Why do we look in a mirror? A mirror reflects reality. It shows us how we look. It reflects our good points and our bad points. It shows us how we appear to others. If we do not like the image we see in the mirror, we can decide to work to change it. The mirror cannot change anything. It merely reflects reality. But the reality that is reflected may move us to make changes.
Let’s think of the Gospel as a mirror. It is a mirror held up to us that reflects not how we see ourselves but how God sees us. It shows us the image of what we are called to become and the reality of what we are. The Gospel mirror not only shows us what we need to change, but, unlike the mirror in our home, it can help us to make the changes. God’s Word is efficacious. It has the power to bring about what it says.
That power is God’s grace, the working of the Holy Spirit. But, because we have free will, we must decide to change; we must open ourselves to the Spirit in our lives. Of course if we do not know Jesus, if we do not know the Gospel, then what we see in the mirror may not be God’s Word, but our word. We may succumb to the danger of trying to conform the Gospel to our lives instead of conforming our lives to the Gospel. St. Jerome wrote: ‘Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” (Commentary on Isaiah)
What are our choices when we look in the Gospel mirror and realize we have work to do to become what we are called to be? We can work to change, to conform our lives to the Gospel with God’s help. We can walk away and ignore what we see in the mirror; or we can try to destroy the mirror.
The decision is ours
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