What junk keeps you from having a deeper relationship with Jesus? Conan Rainwater, SJ, says our love for the Lord shows itself in those whose lives we touch. Based on the readings from the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Got any junk?
Hi, I’m Conan Rainwater, and this is my One-Minute Reflection.
Cities usually have trucks with ads on the side like 1-800-GOT-JUNK? They are evidence that Pope Francis is spot on when he refers to Western society as a throwaway culture: a culture of consumption and waste.
Whenever I see a funeral procession, what follows the hearse is not a U-Haul, but people. The Letter of James says, “Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten.”
Does that mean we should get rid of our stuff, or cut off our hand as Jesus warns us in today’s Gospel? No. But Saint Ignatius of Loyola is correct in saying we “ought to rid ourselves of things that get in the way of our end [of praising, reverencing, and serving God].”
For when our hands aren’t clinging to junk, we’re free to hold onto Christ, our ultimate treasure. We won’t be empty-handed. When “the darkness falls on our final days,” the U-Haul truck or the Got Junk trunk won’t follow. It will be those people whose lives we touched.
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