THIRTIETH WEEK OF THE YEAR

MONDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 13:10-17)
The desire to be in control is one that is very deep within us. The dangerous aspect of this desire for people who are trying to live good lives is that it is often masked with the desire to do good. For good people the blatant, greedy and cold control of another is very seldom something to be contended with. What does happen, however, is the more subtle almost unconscious desire to control.
In today's gospel we have the Pharisees trying to control. The law was there "power base"...as long as they could rely on the Law they were in control. The law was good but all of a sudden it became the means to protect themselves. Jesus knew what He was doing when He cured the woman. He was being who He was, He was being true to Himself and not worrying about the controls which others would place on Him. I do not think He worked the miracle to prove who He was rather He worked the miracle because He was who He was.
To be controlled is not to be true to oneself, to control is to deny a person the right to be who they should be.


TUESDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 13:18-21)
What is the Kingdom of God? Jesus uses something like twenty parables in an attempt to explain its meaning. Anytime that many examples have to be used we know that we are not in an easy subject. The Kingdom is wide. It is so wide that even Jesus' imagination was stretched to explain it.. One good definition of what it is a deep loving relationship with the Father. This is what Jesus came to proclaim and to invite us to enter...this love relationship with the Trinity.
This relationship is alive....and because it is alive it grows.
The image of the fig tree comes to mind. It is an image of the Church which is the kingdom on earth but at the same time because we all possess the kingdom it is an image of who we are.
The birds coming to nest. Nice, soft image but at the same time do we feel within ourselves the potential to be places of rest for other people. To put into a logical syllogism: We are the kingdom made present to the world
The Kingdom is a place of rest, of comfort
Are we places of rest for people

WEDNESDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 13:22-30)
Conversion is an ongoing process. Today's gospel reminds us of one thing very powerfully: just as the people in the Gospel were physically near the Lord they were far from Him. The language which is used, eating and drinking together, is language of intimacy and yet something was missing. For us, it comes down to not how often we eat and drink with the Lord , which may be all the external acts of the faith which we do...but are they leading to a deeper relationship with Him, conversion.
The people in today's Gospel were quite satisfied with the nice friendly Jesus...they missed His message completely. They were so busy talking while they were in His company that they could not listen...the harshness of the Lord's words: I do not know where you come from...tell us how important a priority He places on this turning to Him. It is what binds us to Him.
The new heart which He wants to create within us is the point of identification with Him. When He says: I do not know where you come from ...He is saying that they do not know where He comes from.

THURSDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 13:31-35)
How sad Christ must have been when he said these words? Looking down over Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives he saw the city which should have received Him the most...but He was refused. The thing which impresses me though is the prayer is focused not on Himself but on Jerusalem..
.His sadness is not self-centered, they refused me therefore I am sad, no His sadness is directed at the fact that Jerusalem did not accept the good which was offered her. If we define sadness as the lack of a perceived good then the absence of the good than was not inside of Jesus but what was lacking in Jerusalem. He was sad not because of personal rejection, but rather because people were not being all they could or should be.
As I read this I had to ask myself the question: what makes me sad? I have expectations on how other people should treat me, this is the good thing I want. When it is not forthcoming do I "get down"....am I sad when a desired dream is lost. once
again I become the reason for sadness. I came to the conclusion that by knowing what makes me sad I come to an understanding of how selfish I really am.

FRIDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 14:1-6)
.A very important function of being a disciple is to make sure that we are asking people questions. A while back I received a very nice coffee mug from a friend. The inscription is a motto for us all: keep smiling, it makes the other guy wonder what you have been up to. Hidden behind these words is the fact that by smiling a question is raised, as one of my friends use to say: part of being a disciple is to ask questions that knock the socks off of people.
The real clue is that it is our way of life which has to force people to ask questions. It was the lives of martyrs which forced people to wonder "what they were up to" and people of good faith looked for an answer and were drawn to the Lord.
Jesus did something good, and he asked the question....the Pharisees could not answer....goodness confounded them. If nothing else they were forced to see life in a different way or that someone else was seeing life in a different way. Doing good always makes people wonder, sometimes friendly sometimes not so friendly.
A few years ago a group of people started to feed the homeless living on the streets of Tokyo. This was a good thing but it caused so many people to wonder. It had never been done before .....it was not supposed to be done...by doing it in the face of a lot of misunderstanding and at times antagonism eventually the awareness that there was a problem seeped into the mentality..now a lot of people are doing things. A good was done, it raised a question.....our good deeds do not go to waste. We may not see the result but God does...isn't that all that matters.

SATURDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 14:1.7-11)
My thought on this passage is very brief.....Our Lord wants His disciples to be polite. So obvious yet look around the world and see how impolite people are....lack of "thank yous" and "pleases"....how everyone is so anxious to get served first...how many times conversations are unnecessarily interrupted.....just the way people speak to one another....maybe Jesus is just reminding us of the simple ordinary polite things which go to make life so much nicer.


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