Today's Thoughts...

Today’s Thoughts: I found it interesting that on the Sunday that Archbishop Oscar Romero was canonized that the Gospel was the story of the rich young man who had to walk away from Jesus’ invitation to follow. Perhaps Pope Francis planned it this way or maybe the contrast between the Gospel story and St. Romero is meant to give us pause for reflection.
 
It is often said that the story of the man in today’s Gospel is one of the saddest stories in all of the Gospels. Perhaps saddest next to Jesus’ suffering and death. The sadness is that the man is the only person in the Gospels who walks away from Jesus. Sure, the scribes, Pharisees and religious leaders don’t buy into Jesus’ message but the young man in the story comes to Jesus for help and guides and still walks away.
 
Why? Because the young man wants to inherit eternal life but finds it hard to live the journey. Jesus looks upon him with love but in sadness he walks away. St. Oscar Romero and for that matter all the women and men canonized today chose not to walk away but to accept Jesus’ invitation. They each did it in their own way. I am sure there were moments in their journeys when they felt like walking away like the young man, but they didn’t. They chose to make the journey with Jesus.
 
I have always liked the prayer in our first reading today from the Book of Wisdom. It is often referred to as Solomon’s Prayer. We hear a man, King Solomon, who literally has everything, yet he comes to realize that he has nothing if he doesn’t have Wisdom. Nothing is worth more, is as valuable as Wisdom.
 
The women and men canonized today understood the importance of God’s Wisdom in their lives. It was that Wisdom that empowered them to say yes to the journey that Jesus invited them to live. It is in the grace, the virtue of God’s Wisdom that sad stories become stories of faith, hope and love.
 
Through the intercessions of the saints particularly those canonized today may we be blessed with God’s Wisdom so that in our moments of searching for eternal life we will be willing to say yes and not sadly walk away!
 
Sunday blessings and peace to all in the spirit of St. Oscar Romero!