Surrender and Win

We have heard it said so many times that life is a mystery; but isn’t that so because the One who has created us is a Super-Mystery? We have neither seen Him, to be able to judge for ourselves, nor have we heard enough about Him to say we know Him completely. Yet we go on from day to day, based entirely on our relationship with Him who is the Unknown but also the only One who can save us.

When we are immersed in the world, we humans become eyeballs that can’t see and earlobes that can’t hear. Nonetheless, the Almighty addresses those who simply have eyes to see and ears to hear. And it is particularly when we renounce worldly attractions that our mind and our senses give us an understanding of the present and the final reality. When we give ourselves up in sweet surrender, God lets us in on the secret of His wisdom (Wis 9:13-19), through the working of the Holy Spirit who has meanwhile descended upon us. Then we begin to appreciate God’s ways and desires, for He reveals Himself to those desirous of that unique experience.

Seeing that humans had foolishly turned in on themselves, pretending to be little gods, our Father in Heaven sent His Only Son Jesus to the world. In the Gospel today (Lk 14:25-33), Jesus shakes the people out of their complacency. He puts all His cards on the table and demands nothing less than total commitment, total acceptance of God’s ways, and total surrender to the Father. As He says elsewhere, ‘Whoever is not with Me is against Me.’

It is may seem paradoxical, but it is true that the more we give of ourselves to God, the more we feel free. This is easily verifiable from our everyday experience. How liberating it is to know and love God more and more, better and better!

On the other hand, who can deny that the more we are attached to the ways of the world, the more we are in chains? Unbridled love for earthly things, be it money, power, influence, or knowledge, is enslaving!

That is why St Paul (Phil 9-10, 12-17) pointed out to Philemon, a man of high social standing, whom he had converted to Christianity, that it is of the essence that his slave, also a neo-convert, be treated humanely, as a brother in the faith. This new spirit in which the Apostle to the Gentiles wrote his short but important letter indeed prepared the world, mentally and spiritually, for a great transformation, which finally led to the abolition of physical slavery. Other forms are still present; we are morally obliged to do away with all of them.

The Lord has been our refuge from generation to generation! The Readings of today invite us to keep a tab on the life of our minds and hearts, and to find out for ourselves what can get us true peace and happiness. One thing is for sure: without God’s help, we can do nothing – we are nothing! A sweet surrender to His will is a promise of our final victory. Let us reflect on and be convinced of the fact that Jesus is the source of our victory!