Our family recently experienced the loss of a loved one. A joy-filled, faithful woman who gave a great portion of her time to guiding youth, helping people find jobs, aiding refugees and much, much more. So many people were touched by her that social media was spattered with memorial messages and the line to get into the funeral home was out the door. “You would have thought the Pope died!” someone commented, so enormous was the outpouring of love and attention toward the family of the deceased. She was truly an incredible woman and one who will be missed by myriads. But as cancer consumed her body and her time for the last year and a half of her life, the words of today’s Psalm became more and more real to her “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God.”

Reflecting on her life and her legacy, I recall a refection from a fellow Catholic mom from a couple weeks back. She posed the question, “have you exhausted your lover(s)?” In other words, have you made God come out in search of you time and time again, only to turn around with head bowed in sadness because there has been no reciprocation, no response? Is He exhausted from seeking out your heart and finding it cold and unopened? My family member obviously did not exhaust God, quite the contrary, but do I?

How great is my thirst for my God? Do I long for my eternal home and thus direct my life toward this goal? Or do I allow myself to get bogged down by the trivial trials that each day presents? The baby who won’t sleep through the night, the toddler who sparks an attitude, the preschooler who wants to argue about everything… where does all of this fall on the road to eternity? What significance does it have? If I am truly honest with myself, very little, unless I let it. I can brush it off as life’s drudgery or I can see each of these daily crosses as an opportunity to inch toward sanctification. I pray that with each passing day, I may choose the latter more and more.

“My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God.”

May I exhaust you no longer.

Amen.