Last week’s Gospel spoke of the young rich man.  What do you have in your life that is hindering your relationship

with God?
 

One of the meditations in the Spiritual exercises presents a set of guidelines for living that goes like this:


“I believe that I was created to share my life and love with God and other people, forever.”


That’s the first point of the meditation, that our ultimate purpose is to share our life, to share our love with God and other people, eternally.

The second point is this:


“I believe that God created all other things to help me achieve this goal.”


All other things:  The sunrise and sunset, the ocean and the sky, dogs and cats, pizza and beer, cars, jobs, clothes, cell phones, the Internet, music, movies, all these things were created to help us in our purpose of sharing our life and our love with God and other people.  The created world is good because it helps us to fulfill that purpose.  So, then the meditation continues by saying, “I believe, therefore, that I should use the other things God created to the extent that they help me attain my goal, and I should abstain from them to the extent that they hinder me.”