August 8, 2010
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings:
Wis 18:6-9
Heb 11:1-2,8-19
Luke 12:32-48
So, what's most important to you in your life? It's a simple question and a basic one. Yet answering it often proves rather difficult.
There is a myth that to know oneself and answer such questions all we need to do is to 'look inwards' and 'see' what is in there. However, looking inward is not so easy. It is rather difficult.
It takes time to answer and understand the question, 'What's most important to you in your life?
We can discover the answer to this fundamental question by looking at how we act and react in our daily lives. Look at where your heart is, and you will find out what you really want, what you really treasure.
Sunday's Gospel puts it this way: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
It takes time to answer and understand the question, 'What's most important to you in your life?
We can discover the answer to this fundamental question by looking at how we act and react in our daily lives. Look at where your heart is, and you will find out what you really want, what you really treasure.
Sunday's Gospel puts it this way: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Jesus speaks of material possessions as capturing the heart, not allowing one to be free to follow him. So he challenges his disciples to reveal what it is they really value, following him or being caught up in that material world.
Such conflicts are a common staple of life. But we all know, that God is what is most important to me in my life, but if my actions don't bear that out, then in some way I am mistaken and deceive myself. And, when it comes to issues as fundamental as this, wrong answers can be very costly. Relationships can be destroyed, lives can be wasted, and people can become trapped in illusions, focusing on false goals, because of wrong answers to the simple question, 'What's most important to you in your life?'
You may go out of your way to help those in need, but what is the reason for your generosity? Is it it because you want to help another? Or do you assist others just to gain praise? You may even claim that God is what's most important to you in your life, yet never get round to spending time in prayer.
Sunday's Gospel takes our simple question very seriously. Christ encourages us to have our lamps ready for when the Master arrives. In a certain way this passage says put your values in order before you die or before Christ comes again. But this can only happen if you first give a true answer to the question.
Throughout our lives we are presented with opportunities which require that we make a choice. And if we are to make good choices, we need to have good values, and this requires knowing what values we have in reality.
Luke's Gospel is a gift to us. It is a gift because it challenges us to face up to what is in fact most important to us, and in so doing how important God really is to us in our lives.
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Pray for the Canonization of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade
Blessed WilliamJoseph Chaminade
