25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Everything Belongs to God

Do I really believe that everything I have belongs to God? What are the implications of realizing that what belongs to me, belongs to God first?

I, like many of you, am an adult orphan. My parents are both enjoying eternal life with God. For me, the most powerful lesson in understanding that everything belongs to God comes at the end of every funeral Mass, when we raise the bowl of incense in blessing the earthly remains and entrust the soul of our loved one into God’s hands. We rejoice with profound gratitude for the time on earth that we had. And we also lovingly give back to God what was on loan to us. Everything belongs to God!

We are stewards of what God has given us. God owns it; we use it.  So how do we use those God-given talents we enjoy? How do we use the time that we have on earth, before we return it back to God?

Sometimes, I think that I am most generous in volunteering service hours at church and in spending time at church at Mass. I pray for others and I take good care of my family. I think I am being exemplary in my understanding of what it means to give time and talent. Additionally, when that basket gets passed around at the Offering of Gifts (that is what it is called), I put “something” in.

The rest of my talents, my time and my money are mine to do with as I please?  Not exactly. Everything belongs to God! So God should be taken into consideration in everything I do.

And so I pray: Dear God, you provide for all that I need. Let me be free of my need to call them my gifts, my time and my talent. May I be generous in serving all, in giving generously and may I be blessed with the realization that what I have and what I am will always be enough with you as the center of my life. Let me live in gratitude for all of your gifts to me.