Have you used well the opportunities for spiritual growth that have come your way? - Daily Reflections July 24,2014

WASTING AWAY OPPORTUNITIES FROM GOD

 

In the First Reading, the people of God “have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.” This is directly opposite to how the Responsorial Psalm describes Jesus as “the fountain of life.” There is a similar contraposition between opposite poles in the Gospel today: Jesus warns His disciples, “To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not even what he has will be taken away.”

       Because of this, Jesus justifies His use of parables as His preferred tool for preaching. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, He points out the incapacity or, worse still, the unwillingness of the people to grasp God’s message. Jesus even uses concrete language, in the form of bodily senses (ears for hearing and eyes for seeing) to bring home His point.

       And yet, He praises His disciples: “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

       We can do well to apply the above words of Christ to ourselves. We can consider ourselves blessed by God, for example, for the many things we learn in our faith and spiritual life. We are fortunate when it comes to our religious and spiritual formation, for we have so many possibilities not readily available to others, like seminars, conferences, retreats, recollections, courses, pilgrimages and so on.

       But how much of these have we really availed? Or have we been just content with the minimum possibilities for our faith, like limiting ourselves to a few prayers and Sunday Mass? Might God take away from us the many opportunities and privileges He has bestowed on us because we don’t take advantage of them? Have we become broken cisterns, rather than the fountains of life that God has meant us to be? Fr. Martin Macasaet, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: Have you used well the opportunities for spiritual growth that have come your way?

 

Thank You, Lord, for all people and opportunities that You’ve sent my way to help me grow in loving and following You.