Daily Gospel Reflection

The Power of Self-Donation

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we are looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea in the gospel to focus our day, to anchor our day so we can live the gospel a little bit more today than we did yesterday. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke 17:26-37. "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate. They drank. They married. They were given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, as it was in the days of Lot, they ate. They drank. They bought. They sold. They planted. They built. But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and brimstone reigned from heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let him who is on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down and take them away. And likewise, let him who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night, there will be two men in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women girding together. One will be taken and the other left." And they said to Him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together."

What jumps out at you today? There's a lot there. But we hear this line at different times throughout the gospel. Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. What does that mean? What's that challenging you to today? That's the phrase. That's the idea that jumped out at me. Pope John Paul II in his epic work on the Theology of the Body spoke about the idea of self-donation, the idea that in love, we give ourselves to the other, and that this self-donation is not limited between a husband and a wife or a parent and a child. We donate ourselves. We give ourselves in many, many different ways, to varying degrees appropriate to the situation. We give ourselves to our work. We give ourselves to different causes. But in order to give ourselves, we must first possess ourselves, and we can only give ourselves to the extent that we do possess ourselves. That's why when someone's ravaged by addiction, they can't love. Why? Because they don't possess themselves, and so they can't give themselves. But the idea of preserving our life-- if we try to hold onto our life, then we lose it, is what Jesus is saying. And you have your experience. My experience is, the more I seek happiness for myself, the unhappier I become. The more I seek to serve others, the more happiness and more than happiness, joy, just erupts in my soul and overflows. How are you seeking, because that's the word, to gain your life? How are you trying to hold on to your life, and how are you seeking to serve? How are you seeking to donate yourself and your life in the ways God is calling you to? Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.