{"id":887,"date":"2016-09-08T12:19:27","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T17:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=887"},"modified":"2016-09-08T13:21:15","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T18:21:15","slug":"do-you-love-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=887","title":{"rendered":"Do You Love God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of 23rd<\/sup> Week in Ordinary Time<\/h3>\n

Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary<\/h3>\n

Romans 8: 28-30Mt 1: 18-23<\/h3>\n

By Deacon Larry Brockman<\/h3>\n

Do you love God?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most of us would say \u201cyes\u201d, we do love God; \u00a0but if you\u2019re honest, there\u2019s a twinge of something in the back of your mind, a doubt almost.\u00a0 Because when you come right down to it, loving God is something that is hard to verbalize and visualize.<\/p>\n

You can love your spouse, your parents, your children, and other people partly because you can visualize them. \u00a0They are there in flesh and blood to hug, to share and to reciprocate affection and love.\u00a0 You can feel it and visualize it.\u00a0 But loving God is different, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 You can say you love God when you pray, and for most of us, the response from God is mostly silent, or subtle at best.<\/p>\n

Paul speaks eloquently of the Love of God this morning.\u00a0 He says that:\u00a0 \u201cWe know that all things work for good for those who love God who are called according to His purpose\u201d.\u00a0 So very simply, we show that we love God by accepting the call God has given us; and the proof that we are truly loving God will be that God assures that all things will work for good when we do that.\u00a0 Loving God shows results by fulfilling God\u2019s plan.\u00a0 And that \u201cgood\u201d is something that we can see; it\u2019s like the hug we receive from our loved ones.<\/p>\n

Of course the \u201cgood\u201d that Paul is talking about is an ultimate good, the good that God intends.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t always match the \u201cgood\u201d that people seek on their own.\u00a0 So, one has to be particularly discerning about the good we sense.\u00a0 Some of us have special talents- artistic or technical or sporting or any number of other skills.\u00a0 When we use those talents and skills the way they were intended, we feel good inside- a validation that things are working for good.\u00a0 Many of you do things for other people- caring for the sick, helping those in need; teaching; and a whole host of other things.\u00a0 They make us feel good as well; and that is an expression of the good that God intends.<\/p>\n

This morning we are celebrating the birth of the Blessed Mother.\u00a0 And our Gospel speaks of the prophecy God made to Mary using the Angel Gabriel through the eyes of her husband Joseph, who received validation of that prophecy when an angel of the Lord appeared to him and gave him the same message as Mary about the baby Jesus.<\/p>\n

Both Mary and Joseph accepted God\u2019s will for them; they married under less than ideal circumstances; and parented the child Jesus because it was God\u2019s will for them.\u00a0 Joseph did not divorce Mary but accepted her as his wife; Mary accepted that the child inside her was God\u2019s child.\u00a0 They both lived their lives by parenting Jesus in the best way they knew how.\u00a0 They were called to a relatively straightforward, yet important task.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something most of us have done or will do as well-\u00a0 marry under less than an ideal situation, and parent children.\u00a0 It is an awesome responsibility to parent any child-\u00a0 they are a fantastic gift to any family.\u00a0 But that is also what most of us have or will do.<\/p>\n

My point is that neither Mary nor Joseph was asked to do anything tremendously extraordinary in life.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t invent the i- phone; they didn\u2019t lead an army to victory; they didn\u2019t write a best seller; they didn\u2019t break any world sporting records.\u00a0 They just parented the child Jesus, accepting the trials and tribulations of everyday life along the way.\u00a0 For some of us, we may not be called to do extraordinary things in this life either.\u00a0 But that\u2019s OK, it is only necessary that we follow the calling we do have.\u00a0 And all things will work for good when we do that.<\/p>\n

Now the good that Mary and Joseph worked was not the good that the world expected.\u00a0 The Messiah that the Jews expected was a King, someone in the image of a David or Solomon.\u00a0 That isn\u2019t what Jesus became; and yet, Mary knew.\u00a0 Mary knew that Jesus was special; and all things were working for good through Him.\u00a0 In the same way, we will know when things truly work for the good of God.\u00a0 We will see it in our children and their lives.<\/p>\n

Of course, like God and his children, we have to let go of our children at some point because they have free will, and are open to choose to follow God\u2019s will for them or not.\u00a0 But no matter what they do, we will still always love them.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the Love we are supposed to have for God- with our whole mind, our whole heart, and our whole soul, isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n

Do you love God that way?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of 23rd Week in Ordinary Time Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary Romans 8: 28-30Mt 1: 18-23 By Deacon Larry Brockman Do you love God?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most of us would say \u201cyes\u201d, we do love God; \u00a0but if you\u2019re honest, there\u2019s a twinge of something in the back of your mind, a doubt almost.\u00a0 Because when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[428,140],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887"}],"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=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":888,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions\/888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}