Urban Hermit at 3156 Doyle Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2006 US - Year C, 26th-Christ the King
| Year C, 26th-Christ the King |
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) – The Poor among Us Amos 6:1a, 4-7—God tells the complacent, first in all material things now, that they will be the first into exile. Psalm 146: Praise the Lord, my soul! 1 Timothy 6:11-16—Paul charges those who pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness to compete for the faith. Luke 16:19-31—The rich man ignores Lazarus’ need during his life, so he cannot be helped in his own need in the afterlife. Dear People of God, Again this week the readings tell us of the condemnation that inevitably falls to those who ignore the poor. Amos and Luke give us an identical message: those who are wealthy in the things of this world and do not share with those who have nothing are doomed to greater suffering. They will be the first into exile, Amos says, just as they were first in enjoying the good life to the detriment of others. Luke’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus is parallel: every day the rich man passes the suffering Lazarus at his very door, and he is so inured to the needs of others that he does not even notice him in his pain and want. When Lazarus and he die, Lazarus and Abraham are beyond his reach, just as he was beyond the supplicant voice of Lazarus on earth. Just as Lazarus watched him pass by, well-fed and well-clothed with a surfeit of the world’s goods, so the rich man must watch and suffer as Lazarus is eternally comforted. So, Paul tells us, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness. Keep the commandment without stain or approach. And the commandment is, as we well know, to love one another. As we go about this week, let’s keep our eyes open for the poor among us, whether they beg at our door or huddle in refugee camps on the other side of the world. They are the ones to whom we must show love, or it is we who will perish. If we do not help, they will continue in their worldly need, but we will go on eternally to spiritual destitution. God bless! ______________________________________________ 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): I Cry for Help Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4—Wait! The vision will surely come; the just one, because of faith, will live. Psalm 95: If today you hear God's voice, harden not your hearts. 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14—Stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of hands. Guard this rich trust of power, love, and self-control with the help of the Holy Spirit. Luke 17:5-10—When you’ve done all you have been commanded, say, “We are unworthy servants, doing what we were obliged to do.” Dear People of God, Faith is indeed a gift from God, the source of real life for each of us. The prophet Habakkuk, in today’s first reading, laments the absence of God and God’s justice in the world. How his words echo our own these days: “How long, O Lord? I cry for help, but you do not listen! I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not intervene.” God will not disappoint us, however, and justice will come. We are encouraged to guard the trust of faith, and we are promised that the Holy Spirit will help us do that. “Stir into flame” this gift of faith, Paul tells Timothy in our second reading. Finally, in our Gospel pericope from Luke, we find that the faith that will move mountains need be no bigger than a mustard seed. With this great gift of faith, we can do anything God has commanded. When we have done all that, whether it’s moving mountains or making bricks without straw, we can only say that we have done what we have been obliged to do. All our actions issue from the faith that God gives us. In these trying days of pending parish closings, mergers, and twinnings in the Diocese of Toledo, we find ourselves crying out to God just as Habakkuk did. Faith communities that have endured for 150 years face the end of their sojourn in this area. One of the challenges is to cherish all that has gone before while braving the new journey. All that is past is not gone; it remains as witness to the hearts and souls of the people of God in Toledo, Ohio. The future is not empty, either; the Spirit beckons us to continue in faith. As we go about this week, let’s look at the miracles we perform in our attempts to serve God, and let’s be thankful for the faith that moves us, mountains that we are! God bless! ____________________________________________ 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): Unbound 2 Kings 5:14-17—Naaman the foreigner is healed of his leprosy. Psalm 98: God, you have revealed to the nations your saving power. 2 Timothy 2:8-13—The word of God is not chained. Luke 17:11-19—The foreigner returns to give thanks. Dear People of God, In the midst of life it’s sometimes hard to keep the faith. At times we’re surrounded by people for whom all is going well, and we’re beset on every side by constraint and sickness and frustration. Today’s readings point the way for us. The voice of a little girl, slave to Naaman’s wife, speaks up in her own bondage to reveal to Naaman the way to healing and faith. Paul, again in prison, reminds us that the word of God is not chained even though we may be. Finally, in the Gospel, nine of the ten who are freed from their leprosy walk back into the chains of the Jewish religious leadership while the one foreigner finds freedom in thanking Jesus for the gift of health. As we go about this week, let’s be mindful that we, too, are able to heal and be healed in the midst of the chains that bind us. God is faithful, and God is unbound by the limits that we see. God bless! ________________________ 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): Help for the Weary Exodus 17:8-13—With Aaron and Hur supporting his hands aloft so that the Israelites could see him, Moses remained steady and the Israelites prevailed. Psalm 121: Our help is from the God who made heaven and earth. 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2—Be persistent; proclaim the word whether it is convenient or inconvenient. Luke 18:1-8—Pray always without becoming weary. Dear People of God, Weary. None of us is able to sustain the peak of intimate connection to God for long. It is a grace that we are able to experience it at all. Indeed, we are even unable to keep ourselves on an even plateau of everyday equanimity. The slough of despond waits virtually every footstep, and it’s quite often that we step in. Moses is a type of the journey, meeting obstacles at every step. Throughout Exodus we see him confronted by obstacles greater than the imagination can create, and God is always with him, one way or another. The burning bush, the cloud by day and fire by night, the parted waters of the sea, water from the rock. In today’s reading we see him too weary to keep his arms lifted in encouragement of the people in battle. Unable to see their leader urging them on, the Israelites falter. When he regains enough strength to lift his arms, they rally. And they prevail when his lieutenants help him by holding his arms up for him. All about us we see our leaders growing weary. Our civic leaders are tired of the conflict here and around the world. Our citizens are tired of crime and war and violence. It seems as if God is silent in the face of so much misery. The lesson is clear. We need the encouragement of a persistent leader. It’s not necessary that our leaders be strong and invincible. It is only necessary that they call upon others to help them persevere. So it is in our church, where the priest-pastors are increasingly weary under the burdens of fewer priests and more parishioners to serve. We have made great strides in the past 40 years to find ways to help them hold their hands up in prayer. Among those, the position of Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist stands out. One priest is unable to sustain the burden (and the joy) of ministering the Eucharist personally to 8,000 people or even 4,000 people. The Eucharistic Ministers help, as did the early disciples, with the distribution of the bread at Mass and to the sick and homebound, multiplying the effectiveness of the presider a hundredfold. Some in our church would do away with the practices of lay ministry, claiming that they show a lack of reverence for the body of Christ. These backward-looking folks seem unaware of the other presences of Christ in the assembly, the presider, and the Word, focusing only on the consecrated host and hoping to surround it with medieval monarchical obeisance. They seem equally unaware that, for the first years of our church, the practices we have re-instituted since 1965 were the norm. The model of Aaron and Hur is set before us today. In what ways might we imitate them, helping our leaders through the long days of struggle? Let us continue to proclaim the word in our daily lives, persistent in our prayer as the widow before the judge. God bless! _________ 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): Exalted Woes of Discipleship Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18—The one who serves God willingly is heard; the prayer of the lowly reaches the clouds. Psalm 34: The Lord hears the cry of the poor. 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 10-18—The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom. Luke 18:9-14—The one who humbles himself will be exalted. Dear People of God, In order to serve God willingly, it is necessary to be humble enough to accept the life and task set for me. Is it any wonder that my prayer is not heard? It is often a prayer that I be delivered from my station in life, delivered from the necessary burdens of my vocation, delivered from the woes of following Jesus. To humble myself to the point that I accept these seemingly insignificant requirements of my life, embrace them and carry them out with great precision, is to serve God willingly. My prayer that God will keep me from evil while I continue about my daily life will be heard. Then will I be brought safely to the heavenly kingdom. It is not always easy to have faith in the face of life’s ordinary days. As we go about this week, let’s keep in mind the fact that these days, one after another, build up the kingdom of God and guarantee that we will be exalted in God’s eyes. God bless!
_________
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): Freedom to Repent
Wisdom 11:22-12:2—God, you overlook people’s sins that they may repent.
Psalm 145: I will praise your name forever, my king and my God.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2—May the name of our Lord Jesus be glorified in you, and you in him.
Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus came down quickly and received Jesus with joy at his house.
Dear People of God,
Whenever we hold people’s sins in our minds and hearts, they are bound by them, and so they live in defense of their sinfulness. In order for them to repent, they need us to release them, to overlook their sins, so that they may in their own minds come to understand that they have been sinful and move toward sorrow and amendment.
This psychological truth is explicated in today’s first reading from Wisdom. We understand how that works, in our heart of hearts. For as long as the people around us remember our sin and act toward us as sinners, we feel we must defend our selves, our egos, by defending whatever it was that we did. But as soon as we are free—as soon as the people around us act toward us as equal human beings—we can stand away from our sin, see it as it is, and repent.
So in today’s reading from Luke we see Jesus allowing Zacchaeus to act from his best self rather from the self that is despised for its sinfulness by his Jewish neighbors. They recognize him in his sin, as his sin: he is the tax collector who extorts high payment from them to line his own pockets and support the hated oppressors from Rome.
Jesus, however, sees him as a descendent of Abraham and overlooks his sin, seeking to join him at table in his own house. Zacchaeus’ response it total: once his sin is overlooked, he is free to repent, and he does.
As we go about this week, let’s take a look at the ways in which we are held in sin, either by others or by ourselves, and the way in which we hold others in their sin. Let’s look beyond to the place where we may begin to repent and live in freedom.
God bless!
___________
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): The Way of Love
2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14—We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.
Psalm 17: Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5—The Lord is faithful and will strengthen you; may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.
Luke 20:27-38—Those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead can no longer die; they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.
Dear People of God,
Today’s readings are indeed readings for the end times as we approach the end of our liturgical year. We hear of dying for the faith, being delivered from perverse and wicked people, the resurrection of the dead.
It is hard not to think of the state of mind of the terrorists who flew to their deaths on September 11, indeed of the state of mind of anyone who believes so firmly in something that they are willing to die for it. At the same time, there’s an important distinction that must not be overlooked. The Maccabees in today’s first reading and Paul in today’s second reading, ready to die “rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors,” did not launch terrorist attacks on those they saw as perverse and wicked. They used peaceful means of persuasion, resisting with the words of truth and the endurance of their hearts.
With so many shouts of vengeance in our world today, we need to reflect on the message here. We have already begun eternal life. God is in charge, and vengeance will be wrought where God wills it, in God’s time. For us, the way of love is the Way of Christ. Let’s follow him, even to the cross, believing we are indeed the children of God who will rise.
God bless!
__________
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): By Perseverance You Will Secure Your Lives
Malachi 3:19-20a—For you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.
Psalm 98: God comes to rule the world with justice.
2 Thessalonians 3:7-12—In toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you.
Luke 21:5-19—You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.
Dear People of God,
Again this week the Word of God tells us of the end times and our need to persevere, asserting that we will not be harmed even though some of us will be put to death. Historically, it is the faith story of the fall of the temple and resistance to Roman rule that took place near the end of the first century of the Christian era. In terms of our own hearing it today, it is the promise that the tough times of the day and the end times of this earth are not the end times of our eternal lives.
The sun of justice will rise, and its healing rays will shine on us, if only we persevere in the faith. This is a message of faith and hope to those of us working in today’s church. Very often we encounter the disorderly Paul talks about in the second reading. Very often we encounter those who persecute others because of their Christian values and virtues. Sometimes we even ask if our church is Christian in the real sense of the word.
Today’s readings encourage us to stick with it. The problems have been here before, and the solution—God’s way—remains.
God bless!
__________
Christ the King (C): Peace by the Blood of the Cross
2 Samuel 5:1-3—You shall shepherd my people.
Psalm 122: I rejoiced when I heard them say, let us go to the house of God.
Colossians 1:12-20—Making peace by the blood of his cross.
Luke 23:35-43—Jesus, remember me.
Dear People of God,
Here we are at the end of Ordinary Time again, the cycle of our liturgical year ending with a call to the humiliation and exaltation of the cross. The Gospel shows us a Jesus rejected, with the powerful of his society sneering and jeering at him. One criminal, however, understands and asks Jesus to remember him, and Jesus promises him paradise.
That last act of compassion from the suffering, dying King of Kings is the one that gives us hope. No matter how great our sinfulness, no matter how impossible the situation seems to be, Christ will see our faith and take us with him into the kingdom.
It is through his submissive suffering that Christ reigns. Just so we are called to submission to the will of God as we shepherd the people of God given us in our own lives, knowing that there will be peace through the peacefulness we live just as there is peace through the blood of Christ’s cross.
God bless!
__________
