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Look to God to Counter Life’s Craziness

Our Path to God

My focus today is an attempt to answer a question that I have heard from many people (including myself) – “How do we deal with all the craziness in our world today? Obviously, the answer is – look to God. To do that let’s start by looking at our gospel readings.

Do we see Jesus in our life?

On October 24, we hear the story of Jesus healing the blind man. Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is passing and he calls out, “Jesus, have pity on me.” The crowd tells him to be quiet, but he continues to call out to Jesus. Jesus hears his cries and says, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus says, “I want to see.” Jesus replies, “Go on your way, your faith has saved you.”

God’s Greatest Commandment

When we find Jesus in our life, what do we do? Do we cry out for His mercy; or do we silently let Him pass us by? In last Sunday’s gospel (October 31), one of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is love God with all your heart, and the second is love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus then tells the scribe “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” Then no one dared to ask (Jesus) any more questions.

The Widow’s Mite

In today’s gospel we hear the story of the widow’s mite. One day, as Jesus was in the Temple preaching to the crowd, He noticed that wealthy people were dropping large amounts into the collection basket. He also noted that a poor widow dropped a small coin into the basket.

Jesus knew that the wealthy were giving from their surplus, while the widow was giving from her very basic need. They were attempting to hide their true self from God, while she was showing her true self to God. It’s quite common of all people to try to hide from God some of the basic truths of who we are. But God sees who we really are.

Last Sunday we celebrated Halloween, a time when we (especially little children) dress-up in costume. The costume hides who we really are. As we prepare for the start of our Advent Season, we need to reflect on who WE really are. We need to strip away superficialities and examine who God sees when He looks at us. We need to find the truth about ourselves.

“What is Truth?”

Pilate asked that question to Jesus when Jesus was taken before him on Good Friday morning. Pilate would frequently hear different versions of an occurrence and it was hard for him to know the “truth.” So, Pilate has a very good question and asks Jesus “what is truth?”

Jesus responds “I am the Way and the Light and the Truth.” If we listen and trust in Jesus, He will show us the Way and the Truth.

But if we want to follow Jesus and love God, we must first start with love of our neighbor. We all have endless opportunities to show our love for others. They are summed up in Respect Life activities.

Our need to Respect Life

October was Respect Life month. But the need to respect life does not end on October 31; it continues throughout our life. We are called to respect all life from conception through natural death.
For more information on Respect Life activities, please contact me or look in the bulletin.

Jesus shows us the way and nourishes us at our Mass each time we are there. Jesus is waiting for each of us.

Let’s all look for the Truth in our life!

I look forward to seeing you at Mass next Sunday!

Please email your comments to: irenetomc@hotmail.com.