In the movie Back to the Future, Marty McFly starts messing with the past and almost erases himself from existence. I like how the movie uses the image of Marty’s family gradually disappearing in the photo to show how they are being wiped out of existence. In a similar way, the image of Jesus is gradually disappearing from the thoughts and hearts of many people in the world.
Many people are falling away from their church and faith. People disagree with a position that their church has or don’t accept a belief that their church professes and so they leave. The priest may not be likable or someone in charge did or said something hurtful or bad. Just as one person can make a positive difference and bring a lot of people to the faith, another person can lead many astray. A lot of people just don’t like being dictated what to do and who to believe and so they prefer to take their own path through life.
Maintaining a good relationship with Jesus should be our ultimate priority and we should always try to find new ways to improve our relationship with Him. Jesus loves us so much that He not only wants us to have joy, but He wants our joy to be complete. Our joy will only be complete when we join Him in Heaven for all eternity. We shouldn’t let a bad priest or administrator ruin our happiness. I wish that all the priests at my church would be the best of the best and that the church building would be among the most beautiful in the world. I wish every song I hear would send chills down my spine and every homily I hear would make me want to give a standing ovation. However, we live in an imperfect world with imperfect people. We won’t get perfection until we are standing next to Jesus in Heaven. However, in order to find Him, we need to follow Him and include Him in every aspect of our life.
Jesus asks us to keep His commandments if we truly love Him. One of the commandments is to love your neighbor as yourself. We tend to forget the mistakes that we make while holding others to their mistakes. One of the most fulfilling things to do is to forgive someone. Forgiveness takes all the pent up anger and grudges that we hold over someone and dissipates them. Anger and frustration tends to stick to us and it’s nice to not have to carry that around anymore.
When we primarily listen to what the world says is the right thing to do, we will have a hard time keeping our eyes and minds on Jesus. The ways of the world and the ways of God take us in completely different directions. Take the hard road that requires self sacrifice, selflessness, and forgiveness. Jesus says that He will not leave us orphans and that the Father will send the Holy Spirit to guide us. Let’s continue to be a light on the difficult road to complete and everlasting joy.
