"Your Tripod" reflects the personal Fourth Day journeys of its authors and editors. We are happy to have companions like you share in this project. Our prayer is that these reflections will invite and inspire your Fourth Day journey of Piety, Study and Action as much as writing or editing them inspires our journey and brings us all close moments with Jesus and our neighbors.
Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.Romans 14:7-8
"What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.' Luke 15:4-6
Piety
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear?The LORD is my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid?One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD'S house all the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD'S beauty, to visit his temple. But I believe I shall enjoy the LORD'S goodness in the land of the living.Wait for the LORD, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the LORD! (Psalm 27: 1,4,13-14)
Study
St. Paul message to the Romans clearly delineates costs and the benefits of discipleship.
Paul starts with God's total claim on the believer.From his first words in Romans 1:1, Paul refers to himself as a “slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” Slavery explicitly implies that the master has total control over the subject.Correspondingly, the believer must fully rely upon God.“So (then) each of us shall give an account of himself (to God).”Romans 14:12
As people of faith, God fills our engine with the fuel that we need to keep going.Sometimes, when we are getting low on that fuel, a light will shine on our dashboard, sending us into prayer, into church, into service so that we might “re-fuel” by getting closer to God.
Sometimes, however, the light on our dashboard does not shine as a reminder.That is when we wander off, on our own path, not the path that follows the Lord.That is when the Lord will exercise his control over us.That is when he will come after us like the Good Shepherd seeking out his lost sheep.God will let us wander.He builds no fences to keep up penned into his house.Yet no matter how far we wander from that house, there will always be a room for us back there.
Thus the benefits of discipleship is to always be held closely by the Lord and to be found and brought home when we are lost.
Just as the Psalmist writes (Psalm 27:4-5), “One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD'S house all the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD'S beauty, to visit his temple.For God will hide me in his shelter in time of trouble, Will conceal me in the cover of his tent; and set me high upon a rock.”
When Jesus puts us – the lost sheep on his back, it is strikingly similar to the posture he takes up on Good Friday when he puts our sins on his back in the form of the cross.
Action
When we live for the Lord, we must change the direction in which we wander to find happiness. We must orient ourselves and our lives toward the Good Shepherd. Then, there will be much rejoicing.The Lord will bring us back to his dwelling place for a great feast.
What changes have you made in your life that has resulted in your joy?Where will you seek more of that joyfulness in the future?
