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What do we do when disruptive, unexpected change intrudes into our lives? Specifically, for those who seek to be disciples of Jesus, what are we called to practice and embody; what are we called to reject and abandon; and how are we to experience our emotions and the events that turn us upside down and then process the experience?

These are weighty questions, and deserve thoughtful discussion, and more space than the simple answers I may give in this medium of communication, but I will put a few prayers to words.

To make a beginning, St. Paul writes,

“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

We are called to practice what it means to be part of one body, the Church, which we are through our baptism into the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are therefore called to lives devoted to compassion, mercy, gentleness, forgiveness, patience, forbearance, living in unity, and humility above all, for without humility no other virtue is possible.

We are called to embody God’s love as revealed to us in Jesus, for “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

We are called to reject and abandon malice, wrath, vengeance, bias confirmation, bullying, tearing down each other’s character, being quick to move to rage, refusal to let go of anger, framing how our sisters and brothers have to accede to our demands, and gossip above all because it can destroy entire lives and communities. As St. Paul writes,

“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to those near to us, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil…Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up the Faith, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear and thereby do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”

We are then called to experience these emotions and events prayerfully, because they require prayer, both alone and as a community, along with worship together of the LORD God, who in Jesus reveals that His eternal nature is Love, which He gives to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to be transformed into the image of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, in regular worship together – receiving the Lord’s very Body and Blood to restore and heal us, empower and strengthen us for the high calling of being His disciples, His body in the world…for the world will only know that we are His disciples if we sacrificially empty ourselves for each other, which is the very meaning of Love.

Fr. Troy