Angel of Light: Difference between revisions
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The Church teaches us to confess that we are not worthy so that we can appreciate the greatness of God's love for us. The Angel of Light insinuates that because we are not worthy, we are unlovable. God is love. God loves us because He is beautiful, not because we are. Our beauty comes from Him and returns to Him. He loves us as we are right now. Most of us are works in progress or unfinished business, but God is not afraid of what our renovation will cost Him. One of His names is Emmanuel, "God with us." He camps with us, as He did with Israel, showing us the way by night and by day. We can't increase His love for us by anything we do. We are not worthy of such love or such a lover, but this is the great good news burning like a fire in our hearts. Love is with us. Love is for us. Love is in us. Love endures. | The Church teaches us to confess that we are not worthy so that we can appreciate the greatness of God's love for us. The Angel of Light insinuates that because we are not worthy, we are unlovable. God is love. God loves us because He is beautiful, not because we are. Our beauty comes from Him and returns to Him. He loves us as we are right now. Most of us are works in progress or unfinished business, but God is not afraid of what our renovation will cost Him. One of His names is Emmanuel, "God with us." He camps with us, as He did with Israel, showing us the way by night and by day. We can't increase His love for us by anything we do. We are not worthy of such love or such a lover, but this is the great good news burning like a fire in our hearts. Love is with us. Love is for us. Love is in us. Love endures. | ||
Jesus commands us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. The Angel of Light says, "Good Christians have no enemies. If you call someone an enemy, then you are not a good Christian." If we cannot identify those who have hurt us, we cannot forgive them or love them as Jesus loves us. We become too proud to obey Jesus, serving a false ideal of "Christianity" instead of Christ, the King. | |||
Jesus says, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." The Angel of Light says, "If you had faith, you would never be tempted; if you had faith, you would never suffer; if you had faith, you could make God do anything you want Him to do." Infected by that false premise, we then interpret temptation, suffering, or disappointment with God as proof that we don't have faith. Then we get all cross-eyed trying to figure out how to increase our faith. The end result is that we lose sight of the One Who loves us with love beyond all telling. Bossing trees around is not our job. Our job is to dwell in the presence of the Gardener and do whatever He tells us to do. | |||
== Links == | == Links == | ||
* [[Perfectionism]] | * [[Perfectionism]] | ||
Revision as of 18:00, 2 February 2013
In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius says that when the enemy of our human nature finds that he cannot tempt us to break the commandments switches tactics and instead comes to us as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14) to draw us away from God's love. May God deliver us from the hands of our enemy so that we may "draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation" (Is 12:3).
The Church teaches us to confess that we are not worthy so that we can appreciate the greatness of God's love for us. The Angel of Light insinuates that because we are not worthy, we are unlovable. God is love. God loves us because He is beautiful, not because we are. Our beauty comes from Him and returns to Him. He loves us as we are right now. Most of us are works in progress or unfinished business, but God is not afraid of what our renovation will cost Him. One of His names is Emmanuel, "God with us." He camps with us, as He did with Israel, showing us the way by night and by day. We can't increase His love for us by anything we do. We are not worthy of such love or such a lover, but this is the great good news burning like a fire in our hearts. Love is with us. Love is for us. Love is in us. Love endures.
Jesus commands us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. The Angel of Light says, "Good Christians have no enemies. If you call someone an enemy, then you are not a good Christian." If we cannot identify those who have hurt us, we cannot forgive them or love them as Jesus loves us. We become too proud to obey Jesus, serving a false ideal of "Christianity" instead of Christ, the King.
Jesus says, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." The Angel of Light says, "If you had faith, you would never be tempted; if you had faith, you would never suffer; if you had faith, you could make God do anything you want Him to do." Infected by that false premise, we then interpret temptation, suffering, or disappointment with God as proof that we don't have faith. Then we get all cross-eyed trying to figure out how to increase our faith. The end result is that we lose sight of the One Who loves us with love beyond all telling. Bossing trees around is not our job. Our job is to dwell in the presence of the Gardener and do whatever He tells us to do.