Memorial of St. Paul Miki and companions, martyrs
One of the greatest travesties of life is when people give up hope. How often you see people who don’t want to move forward in life or make things better simply because they don’t believe things can get better. We all know a cynic or two. Sometimes the person who’s questioning our hope is the person we meet every morning in the mirror. It’s a good reminder to every person; including ourselves, that life gets better when we first choose to believe that it can. It’s ironic that things usually get worse if we don’t do what we can to make things better. The simple truth is that if we’re not progressing in life, we’re regressing. This is just as true in our spiritual lives.
Truly Jesus is the one who makes things better. The Epistle to the Hebrews calls on us to persevere in doing good.
May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead
the great shepherd of the sheep
by the Blood of the eternal covenant,
furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will.
Heb 13:20-21
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He cares for our souls. He is the greatest reason for our hope. “Hope springs eternal,” as the saying goes, from Jesus alone. Jesus longed to fulfill the needs of those around Him. In today’s Gospel, the Twelve return and tell Jesus about the good things they did. He invites them to retreat to “a deserted place.” The crowds still manage to find Him. He has pity on them because they were “like sheep without a shepherd.” He shows them concern. He gives them reason to hope. The hope He gives them is the same hope He gives us.
Reflection: You will always hear people say “Why try? Things never get better,” so on and so on. Never buy into that. Remember that things changed forever when Jesus came into the world.
Reflection by Br. Matthew Marie, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections