Loosen Your Grip

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

There is a strange line in today’s reading where St Paul says that those who have wives should live “as though they had none,” those who weep as though not weeping, those who rejoice as though not rejoicing, and those who use the world as though not using it fully. At first, it can sound almost cold – as if Christians are supposed to stop caring about people, stop enjoying life, or detach ourselves from everything. But that is not what Paul is saying. He is reminding us of something we constantly forget: everything in this world is passing, and if we hold temporary things too tightly, eventually they begin to hold us.

We do this all the time. We hold tightly to our plans, our comfort, our reputation, our possessions, even our idea of how life is supposed to turn out. And sometimes we say, “Lord, I will follow You, as long as You do not touch this.” But discipleship begins when we stop giving God only the parts of our life we can afford to lose. Paul is not asking us to love less; he is asking us to love in the right order. Love your family deeply. Do your work well. Enjoy what is good. Grieve when life hurts. But do not make any of those things your god. Hold everything with gratitude, but hold Christ with both hands.

That is exactly what we see in St Peter Claver. He could have chosen a comfortable life, but instead he spent himself serving enslaved Africans arriving in Cartagena under horrifying conditions. He went where most people did not want to go, touched people society refused to touch, and treated them not as cargo or problems, but as brothers and sisters. Why was he able to do that? Because comfort was not his master. Status was not his master. Fear was not his master. Christ was. Peter Claver could let go of comfort because he had already decided what he would never let go of.

And maybe that is the question for us today: What am I holding so tightly that I would struggle if Jesus asked me to loosen my grip? Maybe it is money. Maybe control. Maybe a relationship. Maybe people’s approval. Maybe resentment. Sometimes we think freedom means getting everything we want. The Gospel teaches something different: freedom is being able to lose something without losing who you are, because your deepest identity is already secure in Christ.

So perhaps today we do not need to leave everything behind physically. But we do need to place everything back into God’s hands. Our plans, our relationships, our possessions, our worries, our future. We can say, “Lord, thank You for these things, but they are not my salvation. You are.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, teach me to hold the things of this world with open hands. Free me from whatever I cling to more than I cling to You. Give me the courage of St Peter Claver to choose love over comfort and service over self-interest. May I use everything You give me for Your glory, and may my heart belong completely to You. Amen.

– Homily by Rev Fr Patrick Agbeko