The Spirit - God's mark of Ownership

Friday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 19, 2018: Ephesians 1: 11-14; Luke 12: 1-7.

At times I wonder, do people really wish to be happy? One moment they are happy and the very next moment they are down in spirits, with concerns that they alone know. It gives me an idea that people choose to be unhappy and choose to make others unhappy! While there are thousand reasons to thank God for, we choose those few things that can make us feel miserable. While there are myriads of ways to create joy around us, we choose to make life so despicable for ourselves and all others around! If I have to be a child of God, I have to be beware of this tendency within me and people around me with such a tendency!

But I have nothing to fear! Do not fear, do not be afraid... Jesus repeatedly assures us not to be guided by fear. When we are filled with true convictions and not convenient compromises, when we are taken up with absolute commitment to the life task entrusted to us, we will be truthful to God who has created us, who has chosen us in Christ, sealed us in the Spirit and commissioned us to be the people of God, wherever and to whomever we are sent. That truth will indeed set us free (cf. Jn 8:32). 

When we live by truth, we will not fear anyone or anything. Whereas when we have teachings of our own making or forces that operate us from the dark, then we will struggling and striving to prove ourselves and dominate others: it may look like we are having power, but it is actually slavery! 

We will be enabled to make the choice that Jesus asks of us today, only by the power of the Spirit of Ownership that God has poured into our hearts, that which we need to hold on to as the mark of our belonging to God. I need to desire and wish that God owns me, directs me, controls me, uses me and holds me! Only then can I truly be glad and happy!