Homily 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Each person who believes in Jesus Christ and has accepted him for who He really is – the Son of God, has been reborn in the Spirit. Yes, we still have our fleshly bodies, but with a key difference, they are not our true selves any longer, they are merely flesh which will age and eventually die. Yet our true nature now is that of spirit, and most importantly spirit that is alive because of faith in Jesus, and active acceptance of Him as our savior. To that end, we need to reconsider who we are really, and begin to think and act accordingly. If our fleshly existence is now completely secondary, and it should be, then our focus should always be first and foremost on God, and life in the Spirit.

To truly live in the Spirit requires a significant mental shifting of gears for us, as our most fundamental priorities, will change radically. We will live with an eye that is focused more toward the eternal, and far less fixed on our temporal existence. We will no longer be consumed with the priorities that a purely physical existence would sensibly demand, and instead, we can look beyond that to things that are far beyond a self-centered focus. We can expand our thoughts to the caring and love of those around us without the worry of self-neglect because our entire perception of self has now been fundamentally altered. The physical self can be seen to with the minimum of necessities, and the energies we would have previously put toward the accumulation of resources for self can be applied instead to pursuing the well-being of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and in the spiritual growth of the self. A truly flourishing spiritual growth will by its very nature lead us toward greater alignment with Jesus’ teaching and the light burden that He asks each of us to carry. To love Him, and to love one another. To really align with this in our lives is actually tremendously freeing because so many of our self-imposed wants, perceived needs, and priorities will fade into obscurity, and with them all the stress and angst that was generated by their very presence in the forefront of our minds. Imagine now what it can be like to truly realize this kind of liberty of self, and to do so with a secure knowledge and acceptance of God being in complete control. With no more worry about end outcomes, no more concern about potential failure, no more sleeplessness, and angst about having to be solely responsible for what we perceive as success. If we really allow ourselves to think like this, and to allow Him to take control, we can experience this and more in our lives. We can know the lightness of a new burden that is Divine, and without all the self-imposed weight of our old burdens. To do this is to truly move closer to our God, and to begin to experience now what will be completely natural for us in life eternal. To make this change now, will show the childlike simplicity and reliance that He is truly looking for from each of us, and so profoundly demonstrates a trust that goes against the order of physical nature and a world that is dominated by the evil that thrives within that. To leave that behind, and to shed those burdens is not easy – we are drawn to the heavier and more burdened existence by our fallen nature, but we can strive toward something better. We can move toward God and leave behind the bonds that have held us in a heavily shackled existence. Each moment we spend in contemplation and prayer chips away at those old bonds and allows a bit more light to enter our hearts and minds. Each act of faith and trust in our God in even the smallest of ways breaks a link in our chains – something as simple as waking up each day and letting Him know that we accept His control and will trust in Him without reservation is a great way to start. The more we practice, the more natural this will become, and the more we will gain with each subsequent effort. Like anything else worthwhile, this will take time to accomplish, but that is what our lives are for. No matter where we are now in the sequence of our lives, it is never too late to restart, to refocus, and to move closer to Him.

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