What Does It Mean To Give The Day To God?

“I’m done; I can’t go any farther! I tried, and I give up.” Can I say that to God without feeling guilty,

The saints went to heroic lengths. They did not say, “I’m, done. I’m all used up. I quit.”

We can make a God of other things such as work, money, and even children and family. Yes, and we can even make a God of what we think is God’s work. So a line must always be drawn.

But God will always be there, close and far, asking us, “Where did you draw the line? Did you leave me outside? Did you leave me behind?”

Can we find peace with our decisions? How can we serve God with our whole heart and still live in the world?

written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG AS YOU LISTEN:

In the first reading we have, "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ."

And one of the things Paul talks about is that, as humans, we rely on Christ for salvation. We rely on him (Paul) and he is bringing to the Gentile world the teachings of Christ. He is bringing the wisdom of Christ, the ministry of God and he is the apostle. He is going to bring the Truth.

St. Peter Claver was a missionary. He was going out to bring Christianity, to bring Catholicism, to the neediest of the needy, the people who had been ripped out of their country, probably with violence, put on a ship, many of whom died on the ship, got out, basically were put in pens like cattle and then went off and became slaves. He was the missionary to them. He took care of them. He was giving of his life in a totality.

We see in the gospel reading something very important that is occurring, and it is something that is addressed to each and every one of us.

Now, it is nice to be able to say, as the Jews were saying, "Okay, I'm going to give a day to God, and I'm not going to let anything get in the way of my giving my day to God. No work whatsoever."

But they carry it to the extreme, and they misunderstand what it means to give the day to God.

Jesus shows them on the Sabbath, "Stretch out your hand." That involved doing work. That was a sin. That was a horrible thing. That's why they are upset about it.

But the reality of Christ is just not that. We look at the end of the gospel of Matthew. The separating of the sheep and the goats. One of the great images; I love that image. And it says, "How do you divide them?" How do you divide all these sheep and goats?

"What you did for the least of my brothers you did for me."

What did you do for the people who are in need? Did you come up to them and say, "You're in need but don't bother me about it because it's Sunday?" Do you say, "You're in need but don't bother me, Monday's the day I take to day off." Or, "I have a date to play golf every Monday with a friend of mine." Or, "I have..." all of these things.

How do we come to a balance in our lives? We see the imbalance in Peter Claver. From the rational perspective you don't take your life, throw away your life and give it for seven days a week, for thirty-some years to take care of other people.

That's not a rational thing.

People came up to Peter Claver and said, "Peter, slow down a little bit! Slow down! It won't hurt them if you take a vacation. Go for a week. Take a week off and go over to wherever you would go on a vacation. Just take some time off."

Yet that's not what Peter Claver did. He's a saint because he didn't do that. And that's not what Jesus says. This is one of these homilies that's addressed to me.

Where is the line? If my aspiration is to change who I am, to bring myself closer to God through Our Lord Jesus Christ, to prepare myself, and I'm realistic, to prepare myself for Purgatory so I can cleanse myself of all my sins, I know I've got a bunch of them sitting there, when do I exercise moderation? Do I exercise moderation?

And I can tell you that's a great concern to me because, in fact, I do exercise moderation. I don't give twenty hours a day. I don't give my entire life, of everything. I don't give all of my monetary wealth. I don't give it all away.

Yet, at the same time, Jesus is not equivocal on that. And I think it is important for us to look at our lives and say, "Where are we drawing the line?" Is it time? Is it resources? What is it that causes us to draw the line to say, "I'm really not going to go farther?"

I mean, I'll give you and example. I tried very hard, you know, when I went to Parkland Hospital. But I got to the point where it was impossible and I couldn't go there any more. It was destroying me. I had to stop.

Is that an appropriate line? I think so. I think that one was legitimate. But all the other excuses that I have in my world, what's the appropriate line to draw to moderation? To draw the line. To draw to not live the life of Peter Claver. Not to live the life of Mother Teresa. Where is the line?

And if by drawing the line, are we not following the teaching of Christ? Are we, in fact, like the Jews in the synagogue who go, "You can't do that. Don't do that. Just take a break, Jesus. Don't do, don’t do it on the Sabbath. Don't do it in the synagogue. Don't work like that." And Jesus does it.

Now the reality is, He got crucified, which is why St. Paul wants to combine his sufferings with those of Christ on the cross. But as a group of practicing Catholics, and I'm including you in this one, Betty, as a group of people who try to follow the teachings of God, the teachings of Christ, where do we draw the line of moderation? Of saying, "Okay, that's enough. I can't do any more or I'm not comfortable going beyond this point." Where do we draw the line? How do we draw the line? And what is it's impact on us?

If the impact of us not doing things, because not doing them and the guilt that comes from it takes us away from Christ, that's a bad thing. We don't want to be taken from Christ. But what do we do? How do we do it?

And I'm not giving you answers, cause I don't have the answers, frankly. But it is something that part of the process that Christ, and I've talked about this many times, part of the thing that Christ did when Christ came to us in our humanity and said, "Think about it. Think about what this means. Think about your faith and put it into practice."

And what I'm suggesting is that when we look at somebody like Peter Claver, Mother Teresa, we look at these people who give of themselves totally to God. Look at ourselves and say, "Are we restraining ourselves from giving ourselves so totally as they did, for a reason that is not appropriate?"

Is there a reason why someone who is ninety-three years old shouldn't be out on the streets of Dallas, working out in the heat taking care of people? Absolutely.

The question that we have to think about is: where is that line and is that line that we have created taking us away from God, moving us away from where we want to be?

And I think that is a crucial lesson for us living our lives. It's something that we need to look at. And in the process I think we will find ourselves coming ever closer to God.

September 2, 2019 2