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PortuguêsDuring Lent, the Church reminds us that our life is a journey towards Easter, towards the time when Jesus, through his death and resurrection, will lead us into the true life, into our encounter with God. It is a journey filled with difficulties and trials, much like crossing the desert.
It was in the desert that the Israelites, while traveling towards the promised land, forgot for a time about their God and began to adore the golden calf.
Jesus too crossed the desert, and he too was tempted by Satan to adore power and success. Jesus, however, decisively refused every evil enticement and turned resolutely towards the only real Good:
«The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve»
What happened to the Israelites and to Jesus, happens to us. In our daily lives we too are tempted to choose an easier option. These temptations promise us happiness and invite us to value what is most efficient, what is beautiful, and what is enjoyable, and to want to own things and have power. These things in themselves may be positive, but they can also be made into absolutes and often are turned into real idols by our society.
When we do not recognize and do not adore God, other “gods” inevitably enter into the picture, and cults such as astrology and witchcraft then begin to reappear .
Jesus reminds us that we should seek our fulfillment not in things that will ultimately pass away, but in placing ourselves in front of God, from whom all things come, and recognizing him for who he really is: the Creator, the Lord of history, our Everything, God!
If we will praise him continuously in heaven, a place we all aim to reach, shouldn’t we start to praise him right here and now?
We sometimes feel a deep desire to adore him by praising him in the depths of our hearts, in his silent presence in the tabernacle, and in the liturgical celebrations of the Eucharist.
«The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve»
But what does it mean to “adore” God?
It is an attitude we can allow ourselves to have towards him alone. To adore means to say to God, “You are everything,” that is, “You are what you are,” and I have been given the gift, the privilege of life in order to acknowledge what you are.
To adore also means to say: “I am nothing.” And we should not just say it with words. To adore God, we need to set ourselves aside and allow his presence to triumph in us and in the world. This implies a constant battle against those false idols that we are tempted to construct in our lives.
The surest way to become a living example that we are nothing and that God is everything, is an eminently positive one. Do we want to set aside our own thoughts? We need only think of God and live according to his thoughts which are revealed in the Gospel. Do we want to die to our own will? We need only embrace his will which is shown to us in each present moment. Do we want to renounce disorderly desires? We need to fill our hearts with love for God and to love our neighbors by sharing in their worries, sufferings, problems, and joys.
If we love always self-effacement occurs almost without our realizing it. By living the nothingness of ourselves, our lives affirm the greatness of God and show that he is everything. This leads us naturally to true adoration of God.
«The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve»
Many years ago, when we discovered that to adore God meant to proclaim his greatness on the nothingness of ourselves, we composed this song:
If the stars die out in the heavens,
If every day comes to an end,
If the wave rolls out of the sea, never to return,
All this is for your glory.
Let all creation sing to You:
“You are everything!”
Let all that lives acknowledge:
“I am nothing!”
The result of our becoming nothing out of love was that our nothingness was then filled by the One who is Everything, by God, who took possession of our hearts.
Chiara Lubich
