{"id":1128,"date":"2019-06-30T02:44:57","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T07:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2019-06-30T14:58:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T19:58:03","slug":"points-of-no-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=1128","title":{"rendered":"Points of No Return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

13th<\/sup> Sunday\nin Ordinary Time<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

1 Kgs 19: 16b, 19-21; Gal 5: 1, 13-18; Lk 9: 51-62<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Deacon Larry Brockman <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A point of no return.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Jesus is talking about.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw it demonstrated in our first reading about Elijah and\nElisha.  Elisha was chosen by the Lord to\nreplace Elijah.  He had a choice- to\nfollow or not.  But if he followed, he\nwould pass beyond a point of no return.  Because\nonce we find God\u2019s will for us, there is no going back and forth from our\ncalling to our former way of life.  God\nwants us to make a commitment and follow his will for us without reservation.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of us goes through an initial stage in life when life\nis all about us.  It is natural and a\nconsequence of our human nature.  And\nduring our lives, we go through transitions that lead us to a more and more\nmature state.  First, we are infants,\nthen toddlers, then children, then young adults.  And at each stage in our development, we\nlearn to move beyond the earlier stage and not look back.  Each such stage in life transitions us to\nless preoccupation with ourselves, and more interaction with either the world\naround us or the people around us or both.   \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, most of us fall in love and marry someone special-\nsomeone that we accept just the way they are. \nWe are willing to sacrifice ourselves at the expense of our loved one.  We are in love with them.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because we are made in the image and likeness of God,\nthat love propagates itself in the children we bear which is like the Spirit of\nGod that reaches out and extends beyond God to touch others.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, we transition to yet another stage- the parenting\nstage in which our love extends not just to our parents and spouse but now to\nchildren and eventually grandchildren.  And\nas we transition, there is no looking back. We are on a continual progression\nof growth that moves us beyond.   We\ncannot afford to look back; we need to move forward.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well in parallel with these human growth stages, we also\nexperience spiritual growth as well.  Initially\nour experiences are limited to this world. \nBut God touches each of us continually with His Spirit.  We become more and more aware of the beauty\nthat has been forged by our creator.  And\nwe consider the limits of worldly existence. \nAll of us come to the conclusion that we will die some day.  All of our ancestors have, and we are no\ndifferent.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, we seek the ultimate purpose in life.  Is there an author to life?  What is my relationship with Him?  Will I live beyond this life, and in what\nway?  Many of us seek more and more\nknowledge about God.  Hopefully, we\nprogress beyond knowledge about God and begin to feel God\u2019s presence in our\nlives.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we develop that relationship with our creator, we are\nmoved by His Spirit.  And that Spirit\nmoves us to seek and find God\u2019s will for us. \nMost of us discover that we are already in the middle of God\u2019s plan for\nus because we have been blessed with our spouse; with certain talents, with\ncertain limitations, and with certain desires. \nThese things are all well and good.   \nBut then, and at varying times in our lives, we sense that God has\nsomething special in mind for us.  We are\ncalled by him for something out of the ordinary for us.  We are called to put aside the goals that we\nhave for ourselves, and endeavor to help others.  For most of is, it is not a life changing\ncall; for others it is.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But whenever we follow that call- to be there for a friend\nin need; to care for a sick loved one; to teach Sunday School; to volunteer in\nsome capacity; to visit the sick or the interned; or to do something truly\nextraordinary as Mother Theresa was called to do, we cannot look back.  We need to look forward and focus on God\u2019s\nnudge lest we derail ourselves.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what Elijah did; whereas the man in the Gospel is\nholding back just a little.  We cannot\nhold back because life is full of points of no return.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ultimate point of no return is our death in this world.  For those who have not looked back; there\nwill be a guaranteed place in the kingdom of God for them.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Kgs 19: 16b, 19-21; Gal 5: 1, 13-18; Lk 9: 51-62 Deacon Larry Brockman A point of no return.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Jesus is talking about.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We saw it demonstrated in our first reading about Elijah and Elisha.  Elisha was chosen by the Lord to replace Elijah.  He had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[237,577],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1132,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/1132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}