Reflections from the Heart – September 22, 2024

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” God seeks out those tragic moments in our lives. He looks for those difficult situations where we encountered pain and suffering throughout our lives; those uncomfortable, unwanted, uncared for places we experience misery that seem dark, dim, bleak, dreary to bring about change, order, light, love, life, peace. God seeks and searches for any unpleasant void, any desert like dryness, any suffering person, people, or individual. God looks for what seems empty, vacant and fills it with his presence, his life, his grace, his peace. God is attracted to that which lacks life, is lifeless, hurting, broken in any way. He desires wholeness, promotes healing, brings about hope, and desires new starts, new opportunities and blessed beginnings. God ushers in a new day, a new beginning. He restores what is torn and faded to its former glory. God makes all things new again. God creates newness; he creates from nothing making all things something that is worthwhile, priceless, beautiful, good, holy, and true. God changes the nothingness of desolate places and moments into something, that is good again. God hears the crying out and desperation of every moment. He offers help and assistance to those in need. God remembers the good he has done. He remembers the people that seem forgotten, uncared for, rejected, or tossed to the side. God redeems, restores, and renews what is lost or forsaken, forgotten or neglected in any way. God remembers creation and honors his covenant. He infuses himself into all creation, into all he creates so that it will last, remain and be for all eternity; the beauty of his image and likeness, the goodness of his heart and life, the truth of his love eternal, the essence of his very self. Imagine all God creates is appealing to someone who is jealous and selfishly only wants to destroy it all. That is the enemy and the object of evil and sin. Evil seeks to destroy, separate, dismantle creation and take it all apart. Evil only creates lies, takes life, encourages sin and chaos and brings about disorder, infusing discord into every life. Evil is dark, dreary, desolate, alone. Evil has no friends but hopes and wishes to befriend you because misery loves company. When God saw all he created, he saw that it was good, very good and he blessed it and multiplied it. When evil looked upon all that God created, evil was jealous, envious, self-seeking, lustful and prideful. Don’t be like that.