November 12, 2009
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What I Did on 4/20…
…apparently, I was having deep thoughts, according to this journal entry I apparently wrote on that otherwise ignominious day. I hope it proves thought-provoking for y’all!
We are told to lay up our treasures in Heaven, to entrust all things we hold dear to God. This is the nature of sacrifice, offering up a valued, dear thing to God, that he may share in the joy you receive in the object. When God receives our offering, it becomes his and because God is eternal, the gift in some way becomes eternal.
Yet I wonder how it is we are later able to enjoy these sacrifices in heaven?
I believe that, for example, when I offer a material possession, say, when I gave away a large portion of my music collection, it was not the music itself that I enjoyed, but it was rather the pleasure I received through the music.
All pleasure, truly, is the tangible love of God reaching us through the pleasing object, or even person (to differentiate people from objects, of which people certainly are not!). When we sacrifice something that pleases us and choose to receive no more pleasure from it, that pleasure lies in trust with God, to be found again once we are in heaven, for God is himself our greatest pleasure, the very source of pleasure. When I listen to pleasing music, eat my favorite foods, or in the past when I enjoyed the pleasure of a kiss, these were, knowingly or not, experiences of God. When I go without music to attain to poverty, when I fast from my favorite foods, when I make a vow of celibate chastity, I offer these pleasures back to God, seeking him no longer through created things but endeavoring to find him as he is, where he is, seeking instead of fleeting pleasure an everlasting one. How could one be satisfied with even the most pleasurable experience when Pleasure itself awaits us in paradise?
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Comments (11)
yes, very deep thought. Vocation I see in your tags. Is this life you choose a sacrifice you offer to God?
@Jillycarmel - Sacrifice is certainly one aspect of it, but it goes far deeper than that.
Very awesome.
I’ll keep this in mind in the event I have to make some pretty hefty sacrifices of my own… and I will.
Thought-provoking and excellent! Truly “In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:11
Great thoughts.
It is so easy to forget Who we belong to and where we are going…. thanks for the reminder!
amen! denying ourselves isn’t something we do often in this life. so often it’s so full of self that there isn’t room for God. at least, for me, it’s that way and something i struggle with! thanks!
This is lovely, and I will resist the temptation to make a crack about pot.
@squeakysoul -
Hence the use of the word “ignominious.”
What a wonderful way to view sacrifice. No matter how hard we try, we get attached to the temporal and often can’t reach for the eternal. After all, as St Paul says, we see through a dark glass. Thanks for this post–it’s very timely coming just before Advent. I was just thinking the other day how soon Advent will be here, and having to brace myself for Masses without the Gloria. It was the Gloria which opened my heart to the Mass, and led to my conversion. I miss it so much during Advent and Lent. Sounds small, I know, but my heart literally aches for it while it is absent from the Liturgy.
@Amythist_Malaise - I miss it too! But just remember it is constantly sung by the Church in Heaven, even if we down here tone things down a bit.