In the World, Not Of the World

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Living and working as lay people in the world, how are we called to be different from, or what are we called to do differently than others in the world? There is more to life than the pursuit of worldly ends: power, pleasure, material security, social status. For many, the passions of pride, sensuality, and possessiveness drive these pursuits. But in Miles Jesu, we try to distance ourselves from those selfish passions and make God, not ourselves, the center of our life.

Take the example of “work.” Our work, whatever it may be, is the special form that “faith working through love” is to take in us. Our activity has no other purpose than to generously give ourselves to God and to be collaborators in the coming of His Kingdom.

But I shall never succeed in shifting my center of gravity, as it were, to God and others if I don’t give myself to frequent, and eventually constant, prayer allowing the Spirit of God to enter in and make this transformation in my being. Eventually the spiritual life begins to spill over into my work and everyday affairs—the ordinary circumstances in which I find myself placed. These circumstances become a sign of the will of God for me.

What helps to keep us God-centered is the spirit of availability, part of the charism of Miles Jesu. Availability is in reality a particular expression of the vow of obedience. The French philosopher Gabriel Marcel describes availability as “the state of belonging interiorly to God and one’s neighbor by self-renunciation. That is why the people who are the most available are also the most consecrated.” 

Such a beautiful way of looking at obedience! However, if my thoughts are only of this world—if my obedience is without conviction or my prayer without heart—I will not act freely in doing what God asks or loving whom God’s grace urges me to love. This is where we are asked to hold before us the Cross.