“Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.” (Saint Therese of Lisieux).
I tend to keep myself very busy.
I do not say this as a form of bragging, rather I say this as a reflection of what I am, spending my Earthly life doing. I am busy with my children and husband. I am busy with my family of origin. I am busy with my friends and I am busy with my work.
Like most people living comfortable lives in the Western World, my days are filled with all manner of deeds. I could very easily live my entire day without stopping, just bustling from one deed to another without really much thought at all.
And I have been thinking about that today, because I have recently read the words of Saint Therese of Lisieux, who said, “Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.”
And that sort of stopped me dead in my tracks…
Because it seems that I have filled my journey to eternity with a whole bunch of deeds…
Isaiah 51:1 says, “Hearken to Me, you who pursue deliverance, you who seek the Lord; look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were digged.” And I have been reflecting on that. For I am a child of the Father and His Only Begotten Son is my rock and my quarry. And Christ – though more busy than any other human being who was ever born – because He spent His entire Earthly life devoted to the salvation of souls – did not allow deeds to get in His way. In other words, Christ Himself was intentional in His choice of busyness. And it seems to me that I should be adopting His example.
It is NOT that Christ did not spend time doing lots of things. Of course He did. In fact, He was first a Child – who spent His time as other children of the time did, learning and praying and playing. Then He was an adult who worked as an artisan, and He spent His time in trade, making things and selling them, buying supplies and re-creating them. These were all deeds. But how was He at actually applying His conscious energy?
I can imagine Christ working in His workshop in the dust and heat of the day. Perhaps He stopped Himself from taking a break for morning tea and fasted instead so that He would be able to offer that sacrifice for sinners? Perhaps He was building a table or a door or a step and thinking that He would prevent Himself from a sip of water so that He would not be comfortable and would offer that suffering too?
Was He like an elite athlete, training and getting ready for His Passion and Death by practicing discipline and mortification so that when they finally laid the Cross across His back, He would be able to bear that agony because He had lived a life of agony?
And I have been thinking about that today. For it seems that a lifetime of discipline t=is the only path to salvation and that discipline is really just the sum of our deeds. And I really have to wonder today, whether those deeds of mine have any discipline in them at all…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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