Refuse

“Again He said to them, ‘I go away, and you will seek me and die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come...  You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.’” (John 8:21-22).

Adam and Eve in Paradise Fall of Man Snake Garden of Eden (Lucas Cranach the Elder)

The Saints never refuse God.  They accept everything that God asks of them and they move forward with that anyway.

You never hear about a Saint who faced a struggle and said, please God take this away I cannot bear it.  Instead, they would turn to God with love and say to Him…  Please God, allow me the Grace to strengthen my resolve and endure whatever it pleases You to send in Your Holy Will…

And this is something that Christ taught even while He was on Earth.  He told His disciples, who had been with Him – living as His beloved brothers – for years – that He followed the Will of God and that following that Will was demanding and could not be avoided if one wanted to be of “above”…

“Again He said to them, ‘I go away, and you will seek me and die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come...  You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am He.’  They said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Even what I have told you from the beginning.’” (John 8:21-30).

And as I reflect on that scene today, I can imagine the disciples…  There they would have sat and asked their Teacher, “Who are You?”  And He would have looked at them with love and perhaps a little amusement in His Eyes and replied, “Even what I have told you from the beginning.”  And what a conversation that must have been.  There was their beloved Friend and Teacher and Master telling them in plain and simple language that He was really God Himself…

Imagine their turmoil in understanding that.  Imagine how they must have tried to reason things out within themselves, knowing that God walked among them.  Imagine the lengths they would have striven for, knowing that Christ is God.  I can imagine how they might have guarded their tongues more closely, knowing that they were standing on Holy Ground, in their standing next to God.

Perhaps old habits of swearing would have melted away through association with such holiness.  After all, there is nothing more sobering than observing genuine goodness.  There is nothing more important than recognising the beauty of God and His Grace.

In 1946 Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta heard the voice of God in her soul saying, “You have come to India for me. Are you now afraid to take one more step for me? Has your generosity cooled down? Am I only secondary for you? You did not die for souls; that's why you don't care what happens to them. Your heart was never drowned in sorrow as was my Mother’s heart. We both gave ourselves up totally for souls. What about you? ... Will you refuse?”  And with those words her entire mission began – serving the poorest of the poor...

What will my mission be, if only I stop refusing my God…?

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.