Greener pastures

It is always greener on the other side of the fence, goes the old saying.

Married people, especially when feeling overwhelmed by the stresses and chaos of family life and most especially if they had once considered another vocation, may daydream about the celibate or consecrated life.

Priests, brothers, and sisters – especially when feeling overwhelmed by feelings of loneliness – may daydream about marriage and family.

In today's first reading (1 Corinthians 7:25-31), St. Paul says this:

It is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.
Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation.
Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife.

No matter what our vocation, we may be tempted by the "greener pastures" of another path, but the greenest pastures are those to which the Lord leads us through the vocations to which he has called us.

I tell you, brothers, the time is running out.

From now on,
let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.

For the world in its present form is passing away.

By the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, may you and I be ever more faithful.