Kings, Soulmates, and Daughters-In-Law: A Random Post

Who Sits on the Throne?

I haven’t done this in a while but this is just a rando post of different things that have been bouncing around in my head for some time. If you would like a reflection on today’s Gospel, check out this one.

At Mass on Sunday the priest said the following and it really stuck with me. In fact, it was the object of my thoughts for the remainder of the homily, sorry Father!

Nature abhors a vacuum. If Christ isn’t your King, something else will take His place.

Yes, we could say that if Christ isn’t the King of your life, something could take His place. We can easily image addictions in the areas of lust, food, money, power, etc., taking that vacant spot. However, I think it goes deeper than that and further back. If Christ isn’t King of my life, someone else is: not something else. Who is that someone that takes up the throne of our lives? Who is the usurper? Who mounts the throne and wields the royal diadem in Christ’s place? Could it be…Satan?

I don’t think so, but he is involved. The usurper is me. I mount the throne. I call the shots. I rule my little kingdom in the place of Christ the King. This isn’t a farfetched idea if we think back to the beginning. Satan whispered and continues to whisper, if you do this “your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods…“(Gen 3:5). If you decree from the throne of your heart that (power, money, lust, food, etc.) is good, your eyes will be open to the pleasure God is withholding from you and you will then be like a god, or a king!

He lied at the beginning, continues to lie, and will forever lie. I think we’ve all seen the results, in others and ourselves, of this approach to kingship. No, we don’t become like gods, we become slaves. We become slaves to our own desire for power and wealth. We become slaves to our addictions to bodily pleasure. Yes, we sit on a throne…in shackles. My advice, to you and to me, is to give up that throne each and every day to the One who is truly King. It is not easy. Ask yourself in each situation, who is king here in this moment: me or Christ? Who is king when I am tempted to reach for the “apple” of lust, power, selfishness, gossip, overindulgence in food or drink, sloth? If it isn’t Christ, I am the usurper and must repent, confess, and restore the order of my little kingdom.

Words I Don’t Like

Soulmate

I hear this word “soulmate” often. It usually comes from teens or young adults when they are “in love”. With puppy dog eyes, they proclaim to the world that this other person is their “soulmate”. What does that mean? That the person they are currently with or even married to was destined to be joined to them for all eternity? That their puzzle shaped heart has finally found the other piece of the puzzle to complete them? Doubt it.

I’ve been married for 25 years and I would never say that my wife is my soul mate. She is my helper, the person I’ve promised to love until the day I die, the mother of our children, a friend, a lover, a fellow pilgrim in this life who sometimes walks with me, sometimes drags me along, and sometimes pushes me onward toward Heaven. She is not my soulmate.

I have only one soulmate. He completes me. He gave His life for mine. He walks with me, pushes me, and often carries me. He alone is my soulmate but He is not mine alone. He is the soulmate of every soul who ever lived or will live. He is Christ the King, the Lord of Lords, the Tremendous Lover and Soulmate of all souls.

Daughter-In-Law

This phrase really gets on my nerves. It seems so cold and callus. It implies that this woman, married to my son, is a daughter…but not really. It implies a cold legality. I’d prefer Daughter-In-Love but that sounds strange too, if not a little creepy. Daughter-In-Covenant? Not too many people even know what a covenant is anymore.

The reason this phrase annoys me is because I love my daughters-in-law! I look at them with the same love as I do the rest of my children. I currently have two daughters-in-law. They are beautiful and I try to tell them so. They are holy and I thank God for that. They are caring souls and they love my sons, my other children, and our entire family. They have been grafted on to our family tree and we to theirs temporally and eternally! A deep love like this deserves more than a legalistic title of a daughter…in law.

Okay, that’s it for my brief brain dump. Thanks for reading and indulging this old man! Agree, disagree with anything above? Feel free to let me know in the comments.