Spark of God

My reflection this time is my thoughts on what Mother Gavrilia said as written in a biography of her entitled “The Ascetic of Love”. This amazing book relates her opinion on some people whom the people considered as ‘bad people’. Below is what she said beautifully (pages 175-176).

[...these people are] Not just good... Angels! The heart never stops being good. You can see even a wrong doer having tears in his eyes at a given moment and saying: “Well now I still cannot understand how I did that”... This spark of God is inside us. It cannot be absent from any human being.

[...] Ah but there is nothing else! Take out the Spark of God, and we become living corpses. That breath, which God blew into us, is Love. Is it gone? Then we are like living dead walking about... Just think of it.

How beautiful and truthful these simple words are! And it struck me to realize that every saint living on this earth would adopt the same attitude. It’s neither out of compromise nor out of despair, rather, is always out of love. And that love transform and brings so powerful impact to a person, community and the world. Just like The Lord says, we are like sheep among the wolves. We could not be harmful: what we do is merely to love and love and love to the point that only Christ live in us.

Being Christian, as St. Seraphim of Sarov, we have such precious purpose namely to acquire the Spirit of Peace. When we acquire that, thousands around us shall be saved. Now, when I draw correlation line here between what blessed mother Gavrilia said and the one of St. Seraphim, it is clear that at any cost, we are called to live in God. By always keeping that spark, tending it, in such manner that Christ’s glory revealed through the very presence of Him in us.

That is how God sees us! And that is why we still live until today. It is merely by the mercy of God that He gives us his grace to come closer to him with every second passed. Yes, it is not automatic and smooth way to trod. Rather it is the way of the cross. We pass this path by constantly combating our darkness and hear His voice leading to the light.

So many times I whisper to myself in the moment of realization: “Hey, you take too much care for yourself: by living in indulgence of food, clothing, entertainment, etc. When will you start to learn caring for others as well?” Yes, it is so easy for me to be trapped into pursue of my own comfort. Once imagination one by one gratified, I feel drowned. However, I desire to be caring and hospitable, and to be helpful and loving. May the Lord help me.

When I come across this gem thought, it is that aha moment! The Spark of God. Yes, we humans are created for Him, in Him and through Him. God is the source, benefactor and the final. He is Alfa and Omega. What I need to do is to cling on Him always, with all I am, with my failure, weaknesses and everything. To pray unceasingly, to ask his mercy and help in every moment. That’s how we can start loving. First by living out that Spark of God, as dim as it has been, faithfully and with faith, and let God lead the way! Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner...