Why do we have this driven need to leave our mark on life? Why can’t we more easily embrace each other as sisters and brothers and rejoice in each other’s gifts and existence? Why the perennial feeling that the other is a rival? Why the need for masks, for pretense, to project a certain image about ourselves? Fr. Ron Rolheiser suggests the answer: We do all of these things to try to set ourselves apart because we are trying to give ourselves something that only God can provide us with – significance and immortality. Scripture tells us that “faith alone saves.” That simple line reveals the secret: Only God gives eternal life. Preciousness, meaning, significance, and immortality are free gifts from God, and we would be much more restful, peaceful, humble, grateful, happy, and less competitive if we could believe that. A humble, ordinary life, shared with billions of others, would then contain enough to give us a sense of our preciousness, meaning, and significance. Today’s reading from James speaks to another aspect of faith. A well-meaning Christian once asked the famed psychologist Fritz Perls if he was saved. He responded by saying, “I am still trying to figure out how to be spent!” St. Theresa of Avila suggests that we’re mature in following Christ if our questions and concerns no longer have a self-focus: Am I saved? Have I met Jesus Christ? Do I love Jesus enough? These questions remain valid, but they’re not meant to be our primary focus. Our real question needs to be: How can I be helpful? A non-negotiable part of meeting Jesus means being sent out and not alone on some private spiritual quest or individualized ministry. It means being called into community, into a church, and then sent out with others to walk inside of mess and failure, misunderstanding and crucifixion, confusion and tiredness, darkness, and God’s seeming silence, and wondering sometimes if you will indeed find a stone upon which to lay your head. Simply put, we show our love for God and our intimacy with Jesus by laying down our lives for our neighbor. Christian discipleship is never only about Jesus and me, even as it is always still about Jesus and me. Our life is not about us; it’s about others and God. That’s the path of agape, the path of ultimate love that Jesus showed us.