Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
By Beth DeCristofaro
But Gideon answered him, “Please, my lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the lowliest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house.” “I shall be with you,” the LORD said to him… (Judges 6:15-16)
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. … “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Matthew 19: 23, 26, 29-30)
Piety
I will listen for the word of God; surely the LORD will proclaim peace to his people, to the faithful, to those who trust in him. Near indeed is salvation for the loyal; prosperity will fill our land. Love and truth will meet; justice and peace will kiss. Truth will spring from the earth; justice will look down from heaven. (Psalm 85:9-12)
Study
What is success anyway? Jesus words are pretty ominous to us in the Land of Opportunity. “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” (Matthew 19:27) Peter asks. God does seem interested in the least of us – Gideon, David, Peter, Matthew, the slow-learning Cure of Ars (St. John Vianney), a conscientious objector farmer named Fraz Jagerstatter, a little, wizened, sharp-tongued nun named Theresa.
What are our successes? Where do we place our security? As we look around the globe and even closer to home, it seems that we place our dreams, hopes and identities into rather insecure securities. Land can be taken away – or ravaged by drought. Personal fortunes are precariously balanced on economic conditions or our own health. Families can let us down and our professional skills are never enough all the time. Our cherished dreams might never come to fruition. But for God all things are possible.
Dietrich Bonhoefferer said: “It is grace to know God’s commands. They release us from self-made plans and conflicts. They make our steps certain and our way joyful. God gives his commands in order that we may fulfill them and ‘his commandments are not burdensome’ (1 John 5:3) for him who has found all salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus has himself been under the law and has fulfilled it in total obedience to the Father. God’s will becomes his joy, his nourishment. So he gives thanks in us for the grace of the law and grants to us joy in its fulfillment.”
(From Psalms: The Prayerbook of the Bible, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Action
Where in my life am I clinging to successes and securities instead of to God’s law and promises? What am I holding onto so tightly that I become my own obstacle to growing in God? Where am I parsimonious rather than joyful and generous in God’s love?
