This past week I spent a few days with seminary classmates as we celebrated twenty-five years of priesthood. Looking back, I realized how little any of us knew on the day of our ordination about where the Lord would lead us.
Perhaps that is one lesson of priesthood—and of the Christian life. It is not primarily about what we accomplish, but about what God accomplishes in us.
Today Isaiah tells us that God’s house is “a house of prayer for all peoples.” In the Gospel, the disciples want to send the Canaanite woman away. Jesus instead sees her, hears her, and praises her faith.
We easily place people into categories: friend or enemy, liberal or conservative, practicing or fallen away. But God always sees the person.
In the words of St. Jane Chantal, the Christian is called to live a martyrdom of love: allowing Christ to enlarge our hearts through patience, forgiveness, mercy, and sacrifice.
Perhaps that is the work of a lifetime: allowing Christ, little by little, to give us a heart more like His.
Living in Love with God 
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