Dear People Whom God Loves,
To continue. The Greek preposition can be translated with by the word among or the word within. I see either translation as emphasizing in different ways what the reign of God is like.
Let us start with the reign of God is within. The reign of God is the pervasiveness of Love. This reminds us that this infinite, compassionate, merciful, understanding, healing, forgiving and energizing Love is deep inside us. Indeed I would say that that is who we really are. And as that Love grows within us we are gradually becoming who we really are. That is why only love (Love) can make us deeply happy.
Remember Love respects our freedom. That is why we must be willing to allow Love to transform us. We resist because it means letting go (gradually, usually) of the selfish unhealthy things within us. We cling to those parts even though they are destructive. This applies to me and all of us. It often takes a crisis to shock us out of our stubbornness. Love even helps us to be willing and also works through the painful shocks in our life.
An essential part of this process is seeing ourselves as we really are. This means seeing the deep goodness in the depths of our being. This can be hard when our background has filled us with shame, guilt and self-hate. We can also be misled by thinking that our goodness is because of our success, our talents, our position of power, our virtuousness, our religiosity and who knows what else.
Whether we live out of inflated ego or deflated ego, we are called and energized by Love to see our true goodness. When this happens we slowly receive the gift of gratitude and humility.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay