In the Scripture readings of this 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, life is a gift from God, and truly a gift of God. To the woman of influence in the First Reading from the Second Book of Kings, the prophet, Elisha announces, “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.” Paul writes to the Romans, “You must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Jesus Christ.” And, in today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus proclaims “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
These announcements of God’s plan, desire, and grace for us do not promise that life suddenly will be easy. But the mystery of why and how to live life to its fullest unfolds. That we are created for this communion with God, and in God’s grace, for communion with each other and all creation 1 this gives new meaning to every accomplishment and pleasure, to every struggle and sacrifice. Even to our diminishment and ultimately our death.
“The world” has the motive and means to construct vast networks of values and measures of success. They are, at times, capable of shining light on the good in us, and the wonder and beauty of the created order in which we live and of which we are a part. But there is the danger that these motives and measures can cause us to be or to seem too small, to aim too low or at the wrong target.
Life from God is a gift of God’s own life. In the midst of a personal crisis, a pandemic, an argument or a competition that has become personal and caustic, who we are in the midst of this must reflect who God is. Only then can It reveal who we are!