-Last week's homily is available by email
-Scriptures for this Sunday at usccb.org >
-I am preaching at the 4:00pm and the 9:30am
"Without Distraction"
Two week's ago, the Lord Jesus himself turned around and asked those following, "what are you looking for?" Great question and not such a great answer for all of us. What I mean is that the issue or question of our motivation, our desire, what it is that we are seeking is a nagging one at best.
In the eighth grade this week we were talking about sacramental marriage and one young person cried out, "you can't help who you fall in love with". There may be some truth to that claim but we can certainly be sure about "what we are looking for". I begged them not to knowingly choose in a spouse what they were NOT looking for...holiness, heaven, communion.
St. Paul takes this conversation one step further and says that not only should we know what we're looking for "in" a spouse he warns that it may be hard to "share our hearts desire". He warns his listeners to choose carefully what they want in this world based upon how it will affect their "adherence to the Lord without distraction".
So, like last week, I guess there is more than one way to do everything...even be married. If adherence to the Lord is the goal and standard of our lives, then any other thing we voluntarily choose (yes, falling in love is voluntary) ought to be ordered to the first desire of our hearts...to cling to the Lord without distraction.
This isn't a rule Paul says, it's just smart. It just makes life ordered toward our highest goals. Think back about the most important decisions we have made in life. Did we even think to consider how they would affect our "adherence to the Lord"? Not so much.
I do now...how about you.
