8th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A - 26/2/2017 - Gospel: Mt 6:24-34
Priorities
Every single day there are things that must be done within a certain time frame and other things can be flexible with the time frame of the day. These priorities are making the day interesting and if we don't manage the time schedule well they can put pressure on our lives and can make a good day to be a tiring day. Our spiritual life also has priorities and that is what today's Gospel talked about. The modern world life style certainly has taken into consideration lots of priorities for our external appearances and of our physical wellbeing. The external appearances are driven towards the commercial life style that makes us feel good and the physical wellbeing advocates by health and fitness enterprises to prolong life. To catch up with the current life style requires the assistance of finance and that is how the business of money transactions through various kinds of services is huge and flourished. Better looking and fitness are important for us. Everyone wants it and yet they aren't the most important thing in life because it doesn't make a person to be a respected person. Something else makes you to be a respected person that is what today's Gospel promotes.
Nothing invented by the human beings that has a worst side affect than money. Money is important for business transactions and for life and it is also the cause of all evils in the world. It has the power to change mind and heart of a person. It depends on how we use the money that it could make a good friend to turn out to be your worst enemy and a person who once your enemy becomes friends. When the life of a person is detached to material things then that person is free no more because the detachment to world materials makes him/her a slave for other people's ideal. You are driven by their ideal. The more you attach to their suggestion via the media the more profit they made from their followers. We want freedom. We advocate for freedom and we fight for human rights but in following the ideal advocates by the media for better looking and more elegant in life we unfortunately become volunteers to slave for the commercial world. Set our heart on things of this world we will never free because new ideas and new models are being invented daily; set our heart on God's kingdom and things from above we soon be free because the love of God is unchanged and God's love has the power to set you free. It is better to slave for things from above rather than slave for things from below which is here today and disappears tomorrow.
To make us be a respected person, an upright character we need to spend more time in prioritising our spiritual life. It is very often that we over worry about food and clothing which are all external appearances and neglected or even forget about the internal life. We have very little time for spiritual nourishment with lots of excuses and self- defence for not look after the spiritual life. Good food and fine clothing make you feel happy but they don't enrich and prolong life. It is things from above, the everlasting that gives everlasting happiness, true happiness comes from above, not from below. Prioritize our life to things of heaven makes us wise and be true children of God.
Nothing invented by the human beings that has a worst side affect than money. Money is important for business transactions and for life and it is also the cause of all evils in the world. It has the power to change mind and heart of a person. It depends on how we use the money that it could make a good friend to turn out to be your worst enemy and a person who once your enemy becomes friends. When the life of a person is detached to material things then that person is free no more because the detachment to world materials makes him/her a slave for other people's ideal. You are driven by their ideal. The more you attach to their suggestion via the media the more profit they made from their followers. We want freedom. We advocate for freedom and we fight for human rights but in following the ideal advocates by the media for better looking and more elegant in life we unfortunately become volunteers to slave for the commercial world. Set our heart on things of this world we will never free because new ideas and new models are being invented daily; set our heart on God's kingdom and things from above we soon be free because the love of God is unchanged and God's love has the power to set you free. It is better to slave for things from above rather than slave for things from below which is here today and disappears tomorrow.
To make us be a respected person, an upright character we need to spend more time in prioritising our spiritual life. It is very often that we over worry about food and clothing which are all external appearances and neglected or even forget about the internal life. We have very little time for spiritual nourishment with lots of excuses and self- defence for not look after the spiritual life. Good food and fine clothing make you feel happy but they don't enrich and prolong life. It is things from above, the everlasting that gives everlasting happiness, true happiness comes from above, not from below. Prioritize our life to things of heaven makes us wise and be true children of God.
Written by Fr Vũđình Tường
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia