Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings are about the choice of whom we choose to serve and fidelity to our choice when that service is difficult or hard to understand. In the first reading Joshua presents a choice to the people of God, “If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide to whom you will serve…As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” We as Christians are also presented with a choice of whom we wish to serve. Do we serve God or the world? It is important to know that we are not forced to choose God but are free to love God and serve Him or free to turn away from Him, but we cannot serve the ways of the world and our God, for “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24).
If we choose to serve God, then we must fully embrace this service of God with joy, love, fidelity, and perseverance. We must love Him and serve Him fully and not with half-hearted devotion for Jesus says, when asked what is the first of all the commandments, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with your strength” (Mark 12:30). We give, with the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit, our whole heart, and everything we are over to God because he has given everything to us, even his only begotten Son, so that we might have life in and through Him. The service and love we are called into by our yes means giving our life over completely to God as Jesus gave up his life for us. We are to be subordinate to each other and love each other “out of reverence for Christ” for he “loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her.”
Through our Baptism we enter into the Body of Christ, and therefore we receive Christ through other members of the Body and we are to become Christ to all we meet. It is important that, in our service to God, we both become an icon of Christ to others and receive Christ from others as members of the Body of Christ the Church; we are both subordinate brides and loving husbands. Similar to a husband and wife, we must love and serve in the good times and bad times when it seems easy and when the world seems against us. We must have strength and courage in these times, and if we see those around us abandoning their call to love and serve because of the struggle and we hear Jesus say to us, “Do you also want to leave?” then we must say with Peter, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Reflection by Br. Placid Dale, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections