To Have Is To Have Not

November 5: Wednesday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Philippians 2:12-18; Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14; Luke 14:25-33

Click here for the complete text of today’s readings.

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship?

(To support  Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life ... Step Five )

To Have Is To Have Not

“…Began to build but did not have the resources to finish” (Luke 14:30).

A good manager checks supplies. Without sufficient resources, we don’t undertake jobs. Jesus (as usual) turns our thinking upside down when he says that the essential resource is lack of resources: “none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” The more we have, the less equipped we are. The check list for those he sent on mission was, “Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff.”

Good “stewards of the many-sided grace of God” (see 1Peter 4:10) take this seriously. A spiritual director said, “The devil works through our strengths; God through our weaknesses.” When we are self-confident, we don’t need to question; when we know we can do nothing, we look to God. ““Blessed are the poor in spirit—those who “know they haven’t got it made”—for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). The “Little Way” of St. Thérèse is, “Know you are nothing and trust in God.”

Paul’s explanation of this—“God is the one who works in you both to desire and to work”—paraphrases his three-word summary of everything he taught: “Christ in you.”

Bottom line: the resourceful outsource to God.

PRACTICE: PRAY the WIT prayer all day:

 “Lord, do this with me, do this in me, do this through me.”