Monday of the
Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Genesis 28:10-22a; Matthew 9:18-26)
Young men and women from Asia, Africa, and South America are
leaving in droves. They seek opportunity
in Europe and North America where jobs will pay ten times as much as they
receive at home. They are not unlike Jacob
as he leaves home in today’s first reading.
Jacob has demonstrated self-centeredness as he has just
stolen the birthright of his older brother.
Now he is off seeking adventure although, to be sure, an angry Esau
provides more than enough motive for him to leave home. He is also taken up by experience as he
describes the site of his dream in a peculiarly contemporary fashion -- “awesome.”
And, again like contemporary youth, he is reluctant to commit himself beyond
promising allegiance to God if God continues to bless him. What advice might be given Jacob?
We would tell him that which we have to remind
ourselves. There is much to learn about
life. We have to understand that the
world does not revolve around us. In fact,
other people have needs that not only are different from ours but also, at
times, demand our attention. Also, we
must take to heart that God remains as the one whose commands are to be heeded. Pope Benedict XVI tells a story about himself
that illustrates this lesson. Right
after being ordained to the priesthood, he returned to his hometown in Bavaria for his first
mass. The townspeople prepared elaborate
festivities for their simple faith stood them in awe that one of their own
could now turn bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The young Fr. Ratzinger had to remind himself
continually as he was receiving royal treatment, “This is not about you,
Joseph. This is not about you.”
