do we want to serve throughout of lives?”

Deacon Tom

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