Being Spiritual: to love and to love more...

THE WORD IN LENT

Saturday, 3rd week in Lent - March 26, 2022

Hosea 5:15 - 6:6; Luke 18: 9-14

Being Spiritual at times is confused with being self-righteous! Being self-righteous involves a large dose of judgement of the other. When you judge, you do not love. So being self righteous you begin to love the other lesser and lesser, and yourself more and more! It is a kind of narcissism (a pitiable condition of excessive self-love). Whereas today the Word invites us to love more than to sacrifice, to get to know who the Lord is and who we are in relation to the Lord, than making our spiritual efforts mere rituals.

Being Spiritual truly should mean growing more and more loving. More loving towards God and more loving towards those around us. Growing more loving means, that we grow more and more open, to appreciate the other sincerely, to sensitively confront the other in their shortcomings, to readily accept my own limitations with gratitude when pointed out, to reach out to the other in whatever way I can even if it costs me a bit, or even a lot.

Being Spiritual means to understand within me what the Spirit wants of me and to lead my life in the Spirit's path. The Spirit of the Lord wants us to grow more and more loving and less and less judgmental. The Holy Father seems to be repeating this time and again! It is so difficult a teaching because we are so filled with self-love, to exaggerated levels and according to the trends of the world, nothing seems an exaggeration when it comes to self-love... what a disaster! We have totally misunderstood what it means to be human. 

Just imagine in this context, being spiritual! Being spiritual, or being persons of the Spirit, is to love and to love more and to love like the way God loves us!