“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love
is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
Well now, who does
Jesus think He is to tell us we must love Him more than our families? Actually,
Jesus doesn’t think, but He knows that He is the Son of God, our Creator. That
means that He wants for us the absolute best, while we often are willing to settle
for much less. He knows us all too well and He sees us all too often flirting
with danger not only in this life, but even risking the loss of eternal life in
communion with God and all the saints.
“Lord, I
declare that your steadfast love is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
When we become
overly absorbed or even obsessed with our own comfort or in a race to satisfy
our numerous passions; we risk loving poorly or even failing to love our loved
ones, our own family. What is more, if we become obsessed with the need to love
our loved ones, our family, at all cost; we risk ignoring the Lord God as well
as his holy will for our salvation here and now and our eternal happiness.
“Lord, I
declare that your steadfast love is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
The wealthy woman
of Shunem recognized that Elisha was a holy man of God, a prophet, and she saw
the opportunity to serve both the holy man and the Lord by offering Elisha a
place to stay when he had to travel through their town. For them to build
Elisha a chamber on their roof would certainly have resulted in a significant
outlay of money, which, for her, would have been interfering with her husband’s
administration of their goods. Her husband was old; yet she was willing to risk
stirring up his wrath in order to serve both the holy man and God.
That woman put all
her trust in the Lord her God. “For our
shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.”
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love is
established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
Is
it not true, at least some of the time, that we care more about what our family
and others think of us than we care about what God thinks of us? If we haven’t
learned this hard lesson by now, then it’s about time we learn it: trying to
please others at all cost will get us into trouble.
The only One we must
always please is our God and Creator, the Most Holy Trinity. That is because we
can please God only by becoming the best version of ourselves. This we can do
by taking good care of our own life, and out of whatever health, strength, and
energy we have, to do our best to also care for others, beginning with our own
family, but also for neighbours.
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love
is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
As we do our best to keep
our life in relatively good order and to do the will of God, then the Holy
Spirit fills us with the peace of divine love, and our life – however imperfect
– becomes a personal witness to the mercy and goodness of God and a living
proclamation of Good News.
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love
is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
Finally, at the end of
each day, as we prepare for sleep, and when we review our day, we can ask God
our Father to forgive us for our faults, and give Him thanks for his Presence,
his help, and his love. It is as we pray that we can become conscious of the
Presence of the Most Holy Trinity within us, and that we can realize that all
is grace; all is gift. God shows us that we have control over nothing; so, why keep
trying to carry the weight of the whole world on our shoulders, when Jesus is
already carrying the world? Since all that we are, and all that comes to us,
and all that we have is gift from God; we can relax, we can rest, and we can
breathe.
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love
is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
That is why it is so important for us to participate
well in the Sunday Liturgy, at Holy Mass. We can prepare the day before and
Sunday morning by remembering all that we have lived since our last presence at
the Sacred Liturgy. We can dispose ourselves to place on the altar the offering
of ourselves: our efforts during the week to live as daughters, sons of God;
all that we accept to endure out of love; our trials, sorrows, and losses; our worries,
prayers, and temptations; our disappointments, and our repentance; putting all
our trust in God.
“Lord, I
declare that your steadfast love is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
“Mary
Mother of God, St. Joseph, walk with us in
the steps of Jesus. O my
Jesus, I trust in You! Thank You; You who are God, the
Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
In silence now, the Holy
Spirit helps us to lay down our offering together with that of Jesus….
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