Did you ever wish that life came with an instruction manual? Something that would regularly update you on how you should live your life, what should be next on your personal agenda? That is essentially what the epistles are. They were written to early church congregations, explaining what it means to live like Christ, how one does that in one’s own life. Most of St. Paul’s letters were penned rather rapidly as he responded to new crises and scandals in the churches that he had founded.
Do we give the epistles our attention when they are read to us? We don’t often preach on them. Still, we cannot say that life comes without instructions from the Lord. This week, for example, St. James tells us:
Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace (3:16-18).
Here is a simple but strategic devotion: Each day of the week in your prayer, read the epistle from Sunday. Think of it as instructions for your day.
Each day of the week in your prayer, read the epistle from Sunday. Think of it as instructions for your day.
Of course, there are those who say that they learn better by doing, by observing. Just show them what to do, and they will quickly do the same. Maybe that is why the Gospels were composed, for the most part, after the epistles. And what do they show us? The long, gentle surrender of Jesus into the hands of men and women. He would come among us as God’s power, God’s mercy. He would surrender his power, give himself into our hands, and he would receive no mercy.
Still looking for a learning aid? If there is one scene, one lesson, that explains who Christ is and who we are called to be in him, it comes in the Gospel of St. Mark:
“If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me” (9:35-37).
If, at your age, you are far removed from being a child, try to remember what it was like. The innocent one is given into the hands of others. The child’s will must bend to theirs. It must do this when it understands why and when it doesn’t understand why. Sadly, the child must bend to the will of adults even when that “why” is truly wrong.
If innocence cannot find a home in your heart, love will never conquer the world.
We hope and pray that those who surround the child are gentle, loving and patient. We want them to instill wonder and wisdom in the life of the child. But, of course, those to whom the child is given are themselves subject to sin. Sadly, even when sin outpaces grace, the child is still surrendered into their hands.
Jesus was not abused as a child. Nor did he ever surrender the innocence of childhood. Even as a man, he came among us as the pure, beating heart of God’s love, a love surrendered into our hands. He did this because he was both the origin and the fullness of love, and he trusted that the love of his Father would prevail.
In a nutshell, that is the purpose of our lives: to innocently surrender ourselves to the needs of others, trusting in the Father’s love. Yes, fight evil in all its forms, wherever you find it, but begin within your own heart. Because if innocence cannot find a home there, love will never conquer the world. If you cannot learn to imitate a child and surrender your heart to the Lord, it is the world that will conquer you.
Excellent article once again, Father Klein. Thank you.
John Collins
Excellent article once again, Father Klein. Thank you.
John Collins
"Jesus was not abused as a child. Nor did he ever surrender the innocence of childhood." This is only conjecture.
"Because if innocence cannot find a home there, love will never conquer the world." One need not be innocent to know that God' love will prevail. Love will conquer the world anyway.
Why the preoccupation with innocence, a word not mentioned in the gospel passage quoted?