(1 Sm 18:6-9, 19:1-7; Ps 56:2-3, 9-10a, 10b-11, 12-13; Mk 3:7-12)
Each of us have such a unique and individual path in our walk with God, and I try to always remember this when I look at another person. I don’t know where they might be on their spiritual journey, and it is important that I treat them with tenderness and respect. I was thinking about my own walk with Christ on my way home from mass last Sunday, and I made a connection that I hadn’t seen before. In 1979 I was born to a young Catholic family, the third and final child, and also the third daughter. My mom was sure that she was going to have a boy and my dad wished for a son too. My mom was recovering from her cesarean section delivery and so my dad was the first to hold me. When the nurse presented his baby daughter, his response to having another girl was this, “Perfect. That’s just what I wanted.” I imagine that even as my dad spoke these words, they started to become true. What came to me last Sunday with a flood of emotion, is that this is what my heavenly father truly thinks of me! In the eyes of God, who is love itself, we are all perfect, and just want he wanted.
God knows us each, so intimately well, better than any human person could possibly know us. The words of the psalmist in today’s reading speak to this: “My wanderings you have noted; are my tears not stored in your vial, recorded in your book” (Ps 56:9)? He knows and treasures all our tears, all our laughter, all the joy and sorrow in our lives. His pure, and perfect love for us is what we need to try to embed deep into our minds. We don’t always act perfect. We sin, we disobey, we even despair; but each of our individual souls, our very beings, is perfect. How could we not be?! We were created by God himself and in His image. The social teachings of the church in regard to the dignity of the human person embodies this idea. Contemplation of how God sees us does not come from a place of pride, rather humility and total awe for our creator, and his love for us. If we are prideful, or boastful we give into disorder, and the love we have for ourselves is not pure. So many problems of our human weakness comes from not loving ourselves and others in that pure way.
In today’s first reading from 1 Samuel, one such human failing comes to light, and that is the sin of jealousy. The Merrian-Webster Dictionary defines jealousy as an unhappy or angry feeling of wanting to have what someone else has. Saul is jealous of David’s accomplishments and in his anger, he sets out to do David harm. Jealousy, and many other sins, often stem from perceiving ourselves as inadequate, imperfect or even unloved. Thinking, if only I had her beautiful blue eyes, or his big fancy house. Thinking, that person is so much smarter than me, or a much better mom than I am. These examples could go on, and on and on, we are all guilty of this. When we give into these emotions, we are forgetting the wonderful gifts that God has given us, we are not loving God’s creation (us) and giving him thanks. We are also robbing the subject of our jealousy of their due respect, for we cannot truly celebrate and be happy for others if we are jealous of them. In other words, we are not living the first and second commandment that Jesus declared as the most important.
“He said to him, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” Matt 22:37-40.
We can only try to understand the perfect love that God has for us; after all, we are only human. The more we infuse the knowledge of His love into our hearts, the more we can live out the mission of Christ to love God and neighbor, and the more we will transform our lives, and the world. This knowledge has the power to heal so many spiritual and physical diseases just as Jesus does in today’s gospel reading. As we work on this, we can understand what it means to be cured by him.
“And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God” Mk 3:11.
I would like end by personally tell each and every person that reads this reflection today, that God loves you. He is your creator. You are perfect and just want He wants.
