Our world today shy’s away from religion and spirituality. Stating “Religion is a personal thingâ€, “don’t mix religion and politics†and “my beliefs are my own businessâ€. Religion has become a not so cool commodity and is largely rejected by secular culture. But for a Christian, from a Christian perspective as a person who believes in the infinite love some call “Godâ€, where does that leave us? Should we abandon sharing our deep inspiration? Quite the opposite. But initially, we should use not secular values to combat this. We will lose this argument. Secular culture which values things like logic, science, material, and objectivity. Saint Francis of Assisi would say “preach the Gospel and where necessary use wordsâ€. We are called to go deeper than what seems obvious. Through what seems to be hidden. We need to look more deeply. We are called to embody a deeper inspiration where Christ is living inside of me.
In our families we need to reclaim our Christian way of being. When our teenage children don’t want to pray with us, this is precisely when to pray with them. When our loved ones argue with us and want to walk away, this is precisely when to walk closer. When we feel rejected, attacked and blamed, this is when to make obvious the love of God.
This Advent we need to make time for God. Through prayer, works of justice and building stronger relationships especially where relationships are strained and falling apart. But, this is not our doing. This is God’s doing. We need to seek God more and more. In our thoughts in our choices, and in our actions. Let us seek God.
Religion is not simply taught in hallways of Schools. But rather religion comes alive more fully when we recognise the face of Christ modelled in what is hidden. We become the “hidden and unknown†precisely to to allow God to step in.