Sunday, September 15, 2019

Blessings, Temptations, Idolatry... The Poverty of the Heart...


Life is a blessing that we need to embrace, it will come with its temptations, it will be sometimes threatened, but all the goodness that comes with it: physically, intellectually find themselves in one goodness that of God the Father. This has the following consequences when we can put it in terms of personal relationship and encounter. All the conflicts, use of goods, intellectual capacity builds itself in the view of what we can pick from the scripture and who Jesus is to each one of us. Sometimes Jesus looks at us and invites us but we think it is impossible to do that what he is calling us to do. "Jesus looked at them and said, "With men, it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God" (Cf. Mk 10:27). We need to get to the whole integral perspective of what we are looking for in our lives today, all whatever we are looking for is related to God the Father, that self-abandonment, to start walking with Him in the sense that every day one has to ask the question of who am I? constant evaluation and reviewing of life as a subject, identity, with whom do I live within my life? The plurality of beauty, walking through the garden of flowers, mountainous places, a place of solace.

TEMPTATION

The stress of life, this can only be understood in the form that is relational between the individual with God and the fellow brothers. Sometimes we enter into ingratitude of life, lack of inner sense of origin but into idolatry, the poverty that surrounds us, the injustice we confront every day. But the poverty that Jesus is talking about is that of hope, not that of misery. In that he who is faithful in very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest also in much (Cf. Lk 16:10). If we are poor Jesus will have interest in us, because we are able to say Jesus is Lord: It's the poverty of the heart, living positively, with limits but accepting my limits, sobriety of life, simplicity of life, to encounter the other, the spirituality id that of openness to God, relationship back to God not to be desperate. You realize that you are alone, needy and suffering looking forward to healing. (1 Kings 17:1-16). The story of Elijah with the poor widow who had to cook the remaining food and with her son left to die, but God intervenes… (Drought, the widow), then (Luke 4), the strategic plan of God. We have God for grace but we have no guarantee, God does his work in a very interesting way, God lies even to those who are poor, who can’t give anything, yet they still find something to share like the story of Naaman the commander. We are called to live a life but with a different form of approach, a new diverse way, and form.

IDOLATRY

In life, we have many people who mask themselves leading to a limitation of self-development. This kind of thinking and living leads to some formed ideologies and scandals. This read in (Gen 3:5, Exodus 24). We are called upon to talk responsibility, not being opportunists, for it eliminates simplicity for leads too much occupation where we struggle with the inner heart's desires and uncontrolled passions. The idols will always present themselves but the true image of God can't be eliminated in us, for that is the reasons for the search of God in our lives. The encounter has to spiritual, for the gospel is not something there to be read but it's a person who so happens to be Jesus. The Jesus who calls us to follow Him, daily in the discovery (Psalm 115).
Moses discovers that the Israelites have made the idol (Exodus 32). Sometimes life comes with its ups and down, about above all we need to find the joy of listening, create a prayer of intercession among the people, for God moves, in the tent of meeting with people, united, dynamic living relationship. The face of God is that which walks, which has to be followed on the road of life. This is the spiritual tensions that St. Ignatius of Loyola talks about, spirituality as a path towards God.
(Exodus 3, Gen. 28). The real spiritual struggle of looking and experiencing this God, A God who can't reveal Himself amidst the struggles of life. Jacob wants to know His name, but in the struggles, he gets transformed but He never reveals His name. Sometimes we feel there is too much light in our lives, his presence looks very far. (Exodus 16:1ff) the people of Israel have sinned and needs to be forgiven, they are slaves are freed to get their real identity, the basic needs lack, the temptation of nostalgia, the water, and bread tested to the extreme. The gift of bread, water the portion of everyday with its limit of the day, making use of the little we have, to use it well as a gift, not to collect and accumulate, trusting in the providence of God and living in His confinement, not to occupy everything, but trusting in the divine providence.

The word, the prophetic approach of preaching, because sometimes the idolatry eludes the presumption, no space for the others (Isaiah 5). Jesus loves the poor when he says blessed are the poor, the benefits of poverty in man. No fear of loving a poor life, for it is full of sobriety, the challenge of comparing ourselves with others produces jealousy. (Psalm 39) talks about self-weakness; how envy enters into our lives. We are called upon to accept our daily limits in life…The courage to open one's eyes to the breath of God and brotherhood. The spiritual tension is those moments where God looks upon us as that which we love the Lord to remove his face from us. The example of Abel. Envy paralyzes creativity, when you want to compare the self with others, you are as you are. (Psalm 72) a psalm of hope, exultation, and discovering the breath of God in the other as brothers without which remains the breath, more breathing.

Knowing the grace of God is becoming poor to be rich in his poverty (Cf. 2Cor 8:9), although he was in the form of God, he accepted to die, die on the cross. (Cf. Phil 2:11). The sensibility of being rich but poor, living God to operate in us, creating a space in yourself to receive, create something new, the human condition, dependent on God, nearing things, proximity, without superiority, down to earth, the relational touch with the Father. Losing yourself to get all…having contact directly with the life of the other. (Matt 15:21-28, Mk 24:7) The great conviction with Jesus, the woman transforms Jesus in the way of looking at issues, she insists and turns the tables around. The truth of things, open hospitality.
Sometimes this can hit us in matters of inheritance debates in families (Cf. Luke 12:13-20, Luke 16:19-31) closing the self in self-possession, finding a way of sharing to get fresh air. The episode of Abraham and the rich man allows us not to wait for the world to break then help the person near us with our presence, but we need to multiple this hope even when the hope seems to be elusive.
This will have to lead us to tenderness, compassion (Cf. Mk 1:14, 6:21) walking on water, and (Mk 8:27) multiplication of bread. (Mk 13:28, 4:12, 25, 14:27.28). We need to flourish the tenderness, the sensibility that entails in each one of us, self-disposition of the self, the problem and difficulty with others, something moving inside me, the intensity of the relationship. Sometimes he who betrays us is someone near us but eating today is the tenderness of life and attention in a particular way of living a relationship.
 
© Nyamunga J.B’19

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