Men's Rosary

There are times I wonder what it is, exactly, God expects of me.  What is the mission?  It is clear in Scripture what to do and it is not a very long list!  “He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)  At times I find myself overcomplicating things.  I would find it safe to assume that many men do.  With all the responsibilities we have and the expectations we are to live up to, we will do well to work on the foundation of it all.  That would be a life grounded in faith.  Like any building that is going to stand for generations, so too, our lives and legacy will only be as good and lasting as what it is set upon.

We need to seek justice.  We must be attentive to those around us and aware of situations. Justice does not come to us; we enable it to be.  Seeking justice and doing good is a matter of choice and we are to seek it out.  “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”  (Isaiah 1:17)  So in the midst of daily life and things we do, even good things, we are to learn how to become aware of the needs of others and so direct our work to the satisfaction of those needs.  This will come at a cost to us because we will have to put others ahead of ourselves.  Our spiritual exercises, Mass attendance and ministry work in the parish will be diminished if we are not learning to seek justice and do out of need of others.  ”But woe to you Pharisees!  For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” (Luke 11:42)

We are to be kind.  Kindness can be a challenge when living in a tit-for-tat world!  When someone hits, we tend to hit back harder.  If someone yells, we yell louder.  If we are disrespected, we  lash out.  The right thing to do is just the opposite.  “Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9)  I think of Jesus before the Sanhedrin.  Amidst all the accusations and the wrong done to him he simply stood and gave curt answers.  He did not even validate their actions by his time and response.  And he continued with the will of  God in order to bring blessings, even to those who would curse him.  Being kind is a huge win/win!  We not only benefit those we are bestowing kindness upon, but we benefit ourselves in large measure and save ourselves from destruction.  “A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.”  (Proverbs 11:17)

And then there is humility.  How easily this can escape us.  Pride runs deep in our veins it seems.  We live in a culture of pride and self-preservation.  We grew up wanting to make our parents proud and we tell our children we are proud of them.  We should simply have wanted to do the right things to bring peace and happiness to our homes for our parents and express thanksgiving to our children when they do the same.  Language is important and we should use some different words.  Words that point to a different reality and greater good.  We are really nothing on our own, but we take credit for all we do.  The one who claims to be a “self-made man” is surely out of touch with the reality that he should be a thankful man for all that God has bestowed upon him.  This does not take the work and effort of the individual for granted but places the temporal facts in the right relationship with the Creator of all things.  “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the Lord.  But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)  So to be humble and to humbly walk with God we need to imitate how Christ walked in the world.  He walked to serve and put others before himself.  In all he did, it was to do the Father’s will.  He walked uniting his will completely with the will of God.  In our daily walk in life, while making our way and providing for our families, we should keep this in mind.  We will falter and fall, but the important thing is to get back up, brush off the dust and try again.  “Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others.  (Philippians 2:3-4)

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” (St. Augustine)