At every turn in life, remember that your audience is not the world, it is not coworkers, it is not friends, nor acquaintances, it is not even relatives. It is The Heavenly Court.
Angels. Saints. Holy deceased. The Blessed Mother. Christ. The Holy Spirit. God the Father.
That’s your audience.
Everything you do, think, and say should be with that in mind.
God and His angels, Christ, the Blessed Mother and saints, watch everything.
When you fret and labor for outward appearance, for what pleases the world, you’re laboring to please flesh and blood, not spirit. If your audience — those you “play” to — is earthly.
Why would you tailor your life and actions in accordance with their approval?
In all you do and say and think, ask yourself if your standard is the standard of limbo or paradise?
Jesus knows you and in the end is the only person Who needs to know and evaluate everything about you. As you go through the way, visualize angels watching over your every move and do what makes them smile, what makes them rejoice, what redounds to your eventual glory.
Your concern must be shining in Heaven — not here on this planet of water and gases and dirt.
Be careful about adopting ungodly eyes.
Be careful of cultishness.
Your stage is not the public square. It is not Twitter or Youtube. It is not an e-mail blast.
It is in a pew.
It is at home, in prayer.
How many times in the course of a day, not to mention entire life spans, do we focus our concern on what someone else thinks or might think — often someone who dislikes us or is jealous? Are they our judges? Are they who you want to set the design for your life?
“My son, do not walk on the way with them,” says Proverbs 1:15-16. “Keep your feet from their path, For their feet run to evil, and they are quick to shed blood.”
“So you will walk in the way of good people, And keep to the paths of the righteous,” adds Proverbs 2.
“Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil people,” further emphasizes Proverbs 4. “Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on.”
What will you spend more time with today, the Bible or Facebook? Is your audience in Heaven or on social media? Saint Teresa of Avila said, “the most important and pleasing thing in God’s Eyes is remembering His honor and glory and forgetting ourselves and our own profit and pleasure.”
When you let other people define you, you are not you. You are not yourself. You are not who you really are. And when, obsessed with the world, you maintain a grudge, the same thing: you are letting someone else control your narrative. When you hold out anger against someone who hurt you — perhaps a friend, perhaps a boss — you are letting them continue to hurt you, to fill you with the negative, which obscures your true glorious being.
When you are fighting a grudge, you are fighting yourself.
On the other hand, when you are positive, a light illuminates within you — shines forth.
This is the light of your eternity.
When kindness and truth leave you — due to a worldly focus — so too does the Spirit of the Lord.
“When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more, But the righteous has an everlasting foundation” (Proverbs 10).
Let go and let God. Find peace. Locate quiet in prayer. Empty your mind of thoughts that bring you down. Look past hurts and anger and concerns. Let Him fight your battles. He can do it much better. He is your audience. It is only His applause, His review, that counts.
It comes down to that:
If you are right with God, what do you care what others think about you?
[resources: Michael Brown online retreat, Saturday, February 6]
