27 January 2019 - nothing missing

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!

One thing that can make us sad is too much comparing ourselves to others. We want the gifts that we see other people have and forget about our own gifts. Whether intellectual, apostolic, or charismatic, it is often the case that the gifts others have seem more glamorous than our own, which we may not even fully realize we've been given. Or our concern might be that we haven't done enough, just as Israel seemed sad because of the book of the law had been absent from their lives until they rediscovered it in the reading today. The Little Flower suffered from sadness of this sort:

"And yet other vocations make themselves felt--I feel called to the Priesthood and to the Apostolate--I would be a Martyr, a Doctor of the Church. I should like to accomplish the most heroic deeds--the spirit of the Crusader burns within me, and I long to die on the field of battle in defence of Holy Church." - Therese of Lisieux

But she was liberated by the teaching of Paul that the body has many parts, all of which are important.

"I knew that the Church has a heart, that this heart burns with love, and that it is love alone which gives life to its members. I knew that if this love were extinguished, the Apostles would no longer preach the Gospel, and the Martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. I understood that love embraces all vocations, that it is all things, and that it reaches out through all the ages, and to the uttermost limits of the earth, because it is eternal." - Therese of Lisieux

The solution she found was more than simply telling herself that she would do one thing while others did those things she could not. Rather, she discovered that she was so connected to the rest of the body that her hidden and small acts of love were actually the fuel that enabled all of the actions of the body as a whole. This is what the unity of the body means, not just for Therese, but for us as well. Whenever we choose to love, even if it is not apparently successful, even if no one sees it, or they see it but do not understand, even then it is still the fuel that makes the whole body throughout the world move and grow.

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

The Spirit that anoints us and makes us one is the same Spirit that Jesus tells is upon him.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me 
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Because we are united with Jesus as our head, and the body throughout the world, as long as we choose love lack for no good gift (see Psalm 34:10). We too can say, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." If we're lacking nothing, what can keep us from rejoicing?