Daily Reflections: September 22 - September 28
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(September 22, 2024: Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
The first disciples certainly did ascribe to the fact that Jesus was very probably the Messiah for whom they yearned, and yet he was a Messiah with a mission far from the reality that they expected.
Today's Gospel gives a vivid picture of this dilemma in their failure to appreciate the fact that Jesus speaks about his upcoming death and resurrection and the suffering involved in that particular path. The clear unfolding of that prediction met with confusion and fear on the part of his disciples, because they found themselves unable to grasp this reality in light of their own expectations, hopes and dreams.
Their perception of their role in the reality of this kingdom led them to argue among themselves. Their expectations naturally convinced them of the importance of their own role in the fulfillment of Jewish hopes for their future and embroiled them in hostility, envy and enmity among themselves. Jesus again clearly demonstrated the importance of their role and how their role would be played out - in ways far different from their own perceptions. The little child in their midst presents clearly the ideal to which his disciples are called.
Saint Francis de Sales speaks of the natural difficulty often involved in our acquiescence to the will of God. Often we find ourselves in the position of the apostles in the Gospel account today, where following the will of God does not conform to our own expectations or desires. In the Treatise on the Love of God (Book 9, Chapter 2), Francis tells us:
“A truly living heart loves God's good pleasures not only in consolations but also in afflictions, but it loves it most of all in the cross, in pain, and labor, because love's principal power is to enable the lover to suffer for the beloved object.”
Today, we need to ask ourselves today how our own expectations, hopes or dreams prevent us from truly acquiescing to the Will of God. Do the difficult times we encounter stifle us in our attempts to follow God's will? Have we been able to abandon our attempts to have God's will conform to our own desires and wills? Do we really appreciate the gift that Jesus is to us?
A prayerful reflection upon these questions will lead to the opportunity which is needed for us to acquiesce to the Will of God. What a necessary part of our journey of faith this process really is! In the Introduction to the Devout Life (Book 2, Chapter 1), St. Francis de Sales wrote:
“Prayer places our intelligence in the divine love. It is the best way to purge our intelligence of its ignorance and our will of its bad affections...I suggest, above all, mental prayer of the mind and heart, especially that which is made on the Life and Passion of Our Lord. In contemplating Him you will be filled with Him; you will learn to act like Him and to conform your actions to His.”
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(September 23, 2024: Pius of Pietrelcina)
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“Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim…”
Today’s selection from the Book of Proverbs offers us (as it usually does) some sound, practical advice. Simply put, if there is some good that you can do for another person – provided, of course, that it is within your power or purview to do so – you should do it! (Recall Nike’s tag line: “Just do it!”.)
But the Book of Proverbs also adds this caveat: do not postpone until tomorrow the opportunities you have to do something good today. One of the greatest obstacles we face in our attempts to do good things is the temptation to put them off - to wait for the right moment, for the perfect time or for the ideal circumstances. How many things have never gotten done simply because somebody said, “I’ll get around to it later” or “There’s always tomorrow”.
It should be painfully obvious to each one of us that there will come a time in our lives when we will no longer have the opportunity to “get around to it”. There will, indeed, come a day for which there will be no tomorrow. So, why wait until later to do something good for somebody else when you have the opportunity to do it today – now – at this moment?
Perhaps Rudyard Kipling’s (1865-1936) admonition can encourage us to not only do good things but also to do them in the here and now. He once wrote: “Live each day as though it were your last; one day, you’re sure to be right.”
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(September 24, 2024: Tuesday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”
In earlier times in human history – before the development and growth of urban centers – communities tended to be small and tight-knit. Everybody knew everybody else, so much so, that when asked to identify members of a particular clan, tribe or family it was easy to pick them out by how they looked, spoke or acted.
We are children of the Father, siblings of Jesus and embodiments of the Holy Spirit. How easily do others identify us as members of God’s family by how we look, speak and act?
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(September 25, 2024: Wednesday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Every word of God is tested ...”
Beginning teachers are often reminded that their students will test them. Their students will pay a lot less attention to what is said to them and a great deal more attention to what is done to them. This reaction is the essence of what is meant in the words from today’s selection from the Book of Proverbs: we test and/or judge God’s words - we evaluate God’s veracity - by what God does. What God says to us pales in comparison to what – in our experience – God does for us.
Consider the example of Jesus in today’s Gospel. He didn’t give the Twelve the power merely to speak or to preach, but he also gave them the power to expel demons, to cure diseases and to heal the sick. In other words, “proclaiming the Good News” is about saying the right thing as well as doing the right thing.
How about us? How might our words be tested today? How will other people ask us to back up what we say to them with what we are willing to do for them?
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(September 26, 2024: Thursday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full.”
The message in the today’s selection from the Book of Ecclesiastes seems to be saying something like this: “Go ahead, do what you want. Work on your projects. Knock yourself out, not that it’s going to make any difference in the end. You’re just wasting your time – your efforts will change nothing.”
Not exactly a basis for a motivational poster!
Does this mean that we should simply drift through life without putting our hand to anything? Does this mean that we are simply created to pass through this world without trying to contribute something to it? Does this mean that any attempt at leaving some legacy in our wake is simply a waste of time? After all, the Gospel parables of the “talents” makes it quite clear that God expects to (as it were) get a return on the investment that He has made in each and every one of us.
The key to understanding what the warning in today’s reading means – as well as what it doesn’t mean – comes from knowing the definition of the word “vanity”. Vanity is defined as, “Excessive pride in or admiration of one’s own appearance or achievements”. The key words here are “excessive” and “one’s own”.
We should work while on this earth. We should do our best to make the world – or at least our little part of it – a better place for our having been here. What we do does matter. What we do has results, provided that we do it for God’s glory.
Not ours!
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(September 27, 2024: Vincent de Paul, Priest and Founder)
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“There is an appointed time for everything…”
These words in today’s selection from the Book of Ecclesiastes should be prominently displayed on the door of every refrigerator around the world. The wisdom – and lessons – of these words are at one and the same time both simple and salient.
They remind us of how important it is to develop a sense of timing.
Consider these questions:
· How many times have you hurt someone else not because you did a bad thing but because you did a good thing at the worst possible time?
· How many times did you bite your tongue when you should have said something?
· How many times did you weep when you should have laughed?
· How many times did you hold on to something long after you should have set it aside to embrace something new?
· How many times did you give up on something precisely when you should have given it one more try?
· How many times did you spread yourself too thin when you should have been trying to keep your own act together?
Put another way, how many times in our lives have we attempted to place a square peg in a round hole? And don’t we know from our experience that it just won’t fit?
Francis de Sales (a great friend and contemporary of St. Vincent de Paul) reminded his readers that it isn’t enough for us to do good things, that is, to practice virtues. We also need to recognize when, where and how to practice virtues in ways that fit the events, situations, circumstances and relationships in which we find ourselves in any given moment. Look at today’s Gospel. Even as Peter correctly identifies who Jesus is (a good thing), Jesus rebukes him (not such a good thing) for not intuiting that now is not yet the time to start running around and proclaiming this truth to others. Key words - not yet!
And so, we pray today: God, please give us two things: (1) the courage to do good things, and (2) the wisdom of knowing when – or when not – to do them!
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(September 28, 2024: Saturday, Twenty-fifth Week Ordinary Time)
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“Pay attention to what I am telling you.”
Some things in life are more important than others. With the hope of trying to impress upon another person that what we are about to say is of greater importance than other things, often, we might preface our advice with words like “listen up,” “pay attention” or “now hear this”.
While we would like to think that everything that Jesus said is of equal importance, Jesus clearly wanted to impress his disciples with the inevitability of his showdown with the religious leaders of his time. And while we know that Jesus raised this issue more than a few times in the Gospels, the disciples seem to have had difficulty in grasping the importance of this prediction.
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“The more pleasant and excellent are the objects our senses encounter, the more ardently and avidly do they enjoy them. The more beautiful, the more delightful to our sight, and the more effectively lighted they are, the more eagerly and attentively do our eyes look to them. The sweeter and more pleasant a voice or music is, the more completely is the ear’s attention drawn to it. This force is more or less strong in accordance with the greater or lesser excellence of the object, provided that it is proportionate to the capacity of the sense desiring to enjoy it. For example, although the eye finds great pleasure in light, it cannot bear extremely strong light, nor can it look steadily at the sun. No matter how beautiful music may be, if it is too loud and too close to us, it strikes harshly on the ear and disturbs it.” (TLG, Book III, Chapter 9, p. 186)
There are so many things that Jesus wants us to learn about the ways of living in God’s love. How well will we pay attention to what God may be telling us about those ways - just today?
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