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Suggested Emphasis from the Prophet Ezekiel/Letter to the Romans
This week we enjoy an embarrassment of riches. Rather than choose one or the
other reflection for you, we will simply offer both.
Salesian Perspective
Today Jesus, as He raises Lazarus
from the dead, urges us to live and believe in Him. St. Francis de Sales expands
on what it means to live in the Spirit of Jesus: Jesus desires to give life
to those who are dead to attest to God's love for us. He speaks to those who
are deadened by sin to affirm that all can hear the voice of God through the
Spirit. The Spirit gently awakens us to a new human life. No matter how weakened
our hearts may be by sin, the Spirit strengthens them with an invigorating and
enlivening holy love.
The Holy Spirit is like a fountain
of living water that flows into every part of our hearts so as to spread its
divine love there. All our affections follow love. In love we desire, rejoice,
hope and despair, fear, hate, avoid things, feel sad, grow angry, and exult.
Love is the foundation of our life lived in the Spirit of Jesus. When divine
love reigns in our hearts, it transforms all other affections we have chosen
so that we may live, walk, and work in the Spirit of Jesus.
The Spirit has no wish to enter
our hearts without our permission. The Spirit will flood us with divine love
only with our cooperation. So what must we do to nourish a spirit where the
Spirit of Jesus can dwell? When reason guides our appetites, feelings and emotions,
we are then living in the "spirit." We live in the 'flesh" when our appetites,
feelings and emotions determine our actions.
Let us unambiguously choose a life in the spirit.
If a sick man takes only part
of his required medicine, it partly heals him. So also with divine love, to
the extent we consent to embrace it, the Spirit floods us with sacred love.
We must nurture this love guided by holy reason and wisdom. When steeped with
the love of the Spirit, our hearts produce sacred actions that tend toward immortal
glory.
Let us consent to a new human
life in the Spirit of Jesus who raises us to eternal glory. (Adapted from the
writings of St. Francis de Sales, especially Treatise on the Love of God.)
Pasqualina Young is a Daughter of St. Francis De Sales Spirituality Center
and a member of St. John Neumann Parish in Reston, Virginia
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