yes YOU !

Sep 9, 2021

.

It is only in recent centuries that humans have come to accept that the earth in which we live is not the centre of the universe.

While the Greeks a couple of thousand years ago suggested that the planets might circle the sun rather than the earth, it was only after the 16th century Polish astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus presented this clearly that people accepted this understanding.

Today it’s hard to understand how our ancestors could have misunderstood something that is to us so obvious.

But then each of us can have the same misunderstanding of reality when we think, speak and act as if we ourselves are the centre of our own existence. We fall into the trap of thinking that we are the protagonists, the chief actors in our own life story, forgetting that a human can be fully human only when living in relationship with Jesus Christ.

We are not our own centre. We are created to be centred on and totally dependant on God.

We find our human health and happiness when we live with this awareness.

The image of the hub of the wheel comes to mind. Only when the hub of the wheel is in the centre can the wheel run smoothly.

Only when we let God take central place in our lives can we live fully.

Too often we focus on ourselves, even when full of good intentions we seek to improve ourselves working to overcoming our imperfection and weakness. But when we shift our gaze to God, everything falls into place.

So I believe Paul in today’s first reading when he doesn’t accept his hearers ideas about themselves. Paul is not too interested in who they think they themselves are. Instead he wants them to know who they are in God’s plan and from God’s point of view.

I imagine Paul pointing at them and shouting the first words of today’s first reading:

“You are God’s chosen race, his saints; he loves you.”

An Invitation:

  • Take Paul’s message as your own mantra for the day, adapting the wording slightly to show you are accepting what he says as fact. Make a point at least once an hour throughout the day of repeating aloud three times:

I am God’s work of art, I am becoming a saint. God loves me.
I am God’s work of art, I am becoming a saint. God loves me.
I am God’s work of art, I am becoming a saint. God loves me.

 

6 Comments

  1. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

    Reply
  2. Thank you all for the reflection on Sunday’s readings. It is great to be able to sit and listen rather than zoom in. Blessings to all of you.

    Reply
  3. Amen

    Reply
  4. Thank you for the mantra. It is so affirming and gives me feelings of being so special
    as God chooses me and that I am indeed His work of art as He loves me.

    Reply
  5. YHour commentaryy is getting shorter, and a quicker read. That is a positive response, We need more, less is more , in our daily lives.

    Reply
  6. THIS WAS SO BEAUTIFUL AND COMFORTING FR JOHN..LOVED WHERE YOU SAID WE CAN ONLY BE FULLY HUMAN WHEN LIVING IN HUMAN RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST!AFRESH REVELATION TO ME OF WHAT FULLY HUMAN MEANS !LOVE THE MANTRA.PEACE AND GRACE TO YOU

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts

my word your home

my word your home

The heart of the home in years past was the hearth.
It was at the hearth that the family gathered for the warmth and light of the flame and the food that was prepared there.
The fire was treated with respect since the same flame which provided energy for the home could just as easily destroy it.

stand up look up

stand up look up

The Israelites in their forty years in the desert were journeying from captivity to freedom, but the struggle of their desert years made them vulnerable to attack from every temptation as today’s first reading continues

confident in God

confident in God

I’m not sure if children today are told the great story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, but if not let’s make sure that the parable is taught at all schools of higher learning.

the teenagers

the teenagers

A few years ago I discovered the wonderful way that God uses my imagination in my prayer.
Such openness to imagination when seeking God does not take us away from reality into fantasy but instead brings me into what is most real and inescapably personal and intimate.

Annunciation

Annunciation

A couple of thousand years ago, a young Jewish woman was going about her normal morning routines, perhaps with a mixture of house and garden work, chatting with parents and neighbours, aware of the local drought, the sickness of a neighbour and annoyed by the neighbourhood’s lack of sleep caused by the Romans’ noisy party the night before, when God broke into her routine and entered her life in a new and powerful way.