FRIDAY, October 30

Sometimes it feels as if the real me has become lost in my daybook, my resumé, or my checkbook. I feel proud when they are full to overflowing, but I also feel empty. Karl Rahner described such dissatisfaction as "the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable." Whatever we can get on our own will never be enough.

The most familiar and recurring storyline about God and humans pertains to the insufficiency of everything attainable. Biblical characters repeatedly believe salvation can be self-generated. We too garner earthly power, possessions, conspicuous piety, or one of a billion other "false gods." But they cannot fill us, as we are made to be filled by the presence of God.

Why, with all of modern technology's time-saving devices, do we have less time than ever? Why, with our labor-saving devices, do we work harder than ever? It all comes down to our trying to save ourselves instead of enjoying the blessing of being God's beloved. It all comes down to the insufficiency of everything attainable.

PRAY for the Diocese of Truro (Canterbury, England)

Ps 54 * 51; Nehemiah 2:1-20; Revelation 6:12-7:4; Matthew 13:24-30