11 August, Monday — As long as we have God

Aug 11 – Memorial for St. Clare, virgin, religious founder

St. Clare (1194-1253) loved music and well-composed sermons. She was humble, merciful, charming, optimistic, and chivalrous. She would get up late at night to tuck in her sisters who’d kicked off their covers. She daily meditated on the Passion. When she learned of the Franciscan martyrs in Morocco in 1221, she tried to go there to give her own life for God, but was restrained. Once, when her convent was about to be attacked, she displayed the Sacrament in a monstrance at the convent gates and prayed before it. The attackers left.

Toward the end of her life, when she was too ill to attend Mass, an image of the service would be displayed on the wall of her cell; thus her patronage of television.

• Patron Saint Index

Phi 3:8-14
Mt 19:27-29

Nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Recently, I’ve been listening to a song that was inspired by what St Augustine wrote. The lyrics are in Filipino, but they are a translation of the following lines from St Augustine.

 “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”

This part of his confession really expounded for me the first line of today’s first reading. There is no greater treasure than Jesus. We will never find the fullness of peace unless it is in our Lord Jesus. What I find inspiring about what St Augustine wrote is that he shared how he was enamoured with many lovely things and yet, he did not find contentment. He acknowledged that indeed, as beautiful those things are, they were mere creations of God and if God did not will it, those things would not exist.

Another point St Augustine made me realise is that this lifetime is not enough to love God and to be loved by God. I believe that’s why he meant for us to spend eternity loving him and being loved by him.

As I write this reflection, I remembered a song by Dan Schutte, ‘These Alone Are Enough’. I hope that in whatever state or situation we are in life right now, whether we are in a period where all things around us are good, or if we are in a period we are struggling, we remember today that God is our ultimate treasure. As long as we have God, we have enough.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Stephanie Villa)

Prayer: Lord, please help love you now. Don’t make me late.  

Thanksgiving: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving me enough.