SPIRITUAL AUDIT

1 Thessalonians 3:7-13; Ps 90 Fill us with your love O LOrd, and we will sing for joy; Matt 24:42-51

St Paul is inviting us to take on a  spiritual audit in our life as we read his letter to the community of Thessalonians.

"Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith."

My experience is most people think they are just fine in the area of faith and faithfulness.  We all think we are beyond reproach in this aspect of our life and we are all mistaken.

There is deficiencies in our life of faith.  Do we know where they are?  Have we investigated?  Do we take a spiritual inventory of our life, an accounting of sorts to better know where we are lacking?

Unless we are aware of our deficiencies then we will be hard pressed to find the remedies.

Then St Paul acknowledges two areas of deficiencies that is common in all of our lives as disciples.

First, "may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…"

Love can never be static.  True charity either grows and deepens or it diminishes.  We must spiritually mature daily and the first place or measure of that maturity is the love we offer for one another and for all.

Secondly, the coming of Christ will be the final measure of all human activity.  Jesus will return as judge.  The early christians community in the 1st century was losing their sense of urgency.  They had lost sight of Jesus' return.

Even now centuries later, the coming of Jesus seems increasingly remote yet we must sustain a sense of urgency in this regard.  The urgency of Christ' return must become a vital element of healthy spirituality of the disciple.

We must be alert.  As Jesus tells us in the gospel, "stay awake."  Vigilance and alertness should build a sense of Urgency that keeps the fire burning and keeps us moving forward in a dynamic away in regards to faith and love.

This urgency should help us be attentive to Jesus' presence daily in the quiet ways he comes in to our life.   This urgency as pointed out in the gospel is meant to encourage us to share our time and talent in such way that we nourish other members of our community.

"Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so."  We all have received gifts.  We must distribute those gifts for the benefit of others.

Do a spiritual audit today.