“The Nature of God”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
September 29 – 30, 2018
Scripture: Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” 39 Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. 40 For whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. 42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe [in me] to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna,* into the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, 48 Where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’
God is love Himself. He created us out of His nature, to know Him, to serve Him, and to be with Him in the afterlife. He sustains us in love which is generous, without reservation or limits, and is forever. God seeks us, and wants to bring us back to Him. He wants to shower us with good things. So, shouldn’t our natural response be to love Him and to share His love with our neighbor?
“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Christ’s suffering on the cross was a blind act of love, and we are to return His love without reservation. We must love Him above all things. We have the ability and resources to love, but many times we give in to our love of self. We throw away our love on vain, temporary, contemptible things of the world. Satan will whisper in your ear that God doesn’t love you. Not true! You stopped loving Him.
God has two wills:
Directive – keeping the planets in orbit; maintaining the laws of physics
Permissive – God gives us the freewill to follow him or to sin, to love or not.
Spiritual adultery is knowing that something is wrong, but pursuing it anyway because it’s what we want. The human condition is that we want things our way all the time. We want to entertain ourselves with all of our baubles and toys. But, giving in to our passions does not lead to happiness; that can only happen by uniting ourselves with Christ. Our love for God should exclude all others including love of ourselves.
As today’s scripture says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off…and if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Don’t let anything get in the way of loving God and serving Him.
Christ said “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me” (Luke 9:23). To follow Him, we must love Him, and sacrifice is the evidence of that love. We all have our crosses to bear….and some are heavier than others. Some examples are: alcoholism, Post Traumatic Syndrome, sexual trauma, emotional/psychological problems, sickness, and financial stress.
But, we don’t have to let our crosses be a barrier to our seeking a closer relationship with God and becoming more holy. We also shouldn’t use our crosses as an excuse, or say this is how God made me so I’m entitled to behave a certain way. Let nothing block your path to Him for He is everything. By carrying our crosses with grace and love for Him, we can be an example to others and help them learn how to carry theirs. And…if we bring our crosses to the Lord, He will help us carry them.
How will you apply this message to your life? Will you love God above all things including yourself? Will you take up your cross and follow Him?