Florida Catholic | Sunday Word

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Building bridges

July 27, 2008 :: 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12; Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130; Rom 8:28-30; Mt 13:44-52 or 13:44-46

MSGR. MICHAEL V. REED | CATHEDRAL OF THE SACRED HEART, PENSACOLA

One of the most important components necessary to build a bridge from where we are to eternal life is an understanding heart.”

There’s a story about a woman walking along the beach. She noticed peeking out from a mound of sand an antique metallic lamp. She brushed away the sand and seaweed and was astounded when a genie appeared offering her one wish. The woman considered this “opportunity of a lifetime” very carefully. She told the genie about her troubled marriage and thought that a get-away with her husband would resolve the problems. Since she was afraid to fly and her husband was prone to seasickness, the woman wished that a bridge be built from Daytona Beach to the Bahamas. The genie laughed and told her that this was impossible and that she should make another wish. So the woman paused and wished to understand her husband and men in general. The genie replied, “You want the bridge one or two lanes?”

King Solomon in our first reading could have wished for anything in the world. He eventually asked God not for the trappings of wealth and material prosperity, but for an understanding heart. An understanding heart is very much like requesting to be a bridge builder. In families, marriages, relationships and life, we need more than what money can buy. We need the inspiration, wisdom, knowledge and stamina to be a bridge builder.

The Gospel of Matthew suggests through the parables of found treasure, the precious pearl and the net that our Father in heaven has built for us a magnificent bridge in his son Jesus. Jesus was the Father’s bridge spanning over the chasm of sin and death. Jesus is a bridge that reaches out making possible an unencumbered relationship with God as our Father. He is the bridge that opens our lives to gifts and graces of the Father and Holy Spirit. Jesus, as the Son of God, is also the bridge we must cross if we are to learn how to live as disciples.

To be a follower of Jesus means to build bridges in the midst of catastrophes, crises, problems and in whatever complicated circumstances we may find ourselves. And one of the most important components necessary to build a bridge from where we are to eternal life is an understanding heart. It is an understanding heart that makes all the difference in everything we say and do. It was the wish of Solomon and the hope of Jesus. Maybe it can be our wish and our realized hope, too.

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