Take Nothing For The Journey
©2010 James Dacey, Jr. SFO
Hello Everyone,
Time for us to travel light, take no provisions on this most incredible journey. Today's gospel is such an inspiration, so much wisdom in Jesus' words. Today we are reading Mark 6:7-13 (The Mission of the Twelve). We need to be free of any form of greed or preoccupation if we are going to truly serve our Lord. I am far from perfect, but I will say in the past I to was a clutterer, a collector of things one might say. But that was in my past, mostly all of those things are gone; I only have some clutter, but virtually nothing compared to before. My most valued, most treasured "things" are my bible and a handful of study books for studying scripture, and of cause all my journals and my rosary. I feel that having so much stuff is indeed a distraction from what our real purpose is here on earth.
Jesus told the twelve, "Take nothing for the journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in your belts." verse 8. I can see the staff being there to hold you up, keep you strong, keep you moving forward. I believe our Lord did not want the disciples to have possessions so that their own selfish purpose and ego will be filled; with pointless time wasted on focusing on that which serves no meaning in life. I look back at my life at all that stuff I got rid of, and I can plainly see it's main purpose was to consume my time. I use to have a comic book collection (huge collection), Star Trek book collection, I also collected belt buckles, coins from around the world, stamps, CD collection (another huge collection), sports figure collection, Wheaties cereal box collection, etc. Back on Friday, December 21, 2007, I wrote a blog about this and how in the 1980's I started to rid my life of all my stuff.
I sure hope that link to that blog was helpful. Our time here in this life is short when put in perspective. Eternity is a long time, and based on how you spend this time here will determine how you will spend eternity. I can't see wasting my entire life collecting "things" and saving things that don't have some sort of an eternal value to them. Yes I agree some things have sentimental value, but that's different. Unless the pile of sentimental value stuff you have fills a U-Haul, well then you got some soul searching to do to get that pile down. This task is something we all have to and should do individually and frequently in our lives. I try to keep the clutter down about every 2-3 months. I'd rather give things away then store them and keep them.
Let us not be eager to please ourselves in this life, rather let us serve our Lord and others with excitement and joy. And should we be such a hoarder of things, well then maybe we should go through all this stuff and start giving it all away. Bring some spontaneous joy into someone else's life, "He said to him, "One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Luke 18:22. That scripture was Jesus speaking to a rich young ruler. There is so much in scripture warning against hoarding and storing up things.
The greatest story I liked was in Luke 12:16-23, "And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive. "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' "Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?' "So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." And He said to His disciples, "For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. "For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing."
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Come PRAY THE ROSARY with us every evening Monday through Friday 9pm EST with our
"Our Lady's Rosary Text Vigil Group"…
Invitations posted daily… and throughout the evening…https://www.facebook.com/RosaryManJim
Your brother in Christ Jesus
And His Most Blessed Mother,
Jim (The Rosary Man) Dacey Jr OFS
And His Most Blessed Mother,
Jim (The Rosary Man) Dacey Jr OFS
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