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     What is to be our true focus in this world, God or ourselves? The answer to the person with faith seems simple in theory, but is a little more difficult in practice. For many of us, the focus is on ourselves. The culture tells us to take care of ourselves first. All that others deserve are our leftovers. Self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment are the true goals for many people.

     St. Paul presents things differently in the Letter to the Romans: “None of us lives for himself and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Rom 14:7-8)

     These words from St. Paul remind us that we will only find true joy in our lives if we are focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to live as Christians by being focused on the needs of others and not just sharing from our surplus, but from our own needs. Because all things were created by the Word, we can come to truly know ourselves only by entrusting ourselves to the Word made flesh. By becoming imitators of Christ, we can learn that life is not about self-satisfaction, but self-sacrifice. We can also discover that self-fulfillment for the Christian can only be self-emptying love.

     St. Paul looked to the Lord to know how to live his own life. May we look to the Lord every day, so that we can learn how to live our own lives.

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