Friday, August 29, 2008

Today's text

Matthew 16:24-25

Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

I have lived long enough to know the need of the heart to be given away.

When I was young, I succumbed to the temptation to believe that everything was about me--my education, my growth, my development, my choices, my freedom, my vocation, my success, my reputation.

But somewhere in the midst of living a blessed thing happens, a discovery comes. You realize that there is something more important than you. You realize that what happens to someone else is more important to you than what happens to yourself.

It is then, only then, that we begin to become truly human, truly reflecting the image of God.

I look at my relationships. Where do I find truest joy? Where is my heart most warmed? Where does deepest satisfaction appear?

It’s obvious. My children, my grandchildren, seeing my wife’s smile, a smile I am pledged to treasure and nurture as long as I live.

In these relationships, I am most willing and able to give, to surrender self-interest for the sake of others. I am willing to risk myself. That reflex to protect my honor, my status, to insist on my way, weakens and wanes.

For my heart knows: What happens to them is more important to me than what happens to me. I feel no loss in this. I am not diminished in any way.

In giving, I gain. In losing myself for them, I become more alive. In surrendering to their need, I know more joy, not less. My heart grows. My soul swells. I feel the abundance of life, the freshness of living, finally, as a human being.

This is the way God’s love works in us. This is the way of Jesus, the paschal mystery that leads ever from death to life.

Pr. David L. Miller