Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles (30.06.13)<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n INDECISIVENESS<\/strong><\/p>\n Divine invitations are always personal and carry an RSVP. Our Scripture, in the first Reading and Gospel for the 13th. Sunday of the Year, 30 June 2013, focuses on particular examples of God\u2019s invitations. By way of introduction, some thoughts are offered on the subject of indecisiveness because this characterises the initial human response in these Scriptural extracts.<\/p>\n Indecision, not showing the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively, can be an affliction. In astrology, the word affliction is used to describe an instance of one celestial body afflicting another. This thought may help us appreciate the celestial war being waged, within humanity, between God and Satan. The causes of indecision are many among which can be fear, uncertainty and ignorance. Another cause, one perhaps less obvious, is human love. True, selfless, love is a compelling and decisive force within human nature. It has the capacity to motivate us to heights we never dreamed possible. Alternatively, conflicted or selfish, love can lead to a paralysis of loss, spiritually and temporally.<\/p>\n True love and conflicted love are complete opposites. The former is the dwelling place of God. The latter is the dwelling place of Satan. Our daily, adult, conscious existence is lived on the border between the two. That is not to say that we are always aware of the border. Some national borders are deliberately understated. For example, travelling within the continental EU it\u2019s easy not to notice a border when you cross from one country to another. Other national borders are dangerously overstated, for example, the frontier between North and South Korea.<\/p>\n As the Baptised, we are faced, daily, with non-physical borders affecting our eternal life. God\u2019s Ten Commandments, the Scriptures and Church teaching highlight for us where we need to exercise care in the preservation of our declared love for Jesus of Nazareth.\u00a0 Satan, too, makes use of love. He uses erroneous love, to tempt us to lower our standards, to compromise, to attempt to deceive the Lord in order to satisfy human appetites that, with great deceptive expertise, he tells us are reasonable, e.g. the \u2018apple from the tree in the garden\u2019.<\/p>\n We are gifted with a divinely calibrated, delicate balance of conscience that defends the freedom of choice with which God has endowed us. This conscience is attuned to the whisperings of God\u2019s enduring love but, as with any sensitivity, needs our essential and regular tuning through prayer and Sacramental life to be for us the true guide our Creator intended it to be. Blessed (Cardinal) John Henry Newman refers to conscience as \u2018a messenger of him (God) who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil \u2026 Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ\u2019. (Letter to the Duke of Norfolk 1885)<\/p>\n Every human decision is influenced, often without our specific awareness, by love. For this reason, decision-making in matters great or small is best accompanied by prayer to the Holy Spirit, the source of God\u2019s enduring true love for us, for guidance. As has been said elsewhere, the liturgical celebration of Pentecost has the duration of a day; the gift to us of God\u2019s Spirit is for every day. \u201cJust as a body, though one, has many parts,<\/em> The demanding nature of \u2018life at the border\u2019 requires that each of the Baptised shares communal awareness and a daily commitment to one another. Jesus set out the ideal for us \u2013 (John13:34-35)<\/p>\n \u201cA new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.\u00a0By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.\u201d<\/p>\n In this Sunday\u2019s Scripture, initial indecision is the human response to these divine invitations. When humanity succumbed to the temptations of Satan, humanity\u2019s true love for God was wounded. That wound has been manipulated by Satan unremittingly. What was once a toehold is now serious contaminant of God\u2019s good creation. Satan\u2019s process of \u2018grooming\u2019 us to become or remain his victims is not unlike that used by abusers which has soiled the media in these past years. He makes use of an erroneous love that invites us to doubt God\u2019s totally altruistic love for us.<\/p>\n Satanic subtlety should never be underestimated. A priestly colleague of many years told of how his father, concerned at his teenage son\u2019s lack of academic qualification, persuaded him to complete a three-year civil degree before commencing his studies for the priesthood. There was no subterfuge on the part of the parents, just a concern born of their realism that not all successful applicants persevered to priestly Ordination. My priestly colleague recalls how much more difficult was his post-graduate decision to commit to the demands of a six-year programme of priestly formation.<\/p>\n For one thing, he knew his very successful degree assured him of a comfortable lifestyle – entirely at variance with his seminary lifestyle – any time he chose. \u201cIt was,\u201d he said, \u201chis longest running temptation lasting right up to the moment of priestly Ordination!\u201d Thereafter, and for the decades since, he had known, like the rest of us, many moments of temptation, but never had he doubted God\u2019s invitation for him to become a priest. His only regret was the indecision of his original response to God. For this reason and by way of making atonement, he has always chosen unquestioning obedience when invited to embark on missionary tasks that many a priest would have feared.<\/p>\n In the light of his own lived experience, my priestly colleague will more easily and completely stand in the shoes of Elisha (1Kings 19:16, 19-21) this Sunday. I am sure his homily will resound with a long since replenished and well founded, wholesome love for God. My priestly colleague will, likewise, authentically break open for his people the nourishment contained in Luke 9:51-62 for the Gospel. Perhaps, in one or other of his assembled communities there will be women or men who recognise, in their own current indecisiveness, a contamination of true love masquerading as \u2018wise in the circumstances\u2019, \u2018a helpful insurance\u2019, \u2018something to fall back on\u2019. Each temptation set out with the ultimate in plausibly and reasonableness.<\/p>\n \u2018Living on the border between classic opposites requires continuous vigilance and assisted discernment\u2019. That assisted discernment is available but, as for anything worthwhile, it has to be sought after with determination, application and a consistently purified love for God. Listening to the Sunday readings in church is just a taster but beware of the aperitifs proffered by the enemy (yes, even in church) that, once indulged, can diminish our true appetite!<\/p>\n Jesus lovingly accompanies us each day if only we had had eyes to see and ears to hear. The two utterly disheartened disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) have a message for us. Without a growing appreciation of Jesus\u2019 pure love for us, of how he desires communion with us, life on the border is strewn with dangers for the Baptised person.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles (30.06.13) http:\/\/www.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk\/ INDECISIVENESS Divine invitations are always personal and carry an RSVP. Our Scripture, in the first Reading and Gospel for the 13th. Sunday of the Year, 30 June 2013, focuses on particular examples of … Continue reading
\nFor the Baptised, there is an added consideration. Every decision made by the individual Baptised person has a lasting affect, beyond that individual. It touches all the other members of the Body of Christ. St. Paul makes this clear in his first letter to the Corinthian church \u2013 (12:12-13, 24-28)<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.\u00a0<\/em>
\nFor we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body\u2014whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free\u00a0 \u2026.\u00a0<\/em>
\nBut God has put the body together \u2026 \u00a0<\/em>
\nso that there should be no division in the body,\u00a0<\/em>
\nbut that its parts should have equal concern for each other.<\/em>
\nIf one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.\u00a0<\/em>
\nNow you are the body of Christ,<\/em>
\n\u00a0and each one of you is a part of it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n