Scripture:
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Matthew 5:43-48
Reflection:
Let your meditation be “taken up” in the Holy Spirit today. The Word of God invites us to the mystical within us. The “mystical” within us is the reality within us which is not apparent to the intelligence or the senses! This reality inspires a sense of mystery and wonder. Yes, it takes a choice in our prayer to surrender one’s senses, one’s breathing, one’s heartbeat to a presence that is with us, in us, and works through us.
Make this exercise of inhaling and exhaling be the physical connection to the breath and heartbeat of our Creator. “The beat of our heart ought to be responding to God’s beat, the intake of our life-breath to the breathing of God’s spirit upon us. God first loves us with heart and soul moment by moment, and to live we must resonate or vibrate this divine heartbeat and breathing of life. And so we will “be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P.)
In our human, limited way of thinking and perceiving, “perfect” is the end all and be all of something. There is nothing more to add. It is a static, unchanging state of being.
But the God whom Jesus calls “Father” is superlative, all-expansive in love. God’s perfection means there is always room for more!” Our God possesses us, as God’s own, called to walk, daily, in God’s ways. Our God is ever-forgiving, ever desiring, calling forth our love in every circumstance, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.
So rather than coming to a state of completion or perfection, we are called today and tomorrow, to remain on the way, that every circumstance would continue to stretch us with the capability of loving more and more. Take this meditation into your day. It is not magical, it is mystical!
Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P., is a member of the Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.