Tuesday of the 19th Week
in Ordinary Time
August 12, 2014 8:30am
Almost from our earliest years,
we learn about growing up, becoming responsible for ourselves, and being able,
as the expression goes, to “fend for ourselves.”
Most of us learn this both at
home and in school.
And of course, we are prepared
for a very individualistic, competitive environment.
That is the work environment and
business culture in which we live.
So, in brief, we are taught to
become and maybe need to become fairly tough and self-sufficient adults.
Then, in the face of that, we
have Jesus’ teaching today.
“Unless you become like children, you will not enter he kingdom of
heaven.”
In other places, Jesus could be
interpreted as saying that self-denial and not self-assertion is the way to
fulfillment.
He clearly says that we should
love or look out for others as we love or look out for ourselves.
So, how do we reconcile all of
this – Jesus’ words with real life as we have to live it today?
I would say this.
The best way I can suggest to
approach it is this.
Jesus calls us to soften the
hardball approach of the marketplace.
He calls us to respect the
aspirations and needs of others as well as our own.
He calls us to remember human
values and not just economic values.
He calls us to think in terms of
the common good in addition to my own well-being.
How this gets played out,
especially in the business world, needs to be figured out by each one of us.
Each of us needs to interpret and
apply the gospel to our situation.
But interpret and apply it we
must do if we are going to be living as sincere persons of faith.
