Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
J.D. Long GarcíaFebruary 03, 2023
Photo from Unsplash.

A Reflection for Saturday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.” (Hebrews 13:16)

Our youngest is going to turn 2 soon, and he still wakes up in the middle of the night. It’s not every night, but it’s often. Sometimes it seems like he just wants to run some laps in his crib. I don’t know why. I’ve started to think of him as eccentric.

My wife and I try to balance our lives between working, parenting, spending time with friends and family, church activities, and volunteering. We also want to be somewhat present for our neighbors.

Oh yeah, and prayer. I try to fit that in during the quiet times early in the morning, or last thing at night. So inevitably, God gets me at my sleepiest.

It’s a lot, but it used to be more. I’ve actually decommitted myself from a number of things. But it’s like when I clear out my old clothes. Regardless of how many I donate, I always seem to keep stuff I could do without.

A vacation would be so nice. Or a retreat. It must have felt so soothing to hear Jesus say, “Come away…and rest a while.”

I can only imagine how the tired disciples must have reacted to the miracle: “Lord, this is amazing—but these baskets are so heavy!”

That’s what I first thought when I read that line in today’s Gospel. But sure enough, the “rest” is short-lived. These verses in the Gospel of Mark are followed by the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. I can only imagine how the tired disciples must have reacted to the miracle: “Lord, this is amazing—but these baskets are so heavy!”

Lord, life can feel so heavy. My day goes sideways, and I’m behind on everything—and I don’t sleep enough. And then my kid needs help with homework. Or has to go to the doctor. Or my spouse needs to vent. Or my neighbor’s car battery is dead. Or my mother is sick and needs some soup. Frankly, part of me doesn’t want to help them. But part of me—the part that reflects the image of God a little more clearly—really does want to help.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.” Some days I feel like I have nothing left to give. And sometimes, someone in need comes along. I don’t always rise to the occasion. But now and then, by God’s grace, I do make myself present to that person. And the thing is, however tired or spent I may feel, I never regret sharing what I have.

The latest from america

Paola Ugaz, a Peruvian journalist who helped expose the abuse committed by leaders of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, gives Pope Leo XIV a stole made of alpaca wool, during the pope's meeting with members of the media May 12, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo offered a heartening message for a global media that has endured a pretty awful year.
Kevin ClarkeMay 23, 2025
If you think our enthusiasm for our basketball team was intense, just wait until you see our support for Pope Leo XIV.
Jack DoolinMay 23, 2025
“I don’t think he’s the kind of man who sends coded messages,” Cardinal Michael Czerny says in this exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.
Gerard O’ConnellMay 23, 2025
First-grade students finish an assignment at St. Ambrose Catholic School in Tucson, Ariz., in this 2014 photo. Arizona has one of the nation’s strongest school choice programs, with vouchers available to every child in the state. (CNS file photo/Nancy Wiechec)
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling denying state funds to a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma. What should American Catholics be asking about public funding for school choice?
Beth BlaufussMay 23, 2025