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A reflection for the twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Angelo Kurbanali reflects on the readings for October 20, 2024.
Catholic Voices

Readings (Year B):

Isaiah 53:10 – 11
Psalms 33:4 – 5, 18 – 19, 20, 22
Hebrews 4:14 – 16
Mark 10:35 – 45 or 10:42 – 45

Reflection: God wills our rejuvenation

I’d like to ask you a question. Are you tired? Or maybe I should ask, “how tired are you?” Many of us are tired from life’s stressors and pressures. It seems demands from work, school, church, partners, kids, family, friends, political and social issues, and of course, bills, are virtually a part of our identity. We might even convince ourselves that tiredness equals happiness.

We might feel like it pleases God to crush us with all this tiredness. We might feel like through our suffering there’ll be a great redemption someday. We might feel like only when we exhaust ourselves are we enough. Another question I’d like to ask you: Has this really been your experience of God? Is God pleased that many of us are so tired that we’ve lost focus on what’s most important?

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t work hard or totally avoid stress. God knows how hard life is. And God knows it can be hard to be a high school student, or the parent of one. But when stress becomes our classic, when a stressful life replaces a fulfilling life, there are things we need to stop and seriously ask ourselves.

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What does God want for us? Does God want us to work so hard that instead of our loved ones getting the best of us, they get what’s left of us? Does God want us idolizing a system in which obsessions with power and fear, not mercy, reigns supreme? Is this the will of God? And as theologian Jorge Presmanes O.P. would ask: if this isn’t God’s will, then whose is it?

The author of Hebrews reminds us that Christ sympathizes with us and has been similarly tested in every way. I imagine Jesus often felt tired too. I imagine he was tired of his disciples misunderstanding him and his mission. I imagine he was tired of experiencing a nation divided against itself. And I imagine, like so many of us, Jesus pushed through the tiredness sometimes.

Another thing I also imagine Jesus did though, was take time to rest—to be in union with God. God’s grace is available to us, if only we could withdraw from our stressful lives for just five minutes. God’s grace is a sure way to experience rejuvenation. It looks different for everyone. For some, it might be the sacraments. For others, it might be breathing exercises. For some others, it might be an album that feels like every song was written for them. Find your way and follow it. It’s only through union that we truly get to know God’s will for us, and not someone else’s.

Ultimately, God made us for freedom. When we’re enslaved by tiredness, we’re not truly free. As we continue to work toward God’s will in our lives, may we celebrate our liberation by contemplating our connection with God, even if just for a little bit each day, so that we experience grace, rejuvenation, and life as God wills it.

About the author

Angelo Kurbanali

Angelo Kurbanali is a creative and theologian from Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean. He attended Barry University in Miami, Florida, where he studied art and fell in love with theology, so he studied that too.

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