How providential that our first reading today talks about how Elijah builds an altar for the Lord: “He built an altar in honor of the LORD with the stones….” I say providential because today some priest friends and I celebrated Mass at the top of a mountain, on an altar one of them had built about a year ago.
Sometimes we feel like we’re running out of steam, like there’s nothing more to give. Like the widow in our first reading. Listen to God’s promise: “‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry….” She had next to nothing, and had to provide for her son. Then Elijah comes and wants her to make a cake for him instead. She trusts. And the jar does not go empty.
From today’s Gospel: “Without cost you have received. Without cost you are to give.”
– Mt 10:7-10
Today we see the blame game, the excuse game in our first reading. Adam is asked why he ate the fruit—the one thing God prohibited. “Eve made me do it,” he replies. Then God asks the same of Eve, and she in turn blames the serpent.
It’s always someone else’s fault. There’s always an excuse.
We are guilty of the blame game too. Often we assign blame to someone or something else, in order to make ourselves feel better about our sinfulness or failings. We pacify our consciences, justify our sins.
Examples abound —
– I would be less angry, but my husband is an idiot.
– I would be more patient, but there are too many traffic lights and long lines. – I would be kinder to that woman, but she has been such a witch to me – I would read the Bible more, but too many people are always bothering me
– I would go to Mass, but I’m too busy, or I have to work, or I have a party to go to. – I would be happy, but my boss is impossible and my coworkers are crazy – I wouldn’t gossip, but people are always coming to me to talk about others
How big is your BUT?
Think about your own life, those times when you know the right thing but have failed to do it. Our collect at Mass. we prayed that would always know what is right and by Gods guidance so it. Forget the excuses, the buts.
In all the above cases, and tons more like them, we are at fault but end up blaming others for our sins and failings. Always someone else’s fault. There is always a BUT.
God asks us to buck up and take responsibility.
Because the thing is, God doesn’t want our excuses. He doesn’t want our “buts.” He wants our undivided hearts, as we hear in our gospel today. Making excuses and blaming others profits us nothing when we knock on heaven’s door. Too often making excuses and playing the blame game prevents us from humbling ourselves and realizing we have work to do, we need to be better.
Example. Sometimes I worry about the low attendance at this or that Mass. I see the empty seats and think, Geez O Pete. Then I blame: o blame the culture for having baseball games on Sunday morning. Honestly. I blame the parents for not knowing better, or knowing better but not caring enough. I blame the last 40 years’ of catechesis that has neglected to teach that missing Mass is a mortal sin, but more, has failed to make people WANT Mass. I blame this or that priest that used to be here. But I can’t just blame others. I must also blame myself. There is surely something I can do better. Now I gotta pray about what that is, but I know I need to do something better.
So we ask God today to help us take responsibility, follow him with undivided hearts and lives.
“No ref, no rules.”
– Cole S. (fifth grade)
His Sacred Heart is in great shape;
It beats and pounds in great rate.
Yet always does His blood escape:
His veins of mercy permeate—
Permeate wreck’d lives and dead dreams,
With floods of love outpoured.
His veins – the globe’s many streams,
That bring life—that restore!
His veins of mercy here on Earth
Are ours to drink—ours to tend.
Veins of peace and love need girth;
They clog if we never bend!
Precious the Blood which flows, alas,
From the Holy Altar of grace.
The fountain of life is His Mass:
His Blood is His embrace.
The covenant signed with His Blood,
Which we are blessed to drink,
Promises us eternal life,
If we sign it with our blood—our ink.
“Remember Jesus Christ….” says our first reading. 2 Tim 2:8. We remember Him in the ups and downs, the joys the sorrows, the failures and the successes. We remember Him always….a secret to a good life. One of today’s biggest problems is that we too often forget Jesus.
