REFLECTION:

One thing that I have always reminded myself—and that I have shared with other people in ministry, especially at ordinations—is this: this ministry is not yours or ours. It was given to us by God. God allowed it, and that’s why we have it. And when God says it is time to take back what is His, He can—because it was never ours to begin with.

That is exactly the lesson King David learns in the seventh chapter of the Second Book of Samuel.

David has a good and generous intention: he wants to build a house for God. But the Lord turns the plan around and tells him, in effect, that it is not David who will build God a house, but God who will build David a house. When David hears this, he goes in, sits before the Lord, and prays: “Who am I, Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?” (2 Samuel 7:18)

In that moment, David understands something profound: this has never been about what he is doing for God; it has always been about what God is doing for him and for His people. God reminds David that He is the one who took him from the pasture, who established his name, and who formed Israel as His people. And then God makes David realize something even bigger: this promise is not just about him. It is about the future. As David himself says, this is a promise “for a long time to come” (cf. 2 Samuel 7:19).

David suddenly sees that he is standing inside a story much bigger than himself—a story that began before him and will continue after him. And this is exactly how we should see Sacred Heart and Maryknoll. Sacred Heart and Maryknoll do not exist because of us. We are standing inside something God started long before us and will continue long after us. Like David, we have been invited into the middle of God’s work, not placed at its beginning or its end.

So David does the only faithful thing he can do: he places everything back into God’s hands: “And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the promise you have made… You, Lord God, are God, and your words are truth.” (cf. 2 Samuel 7:25, 28)

And he ends his prayer with quiet trust: “With your blessing the house of your servant shall be blessed forever.” (2 Samuel 7:29)

This is the heart of this passage and the heart of our mission: we don’t build God’s kingdom—God lets us participate in what He is already building. Our role is not to possess the mission, but to serve it faithfully for a time, knowing that the same God who was at work before us will still be at work long after us.

Like David, we are not called to secure the future. We are called to be faithful in the present—and to trust the Lord who is building something far greater than we can see.