"Do They See Christ" A reflection for 11/19/19

“Do They See Christ?”

(A Re-post)

It is a funny thing, Christianity.  For most of us, it is a word and title that we grew up with and explaining what it is to other people comes quite easy.  We have been educated on what Christianity is, taught that by accepting the salvation of Jesus and confessing our sins that we are Christians, and understand that this sacred mystery is fact.  We know that to be a Christian we must serve God and find Jesus in all things.  On the surface, this seems quite simple. 

Pondering this question became louder and louder in my mind; “Why is it so easy for ‘God’s People’ to act un-Godly?” 

Perhaps it is because Satan targets Christians the most.  Perhaps it is because we are, as Dr. Cornel West suggests “imperfect, cracked vessels”.  Or perhaps we need to admit that through the gift/curse of free-will we choose to act this way.  If we, as Christians, are asked to seek and find Christ then aren’t we to realize that other Christians are seeking the same and, in many cases, they may very well be looking at us?  This begs the question which we must not ignore when it comes to people other than ourselves, when they look at us, DO THEY SEE CHRIST? 

Too often I hear of Christians take shots at one another.  We exhibit false dominance over others based on title or income or status in our churches, schools and communities.  We break each other down through the devastation of gossip and rumors.  And all the while we stand solid on the idea that we are Christians in the understanding that the word means “Christ in us” however, if others cannot see Him, we are fooling ourselves. When will we stop talking, and start doing?  Stop asking for change and begin changing ourselves?  This begins with admitting that we don’t know/have it all.  We are no better or worse than the next person, and when the final bell rings, it will only be Christ in us that will make the difference.

Fortunately, not one of us is great.  Regardless of how sour these words may taste in your mouth as you read them, it’s true.  I am not great, I am broken, failed and a sinner.  I was born into sin and only through baptism and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ will I see heaven.  Reflecting on the Scripture this morning while I was reading, Jesus said “I am the gate.  Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.”  The goal of any Christian is to “find pasture”.  It is time to stop looking to see what we can find in others and think about what others are finding in us!

There is an excellent quote I ran across a few years ago that I feel describes many of us if only we will admit it to ourselves.  The author is unknown, but the message is profound:

“Yes, I am a Christian.  Yes, I can be the biggest hypocrite ever.  I backslide.  I stumble.  I fall.  I stray into the wrong path.  But God is working in me.  I may be a mess, but I am HIS mess, and He is slowly straightening me out.  And the day will come when I will be by His side, His work in me completed.  Until that day I will take His hand and let Him do in me whatever must be done, no matter how painful it will be for me.”

If we know what it is to be a Christian, we need to show what it is to be a Christian.  We have a responsibility as Christians to act as Christians.

Mr. Swann/Principal OLMC

Silence!  A Reflection for 11/4/19:

      Hanging out this weekend I began to contemplate the concept of silence.  This may be because when you’re around two teenage boys there isn’t much of it.  One could also suggest, however, that silence no longer truly exists due to the constant streaming, advertising, messaging, marketing and overall digital society of which we live in.  From the time we wake until the time we lay back down at night, we are bombarded by images and suggestions that are meant to combat silence by filling any “dead space” with a suggestive noise.  The kind of noise that tells us “we deserve this/that” and that we should have it now.  The kind of noise that compares everything we are and everything we have to everything we are “supposed” to be in life, all while suggesting that the path to get to that “supposed to be” should be faster, cheaper, and have fewer demands. 

      We substitute personal interaction and discussions with texting and endless social media messaging.  We can order anything of desire, from clothing, appliances and now even food to our doors without ever getting up.  I have even watched a three-year-old tell a can of air freshener to “turn on the lights” because she thought it was a voice command device.  To summarize, our modern world is teaching us a level of entitlement never witnessed before.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  I too am a consumer, and like many others, I often enjoy the consumerist modernity that we live in today.  However, where I fear that our ideology has hurt us the most is in the area of our spiritual lives.  Many people have come to believe they can reach God’s Holiness with a shortcut, purchase, or title without any personal sacrifice to be made.  Proof in this can be taken from the way many pray.  “God grant me; God help me do, get, have, accomplish..; God provide me with the means, ability, money, title, etc.”  It is as if God’s grace can be clicked into our shopping carts in the same search as those shoes we want as we are scrolling Amazon.  Furthermore, even if God is answering all those demands contained within our prayers, how can we hear him if we never shut some of the noise down? 

     Contact and conversation with the Ever-living God cannot be found in noise.  “What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language He best hears is silent love” (St. John of the Cross).  Silence is the answer to the question of how to find peace in modernity.  Silence calms our restless spirit and allows us to enter into a true conversation, a relationship with God.  Silence isn’t something that just happens; it takes effort.  Silence, in order to be successful, requires us to put down our phones, shut off our devices, and shut our doors.  It is something we must do intentionally.  To succeed at silence, we must daily strive to find times to pause and reflect in order to remove ourselves from the constant barrage of modernity, and enter into a humble, attentive, spiritual relationship with our Heavenly Father. 

Mr. Swann/Principal

Our Lady of Mount Carmel