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Rediscover your first love
Fr Chris Thomas from the Emmaus Family of Prayer, calls on us to be prepared to trust God and step out and take risks for the Kingdom as happened in the early days of Catholic Charismatic Renewal.
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Over the last weeks the phrase “return to your first love” has
been constantly on my mind. You can imagine my surprise when at the celebration
for the forty years of Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Westminster Cathedral
in May, David Matthews, one of the ecumenical guests, stood at the ambo
and used the same phrase as he called us to look again and re-discover
all that God has given us.
In the book of Revelation the church at Ephesus were told ‘you have forsaken your first love.’ (NIV 2:4). In Hosea the faithless wife says that she will go back to her first husband. What is it that God is saying to us? Could it be that we have become comfortable and predictable? Could it be that in some senses the renewal has lost its cutting edge? Is it an invitation to return to that place where our faith was expectant, where we were prepared to take risks and not be comfortable and acceptable? “Trust me” I found myself then looking at the story of the Exodus and in particular at the story of Moses. One of the interesting aspects of Moses’ story is that God doesn’t tell him how to lead the people out he simply says trust me. Any power that Moses has in the story is the power of the presence of God. The direction he is to take comes as he walks the journey. Moses is willing to take the risk to trust God and to go on the journey. I don’t know about you but I sometimes think we’ve forgotten about the risk element in following the Lord. We’ve made faith something which is about prayer, about contemplation, about liturgy and about knowledge. Biblical faith is about risk and relationship and never knowing, just trusting. That’s what we had at the beginning and maybe that’s what we have to rediscover. If you look at what happened to the people of Israel in the desert we discover that every time the people found an oasis they wanted to stay there. When Moses moved them on and reminded them of the Lord’s promise they would hark back to Egypt and say they were better off there. Maybe we’re being challenged to leave our oasis and move on? God’s timing can be a long and difficult one to learn After they receive the Ten Commandments the Israelites set out into the desert again and Yahweh was with them, a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. None of the people knew where they were going. They had to trust in God and in his timing. When the pillar stopped they had to stop and they didn’t move forward until God led them forward. It’s interesting that a journey, which should have taken them eleven days, took forty years. The lesson of trust and responding to God’s timing is a long and difficult one to learn but if we’re to experience the Promised Land we have to make the journey. So let’s go back. “To return to your first love” is not about harking back to the ‘good old days’ when our prayer groups were full and days of renewal were overflowing. It seems to me it’s about re-establishing that excitement that comes from trusting in God and knowing that each day is an adventure. It’s about being willing to take risks. I always find it very challenging that Luke in his Gospel defines discipleship in terms of risking and trusting. It’s about never being comfortable to remain where we are and about wanting more of God and of life. It’s about pushing boundaries and living prophetic lifestyles. So rediscover your first love and find life and life in its fullness.
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