28th Sunday - Fr. Leo
Security is something we all seek. We all want social, financial, and spiritual security. These desires are all healthy and normal. To be strong, however, they must be balanced. Our deepest security can only come from our faith and trust in the goodness and love of God. Otherwise, our desires can get out of hand and becomes vehicles of suspicion, greed ,and fear instead of love of God.
Our first reading from Wisdom, underscores the importance of wisdom over gold and silver, neither of which can enrich our lives. In the Gospel, a young man is challenged to leave his possessions behind; to open himself up to being possessed totally by God. He chose his familiar security in things, rather than to risk leaving all behind to follow the Lord’s call.
In our culture, trusting in God is very hard to do. We are told in a myriad of ways that security comes from the work of your hands. “You must achieve, save, drive the right car and move in the ‘right’ circles. What gets squeezed out in all this is the heart. The true meaning of life and the experience of love requires vulnerability. Vulnerability to others and most importantly to God. We can not find a balance in all our desires, unless we consider God’s grace as the only way to a truly full and meaningful life.
The addictiveness of our culture and our lives all indicate we are looking for happiness on our own terms and not surrendering to God in humility and trust. Deep down, we know what we are longing for, but we keep ourselves distracted because we are afraid. Only, reestablishing our faith and trust in love, can we find the right balance between having things and trying to posses and control things in our lives.
We all share this same struggle and we can help each other by embracing our own weaknesses and fears and those of others. There is nothing, absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about, for in the end, our weakness allows God’s grace to shine through us all the stronger.