Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time: “’My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?” Matthew 16: ✝️ We are not in a race when it comes to God, rather we are on the journey he has designed for us specifically.
Do we live in trust and focus on what God is calling us to or are we answering the call of the world rooted in envy? Where is our attention? Where is our heart?
Our humanity wants there to be a reason for why. It’s our belief that it will help us make sense of life. “They work harder, do better, God blessed them more”- those explanations falsely advertise a sense of peace or ability for control if we can just understand. The challenge is in what steps we are taking in the name of “able to cope” is actually giving our hearts the ability to choose and then grow in envy.
This perspective provides us a lens over our perception of the world as “deserved or underserved”, “fair or unfair”, “sensible or nonsense”- and leads us to the judge the person based on our conclusion. And the tricky part: we don’t know every detail about the situation, so we are not operating in truth. Thus if we can’t make sense, we just default to envy that it is not fair. In fact we may not even want what someone else has we just know that it seems like they got it better/easier than we do and that plants an ugly seed in our soul.
This message really struck a chord with me. Where is my heart? What is getting my attention? And what am I letting grow as a result. While pondering this a subsequent conclusion was reached: when we opt to not even go down the road of needing to understand and then envy, we are left with the necessary space and energy to cultivate the life God has ordained specifically for us. That life in which we were specifically created. That life that uses it all: the good, the bad, the confusing to develop into our best selves. And when we take the steps on that path, we are met with incredible grace from God to help in the growing.
It is said that when Mary accepted the angel’s message and agreed to God’s plan the amount of grace given to her and the whole world as a result was unbelievable. Yes, Mary had a very important role in the salvation of humanity… but the simple thing she did was say yes to God. That is something we can do to recover incredible graces too.
Let us see this call to drop envy and pick up Grace as a path to freedom, not another opportunity for pain and failure. Try it in small ways and then maybe bigger ones.
A Few Resources for this Message
We are Never Late with God: a quick but powerful message from the Pastor of The Pillar Church
Father Schmitz Homily this week: my writing this week was a result of this homily message.
Have A Little Faith in We 