Are We Ready?

I’ve been mulling this over all day; I have to make sure I get it right.

That old prophetic sense is tingling again. It calls to mind the old CCR song, “Bad Moon Rising” — provided you understand that it’s a measure of parabolic hyperbole. To be honest, I’m not really sure what to make of it.

The worst thing you could do is try to read back into this an abbreviated time line. It’s not like that. There are changes coming, some quite substantial, and none of that is surprising. Anyone with a few active brain cells could see we are in for rough times. Again, it’s not that kind of thing.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen various attempts here in the US to ignite something like a civil war, race war, or other kinds of calamity. It never went anywhere because it wasn’t time for it. Here’s the thing most people just don’t get when dealing with God and time: It’s always a matter of ripening, not scheduling. Something has gotten ripe; God is ready for certain things to change.

Why do I share something so nebulous? If there is ever a time to ensure you know your calling and mission, this is it. It’s not as if we could take some human action to prepare in some concrete way. As I noted in a recent post, our human awareness is a critical aspect of how God works. The whole point now is that you take seriously the teaching that your heart is a sensory organ, the place where you operate from a commitment to follow Christ. The heart is the seat of the will.

Tune up your heart sense. Teach your mind to serve the heart and not play the executive role. Your mind is there to organize and implement, not rule. The Spirit of God speaks first to your spirit, and the heart is the primary place for processing such things. Remember that the battlefield is your soul and how you respond to things you cannot control.

Naturally, I’ll mention here that agape is not understood by our Western society, that sacrificial love of the Cross. Yet this is the very power we have to bring God glory. This business of turning individuals into projects for conversion is simply all wrong, and wrong headed. You are the project. How you respond in any context to those around you is the project. Learning to sacrifice yourself to divine love and justice is the whole point. Whether and how others respond is really not in our hands, though we surely rejoice when someone chooses a more just path.

Somewhere in all of this, there’s got to be a mission. I’m probably not the only one in the parish who is feeling that divine tug to be ready to take this message afield. The call to prepare is that mystical thing where we take a moral inventory. Nothing specific in human concrete terms, but give some time to prayer and worship with an eye to discerning weak spots that need work.

Parish, we are arrows in the quiver. The battle is nigh.