Every great once in a while the Liturgy of the Word for Sundays and weekday Masses present no easily accessible or understandable message. Today, this Wednesday of the 10th Week in Ordinary Time, is one of those days – at least for me it is. There was no lightning bolt moment of divine revelation that immediately sparked an ‘aha!’ So, I had to really sit and reflectively pray with the reading from First Kings and Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew. I took it to prayer throughout this week, and I would like to focus on three things: choice, commitment, and collaboration (co-laboring) with God.
First, we have a choice. As in life, God’s gift of free will, enters a surprising majority of how we choose to live our life in the experiences we have in life, and in and with our encounters with others. Discerning the good choice—the one that leads to greater life and peace, a choice that will make the fire of love consume our hearts with goodness—is always contrasted in life by choices that lead us to diminishment, despair, and ultimately a life that lays dead on the cold hard marble altar of life. We stand then with the people listening to Elijah today in the book of Kings. Do you choose the 450 gods of Baal or the One true God? Do we choose the God who answers with a fire as God? Or is our choice to stand with god(s) whose power is impotent and who answer no one, and listen to no one?
Second, we have commitment. Elijah is very clear about this when he challenges us by asking, ‘How long will we straddle the issue?’ Jesus demands commitment from the disciples (us) and from those he is teaching. He advocates for always choosing to be the greatest not the least. He, in words that don’t mince what he is demanding, asks his listeners (us), to choose to be a part of, to commit ourselves to God’s fulfillment and the coming to fruition and completion of God’s plan. Any other choice will be not the greatest commitment we can make, but the least.
Finally, we have the invitation—some would even say a ‘call’—to collaborate, co-labor, co-create with God. Jesus, seems to be egging on his listeners back then, as well as us today, to make a stance. This fulfillment is not a passive event. It demands active participation. Jesus, not mincing words in his talk to the disciples and his talk with us, asks: are you a breaker of God’s commandments or are you a keeper and instructor of them, making God’s commandments of love of God, self, and neighbor (in relational reciprocity) come to have greater life in yourself, in those we call our neighbors, in the ultimate salvation of this world?
In the end then, the choice is ours always, but the needed commitment to work for the building of God’s plan of salvation requires our collaboration. Will you come sow the good seed of God’s love, water it, and help it to grow, or will your action destroy the possibility of divine love coming to have ever greater life? Will you help me Jesus asks, to fulfill God’s plan for your own, and the world’s growth (or groaning) to fulfillment? In the end then, this fulfillment is not a passive event. It demands active participation.
Rev. Kent Beausoleil, SJ
Rev. Beausoleil, SJ, PhD, has lived in the Creighton Jesuit Community since 2020. Currently he ministers as the Market Vice President for Mission Integration (NE/IA) for CommonSpirit/CHI Health while continuing his ministry as a mission leader at five local area hospitals: Immanuel Medical Center, and Lasting Hope in Omaha, and Mercy Corning, Mercy Council Bluffs, and Missouri Valley in Iowa. Joining the Jesuits in 1997 and ordained in 2007 his Jesuit formation focused on three types of ministries: healthcare, spiritual direction and pastoral counseling, and higher education focusing on young adult spiritual development.
Rev. Kent A. Beausoleil, SJ has a PhD in Student Affairs from Miami University in Oxford, OH. He also possesses master’s degrees in public administration, philosophy, divinity and education. He loves to walk and be out in nature, cross-stitch and bake.
The ability to reflect on other contributors’ reflections as well as being able to provide a personal monthly spiritual reflection has become an important and integral part of my daily prayer.
