“In the spiritual life you get an invitation, not an itinerary. Jesus is inviting us into journey with no end, yet dotted with infinite destinations of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. A journey that leads to liberation from the petty, small, domain of self, into the wild, free, spaciousness of God’s realm. Whosoever will may come is the invitation, anyone can walk in this way. In fact, that was the original name for the movement of Christ on earth, the Way. Names are important, even prophetic. Christianity is not a set of teachings to agree with or revere, Christianity is a path we journey on. In it’s deepest and most significant sense, it is a way of life” Jon Bailey, Renovare Weekly Digest, October 27, 2017).

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Christians worship Jesus because he . . .  fully lived the union of human and divine. We, too, are both human and divine—at the same time. We dare to believe that God has become one of us, fully one with us—and in Jesus reveals God’s self. Henceforth we speak of both humanity and the very elements (summarized in bread and wine) as “The Body of Christ.” Our vocation is to incarnate God as alter Christus, which means “another Christ.” As the familiar saying goes, “Christ has no body now but yours; no hands, no feet, but yours” (Richard Rohr in Daily Meditation for November 5, 2017).

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“The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit. All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily. As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons. But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal. In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God. Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening his life in me” (Ignatius of Loyola in The Principal and Foundation, modern translation).

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Power never surrenders without a fight. If your entire life has been to live unquestioned in your position of power—a power that was culturally given to you, but you think you earned— there is almost no way you will give it up without major failure, suffering, humiliation, or defeat. As long as we really want to be on top and would take advantage of any privilege or short cut to get us there (what exactly is it that is up there?), we will never experience true “liberty, equality, fraternity” (revolutionary ideals that endure as mottos for France and Haiti)”  Richard Rohr in his Daily Meditation for November 17, 2017).