THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR
MONDAY OF THE THIRTY FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 14:12-14)
Rather ordinary things, with a little reflection, highlight what Our Lord is talking about. As I look back I see so many times when I was too busy with my own agenda to stop along the way for someone.
I was busy, things to do, so many tasks to accomplish...surely, this person will understand, I thought to myself, if I do not give him the five minutes which he wants. I'm sure, I often rationalized, he realizes how important the task is.....unfortunately, this happens all to often, not only in my life, but in the lives of most people....time is the one commodity which we really hate to give up....if these people had asked me for money I would have done what I could have...but time is another story. It is so precious...
What has time got to do with today's Gospel? The party Jesus speaks about in the gospel is the kingdom . The image of the kingdom being a meal runs throughout scripture. The kingdom resides within me...We are the bearers of the Kingdom to the world. But it is not only for myself...the gift is for all with whom I come into contact....the party to which I invite people is myself as a bearer of the kingdom of God....the people whom I do not give the time to are those who should be invited. Instead, many times, I choose my own " I have to do this" or "I have to go there" and those who should be invited are not. The rich, those who can pay back, this is time which I have made so precious that I can't even invite people into the mystery of who I am.
MONDAY OF THE THIRTY FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 14:12-14)
Rather ordinary things, with a little reflection, highlight what Our Lord is talking about. As I look back I see so many times when I was too busy with my own agenda to stop along the way for someone.
I was busy, things to do, so many tasks to accomplish...surely, this person will understand, I thought to myself, if I do not give him the five minutes which he wants. I'm sure, I often rationalized, he realizes how important the task is.....unfortunately, this happens all to often, not only in my life, but in the lives of most people....time is the one commodity which we really hate to give up....if these people had asked me for money I would have done what I could have...but time is another story. It is so precious...
What has time got to do with today's Gospel? The party Jesus speaks about in the gospel is the kingdom . The image of the kingdom being a meal runs throughout scripture. The kingdom resides within me...We are the bearers of the Kingdom to the world. But it is not only for myself...the gift is for all with whom I come into contact....the party to which I invite people is myself as a bearer of the kingdom of God....the people whom I do not give the time to are those who should be invited. Instead, many times, I choose my own " I have to do this" or "I have to go there" and those who should be invited are not. The rich, those who can pay back, this is time which I have made so precious that I can't even invite people into the mystery of who I am.
TUESDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR(Luke 14:15-24) Life is full of wonderful invitations. Unfortunately many of them go unnoticed. We like the people in today’s Gospel are too busy to either notice them, or if we do notice to respond to them. The things of life, the tasks which we have to do, the priority system that we have set up, may, if we are not careful, make us blind to the world around us.
The invitation to stop just for a minute. To get off of the busy train of life a look and ask the question: is there something I am missing? The invitation to call a friend to whom we have not spoken for a while? The invitation to go to a quite place and to come into contact with that inner person whom we have forgotten. God is always inviting us somewhere.
WEDNESDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 14: 25-33) Once again He insists on complete commitment. To take the words of the Gospel literally would be un-Chrisitan. Some translations say “hate”. He is uses this language which seems so hard on our ears, to stress the importance of the message. He is the ultimate priority. It is on the relationship with Him that decisions and attitudes of life will be formed. He asks us to take up the Cross. The Cross of obedience to the will of the Father. For Our Lord this was the Cross. It is much more than just suffering, the Cross is a way of life. It is the background for life. To limit it to just the “tough times” would be to eliminate it from a large portion of our lives. The Cross is the dying to self so that we might live with the Lord. To take up the Cross is the entrance to new life. To pray every day that we do, to the best of our ability and with the grace of God, the will of the Father. In so doing we carry the Cross.
THURSDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 15:1-10)
A few years ago a young lady was under instruction in preparation for her Baptism. From the very beginning she was prayerful. Every week on Tuesday afternoon she would come for her lesson. Her seriousness was always balanced by a joy. One day I happened to choose the parable of the lost treasure for our study. She read it and immediately tears, almost uncontrollable, came to her eyes. They were not tears of sadness, it was easy to sense that, they were more like tears of relief, when a burden has been taken from us, or when an unexpected joy comes into life.
After the tears stopped I asked her why she cried. Her answer stays with me to this day: from her earliest days she knew that someone was watching over her. Many things happened to her which pointed to this. But she could never give a name to this "someone" She said that when she read this parable, for the first time she knew who it was, she had found the answer It was God..
The Gospel of the lost sheep is not a gospel of loosing and seeking but rather, in Luke, the great joy of finding. The words of today's gospel talk about carrying, even when the lamb does not want to move the shepherd picks it up and forcefully carries it back, the words of the Gospel talk about a party when the sheep rejoins the fold....I often have to ask myself: do I really believe that when that young lady was crying for joy at having been found in the process finding that Jesus was up in heaven clapping his hands and dancing for joy. We use human language. It has its limits, but still it points to a divine reality...physically of course Jesus was not dancing and clapping his hands but the great song of thanksgiving which He constantly sings before His father must have had that young lady in mind....
The great paradox...to find the God who has left all to come and find us.
FRIDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 16: 1-8)
Is Jesus praising dishonesty? No. We should remember what the dishonest servant is probably cancelling his own profit from the master's goods. Stewards where allowed to add interest onto loans above and beyond what the master demanded. To put it simply, if the master wanted a 10% profit the steward could charge 15% and keep the additional 5%. It was probably this 5% that the servant cancelled.
What Our Lord is telling us, however, is not a lesson in economics but rather that to live in the kingdom decisions, and sometimes difficult decisions have to be made. There is in a given day many decisions which we are called upon to make...most of them are "daily course of life decisions" what to eat, what time to go to bed...but there are times when life presents situations which are beyond the ordinary. We may have to make decisions in regard to justice, in attitudes towards people, decisions which effect our relationship to the covenant we have made with God .
It seems that in so many cases we fail to see these situations as invitations . It is a common failing not to look at our actions in the full context of what they are. They are not isolated, as if they were put into a refrigerator, cold and not effecting anything
but rather the decisions we make are like the pebble in the lake....making ever and ever larger circles. They eventually, having run their course, come back to the center which is God.
The responsible person looks at those decisions which have to be made not in isolation, this is selfish, but in the totality of what they are...responses to God, to other people and to ourselves.
SATURDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 16: 9-15)
When I read this Gospel I think of my friend Joe.
Joe claims to be an agnostic. On somedays he will even take it a step further and say he is an atheist. We have had many lengthy discussions about the existence of God .
Joe has a problem. His wife is a fervent believer. Joe rather than separate the family on Sunday attends Mass with his wife. Joe who believes that husbands and wives should have some joint activities will help his wife when she gets involved in a Church activity...Joe listens to the homilies and does not hesitate in challenging the priest or, on rare occasions, commenting how good the homily was. His two sons are baptized and he takes the responsibility quite seriously.
I have another friend. This man claims to be a believer. A few years ago we took a survey in the parish. The question was: why do you come to Church? this man's daughter answered that she comes because God deserves some time. She added that she prays that someday her father will come to Church with her instead of staying home and smoking his cigar. This man will always check "Roman Catholic" on the parish census form...Joe will leave his blank.
How these two stand before God no one may judge, that is God's business. What we can say though is that one man while claiming not to serve does serve and the other while claiming to serve does not.
We see in these two men the classic example of the theoretical atheist and the practical atheist. Joe is the theorist. He claims not to believe but his actions say he does...my other friend says he does believe but his actions say the opposite. I wonder if a persecution ever began who would be called up before the judge and found guilty...my "unbelieving" friend or my believing friend.
The invitation to stop just for a minute. To get off of the busy train of life a look and ask the question: is there something I am missing? The invitation to call a friend to whom we have not spoken for a while? The invitation to go to a quite place and to come into contact with that inner person whom we have forgotten. God is always inviting us somewhere.
WEDNESDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 14: 25-33) Once again He insists on complete commitment. To take the words of the Gospel literally would be un-Chrisitan. Some translations say “hate”. He is uses this language which seems so hard on our ears, to stress the importance of the message. He is the ultimate priority. It is on the relationship with Him that decisions and attitudes of life will be formed. He asks us to take up the Cross. The Cross of obedience to the will of the Father. For Our Lord this was the Cross. It is much more than just suffering, the Cross is a way of life. It is the background for life. To limit it to just the “tough times” would be to eliminate it from a large portion of our lives. The Cross is the dying to self so that we might live with the Lord. To take up the Cross is the entrance to new life. To pray every day that we do, to the best of our ability and with the grace of God, the will of the Father. In so doing we carry the Cross.
THURSDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 15:1-10)
A few years ago a young lady was under instruction in preparation for her Baptism. From the very beginning she was prayerful. Every week on Tuesday afternoon she would come for her lesson. Her seriousness was always balanced by a joy. One day I happened to choose the parable of the lost treasure for our study. She read it and immediately tears, almost uncontrollable, came to her eyes. They were not tears of sadness, it was easy to sense that, they were more like tears of relief, when a burden has been taken from us, or when an unexpected joy comes into life.
After the tears stopped I asked her why she cried. Her answer stays with me to this day: from her earliest days she knew that someone was watching over her. Many things happened to her which pointed to this. But she could never give a name to this "someone" She said that when she read this parable, for the first time she knew who it was, she had found the answer It was God..
The Gospel of the lost sheep is not a gospel of loosing and seeking but rather, in Luke, the great joy of finding. The words of today's gospel talk about carrying, even when the lamb does not want to move the shepherd picks it up and forcefully carries it back, the words of the Gospel talk about a party when the sheep rejoins the fold....I often have to ask myself: do I really believe that when that young lady was crying for joy at having been found in the process finding that Jesus was up in heaven clapping his hands and dancing for joy. We use human language. It has its limits, but still it points to a divine reality...physically of course Jesus was not dancing and clapping his hands but the great song of thanksgiving which He constantly sings before His father must have had that young lady in mind....
The great paradox...to find the God who has left all to come and find us.
FRIDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 16: 1-8)
Is Jesus praising dishonesty? No. We should remember what the dishonest servant is probably cancelling his own profit from the master's goods. Stewards where allowed to add interest onto loans above and beyond what the master demanded. To put it simply, if the master wanted a 10% profit the steward could charge 15% and keep the additional 5%. It was probably this 5% that the servant cancelled.
What Our Lord is telling us, however, is not a lesson in economics but rather that to live in the kingdom decisions, and sometimes difficult decisions have to be made. There is in a given day many decisions which we are called upon to make...most of them are "daily course of life decisions" what to eat, what time to go to bed...but there are times when life presents situations which are beyond the ordinary. We may have to make decisions in regard to justice, in attitudes towards people, decisions which effect our relationship to the covenant we have made with God .
It seems that in so many cases we fail to see these situations as invitations . It is a common failing not to look at our actions in the full context of what they are. They are not isolated, as if they were put into a refrigerator, cold and not effecting anything
but rather the decisions we make are like the pebble in the lake....making ever and ever larger circles. They eventually, having run their course, come back to the center which is God.
The responsible person looks at those decisions which have to be made not in isolation, this is selfish, but in the totality of what they are...responses to God, to other people and to ourselves.
SATURDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 16: 9-15)
When I read this Gospel I think of my friend Joe.
Joe claims to be an agnostic. On somedays he will even take it a step further and say he is an atheist. We have had many lengthy discussions about the existence of God .
Joe has a problem. His wife is a fervent believer. Joe rather than separate the family on Sunday attends Mass with his wife. Joe who believes that husbands and wives should have some joint activities will help his wife when she gets involved in a Church activity...Joe listens to the homilies and does not hesitate in challenging the priest or, on rare occasions, commenting how good the homily was. His two sons are baptized and he takes the responsibility quite seriously.
I have another friend. This man claims to be a believer. A few years ago we took a survey in the parish. The question was: why do you come to Church? this man's daughter answered that she comes because God deserves some time. She added that she prays that someday her father will come to Church with her instead of staying home and smoking his cigar. This man will always check "Roman Catholic" on the parish census form...Joe will leave his blank.
How these two stand before God no one may judge, that is God's business. What we can say though is that one man while claiming not to serve does serve and the other while claiming to serve does not.
We see in these two men the classic example of the theoretical atheist and the practical atheist. Joe is the theorist. He claims not to believe but his actions say he does...my other friend says he does believe but his actions say the opposite. I wonder if a persecution ever began who would be called up before the judge and found guilty...my "unbelieving" friend or my believing friend.
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