10 August 2019
Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
God allows us to wrestle with him so that we might come to the joyful realization that there is no greater life than to live the life that God offers us: his own life, revealed in Jesus Christ and offered to us as our own through the Holy Spirit. As John 12:24-26 indicates, we cannot live this life if we do not follow Jesus who may go even to those places where we have the least inclination to go: “whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” But Jesus will not force us to be with him. If we go only half-heartedly, then we discover that “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly” (2 Cor 9:6a). But if we truly desire to share in the life that Jesus offers us, and cheerfully give all that that life calls from us, then we discover that “whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor 9:6b) and reaps a harvest not only for himself, but for the salvation of the whole world. Let us then ask for the grace (and it is a grace!) to freely, cheerfully, and magnanimously choose the life that God offers us with all the challenges and sacrifices it entails, confident in faith and hope that there is no greater or richer life than that of sharing in the poverty of the one who became poor for our sake in of Love.