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| Bernini's Holy Spirit Window, St. Peter's Basilica |
The letter of James speaks about people who become so absorbed in earthly things that they forget their ultimate purpose. James challenges us to spend our energies, not on transitory treasures like money and power and status, but on lasting treasures like our relationships with God and one another. When death comes for us, only the good we have done will accompany us.
In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus uses “tough love.” His speech was a Semitic way of speaking graphically, vividly and exaggeratedly, to make a point. Today we might imagine Jesus saying to someone: if job security leads you to compromise your ethics and integrity, quit. Better to be employed elsewhere than be thrown into “Gehenna” with all your benefits. Gehenna, you may know, was a smoldering garbage dump outside Jerusalem which came to symbolize “eternal punishment.”
Jesus dramatically calls us to realize that discipleship means not letting anything – anything! – derail us in our quest for God and the things of God, from our true purpose in life: to be in relationship with God and one another forever by living a God-centered, other-centered life.
Yes, we must have the courage of faith to “let go” and remove from our lives whatever cuts us off from God and family and loved ones.
Throughout history, people have written to us, taught us, about “seizing the day.” A compelling message: don’t live a life of regrets. Do good now. Quietly sit down somewhere and begin to think about your own obituary. What do you want to be remembered for?
Yes, today we might ask the Spirit of God to re-energize us so that we will have our priorities straight, that we will not let anything derail us from our true purpose in life: to be in relationship with God forever, and to try, as best we can, to live a life of doing good.
