When we choose the LORD, we do not lose. Unlike Simon Peter, God does not have a scarcity mindset. He loves in a spirit of generosity and freedom. Do I? “The just one’s offerings enrich the altar and rise as a sweet odor before the Most High.” “You will receive a hundred times more now in this present age…and eternal life in the age to come.”

The rich young man is looking at himself. St. Katherine Drexel looked at Jesus. Who/what am I looking at?

“Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?” We do not follow “enthusiasts” to the heights of Heaven. We follow saints and the Church who has formed them in every age. “When fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.”

“Kind mouths multiply friends and appease enemies”…do I lend my voice to the giving or taking of life? God stands with the vulnerable; first and foremost children. God wants His children to see life-giving love lived and modeled in marriage.

Does my soul matter as much to me as it does to Jesus and to His Church? Am I willing to cut off the things hurting me from becoming a saint? Saints do not rely on their own wealth and power. They rely on Him. Do I?

Wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing. “We tried to prevent him because he does not follow us…” but the governing principle of the Church is not “us” but Jesus Christ. Unity and uniformity are NOT the same thing. Christ does not call us to uniformity but rather to unity.

Do I ponder spiritual things as we prayed for at the beginning of Mass? Or do I ponder worldly things? Who (or what?) is the great governing principle of my life? The greatest philosopher in history knew wisdom and made Him the great governing principle of her life. May we do likewise.

Parish mission at St. Therese parish, KCMO. Loving people who love you; what’s praiseworthy about that? “To those who hear, I say…” Can you hear? Are you listening?

Our mission is to disappear. We proclaim not our story but His; the greatest story ever told in which we all have a part. The people of Babel say “come let us build FOR OURSELVES a city…and so make a name FOR OURSELVES.” But the saints do not proclaim themselves or build for themselves. They disappear into Him. “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”

Human beings often think with the enemy of love…we need Jesus to show us the way of love! Love is not cheap, easy, or safe. Real love is self-giving and self-forgetting. Jesus comes to show us who God is and how God thinks.