“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.”(Psalm 90:12)
Reflections on the readings for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 4, 2022): WIS 9:13-18; PS 90:3-4,5-6,12-13,14,17; PHMN 9-10,12-17; LK 14:25-33
MISSIO offers “Mission In Scripture” to nurture a missionary heart, providing reflections on the missionary themes in the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
The Blessed Trinity, one God, made us, saved us, and now remains with us supporting and guiding us through time into eternity.
Being a disciple of Jesus Christ has a cost, sometimes, a high one. Too often, we take our faith for granted. The liturgical readings today ask us to look at the way we actually live our lives as Christians. From the Book of Wisdom we are immediately asked a question. “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. … What is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out? Or who ever knew Your counsel, except You had given wisdom and sent our holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight” (Wisdom 9:13-14,16-18). Of course, the answer is that no human being knows what God thinks or plans -- except as He reveals Himself through the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples to expect the Holy Spirit to come upon them after He ascended into heaven. And so the Paraclete came, and still comes today to encourage and enliven us in walking in the path that Christ left us. Only through the Divine Wisdom can we really be the loyal, loving, brave people God means us to be. Only by acknowledging, yet putting aside, the pleasures of the body, the inducements of the world, and the prideful self that tries to do everything on its own, can we really let God’s power work within us.
We human beings tend to want to be in charge of our lives, or at least believe we are. And that goes for Christians, too, although Jesus taught us to know better. The Blessed Trinity, one God, made us, saved us, and now remains with us supporting and guiding us through time into eternity. But we need to cooperate with God’s will and grace with openness and humility. We will receive more than we ever ask.
Suggested missionary action: Let us ask the Holy Spirit to guide us so that we may willingly accept everything that the Divine Will calls us to do. Let us also ask the Holy Spirit’s help in imitating Christ’s obedience to the Father rather than in seeking our own preferences.