Daily Readings 08/18/2014 or If You are Crying While Driving your Lamborghini, You Should Probably Drive it to Church

"The young man said to him,
“All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad,
for he had many possessions." -MT 19:20-22

Monday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time 08/18/2014

The rich young man in the reading has done all of the superficial things he needed to gain eternal life but the thing making it unattainable for him was internal. It wasn't having a lot of possessions that presented the problem for him, it was his attachment to those things that was an issue. He wasn't willing to give all he had to follow Jesus. There was one thing commanded of him that he could not comply with in his heart.

And so it was for us, probably around this time of year, that we were sitting in Mass and our pastor challenged us, asking, "What is the one thing keeping you from getting closer to God?"

My wife and I knew what it was for us and within a couple of weeks we were learning about charting and working towards expressing God's full intention for our marriage. You see, this was the gospel reading that led my wife and I to start practicing Natural Family Planning.

That decision has changed our life, improved our relationship with each other and brought us closer to the true nuptial meaning of God's gift of our sexuality and that is inestimably wonderful. However, the question that Father Gary Belliveau, our pastor at the time, asked, is one that we should all be constantly asking ourselves.

What is in my life right now that I know I need to give up to become closer to God, but with which I am not willing to part?

Judgment? White lies? A bad temper? Selfishness? Envy? Pornography? Attachment to earthly wealth?

What is your false idol?

Another question to ask, almost naturally following that, would be:

How have I twisted God into my own image of what I think He should be, so that I don't feel the need to part with these things?

God bless,
P.D.O.