A Liberating and Creative Presence
Our true self is in God. As we are told again and again in John’s Gospel, we can love others because God first loves us. The spiritual life is coming into touch with that first love, which says that we belong to God. As Jesus said, “Just as I don’t belong to the world, neither do you” – but you, rather, belong to the Lover who gives you to yourself. We can be a liberating and creative presence in the world only if we don’t belong to the world, if we don’t depend on the world for our real identity. This is the real paradox of ministry: that we can minister to the world only if we don’t belong to it.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
- 1 Corinthians 12: 7 - 11
Reflection Question: In what ways do you feel that you do not belong to the world …. and in what ways do you find yourself entangled in the world?
