Our Lord always is a disturbing element – especially when it comes to that moment of decision when we are faced with the choice – our choice – either of making him the effective Master of our thoughts and words and actions, or of letting him have no more practical significance so far as we are concerned than a name printed in a book.

There is always that spiritual tension within one’s heart all the time that Our Lord, like a magnet, attracts us from one side, and our lower unworthy self is pulling us away on the other; when we are not averse to visits from him in time of trouble but do not really want him, in his own words, to make his home with us (John 14:23) – because if that were to happen, there would have to be a radical redirection in our thinking, and in our whole attitude to God, to ourselves and to other people.

It would mean adopting his standards and framing our life accordingly; it would mean casting out everything that was incompatible with his presence within us.