Christ's perfect love enlightens

But to worldly minds, a Christian is a fool

My Glass is Half Full

By MARK PICKUP

To worldly understanding, there is no final reality - only individual perceptions of God, or some life force, or no perception of God at all. People who look to a living Christ - the second member of a Triune God - are considered fools to the prevailing secular world.

I am who I am

Pharaoh didn't warm to the idea.

Christ identified himself as "I Am" and got an equally cool reception. The crowd wasn't ready to receive God made Man: The Incarnation.

God is who he is, regardless of what the crowds want. The living Christ is real. He is. And this is the Christ that St. Gregory told us to keep in our sight. The world does not understand this: The secular mind thinks St. Gregory's premise is foolish.

"How can you see Christ?" the agnostic asks mockingly. The atheist believes that there was no empty tomb and that our prayers fall into an empty universe. To the worldly mind, the Christian is a fool - the more devout the Christian, the bigger the fool.

It has always been this way. St. Gregory commented: "People are often considered blind and useless when they make the supreme good their aim and give themselves up to the contemplation of God, but Paul made a boast of this and proclaimed himself a fool for Christ's sake. The reason he said, 'We are fools for Christ's sake' was that his mind was free from all earthly preoccupation."

It's not that Paul was oblivious to the affairs of life, but his focus was on the final goal, which is to be with Christ. I have heard people (usually agnostics) say something like this about devout, or seemingly devout Christians: "He's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good." It may sound clever, but it's not true.

It is the truly heavenly-minded person who prays most fervently, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He really means it and his actions strive to make it be so. The heavenly-minded person understands that if the divine Good of God's will is reflected in human affairs and society - just as it already exists in heaven - the result will produce an environment ideal for humanity to thrive. And the person who is truly heavenly minded will work for that end.

Heavenly minded

Inevitably they will find themselves aching with compassion for lost and hurting people because of God's extravagant love for us.

Christ's love is infectious and we use Christ's perfect love as our model. Perfect love is not competitive or self-serving. Seeking perfect love means the world may destroy the seeker, just like it did to Christ. By the world's standards, only fools would pursue or value such a love. Yet Christians are called to seek Christ's perfect love. We are fools for Christ.

Do not dismay at this calling. Earth is not our home, but you can rest in the assurance that Christ promised to give us a home elsewhere.

Those who seek Christ's perfect love will be hated in this world. Count on it. Perfect love enlightens but the world prefers darkness. The world has never valued nor comprehended his love.

While we are in this world, Christ promised to send us a comforter, a helper - the Holy Spirit. This is the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead and who dwells in those who are restored in Christ's perfect love. We are promised that those who receive Christ and are led by the Spirit of God become children of God. We are fools no more.

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