Monday December 2nd, 2019
"I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. For by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned...Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor." Romans 12:1-3, 9-10
So apparently I'm really into the theme of discerning God's will for your life, but then again I think it's a theme that sometimes we don't think about enough. But I'm not going to spend the majority of this reflection on it, or at least I don't intend to, it may happen anyway.
Today I want to focus on offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Now a living sacrifice is not becoming a martyr, that's not a living sacrifice, a beautiful sacrifice but not the kind this passage is talking about. This living sacrifice of our bodies is to treat them with respect and dignity and use them to worship and praise God.
Our bodies are so incredibly special in so many ways, but mostly because they were made by God. We should love our bodies and not take them for granted by abusing them, whether with alcohol, drugs, or other addictions. They are treasures and deserve so much better. The best way we can use our bodies to praise God, other than by physically praising Him, is by loving them completely; flaws and all.
We can't let what society tells us about our bodies define how we treat them. They were not made to be distorted, objectified, abused, or underappreciated. They were made to praise God in ALL things. So we are called to make living sacrifices with our bodies, our hearts and our minds.
I heard a homily the other day where the priest talked about how in the older days, when the word 'heart' was used, it was in reference to the will and not how we interpret the heart nowadays. He said that the heart was what was used to make decisions back then and not the head. So it's more than just giving our bodies in praise, but our wills as well so that they match God's will.
The latter half of this passage talks about how we shouldn't think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. What this is referring to is arrogance. It goes on to talk about how the many parts to a body and how they all serve a different, but very valuable function. Just because the parts of the body serve different purposes, doesn't mean they are any less or more than others. So too God tells us that we are all different parts of the same body, His body, and so we each in our own ways serve a purpose that is unique to us, but it doesn't mean that one is more or less important than the others. And because of those differences, we must let our love for ourselves and most importantly others be truly sincere.
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I come to you today in thanksgiving of the many blessings and struggles in my life. Help me to offer myself as a living sacrifice to you daily. Let my will align with yours. Let my love for others and myself be sincere. Do not let me grow arrogant, but have pride in my gifts and the gifts of others. Amen.