The Way of the Lord

Jacob Wrestles with the Angel

Deacon Tom writes ©

"The Way of the Lord"

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Hello everyone. I am writing from Harrisonburg, VA where Rachel and I are having a wonderful time visiting our son and daughter-in-law and our three grandsons. As I promised many of you, here is a brief reflection on this Sunday’s readings.

We don’t have to be scripture scholars to realize one of the predominant topics for our Sunday readings is how often we turn our backs on God and do things “our way.” The reason for this is that we have failed to overcome our primary enemy… not the devil, but his closest ally…ourselves…“We have met the enemy, and he is us” as Pogo put it so aptly.

Isn’t it strange that we have to overcome ourselves in order to find our way back to God? … that we have to “die to self” as Jesus taught His disciples? In a small book entitled “My Daily Bread", Jesuit Fr. Anthony Paone names some of the challenges we face by contrasting what it is that pulls us away from God… our very nature, and what draws us closer to Him…grace. Here are some of those differences:

• Nature is selfish;  we have three concerns in life – me, myself and I. We are focused inward and that is a difficult condition to overcome. Grace, on the other hand, causes us to look outside our narrow self-interest and enables us to be concerned about others and seek to do God’s will, even when doing so will be an inconvenience or cause us to make sacrifices we wouldn't otherwise consider making.

• Nature hates all restraint… “anything goes” is the order of the day…a “Don’t tell me what to do!” attitude. Grace seeks self-control, self-conquest, obedience. Grace seeks to please God in all that we do.

• Nature loves honor and respect as a symbol of our importance and status. We desire these things for one important reason: to satisfy our insatiable egos. Grace accepts honor and respect but only to offer them to God, who, as St. Paul says is the one, “ from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever.”

May we increase in grace so that our true nature as God’s children may shine in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom