Dear People Whom God Loves,
What are some signs that we are moving in the direction of that surrender?
Prayer – Are my religious practices helping my prayer to change from telling God what to do to being willing to let God change me? In my prayer, am I becoming more willing to invite God to work in and transform my most cherished beliefs, relationships, and life-style? Am I honest and humble enough to see how far from that goal I am? Also, it is important to be patient with myself through that long, painful, and confusing journey. Saying prayers as a duty is a start. I believe that we are all called to go beyond that. If I say to myself—I have done my duty and prayed—I think that religion has become a substitute for God. That is not bad, but we are called to move beyond this.
Participating in Mass and other religious rituals. This is much the same. Do I see this as performing my duty? When I do this, the religious act has become an end in itself. We are doing religion and not becoming transformed. I value the statement from Fr. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest. “Religion is a wonderful place to avoid God.”
It is also helpful to look at the consequence of rituals. Religion uses rituals. There are other rituals that we may not recognize as rituals. There are political rallies, patriotic celebrations, and other rallies for various causes. These, too, are rituals. Rituals have a positive value, but they also have a dark side. They have the value of helping a group band together. The dark side is that they easily help us to see ourselves as the insiders and the others as outsiders. We become us and them. This easily degenerates into thinking that we are the good guys and they are the bad guys. The others are our enemies. When people become our enemies, we dehumanize them. When they become less than human to us, we can hurt them and even kill them with no remorse.
This is the dark side of religion and patriotism. This is why religion and nationalism are behind so many wars. That is why we feel so righteous and good while doing terrible things. Religion and nationalism become substitutes for God. God is the God of all people. We humans make the divisions.
Again, we don’t stop participating in church and country, but allow ourselves to move beyond where we are.
Some final signs:
• Am I becoming a more compassionate person?
• Do I value my beliefs and, at the same time, respect and value the beliefs of those who believe differently?
• Do I value obedience and at the same time realize that love is primary?
• Do I believe that telling the truth is more important than obedience?
A final word about a challenge for myself: Am I willing to surrender everything that I have just written and allow God to work in them and change them anyway that God wants?
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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