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Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary-
Homilies |
"Seek
First the Kingdom: Making God the Center of Our Lives, the True
Source of Our Happiness"
Homily for the
8th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Jonathan L. Reardon
February 27, 2011
Year A
Often times in our lives
we express our desire for happiness. Surely it goes without
saying that we all desire to be happy in life but we tend to
fall short in really understanding what can bring us true
happiness. What is this happiness for which we long? It is
defined as feeling pleasure, being satisfied, fortunate,
content, joyful, pleased, glad, blissful, and the list goes on.
At times we say that if I can just get the newest, most updated
piece software that’s out there to make my life a little easier,
then I will be happy. Other times we say, if I just was able to
get a new car to get me from here to there without wondering if
I’ll make it to work/home/the gym, etc, then I will be happy.
But can these things bring true and lasting happiness? Certainly
there is the feeling of an immediate joy but once that new piece
of software is outdated, then we’re not too happy. Once the new
car starts to have problems that joy fades. And a real danger
lies in turning to more serious outlets in search for happiness
– such as alcohol, drugs, and others. True and lasting happiness
– eternal happiness comes from only one source – it comes from
God.
God is the real source of happiness because there is no limit to
His love and goodness. His love never wears out, never fades,
never disappoints – He is constant. This comes across
beautifully in our First Reading from the Book of the Prophet
Isaiah. Isaiah is addressing the Israelites who have been
conquered, captured, and forced into exile in Babylon, the world
superpower of the sixth century B.C. The exiles were a nation on
the verge of annihilation. They had no king, no leader, no army
- from a natural, human point of view, there was no hope of
deliverance. Amid that natural hopelessness, Isaiah reminds them
to look at their plight from a supernatural, divine point of
view: through the prophet God says to them, “Can a mother forget
her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” He calls to
mind the most powerful natural bond in human experience, the
love of a mother for her child. But then acknowledges that in
this fallen world even that love can fail. It's as if He had in
mind our own period of history, when the culture of death has
convinced millions and millions of mothers to forget the
children in their wombs. Yes, in a sinful world, in a world full
of lies, selfishness, and greed, tragically and sadly, even a
mother's love can fail. In other words, nothing merely natural
or material, nothing of this world can give us the lasting
happiness that we so desire. Only God's love and goodness will
never fail, and so only He can fulfill our deepest longings.
Only God can say to our hearts: “I will never forget you.”
This is why Jesus exhorts us in the Gospel to “seek first the
Kingdom of God.” What He is trying to point out is that having
two masters divides one’s loyalty. When we pursue or try to
pursue earthly, material treasures only, we will inevitably
neglect our relationship with God. Jesus explains this point
with two Jewish idioms: “he will either hate one and love the
other” does not mean that the servant loves only the one master
and has an emotional hatred toward the other. The word ‘love’ in
this phrase is meant more as a choosing or a prioritizing and
‘hate’ refers to an absence of commitment to the other. The
second idiom has a similar meaning. Jesus states: “be devoted to
one and despise the other” really means to pay attention to one
and forget the other. Both expressions serve to tell us that
when our pursuit for true happiness centers only on earthly
goods, only on the here and now, we will naturally neglect our
supernatural destiny, we will cast aside our service to God and
therefore our love for Him will not be sincere or wholehearted.
What then is His advice? He tells His listeners and us not to
worry. The term ‘worry’ is used to denote an excessive concern
or anxiety that monopolizes the intentions of the heart. Here,
He is not talking about the normal worries of everyday life – He
means the excessive, the inordinate desire for material wealth.
Certainly we worry about making enough money to support our
families, we worry about our health and the health of family,
relatives, and friends. These are natural concerns and when we
invite God into these moments of worry they don’t seem to be as
difficult to bear. He lifts the burden off our own shoulders and
reminds us that if He cares enough to clothe the flowers of the
field with such beauty, how much more then, will He care for our
needs – the people He has created in His own image and likeness?
To seek first the Kingdom of God, then, really means to place
God above all in our lives – to make Him our priority. To invite
Him into every situation, every aspect of our lives and strive
to carry out His divine plan for us, to seek to do His will – as
we say in the Lord’s Prayer: “thy kingdom come, thy will be
done.” And so first of all we turn to Sacred Scripture and the
teachings of the Church and try to form our conscience so that
we know what decisions to make in life that are in accord with
His will and that will lead us to heaven. This will naturally
lead to a more personal relationship with Him in our daily
lives. It will propel us to personal prayer – privately and with
our families. And it will lead to a true inner happiness that
can only come from the source that never fades – God Himself.
May the gift of grace in this Eucharist help us to seek first
God Himself, to seek true happiness, sanctity in our daily
living, filling up each day with His love.
