23 Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Sept. 15th, 2006

Scripture: I Cor.9:16-19.22-27. Psalm 84:3-6.8.12. Luke 6:39-42

St. Paul often speaks from the heart and today he is sharing some of his profound feelings about who he really is and what his conversion calls him to be and to do. He preaches Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ as crucified, but victorious over sin and death. It is a marvelous insight about him in what some psychologists would name as the "transparent self." He is showing us where his inner strength and conviction have their source. His preaching about the Lord Jesus is not done in a proud or boastful way. We have already seen that Paul's boasting is only in the Lord and this "boasting in the Lord" is his prayer life. I liken his sincerity and openness to that which Jeremiah, the great suffering prophet, expresses in his writings. This disclosure of one's innermost thoughts rings true and affects us as we read such transparent expressions about the depths of a holy person's convictions. Integrity and authenticity in a person move us to admiration and imitation in our own relationships with others and in self reflection of who we are and what our purpose in life is.

Jesus, by using images or metaphors is teaching us something similar. We are not to make judgments about others but to be true and content with who we are in the sight of God. As William Joseph Chaminade, the founder of the Marianists say, "the essential is our interior life."

Lord, you teach us to be content with who we are and what we have in life. We want to embrace the calling you give each of us through the gifts you have bestowed upon us. They are not meant for our own self-glorification but for the good of the human family. Help me not to be self-centered in my dealings and relationships with self and others. Amen