24 August 2025 #asinglepurpose
Again, the Collect rocks it for the readings this week. “O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise…” Sometimes, you see, we make our lives so complicated when it’s really quite simple.
1. Love the Lord with all your strength, with all your mind, with all your soul.
2. Do Good in the world (ie: love your neighbor as yourself).
3. Desire eternal rewards, not earthly ones.
This is our singular purpose. Three goals in one. [pun intended]
Things get complicated when we let other goals weasel their way in. Goals like professional success, mental acuity, physical prowess or self-sufficiency and comfort. Now those are all lofty goal, to be sure. We’re human after all. I mean, who doesn’t want at least one accolade in their motherhood/fatherhood or chosen profession, to be strong in our intellectual and physical pursuits, save enough to retire early and travel well and indulge in the niceties of life. Those are lovely goals and I wouldn’t dissuade you from chasing them.
But are they the most important goal?
I’ve been pondering this idea of goal-setting because the Lord has made it clear that I’ve neglected my spiritual side. I’ve been side-tracked by the necessary work of eldercare, the much-needed remodel of our 35-year old home, the effort of long-distance grandparenting, and my professional labor of love called evangelization. It’s easy to set and achieve those types of goals… lunch dates scheduled, color options decided, videochats set, and meetings finished… check. check. check. check. Goals met.
You know what goals I haven’t set yet? The most important ones, the ones from the Collect and the theme of the readings: intentional discipleship.
How might we love the Lord heart, mind, and soul? Isaiah reminds us today that God knows our inmost thoughts and all our works… do ours give God glory and joy? To be an intentional disciples means to embrace Scripture and Church teachings; perhaps that means we need to change the way we live-and-think-and-move. In his letter to the Hebrews today, St. Paul warns us that this goal is difficult, and discipline is inherently necessary.
How might we focus on doing Good in the world? We all have gifts the Lord has bestowed on us, so how will we use them to bring about Jesus’-will-and-way on earth? What if we set ourselves into Isaiah’s landscape as “a fugitive for Jesus,” although instead of Tarshish, Put, and Lud, it will be Hastings, Prescott, or Cottage Grove. How might a Catholic worldview permeate our culture if we whole-heartedly embody the spiritual and corporeal works of mercy using our own unique gifts?
Lastly, our earthly finishing line is collapsed-at-the-feet-of-Jesus, having spent our “all” for Him. We will not want to hear him say, “I do not know you,” as he does to the folks in today’s parable. Jesus knows why we-do-what-we-do, remember, so he’ll know if we were living for our own glory or his. Whether we lived our own desires or for His. It really is quite simple.
#asinglepurpose