Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

13TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (July 2, 2006)

Readings Wis 1: 13-15; 2: 23-24 Ps 30: 2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13 2 Cor 8: 7, 9, 13-15 Mk 5: 21-43

Suggested Emphasis

"God did not make death, nor does God rejoice in the destruction of the living."

"Just as you are rich in every respect, so may you abound all the more in your work of charity."

Salesian Perspective

Death is an unavoidable part of life. In truth, long before each of us takes our last breath, we will experience many little deaths throughout our lives: occasions of loss, disappointment, surrender and letting go.

Francis de Sales offers this advice to all people who, while celebrating God's gift of life, also accept the reality of death: "How worthwhile it is really to understand that we are only given this life so as to gain eternal life! Without this knowledge we fix our affections on what is in this world through which we are passing; when it comes to leaving it we are dismayed and full of fear. Believe me, if we are to live happily during this pilgrimage we must keep alive before our eyes the hope of arriving in our homeland where we shall stay for all eternity." (Selected Letters by Elizabeth Stopp, p. 261)

Life is full of so many people, relationships, gifts, blessings challenges and endeavors that enhance and nourish the human spirit! How do we truly, fully and completely enjoy them without clinging to them?

By being generous.

Look no further than to the example of Jesus himself. Jesus, the Son of God, the one in whom, through whom and for whom all things exist "made himself poor so that we might become rich." (2 Cor 8) Jesus did not cling to all that was good and blessed here on earth for his own consumption or satisfaction: his satisfaction was found in generously sharing all of who he was and what he possessed with others. Jesus conquered sin and death precisely because he had committed himself to the path of generosity during the course of his life.

In the face of limitation, in the face of setback, in the face of sin, in the face of surrender we are tempted to cling exclusively to all the good that God gives us. Jesus shows us another way; insofar as we are willing to respond to the experiences of loss and letting go by generously sharing ourselves with others, we are destined to conquer death and come to understand what it means to truly live.

If there is anything that we truly possess and never lose in this life, let it be our commitment to perform good works, to make real and tangible the richness of God's love in us, and to generously share God's love and good works with one another.

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is the Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.