Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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Today's Readings
Read today's readings at USCCB →The Reading
Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. - Matthew 10:39b
Reflection
Whoever finds his life will lose it; whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. This is not a paradox about death. It is a description of what happens when a man tries to hold onto the life he has rather than living the life he was made for. The finding that is actually losing: the securing of comfort, status, and safety at the cost of the life that was supposed to be lived.
Consider yourselves dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus. The baptismal reckoning is the operational form of the lose-to-find teaching. You already died with Christ. The life you are living now is the resurrection life. Live from that rather than protecting the pre-resurrection one.
The Shunammite woman lost the use of the guest room and gained a son. The loss and the gain are not proportionate. She did not calculate the exchange. She prepared the room because she recognized the holy man and wanted to provide for him. The son was not a transaction. It was a gift.
The Challenge
What is the life you are holding onto that you are supposed to lose - the specific comfort, position, or safety that is preventing the full following? Name it. And carry [name]: Lord, let him lose what needs losing in order to find what he was made for. Let the death with Christ produce the living for God.
One Prayer
Lord, I am dead to sin and living for you in Christ Jesus. Let the reckoning be real. And let me lose what needs losing in order to find what I cannot find any other way. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you. Amen.
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