My Mind Was Not On The Game?

Saturday of the Twenty seventh Week in Ordinary Time &
St. Callistus, Pope and martyr

Biographical Information about St. Callistus

Readings for Saturday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Gal 3:22-29

Responsorial Psalm Ps 105:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.

Gospel Lk 11:27-28

Reflection:

Paul continues to reconcile those who follow Hebraic Law with Christ’s gift in the Galatians reading today. He finally takes his argument that we are one in Christ. In fact he goes much further – he tells the Galatians that they are; “…There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

There are many teaching elements that Paul brings us in his letters. In my humble opinion, this one is perhaps his greatest contributions. If we think about where this infant Church was when Paul was spreading the word through the known world, it was like a tiny flicker and could easily have been divided and extinguished. Yet Paul took on Peter and the other Apostles and reminded them, even though he had not walked with the Lord in person, of his tremendous love for all peoples.

When we hear Paul today, we are forced to ask ourselves, are we following this part of the Lord’s Great Commandment? Do we look at others of our own faith and think, we are better than they are because they are poor and we are rich (there is neither slave nor free person); or do we think we know better than they because he is a man or she is a woman (there is not male and female)?

We are one in Christ and that single statement galvanizes us into a force for God that cannot be withstood if only we acted as if it were absolutely true. Alas, like so many other precepts of the Church, we have difficulty acting on this one. Our human nature overcomes the spirit trying desperately to guide us on right paths. We can make the excuse that we are reacting to others who are behaving much worse but more realistically, at least for myself, I am reminded of a scene from a movie I watched the other night, Maverick. Mel Gibson, the now famous anti-Semitic actor, was playing poker at the very beginning of the movie and had just won a large hand. A young man seated across the table said; “I don’t think that hand should count.”

Maverick asked, with a laughing grin on his face; “Why not?”

To which the young man responded (Here it is folks, our best excuse.) “Because, my mind was not on the game.”

How many times have we fallen into that trap? How many times have we failed to do what we knew was the right thing because, “our mind was not on the game?” We were caught up in the moment and we were not thinking as one who is one in Christ. We let our baser instincts take over – notice the words “We let…”

Today (and every day) let us keep our guard up so that when finally we stand before the judgment seat of the Lord, our excuse will not be; My mind was not on the game.

Pax