"He Went Away Sad..."

First of all, I want to thank Theresa, Tricia, and Kari for being guest bloggers on my site. Their insight into the role of women in the Church is invaluable. I want to take a moment to share my insights.

A recurring theme from all three posts was doing the will of God. I think that this is the core of understanding our role in the Church, whether we be male or female.

In order to understand our roles in the Church we need to be able to shut out all of the noise that is in our lives. We need to shut out all of the voices that tell us who we need to be and what we need to do. We need to take time to sit in silence and listen. We need to shut off our televisions, our iPods, our cell phones. We need to shut off the voices of others. We need to silence what our culture is telling us to do and be. We need to sit in silence and pray. We need to listen to the call of God in our lives.

It is so hard to find time for silence these days, with so much noise surrounding us. Silence makes many of us uncomfortable. We're uncomfortable with it because we never experience it. But it is where God speaks to us. It is in the silence that we come to know and understand our role in the Church.

After we sit in silence and hear the call of God, then we need to take action. This, I believe, is the hard part. God is calling us. Yes, we can listen and hear what He wants us to do, but are we willing to actually do it? We are like the rich man from the Gospel of Matthew:

Jesus said to him "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. (Matt. 19:21-22)

We are unwilling to give up our possessions. We are unwilling to give up our dreams, our hopes, our desires. This is why so many people have a hard time understanding their role in the Church. They want it all. They want to live their lives the way they want to and they want to have a role in the Church. Unless you are willing to sacrifice everything to follow Christ you will never understand your role in the Church. Can you do this?