This is more easily said than done. During Driver’s Ed., we are taught the order in which we need to approach the elements of the vehicle, and the elements of safe driving, moving out of the driveway to operating on a highway. When learning and practicing a sport, we learn the steps toward proper preparation of our bodies and of the equipment we will use during play. Today we need advance notice of what will be required to step into a public setting in the midst of serious public health concerns.
“Seek first the Kingdom of God” was first proclaimed to us on the day we were baptized. Our parents and godparents were entrusted with the gift and the challenge to help us know what this will mean in our own lives. And it IS a lifelong task. From the string of “Christmas” movies that never once mention the actual reason for this feast, to the Sunday schedules of athletic practices or competitions that our youngsters crave, perhaps even need, which make it a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario,” seeking the Kingdom first does not always seem to help us address the tasks life seems to thrust upon us.
But it might, and it can. The foundation we establish for ourselves does take time and effort. But, once established it becomes an easier reality to tend and strengthen. Gospel-defined generosity can create a posture for living that gives more because it needs less. Taking the time to sort out and see the moments of our lives spent “here” or “there” can help us discover Christ here and there with us... There are more and greater moments of richness and gratitude and fewer moments of impatient or even resentment. Our lives have greater hope of seeing not a pile of rocks to get through or over but rather the building blocks of a rich and healthy life, sometimes hectic sometimes quiet and peaceful, always with Christ as the cap and cornerstone...