LAW OF SPIRITUAL DISPLACEMENT


THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY  

Deut 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 9:22-25

Losing our Life for Christ

In chemical reactions, an element that is higher on the periodic table displaces a lower one in a chemical compound. The higher element achieves this by breaking the bond holding the lower element in the compound with a greater force and forming a stronger bond in a new chemical compound. The resulting compound has a new composition, identity, and operations different from the old. Our interest is not in chemical compounds and their reactivities, but in spiritual entities that we are without Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God. In the spiritual realm, the Word of God is the greatest and the supreme Spirit, existing by Himself and infinite in all perfection. He made us to be in communion with him; that is, to form a spiritual entity with him, similar to a chemical compound. Thus, on the scale of spiritual strength or reactivity, He ranks the highest. But there is an immunity enjoyed by spiritual compounds or entities that is not the case in chemistry or other spheres of existence. The essential element of free will determines how bonds are forged and maintained in the spiritual realm. The expression of our God-given free will defines our spiritual reactivity in the spiritual realm. God himself respects our free wills and would not forcefully displace the spirit in communion with us, and enter into a spiritual bond with us, unless we freely desire him.

There are myriad types or shades of spiritual lives, ranging from the pure potentiality of the human soul at birth to souls in complete communion with God, who are like the Son of Man and the saints. But all these shades of spiritual life are called death, for they all imply death for the soul when they have no bearing on Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God. There are so many spirits, free wills, that are turned away from God by their rejection of God’s will, expressed in his word. They are bearers of death by the fact of their rejection of the Word. All the spiritual bonds, forming spiritual compounds or entities, that these spirits have with men are death-dealing and constitute forces of darkness. Our reading from Deuteronomy speaks of these: “But if your hearts stray, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.” These varied spiritual entities constituted by spiritual bonds between men and dark spirits are the forces Christians must fight against and overcome as they attain communion with Jesus Christ. Saint Paul’s words illuminate this understanding for us. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Eph. 6:10-12. We must not let our hearts stray from the Word.

The guiding principle for a successful spiritual journey through these varied levels of the spiritual world is attention on the Word of God, and not letting our hearts stray from him. The psalmist sings of the happiness of the man who is singularly devoted to the word of God. “Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of scorners, but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his Law day and night.” Jesus Christ is our new Law. We should spend our day and night pondering Jesus Christ. This is how our old hearts are broken and a new heart created for us in Christ, which gradually approaches the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. By daily rejecting the pleasures, riches, wealth, fame, power, authority, and so on, we enjoy in our spiritual bonds with these forces of darkness, we renounce self and choose to be united with Jesus Christ. Hence, Christ says: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.” Our Christian journey is a continuous and consistent rejection of the world constituted by the evil melange of men and spiritual forces of darkness, ruled by the prince of this world. “What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self? Our consistent desire and choice of Christ is necessary for him to displace these spirits that hold us bound in sin and death.

Let us pray: Prompt our actions with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord, and further them with your constant help, that all we do may always begin from you and by you be brought to completion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.     

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