Transformation in Him

​A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, August 4th, 2024:
​Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Ephesians
4.17, 20-24 

​Brothers and sisters: Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds.

That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus.

You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the New Man, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.​

​Pause. Pray. Reflect.

In the Second Reading for this Sunday, Saint Paul calls me to let go of the futility of my mind. I will, I’m sure, spend my entire life fighting this battle! The battle to stop relying on my “own understanding” and, even more so, on what the world passes off as intelligence or wisdom. 

The wisdom of the world calls me to take care of myself first and to share with another in need whatever is left over (if I choose), but that is not the wisdom of God! Taking care of myself first can even be wrapped in Christian lingo to make me feel better about it, but if it is calling me to place myself first it is not God’s wisdom. Placing myself first means I do not trust in God’s care for me. Even trying to “understand what God is doing in my life” can sometimes be a form of mistrust because, if I am honest with myself, I realize that my desire to know what God is doing comes less from a place of wanting to be united to Him and more from a place of being prepared when He “does it wrong”… you know, when my plan makes more sense, is safer, more comfortable.
 
If God knows my heart, then He knows when I am striving to be united to Him and when I am striving to keep myself “safe.” I may try to convince myself that I am seeking to be united to Him and to be a part of His plan, but internally I am most often looking to ensure that He hasn’t forgotten me or mixed me up with someone stronger and more capable. 

Renewal in the mind is many things, not the least of which is surrendering to Him my fears and worries so that He can heal me and renew me. This transformation doesn’t happen as if by magic. My fears and worries may not simply disappear overnight, but as I am transformed in Him they will have less and less control over me. 

Even when I am struggling and lost, I know that He is bigger than my worries and fears. He is leading me to Him and, when I focus on that, I can let go of the futile ideas the world bombards me with and attempts to convince me are the truth. He is the truth and my whole being is called to transformation in Him. 

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​Sr. Teresa MacDonald

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