When the fault is in us

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Week XX, Year I in Ordinary Time, 18 August 2021
Judges 9:6-15   ><]]]]*> ><)))'> ><]]]]*>   Matthew 20:1-16 

Your words today, O God our Father
brought me back to my elementary days
when we read Aesop's fables and 
memorized lines from Shakespeare,
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our
stars/ But in ourselves that we are
underlings."  And how they both perfectly 
jibe together in your words!

So many times we are like the great
trees in the forest, so proud of our giftedness
and abilities that we cannot give our selves
to you and others to serve; we are so in love 
with our very selves, so proud or insecured 
that most often we uncannily put 
undeserving people to power
while we bear all the sarcasm in the end. 

“Then all the trees said to the buckthorn, ‘Come; you reign over us!’ But the buckthorn replied to the trees, ‘If you wish to anoint me king over you in good faith, come and take refuge in my shadow. Otherwise, let fire come the buckthorn and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'”

Judges 9:14-15

Most of the time, Lord, we know
the fault is in us - not in the stars
nor among others nor from you
who truly loves each of us perfectly
like the vineyard owner, always
giving the same perfect amount of
love and mercy to everyone;
cleanse our hearts and our minds
of selfish thoughts, of insisting on
what we believe, on what we want;
give us the grace of discernment
to see clearly your will so we may
choose wisely the options we have
to put your divine plan in place.

Loving Father,
make me grateful always to what I have;
most of all, let me focus more on what
you have given me, not on what others
have received for in the end,
it could very well happen that
"the last will be first,
and the first will be last." 
(Matthew 20:16)

And that, Lord, 
is something completely
our fault.  Amen.