Thursday July 21, 2022

Making scripture meaningful to your daily life

Thursday of the 16th Week of Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, priest and doctor of the Church
July 21, 2022

Beloved Lord, You granted me the grace to recognize Your voice and to understand Your Word. Do not let my heart be hardened nor drive others away from You with my wrong deeds. Amen.

Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13
Ps 36:6-11
Matthew 13:10-17
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072122.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2022-07-21-usccb-daily-mass-readings

Some people dig their own holes and then fall into them. As we consider the meaning of today’s first reading for our needs today, the cistern can represent our own efforts to make our lives good. God is the source — the water — that nourishes a truly good life. He is the fountain of life, as it says in today’s responsorial psalm, and when we rely on ourselves or other non-God resources, our lives become empty and dry. We are drained by the cracks of our brokenness.

Can you remember a time when you were enthusiastic about relying on Jesus? We’ve all been excited about the Lord, usually right after any sort of conversion experience. At such times, we were fully devoted to loving God and learning everything we could about the faith. We wanted to please him. We wanted to be holy. We hopefully want all those same things as we reflect today, the Thursday of the 16th Week of Ordinary Time.

But oops! We tripped and fell into a hole. The road wasn’t as smooth as we thought it would be. The journey became more difficult, and we said, “Hey! I don’t like the hard work of holiness!” And so we went elsewhere in search of refreshing waters. We dug a hole for collecting this other water, and then we fell into it and discovered that it was quite dry or that the “water” was really sewage.

When we receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus picks us up, pulls us out, wipes off the dirt, and sets our feet back on the road. Then he tells us to move forward (“go and sin no more”). But what if we don’t want to humble ourselves and utilize this sacrament? What if we try to climb out of our holes without the special graces that come with God’s sacramental help?

We tear at the sides of the hole in a desperate search for footholds, but this actually enlarges it. We might ask Jesus to help us, but if we have no desire to change, we’re only grabbing at tools that claw away at the sides and make the hole bigger. What is preventing us from changing on this Thursday of the 16th Week of Ordinary Time?

The longer we remain in this condition, the deeper we dig. When people fall hard and hit bottom, they’ve been digging for a long time. Fortunately, the deeper the bottom is, the less they can see when they look up out of the hole, and eventually (if they have not closed their eyes to the truth) the only thing they will be able to see is the hand of Jesus reaching down to them. Then the only option is to choose God’s way out or continue to sit in the muck.

A Christian who’s sinking into a hole is someone who listens to God but fails to understand. Humility enables us to accept what we do not understand, and this opens our eyes to the hand of Jesus reaching down to us. In humility, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to explain the truth and change our minds. Until we trust God this way, we will look intently but we will not see the true way out of our pits.

Thank you for reflecting with us on this Thursday of the 16th Week of Ordinary Time!

To reflect further on this, go to our WordByte called: “Why go to a priest for confession” @ https://wordbytes.org/faqs/why-priest-confession/.