Integrity

So stand your ground, with truth buckled round your waist, and integrity for a breastplate...
Eph.6:14

Satan ultimately wants my heart. So does Jesus. Paul gives the perfect armour for guarding my heart. Integrity.

Integrity: The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. This reminds me of Jesus' description of people represented by the good soil in his parable of the sower of seeds. The good soil is people of noble and generous heart. You could say, people of integrity.

Jesus, let a noble and generous heart be my breastplate today.

Be Real

He said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.
Lk.17:24

I'm reminded of Mrs Turpin's end-times vision in Flannery O'Connor's short story, Revelation.

"She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were tumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black niggers in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. 

And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the given wit to use it right…. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces even their virtues were being burned away."

I know I'm going to be shocked at who is ahead of me on the narrow road, the freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. Their naked need is more honest and welcome in heaven than my forced piety.

Jesus, help me be real in my brokenness, at least with you.

The Perfect Man

so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.
Eph.4:12,13

Paul describes the path to perfection.... make a unity, that is Church, in the work of service.

Our own small parish is an example of this in practice. Many people volunteer their service to make the parish function. From church cleaning, flower arranging, reading, music... the list goes on. 

Where is my cog in this beautiful machine? Children's Liturgy, prayer ministry, hospitality, Alpha. These all have changed over the years and continue to change. What is important is that I remain engaged in the machine, that my cog still turns, adding its own energy to the greater work of service.

Holy Spirit, you are the source of creativity and energy. Fill me today so I may build up the body of Christ and become the perfect Man.

 

White Hot

Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 
Lk.12:51

Jesus warns that he will cause division. We all belong to one of two camps. Those for Jesus and those against him. He's either God, or not. He gives us no other option.

There's no middle ground with Jesus. He says he spits out the lukewarm. That leaves only hot or cold. I choose hot, white hot. Will that cause division in my life? Yes, it has. It has also created wonderful unity. For example, when my hot joins my wife's hot the temperature is radiated on those around us, our little church, our family.

Jesus, I fan into flame my gift of faith in you. Enkindle in me the fire of your love and I shall be created. Through me you can renew the face of the earth.

Keep a Short Account

You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Lk.12:40

Jesus clearly warns that the Day of Judgement will come but in a day and hour that no one knows. 

What's a sensible response to this warning? Keep a short account with God. Thank God for the sacrament of confession.

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus.

Love Being Ready

It may be in the second watch he comes, or in the third, but happy those servants if he finds them ready.
Lk.12:38

Jesus promises two things. The master will return. Only the ready will be received by him. 

So, how can I be ready for the master's return? Lots of pious calisthenics come to mind. I've distilled them down to one thing that will have me prepared for Jesus' return. Allowing myself to be loved. 

I don't have to do good. I don't even have to be good. I just have to allow myself to be loved. When I know in my heart that I am loved, warts and all, then goodness, or preparedness in the context of today's Gospel, simply flows from me.

Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
they are weak, but he is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.

I Want I Want I Want Me Me Me Mine Mine Mine

Then he told them a parable: ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns...

Lk.12:16-18

Jesus warns against avarice. Riches before God are eternal. Riches before man are reconstituted dust.

The rich man's monologue reminds me of the lesson Hook gives in the movie of the same name, explaining why parents hate children. 

"Your mindless, inexhaustible, unstoppable, repetitive, and nagging demands: He took my toy! She hit my bear! I want a party! I want a cookie! I want to stay up! I want, I want, I want, me, me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, mine, now, now, now, now!"

Feeding the self centered me is exhausting. I'm never fully satisfied. Feeding the God centered me is far more fulfilling. 

Jesus, protect me from me. Give me more of you.