The Responsorial Psalm is a beautiful and succinct statement of what Christ-centered recovery is all about: “Commit your life to the Lord, and he will help you.” The first part of the phrase is unmistakably evocative of Step Three: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” The second part is equally so of Step Two: “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

In the Gospel, Our Lord teaches about spiritual childhood, so crucial for a proper understanding of recovery and our relationship with God: “Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me’” (Mark 9:36-37). Each of us is a little child in the eyes of God—small, helpless, dependent, and yet embraced, adopted, and beloved by God who is love and who made us for the sake of His love. Our fundamental dignity, capacity to love and be loved, and freedom from attachments come from the confident “littleness” of a child born up in the life-giving arms of Christ. What a blessing to discover how the “program” of recovery is truly nothing but ancient biblical wisdom, and that the language of recovery is truly a love letter from God who loves us beyond measure.

Reflection Questions

• How does God speak to you in the language of recovery when you read the Scriptures, writings from the saints, or teachings of the Church? Give some examples.
• How has accepting your smallness, helplessness, and dependence before God been the key to your recovery? Are you able to do so with confidence or are you still struggling with this type of self-acceptance in loving God and others?

Daily Mass Readings

First Reading: Sirach 2:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

Reflection by Pete S.