Saturday of Week 9 in Ordinary Time
Tob 12:1,5-15,20
Mk 12:38-44
“But she, from the little she had has put in everything she possessed…”
When we think of the resources at our disposal, two come to mind most prominently – Time and Money. How we commit either speaks volumes about how we view our priorities. Time, especially, becomes more valuable as we get older. There are more commitments fighting for space in our day. We have more responsibilities. But not everything that is urgent is important, or even necessary. My biggest hurdle on weekends is to find time to go to church. There are 5 masses on Sundays at my church, 6 if you count the Saturday evening mass. So, it’s funny that trying to find the time to attend weekend mass should be such a challenge. Is it because I don’t make it a non-negotiable priority? My mother goes to mass like clockwork on weekends. She’s committed to it and has made it part of her routine. Wouldn’t it actually be easier if I made the same level of commitment as well? Then I wouldn’t waste so much time agonizing over it.
The woman from the gospel who gave from her poverty reminds us of the value of prioritizing correctly. She looked beyond her present life and gazed into the everlasting. Most of us see only this life, and all the things that we could be doing instead of being at church. Taking the long view though, most of the things that compete for our time will fade away – our jobs, the dinner parties we think are so indispensable, our fair weather friends, the endless charities we sponsor. All these will come to nothing in the end – only God remains. At the gates of reckoning, it won’t be enough to say we couldn’t do the right thing because it wasn’t convenient at the time. Or that we weren’t able to walk away from that conference call to spend an hour with Our Father. Those excuses are feeble even now, never mind at the gates of Heaven. When has God ever said, “It isn’t convenient for me to hear your prayers at the moment” or “Can we take a raincheck, I’m tied up with something else right now”? He meets us when we call, wherever we are; He is always just a prayer away. What kind of children are we to only come to Him when we need something?
(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)
Prayer: We pray for the wisdom to portion our time and money wisely, between God’s needs and our needs.
Thanksgiving: We give thanks for the Holy Spirit, who comforts us, calms us and aids our faith journeys, wherever we stand.
OXYGEN 
Leave a comment