Priority of Love

So, I survived Totus Tuus Colorado Springs 2012, spent a few weeks at home, and made it up to Mundelein for the Fall Quarter.  I’m all settled in and it’s going to be a challenging quarter, but I’m ready as I can be, especially since this is the beginning of the 2^nd week of the Fall quarter.  I’ve got two papers to write, the Seminary Golf Outing to help with, a Doctor’s appointment back in Quincy, and a trip to the city for my Ecclesiology class this week. Is it a busy week? Oh yes, but that’s September at Mundelein Seminary for you.

One of the topics that I will be coming back to again and again, in the future is the idea (and the virtue) of humility.  It’s such a key quality in the life of a Christian person, it blows my mind how integral it is and I hope it, if it doesn’t already, that it will blow your mind as well.

In any case, this blog post is about another thing that blew my mind.  In fact, my mind “explodes” so often that it’s amazing that it’s intact.  I’m sure it’s only through the Grace of God that it’s somewhat functional.  Okay, that’s me rambling again, surprise, surprise.  So, let’s get to the meat of the post, alright? Alright.

So, on Saturday morning, I went next door to Marytown (The National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe) to do a Holy Hour and go to Mass.  Which was good, what I thought was going to be daily Mass though, turned out to be a Mass where an OFM Conventual was professing his Solemn Vows. It came into my mind that I had the opportunity to leave on a few occasions, but it always came back to not wanting to miss Mass.  So I bit the bullet and stayed. And I am so glad I did, it was beautiful, it was my first time seeing a Solemn profession, and the homily was spectacular; it truly did strengthen my commitment to the state in life I believe God is calling me too. It hit home on so many levels.

Now that I’ve set the scene, I’m going to go back.  I was prayerfully reading Love Alone is Credible authored by Hans Urs von Balthasar, and it hit me, right in the gut. God deserves the totality of our love.  Now, I knew this intellectually and it revisited me every once in a while, but I don’t remember it hitting me in such a visceral sense before.  Since God deserves the totality of our love, that means we need to put God first, at all times.  It also means that our goal, in every relationship with other people, to help the other person get to heaven; to be catalysts for them to grow in their relationship with God.  We’ve heard that every husband’s and wife’s goal needs to be to help the other get to heaven, which is true and takes a somewhat different perspective than helping, say, your co-worker get to heaven.  However, it’s no less of a goal.

If we are putting God first at all times, that means putting His plans for us ahead of our own.  That’s hard at times, I know, and it requires humility, definitely a virtue I’m praying to grow in.  It’s especially hard when His plans conflict with our own. Of course discerning His plans is key, as we can’t just go around doing things saying, “It’s God’s will”, because we’d probably just be wanting a scapegoat for our actions or simply be crazy.  We have to pray, discern, and ask people we trust to give us answers of faith and reason before taking action.  Eventually we do have to take action, but we always need to discern God’s will.

If our relationships do not have God as the foundation, then how do we change that?  What if a couple starts out trying to build their relationship on God and have fooled themselves into thinking that it’s still based on God, but over time have shifted their relationship onto a foundation of each other or even themselves?  Well, prayer, discernment and communication with the other person.  What I do know is that if one of the people in that relationship tries to shift his/her part of that relationship onto something else, even God, without communicating to the other person, that spells trouble.  How can you build or maintain a relationship without communication? You can’t, I can’t, there is no person that can build or maintain a relationship without communication.  Even if we have an imaginary friend, we talk to that imaginary friend and we pretend that the friend talks back and so we’re communicating.  But wait, what if you had a relationship in the past and you have grown in your love for that person.  You have no relationship to speak of now with that person, you’re okay with that, and you’ve understood it’s actually helped you grow in your vocation, what now?  Pray for that person! Again, I know, it’s hard, trust me, but it’s worth it.  The more you pray, the more you grow in every spiritual aspect and emotional aspect, even though you don’t always feel like you are.  We always need to be mindful that God needs to be our first priority in life and keep Him as that.  Then will we grow in love and that’s a good thing because when we do grow in love, we grow in God, because God is love.  If you made it the whole way through, thank you; if you didn’t, I don’t blame you.  I will leave you with a closing song though.