I Am Trying

"If you are wise, then you know you have been created for the glory of God and your own eternal salvation. This is your goal; this is the center of your life; this is the treasure of your heart." These are the words of St Robert Bellarmine. Today is his feast day. Often time in our spiritual life we are obsessed with trying harder or doing better. As if we have to achieve some level of worthiness before God will even look at us. This is such a foolish foundation. Of course it is based upon a lie. Many of us believe this lie and so step upon the treadmill of self help so that one day we will be good enough for God to look upon us. Utter nonsense. See the wisdom of St. Robert's words and listen to them. Be wise! Recognize that you were created for God's glory. His glory is seen within you, it is in who you are. Why did God do this? Why did he create you this way? So that he may love you. It is his goodwill and pleasure to love you as he has created you. What about your sins and failings? Be wise! See how he himself has remedied our fallen situation by sending his only Son to be our savior, our salvation. So that in Christ Jesus the Father could see and love in us what he sees and loves in his only Son. This the Father has done because he loves you. Stop trying so hard to do better and accept the truth of who you are as a beloved child of God our Father. He created you only to love you and he has redeemed you that you may live in that love for all eternity. Thus St. Robert continues to say that this truth of the Father's love is the center of our life and the treasure of our heart. So beautiful and wonderful is this love, is this truth that we are to treasure it and base our lives upon it. In doing so we live in the freedom of the children of God. We know what our goal is and that our Loving Father is working out our salvation. If we but know and treasure his love we have no need to fear, no need to try harder to measure up for the foundation of our life is secure. All that we do begins in the Father's Love. The wise embrace this and rejoice in the Lord. The foolish move on to the next exercise, our the next book, our the next speaker, or the next spiritual practice, constantly looking for satisfaction but never finding any peace.