29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2016

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2016

29C 10/29/16

Recently, I tried to use a ball point pen and it just would not write at all.  I tried a few more and, although, I got some of them to work for a little while, they would stop, then start again, and stop yet again.  They had either completely or partially dried up.  Such is our spiritual life when we don’t pray or just pray every now and then.  Our spiritual life runs dry or lackadaisical.  We have spiritual life when we are the branch that is connected to the vine and only insofar as we stay connected.

Prayer has many forms.  Aaron’s raised hands were his way of communicating with Yahweh.  Yahweh answered in return by giving the Israelites the victory as long as he was in prayer, i.e., as long as his hands were raised.  In Luke 18:1-8, it says,   ” Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.”  God will answer our prayers as he sees fit or as he sees things, i.e., according to his will.  I understand the phrase “without becoming weary,” to mean without stopping our prayer or becoming lackadaisical.  Otherwise, we cut ourselves off from the only true source of goodness.

In 2 Timothy 3:14-44:2, Paul writes, “ Beloved: Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”  The sacred Scriptures that Paul is referring to, are what we call the Old Testament.  Paul’s   ‘2 Timothy’ is, in fact, an example or part of the New Testament in the act of being written.  When we read the Scriptures, not only in an intellectual mode, trying to understand what the words are saying, but also in a prayerful mode, trying to listen to what the Holy Spirit may be saying to us through the words of Scripture, then we are capable of receiving “wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

In the last line of Luke 18:1-8, it says, ”But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Jesus finds that all too many people fail to respond or respond only half-heartedly to him.  Some do become weary and are not persist.

These Sunday readings require rebirth(Jn.3:1-9), i.e., leaving behind, burying many habits that have become ingrained from our infancy: to be independent, self-reliant, not needing anyone, not even God. The devil and secular society do everything to reinforce those behaviors, those mental & emotional sets. To be truly a follower of Jesus & led by God, the Holy Spirit, we ought to die through the grace of God to one’s old self, to be reborn a new person in Christ, a person who is reliant only on the Lord, dependent on God every moment.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Oct. 9, 2022

28C22.    2 Kings 5:14-17.    Naaman, a powerful and opulent non-Jew, made helpless by his leprosy, submits himself to the power of the God of the Jews and he is made clean.  Naaman returns to offer a generous thank-you gift to Elisha, the Jewish prophet, who had given Naaman the instructions for his cleansing but Elisha refuses any gift.  Rejecting any other gods, Naaman professes his faith in the God of the Jews.

Luke 17:11-19.   Jesus, while on his journey to Jerusalem, the holy city of his Jewish faith, cures ten lepers.  The one, who was not of Jesus’ Jerusalem Jewish faith and so considered to be a foreigner, returns to Jesus to show his gratitude by glorifying the God who in Jesus had just given him good health.  Jesus “then said to him, ‘Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.’” With the cure of leprosy they all had the good health that they could perhaps enjoy till they day they died; but, with the Samaritan’s thanksgiving, he received the salvation that he could enjoy eternally after leaving life on this earth.  It is so natural to just enjoy our everyday good health and pleasant earthly life.  However, in turning back to the gracious source of the gift of our daily natural life, with a deep sense of how generous is the God whose generosity we enjoy every day, we open ourselves to live in his generosity for all of eternity.

2 Timothy 2:8-13.  Paul wrote that he was suffering for the gospel, “even to the point of chains, like a criminal.  Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory.”  We rejoice in the salvation that is the being saved from the suffering of ill health that enables us to enjoy life here on earth; but we rejoice infinitely more in that salvation from sin that God gives us that enables us to enjoy life forever.

Psalm 98.  “The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.”  “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God.”  From the hand of God and God alone comes at its root all truly good things.  We live in eternal thanksgiving to our loving God.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2019

28C19.   2 Kings 5:14-17.  “Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of Elisha, the man of God.”  Jesus himself had been baptized in the Jordan.  The symbolism of plunging below the water and rising up can be seen for Naaman as a cleansing as well as a resurrection from all that was sinful and a life lived in the belief of false gods.  Naaman “stood before Elisha and said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” He had found not only good health in place of leprosy but even more important a holiness that gave him eternal life.  Elisha rejects Naaman’s gift because he acts only to receive his reward from God and not any human being.  As well as Naaman Elisha lives for what is eternal and not just for what is temporary.

Luke 17:11-19.  Jesus has compassion on the lepers and cleanses them. Only the Samaritan, (who was deemed to be a wretched traitor to what was considered the only true Judaism because worship was thought only acceptable that was centered in Jerusalem) “realizing he had been healed, returned glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” Jesus “said to him, ‘Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.’” Apparently the other nine were so self-absorbed and self-centered that they could not think beyond and outside of themselves to the Giver of the incredible gift they had just received. The nine received a gift that could only last to the grave; the Samaritan received the gift that was temporary also but more importantly the gift of faith that was eternal. The nine probably thought just of themselves returning to a normal healthy life. Living our lives within the boundaries of our own self is to live in a small insular world; living our lives with God as the center is to live in a world that is boundless.

2 Timothy 2:8-13.  Paul is witnessing from the sufferings of his own life to the necessity to endure the difficulties of staying on the narrow way in world that cannot understand or accept anyone who is not self-serving but is God-centered instead.  Jesus says in John 17:14a, b: “I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world.”  Paul writes, “This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him.”  This world apart from God is only empowered to provide for us up to the grave and not beyond.  Only God can give what is eternal.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Oct. 2, 2022

27C22.      Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4.    The prophet cries out, “O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen!”  The Lord answered, “The just one, because of his faith, shall live.”  God’s mercy belongs to those who have made it clear in their life of faith in God that they belong to God.

Luke 17:5-16.  “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’”  Faith is powerful because it unites us to the all-powerful almighty divinity.  Faith gives us the power to rise above just being another animal of this world to being a child of the God who loves us dearly.  Faith is not something that is simply given to us but what we gradually gain by living a life of ever-growing union with God, seeing, as we grow in faith, the wondrous results of that growth.  However, we must do it in a spirit of humility, not brandishing our good works and demanding reward for our faithful service but living as humble servants whose reward is having the privilege of serving our Almighty God.

2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14.  Paul encourages Timothy “to stir into flame the gift of God” “of power and love and self-control.”  “Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me.”  “Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.”  What Paul gave to Timothy was what he had received from God.  Faith is the acceptance of having been entrusted with the presence of the Holy Spirit who breathes God’s heavenly life into us, while we are just only bodily creatures of this earth.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2019

27C19.   Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4a.   “How long, O Lord?  I cry for help but you do not listen!”  The disloyalty of Judah to their God brings on their destruction by the Babylonians.  God punishes the evil people but the just suffer too.  “But the just one, because of his faith, shall live.”  Those who remain faithful to the Lord need to remain faithful despite their sufferings.

Luke 17:5-10.   “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”  These fishermen were practical people.  You cannot eat the fish that got away but you could have fun talking about them.  It is one thing to know what you see and have in your hand but another just to simply believe that the Lord will provide while right now you have nothing in hand.  I love this example of the mulberry tree.  When I lived in the country, the mulberry tree was like an unwanted weed because the birds would eat the berries and their droppings would plant them in every place they were not wanted.  For this reason I believe Jesus selects the mulberry tree to be uprooted and destroyed.  The point is not that the purpose of faith is to destroy mulberry trees but to destroy what is malevolent and destructive.  Faith is a life lived in the power of God’s hand and not in the illusion of our own.

This next line can be difficult for many because we wish to be recognized for our own good faith efforts.  We live in a world of hours and wages and files in the personnel office of our work.  Our natural instinct is to be rewarded in proportion to our service and so we are busy calculating that in our own mind and heart.  In the spiritual world, in God’s world, we leave all that to God, free from judging ourselves and others as to what our efforts are worth.  To the degree that we are recipients of the gifts God has given us, we do our best and do not waste our useful time and resources mulling over what rewards we deserve. Leave the measuring our merits to God.  The household of God is like many of our own family households here.  Little will get done if we are measuring what we have done against what others have done or failed to do.  God has entrusted his love for us to move us to love him in return.  God rejoices in love returned for love given but is not dissuaded for love that is not accepted and responded to but continues to love whether accepted or rejected.  If gratitude is given or not, God is our example to never stop loving.

2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14. Some precious verses in this reading are: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.”  “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God”.  God gives us the strength we need in persecution or temptation. “Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwell within us.”  The ‘trust’ is like a savings in the bank.  We have been given much; recognize what a treasure it is.  Guard it through the power of God, the Holy Spirit, who is our spiritual life within us.  Without him we will become nothing but the dirt of this earth.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sept. 25, 2022

26C22.   Amos 6:1a, 4-7.   Amos condemns the rich who are lost enjoying their wealth while they have no regard for the moral collapse of Israel.  The rich will be taken as the most prized captives by the Assyrians who are soon to invade them.  Their wanton revelry shall be their destruction.

Luke 16:19-31.  The wantonly rich man dined sumptuously while ignoring the abysmal poverty of Lazarus.  The rich man died, ending in torment in the netherworld while Lazarus “was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.”  In torment the rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to relieve his sufferings but “Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad.’”   Abraham rejects the rich man’s request, noting that no one can pass from one afterlife realm to another.  Then the rich man requests that Abraham send Lazarus from the dead to warn his five brothers of the torment that lay ahead if they do not repent.  “Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”  Only by living in the power of God can we be freed from the grip of the temptations of this world.  This world has the power to engulf us in it.  Only God can release us from that power.

1 Timothy 6:11-16.  “Compete well for the faith.  Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.”  Paul is telling Timothy and us to challenge the ways of this world by striving to live our faith in Jesus. This world mightily attracts us to live for earthly life and so forgo eternal life.  Instead possess eternal life by living ‘in Christ’ daily.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2019

26C19.   Amos 6:1a, 4-7.   Judah and Israel wallow in their luxury, “yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph!”  The House of Joseph is the kingdom of Israel or northern kingdom which was facing total collapse and destruction yet the people were lost in their material and physical pleasures, refusing to face the consequences of being lost in their ‘wanton revelry.”

Luke 16:19-31.  This parable of the rich man and Lazarus does not incriminate the rich man because he was rich but because he did not accept the obligation that his wealth put upon him to share out of his superabundance with Lazarus who had nothing.  In the parable of the separation of the sheep from the goats, Jesus said in Matthew 25:45-46: “The Son of Man will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”  As Jesus poured out himself in love for us, we must extend ourselves in love for one another.  In refusing to aid the poor man in his torment the rich man had to face the consequences of his behavior.  Jesus said in John 5:28-29: “Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, and but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.”  This is called the final judgment because God has given us our time to live out our choice: to accept him and his reign over us or to go some other way.  He has set our time here.  Once that runs out, there is no more.  What we have chosen we have chosen.  Jesus continues in the parable, saying through Abraham: “Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.”  The rich man appeals yet again, saying, “’If someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’”  Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”

1 Timothy 6:11-16.   I want to quote some of the lines from this reading, blending them together in my own way. “Lay hold of eternal life.”  I charge you” “to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,” “who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no human being has seen or can see.”  We must prepare to enter heaven by living a heavenly life now.  Moses said in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your strength.”

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sept. 18, 2022

25C22.   Amos 8:4-7.  In Amos’ times the rich people were taking advantage of and cheating the poor.  So “the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done!”  “For it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” (Romans 12:19c)

Luke 16:1-13.  The steward was being removed for squandering his master’s property.  He was in a quandary as to how he was going to support himself no longer having his stewardship.  His solution was to freely diminish what was owed to his previous master by each one of his master’s debtors, so to be welcomed as a payback into their homes.  “And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.” Since the steward was acting by dishonest means, I prefer to refer to his actions as being devious, cunning or scheming.  Then Jesus says, “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”  I think what Jesus is saying is that good people do not show as much initiative in getting things done as do bad people. Then Jesus says, “Make friends for yourselves with the dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”  I believe that what Jesus is saying is that, when dishonest people find that their dishonesty gets them nothing that is worthwhile, they will turn to becoming honest so to be welcomed into heaven.  Then Jesus goes on to say, “If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you true wealth?  If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?”  I think Jesus is saying is that our behavior follows a pattern or routine that we have acted out of.  Jesus is calling on us to be trustworthy with what is God’s so that, when we have been trustworthy to what is God’s, God may in turn give us something of what is his and it may become ours. What is God’s is grace or a share in his divine spiritual life that people who are only earthly do not understand.   Jesus goes on to say, “No servant can serve two masters.”  We all will eventually lead lives that will serve or value God, who is the true wealth, OR this world, our selfish selves and the devil, which is the dishonest or false wealth.

1 Timothy 2:1-8.  “Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.”  Paul is telling Timothy and us to challenge the ways of this world by striving to live our faith in Jesus.  This world mightily attracts us to live for earthly life and so forego eternal life.  Instead possess eternal life by living ‘in Christ’ daily.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2019

25C19.   Amos 8:4-7.      Amos bemoans the fact that the well-to-do could follow the Law on one hand but on the other behaved like the devil in the way they mistreated the poor and those who could not defend themselves.  However, the Lord promises just retribution when he says through Amos: “Never will I forget a thing they have done.”

Luke 16:1-13.  In this parable the rich man dismisses his wasteful, squandering steward.  In considering his options the steward shrewdly and ruthlessly develops a plan to provide for his future at the expense of his master.   The parable continues, saying, “And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.”  The word ‘prudently’ in this case means that he cunningly calculated what he needed to do to turn things around to his advantage. The parable continues by saying, “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”  What I think Jesus is saying is that the children of darkness are more diligent, industrious and sophisticated in promoting their dishonesty that the children of light in promoting their Lord and Master.  Jesus goes on to make it clear that we must first be worthy of his trust in us by doing well with the small things he gives us.  The ‘true wealth‘ that Jesus refers to, that we will be entrusted with, is his life in us, his dwelling within us, that will make us fruitful in bringing others to him.  Jesus continues by saying: “No one can serve two masters,” meaning that we must be wholly devoted to one or to the other.  He goes on: “You cannot serve both God and mammon.”  Life in this world challenges us day after day. To whom do we belong: the material, the flesh, self-centeredness or God, the spiritual, self- surrender.  Paul in 1 Timothy 6:9-10 wrote, “Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation and into a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all evils.”  The center and love of our lives must be God, for he is the one and only God, and from our love for him must flow all our other loves.  Jesus said in Matthew 6: 20-21: “But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”

1 Timothy 2:1-8.   In offering “supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings” we are implicitly saying that it is God upon whom we depend for any and all of goodness in this world.  Then Paul gives a short and concise creed to establish the hub or center around which everything turns: For there is one God.  There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all.”  This is the truth that Paul was commissioned to speak.  Paul continues, “It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument.”  Paul is asserting that, if we want anything truly good in our lives, we must go to God in pray.

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sept. 11, 2022

24C22.    Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14.    God said to Moses, “That my wrath may blaze up against them.”  God was enraged that his people made a molten calf idol to replace him.  “But Moses implored the Lord, his God,” so that “the Lord repented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.”  God rejoices that sinners return to him by the power of his salvific grace to help them to become saints, in his image and likeness.

Luke 15:1-32.   “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”  The parable that follows explains that the Prodigal Son, the flagrant sinner, was received back by his father despite his sinfulness because of his deep repentance.  The elder son, much like the Pharisees and scribes who had always been faithful, complained grievously that he had always been faithful but his faithfulness had not been properly respected and rewarded by the father, who was extravagantly generous to the sinful son but not to him.  The father “said to him, ‘my son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.’”  We are all sinners whom the Lord, our Father, enables to return to him to live as his sons and daughters.  Let us rejoice that we are loved so dearly and so live in his love for us.

1 Timothy 1:12-17.   Paul, who had been a great persecutor of Christians and was “mercifully treated” as a sinner, says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”  God works daily to bring back those who are sinful, enabling them to become saints.  “Christ Jesus” displays “his patience as example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.  To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”