Spiritual exercise needed as well

By Fr. Dan Debano
RR Ministerial

Many of us have made New Years resolutions.
The most common one that I have been hearing is to lose weight by exercising more. There is no doubt that every one of us should try to exercise more however, it should also include more spiritual exercises such as, prayer and more tolerance of others through love.
No matter what your religious identity is, we can all grow in areas of peace and love. There are people who have not been given certain gifts. That deficiency separates them and makes them and makes them different from others. These are those who are deaf and mute who have not been given the great gift of communication with others. There are the blind that have not been given the gift of sight. There are the paralyzed that have not been given the gift of movement. In the same way, there are moral and spiritual deficiencies in certain individuals. There are people without faith, those who have not developed or activated the gift of faith. They are handicapped. They lack a correct relationship with themselves, with their neighbour, with nature and with God.
All Christian faiths unanimously agree that there are those who have not come to know God’s love. That is a great deficiency! A person who has not come to know love cannot learn to love because love is not a theory. It is not an ideology, a scientific system or the like. Love is a gift from God which fills the entire person, including ones thought. It inspires and motivates his/her works and words and the entire manner in which he/she looks at God and his/her neighbour. A person who learns to love automatically learns to follow and imitate love. A “family” and “a community” that loves, inspires and motivates others to love!
It is sad to say that there are those who have not come to know, feel, learn, or accept love. Who is at fault for such great oversights and deficiencies? Why do people exist who do not react or feel love indebtedness or gratitude when they look at the Cross? It is not easy to give a correct answer to such questions.
There are those who look at and observe nature and the beauty of creation and do not react at all. They remain indifferent. They are in contrast to those who, in humility, open their hearts from which awe, gratitude, prayer and glory and praise of God flow. There are those who have not come to know the love of God. It is not sufficient to superficially read, listen, or reflect. The emphasis is on “coming to know” God’s love; and “coming to know” encompasses a response. For example, Samuel was not familiar with the Lord, because the Lord had not revealed anything to him as yet (1Sam 2:11). In Cana of Galilee, the disciples came to believe in Jesus (John 2:11).
Each of us Christians has his/her own personal experience with God as a gift. Basically, everyone recalls a powerful experience which was the beginning of their personal faith and response; an awareness of the gift given. Some will say that it was through a personal tragedy, a loss of a love one, or a celebration of a certain event. Others yet will say that it was a seminar or a spiritual retreat.
How are we as a “family and a community” to advance and develop that love in our hearts, in our town? How are we to develop that understanding of faith and meet those who do not know or accept us? How are we to pray for the conversion and unity of our churches without having our own intention and model in mind? Without having our own scheme of what a believer is? Does our prayer have the spirit of Jesus who teaches us how to pray, “Father, Your Will be done.” Ecumenism (tolerance for all Christian religions) is not a demand that everyone renounces what is their own, the way they see things and experience them. It is no t a demand to renounce values. Instead, it is a look at others with love, out of faith, with the heart of Jesus.
Any group or community who has a Spiritual conversion will find harmony easily because with all of their heart they only seek Jesus and His glory. People, who love, easily come to an agreement because they always have something to give, even their “other cheek.” They have the strength to cross the new unforeseen “mile.” Ecumenism is a call to love and all the rest takes place by the power of the Holy Spirit.
May our New Years resolution for all of us in Rainy River and the surrounding communities be an increase in Spiritual Exercises through an increase in prayer and more tolerance of others through love.