Saturday, June 16, 2018

Jun 16 - Saturday 10th Week in OT


+ Our readings today have to do with commitment and renunciation.  They have to do with saying “Yes” and saying “No” - and sticking to it! In the first reading young Elisha follows Elijah the prophet after he is selected by Elijah to be his disciple. Elisha says “Yes” and he sticks by his decision. In the gospel passage, referring to the rather indiscriminate practice of “swearing the truth to just about anything at all” – a practice that is still indiscriminately used today, Jesus says to “make good to the Lord all that we vow” – and let the subject matter be serious, let it comes from the fountain of love in our hearts!

There are two kinds of vows that come to mind: the vows of marriage, and the vows of religious profession. The first is made to the spouse to bind the couple together in mutual love and fidelity til death do they part. In essence, they are utilitarian vows, a means to an end, the end being life forever in God, not as a married couple, but as brother and sister in Christ, who were coupled by God to give value and meaning to their lives on earth, to bring into existence more brothers and sisters for God’s predetermined family, and to mirror the relationship between Christ and his Bride – his Mystical Body, the Church – whom he will marry one day – when the last trumpet sounds.

The other major vows are those taken by religious men and women when they commit themselves to following the evangelical counsels of “poverty, chastity, and obedience” as they live their lives with a particular group of men / women who have their sights solely fixed on God, and who allow him to use them in an outward apostolate in keeping with the charism of the group: for example, teaching, nursing, helping the poor, aiding the poorest of the poor. These men and women are exemplary in the heroic amount of self-renunciation they make, so that can be as pure an instrument as God wishes them to be for others.

For us, this means, that we must say yes to all our rightly intentioned vows, either as married persons, professed religious, or committed single people in the world, “vowed as it were” to praising God by doing our jobs well, and helping as many people as we can in our everyday lives, and stick by them, and say no to every other kind of justification that we want to “feather our own nest!” In the end, we must realize that as baptized Christians, confirmed and ordained Catholics that our lives are not our own – we are meant to be instruments of love, day in and day out – let us vow ourselves to this project that is entirely God magnificent work – and spend the day radiating light, joy, peace and hope to all others.  Amen.

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