Sacrifice is Gift and Love
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
“My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.”Ps. 63
“Whoever wants to come with me, to deny himself, take up your cross and follow me. If you want to save your life, you will lose it; but whoever loses it for me will find it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, if he ruins his life?”
Sacrifice is give and love. Sometimes it can lead to suffering, but it is not the main sacrifice. Christ gives himself in sacrifice as a gift. And he wants us to do it too; to give ourselves as a gift. Offer ourselves, because all that we are and have we have received as a free gift, and should be given. Being a gift makes us be a Eucharist, and it can entail sacrifice, but the main thing is love.
We receive to give. Like the father who gives his son money so he can buy him a gift on Father’s Day, or Mother’s day. He will receive with much affection whatever we offer Him, as we give Him from what we have received from Him.
God wants us to offer Him everything we receive.
“If anyone comes to me, and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. He who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”Luke 14:26ff
Trusting God, and loving Him above all things, has to do with being willing to give everything to Him, even one’s own life, guided and illuminated by His word, driven by trust and love for Him. We can give ourselves to others and we can give of our goods and our time to others. We do not live for ourselves, but to give ourselves.
But it has also made it easier for us; wanting to be loved in others. We can give to God in reciprocity, of what we receive from Him, giving to our brothers, even if they are not worthy, even if they are sinners, because God loves us being sinners.
Task of identifying ourselves with Christ, in his being and in his action. The law, the commandments, the word, is the GIFT of God. And we must not reject it as the rebellious people since Adam, a hardheaded people who killed the prophets and rejected the covenant. Never stand in the way of God’s plan of salvation, even if we do not understand it like Peter, we must never be scandalized by Christ or his will, which is what we should always love and seek.
“I beg you, therefore, brothers, by the great tenderness of God, to offer him your own person as a living and holy sacrifice capable of pleasing him; this worship suits creatures who have judgment. Do not follow the current of the world in which we live, but rather transform yourselves from an interior renewal, so you will know how to distinguish what is God’s will, what is good, what pleases Him, what is perfect.”Romans 12
His whole life and his cross is redeeming love and self-giving; let us respond to his love with gratitude, let us please God, living in Christ as a gift of love, reflecting Christ, being a host of love, a Eucharist for others.
Readings for the Week
Sunday: Jer 20:7-9/Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 (2b)/Rom 12:1-2/Mt 16:21-27
Monday: 1 The 4:13-18/Ps 96:1 and 3, 4-5, 11-12, 13/Lk 4:16-30
Tuesday: 1 Thes 5:1-6, 9-11/Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14/Lk 4:31-37
Wednesday: Col 1:1-8/Ps 52:10, 11/Lk 4:38-44
Thursday: Col 1:9-14/Ps 98:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6/Lk 5:1-11
Friday: Mi 5:1-4a or Rom 8:28-30/Ps 13:6ab, 6c/Mt 1:1-16, 18-23 or 1:18-23
Saturday: Col 1:21-23/Ps 54:3-4, 6 and 8/Lk 6:1-5
Next Sunday: Ez 33:7-9/Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (8)/Rom 13:8-10/Mt 18:15-20
Observances for the Week
Sunday: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday: Labor Day
Friday: The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Saturday: St. Peter Claver, Priest
Next Sunday: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time; Grandparents’ Day