Overview:

Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you,
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathing
and anger toward his sons and daughters. (Dt 32:18-19)

Find today’s readings here.

Be honest: Do you think God is talking to you in today’s Psalm? I admit: For a long time, I did not.

You have forgotten God who gave you birth. The you here, of course, is Israel. Or at least so I thought. The reading hits differently when I read you as, well, me.

Of course, historically speaking, God is talking to Israel: The Psalm is taken from Deuteronomy. But why do we read these words if they don’t have something to say to us?

So have you—have I?—forgotten God?

Do we pray without ceasing, like St. Paul urges us to? Do we express our gratitude to God frequently and fulsomely? Or do we let other things steal away our energies?

More to the point, as we consider today’s Gospel, what are we doing to bring about the Kingdom of God? Have we forgotten about that all-important assignment?

The largest jar in my spice cabinet is full of black mustard seeds. And those seeds are, indeed, quite small. The idea that just one of them could, as the Gospel tells us, grow into a tree where “birds of the sky” would “come and dwell in its branches” is a magnificent thing to think about.

Yet that is what God promises if we serve him: great things from small acts. And it all begins with a simple act: Remember, today and every day, the God who gave you birth.

Tim Reidy joined America’s staff in October 2006 and served as online editor for several years before moving into his current role as the deputy editor in chief. Tim oversees America’s newsroom, directing its daily news coverage as well as working with the editorial leadership team to plan each print issue. Tim also edits the magazine’s Ideas section, where he contributes book reviews and essays. Before joining America, he worked at the Hartford Courant, a newspaper in Connecticut, and Commonweal magazine. In addition to writing for America, he has contributed to The New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review and the Princeton Alumni Weekly. He has been interviewed about the Catholic Church on WNYC in New York, ABC, Bloomberg TV and other media outlets. Tim also serves on the board of directors of Jesuit Refugee Service USA. He lives in Bronxville, N.Y., with his wife and two children.