Desire for the One Who Satisfies: Reflection on the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Beloved parishioners,
The people who came out of Egypt (First Reading) rejoiced at their liberation from slavery, but this joy was short lived. No sooner had they left Egypt than they craved what they perceived to be the good life of Egypt. Their greed and insatiable desires pushed Moses to the edge. They lost sight of God’s promise of freedom and plenty because they wanted things to work according to their own schedule and timing. They wanted to be like the nations that surrounded them, and they wanted a God they could domesticate, rather than a transcendent reality whom they had no grip on.

We are not different from these people. We are quick to forget how good the Lord is to us and what the Lord has done for us. Instead, we complain about what we perceive God has not done. We want things our own way, and when we do not get them, we make gods out of the things we crave. These could be our marriage, children, job, finances, education, popularity, health, friends, and relationships, what have you? For example, many of us pursue wealth at the expense of our health and family. Some of us do not have time to practice our faith because we work on the weekends and cannot attend Mass. Parents enroll their children in all kinds of sporting activities that they have no time to bring them to Mass, or even attend Mass themselves. And still they wonder why these children do not want to go to church. The sad part of it is that all these things still leave us empty.

One lesson we must not miss from the story of the Prodigal Son is that there is nothing we fill our hearts with, if it is not God, which ultimately satisfies us. The freedom he sought outside his home was all the time with him in his father’s house, yet he did not realize it. In his desperation he plunged himself into all manner of unspeakable suffering. St. Augustine was right in his observation. We are created for the infinite; and there is no finite or temporal thing that can complete us or make us whole. People keep “bucket lists” of things they want to do within a given time, or in a lifetime. But does anyone wonder why their bucket lists never stops expanding? I have learned, in my short lifetime, that the longer we live, the more we realize there is something more to do. Once you accomplish that task you always wanted, there is always something else to be done. Sometimes when I sit to reflect on my life, the sayings of the wise Qoheleth often comes to mind, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). I do not mean this in a nihilistic, hands-in-the-air, God-forsaken sense, but to suggest that we focus our time and energy on eternal truths. These are the things that really matter. My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours (from our Gospel Reading).

Next weekend (9/17- 9/18) is the Men’s Welcome Retreat. Let us pray it is a time of renewal for the men of our parish. Please encourage your spouses, fathers, sons, brothers, and friends to participate.

May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!