DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

The Christ said, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”  The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. – John 12:27-29

While many said that they heard but thunder, others declared that it was the voice of an angel.  And such is life, not only in the realm of spirituality and faith, but in almost all aspects of life from politics to economics … different people hear the same voice differently, see the same moments differently, experience the same circumstance differently.  It is a human frailty … we hear what we want to hear, we see what we want to see, behold a person’s words and action in the manner which coincides with our preconceived notions.

I believe more and more that life in Christ is about change and changing.  In Christ, our trust allows Christ to transform us including how we perceive the world about us.  In Christ, our obedient servanthood allows Christ to transform our understanding of people and their needs.  In Christ, our mission enables us to change the world and not condemn it.  In Christ, we can hear angels when others can only hear thunder.

If there is one powerful need in today’s Christian community it would be that we underappreciate the absolute necessity of the transforming power of the Spirit.  Through serious devotion to prayer, through our willingness to be personally involved in mission and servanthood, through our daily confession and repentance, we then acquire the qualities of the Spirit that transform both ourselves and the world about us.  I find that today’s world is not so much about the doing of the transformative work of Christ and more about maintaining the status quo and defending the ways that were.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz