Aug. 4, 2019: 18th Sunday C
Aug. 4, 2019: 18th Sunday C
Have you ever lost your luggage while you were traveling? It’s a terrible feeling, isn’t it, to lose everything that you had so thoughtfully and carefully packed for a long journey. Some years ago, a local businessman decided to go on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje where apparitions of Blessed Mother were occurring. At the airport, he checked in his suitcase that he had carefully packed with all necessities for a ten-day trip. Along the journey, he missed a flight and the rest of the travel itinerary fell apart. He arrived at his destination later than planned, and to his surprise, his luggage was lost in some European airport. He was tired and cranky, and when he got on the bus for the pilgrims for their three-hour trip to the final destination, he was even more annoyed by the incessant recitation of the Rosary that kept him from napping on the bus. As the saying goes, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” This man’s carefully and thoughtfully planned trip was out of control.
A pilgrimage is a good image to describe what our earthly journey through life is like. Unlike a vacation trip where the intention is to relax and to be pampered, a pilgrimage involves sacrifice and enduring hardships with a goal of growing closer to God. Instead of packing everything one can think of in multiple oversized luggage for a vacation, on a pilgrimage, a person only takes what’s necessary, foregoing luxuries. One priest wrote, “A pilgrimage is a journey, assigned by God. It brings the pilgrim not only to a physical place, but out of himself, and into the presence of God. All else falls away. There is only the child, his Father, and eternity.”
The temptation in this earthly life is to believe that our insecurity and anxiety about the future can be solved by acquiring more. A spiritual writer wrote, “Anxiety splits our energy between today’s priorities and tomorrow’s problems. Part of our mind is on the now; the rest is on the not yet. The result is half-minded living.” An example of an anxiety-divided person is the man who asked Jesus to persuade his brother to share the inheritance. The man was envious of his brother’s share of the inheritance; perhaps the man envisioned a more secure and comfortable life if he had possessed more money and land. I wonder if this man’s divided heart and mind were awakened when he heard Jesus’ story about a rich man who died suddenly even as he built more barns to store his bountiful harvest. Does this story also speak to us? Does this warn us of our own frantic effort to acquire, store, and build up security and comfort for the future?
St. Ignatius of Loyola wrote that the obstacles to our faith in God are wealth, honor, and pride. We desire wealth as a means to gain honor and prestige by attending the right school, living at the right address, and by amassing an abundance of assets. Have you heard of the story of a rich man who asked his wife to promise to bury him with all of his money? She was not at all happy with his request but she agreed. On the day of his funeral right before the casket was closed, she wrote out on his personal check the entire amount of his fortune and placed in his coat pocket. Thereby, she fulfilled his wish and promise.
What good are wealth, honor, and pride if we become cold, selfish, and ruthless in the process of pursuing them. What then will we have to show forth to our Heavenly Father on the day we die as we stand before the throne of God. Thus our pursuit of wealth, honor, and pride is like a check that we can’t cash when we get to heaven. Let there be no mistake that I’m dismissing daily anxiety that comes from feeding the family, paying the bills, and preparing for the future. However, there is a balance between whether my wealth controls me, or do I control my wealth. You can own wealth and yet the heart still belongs to God. When one realizes that everything they own, including each breath one takes, belongs to God and are gifts from God, one can adopt an attitude of gratitude.
How should we resist the temptations of worldly pursuits for selfish means? We have the lives of the saints as a model for how we should live on earth yet pursue heaven. Blessed Mother comes to mind as an exemplary model of humility and trust. She understood who she was before God, that is, a daughter of God whom God loved just as she was. She humbly submitted to God’s plan with trust as she said, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” She simply trusted that God would provide everything she would need for the journey. It would not be an easy journey, but she trusted that she would grow closer to God through her pilgrimage of life on earth.
In the morning, I walk the grounds of St. George Church and Cemetery as I pray the Rosary. I always make a point of stopping by the mausoleum vault which I purchased 8 years ago. I affectionately call it my “condo.” That 3-foot by 3-foot mausoleum vault powerfully reminds me that I cannot take anything from this earth with me. When I stand at the throne of God, the only thing that will matter is how I loved on this earth and God’s mercy for me. May we imitate Blessed Mother by humbly entrusting ourselves daily to God’s providence.
The temptation in this earthly life is to believe that our insecurity and anxiety about the future can be solved by acquiring more. A spiritual writer wrote, “Anxiety splits our energy between today’s priorities and tomorrow’s problems. Part of our mind is on the now; the rest is on the not yet. The result is half-minded living.” An example of an anxiety-divided person is the man who asked Jesus to persuade his brother to share the inheritance. The man was envious of his brother’s share of the inheritance; perhaps the man envisioned a more secure and comfortable life if he had possessed more money and land. I wonder if this man’s divided heart and mind were awakened when he heard Jesus’ story about a rich man who died suddenly even as he built more barns to store his bountiful harvest. Does this story also speak to us? Does this warn us of our own frantic effort to acquire, store, and build up security and comfort for the future?
What good are wealth, honor, and pride if we become cold, selfish, and ruthless in the process of pursuing them. What then will we have to show forth to our Heavenly Father on the day we die as we stand before the throne of God. Thus our pursuit of wealth, honor, and pride is like a check that we can’t cash when we get to heaven. Let there be no mistake that I’m dismissing daily anxiety that comes from feeding the family, paying the bills, and preparing for the future. However, there is a balance between whether my wealth controls me, or do I control my wealth. You can own wealth and yet the heart still belongs to God. When one realizes that everything they own, including each breath one takes, belongs to God and are gifts from God, one can adopt an attitude of gratitude.
How should we resist the temptations of worldly pursuits for selfish means? We have the lives of the saints as a model for how we should live on earth yet pursue heaven. Blessed Mother comes to mind as an exemplary model of humility and trust. She understood who she was before God, that is, a daughter of God whom God loved just as she was. She humbly submitted to God’s plan with trust as she said, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” She simply trusted that God would provide everything she would need for the journey. It would not be an easy journey, but she trusted that she would grow closer to God through her pilgrimage of life on earth.
In the morning, I walk the grounds of St. George Church and Cemetery as I pray the Rosary. I always make a point of stopping by the mausoleum vault which I purchased 8 years ago. I affectionately call it my “condo.” That 3-foot by 3-foot mausoleum vault powerfully reminds me that I cannot take anything from this earth with me. When I stand at the throne of God, the only thing that will matter is how I loved on this earth and God’s mercy for me. May we imitate Blessed Mother by humbly entrusting ourselves daily to God’s providence.
