{"id":430,"date":"2013-10-24T15:29:35","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T20:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=430"},"modified":"2013-10-29T15:31:27","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T20:31:27","slug":"the-battle-within-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=430","title":{"rendered":"The Battle Within Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 29th<\/sup> Week in Ordinary Time<\/h2>\n

Rom 6: 19-23: Luke 12: 49-53<\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a never ending battle- the battle between our earthly bodies and the call of God and His spirit within us, \u00a0the battle between comfort and pleasure in this world; and the nagging feeling that there must be something more to life, and the desire to know what that is; the battle between self \u2013absorption and unconditional love.<\/p>\n

All of us are born into that dilemma.\u00a0 But the world cries out to us with its many attractions at first.\u00a0 And so, we kind of settle into a way of life, living our lives as the world dictates them to us.\u00a0 Because the voices of this world are loud and ever present; while the voice of God and the spirit within in us that nags us with \u201cwait a minute\u201d constantly, those other voices are subdued and vague. \u00a0\u00a0Paul calls this inability to hear the true voice \u201cthe weakness of your nature\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now here is some of what our nature does with what the loud voices say: we need to eat to sustain life- but we can become totally consumed with the pleasures of food and abuse our bodies; we are attracted to each other physically- but for some that becomes a never ending obsession in life; we need money to buy the necessities of life- but for some, money is the only focus of life; there are challenging and interesting things to do in the world like sports, science, the arts, music, you name it- but we can become so consumed in them that they derail any attempts to consider God and his plan.<\/p>\n

And so, what happens to us?\u00a0 We try to become what we think people want us to be, or what we think will make us popular; or what will gain us the most comfort or attention or fame rather than becoming the person God is calling us to be.\u00a0 We are too busy for God.\u00a0 Oh, we tell ourselves once and a while we will listen.\u00a0 But the things of this world can essentially take up all our energy and efforts.\u00a0 We become of two minds- but one of them has control of us, the world; and the other mind is left in the background.<\/p>\n

And yet, at some time during our lives, we realize that life as we know it in this world simply won\u2019t last forever, and especially not at the pace and level of the prime of life.\u00a0 Either we get sick, old, pushed down by others, or just fail to meet our own expectations.\u00a0 Then we begin to wonder just what is life all about and if is there something more.<\/p>\n

Jesus knew there was something more right from the start.\u00a0 So, he went into the desert and came to grips with God and his purpose in life; and he was eager and ready to get on with it.\u00a0 He says as much in today\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Why does he make such strong statements in today\u2019s Gospel about dividing people?\u00a0 Because he needed to get our attention and because he wanted all of us to see the path he had taken.\u00a0 He wanted all of us to realize, as he had come to realize, what life was really all about- namely loving God, our neighbors, and ourselves as God loves us and following God\u2019s plan for us until we leave this world and join God in the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven.<\/p>\n

The reality is that he knew\u00a0 tat when he accomplished his mission, it would bring controversy, not peace to earth.\u00a0 It would, and still does, separate families from each other.\u00a0 Jesus knew it would.\u00a0 There will be those who follow him, those who seek something above what the world offers; and there will be those who don\u2019t follow him, but rather, are self-absorbed and belong to the world.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 St. Paul tells us about the fate of both contingents.\u00a0 \u201cFor the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time Rom 6: 19-23: Luke 12: 49-53 Dc. Larry Brockman   It\u2019s a never ending battle- the battle between our earthly bodies and the call of God and His spirit within us, \u00a0the battle between comfort and pleasure in this world; and the nagging feeling that there must […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[248],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}