Buried within the Responsorial Psalm for today's Eucharistic liturgy is a petition that may have taken up residence in the hearts of many Americans in recent weeks.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we might gain wisdom of heart.
(Psalm 90:12)
The Psalmist is reminding us that, regardless of our wealth or our successes, we exist within limits. Our days on this earth are limited. As well, I know there are many who are suddenly experiencing the limits placed upon them by econnomic trials. Two years ago the word "sacrifice" was far from the top ten most spoken words in America.
When we live in the bubble of "limitless," often times we provide for very little time or space for the God who created our world. When I feel limitless, I take on a role of superiority, a mindset of betterness than many others. When I am living in the limitless bubble, I tend to feel that I am completely self-sufficient. When I profess that creed, why would I need think about God?
However, do not give up. We have in Jesus a model of a man who greatly sacrificed in accepting the limits of his humanity. Yet, as a man, Jesus brought about so much good for humanity. He brought the people who listened to him to experience a genuine change: his change that has transformed the world for the last two centuries.
He worked within the human limitations he accepted. He worked within the obedience of a son to his Father. And, before he died, he entrusted to us the way of life to us even in our limited state of existence as a human being. He passed on to us a spirit that we should entrust to the next generation.
One generation passes and another comes,
but the world forever stays.
(Ecclesiastes 1:4)
The challenge for us today is to know our faith and to pass it forward --- because, as we learn from the gospels and St. Paul, in Jesus Christ there is not death.
