DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Why do some Christians seem so unloving?

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well. – Matthew 23:25-26

I call it the cycle of contemplation/compassion.  We spend time in contemplation so that we might then go into the world to compassionately serve.  And when we do the work of the humble and compassionate servant we come to know our need for contemplation.  And as this cycle of prayer and servanthood is continued, the contemplation becomes deeper and the compassion becomes greater.

When we first seek that purity of heart within then that purity reaches out into the world with pure love  Oh, at first, the purity is not so perfectly pure, but the purity become more perfect over time.  This is the vector of Christian Love, Love practiced becomes Love More Perfected.

I find the idea of purity of soul seems so discounted and disregarded in our times.  We seem to focus on changing the world without changing ourselves.  We seem to be more focused on controlling the attitudes and behavior of others than on the quality of spirit found in ourselves.  Thus even those who say they love, so often have but a veneer of love, a love that seems to be shallow and rather contrived.  They speak of love but they are not experienced as loving.

This process of becoming more and more the embodiment and expression of Christ’s Love, this process I refer to as the cycle of contemplation/compassion, is a daily process and yet a process that spans over a lifetime.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz