Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

27TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (October 08, 2006)

Readings Gn 2: 18-24 Ps 128: 1-6 Heb 2: 9-11 Mk 10: 2-16 or 10: 2-12

Suggested Emphasis

"It is not good for man to be alone."

Salesian Perspective

Today's readings remind us of our need to have profound respect one another. Today's readings speak of the reverence we should have for every human being. Today's readings speak of the care and concern that we should have for all creation.

More importantly, the readings speak of a deeper truth: like the God in whose image and likeness we are created, we are not meant to live alone.

Francis de Sales wrote: "God has signified to us in so many ways and by so many means that God wills all of us to be saved that no one can be ignorant of this fact. For this purpose, through Creation God made us in his own image and likeness; by the Incarnation, God has made himself in our image and likeness…God's goodness moves God to communicate liberally to us the help of divine grace so that we may come to the joy of his glory…" (Treatise on the Love of God, Book VIII, Chapter 4)

Just as God communicates with us, we are meant to live in communion with one another.

In his Conferences, Francis spells out how being ourselves leads us to be in relationships with others. "The sweet and loving bond of holy love will be continually drawn tighter and closer as we advance farther and farther along the road of our own perfection. As we become more and more capable of union with God, we shall unite ourselves closer and closer to one another…At each communion, which we make, our union will be rendered more perfect, for, uniting ourselves with Our Lord, we shall remain always more closely united together, and therefore this is why the holy reception of this celestial Bread and of this most adorable Sacrament is called Communion: that is to say, common union." (Conference VI, On Hope)

Fundamentally, Francis de Sales tells us that we are born to love. We are made for relationship. Much of who we are - much more of who we could be - can only become reality through the relationships we establish and nurture with others.

To be sure, we need to be ourselves. We need to grow in self-knowledge and self-acceptance. We need to embrace our strengths and our weaknesses. We need to consider what we can do on our own. We need to accept what we cannot do on our own. But none of this happens in a vacuum: the fullness of who God calls us to be is found precisely in our relationships with one another.

Not only is it not good for man to be alone. We can only be fully human when we live in communion with God…and with one another.

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