Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Our first reading from Genesis prompted me to think about the gift of life and how incredible it is to be alive! God created us and breathed life into us, not that we might merely exist, but that we might live a life of beatitude in God. God fills us with abundant life in Christ. What does that mean for you and for me as we go about our daily lives?
In Genesis we read, “the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.” Those beautiful, ancient words give me goosebumps! Yahweh, the Eternal Creator, the Great I AM, breathed God’s very Spirit into the first human. And here we are today, descendants of that first human couple, inspired by that same Spirit. WOW!
When I was about twelve years old, I had an incredible encounter with God. I was lying on my bed, when suddenly I felt overwhelmed with the ecstasy of being alive. I kept marveling, “I’m alive! I’m alive! I’m alive!” over and over again. A sense of extreme exhilaration came over me and I experienced awe and wonder like never before, and sadly, never sense. The sheer joy of being alive was almost too much to bear! Might we pause and take a few moments to sit in gratitude and ponder the marvelousness of God’s gift of life? Might that joy be ours to grasp?
Oddly, as I prayed the Genesis passage, “It’s My Life,” a Bon Jovi song, came instantly into my mind. I thought, what is that all about?! Here’s the Chorus:
It's my life
It's now or never
But I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just want to live while I'm alive
It's my life
This song captures so well a common philosophy throughout the generations and today. It’s a self-gratifying philosophy that seeks to live life to the full, get as much as you can from life before you’re gone, make the most of it, live life your way. This way of life may celebrate the gift of existence, but it does not reflect knowledge of our Creator’s plan for human beings.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its opening paragraph, states, “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength . . .” God didn’t simply create us and set us loose to embark on our own plans for our lives. God created us in a plan of sheer goodness! I have goosebumps again! I was created in God’s plan of sheer goodness! You were created in God’s plan of sheer goodness! What’s that all about?
It's about our life in Christ. Through the Paschal Mystery we have been redeemed and set free to live our lives in Christ and to be heirs of God’s blessed life. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). In this plan of sheer goodness, the Holy Trinity desires that we would not just exist, but that we would experience life to the full – abundant life! The Apostle Paul declared in a speech, “For in him [Jesus] we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Let’s take a moment to pause and ponder not only the extravagant gift of life itself – you and I are alive, right now, in this very moment – but also the extravagant, mysterious gift that we exist within the very life of Christ! What does it mean to you that you live and move and have your being in Christ?
Paul says to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
We are not our own; our lives are not our own. As the “prophet” Jon Bon Jovi professed, “I just want to live while I’m alive.” We can either live to ourselves while we’re alive, or we can live for God and in God during our earthly journey. As ones created in God’s image, the redeemed of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, let us choose today to celebrate our abundant life in Christ! Let us not just live, let us not live for ourselves, but let us live in and for our amazing God who loves us and calls us to share in God’s blessed life. Nothing wrong with making the most of life! Let’s do that in Christ! Thanks be to God!
-Elizabeth Wells