Month: September 2021

In our readings today, we have something that doesn’t happen every day: there is a clear theme running through all three readings and the Psalm. Each reading, in its own way, shows how God is close to the physically and spiritually afflicted.

Too often in the midst of our physical and spiritual afflictions, we may feel anything but close to God. We might feel like God is punishing us. Despite numerous Scripture passages to the contrary (e.g. the entire book of Job), people may even tell us we are afflicted because our faith is not strong enough.

In fact, God chooses the poor and afflicted precisely because they are poor and afflicted. They know they cannot rely on their own strength, and they need God to heal them and lift them up. Those who live comfortable lives may start to think they “earned” their status through their own merits and see no need to turn to God and let Him work in their lives.

On a personal note, as I await the birth of my second child any day now, I have been reflecting a lot on my painful journey with primary, then secondary infertility. Looking back, I can see how God was close to me in that affliction, using that time of waiting and disappointment to help me grow as a mother and a person. Through this journey, God made my children not just blessings, but miracles, and He gave me a heart to never take that for granted.

So my prayer today is that those poor and afflicted in any way in this world will open their hearts and allow God to heal them, turning the desert of their life into a spring of life-giving water.

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The First Reading for today is from Colossians, and it’s just one sentence long. But it’s a powerful and thought-provoking sentence. In part, it reads: “You once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds; God has now reconciled you in the fleshly body of Christ through His death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before Him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.”

Let us take just a few moments throughout the day today to reflect on that fact. Indeed, God sent His Son here to redeem us. He didn’t do this because we deserved it; He did it out of pure love. 

God’s love for us is so powerful, so unending, and so beautiful that He allowed His Son to die a horribly painful death on the cross for us. 

Despite this knowledge, and despite this immense gift God gave us, we sometimes reject His gift. We permit worldly things to come before Him, allowing them to hurt the relationship Christ sought to establish when He came.

Furthermore, we know that what we must do for Christ and what we actually do are often two very different things. We know that, as St. Paul says, we must “persevere in the faith,” but we find ourselves ensnared by sin, falling repeatedly into the same worldly traps of vice. Though we don’t have the same kinds of idols that the people of the Old Testament had, we do have the idols of society today. And often they do get in the way of our relationship with Christ and keep us from persevering in faith. 

These things include the trappings of modern life like the Internet, TV, video games or games on our phones, and so forth. Or maybe these “idols” are more serious addictions like drugs, alcohol, gambling, or something else. 

Anything that we put first or before Christ is an idol that keeps us from persevering and firmly grounding ourselves in our faith. They take us back to the time where mankind was alienated because of evil deeds.

The amazing thing is that we have the power to stop this alienation. We can decide to make changes anytime we want. It begins with identifying these “idols” and demoting them. Unless they are seriously hurting us or our relationships with others, we don’t have to totally give up things we enjoy, but we must not allow ourselves to be consumed by them. 

God must always come first in our lives. 

So, starting today, let us reflect on our lives and on what the “idols” are that we must reject so that we can start rebuilding and renewing our relationship with Christ. 

He’s waiting with open arms.

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