In yesterday’s readings for mass, Moses fell from God’s grace when he performed a miracle for the people by drawing water out of rock, because he led the people to believe that he performed this feat by his own power, instead of God’s. However, today Moses’ words are filled with grace and with the Holy Spirit. He sets himself and his own ego aside and speaks only about God to the people. Moses focuses on the great deeds that God has done for them and how fortunate they are to have witnessed for themselves, His true presence among them. Moses spoke on God’s behalf this time, for the benefit of the people without the slightest personal motives being involved. In our lives of faith too, motive is everything. The motive behind our actions and words are either for selfish reasons, or unselfish reasons. Moses sets the example of unselfishness, of self giving for others and glorifying the Lord instead of himself.
How hard this is for us to do sometimes, to think about God and other people and not ourselves. As babies we were naturally born selfish and were mostly concerned with our own needs for food, warmth and love. Our basic human needs are still important, but it is our challenge as Christians to overcome our own selfishness during the course of our life. Selfishness is actually the definition of sin. All sin stems from our own selfish desires without regard for other people too.
Have you ever encountered people that stand in a doorway and do not even seem to notice the other people who are trying to enter the door too? Or a single person who sits at the end of the pew at church with an entire empty pew beside them, while other people (sometimes with small children) are having to stand during the mass? How much easier they could make another person’s life simply by moving to the center of the pew to allow others to be able to sit during mass too. They want a good seat, but it is at the cost of another person’s misery. Traffic is a different story. Drivers jeopardize other people’s lives every day on our streets by their impatient or selfish behavior. They gain a moment of time in their own lives, but at the potential cost of another human being’s life. Too often we get caught up in our own self centeredness without regard for how our actions are affecting those around us.
This could very easily apply to a moment of patience with others as well. Being courteous in public only takes a moment. Allowing someone to go in front of you in a line sometimes, is a moment of your life that was spent for another person. Jesus said “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.
The gospel today explains more about how Christ would want us to treat one another. Jesus said “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct.”
The catechism teaches us that sin is “love of oneself.” cc: 1850 We do not need to get overly caught up in thinking about sin today, but maybe just realize that denying ourselves, even in something small for another person is how we take up our cross and follow Jesus. It isn’t just in big things that we deny ourselves, but in the little things as well. Little things lead into bigger things in the spiritual life (just like venial sin can lead to mortal sins) and we should try to notice our small or more subtle behaviors too. We can choose a small selfish act while ignoring the needs of others and it might temporarily make our lives better, but it sets a pattern for bigger offenses later on. Christ says in today’s gospel that “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
It is when we forget about ourselves and our own wants and needs and think of others, that we receive love in return. It is in giving that we receive. However, we should give to other people without expecting anything in return, because Jesus did not receive anything in return for dying on the cross for us, except for our love for him. This really is the secret to happiness and how to live today’s gospel in our lives. Many people spend their entire lives waiting for others to show them love, but the way Christ teaches us is that we need to forget about ourselves and love other people first, if we want to follow him.
