Overview:

Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’

Find today’s readings here.

For years, when I worked in campus ministry, I would share a reflection often attributed to Pedro Arrupe, S.J., with graduating seniors on retreat. It ends with the well-known line: “Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” 

I came across this reflection in college, and at the time I was a pretty idealistic student. I was a sociology major, interested in how to make the world a better place. I led service trips, spent time debating justice issues, and was preparing to join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest after graduation. It was, perhaps, easier then to let these words guide me. I was young. I didn’t have a family depending on me in the same way. I didn’t have a mortgage, daycare payments, or countless competing responsibilities. For the most part, I only had to worry about myself (and the world’s problems I thought, if given the chance, I could solve.)

As I’ve gotten older, Father Arrupe’s words have stayed with me, but they have become more challenging. It’s one thing to identify the values that matter most to us, but it’s another thing altogether to live them consistently amid the realities and complexities of adult life. 

That is why Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel strike me differently now than they might have years ago: “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’”

I am realizing more and more lately that my values aren’t revealed by what I say I believe, what I post on social media or what I proclaim to the world, but my values are revealed by the choices I make when comfort, convenience and conviction collide. 

One area I find myself struggling with this is ethical consumerism. I can easily say (and do say!) that I don’t agree with exploitative labor practices, fast fashion or economic systems that prioritize profit over people. My ‘no’ comes pretty easily. The harder question, the one I struggle with, is whether my actions consistently reflect that ‘no.’ Do my purchasing decisions align with the values I claim to hold? Or do convenience, habit and cost sometimes win out? 

I don’t get it right all the time, or even most of the time probably, but I have found myself sitting with that tension more and more, and I think that is important. It forces me to ask whether my choices reflect the values I profess, and if they don’t, it allows me to sit down and reassess how I’ve been living. 

I imagine many of us have areas like this in our lives. We say we value family, but our schedules don’t allow us to spend much quality time with them. We say we care about building community, but we can’t name our next door neighbors. We say yes to Christ, but we struggle to make time for prayer, service or attending Mass when life becomes too busy. 

What I appreciate about today’s readings is that they remind us that faith is not simply about what we profess. Elisha’s yes to God was not just spoken, it was lived. Jesus challenges us to be people whose words and actions tell the same story. Following Christ invites us to continually evaluate how we are living, who our choices impact, and what we can do to best live out the call to love. We don’t have to do it perfectly, but I think we have to at least try. 

Maybe that is what both Arrupe and Jesus are getting at. What we love will decide everything. The question is whether our daily choices reflect the things, and the God, we claim to love most. 

Kat O’Loughlin is grant manager at America Media.