Everything That Happens In Our Lives Matters

Why do I exist? Who am I? Do I matter? Does the world need me? Does anyone love me? How can I live if no one loves me?

These existential questions find their answer in one place. In Jesus Christ. And we need to be His voice and presence to others if this world is to function as it should.

Here in the United States we have made discussion of faith something to be avoided, like politics. We are met with hostility of we mention our faith. But the people near us need to know Jesus so that they know that the answer to these questions is found in His love, because Jesus made us out of love, and He never stops loving us. We matter to Him and we matter to the world because He made us out of love right here and right now. his timing is perfect and He does not make anyone by mistake.

Jesus did not make us alone. Everyone not only has a mother and a father, but was meant to interact with the world as a child of God.

Jesus is the Truth. Truth is not a thing, it is a Person. If you want the Truth, go to Him. Jesus doe not lie, and He does not make mistakes. He deserves our love, and we will always have His.

written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG AS YOU LISTEN:
I am in a profession that is not well loved. Let's face it. People don't like trial lawyers. And I can't really say they're wrong, so let's not even go on to that point.

But I remember something quite vividly. If you ever want to meet someone who is totally, completely full of himself or herself, talk to a law school graduate right after they have started practicing law, going to work for a big law firm, or some other good job. They are full of themselves. And then put on top of that, which is my circumstance, you go to work for the United States Department of Justice. Whoa!

I used to be able to pick up the phone and say, "This is Michael Weston. I'm with the Department of Justice." I had people's attention! That was really neat!

And, one of the first grand jury investigations I had, or worked on, was down in Houston. And the people we were investigating, I mean the people we wanted to put in jail, asked the judge to delay the grand jury investigation! Oh, talk about... what an insult! We were just absolutely indignant, and we went to the judge, Woodrow Seals, down in Houston, wonderful man, and we went, "Judge, you can't... you don't have... you can't...blah, blah, blah.

And he looked at us and said, "Look, the Lord is not going to ask me whether I caused inconvenience to a grand jury investigation. He's going to ask me what did I do to feed the poor."

And I went, "I think my perspective is a little bit off."

That has stayed with me for over forty years. What did he do to feed the poor?

What in the reality of our lives... we see Jesus talking about faith and listening, and following Him. And that is something that we listen to all our lives.

"We played the flute for you but you did not dance. We sang a dirge for you but you did not weep. We came to you with the savior of the world, and you did not participate. You did not believe. You said you believed, and you did what?"

And St. Paul's reading directly relates to that. We are people of faith. We believe in Jesus, the Savior. We believe in the promise of eternal life. We believe in His Holy Catholic Church. But if it isn't part of what we are, it is nothing. If we do not have love, all the other things are nothing. Where are we?

If we don't have love, what does it matter? What have we accomplished? "Oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus."... and... clanging bells, nothingness. But if we believe in Jesus and we have love, something wonderful happens.

Love. It's a noun, but it is also a verb. It is a verb that is relational. It is an active verb that requires a relationship.

Carol, do you love? The answer to that question is “Yes.” I love Frank. I love my children. I love... and the list grows. But without an object of the love.. and I'm not talking about, yes, I love chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream... without a relationship based on love, our faith is meaningless.

"Faith, hope and love, and the most important of these is love" because without it, faith and hope do not work.

And we are called to be in relationship with each other. Just as Jesus came to earth, wholly human, wholly divine, for us to be in relationship with each other. "Because God so loved the world" He wanted to be in relationship with us so much, "that He gave His only begotten Son" who loved us so much He died on the cross, who commanded us to love our neighbor.

And without love, a truly participatory love that involves relationship, that involves our faith, our hope, are illusions, because love is integral to it all. It is important to it all. And if we don't perceive in our fellow man, our neighbor, something to love, as an object of love, to be in relationship.

Love is not a passive thing. It requires relationship. It requires us to love, and that love is a participatory thing. I care. I love.

And one of the reasons, again, that I brought up "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" [book and movie], that scene that I was describing, the definition of that scene is love. He had loved generations of young men coming to that school. They were part of what he was. just as in our lives the people we love are part of who we are. And they form who we are. We are different from what we would be without love.

Each and every one of you... and I'm looking at you cataloguing things in my mind.. each and every one of you have formed me to be what I am by the relationship of love. I pray that that formation of which you are participating is going to be sufficient to bring me to Heaven, but it the relationship of love.

Faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, the hope that comes from Christ and the love of God and the love of neighbor that is going to be the thing that effectuates transition from being merely me to being something special in God's eyes.

And when we go out into the world look at someone you love and realize how much they are a part of you.

I'll pick on Joanie right now. We've had a history with Joanie, and I've know her for a long time, since I've got to this church. I look at Joanie and the first thing I think of, if you look at her sweater, it's "flower power." Joanie used to be the lady who was always bringing flowers into the church. That's part of knowing her and loving her.

That is part of what it means to be loved. That is part of what we are called to be. We are called to live our lives in relationship with others in a relationship that is defined by love. That's what Paul's talking about. That's how we respond to Christ. That is the very core. I can have faith and hope, but if I don't have works of love I'm nothing. St. James. By the way, that is the one that Marin Luther did not want to have in the Bible because it says that.

Because you cannot do it without.. faith, yes... hope, yes... believe in Jesus, yes. But you cannot, with all of the things that Jesus did, make yourself a passive vessel and say, "Well, just dump it in me and that's all I need to have."

Because Jesus defines Himself, God defines Himself, with an active verb. The verb of love.

September 2, 2018