There is one thing we are
proud of: our conscience assures us that in our dealings with our fellow-men,
and above all in our dealings with you, our conduct has been governed by a
devout and godly sincerity, by the grace of God and not by worldly wisdom. There
is nothing in our letters to you but what you can read for yourselves, and
understand too. Partial as your present
knowledge of us is, you will I hope come to understand fully that you have as
much reason to be proud of us, as we of you, on the Day of our Lord Jesus. It
was because I felt so confident about all this that I had intended to come
first of all to you and give you the benefit of a double visit: I meant to
visit you on my way to Macedonia, and after leaving Macedonia, to return to
you, and you would then send me on my way to Judaea. That was my intention; did
I lightly change my mind?
Do I, when I frame my plans,
frame them as a worldly man might, so that it should rest with me to say 'yes'
and 'yes', or 'no' and 'no'? As God is
true, the language in which we address you is not an ambiguous blend of Yes and
No. The Son of God, Christ Jesus, proclaimed among you by us…was never a blend
of Yes and No. With him it was, and is, Yes. He is the Yes pronounced upon
God's promises, every one of them. That is why, when we give glory to God, it
is through Christ Jesus that we say 'Amen'. And if you and we belong to Christ,
guaranteed as his and anointed, it is all God's doing; it is God also who has
set his seal upon us, and as a pledge of what is to come has given the Spirit
to dwell in our hearts. (From 2
Corinthians 1:12-22, NEB)
Today’s appointed reading
from Paul’s Second Letter to the Church in Corinth, is an important example of
the way Christians are to go about discernment and decision-making. If we take
a look at it with care, we will benefit from the experience—and better
understand our Lenten preparation.
St. Paul begins the section
with a reminder that we may be proud only of the victory of God in us…nothing
else. He tells the Corinthians that this victory in his own life is seen by the
way he makes choices not by exercising his own independent will (something he
was very good at, we know, before his conversion to Christ), but by living in
God’s free gift of love and direction…his grace.
This grace doesn’t reduce us
to the level of puppets, however. It means we still may exercise our own
choices and thinking…but in concert with God. That concert or synergy is always
present with St. Paul and makes reading his letters even more interesting. He
remains a human being, with a will and passions and a personality; that much is
very clear from his writings! But, the will and passions and personality are
now in a loving and ever-deepening dialogue or communion with God, and that
communion yields clarity of discernment about choices to be made.
The Apostle then goes on to
say that instead of a worldly diffidence or willfulness—weighing everything out
with uncertainty, acting on impulse, or “charting our own course”—a person of
faith is always becoming more and more “in Christ” so that the decisions made
are so much in concert with the living Christ that they are natural,
appropriate, and made from God’s love, not human anxiety or thirst for power
and control. Instead of pointing to ourselves, such decisions point to God and
the true need of the other in our life.
This “becoming in Christ” is
not something we can accomplish on our own. No list of “10 techniques for
becoming a Christian” can or should exist. Instead, St. Paul tells us that this
is “all God’s doing,” and happens because of the Holy Spirit given to us as a
result of our decision for Christ. When the Spirit is given to us—and this is
sealed and made manifest in Holy Baptism—we are made part of Christ’s Body and
are set on the journey of growing more and more into Christ, becoming that “new
organism” the Apostle speaks of elsewhere, a kind of being that lives in
increasing harmony with God’s revealed will for this life and in eternity.
This is a manifestation of
the Peace of God that was made incarnate in Christ. To acquire that peace, it
is necessary that we strip away all that is not Christ in our lives. This is
our ascetic cooperation with God, and in doing this we enter more and more into
the eternal prayer of love and unity between the Father and the Son in the Holy
Spirit. It is out of that loving unity that Christians are to act.
The stripping-away process I
speak of is part of all Christian life, but especially it is the focus of Holy
Lent. As we approach this great season each year, it is essential we take stock
of our lives and see where it is still “no” and “yes” in our life with God.
God, who has said “yes” once and for all in Christ, beckons us to do the same
with Him. Our God makes no compromises with diffidence or willfulness—the “no”
in us. For our complete communion, we must surrender all ourselves to Him for
his loving and redemptive purposes, his eternal and joyous affirmation.
Understood this way,
repentance/ascesis is the farthest thing from punishment or some sort of
painful “no” in our life. It is the gateway to a life of “yes” with God, our neighbor,
and our potential and true self.