Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

The focus of our early decades is on development: physical, intellectual, emotional, religious. Learning to play the tuba, to run the triathlon, to understand tax law or how to do surgery, to grow crops, to care for the disabled, to visit space, etc. Success in our development depends on our motivation, our cooperation, our opportunities, etc. This focus on ourselves (my resume) continues with advanced degrees, new levels of expertise, promotions, married life, buying a home, etc.

We could summarize this part of our life under the term acquisition or growth. Acquiring education and relationships. Part of this earns the term “growing up.” Very few dispute the necessity of this. In our life as followers of Jesus too there are practices and steps that deepen our relationship to God, e.g., prayer, Sacraments, actions done out of love, study of Scripture, etc. And this development in our character almost naturally leads us to think about what will we do with all this development.

This growth acquires meaning and purpose when we put it to good use. The second half of human existence justifies all this ‘preparation’ when we begin to give away ourselves and what we have become and acquired. We begin to use our talents, our time, our achievements, our means and acquisitions, our skills, our patience, all our experience and know-how for others.

We find causes, we look to the good of our world and our fellow human beings. Volunteering for the homebound and disabled, supporting good causes, spending time with those grandchildren, for instance. Ideally we use what God has given us or, with God’s help, what we have acquired or developed for others, for something beyond ourselves.

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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