Daily Thought For April 2, 2014 (The Need For Unity of Life)
Unity of Life
God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn it, but so that the world might be saved through him He came into the world so that men might have light and stop thrashing about in the dark. Having received the light, they can turn the world into a place where everything will be able to give glory to God and help man to achieve his ultimate goal. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. These words are relevant for a good part of today's world which is in deep gloom, for without Christ men will never achieve peace, or happiness, or salvation. Outside of Christ only darkness and sin exist. Whoever rejects Christ remains without light and has no idea which way to go. In the innermost depth of his being he is disorientated.
For centuries, many have lived their lives (of work, study, business, research, social relationships, interests etc.) in separation from the faith. And as a consequence of this separation temporal realities have been adversely affected, existing, as it were, in the shadows on the fringes of the light of Revelation. Without this light many have come to consider the world as an end in itself, without any reference to God; therefore they have distorted the most elementary and basic truths. In western countries, particularly, it becomes necessary to correct this separation because many generations. which should belong to Christ and the Church are being lost in these years, and because, unhappily, from these places the harmful influence of a new paganism is being sent into the whole world. Thus, contemporary paganism is characterized by the search for material well-being at any cost, and by the corresponding disregard - or, to put it more accurately, fear, genuine terror ― of anything that could cause suffering. With this outlook, words such as God, sin, Cross, mortification, eternal life ... become incomprehensible to a great number of people, who are ignorant of their meaning and content. You have witnessed the incredible fact that many people began by putting God in parentheses, in some aspects of their professional lives. But then, as God demands, loves, and asks, they end up throwing Him out - like an intruder - from their civil laws and from the lives of their nations. With a ridiculous and presumptuous pride they want to lift up in his place the poor human creature, who has lost his supernatural and human dignity, and has become reduced - it is no exaggeration, one can see it everywhere - to a stomach, sex and money.
The world remains in darkness because Christians, through lacking a unity of life, do not illuminate or give the realities of each day a special meaning. We know that the approach of true disciples of Christ towards the world is not one of separation; rather is it one of getting involved at the very core of things, as leaven within the lump - transforming it. The Christian, consistent with his faith, is salt which gives taste and preserves from corruption. And for this he relies, above all else, on his witness in the midst of his ordinary occupations with all the tasks he does fulfilled extraordinarily well. If we Christians really lived in accrodance with our faith, the greatest revolution of all times would take place. The effectiveness of our co-redemption depends on each one of us. You should meditate on this. Do I live, at every instant of my life, this unity of life ― at work, in my leisure, at rest. . .?