Reflections from the Heart – January 19, 2025

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” I often think and wonder in the deepest interior of my being, like so many of the famous holy people in the gospels, who am I? Who am I that the Lord should come to me? Who am I that the Mother of our Lord should come to me? At first, the seriousness and painful reality of my own human brokenness bubbles up. The acts of my own sinfulness, the helplessness I encounter when I seek to control certain outcomes and the true weakness I encounter in truly being limited in what I can know and what I can really accomplish surfaces to the forefront and smacks me right in the face. I encounter the unfortunate, unpleasant bitter taste of my own impoverished poverty, my own unrealistic self-worth and the false selfish hopes and unrealistic expectations of those unwanted circumstances I place myself into or allow others to do to me or for me. Why give that kind of power, permission and control to myself or to others? Then in all that sadness, happy thoughts from the Lord displace the unhappy thoughts of my past mistakes, the unpleasant aches of present moments and the worries, concerns and the confusion of those things and situations that might be, might become or may never happen. God reminds me of his great love that is eternal and the unchanging choice he made to create, redeem and sustain me. He reminds us all of his divine mercy, his unwavering care, his desire to forgive and his hope for eternal peace. God never abandons us, criticizes us, diminishes us or makes us feel unwanted, unloved, not necessary or unworthy. Who we are is not for us to determine. God has determined that who we are has to do with everything of who God is: made very good, created in his sacred image and patterned after the likeness of his own beauty, goodness, kindness and truth. “Who we are”, is simply reflected in who God created us to be – his beloved worthy children. All God does and continues to do is to make us understand and realize we are worthy of his promises because he has done so. He will always be our Almighty God and our Heavenly Father and we will always be worthy to say we are his poor beloved children. God gives us poor sinners the privilege to come into his presence and our Mother Mary to pray that we may be made worthy of his promises.