The message of Jesus is so very simple, but often I don’t want to hear it. Help the poor, love my enemies and don’t be so obsessed with wealth and power. All wonderful ideas and ones I cheer with my whole heart. Well, most of it.
Today’s readings challenge us not to be so confident and self-assured. Not to be arrogant.
In the first reading, James cautions us not to count on our own plans to get us through life because “you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.”
Maybe that lack of control in life is what makes me less willing to turn my life so completely over to God. In the morning, I can pray to surrender my whole life to Jesus. Then I spend the rest of the day wresting it back from him a little at a time. “Let me have just this one part back,” I will bargain. “Oh, and that one, too.”
I don’t like not being in control and all Jesus is asking is that I trust in him more. I don’t have to know what is over the next hill or the next week. But if I trust in Jesus’ presence in my life and in his loving care for me, whatever does come in life will be easier for me, whether I am in “control” or not.
One of the ways we are called to trust in Jesus is by remembering that in everything in our lives, including marriage, our parenting, work and community, the Holy Spirit is there first - ahead of us. Jesus’ simple words, “whoever is not against us is for us” points to our daily lives, because too often we demonize anyone we don’t know or understand. Anyone we think might “get in our way.” Jesus calls us to a more careful discernment in the midst of this trust. Like the disciples, we don’t want to trust what we don’t know – and so we judge others and assure ourselves that we are in the better camp – Jesus’ camp. But the spirit of Jesus is already in those places, even when we can’t recognize it. His spirit is more active and in more places than I know.
Loving Jesus, help me to ungrasp my hands that hang onto my life so tightly. I want to open my arms to you and your love for me, and to feel deeply how much you love me today. Let me feel deep in my soul, your loving care for me. Help me to trust.
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
