The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
One of the more awkward priestly moments I encounter is when a thoughtful and well-meaning parishioner excitedly gives me a highly personalized gift. I know that sounds heartless, but hear me out. I am deeply grateful for the love that went into the gift. However, I’m a simple guy with stereotypical “guy tastes,” and sadly I have no use for a bedazzled picture frame with pink hearts drawn all over it. Before me is an act of giving, the real gift—not a bedazzled picture frame. Today’s commemoration reminds me that while that's not a bad perspective, the depths of the Lord’s love go much further.
At the end of each funeral Mass is a profound moment called the final commendation. In this moment the Church, the assembled congregation, and remaining family spiritually hand their loved one to the Lord. With broken hearts they commend their loved one as a gift. In today’s Gospel, Our Lord echoes this moment: we are the Father’s gifts, and He will not lose what has been given to Him. This is what grounds our hope—not because we have proved useful, but that the Father is generous in giving us to the Son, and the Son in giving His life for us. In His high priestly prayer Jesus says to the Father, “they are your gift to me.” This is shocking. These broken fishermen are the Father’s loving gift to His son, and, in response, Jesus Christ is delighted by the gift. He delights not only in the giving but—more astonishing still—in the gift itself, such as it is. That is a far more fraught present than a heart-covered picture frame. My response to the frame is human. The Lord’s delight, and His willingness to lay down His life for fishermen who will become friends, is divine.
Today we commend all the faithful departed to the Lord and offer what prayers and sacrifices we can for their consolation. Each year though I find myself in awe of the mysterious love of God which surpasses all understanding. I struggle to find a place for a gift I do not want and strain to see the good in it. The Lord not only finds a place for us in our brokenness; He leaves His place in heaven to receive and rescue the gift. Today as I offer back to the Lord our faithful departed, I’m giving to Him a gift He’s already shown He wants and finds “worthy of Himself.”
Fr. Ryan Higdon currently serves as Pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in north Austin. He’s served in Waco, Bryan-College Station, in the army, various councils and boards at the diocese and elsewhere. He mostly loves offering the sacraments, spiritual direction, any chance of adventure, hiking, or quality time around a fire.
