(Listen to this homily here).
The ancient philosopher Socrates said, “The unexamined life
is not worth living.” It is
important for us to take regular times of reflection in order to grow in
self-knowledge and awareness. Here
I am not talking about a selfish naval gazing practice, but examining ourselves
in order to grow.
John
wrote in his first letter, “Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the
spirits to see whether they belong to God…” In the spiritual realm, we face many different
realities. We are influenced by
the world, evil and God’s grace.
All of us leaves us with the “new man” who battles against our sinful
self.
St.
John gives us a key to discern the various spirits that are present in our
life: “This is how you can know the
Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh
belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not
belong to God.” This simple
standard can help us grow in virtue.
For instance, will doing x, y or z acknowledge Jesus to me, a friend or
stranger? If not, what does this
say about why I am acting?
While
I am still learning, this process has helped me make decisions at our
parish. Like any institution, we
can be affected by secular society, sin or even evil. I want to ensure that the decisions we make—be they
financial, practical, spiritual or with personnel—acknowledge that Jesus is
what we are about.
May
we proclaim Jesus Christ today through how we act towards God and neighbor.
No comments:
Post a Comment