(1 Tm 6:13-16; Ps 100: 1b-5; Lk 8:4-15)
“You shall have no other gods before me.” The first commandment, the first of ten which beg us to choose faith above sin, to respect the divine nature of God, to be one with our spirits and realize the gap between what is divine and sacred and what is purely of the world. “You shall have no other gods before me.” What does this mean to you? Some might say that this vague commandment leaves room for interpretation, and where there is room for interpretation, there is room for sin. The reading today begs and pleads for us to remember our first commandment, not because it is the most important, or because the result of not following it is the greatest sin, but rather because it is that which Christ has given us as the commandment that encompasses all commandments. Blessed commands which remind us that God is to be placed above the riches our world gives us, and which it is so easy to find comfort in.
We are provided, and blessed with possessions of this world, possessions that we can’t take with us on our divine journey. It is like the land that we live on. It was here long before us, and it will be here long after us. Mountains were not made by man, but rather climbed by them. Oceans were not filled with a faucet, but rather provide the nourishment that both land and man run upon. The land standing as representation of our divine resources. Those that were here long before us, and even without the pleasures this world allows us to indulge in, give us life in their simplicity, but also allow us to grow because of their complexity. In the reading, the Lord begs of us, to take comfort in the divine nourishment offered to us from him, indulge, rather, in the love that he provides to our soul, for our soul is our life, without it we do not exist, we lie in darkness, nothingness.
Where do we find such nourishment? The gospel shows us that there are fountains of faith in our human life that allows us to thrive in divine graces. It also shows us that there are times in our human journey where the devil still exists if for nothing else but to trick us into believing that we are nothing without what we possess in this life, causing us to forget what keeps us moving in our eternal life.
So often do we find ourselves falling as a result of the stresses of humanity, just as the seeds fell in the gospel. It’s so easy to fall without purpose, onto the busy path, waiting to be consumed by the world, or onto the stones, grasping for something to hold onto but failing, or into the thorns which prick and prod and cause more pain than the initial fall. We look to the comfort of God, free from distraction and with clear and willing souls to give us purpose in our failures, and settle us on clean and beneficial soil, so that we might soak up his graces, and be one with his divine presence. So that we may not gasp for the air of the world, but rather, become bouquets of faith in his nourishment.
