What matters most
Gospel Reflection
Christ is all that we need.
In our readings today we are reminded on what is truly important in life, on where our priorities should be and on what our focus should be in our life. In a way, our purpose.
Why, my dear brothers and sisters? Because as we go about on our daily business, we tend to forget about what truly matters. We are so busy trying to achieve our ambitions, or even to just live day in and day out, for most of us.
The world has become too capitalistic and too expensive for the ordinary person, that every day becomes a struggle to simply survive.
We heard in our first reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes (Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23) how everything in this world is vanity. They are not what really matters. We work our bones, we do everything that we can to survive, to ensure that we have food to put on our tables, to pay for the roof on our heads and all other essentials - even the internet has become an essential these days.
"All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest," Qoheleth, the teacher, says.
We keep on worrying, we are always anxious, so many things disturb us, that we forget God's promise to us:
Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? (Matthew 6:26)
We keep on forgetting this promise and so what do we do? We occupy our time in trying to make money, and when we have enough, we work hard to make more. We want a comfortable life, who doesn't? But let us also remember that none of the things we accumulate in this world would really matter in the end.
What would matter?
Our relationship with God. How is it? Do we spend time in church? Do we spend time reading His love letters to us? Do we spend time to talk to him? Or perhaps we are too busy to do all these things that we can't even reserve just a day for Him? Remember the sabbath day—keep it holy (Exodus 20:8).
Our relationship with others, especially with God's anawim. How much do we value our relationships? What effort are you doing to ensure that you have better and a harmonious relationship with others? How about with God's anawim? With the abused, oppressed, and exploited?
These are what matters most, my dear brothers and sisters. This is what Christ wants us to work on.
The earthly treasures we accumulate, we can lose them in a blink of an eye, but the relationships we build with God and God's people is what really matters. It is our insurance and our assurance for a fulfilled life, a life of true security.
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.”
Christ is all that we need.
In our readings today we are reminded on what is truly important in life, on where our priorities should be and on what our focus should be in our life. In a way, our purpose.
Why, my dear brothers and sisters? Because as we go about on our daily business, we tend to forget about what truly matters. We are so busy trying to achieve our ambitions, or even to just live day in and day out, for most of us.
The world has become too capitalistic and too expensive for the ordinary person, that every day becomes a struggle to simply survive.
We heard in our first reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes (Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23) how everything in this world is vanity. They are not what really matters. We work our bones, we do everything that we can to survive, to ensure that we have food to put on our tables, to pay for the roof on our heads and all other essentials - even the internet has become an essential these days.
"All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest," Qoheleth, the teacher, says.
We keep on worrying, we are always anxious, so many things disturb us, that we forget God's promise to us:
Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? (Matthew 6:26)
We keep on forgetting this promise and so what do we do? We occupy our time in trying to make money, and when we have enough, we work hard to make more. We want a comfortable life, who doesn't? But let us also remember that none of the things we accumulate in this world would really matter in the end.
What would matter?
Our relationship with God. How is it? Do we spend time in church? Do we spend time reading His love letters to us? Do we spend time to talk to him? Or perhaps we are too busy to do all these things that we can't even reserve just a day for Him? Remember the sabbath day—keep it holy (Exodus 20:8).
Our relationship with others, especially with God's anawim. How much do we value our relationships? What effort are you doing to ensure that you have better and a harmonious relationship with others? How about with God's anawim? With the abused, oppressed, and exploited?
These are what matters most, my dear brothers and sisters. This is what Christ wants us to work on.
The earthly treasures we accumulate, we can lose them in a blink of an eye, but the relationships we build with God and God's people is what really matters. It is our insurance and our assurance for a fulfilled life, a life of true security.
Photo: Alexander Schimmeck | Unsplash
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