Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB
Right after the summer of 7th grade, I remember my friend invited me to come down to our town’s pier. It was my first summer in that town and I had never heard of kids hanging out at a pier before. This pier ran off the rocky shore of the bay some 20 or 30 yards into Boston Harbor. At low tide the water would be about 15ft below the edge of the pier. Someone had removed a piece of the railing and all of us kids would take turns jumping off. Some kids (including me) would jump off just straight down and hold our noses, other kids would do something cooler like do a 360-spin or a cannonball. I remember one kid had an old bike and was going to try and ride it fast off the edge of the pier into the water. He took a long peddling start and raced toward the edge, going as fast as possible. Right after he sent it, he yelled “YOLO” and flipped off the bike and dove headfirst into the water. It was awesome! For those of you who may forget “YOLO” means You-Only-Live-Once. It’s just something people used to say a lot when they did something daring or decided to go somewhere or buy something that might not be the smartest. All of us probably feel some pressure to do cool/interesting things in our lives before we get old and it’s too late. Whether it’s to party more, make more money, sky dive, buy a sports car, go to the SuperBowl, see the Eifel Tower, ride a horse, gamble in Vegas, etc. – we all probably have something we focus on trying to do because after all . . . you only live once?
I think the message of today’s gospel reading (and probably the gospels as a whole) is that Jesus’s sacrifice was to proclaim the news that all of God’s children are invited to live twice! When we place our faith in Christ, repent our sins, and work towards following His message; we are RSVPing to a second life in heaven. Jesus says “whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). It’s so easy to get caught up in the many pleasures we can find in this world, but none of them are worth neglecting our faith in God and a life following His teachings. Please take a moment to read this story about Saints Timothy and Maura, whose lives are a remarkable example of focusing on our eternal union with Christ over our temporary lives on earth:
(2) Saints Timothy and Maura: The Newlyweds Who Chose Martyrdom Over Marriage
I think the best way to keep this week’s readings in mind is to just remember a new acronym “YODO”, You-Only-Die Once; but can live twice.
