Reflection for January 22, 2022
Out of Our Minds with Love
Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son.
Jesus challenges us. We may easily think Jesus is out of his mind when he asks us to forgive our neighbor, to unite in racial justice, and to behold the beauty of every life. He overwhelms us when he reveals to us that life is not ours to control.
I have never held an infant, my own flesh and blood, on my chest, two hearts beating as one. I can only imagine such intimacy, such tenderness. However, I have held the stranger dying from wounds inflicted by an enemy. I have listened to a mother attempting to explain the pain of losing a child. I have helped a mentally ill, homeless man who would not stay clothed in winter months. I have listened to a father who lost his child in addiction. I have waited with parents who ached for a word about a son who was trafficked for sex.
As believers, we wait and work and pray for laws and opinions to change concerning abortion. People may think we are out of our minds. This imitation of Jesus must be our life. In the meantime, we show the world around us that we mean it, that we are converted by our understanding of what life is and what it can be.
The Incarnation is our hope. Living in the human body is redemptive because Jesus died and rose for us all. Every breath of every person is holy, and we cannot control outcomes or our future even though others may think otherwise.
Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen.
Fr. Ronald Raab
Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC, is pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Colorado Springs. Learn more at http://www.ronaldraab.com.
Broken But Not Divided 
Fr. Ron,
Wonderful reflection that this sometimes out of his mind on the way to his heart guy read first in my
copy of Give Us This Day with my morning prayer and enjoyed. Now I got to read it again. Thanks.
Mike from Centennial
“To behold the beauty of everyday life.” That line brings to mind Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”. In the midst of pain, suffering and injustice, Louie could still affirm the goodness of God! I can’t get through that song without shedding tears that are both happy and longingly sad for solutions to our present struggles. Jesus’ incarnation continues, but as you so rightly point out, He is most often revealed in the everyday events of our lives. Thanks, Fr. Ron, for your deep and thought-provoking meditations!
“Every breath of every person is holy” says so much about us and about Jesus. Thank you, Fr. Ron, for your entire reflection. It is packed with so much goodness that I’ll be reflecting upon it repeatedly for months. So much goodness.