What are you holding on to?
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- Matthew 16: 21 - 27
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for September 3, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
One of the paradoxical things in life is that sometimes the people or things we think will make us happy in life can in fact make us miserable. And sometimes it’s not the people or the things themselves, but our attachment or expectations of them that are the source of our misery.
Our hearts have an infinite desire for happiness, which we cannot find apart from an infinite God. If we hold on to any finite person or thing and expect to find our infinite happiness there, Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel that we will paradoxically end up losing that happiness we seek. But if we are willing to let go of expecting our ultimate fulfillment from these people and things, and look to God for our deepest fulfillment, Jesus tells us we will paradoxically find that happiness our hearts have always desired. And not only that, but we will also experience the people and things in our life as truly the gifts from God that they are.
This same paradox is also present when it comes to discovering your vocation. Very often, our fear of letting go – even for a single day – of our expectations of the people and things on which we have placed our hopes of happiness, is what prevents us from finding the happiness God wants to give us through the gift of our vocation, whatever it may be.
“Life according to the vows helps us to develop as persons and to attain Christian maturity. The vows are the expression of the free and total gift of ourselves to God. We accept the detachment implied in the observance of our vows in order to become more firmly attached to Christ.”