Fear is a terrible thing. Of course, it is. Terrible things, by definition, are those
things which terrorize us, which cause us to fear. One of our greatest fears is fear of loss –
the loss of people or possessions we hold dear, the loss of respect and honor,
the loss of our life, the loss of love.
In our fear of loss, we desperately
cling to what we wish to keep. We
zealously protect it and guard it, lest it be taken away from us. We anxiously seek more and more, always
fearing that some loss is unavoidable.
Our fears make sense in a finite world,
where gains and losses are commonplace, where one person’s gain may be another
person’s loss, where value is equated with price, where more is always better
and less is always worse.
This is the world in which the
unfortunate third servant lived. (Lk 19:11-28) He so
feared the loss of his master’s coin – and the subsequent loss of prestige that
this would entail – that he could not see his true purpose.
This, also quite unfortunately, is the
world in which I often live. When I
assume that my value lies only in that which can be counted, that which can be
banked, that which can be summarized on a balance sheet or a list of Facebook
friends, I have utterly lost any sense of true purpose, any sense of what I am
intended for.
For I, like you, have been created by
God and have been created for God. I
have not been created to dwell in the finiteness of this world, but in the divinity,
the grace, the eternity, the faithfulness, and the infinity of God. For this purpose, God has gifted me – as he
has gifted you – with infinite and unconditional love. It is infinite; it cannot be counted. It is unconditional; it cannot be lost.
And all that God asks of me – God’s purpose
for me – is to give His love away in the same fashion as it was given to me. For it is giving it away, that I become more
aware of its presence. It is in giving
it away, that I live in the economy of grace, where giving multiplies that
which is given, where fear of loss is banished and the gratitude of what has
been given is plenteous, where more is unnecessary since what has been given –
God’s love – is always enough.
Next Thursday, we have set aside a special
day to give thanks to God for his great and bountiful gift of love, his gift of
life. Do not fear. It cannot be lost. It is enough.
We need nothing more.
No comments:
Post a Comment