Suffering With Joy

Sabbath Moments

October 22, 2011

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, the meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. Visit her to read other bloggers’ moments this week when they were especially touched by God.

We’ve had colder than normal weather this October.  The orange maple we put in a few years ago is starting to turn color.  The welcome rain has allowed all our trees to hold on to their leaves a bit longer and the crisp air has me longing to get ahold of some fermented apple cider.  There’s nothing like that fizzy stuff to make sitting on a porch in the sunshine just perfect.  It’s good the Lord lets us enjoy these blessings and gives us the grace to realize they are from Him.

Friendship with God

This week the subject of the Divine Intimacy meditations has been the apostolate of every Christian: to participate with Christ in the salvation of souls. Today’s theme is the soul of the apostolate.  Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene has these words:

The first degree of friendship with God, which consists in the absence of serious sin, does not suffice to fulfill the purposes of the apostolate.  [Staying out of mortal sin isn't enough.  It's just skating by.  God asks much more of us.] A deeper friendship is required, one which creates such uniformity of will, desire and affection that the apostle is enabled to act according to God’s Heart; he is moved not by his own impulses, but by the Holy Spirit.

It is a very significant fact that Jesus made His apostles live for three years in intimacy with Him, treating them like dear friends, before sending them out to convert the world: “I will not now call you servants…but I have called you friends” (Jn. 15:15).  Friends, not only because He shared the treasures of His divine life with them, but also because He wanted them to be the collaborators, and in a certain sense, the successors of His mission as Redeemer.

Only if we are friends of God can we be apostles; God Himself invites us to this friendship, but we must correspond by living an intense interior life, one which makes our relations with God ever more intimate and richer in love.

The growth of Eucharistic Adoration in the past ten years is a great sign of spiritual renewal.  What better way to build a friendship with God than by spending time with Jesus in person?  The Holy Spirit works with willing hearts.  That’s what counts.

I used to be a little jealous of the apostles and everyone who got to know Jesus while He was on earth.  But thanks to His loving mercy, I can, through the sacraments and sacred scripture, know Him better every day until that time when I no longer have to see “through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12).  It’s a long road filled with many pitfalls and an uphill battle every day, but “the armor of God” (Eph. 6:13) is invincible.

Sure, I’ve turned my ankle many times, skinned my shins, gotten a bloody lip and cracked my head severely on this path.  At times I turned around and started down hill because I wanted to take the easy way out.  I even threw the armor off, which only made things far worse.

Now I know this: as long as I don’t take the armor off again, and as long as I practice my spiritual martial arts every day, I’ll grow in that friendship of God that is the soul of the apostolate.  I hope to see many people in heaven some day that helped me and whom I have helped, all of us apostles of Jesus Christ.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Tags: virtue

1 Comment to Sabbath Moments

1. 

   Barb, thank you for joining me every week in this meme and for your comments on my blog which are always supportive.
   My husband just wrote a homily about Christ being our Friend. I will have to have him read this. Both your post and his homily have me thinking more and more about my friendship with Jesus. God bless!
   Colleen recently posted..First Things First
Colleen on October 22nd, 2011