WATCHWORD:
36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. John 8:36
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life. Revelation 22:17
10 And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” Nehemiah 8:10
Meditation:
Free Will
“God created things which had free will. That means creatures could go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of all automated—creatures that worked like machines—would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His Higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that, they must be free.” CSLewis, Mere Christianity
Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. So, what does love have to do with free will? Maybe everything? Lewis speaks of “rapturous love between a man and a woman.” Oh, boy! What? Oh, I see, he also calls it “mere milk and water”. Yuck! What is he talking about?
Oh, yes, he is talking about happiness. He is talking about the joy worth having. He is talking about goodness, all of which follows God’s gift of free will, allowing you and me to choose to experience an ecstasy of love and security that comes with being united with him and with one another, or to choose nothing and embrace self-pity and misery.
It is hard to describe a feeling, no matter how strong, to one who has never experienced it. I recall my struggle to explain my feelings to another following that powerful experience of being born again, of accepting Christ and feeling high with joy and peace. A little bit like trying to describe colors to a person who has been blind all their lives.
If you have had the Cursillo experience, The Way of Christ, Emmaus Walk, etc., then you know the power and the value of the Fourth Day, and the Reunion groups that follow. Brothers and Sisters that have had that experience would know exactly your feelings of joy and peace.
Free will is like having a universal permission slip, to freely express yourself, to make your spiritual choices, and to touch into that wonderful resource of joy and peace. Free will is a gift that God has given us, personally, and it feels like a partnership with Jesus. So, love the one you love today, tomorrow, and … So be it.
Closing Prayer:
(Turn to Page 11…) Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth. Oh God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructs the hearts of the faithful, grant, that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolations. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
