WHO IS NO. 1

This Sunday's Gospel from Matthew is a continuation of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. His challenges to us become even more intense, reminding us that everything flows from God, therefore God should be our FIRST priority.

Jesus tells us we cannot serve two masters, basically you cannot be in love with the things of the world and be in love with God at the same time. One must admit, however, that we are in some what of a trap, or at least we are trying to do a difficult balancing act on very slim-tight rope.

If we say we hate the things of the world, its goods, resources, living beings, everything really, then we are logically saying that the world is no good which stands in direct opposition to Genesis 1:31, "And God looked at everything He made and saw that it was VERY good." Granted this is before the fall of humanity and all that goes along with that. Yet, even with the sin everything is not totally corrupted, rather everything is wounded, therefore some good remains, and yet this wounded(ness) cannot be healed on its own, but only by God.

Because of our wounded nature we misuse the goods given to us. Follow me for a moment. I used to do an exercise in the classroom with my students in posing the following question:

Who or what would you say is the most powerful being\thing in all the universe, a being who knows all things, can be everywhere, sustains all life, etc. if you were to believe in such a being or thing. The response from all was, "GOD."

I would then write GOD in big bold letters on the top left side of the board. Then I would proceed to ask a second question. What or who makes you happy in life, it can be anything or anyone. All of the answers would come back as follows, vacation, cell phone, friends, family, sports, hobbies, hanging out, etc. No one would say God.

I would then propose the following. Does it make sense to leave God out of the second question? If God is the most powerful and the most good isn't it logical that He should be our first priority?

They would all stare at me with open mouths, duh. Just joking, that was me once and sometimes even now as we all have to strive to keep God #1 always.

The Gospel is a reminder to keep God #1. When we do there is no problem with the goods, resources, and even living beings of this world. "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides." Everything is good as along as we keep our priorities straight. Keep God #1. AMEN!

Fr. John