Gathering as God's Family

In the readings for the High Holy Days of the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear about our identity as God's family. St. Paul begins the second reading for this Sunday:

Brothers and sisters:
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement
and good hope through his grace,
encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.

-2 Thess. 2:16-17

 We have the opportunity each Sunday to gather as God's family -- to celebrate what He has done for us! The Sunday Mass is one of the most important times we have to set time aside for "family dinner," to hear what is happening in the life of our spiritual family, to receive encouragement from the Word of God, and ... most importantly ... to receive the Body and Blood of the Lord!

This was really brought home to me a couple of weeks ago as I was doing some errands:

So many things compete for our attention on a weekend and try to distract us from who we are at the core of our being -- sports, TV, homework, yard work, house work, travel, exercise, and a thousand other activities.  They even try to take over our Sunday morning, Saturday evening, and the prime-time 6 PM Life Teen Mass hour on Sunday night. Yet none of these activities can substitute for a weekly reminder of who we are: we are part of God's family, responding to His call to be holy in the midst of the world.  

Let's commit to taking our Sunday opportunity to be encouraged for the week, so that we can share that encouragement of God's love with our brothers and sisters.