Appear not before the Lord empty handed

Religious brother Carlo Carretto once had a dream that changed his life.  He was living in the Sahara Desert and had chosen not to give an extra blanket to an elderly tribesman.  That night, he dreamed that he was lying paralyzed under a huge rock.  He could see the old man shivering in front of him and tried to give him the blanket, but he could not move.  Awakening, he realized how far he still had to go in following Jesus.

Carretto’s dream echoes Sirach’s warning about appearing “empty handed” before God.  If you make an offering to God while failing to love your neighbor, it is an empty sacrifice.  Even a religious like Carretto, who had given up literally everything for God, could see that he still needed a deeper conversion of heart.

What does this mean for us?  Our love for God must be concrete.  It must be visible in the way we treat one another.  God wants us to eagerly embrace every opportunity he gives us to love, even when it hurts.  These opportunities often occur as God comes to us in our brothers and sisters, even in the “distressing” disguise of those who are hard to love.  Everything we do for them can be our way of saying, “I love you, Lord!”

This may be easy to understand, but is is not so easy to do.  That is because, just like Careetto, we too, can be struck under a rock of some sort or another.

Today, ask God to help you identify one of these boulders.  Do it by imagining yourself as actually lying on the ground, pinned down by something.  What is it?  Perhaps it is fear of perfectionism or the pain of a wounded relationship.  You may think this is just an exercise of the imagination, but if the “boulder” you imagine makes sense to you, and if you feel a sense of hop that you can be set free, then it could well be the Holy Spirit working through your imagination.  So linger for a time, and see what comes to mind.

Whatever it is, imagine Jesus lifting that boulder from you.  Imagine that the weight is gone and that it is replaced with God’s love and presence.

-word among us