In last Sunday's homily Father Arro encouraged us to make love by
listening, trusting and following God. As he explained, to love the Lord
"with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all
your strength" requires first a listening heart, one that trusts the
Creator and acts out that trust by caring for others by being kind, forgiving
and faithful.
This definition of making love appeals vastly to me. The greatest commandment, love of God and love of neighbour, is distilled into one simple act: to listen. It is increasingly a lost art, yet a requisite in life, especially in the pursuit of freedom and truth.
We have hit the Big Daddy of chapters in the book Landmarks, Margaret Silf begins chapter 12 with two questions: What is freedom? What is truth?, questions salient to one's quest for fulfilment in life.
D pointed out that freedom and truth are like close siblings. Amidst the tension of where we feel drawn to be and where we are actually living out our days - our good intentions at odds with our self-expectations and what the world wants from us - we can only arrive at the place of freedom in our choices if we resonate truth in our beings; a truth which is found in the place where God meets us, and He meets us where we truly are, not where we, or others think we should or could be.
Silf recommends stillness for only in this elusive place of receptivity are we able to listen to His movements in our hearts, thereby allowing Him to administer to us, bringing forgiveness and healing that in turn strengthen and empower us, especially when making moral or ethical decisions.
We enter a place of power when we live true to our desires, having aligned our true self with True North or God, and how we know we are there is that we will feel liberated, at peace and energized in whatever we do. This meeting point of inner freedom and God's unconditional love enables us to be who we are and to make choices without fear of loss or hope of gain.
I like living in this state of indifference that is living in the Spirit, for my decisions are not so coloured by my fears and prejudices, or worse, my pride. And my choices are unfettered of the influences of dogmas and social mores that speak of an individualistic, self-centred truth.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness that attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude. (1731)
It goes on to state that the more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin." (1732)
We are born with a disposition for good and a free will to navigate through life. If we act against our truth, our innate disposition for goodness, then we act against our own nature with the consequence of a circumscribed freedom.
Thus choosing true freedom implies choosing goodness, and choosing God and His ways (that lead to truth and life). And so the commandments and Church teachings are like signposts or guiding lights that help us navigate our way to truth and freedom.
Even with guidelines, finding the truth is tricky, unless we listen. When we do not listen, we very often decide our truth is THE TRUTH and we close our hearts and minds to other truths. We end up seeing only differences and great divides. To quote Father Timothy Radcliffe: Claiming that you have got the truth wrapped up does breed violence and intolerance.
While the truth may set us free, living out truth in our lives will always present challenges and be fraught with tension. But if we soak in the truth that we are created by God and we belong to Him, then we won’t forget to make love by listening first to God.
Feel free to make love today.
This definition of making love appeals vastly to me. The greatest commandment, love of God and love of neighbour, is distilled into one simple act: to listen. It is increasingly a lost art, yet a requisite in life, especially in the pursuit of freedom and truth.
We have hit the Big Daddy of chapters in the book Landmarks, Margaret Silf begins chapter 12 with two questions: What is freedom? What is truth?, questions salient to one's quest for fulfilment in life.
D pointed out that freedom and truth are like close siblings. Amidst the tension of where we feel drawn to be and where we are actually living out our days - our good intentions at odds with our self-expectations and what the world wants from us - we can only arrive at the place of freedom in our choices if we resonate truth in our beings; a truth which is found in the place where God meets us, and He meets us where we truly are, not where we, or others think we should or could be.
Silf recommends stillness for only in this elusive place of receptivity are we able to listen to His movements in our hearts, thereby allowing Him to administer to us, bringing forgiveness and healing that in turn strengthen and empower us, especially when making moral or ethical decisions.
We enter a place of power when we live true to our desires, having aligned our true self with True North or God, and how we know we are there is that we will feel liberated, at peace and energized in whatever we do. This meeting point of inner freedom and God's unconditional love enables us to be who we are and to make choices without fear of loss or hope of gain.
I like living in this state of indifference that is living in the Spirit, for my decisions are not so coloured by my fears and prejudices, or worse, my pride. And my choices are unfettered of the influences of dogmas and social mores that speak of an individualistic, self-centred truth.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness that attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude. (1731)
It goes on to state that the more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin." (1732)
We are born with a disposition for good and a free will to navigate through life. If we act against our truth, our innate disposition for goodness, then we act against our own nature with the consequence of a circumscribed freedom.
Thus choosing true freedom implies choosing goodness, and choosing God and His ways (that lead to truth and life). And so the commandments and Church teachings are like signposts or guiding lights that help us navigate our way to truth and freedom.
Even with guidelines, finding the truth is tricky, unless we listen. When we do not listen, we very often decide our truth is THE TRUTH and we close our hearts and minds to other truths. We end up seeing only differences and great divides. To quote Father Timothy Radcliffe: Claiming that you have got the truth wrapped up does breed violence and intolerance.
While the truth may set us free, living out truth in our lives will always present challenges and be fraught with tension. But if we soak in the truth that we are created by God and we belong to Him, then we won’t forget to make love by listening first to God.
Feel free to make love today.
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