By Fr. Valery Zakharov
God
gathers the scattered ones. He teaches us his word. He tries to establish a
connection with us. He wants us to be like him. On the contrary, we want to
make him like us. We try to get him involved in our affairs, troubles, and
worries. However, there are times when we stop looking down and lift our eyes
to the sky. More often than not, these rare moments occur during the Liturgy.
The Lord gives us a chance to spend Sundays with him, to accept him, and to try
to start everything from scratch, notwithstanding the fact that we fail at it.
The Lord does not expect us to put a lot of effort into it (although this is
essential to get anywhere). He agrees to count the very willingness to do
something as doing it. By giving us his Body, Christ wants to bring us closer
to the eternity and to teach us the power of love, which is his distinguishing
mark.
Of
course, we cannot understand what God feels when He looks at us but we know
that He never loses his main quality, i.e. love. Everything He does is built on
love. It is hard for us to grasp it because we build our relationships on
offences, resentment, and other sins that we have acquired here on earth.
We do not
know how long it will take for us to respond to God's call and accept this gift
that He spreads among us so graciously and indiscriminately. Love has its own
laws. It does not measure people up against a certain measure. It is
sacrificial, and it has always been. Only when we accept it as the rule, when
we respond to God's call and invitation, his humility, will we begin to realise
something in life. Right now, let us try to listen to the words of the Gospel
aimed at each one of us; to understand those words as they speak to our heart
today; and let us try to force ourselves into asking God to change us, to
correct us, and to make us capable of receiving his mercy. It's up to us.
November 28, 2017
St.
Elisabeth Convent
CONVERSATION