By Maria Sangeetha –
“He Will Renew You in His love” (Zeph 3:17)
When we go to a supermarket to purchase items for our consumption, we are advised to check the date of manufacture and expiry. A product, no matter how well known the brand maybe, if it is outdated has to be thrown into the trash. Whatever is outdated is of no value except to be destroyed. So also, Jesus while telling us that we lose our saltiness we are fit for nothing except to be trodden underfoot. If we are outdated we will become a liability, a curse and an object of ridicule.
We are very careful to avoid the outdated stuff in our choices for the body. We know that if we eat food that is not outdated we are going to fall sick. It is poisonous. If we wear clothes that are outdated, we will be ridiculed and avoided. In several professions today, if you take leave and you have not kept yourself updates with the progress in your line of work, you will realise you are outdated and all your training is now of no value. We just cannot afford to be outdated! This is true, all the more in our spiritual value. What does it mean to be spiritually outdated?
Jesus talks about the branches that cut off from the main trunk. Such branches stop receiving nourishment from the source of their life. They stop bearing fruit, wither and dry up, and are taken away to be burnt (Jn 15:6). To be spiritually outdated is to be similarly cut off from the constant flow of life from God who is the source of our life. We become unproductive, negative and spiritually dead. Let us check: When was the last time you saw the face of God or heard His voice? When did you last read the Scripture and feel the word speaking to your heart, answering a situation of your life? When was the last time you felt the thrill of the presence of God and His personal love filling you with joy and confidence? Having you bee walking on your strength or in His strength of late? If your answer has not been ‘today’, then you are outdated.
The word assures us, “His mercies are new every morning” (Lam 3:23). Not a day passes without the Lord pouring out His grace, but the question is, are we receiving it?
On the other hand, when we have a living relationship with God, we will find every dimension of our life a response to this love. We will be grateful for the work we are doing for in it we will see the providence of God. We will be generous in our judgements, and loving an respectful in our relationships, for we will be living it out in the intoxication of the experience of God’s breath-taking (or should it be breath-giving) love. We will take up our responsibilities with great enthusiasm. Every moment of our life will be spent joyfully as a song of love.
Being spiritual is not about fulfilling certain obligations towards God. Very often when we participate in the sacraments, spend time in prayer or reading the Bible, when we offer service, we can tend to think we are doing a favour of God. We could even think we are giving God His due. Some see it as a requirement to fit into the category of being Christian or charismatic or prayerful.
The fact is our prayerful observances are meant to nourish our love and commitment to God. In our prayer and service, we come in touch with the great outpouring of love from the heart of God. This love spreads through every second of our existence making our life a heavenly experience.
If we are constantly seeing everything around us, our circumstances and the people, as bleak and unpleasant, if life has no goodness in it, the possibility is that our hearts have become drought-ridden because it has not been watered and nourished by the graces of His love. Through seeking the experience of God in prayer and service, we are doing ourselves the greatest favour. We are protecting ourselves from the poison and shame of being spiritually outdated.
“Sleeping Beauty,” a very popular fairytale written almost four centuries ago, has a very striking storyline. Long, long ago there was a powerful and prosperous kingdom. The king was good, great and very loved by the subjects. He had a very beautiful queen whom the people adored. To them a beautiful princess was born and there was great rejoicing throughout the country. However, in just a few days, the rejoicing turned to great mourning for the lovely queen died and the king was heartbroken.
In this dark hour, an evil stepmother steps into the picture. She has no love for the king. All she wants is to control the kingdom. She is extremely jealous of the little princess. She could not bear to see the way the king loved her. She could not imagine that one day the entire kingdom would be handed to the little girl. She hated the child but she knew she cud do nothing directly against her. She finally works out an evil plan. She deceives the child with her charming words and leads the little princess to the forest. There she gives her an apple which contains an evil power. She coaxes her to eat all of it. The child falls into a deep, deep sleep.
The evil returns victorious for having accomplished her plan. The princess is imprisoned in sleep. She is asleep to the great love of her father, to the glorious kingdom that awaits her, her own beauty and to life itself. Years pass. One day a brave, strong and handsome prince goes hunting into the forest. He chances on this sleeping princess. He reaches out and takes her by the hand, and in that loving touch of the prince, the princess comes alive. She returns with the prince to the kingdom, to her father, and to live life happily ever after.
There are a few, only a few but sharp similarities between the saga of our life and this simple typical fairytale.
Our Father is the King, a good and great king whose power is over all the earth and the heavens. For us. Isn’t it usual that the birth of a baby brings such great joy into the family. We know it is a piece of heaven that has entered the home. We are the heirs of the Kingdom, intensely loved by the Father who has in store for us every spiritual grace and blessing.
Satan, the enemy of God, hates us and cannot bear to see the marvellous plan God has chalked out for our life, and the great riches He has reserved for us. Satan drew us away from the Father’s kingdom, deceived us, fed us with poison and we fell into a deathly sleep. We have no idea of who we are. We have lost our connection with the Source of love and our very existence. We are imprisoned, defenceless and impoverished. To us came the Prince of Heaven. His Sacred Heart was torn open that it might become the font of love and life to renew us.
If we can reach our hands out for Him to hold and guide us, if we could open our hearts to the outpouring of His love, we will be led to the Father’s grand providence and the glories of the Kingdom. Let us then come alive to this love for “The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will renew you in His love; He will exult over you with loud singing” (Zeph 3:17). We need fear of being outdated when He will be constantly renewing us. All we need is to live with our hands in His and then we will live happily ever after.
Maria Sangeetha Sanjeevi is a Catholic lay minister serving at the Divine Retreat Centre since 2002. She is the Program Director for English programs of the Divine-Goodness TV. She coordinates the Divine Youth ministry. She is part of the retreat services in the preaching and counselling ministries. She hails from Chennai from where she did her post-graduation. After doing her Media Studies at Lyons, France, she joined the Divine Retreat Centre.