Matthew 13:18-23 True Spiritual Progress
We are children in rebellion! We don't like to be told what we should think, what we should do and what we should like. For this reason, we have the commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Lk 10:27). The first and greatest commandment has much to do with the Sower and his seed. Spiritual progress requires intensive attention. If I truly wish to be a man of God, then I must dedicate time to study scripture. “The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word without understanding it.” St. Jerome says “ignorance of Sacred Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”
Knowing Him is Loving Him: How can I love the Lord without knowing him? Currently, there is a top Christian song with lyrics that are more ludicrous than religious: “It as love that made me a believer in more than a name, a faith, a creed…” Falling in love with Jesus begs the question, why? Who is he? Faith and reason go together and must remain together. God is more logical than logic itself and more loving than love itself. Watch out that the Evil one does not gain a sympathizer with his lies of “tolerance.”
Loving Him is uniting to Him: To love someone means to take a vow of fidelity. “I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad…” Marriage is a Sacrament of the True Marriage we will one day have with the Lord. We are separated with Him until death do us unite! What will separate me from the Lord? Will tribulations or persecution? This is the moment we show our love, not during the good times but when the bad times hit hard and long. Love requires all my strength and heart so that my will is His Will.
Uniting to Him is being attracted to Him: My eyes are focused on the Lord. No wealth, no luxuries, no commodities, no power or privilege or position can ever persuade me from abandoning my life to Him. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26:41). The spirit requires a life of faith and a soul full of grace. I need to fall in love with the Lord and never look back on all that is less.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11).
This is real growth and progress!
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