…For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
Pope Benedict XVI
tells us…To acknowledge that one is made for the infinite means journeying
along a path of purification from what we have called “false infinites”, a path
of conversion of heart and of mind. It is necessary to eradicate all the false
promises of the infinite that seduce and enslave man. To truly find himself and
his identity, to live up to his being, man must turn and recognize that he is a
creature, who is dependent on God. The possibility of living a truly free and
full life is linked to the acknowledgement of this dependence – which in its
depths is the joyous discovery of being God’s children. It is interesting to
note how St. Paul, in the Letter to the Romans, sees the opposite of
slavery not so much in freedom as in filiation, in having received the Holy
Spirit who makes us adopted sons and who allows us to cry out to God “Abbà!
Father” (cf. 8:15). The Apostle to the Gentiles speaks of a “bad” slavery: that
of sin, of the law, of the passions of the flesh. To this, however, he does not
contrast autonomy, but rather “slavery to Christ” (cf. 6:16-22), indeed he
himself calls himself “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ” (1:1). The fundamental
point, then, is not to eliminate dependence, which is constitutive of man, but
to direct it towards the One who alone is able to make us truly free…. Thus do
we discover the truest dimension of human existence, that to which the Servant
of God Luigi Giussani continually referred: life as vocation. Everything, every
relationship, every joy, as well as every difficulty, finds its ultimate
meaning in being an opportunity for a relationship with the Infinite, a voice
of God that continually calls to us and invites us to lift our gaze, to find
the complete fulfillment of our humanity in belonging to Him. “You have made us
for Yourself – wrote St. Augustine – and our hearts are restless until they
rest in You” (Confessions I, 1, 1). We need not be afraid of what God
asks of us, through the circumstance of our lives, were it even the dedication
of ourselves in a special form of following and imitating Christ, in the
priesthood or religious life. The Lord, in calling some to live totally for
Him, calls everyone to recognize the essence of our own nature as human beings:
we are made for the Infinite. And God has our happiness at heart, and our
complete human fulfillment. Let us ask, then, to enter in and to remain in the
gaze of faith that characterized the saints, in order that we might be able to
discover the good seed that the Lord scatters along the path of our lives and
joyfully adhere to our vocation. - excerpts
from the message Benedict XVI sent to the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples,
sponsored by the Catholic Communion and Liberation Movement in Rimini, Italy.
The message is dated Aug. 10. The meeting is under way through Saturday. From Castel Gandolfo, 10 August 2012
[Translation by Diane Montagna www.zenit.org]
Prayer: St.
Augustine’s Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may
all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my
heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy
Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I
always may be holy. Amen.
My thoughts: We are made
for the Infinite. What a beautiful thought! “Let us remain in the gaze of faith…to
discover the good seed that God scatters along the path of our lives…. ” How absolutely
freeing this phrase will be for us if we adopt it as our mantra in life! Our
gaze must always be on God: people, experiences, even troubles that come our way may all be
the very seeds God has scattered to help us live our vocation in Him. If we
have become a slave to sin, if we are filling our mind’s eye with things of the
earth, and not of God, we may miss our special seeds and find great difficulty
in realizing our life’s vocation. We are made for the infinite…we will always be
empty until we are filled with Christ. Let us begin today to stay alert for the
seeds which will lead us to Christ…let us seek them in the people around us and
in our everyday activities. If "every fiber of my flesh is made to
find its peace in God," then let us joyfully live our vocations in life with our eyes lifted upward, from "whence cometh our strength!!" Have a lovely day!
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