An attitude for growth

The psalmist exhorts God to teach him to know the ways and the paths of the Divine. This is the universal cry of humanity expressed today in the texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary The meaning of life is intertwined with the knowledge and experience of God. Paul proposes that the Philippians and we draw from our relationship with Christ, through the resonance of our Spirit with the indwelling Spirit, a unity of mind and love being in full accord with one another. Our experience and the texts from Ezekiel and the Gospel of Matthew indicate that we often choose our will and our plan over the direction and will of God. The audience for Matthew's Gospel was the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The stubborn refusal of his Pharisee and learned people to see what the marginalized tax collectors and prostitutes saw points us to consider the example in faith of those people in our society who live emptied of the attention of most people yet are living a relationship with God which sustains them and brings joy. Paul cites the words of a popular hymn about Jesus as he explains that humility and emptying ourself of our societal status and our self pride and interest is the path modeled by Jesus to allow us to reconsider the direction of God, abandon action of self satisfaction, change our mind and go to the vineyard of our Father.