If You Can’t Do it with Jesus then Don’t Do It At All

Today’s first reading at Mass comes from Isaiah (55:1-3):

Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,come to the water!
You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.
I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.

Then after the Responsorial Psalm (145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18) comes the Second Reading from Romans 8:35, 37-39:

Brothers and sisters:
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Then after that comes the Gospel Reading from Matthew 14:13-21, where Jesus, after hearing about the death of John the Baptist, withdraws to a deserted place alone and is not long thereafter surrounded by a crowd full of sick people who He cured. When evening came the disciples approached him and suggested that Jesus dismiss the crowd so that they could go home and buy food for themselves, but in response Jesus ending up feeding over 5,000 men, women, and children with just five loves of bread and two fish.

This is a beautiful collection of readings from the Scriptures today. They tell us that not only does God provide for our needs, but that He is able to provide like no other because He is right there with us in them. He’s going through whatever we are going through – whether it be the heights of joy or the depths of suffering. Indeed, this is the deepest truth of Christianity; that God truly dwells with us through His Holy Spirit, and comes most uniquely in that indwelling when we receive the Holy Eucharist at the Sacrifice of the Mass.

So for those who are In Christ, it is never a matter of Jesus being on the outside of us, or simply in our presence, or as someone walks beside us in this life; rather Jesus is truly in you, looking out with you, doing what you are doing, seeing what you are seeing, hearing what you are hearing, feeling what you are feeling, and even with you as you pray in His name. How comforting is this news that God with truly with you during every part of your day, even as you sleep. and how troubling is it that God is with you as you reject Him, even as you do and say things that you know you shouldn’t?

It is true, God knows everything that is going on in your life and desires to create a situation where your hands are His hands and your feet are His feet and His food is your food and His breath is your breath. He desires nothing more than to be personally involved with every aspect of your life. This is why the words of Saint Paul in Philippians 4:8 are so crucial: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Consider this deep reality for a moment; that with God being truly in us at every moment there are obviously many things that we would not do or say. I believe that our motto as Christians has to be if you can’t do it with Jesus then don’t do it at all. And what you would not do with Christ is just a distraction – a tool of Satan to get you on the road to Hell. Therefore, a good teaching from these readings is that we must be ever mindful to live our life In Christ – not just with Christ – that’s not good enough. That may work in a temporal marriage to live with your spouse, but for the divine marriage we have to live In our Spouse and He live in Us. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our swelling with him” (John 14:23)

Finally, whatever you are doing in your life that Jesus can’t be apart of then stop doing it. Immediately cease and desist for your own eternal good!