Turning the completion of my ninetieth year, I examined my spiritual life, as my physician examines my physical body to determine the state of my health. The Apostle Paul reminds Christians taking communion that this is a time to examine one’s spiritual life, and determine for self, guided by Scripture, if spiritual growth and health are growing maturely. God makes obvious the true verdict, in that he designed communion for those who, by self-examination, have made the initial spiritual decision leading to future good life and immortality – which is to accept Christ in redemption, and follow up accordingly. The Apostle meant to make habit the periodic return to meaningful evaluation of one’s spiritual life, and decision for correction of any defects. There are assumptions, perhaps overlooked, related to mortal interests growing out of evaluation. Communion is first a reminder of Christ, the cross and shed blood – shed for purpose to redemption. As we repeat often the most important factors in our lives for nurture, firmness, and habit, so we include Communion for the feeding of spiritual life. As I learned to tell my wife daily that I loved her, our marriage was nourished. Even after her death, more than during her life I accent the import of that exchange. I am now redundant about love sayings to my children.
The Christian ought to seek knowledge of God, most explicitly found in language and individual personal experience. The language emanates from Scripture, from ministers of Scripture, but also in the individual becoming his or her own prophet for self. There is a presence from God, likely found in understanding the Holy Spirit, who affirms or denies this or that in our lives. We call it conscience, but it may be deeper than that. When it goes in the right direction, and is made lasting, it becomes stronger, overcoming fears and doubts. For example, where a recent convert may be embarrassed to identify faith in many contexts, the more mature Christian would feel guilty if hiding faith. He or she also would sense when that exposure would be taken in a negative sense rather than affirmative, so to be guided not by fear, but by insight. The person would feel prayerful about the situation, and yearn for a situation in which the witness of Christ would make a difference, positive in some way. The Christian mind is often guided by the secular mind.
The mature Christian wants to go for that which God goes for, if God were in this scene. The concept is not as revolutionary as we might believe. I would not deny the truth that my mother was my mother. Her absence in death has nothing to do with it. She loved me, cared for me, encouraged me. In short, she did what she could for me. I honor her memory, and would know my hypocrisy if I ever diminished her. I know Christ, what he did for me, far more than my mother or any other human being, or mass of human beings could do. How in all the world and truth, could I deny him? It is in such a context that millions of persons have laid down their lives for their faith. This moving story of faith is found in the communion of God. His care is ongoing. Identity with him is everything for me, perhaps odd for those without faith.
This carries through in my education, so to make me the person I ought to be within my own limitations. Here is thought beyond nature, beyond mortality, beyond any service that I might offer in relief or personal achievement. When this context takes hold of a person, life changes appear. If they do not there is something missing in the spiritual education of the individual. We are what we are, but we are not yet what we ought to be. As land is different from sea, so is Christian life, conduct and thought different from natural life, conduct and thought. In Christ the two can be brought together – in the truly devout. There is developed the holistic person. Life is woven in the miracle of the divine offering of self-consciousness, meaning, and a sense that the vital factors of that life are ongoing. They are held out to us in the meanings of the parables of Christ and his messengers, applicable in any society and culture, any logic and context in which human beings find them ordered. For the newly minted Christian all this seems so different at first as to give pause, perhaps doubt, but once settled is so effective, fulfilling, complete in answering the questions of the human spirit and life, that faith persons are at rest for themselves. This all leads to a life of preparation of self and service to others in the name of Christ. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020