Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - October 3, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
At a campus football game, I was four times mistaken for Father Waldo and once for Father Hobart. The next day a cyclist peddling by as I walked called out “Father Kirk.” For a moment, with a slight knowledge of Buddhism, I thought: perhaps I've reached the state of ‘no-self’. A little reflection, however, assured me that I was far from anything so noble. It doesn’t take much reflection to realize how well acquainted I am with selfishness, self-centeredness and self-seeking. How remote Saint Benedict’s ideal remains: “No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else.” (The Rule of Saint Benedict, chapter 72, The Good Zeal of Monks)
Not too long after the Father Kirk episode I got into a car only to find pasted to the dashboard an oh-so-timely word of Jesus, Matthew 16:25: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” This is a steep word of Jesus about how we open ourselves to transformation into his likeness. Jesus truly gave, surrendered earthly life on the cross out of love only to receive new life in the resurrection.
We shouldn’t think of this only in terms of our death. It’s present in those moments when we give ourselves to others in some demanding service, when we recover from sin, despair, some tragedy. When we forget our own interests to further those of others, when we put aside our time, schedule and priorities to serve something larger than ourselves. (Doesn’t this sound like what parents do daily?) Very likely the opportunity to lose our self in order to find it is available to all of us in many of life’s demanding situations. The Word of Scripture and Sacrament make the Lord present to us in his self-giving so that our self becomes more one with Christ, becomes more our true self.
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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