Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Thursday of the 22nd week in ordinary time, September 3, 2026, Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Delivered by Rachel Dermawan Permadi from Saint Peter's School Kelapa Gading, Jakarta Utara, in the Archdiocese of Jakarta, Indonesia. 1 Corinthians 3: 18-23; Rs psalm 24: 1-2.3-4ab.5-6; Luke 5: 1-11.RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP Our meditation today has the theme: Right ofOwnership. A person who recognizes and declares his right of ownership is firstof all to claim the right to own himself. If you scratch your itchy head orbody, it's very natural that it's your own body. If you bathe and beautifyyourself, it must be so because it is yours. With regards to wearing clotheswith preference color and size either a bit tight or loose, it depends on one'schoice and freedom. In short, right of ownership is one of the basic humanrights. We also have rights to recognize the environment andcircumstances around us as the possessions belong to us. The chair on which yousit, your room, bed, clothes and other personal belongings, all are yours. Yourspouse, children, friends, co-workers, subordinates, family, community,village, city and country, of course, belong to you. Gos is our highestownership because we were first recognized by Him. We always pray withconfidence in this way: O my Lord, or O my Jesus. Why do we need to make such a convincing claim orstatement of having right of ownership? It has been just said earlier that itis natural that we have basic human rights. Another reason that many people maynot be aware of is that every one of us wants to be part of someone orsomething, because this is the way he can find strength and support. Throughthis way, he will experience a life that is complete. You can imagine, ifsomeone gives up all his properties or belongingness and decides not to haveanything at all, he will become a very miserable human being and has no meaningof life. From this common perspective of ownership, God intendsto transcend this kind of possession, with a possession that is completelyindependent from the world. The ownership of God is a heavenly ownership orpossession. The point is, if all that man has is no other that God Himself,then man actually has all things that belong to God. And so, the first readingtoday from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians says in this line,that all that we have belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. So all of ustogether with Christ belong to God, the almighty Father. What more interesting is that when Jesus asks us tobecome His disciples, we need to obey the fundamental condition, namely we mustleave everything that belongs to us and to the world. Yet every thing indeedbelongs to God too. This actually means, we leave everything, then what we haveis actually God Himself, and God actually owns every thing that we have leftbehind. In other words,  all and every thingthat exist belong to God and we must use it as God's possession that we mustnot abuse them or take them for granted. Let'spray. In the name of the Father ... O Lord, make us true stewards and keepersof everything that is yours, and to use them for the goodness of our lives. OurFather who art in heaven ... In the name of the Father ...