Keep God First
Gospel Reflection for May 5, 2025
“The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you get here?’ Jesus answered them and said, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.’ So they said to him, ‘What can we do to accomplish the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.’” (Jn. 6:22-29 NABRE)
Sometimes we may find ourselves going through the motions of daily life, working hard to accomplish earthly tasks and goals. We often become consumed by daily to-do’s such as going to work or school, seeking to do chores to clean and organize our home, going to doctor’s appointments or grocery shopping, getting gas for our car, fitting in a workout or going for a walk, making meals for our family, among numerous other things which could be going on in our day-to-day lives.
Jesus reminds us today, that in the midst of everything else, we must always remember to not lose sight of Him, our eternal life. We will always have other things to accomplish and to work towards, but our first and foremost concern must always be Jesus and our relationship with Him. Everything else is fleeting and will pass, but our relationship with our Lord will endure eternally.
May we keep in mind that worldly things are temporary and fading, so we must not allow those things to keep the first place in our hearts. Though we are called to work hard and must attend to our responsibilities, God must always be first in our mind, heart, and soul. May we keep an eternal perspective in all that we do and remember that our relationship with Jesus is forever. We must pursue and focus on our Lord above all else!
“He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.’” (Mt. 22:37-38)
"We will always have other things to accomplish and to work towards, but our first and foremost concern must always be Jesus and our relationship with Him."
The regrettable state of our Church is due not at all to the abandonment by God of our Church or of us. It is due to the fact that our best response to the incessant and utterly needful approach of our God to us has been, for more than half a Century, to agree to "allow" Him to become merely first in our Lives. What a pitiful response to the consummately near proximity to us and our Church of our Unfathomable Triune God when the incessant disposition that is actually required of us for even our exit from Purgatory let alone our entry in to Heaven is precisely this: We exist to serve the Person, the needs, and the desires of our God alone, for His sake alone. This is the only state in which any Being who resides in Heaven can exist there, including God Himself. If our life here on earth is our preparation for Heaven, then taking this disposition here on earth is how we prepare. We have no capacity for entry into Heaven except that we become full participants in the utterly selfless life of Sonship with respect to our Father and to us of our Savior. The possibility that our restored right of Sonship with respect to our Father, steeped in the perfect selfless of our Savior with respect to Him, is the primary benefit of our Savior's death, resurrection, and acclamation of us to Him that can now enable our entry into Heaven when we allow.
Many years ago as I was engaged in deliberation of what I had for most of my life believed was my need for a more personal relationship with Christ. I was startled to be advised that Satan himself has a very personal relationship with Him, but that it's all bad. I had always been mystified that Satan was able to approach near enough in the desert to Jesus, who is God and defended by Angels, to exercise even the possibility of being a temptation to Him. This was the answer to that inquiry. I was immediately able to observe the utter insufficiency of the expectation of a mere personal relationship with Him, which is in essence a patent personal denial of not only the incomprehensible majesty and true Lordship of our God but of what we should always expect will be the effect upon us of His utterly permeating nearness to each one of us when we defer our pride and self interest, especially spiritual self interest, to allow.
It is true that there are multitudes of activities required of us consistent with our obedience to God which will also include things like leisure. The deception that most often trips us up is the false conclusion that some of our activities here on earth must by necessity preclude our incessant prayer and attendance conducted before the throne of our Father in Heaven. Over maybe half of my lifetime I have found that as we become accustomed to attend our Father without ceasing here on earth, no matter how we may seem to be otherwise disposed, we are still fully capable of exercising the rights and the rite of our impending Sainthood in Heaven before our Father there. As we defer more and more to the silent, patient, and most of all spiritually destitute contemplation of our God in this manner, we will finally impart to Him the latitude so long sought after which is to reveal Himself to be finally recognized all around and within us, compelling us ever more deeply into relentless attendance to Him simply because we can no longer even want to resist His now ever present company.