Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings

Reflection on Scripture

Today’s readings pose an important question to all people on the journey to salvation.  The question is, who do we live for?

When we come into this world, our whole focus is attention, nourishment, and love.  Soon, within two years, we learn that we can gather attention and the things we want by acting out and demanding, because we have our parents wrapped around our fingers.  By the time we mature, around age 20 something for women and age 30 something for men, we have learned how to manipulate people to get the things that give us pleasure and our lists of pleasures have grown far beyond nourishment and nurturing.

We find in our early adulthood that we live for our job, our family, our friends and relatives, but still the primary focus reminds on us as we become more self-centered and more self-absorbed.  However, self-centeredness is not maturity but a clear indication of immaturity.

If we remain in a state of self-centeredness, all the things we cherish most will not bring us happiness and we will go through life searching consciously or unconsciously for the something missing in our lives that will bring contentment within ourselves and with others.

Alfred Adler described the movement within us to maturity as a movement from self-centeredness to self-giving.  The more we begin to move beyond the confines of self and recognize that our gifts and talents are at the disposal for others, the more contentment and happiness we will find.

For a Christian, the ultimate happiness is total union with God who will fill the void of loneliness and unhappiness with His eternal presence.  If you thought I was going to say heaven, you are mistaken because heaven is a state of being and not a place and happiness is eternal life with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in communion with all the saints.

Can we find that happiness in this life?  Yes, we can.  We can find a high degree of happiness in this life, but we will still yearn for the time when we are one with God.  Many do not recognize the emptiness in their own lives and seek to fill it with material things and abnormal behaviors.  Even, devout Christians think if they pray harder and in greater abundance, they will find this happiness.

So, how do we find this happiness?  First, we ask the question, am I growing in virtue, faith, hope, and charity, each day or am I at a standstill in my spiritual journey?  If we are not advancing in virtue on a daily basis, then we are backsliding and losing the little we may have gained.

Jesus tells us that anything that we love or desire more than Him, makes us incapable of His presence in our being.  If we do not take up our crosses each day and follow Him unreservedly, then we are not worthy of Him.

Teresa of Avila tells us that we meet God in the prayer of quiet, just being present to God and allowing His love to mold us into His likeness.  When we begin to know God, we can give thanks for sending His Son to rescue us from sin and death and offer us eternal salvation.  Knowing God. will allow the supernatural virtues to grow within us and make us aware of His love for us and for all creation.  When we begin to realize that our destiny lies in oneness with God and oneness with each other, we will begin to move from self-centeredness to self-giving and become aware of the needs of others and help them, and ourselves, on the path to salvation.  God will give us the grace to long for Him always and often and this longing will be fulfilled through seeking Him in all people and all things and above all people and all things.

As we move from self-centeredness to self-giving, we will allow ourselves to be loved more by God and allow God to form us into love.  Today, let us begin our journey anew.  Today, let us begin our journey to union with God forever.

Deacon Phil