Jesus looked into the heart of Zacchaeus with much love.

 

THIRTY FIRST SUNDAY IN OT  C  2022

 

What was he thinking?

This short-of-stature tax-collector who took advantage of people climbed this sycamore tree.  Zacchaeus wanted to catch sight of Jesus as he was about to pass by.  Something must have been going inside of Zacchaeus.  Perhaps he simply meant to see Jesus without being seen.

Zacchaeus surely didn’t expect Jesus to stop and to look up at him as he was passing by.  But that’s what happened.  In fact, Jesus looked into the heart of Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus experienced the compassionate love of Jesus at this moment.  Jesus said: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay in your home.”

It is worth noting in this Gospel account that both Jesus and Zacchaeus sought each other out.  Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore tree to get a better vantage point from which to see Jesus.  In turn, Jesus called forth Zacchaeus by name saying:  “Zacchaeus, come down quickly for today I must stay at your house.”  The joy is palpable between them.

The back story on Zacchaeus:  He was an unloved sinner.  He is not an attractive person.  He worked for the enemy as a Roman tax collector.  He had become a wealthy man, perhaps by overtaxing the poor.  His physical smallness matched the low esteem in which he was held.   Then there was an awareness in Zacchaeus that his lifestyle led to loneliness and greediness.  He was coming to the awareness that there was more to life than getting rich by taking advantage of people. 

At this point, Zacchaeus just wanted to see Jesus.  And so, he climbed the sycamore hoping to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was going to be passing by.

A significant moment of grace in this Gospel account is when Jesus stopped and caught sight of Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree.  Jesus looked into his heart with love and invited him down as Jesus wished to come to his house today.  Zacchaeus, at that moment, experienced himself as loved by the Lord.  This beautiful moment of encounter with the Lord was a conversion in Zacchaeus.  Nothing would ever be the same.

 

 

The story of Zacchaeus is our story as well.  How does the Lord encounter you in your life?  As was the case of Zaccheaus, what would it take for you to realize that you need the Lord?  Like Zacchaeus may we experience ourselves as being loved by the Lord.  Nothing is ever the same.

Notice the sharp contrast between Zacchaeus as he is the recipient of the Lord’s extravagant mercy and unconditional forgiveness. and the crowd of the so-called righteous who grumbled judgmentally at God’s mercy.   In this Gospel account, Jesus desired to save not only the sinner Zacchaeus, but Jesus wanted also to save the people who were so ready to condemn Zacchaeus.  As a sinner’s home became salvation’s house for Zacchaeus, Jesus was directing this message to the religious leaders of his day that God is extravagant in mercy and unconditional in the forgiveness of sins.  Instead of anger and violence and judgment, they are to proclaim to one and all the merciful love of God to people in need.

Who are the lost in the Gospel today?  Is it Zacchaeus who rejoices in the compassion and forgiveness of Jesus or is it the righteous who grumble that Jesus is staying at the house of a sinner?  Jesus is inviting Zacchaeus to experience repentance and to move forward into life and the fullness of life.  The folks who were accompanying Jesus were left grumbling at God’s mercy.

Where do find ourselves in this Gospel account?  Are we aware of our need to encounter the Lord as did Zacchaeus, or are we more focused on our judgments on the worthiness or unworthiness of others?  Are we scandalized by the extravagance in which Jesus reaches out to others?

In the Gospel, Zacchaeus wanted more of life that what his wealth provided him.  He was isolated by his greed and wealth.  He wanted to experience the love he saw in the followers of Jesus.  This awareness of his need for the healing and forgiving love of God provides the fertile soil to experience the extravagance of God’s mercy.

 

As we gather for Eucharist, please God we too have that awareness of our need for God’s healing love.  If you recall last Sunday’s Gospel about another tax collector, his simple prayer:  “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.”  Do we come before the Lord in a spirit of humility? 

I invite you as we pray over this Gospel is to ask yourself the question:  What tree do I need to climb in order to encounter the Lord more deeply in my life?   

In receiving Jesus into his home, Zacchaeus accepted God’s outreach of love.  Zacchaeus was then inspired to share what he had.  Zacchaeus said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.

Zacchaeus not only physically welcomes Jesus into his home but also offers him every aspect of his life.  Are we willing to welcome Jesus into our hearts, and are we willing to commit ourselves to a life of stewardship in our spiritual journey?

The Lord wishes to encounter you as much as the Lord desired to encounter Zacchaeus.  When we open ourselves up to accepting God’s love into our hearts, we like Zacchaeus will experience how our lives change in our desire to serve the needs of one another.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

Lord, be merciful to me , a sinner.

 

Thirtieth Sunday in OT  C  2022

 

Have you thought about what Gospel you would like proclaimed at your funeral liturgy?  What Gospel best describes your spirituality?  I suppose this seems like a strange question.

When the late Benedictine Cardinal Basil Hume learned that he had terminal cancer, he specified that this Gospel of the Pharisee and the Publican was to be the Gospel for his funeral liturgy.  When asked why, the Cardinal explained:  Two short months ago when I learned of my terminal cancer, I was at first tempted to think “If only”…”if only” I could start all over again, I would be a much better monk, a much better abbot, and a much better bishop.  But then on second thought how much better to come before God not to say thank you that I was such a good monk, a good abbot, a good bishop, but rather I simply want to say to the Lord: “O God. Be merciful to me a sinner.”  For If I come empty-handed, then I will be ready to receive God’s gift of his merciful love.  Again, if I simply come before the Lord empty-handed, then I will be ready to receive God’s gift of his merciful love.

Indeed, this beautiful Gospel of the Pharisee and the Publican can make every day of our life a jubilee of mercy.   May we come before the Lord not impressed by our own accomplishments; but rather in a spirit of humility, we are loved and healed and forgiven by the merciful love of Jesus.

The parable reminds us that when we pray, we must remember our need for God in our lives. If we are too full of ourselves, there is too little room for God's grace to work in us.  And so we begin our liturgy with the penitential rite asking for God’s merciful forgiveness, before receiving Communion, we pray: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; say only the Word and my soul shall be healed.”

The unspoken question in today’s Gospel:  which of the two:  the Pharisee or the publican tax collector are you?  In our personal inventory of the actions of our lives, there is probably a bit of the Pharisee and a bit of the publican in all of us.

The Pharisees were for the most part religious people.  Most of the people held them in high esteem.  We too can point to many accomplishments in our lives.  Many “I” statements:  I succeeded in school; I make good money; I know the right people; I support the Church and charitable causes; I once worked in a soup kitchen.

There is a temptation for some of us who come to Church Sunday after Sunday and wonder why the Church is not more packed with parishioners like the good old days. We are not called to come to Church on Sunday and look down on those who no longer have faith. That would make us exactly like the Pharisee in today’s Gospel from Luke.   Instead, we should be asking the Lord to have mercy on us, to change our lives, to make us fully alive in Him so that others can see the presence of God once more active in our world.

If you listen closely to the Pharisee’s prayer, he really isn’t speaking to God, the evangelist Luke says: “He spoke this prayer to himself.”     Let me be quick to say the problem for the Pharisee was not his piety and religious observance, but his inability to name his dependence on God.

We really have it right as disciples of Jesus when we give and share ourselves so completely that we need to trust only in the merciful love of Jesus. The perfect example of one who has given himself so completely is the Apostle Paul.  In the second Scripture reading, Paul writes:  I am already being poured out like a libation and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight; I have completed the race; I have kept the faith.   Paul is saying that his entire life has been a pouring out, an emptying of himself.

The temptation for us is to think that life in Christ is measured by our successes, our achievements.  Our house may be filled with credentials and trophies.  Life is about me and what I have.  The spiritual problem is that when we are filled with ourselves, there is no room for God.

In contrast, Paul writes from prison and measures his discipleship by what he has given away.  So much so, that he comes to the Lord empty handed and simply trusts in the merciful of Jesus.

Please God we do not consider our plate as already too filled to be available for others.  As long as the Lord keeps on loving us, we are to keep on loving others -- in gratitude for the love we have received.  As with St Paul, may our lives be poured like a libation, and we measure our discipleship of the Lord Jesus not by what we have but by what we have given away.

Going back to the Gospel, the tax collector comes empty handed before the Lord and simply says:  “O God be merciful to me a sinner.”  It is important to know the reputation of tax collector in Jesus’ day.  Tax collectors commonly stole from those they taxed and pocketed the money for themselves.  They accepted bribes as a matter of routine.  In this Gospel account, the significant message is that this tax collector trusted in God’s mercy.

If a tax collector can find mercy before God, who is excluded?   May we never exclude anyone in our parish life from being the generous recipients of the mercy of God.   Instead of the Pharisee, may our model for prayer be the tax collector, we are drawn to trusting in the great mercy of God.  Lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, say bet the word and my soul shall be healed.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

May the persistence of the widow in today's Gospel be a witness for us of a God who never gives up on us.

 

Twenty Ninth Sunday in OT  C  2022

Today’s Gospel parable tells the account of the widow who because of her persistence was able to get the assistance she needed from the judge.  She is the example of perseverance – she simply won’t be put off and finally the unjust judge gives in. 

There are many ways to pray over this Gospel account.  I would suggest three ways for your prayerful consideration. 

First, I would invite to see the widow in this Gospel as an image of God.   This parable invites us to think about that God never gives us on our faith community.  Like the persistent and resilient widow of the gospel, God never gives up on us.

 Yes, we could be more faithful in our full participation in Sunday Eucharist; yes, we could spend more time in prayer at our Eucharistic Adoration; yes, the families of our parish could be more committed to family prayer; yes, we as a parish could be more mission-minded in serving the needs of the poor.  I think we would all say there is room for improvement in our spiritual journey.  But God, like the widow in the Gospel account, continues to call us back to a life of discipleship.

What is our image of God?  May the persistence of this widow give us an insight into God’s unending love for us.  There is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us.  The perseverance of the widow witnesses to the God of second and third chances who neve gives up on us and invites us to embrace God’s unconditional and unending love.

 

Secondly, the widow in the Gospel account is representative of ourselves in our spiritual journey.

There was a time in my life when I was a marathon runner – 26 miles and 385 yards.  My sister thought this was crazy.  She didn’t like to drive her car for 26 miles.  To train for and to run the 26.2 miles takes some perseverance.  There is a grace to sprint short distances at full speed, but there is grace in the perseverance that is needed to run a marathon.

Our lifelong journey of faith is a spiritual marathon.  In the various seasons of our life, in both the green pastures and the dark valleys, we need to trust always in God’s abiding presence.

A fundamental faith question for all of us is:  In the hard times of life, do we bail out from trusting in God’s unconditional love for us or do we have the gift of perseverance we trust that our God goes with us in all experiences of life?

 

Persistence in prayer is not to be understood as trying to change God’s mind, as if God was unwilling to help us in the first place.   It’s we who need to change… Our prayer needs to be: “Not my will but thy will be done.”  God’s will be our peace.  His death on the cross is his gift of faith and a love that heals and saves us all.

 

Have you called an emergency number in your life?  If ever you called 911, I am sure, it now brings to your mind some traumatic experience.   In any case, I suppose, the emergency number is not the most frequently dialled number on your personal telephone. 

What is the most dialed number in your phone, anyway?  Is it your spouse, child, parent, friend, business partner, or someone you love?  Perhaps, these days, thanks to the mobile phones you might even call the same person more than two, three times a day!  And what does that frequently dialed number say about your own priorities in life? 

Now, here is a more important question:  how would you describe your own acts of calling on God!  Are they emergency calls like a 911call, or are they frequent calls?

God needs to be the most frequently dialed number in our daily lives.  Like the widow in the Gospel account, may we continuously call upon God to accompany in all the challenges and in all the joys of life.

Thirdly, the widow in the Gospel represents our neighbor whom we are called to love and serve.

The widow may have reminded us of people we know:

                    --the single mother determined to get her children a valued education and getting them access to quality health care.  She would persist in coming to government offices, principals of schools, hospitals, and doctors’ office.  She had little concern for what people think of her, how she appears in the general public or whether she is being a nuisance.

Are there groups of people who are the widows of the modern world?

                    --ethnic minorities throughout the world

--women looking for equal opportunities in society.

--poor nations standing for their rights before the world community.

Who are the widows in the life of the Church?

--Are their people who would not be welcome in our parish community?  Are their people who feel like widows relative to our parish community?

And so, we ask ourselves:   In all truth can we join in solidarity with the widows of our society?

Do we recognize that the widow in today’s Gospel has so much to teach us?  

In today’s Gospel, Jesus encourages his disciples to pray always without becoming weary.  Another essential aspect of our prayer life is to see the value of our faith community to support and to inspire our prayer journey.  We see in the first Scripture reading, when Moses grew weary in prayer, the Israelites were losing in the battlefield.  But with the aid of his friends Aaron and Hur, Moses became strengthened again in prayer.

 Perhaps we too need the help of the believing community to support us in our continued prayer life. We are at our very best as the Church of the Holy Spirit if we are brothers and sisters to each other.  You heard the expression it takes a village to raise a child; it takes a Church community for us to grow in our journey of faith.  We are to inspire, to support, to love, and to pray for each other that God’s love will be experienced by everyone in our faith community.

 

Have a blessed day.

 

 

What we do with what we have is to the heart of our discipleship .

 

Twenty Sixth Sunday in OT  C  2022

 

Today’s Gospel begins with the words: “There was a rich man.”  The real message in this parable of the rich man is that he needs to see his life in the context of stewardship.  We could critique Jesus in his parables as always talking about money.  Did not Jesus get the memo that money is personal, and you are not supposed to talk about it?  After all, we come to Church to pray.

Very, very true.  We come to Church to pray.  We come to Church to raise our awareness about spirituality, do we not?  We come to pray and reflect on our longing for God.

In last Sunday’s Gospel and this Sunday’s as well, Jesus stays on point to an essential component of spirituality and discipleship -- what we do with what we have is to the heart of discipleship.  Jesus is saying again and again in Luke’s Gospel that we are to share what we have with those who don’t have.  We are to serve and to help and to love one another.

In the Gospel parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the extravagant luxury of the rich man is played off against the utter destitution of Lazarus.  The rich man is not a miser; he is not a cheat; he pays his taxes; hopefully he goes to Church every Sunday.  Why bother him?  The point of the parable is that he is simply numb to the poor man Lazarus and inattentive to his needs.  For us to live a Gospel way of life, this is a big deal.

In fact, it is a deal breaker.  In the parable, we see the decisiveness of death.  If change and growth is to happen, it needs to happen this side of the grave.  The parable is meant to bother us, to get under our skin, to annoy us.

The point of the parable is not about rewarding the poor and punishing the rich. Rather, it is about the sense of duty and responsibility that comes with what we have been given. Despite his riches, the rich man simply does not look beyond his own gate. He does not care; he does not recognize Lazarus as a fellow human being and his brother. He fails in his responsibility as the brother’s keeper.

 

 

 

My Gospel question for all of us today is who and where is Lazarus among us today?  Lazarus lives in the children of this world who are dying each day from war, hunger, abuse, neglect, and disease.  As you and I look with great love on the children of our families and our parish family, may we be mindful of all children who suffer in our society today.

Lazarus lives in the immigrants, refugees, and otherwise displaced people.   While I fully recognize that immigration is a hot political topic in this election cycle, Lazarus lives is the heart of each and every immigrant.  They are God’s beloved.

Lazarus lives on in the many people in need who are supported by our diocesan Catholic Ministries Appeal – children and adults of immigrant farm families, the sick in the hospital, the young adults on our college campuses, serving people in need through Catholic Charities, and promoting the sanctity of all human life.

As we pray over today’s Gospel, unapologetically and in the name of Jesus, I ask you to generously support this year’s CMA.  Our parish goal is $219,000.  This is a big number, but may we see our commitment to the CMA not just as an obligation dumped on us, but it is an opportunity for us to share the blessings of life we have been given.  God loves a cheerful giver.

Our goal is very doable with a twofold parish commitment:  First, all of us are asked to participate in this year’s CMA, and secondly those who have been blessed financially, we ask that you give generously and increase your gift over last year if you are able.  I assure you I will personally give generously to the CMA and increase my gift over last year.

Those who have given previously will be receiving a letter from Bishop Matano and myself and an accompanying pledge card.  If you have not previously given to the CMA, there will be pledge envelopes in the pews for your convenience.

Yes, excuses abound for not responding to the Lazarus in our midst as we are asked to support the CMA.  You may say: “I can’t give to every beggar…That person should find a job…I don’t like our Bishop and therefore I’m not giving to the CMA…I need to take care of myself and my family.”

 

 

 

Today’s Gospel doesn’t hand out any free passes.    Each of us is to give and help in the ways we can.  While each of us has different gifts and different resources, none of us can remain indifferent to the poor among us.  The torment for the rich man began by locking himself in his narrow ego, going against his calling to give.

We need to begin with our remembrance that every Lazarus is a child of God, created in God’s image.  For that very reason, every Lazarus deserves my respect, my love, my proactive care.

We are called to revive the quality of caring that Jesus showed to all people.  If God cannot act through you and me to recognize the Lazarus who lives among us, then through whom will their needs be met? 

We are gathered for the meal which is the Eucharist. We are fed with his body and blood; we are nourished with the fullness of life and love. But we are reminded that the flesh we eat is broken for others and the blood we drink is shed for the life of the world.

Therefore we cannot properly receive the bread of life unless at the same time we give the bread of life to those in need wherever and whoever they may be.

May our sharing at this table strengthen us in our commitment to be humble servants of our brothers and sisters.  May we be filled with the fullness of life and the love of God and endeavor to share that life and love with others.

 

Have a blessed day. 

 

Today's Gospel proclaims how the Lord seeks us out; never gives up on us; and shares his merciful love with all of of us.

 

Twenty Fourth Sunday on OT  C  2022

 

The three parables in today’s Gospel are part of the basic memory of the disciples about the content of the Good News.  Today’s Gospel proclaims how the Lord seeks us out; never gives up on us; and shares his merciful love with those in need.

 

We are invited to see in these parables as a metaphor for God’s searching love that draws the sinner and the lost back to the fold, back home, back to God’s loving heart.

 

In the first parable, imagine God as a shepherd abandoning ninety-nine obedient sheep to seek the stupid one who got lost. From one perspective the parable of the shepherd doesn’t make sense to leave the 99 sheep, but from another perspective this beautiful parable reveals to us a God who never gives up on us.

 

 In the second parable. Imagine God as a distraught woman losing something and turning the house upside down to find it.

 

 Then in the third parable, imagine God as an unconditionally forgiving father granting an unworthy son an undeserved feast.

 

The parable of the prodigal son is the parable of the prodigal, forgiving father.  The father was filled with joy when he spotted his son returning home – the son a bit desperate, recognizing he had made a mess of his life.  The message of the parable is found in the father.   The father ran to his son, embraced him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and welcomed his son with an

extravagant celebration.  Jesus tells us this parable to describe the extravagant forgiving love of God for us.  Like the prodigal son, we are the recipients of God’s merciful love.

 

As you pray over this parable, who is the person in your life you find most difficult to forgive?   Who has judged you very unfairly, who has betrayed your trust, who has cheated on you, or who even in your own family do you experience considerable tension?

 

 

Sometimes genuine forgiveness is so difficult to come by.

As you pray over this parable of the prodigal son, consider the feelings of the father in this parable.  His younger son demanded his share of the inheritance coming to him upon his father’s death.  He wanted it now so he could abandon his family and his home and go off to live a reckless lifestyle.

 

 Consider the sense of abandonment, the betrayal, the anger the father must have felt.  From the son’s perspective, he seemed to be oblivious to the hurt he was inflicting on his dad.

 

Fast forward to when the son was penniless and came to his senses and decided to return to his father’s house, he came back just to be treated as one of his dad’s servants.

 

The point of this beautiful gospel parable is the father’s reaction when he caught sight of his son. He ran to him.  He embraced him with much love.  He put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and ordered the fatted calf to be killed and to have a celebration.

 

The father led with compassionate healing forgiveness rather than judgment and confrontation.  What happened to his negative feelings and judgments he surely could have carrying around?  This is a challenge for me to get my head around this.  But this is how God loves us. 

 

This beautiful parable of the prodigal son can rightly be called the parable of the forgiving father.  The message of the parable is not so much about the recklessness of the son as it is about the forgiving, loving father.

 

Now consider again the person you have the most difficulty extending a hand of forgiving love.  If you encountered this person just now, how would your encounter compare with the father’s encounter with his younger son?

 

Are we able to lead with compassion rather than judgment?  This is the grace we seek from today’s Scriptures.  And it is only with God’s grace are we able to let go of our negative feelings.

 

In this world of prodigal sons and prodigal daughters, do we witness to the judgmental scowl of the older brother in today’s Gospel parable, or do we witness to the reconciling love of the Father?

 

I suggest that the only way for us to extend forgiveness to those in your life that are so challenging for you is for you and me to humbly recognize ourselves as the prodigal son in this parable.

 

The prodigal son abandoned home and family in favor of reckless living.  While we may not have physically left home and family as did the prodigal son, the prayer of the parable invites us to reflect on how we have spiritually abandoned home and family.

 

When have the challenges of life have caused us to lose trust that our loving God holds us in the palm of his hand?  When have we questioned or doubted God’s healing presence in our life?

 

Our sinfulness our greed, our pride, the judgments we make about others are an abandonment of our Father’s house of merciful love.

 

As we examine our conscience, there are many ways we have abandoned the faithful and unending love of Jesus

 

The older brother in the parable of the prodigal son needs to caution us against the rigidity and the resentment that can be the downfall of the righteous.  People can feel distant from the Church for any number of reasons:  divorce and

remarriage, same sex attraction, alleged or real insensitivity on the part of church authorities, scandal caused by church leaders, disagreements over moral issues such as abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, capital punishment, war, and so on.

 

May we, the church of St. Joseph’s, be a faith community that re-commits ourselves to witness to God’s love and mercy in our world.  May we commit ourselves to bring healing and forgiveness to a broken world.  May we in all situations and circumstances witness to the love of Jesus Christ in our world.

All are welcome in our faith community.   May we be faithful witnesses of God’s compassionate love in the lives of all people.

 

The message of the Gospel is always two-sided:  he reconciles us, and we must reconcile others.

 

May we test the Catholicity of our faith community by the ways we witness to the 15^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel.  We gather indeed because has chosen and sought us out and never gives up on us.  We gather to give thanks to God who is the Good Shepherd and the Merciful Father.  As we have been given, so we are to share.  We are to  welcome, forgive, be peacemakers, and be a community that proactively reaches in the service of the marginalized and the poor.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

May the unplanned crosses of life lead us to trust more fully in Jesus whose promise to us is that our times are in His hands.

 

Twenty Third Sunday in OT  C  2022

 

I recently had a mountaintop experience.  I went to the wise one and said:  “I’ve traveled many miles to have you answer my question, O wise One.”  “I am honored my son.  What is your question?”  “How can I eliminate stress and frustration from my daily life?  How can I achieve inner peace and tranquility?”  “The answer is simple, my son.” What is it, O wise one, what is it?”   “SELL YOUR GOLF CLUBS.”

Labor Day weekend marks summer’s end.  Vacations are over.  The academic year begins again.  In the parish, faith formation resumes again and the parish ministries revive.  Depending on your perspective, it is the best of time; it is the worst of times.   

As we pray over the Scriptures, in this season or in any season of the year, we know that Jesus is the face of God made visible and the one who challenges each day on the quality of our discipleship.  Much of the Lucan Gospel is set against the backdrop of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem where he was to suffer and die.  On their way, Jesus continued the formation of his disciples, telling them both the blessings and the struggles entailed in following Him.  As Jesus teaches, his message and words reach across the centuries and invites and challenges us in our discipleship of Jesus.

In our Gospel today, we hear that Jesus was thronged by large crowds swelling around him as he journeyed to Jerusalem.  If he was a politician that would be grand news indeed.  Indeed, politicians often will say or do anything to increase their ranks.  Not so with Jesus.

So when Jesus saw the crowds rushing toward him, coming along side to journey with Him to Jerusalem, he offered the words of our Gospel for today.  There are three jarring statements:  “If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple...Anyone who does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple…Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

What?  Say that again!  Hate your family, carry a cross, and give up everything else in life—that is the cost of following Jesus.  Who would sign up to be a disciple?  For anyone just looking for an easy tour of the Holy Land, that was not the Messiah you would want to follow.  Jesus is not enlisting fair-weather fans.  Jesus wants to be very clear with his would-be disciples.

For a disciple of Jesus, discipleship demands single-minded loyalty.  Every disciple of Jesus must be prepared to endure suffering.

What does Jesus mean when he says we are to hate.  It would seem that Jesus did not get the memo from Pope Francis that we are to be a Church of mercy and love.  In fact, what Jesus is confronting his disciples with is that we must choose Jesus and in so doing we need to reorder all other priorities which compromise our discipleship of Jesus.  We need to reorder even intimate relationships if they block us from making Christ first in our lives.  Discipleship of the Lord Jesus can never be a “Sunday only” commitment.

I have always have found much inspiration from Mother Teresa. Indeed, Mother Teresa had a single minded loyalty to Christ and her service to people most in need.  Indeed, Mother Teresa was prepared to endure suffering for the sake of serving the poor.  May we embrace the spirituality of Mother Teresa who says: “it’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” Another piece of her wisdom:  “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”  If you ever question the need for prayer before we engage in ministry, listen again to the words of Mother Teresa:  “Unless you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear Him saying “I thirst” in the hearts of the poor.”

We as a Church are grateful for the ministry and the spirituality of Mother Teresa.  May we be inspired by her single--minded love of Christ.  Her vocation is not our vocation in the sense that we are not missionaries of charity in Calcutta.  However, our vocation to be a disciple of Jesus is the same discipleship as Mother Teresa’s.   Discipleship of Jesus takes many forms, and we are to interpret this Gospel in the light of the particular form of discipleship to which we have committed ourselves—marriage, parenting, friendship, career, religious life, lay ecclesial ministry, or priesthood.  We also think of other commitments we and others make:  to the social change of bringing reconciliation between ethnic groups or religions.

For us to respond to the jarring demands of discipleship expressed in today’s Gospel, our hearts need to be touched by the person of Jesus.  We need conversion experiences.  In the words of Mother Teresa, we need to hear Jesus in the silence of our own hearts.  We need to experience ourselves as God’s beloved sons and daughters.  We need to know the merciful love of Jesus in our lives.

What will it take for us to experience and know God’s love for us?  This is what motivates us to renounce anything that keeps us from our discipleship of Jesus.

Again in the words of Mother Teresa:  “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money you have made, how many things we have done, we will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me.  I was homeless, and you took me in.

We pray for parents who have let go of their children as they have gone off to college; we pray for collegians as they begin a new chapter in their journey of discipleship; we pray for parishioners who have chosen to engage in ministry that pushes them out of their comfort zone; and we pray for parishioners who are coming to terms with the aging process; we pray for parishioners who are dealing with illness in their lives.

The truth is many of us are being challenged to “give up something.”  This may be a voluntary or just plain dealing with the reality of life.  May we discover Christ in this letting go process.  May this letting go be grace-filled and challenge us to trust in Christ more fully as we renounce, as take up a new cross, as we have to die to something that is difficult to let go of.  May we see with a spiritual sightedness that indeed like Christ we are on a journey to Jerusalem in which we need to continuously die to self and to make Christ more central to our lives. 

Have a blessed day.

 

 

Jesus has a strange way of looking on whom to invite and who are the most important.

 

Twenty  Second Sunday in OT  C  2022

 

Today can be fittingly called HUMILITY SUNDAY judging from the perspective of the first reading and the Gospel. Please take a close look at the word humility.  The word comes from the Latin humilis which means lowly, close to the earth.  The root is actually humus which means soil.  Hence to be humble is seen as being down-to-earth.  Humility goes with selflessness.

 Sirach in the first Scripture reading says that God loves the humbles and detests the proud.   The more we humble ourselves, we find favor with God.

We see in today’s Gospel what is often true in the parables of Jesus is that we go from the known to the unknown.  In this parable, the known for all is that we are familiar with eating together at table.  What is the unknown is that Jesus is pointing to is two very important lessons on what the kingdom of God is like. 

So we ask what is God’s kingdom like?

First Lesson:  Jesus is observing how the guests are choosing places of honor at the banquet table.  Where we are seated at the banquet is indicative of your place of honor.  For those of us invited to wedding banquets, the bride, or perhaps the bride’s mother, has somewhat carefully chosen who seats with whom at the wedding banquet. The places of honor are somewhat predetermined.

There is a side of all of us that welcomes a bit of honor and recognition.

Jesus invites us to take the lowest place and hopefully the host will invite you to come higher.  But please notice that this parable is not about clever maneuvering so that you will be honored when the host invites you to come up higher.

Rather Jesus is challenging that side of us that wants to be honored and recognized.

The meaning of the parable can be found by recalling the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples in which Jesus knelt down and put a towel around his waist and washed the feet of his disciples.  Jesus gave the example to the apostles of how they were to be His followers.

 

 The first lesson from this parable is that his disciples, rather than jockeying for places of honor, were to humbly serve one another.  The way of humble service is to characterize table fellowship in the kingdom of God.

It takes humility to know God and to love Him and our neighbors.  It takes humility to pray.  It takes humility to repent from one’s sins.  It takes humility to say: “I am sorry.”

What do you think?  Is it true that there is abundance of pride but scarcity of humility in politics and in all the ways we try to climb the ladder of success?  It takes humility to let go and to let God.  Our salvation was an act of humility.

St Paul said:  “Though he was in the form  of God he did not deem equality with God with something to be grasped but he humbled Himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient even unto death, death on the cross.

Humility is a garment we all need to wear.  There is a true story that during a presentation at a certain University, a student was holding his paper at his left hand while making his presentation.  Sighting him, a professor scolded him harshly and asked him to hold the paper in his right hand and sit down.  The young man raised his right arm for everyone to see that half of it was cut off.  The professor seeing this came to the boy knelt down before him and begged to be forgiven because he did not know about his disability.  This act of the professor touched and changed the life of not only the boy but many of the students.

God is not interested in what we are but in who we are --  that is where humility can be found.

The second extremely important lesson can be found in the latter part of the parable when Jesus says: “When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.”

 This second lesson speaks to the hospitality of God that the Church is to embody.  All are welcome without prejudice in the kingdom of God.  Jesus is the embodiment of God’s hospitality.

How do we as a parish community welcome the outcasts into our parish community?  Do we welcome all people without regard to their race, their sexual orientation, their marital status or whatever there is about a particular person?

And do we feel at home eating where the poor, the crippled, and the outcasts eat or is this below our status and way of life?  This is a challenge, is it not, to go beyond our comfort zone.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has a strange way of looking on whom to invite and who are the most important.  The point is everyone is invited to the banquet of Jesus.

As we gather for this Eucharistic meal today, we reflect on how we have gathered for this meal.  Do we see each other as brothers and sisters?   Do we see ourselves as servants of each other?  Do we see ourselves as the servants of all who are poor?  Are all welcome to this table of the Lord?

If there is a bit of the parable that makes us uncomfortable or challenged beyond our comfort zone, we have understood well the message of Jesus.

 

Have a Blessed Day.