22nd
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle A
September 3, 2017
Becoming More
Once upon a time, a dandelion whispered to the
nutrients in its soil: “How would you
like to become a dandelion? You need only allow yourself to be dissolved
in the earth’s water, and I will draw you up through my roots.
“Afterward you will be able to grow and
flower and brighten the world.” The
nutrients said: “Okay!”
The
next morning, a rabbit hopped by and, feeling generous, said to the dandelion: “How would you like to become a rabbit? You
would have to let me chew you up and swallow you, and you would lose your
pretty petals.
“It would hurt at first, but afterward
you would be able to hop around and wiggle your ears.” Not being
rooted in just one place sounded good, so the dandelion allowed itself to be
munched and it became a rabbit.
The
next day, a hunter spotted the rabbit, and being in a friendly mood, asked: “How would you like to become a human? Of
course, you must let yourself be shot, skinned, stewed and eaten.
“That would be rather painful, but think
of what you’d gain. You’d be able to think, laugh, cry, get 50 credit cards and
watch football on a wide flat-screen TV.”
The
rabbit was scared, but who could pass this up? So, he gave up the carefree life
of a rabbit and became a human.
Years
later, God noticed this human going about everyday human living. Feeling very
fatherly, God said: “Hey! How would you
like to become a super-human?”
Becoming Divine
That,
my friends, is the question God asks each human being.
And,
in case we don’t know what is involved in this, God’s Son, Jesus, spells it
out: “You have to lose your life to find
it.” Sports coaches and athletes say:
“No pain; no gain.”
Psychologists
say: “Lose your false self to find your
true self.” Spiritual writers talk
about the “dark night before the dawn.”
What
is it that we must lose and what do we gain? Well, the good news is that we don’t lose
anything essential to our humanity.
We
don’t lose anything that is good within us. All we really lose is our
inhumanity, our bad self.
What Do We Lose?
For
example, we must lose our self-centeredness, which isolates us from other good
people. We must lose our prejudices,
which blind us to the truth.
We
must lose our lust, which distorts our love.
We must lose our insecurity, which restrains us from doing what we
believe is right.
We
must lose our obsession with money, which prevents us from being generous. And
we must lose our fear, which strangles our hope.
What Do We Gain?
To
the degree that we do this losing, we gain. We actually enlarge or expand our humanity.
We
don’t have to get there all at once. We can
do it step by step.
And
we don’t have to advance in every department of life. Actually, most saints are
imperfect and unfinished in some way.
The
best part is that in fulfilling our humanity, we simultaneously become divine.
We participate in divine life.
We
become intimate with God and start thinking and loving in a Godly way. We engage in communion and conversation with the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And
here is the really best part. In losing our lives in God, we don’t really lose
at all – like the nutrients in the soil or the dandelion or the rabbit.
Instead,
we retain our own self and grow bigger. But we have to remember: only with God and only
in going through this process of losing can we gain and be our fullest self.
