Reflection
The Christian ideal is personal goodness, but personal goodness requires that we be more than pious, more than faithful to the system, more than mere card-carrying members of the Christian community. Christianity requires that we each be so much a prophetic presence that our corner of the world becomes a better place because we are there. The call of Jesus is a call to prophesy, to speak the word of God in a world that prefers religious ritual and spiritual comfort to the demands of moral maturity. Prophetic spirituality calls us to hear the word of God for the world and speak it, repeat it, model it until the world comes awake.
Adapted from The Time Is Now, Joan Chittister.
Prayer
May I hear the word of God and keep it.
Action
Take time to reflect on the meaning of the Christian ideal. How can you model this in your own life?
Suggested Reading
Other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Matthew 13:8-9
Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:15
Listening is letting ourselves be struck by reality.What is the response of a Christian? Having a dialogue with that reality starting from the values of the Gospel, from the things that Jesus taught us, without imposing them dogmatically, but with dialogue and discernment.
Pope Francis
It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
Mother Teresa
Don’t tell me about your God with your words. Show me about your God with your actions.
Steve Maraboli
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
Kevin Max
We must remember that the test of our religious principles lies not just in what we say, not only in our prayers, not even in living blameless lives – but in what we do for others.
Harry S. Truman
The world needs to see Christians burning, not with self-righteous fury at the sliding morals in our country, but with passion for God.
Kevin DeYoung
Know that as a Christian, your destiny is to be Christlike in all of your ways.
Joyce Meyer
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King Jr.