Who or what takes the primary place in your life? - Daily Reflections March 13,2015

GOD’S PRIMACY IN OUR LIVES

 

Don’t let today — “Friday the 13th” — bother you. We are far more faith-filled and spiritual people who know better than depend on superstitious beliefs or mere popular practices.

       We are aware of the primacy of God above everything, and the preeminence of the supreme law of love. As the scribe, who was commended by Jesus in today’s Gospel, put it most fittingly, “God is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

       Should we find ourselves messing up and falling short of such a clear-cut and categorical commandment (the first, or the greatest ever), we can always repent and go back to God. In fact, the Lord, through the words of the prophet Hosea in the First Reading, invites us and assures us of His promises, “Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God... Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols? I have humbled him, but I will prosper him.”

       Even today’s Responsorial Psalm echoes God’s tender love. In the last stanza, we recall God’s earnest words: “If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways, I would feed them with the best of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would fill them.”

       Finally, the conclusion of our Gospel passage also applies to us. If we understand well, take to heart, and follow and live God’s commandments, we will remain close to God’s Kingdom. And we will not dare to ask God any more questions. Not that everything has been answered thoroughly and explained away. It is simply because God takes primacy in our lives: He alone suffices. Fr. Martin Macasaet, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: Who or what takes the primary place in your life?

 

You alone, my God, suffices. Help me to live that truth in my life.