Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
One advantage living in the electronic age is that we have advantages of seeing the meaning of Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel more forcefully than those who lived in ages past. Look at the photos of those who sought ultimate happiness in drugs, now lying pitifully on sidewalks. Reflect on the obituaries of those who sought satisfaction in the possession of money and power and study the message in ads that guarantee the possession of everlasting, beautiful bodies.
Power and pleasure, money and sex are not bad in themselves. On the contrary, they are good if used rationally, that is, as means, not as ends to happiness.
Reflections on those who have failed to live according to such wisdom can be helpful for me, but they can also blind me from seeing the deeper reality, the reason why I was created.
I may not have experienced the failures I see in others, but I am aware of my own concupiscence. Reason does not dominate my appetites. I like compromising a bit. So, if I do not identify with the images of those depicted above, it is because God’s grace has kept me straight - well, more or less.
Resolve: I shall spend some time before hitting the pillow tonight thanking the Father, who created me, the Son, who is the Way, Truth and Light and the Holy Spirit, dwelling within me, for all the graces I have received, and ask them to be as generous with those who seek happiness in wrong ways as God has been with me. I shall join this prayer with that to our Mother, to “pray for us sinners now ‘.