Suggested Emphasis
"Help us to seek the values that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world.”
Salesian Perspective
These words from the beginning of the Opening Prayer of today’s mass have a profoundly significant message for all of us. Our worlds change, and sometimes constantly. We might tend to think of the “changing world” as something only without or beyond ourselves. But sometimes the most difficult world to accept with all its changes is the world within, the one with turmoil and vicissitudes that no one ever sees – except ourselves.
We talk today of decisions and choices. Everyone wants freedom. Well, certainly God wants us to have that freedom as well, as it is the most dramatic and far-reaching gift he has given us. In the first reading today, Joshua addresses this freedom head on: “Decide today whom you will serve.” That’s about as direct and contemporary a message as we could have. “What do you want? Decide!” There is no room for the wishy-washy in Joshua’s approach. There is also no doubt where he stands: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Paul confronts the same issue in his letter on married life: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” This opening statement is critical because without it the later advice to be subservient could appear demeaning or even appalling. The “subordination” to which the Christian is called is always presented within and because of love – Christ’s love. That is why we serve others, and put ourselves at least second, if not literally last. Christ loved us first, and showed us the way to life. To put others first, especially in a relationship – or in a family – is the only way to have life, and to share life, to the full.
It is also the only way to make love truly life-giving.
This teaching of Christ can be “hard,” and the early followers of Christ found it so, but like Peter in the Gospel, when all is said and done, “to whom shall we go?” Again and again, the losses and trials of life affirm that only He has “the words of eternal life.”
Francis de Sales reminds us that instability in life is inevitable, and it is our failure to recognize the truth that makes us unstable and changeable in our moods. He encourages us to remain firm and steadfast in our resolutions. The challenge of our changing world “within” is one of constancy. And that constancy is achieved by fidelity to the decisions we make in daily life to love and serve the Lord, and one another – the very resolution with which we close every liturgy.
Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is the Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.
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