{"id":6540,"date":"2023-09-29T21:27:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T19:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/predication.net\/?p=6540"},"modified":"2023-09-29T21:32:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T19:32:51","slug":"6540","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/predication.net\/?p=6540","title":{"rendered":"It’s about life, not the destination."},"content":{"rendered":"
There are some things in which we will never measure up to God: \nWe will never equal God in the work of CREATION: we will never create a Universe out of nothing, nor can we keep it in existence as God does. \nWe will never equal God in LOVE: None of us will ever love every single person personally and lay down our lives for every single person personally as Jesus did: “Jesus, during his life, his agony, and his passion, knew and loved every one of us individually and gave himself up for each of us: the Son of God ‘loved me and gave himself up for me’ (Gal 2:20)” (CCC 478). \nWe will never equal God in HOLINESS: we are sinners, we have done evil, and it is only by God’s gift of love and forgiveness that we are allowed to think at all the life of God, which God lives in Himself, received from no one, and has never denied or lost in any way. \nBut there are things in which we can indeed be like God: \nBut that in which we can become like Him is not the GOAL and the RESULT, but the SPORT of LIFE: \nWe can CREATE as best we can, dedicate our whole being to it – and so BE like God! \nWe can LOVE as best we can, with all our being – and so BE like God! \nWe can choose HOLINESS as best we can, with all our being – and so BE like God! \nThis is the secret of deification: \nWe do not become like God because we CAN DO THE SAME WORKS as God,… \n… but because we can DO much lesser works EQUALLY LIKE GOD – and thus BE LIKE GOD, even though we cannot do the great things God has done! \n… a threefold vulnerability \nFAITH IN GOD AND LOVE OF GOD = vulnerability: I begin to live according to something that does not come from me but from God. I give God power over my life and thus freely give up my previous independence in the name of love. I allow God to intervene in my life, change it, and turn it upside down (cf. St. Francis of Assisi!)… \nCIRQUE = vulnerability: I open my life to other people, I give them the possibility to enter our life, we stop hiding from them, pretending… we open ourselves to them, to their lives, to their needs… \nCREATORS HIP (“apostolate”) = vulnerability: we open ourselves even to people “outside” to invite them to a relationship and to share their lives with us, even though we know that many of them are evil and many times they will take advantage of this, and it will require sacrifice from us, a willingness to go through the effort, the suffering,… \nAnd yet it is worth it because it is the PAIN OF BIRTH: “When a woman gives birth, she is despondent, for her hour has come. But as soon as she gives birth to a child, she no longer thinks of the pain for the joy that a human being has come into the world. 22 You are sad now, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice. And your joy no one will take from you. (Joh 16:21-22<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"