Facing Our Immortality Support Group Call
Time: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm MDT (8:30 pm to 10:00 pm EDT)
- Call Uber Conference at 720-735-7025 or
- Online at uberconference.com/facingourimmortality
Opening Prayer:
REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
Marginalizing God
The marginalization of peoples has been a social justice concern for decades now. Sometimes the lightning rod is women, sometimes immigrants, sometimes black or brown or minority peoples, as is currently the case, sometimes the working class, sometimes the poor. These issues evoke strong reactions in people, but not always in a right order that is constructive. Cardinal Robert Sarah points out we can quickly multiply sin when we succumb to the temptation to satisfy “our little egotistical or revolutionary passions.” Further complicating this is our tendency to oversimplify by looking for the nearest possible scapegoat.
A hard truth would resolve all this if we, as a people, could live it even though we have failed to do so for the last two-thousand years. The truth is our problems come first and foremost not from marginalizing others but from marginalizing God, pushing Him to the peripheries of our lives. God has the answers to everything we need: peace, justice, progress, the true development of peoples, breakthroughs in science, medicine, etc.
What profoundly influenced the lives of the Saints and made them powerful was an unwavering belief in the words of Jesus Christ: “He who abides in Me and I in him will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Jn. 15:5 That really means, on our own, we can do nothing! Absolutely nothing!
“Someone who is close to God becomes powerful; he can conquer the evil that corrodes the world, and he is capable of integrating it into his prayer of intercession.” Cardinal Robert Sarah
God not only has the answers to our problems but also to our potential as well. Imagine man traveling intergalactically, peopling the universe. Imagine him conquering the riddles of disease and deformity. Imagine the forces of creation, of science, working for the good; imagine man working with and in God!
C S Lewis noted that “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this world.”
The best possible outcomes are found only in God. The Israelites of old show us what happens when we look for success, advancement, and happiness solely through our own capacities and vanities: plagues, war, pestilence, chaos, famine, and exile. Sound familiar? The most dangerous borders we erect are the ones which fence God off from our lives. Those are the real walls that need to come down!
Please silently reflect on the questions below:
- One way to tell the level of marginalization of God in our lives is to review your day and to note where you were even conscious of the presence of God during the day. So much of the time we may have a general awareness of His presence, but do we really engage with Him and consult Him throughout the day or do we just go through things on our own?
- Have you ever experienced God leaving you to yourself to show you how much you can really do without Him?
- Do you know people you would consider powerful in the sense that Cardinal Sarah speaks of it? What is their relationship to the Lord like?
- Has suffering or dealing with illness brought you a closeness to God you might not otherwise have found?
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