Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (11/4/2007)

Dear People of Holy Name,

St. Paul’s phrase, “If God is for us, who can be against?” sums up our scriptures for this weekend. In the Book of Wisdom we hear, “for you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.” In the Gospel Jesus says he has come to seek and save what was lost. This after the greatest sinner in town, Zacchaeus gives himself to the Lord.

God is for us, not against! Jesus wants us to share in the fullness of life. As St. Ierineus once said, “God’s greatest gift is a human being fully human and fully alive.” We must remember this, lest we reduce God to an angry policeman and our spiritual lives to fear and despair. God loves us. To believe that takes a lot of faith, real faith. That is why the tax collector in last week’s Gospel walked out of the temple justified. He believed in God’s goodness and love, where the rich man knew only his own goodness.

Believing that God is good and that God loves us, frees us to go to him in our brokenness knowing he will make us whole. We can run to him rather than away in shame and disgrace. It is sad that shame entered the picture at all. Shame keeps us from seeing our goodness, a goodness that doesn’t need to be saved, but called out into the open light of God’s love.

We all choose what is less than good at times and sometimes deliberately, but we are capable of so much more. I remember sitting in an audience many years ago and hearing someone tell their personal story. It was filled with pain and brokenness, but ended with the triumph of the human spirit and wholeness, from which redemption was realized. I thought to myself how powerful the person’s story was, but at the same time recognized in my silence that everyone in that auditorium had a just as amazing story to share.

I believe it is who we become that is important and that it is precisely or trials that make us who we are. Our weaknesses can become our strengths and our strengths can be the other side of the coin of our weaknesses. Believing that God is for us, helps. It removes shame and also hopefully, keeps us from pointing fingers at others, which we do because we are not sure of God’s love for us. When our faith in God’s love for us is low, our love for others will also suffer.

The spiritual life isn’t about being perfect, we can’t be. God is always there to help us no mater how far we have wandered. We can be the prodigal son, but the good news is we have a God who is always willing to seek us with open arms. So let us imagine this God in our prayer, so that our relationship with the Lord isn’t based in fear and shame, but love and freedom of heart.

God is for us and no one can be against us. In believing this there is no room for shame and self-hatred, only hope and courage to follow the Spirit’s lead to a life full of life and of love.

May God help us to know in your hearts that he is for us and never against!

In Christ’s peace, Fr. Leo