Just a moment in time
October 13, 2023 at 3:40 p.m.
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
So many times, in my life, my father has spoken the words to me “this is just a moment in time.” Usually, the context behind him saying that has something to do with me being stressed about something ultimately stupid that, in the moment, feels life-threatening. It’s hard, though. I worry about so many things that it sometimes seems as though the stress will never end. “This is only a moment in time, Mark.”
The readings this week really got me thinking about this life on earth. Sometimes it seems like the struggles will never end or it feels like there is so much happening all at once and it can truly be overwhelming. I’m a college student and it just feels like, no matter how much work I do, my to-do list never goes down. This can get extremely frustrating.
Through these readings I recognize, I’ve been focusing on all the wrong things. In every reading we are extended an invitation to set aside the trials we face, and our own personal goals, in favor of what the Lord has to offer. In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah preaches about the truest, purest joy that we should feel knowing that the Lord has come to save us. “The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face; On that day it will be said: “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the LORD for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” In the responsorial psalm we repeat the verse, “I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” and “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” “He refreshes my soul.” In the second reading from Philippians, we hear the message from St. Paul saying that God will provide whatever you need. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
These verses are an invitation calling us to a life not only with Christ, but a life without pride, dependent on Christ. Finally, in the Gospel, we get the message of how excited the king is to send out invitations to people for his son’s wedding feast, yet so many turn him down or even ignore him because they have work they need to attend to. Just like the parable, God wants nothing more than for us to accept this invitation to be dependent on Him, and allow Him to provide, yet we get so caught up in the stress of life that we can never seem to get the message.
The words of my father ring true. Not only is whatever I’m stressing about in that moment “just a moment in time,” this life on earth is just a moment in time. We were not designed to be earthly creatures, rather we were designed to outgrow this place and move into our eternal home in Heaven. The struggles will end. This life is not permanent. Accept the invitation. That phrase from my dad is always followed with, “Pray. If you put that first, everything else will fall into place. It always does.” With this in mind, nothing can ever really be that bad. This is the day that THE LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in the beauty of His creation, and the Grace of His salvation. Seek the Lord in all things and we will sit in Heavenly places with Him.
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Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
So many times, in my life, my father has spoken the words to me “this is just a moment in time.” Usually, the context behind him saying that has something to do with me being stressed about something ultimately stupid that, in the moment, feels life-threatening. It’s hard, though. I worry about so many things that it sometimes seems as though the stress will never end. “This is only a moment in time, Mark.”
The readings this week really got me thinking about this life on earth. Sometimes it seems like the struggles will never end or it feels like there is so much happening all at once and it can truly be overwhelming. I’m a college student and it just feels like, no matter how much work I do, my to-do list never goes down. This can get extremely frustrating.
Through these readings I recognize, I’ve been focusing on all the wrong things. In every reading we are extended an invitation to set aside the trials we face, and our own personal goals, in favor of what the Lord has to offer. In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah preaches about the truest, purest joy that we should feel knowing that the Lord has come to save us. “The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face; On that day it will be said: “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the LORD for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” In the responsorial psalm we repeat the verse, “I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” and “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” “He refreshes my soul.” In the second reading from Philippians, we hear the message from St. Paul saying that God will provide whatever you need. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
These verses are an invitation calling us to a life not only with Christ, but a life without pride, dependent on Christ. Finally, in the Gospel, we get the message of how excited the king is to send out invitations to people for his son’s wedding feast, yet so many turn him down or even ignore him because they have work they need to attend to. Just like the parable, God wants nothing more than for us to accept this invitation to be dependent on Him, and allow Him to provide, yet we get so caught up in the stress of life that we can never seem to get the message.
The words of my father ring true. Not only is whatever I’m stressing about in that moment “just a moment in time,” this life on earth is just a moment in time. We were not designed to be earthly creatures, rather we were designed to outgrow this place and move into our eternal home in Heaven. The struggles will end. This life is not permanent. Accept the invitation. That phrase from my dad is always followed with, “Pray. If you put that first, everything else will fall into place. It always does.” With this in mind, nothing can ever really be that bad. This is the day that THE LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in the beauty of His creation, and the Grace of His salvation. Seek the Lord in all things and we will sit in Heavenly places with Him.