Fitting in

One of the greatest challenges for young people is that the desire to “fit in” can lead them to do things that are deeply harmful.

Even “adults”, of course, are not immune from the dangers of “peer pressure”: tempted to do something wrong because of friends, relatives, polls, etc.

In today’s first reading (Ephesians 2:19-22), Saint Paul tells us of a better way: a place where we can fit in, be accepted, and be loved and experience peer pressure to do what is right.

You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

May we always live within the embrace of the Church as members of God’s household and building blocks of God’s temple in the name and power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.