To be marked by love does not mean one is weak. Rather, it means one’s strength is used, not to exploit, harm, or dominate, but to build up, nurture, and care.
Because there is such stress in the biblical story on love and humility, one can easily misread this to mean Christians are to be gullible, exploitable, and weak. This is a serious misreading of Scripture.
Moses was called the meekest or humblest man in all the earth. But he was the great prophet-leader of Israel, used by Yahweh to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity and oppression. Thus one can be strong and gentle at the same time.
St. Ambrose makes this point more generally. He writes that the “man who is both severe and gentle is blessed: his severity, by striking terror maintains discipline; his gentleness does not crush innocence.”53
While we may want to word this somewhat differently, the point is clear: strength and love can go together. In fact, love is a particular form of strength. It is strength expressing itself in caring ways.
And to put all of this differently, there is nothing weak about love and humility. To love is to be strong and to be humble is simply to recognize that the sources of a strong love lie in the goodness of God in our lives.
Thought
To be strong without love can lead to domination. To be strong in love is true freedom.
1 Corinthians 3:11
February 23
Forerunners for Jesus
The Christian life is to live in Christ and to live for Christ.
Living for Christ is to live in such a way, in the power of the Spirit, that people will be attracted to Christ, will consider Christ, and will embrace him. Thus we are to be a sign pointing to Christ.
The desert fathers lived their lives to point to Christ. They believed certain qualities would assist them in this witness to Christ. “Humility,” they said, “is the forerunner of love, as John was the forerunner of Christ; . . . humility draws to love, that is to God Himself, for God is love.”54
There are also other qualities that reflect the way of Christ and
therefore point to him. To go the way of peace, to be a peacemaker, is also a reflection of Christ and a pointer towards Christ.
And so we may speak of faith, hope, and love. We may point to gifts of healing and reconciliation. We also may note the blessing of hospitality freely extended to others. These are all signs and indicators of the way of Christ and therefore are ways to bring Christ into focus.
But while we may be forerunners or signposts it is only when Christ “appears” to a person that eyes are opened and hearts are changed. We may prepare the way, but only Christ himself is the way, the truth, the life. Thus we play our part as a witness, but Christ is the one who captures a person’s heart.
Reflection
In pointing to Christ we are not first and foremost pointing to the church or to ourselves, but to the Christ in the Gospels who makes himself known in the encounter of faith.
Ephesians 4:26–27
February 24
Dealing with the Small Issues
We are ever busy and always preoccupied. In this state we
easily overlook things. And we are not too discerning and thus leave things undone that should not be left unattended.
There are many good reasons for learning to slow down, no matter what this may cost us in terms of a life reorientation. To do less and think more is a good idea. To create space for reflection is valuable for one’s way of life. To practice solitude is not only good for prayer, but also good for one’s health.
But Thomas à Kempis helpfully reminds us that, “If you do absolutely nothing about your small faults, you will, little by little, fall into greater ones.”55 This is true regarding our faults. It is also true regarding most other matters. If we don’t attend to things that need to be dealt with, then soon we will find ourselves in more difficult circumstances or we become overwhelmed.
The matter of attentiveness is key. And so is taking appropriate
action. Surprisingly, this does not come from doing more but from
doing less and from creating space. Time to be still. Time to listen. Time to discern.
To live this way inevitably means changing our lifestyle. It is, in our daily affairs, becoming more like monks. It is becoming a contemplative in the midst of life.
Reflection
At the heart of contemplation is attentiveness. And this is both a gift and a work.
Deuteronomy 5:15
February 25
Memory
While we are to live the present and to anticipate the future, the past is still very much with us. It lives on in our memory and continues to shape us for good or ill.
It is true there is much we forget. With the passage of time things simply drop away. They fall into forgetfulness. But it is also true there are things we actively remember. These things are part of our conscious life. There are also things that come to memory at certain times and in certain circumstances. We thought we had forgotten some things, but
suddenly the memories are back with a vengeance.
St. Augustine understood this. He writes, “My childhood, for
instance, which is no longer, still exists in time past. . . . But when I call to mind its image and speak of it, I see it in the present because it is still in my memory.”56
It is good to remember both the good and bad times. The latter we need to grieve, the former calls us to ongoing thankfulness. And in
remembering we can often see more clearly the traces of God’s loving
fingers and the footprints of God’s grace.
To remember the faithfulness of God in our past is a way of
reminding ourselves of our journey and of the One who has so amazingly
accompanied us. And while much of this accompaniment may have gone unnoticed, God’s goodness has left its traces.
Thought
To remember is to embrace all of who we are and to see the signs of God as a reminder of God’s presence.
Job 1:18–19
February 26
When Things Suddenly Change
While we may wish we could be safely cocooned in life, this is not the case. Unfortunate and even terrible things can happen to all of us. Trials, therefore, are also the important transition points in life.
There are those, of course, who have a sunshine theology. Only bright days ever come their way and only good things ever happen. They seek to live a fair-weather gospel. Bad things only happen to bad people, never to those who are good.
Such a simplistic vision of life has nothing to do with the biblical story. In that story even God’s only and beloved Son is cruelly put to death.
Therefore, to reframe the above, we must say that all sorts of things can happen to all kinds of people. Loss, ill health, and suffering also come to the good. And Christians are not immune to the pain and difficulties of life. They too face the whole gamut of weakness, life’s difficulties, and the pain and brokenness of our world.
Meister Eckhart, regarding these matters, points out, “A man who has been well-off for many years, loses it all. He ought then to reflect wisely and thank God for his misfortune and loss, for only then will he realize how well off he was before.”57
The point Eckhart is