Psalm Reflection: The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle C

“You are my inheritance, O Lord.” - Psalm 16

This one is probably going to get me in trouble.

You see, my wife loves the movie The Titanic (spoiler alert).

I do not.

It is a great film in many respects. 

BUT, I cannot get over the fact that there was clearly enough room for Rose and Jack to both stay afloat.

Hot take, I know.

I remember that particular scene resulting in a variety of responses from moviegoers when the movie first came out. Jack and Rose are holding hands while she floats on the safety of a piece of wood and he floats in the freezing water. Rose repeatedly tells Jack, "I'll never let go." 

Then, when help finally arrives, SHE LETS HIM GO.

Granted, he very much appears to be dead at this point, but she does not even wait for the rescuers to come and take a look. She just lets go. I also get that “I’ll never let go,” is more of a metaphor for their love and how she would never let go of him in her heart.

But that also bothers me, because sometimes we need to let go.

Yes, it is a beautiful and very romantic sentiment for a movie, but that is not real life. As you will hear in the readings this weekend (particularly in the Gospel), in order to follow God faithfully, we need to be willing to let go of everything. This does not mean that I have to cut ties with my family and quit my job to follow the Lord. It means that I seek the Lord first and I recognize that my ultimate fulfillment and happiness cannot come from anyone else except for Him. He must be my first priority and I must be willing to follow Him unconditionally and give every part of my life over to Him.

Everything good I have in my life is from God. None of it belongs to me. I have no right to cling to any of it or claim it as my own. In fact, I insult God by thinking that He might take things away when He was the one who blessed me with them in the first place! 

When we refuse to allow God to retain ownership of us and everything in our lives, we turn blessings into idols. The good things that God gives us can become obstacles for us to trust the Lord wholeheartedly.

God does not want to punish you or teach you a lesson.

God is not trying to test you. 

God is not looking to take things away from you. 

God wants to bless you, always. 

When sin entered the world, His plans for us got messier and more complicated. However, He is still doing absolutely everything He can (short of violating our free will or forcing us) to bless us. He even uses our sins, sufferings and weaknesses to bless and redeem us (Romans 8:28, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10).

However, if we stubbornly run in a different direction, God will allow us to continue clinging to the things we think will make us happy. We will not be able to experience the blessings He has in store for us, because we have essentially told Him that we do not need or want Him to be the God of our life anymore. We somehow believe that we can assume that role for ourselves. That is the sin of pride, and it is the root of all other sins. Every single sin essentially stems from the false belief that we cannot trust God. That is what got Adam and Eve in the beginning, and that is what still gets us every day.

How do we break that cycle? We let go.

This week, write down a list of all of the blessings and good things in your life. Fold that list up, and imagine yourself physically offering that to Jesus in prayer. Tell him that you trust Him, and that all of these things belong to Him. Give Him permission to do whatever He needs to do with them to mold you and your life according to His plans. Let Him rearrange them, reprioritize them, or even remove some of them so that He can put greater ones in their places.

As the saying goes: let go, and let God.

I am praying for you, please pray for me, and I will see you in the Eucharist.

Matt