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RELIGION LITURGY AND LIFE

Archive for the month “August, 2022”

27 Aug 2022

22nd Sunday of ordinary time

This Sunday we celebrate the 22ndrSunday of Ordinary Time. This is a time for new beginnings with the youngsters going back to school or college next week and their  parents breathing a big sigh of relief that the long holidays are now at an end. Many of us have the feeling that time is passing by so very quickly and it seems like a blink of an eye since the end of June when the schools and colleges closed.The  readings  for this Sunday are all about humility, a virtue that doesn’t seem to be valued that much in our world. These days, it’s all about how many “friends” we have on Facebook, how many followers we have on Twitter. But for all of today’s technology we can still pick up on someone whose humility is done for show, whose humbleness is not the real thing and there are people like that around and about. Humility is about: being real, being grounded. Accepting and sharing our gifts as well as acknowledging our  faults.

We thank God for all the things that he has given to us It is his grace that produces the right attitude within us to live in a humble way. This  involves the giving of one’s time, talent, and money for the common good without thought of personal gain.  In this Sundays  Gospel Jesus is at a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees. He has noticed an undignified scramble for the places of honour and is moved to comment on what he sees. When a guest arrives early at a feast to appoint himself a place of honour, his position is insecure because he runs the risk that a later guest will have more claim to his place. And when the host insists that he vacates the place, he will have to pass all the other places already occupied and take the lowest place.  Jesus advises that his listeners take the lowest place at table – then the only risk they run is that of being exalted! Since it is the host’s party, he should decide who sits where. When Jesus addresses his host he advocates a more radical style: learning humility not so much by playing musical chairs at banquets, but by associating with “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind”.

The guest list for Jesus’ feast is a parable of the kingdom: God is the host whose delight is to feast with those who are always overlooked in a society that scrambles for honour and the best places at the table.  St. Augustine once said, “Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues; hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.” Real humility takes awareness and acceptance of our real selves with all the aspects of our lives both good and bad that is why humility is so hard for us to achieve. May we be the Humble people that we are called to be accepting our real selves so that that we may use our  God given gifts wisely in the service of others.

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20 Aug 2022

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

As we gather this weekend we remember all those who have received or will be getting  state exam results over these next few weeks here where I am. We offer a prayer for all those who have done well as well as those who have not done as well as they continue their education. In this Sundays  Gospel Luke tells us about the door policy of the kingdom of God and how there is no such thing as automatic membership. While Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem, someone asks him about the number of those who will be saved. Rather than speculate about the arithmetic of salvation, Jesus gives practical advice to all of them: “Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.” The image changes from tight space to time up.  

Those who wait until the door is shut try knocking, but the householder regards them as strangers. The latecomers tell the householder about  the common ties that bind them together. They are distressed because they are being excluded, the people in the story try to prove they are part of the group when they say  “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” Jesus like the house owner is not impressed with this type of superficial acquaintance: people who eat and drink in the same restaurants and bars, read the same papers, watch the same TV programmes, don’t always  share the same commitment to God and their faith. In the gospel stories Jesus has a habit of telling religious people not to be smug; in fact, the so-called “devout and religious” were the ones who rejected Jesus the most.  He was most critical of the judgmental religious leaders who were the very ones to condemn him in Jerusalem. Jesus is our example of the faithful person who goes through a period of trials trusting God no matter what happens. Through Jesus we come to know the faithfulness and love of God.

For Isaiah, a faithful band of witnesses will announce the news of God’s restoring love and they invite all of us  to see the manifestation of God’s power and faithfulness. For us, Jesus is the “sign” of God’s fidelity and love for us . The God who raised him from the dead offers us that same new life through him.  Saint Pope Paul VI said in his famous encyclical, “Evangelii Nuntiandi” that people listen more to witnesses than to teachers. Pope Paul was also right  when he said that the most convincing messengers of our faith are those who speak from their personal experience of God. We are called to be authentic witnesses to the Gospel message Passed down to us through the Scriptures as well as  many individual people. Our lives must be changed by our faith in Jesus. We are given the gift of faith; but a change of heart is expected as our response to that gift so let us not be afraid to change the things in our lives that need to be changed  remembering to give thanks for  the great gift of faith that is ours so we will be able to enter through the Narrow Door knowing that we have Jesus as a friend.

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13 Aug 2022

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the gospel for this Sunday Jesus says, “I have come to set the world on fire and how I wish it were already blazing.” Jesus is ready and willing to face the hardships that lie ahead his words must have unsettled the people around him. It doesn’t sound like Jesus meant that the practice of our faith should make us comfortable, guarantee harmony or tranquility. Indeed, as he predicted, belief in him would cause the most severe conflict, even in the close-knit-family world of his Mediterranean followers and this interreligious conflict continues today in many places throughout the world especially in the Holy Land.

Jesus is zealous about his mission; He has a task to complete and will follow it through, despite the threats to his personal safety. Jesus refers to his fate as “a baptism with which I must be baptized.” He sees his passion as a baptism which he will accept and which will set a fire upon the earth. Remember when John the Baptist spoke of Jesus he linked baptism and fire, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”. When our lives get difficult, for any reason we are tempted to think that the Holy One is asleep behind a closed door. We feel very much on the outside. At these times it’s important to remember that Jesus the Son of God is with us throughout the turmoil we may have as a result of the hurts and hardship that life throws out to all of us on many occasions. Making decisions on the journey of life is a natural process for us; we make many of them each day. Our senses take in all kinds of information some of which we accept, some we discard and much, we are not aware of.

Our minds move us to a yes or no that is what the will does. So our imaginations can present data to our minds for a choice as well.  So a faith based decision to walk the ways of Jesus needs some information which Jesus gives his disciples, t and the same information  is given to us through the scriptures the word of God that we hear every Sunday when we come to Church. The faith that Jesus calls us  to is the  faith that leads us to live lives which reflect the life of a believer in Jesus and what he teaches. It is much easier to follow from a safe distance and not let our lives be challenged and changed by faith in the Son of God. It is very easy to let the bitterness of others take us over but at the end of it all Jesus went to the Cross to overcome all the hatred and bitterness that we see around  us. Remember that the words of Jesus are there to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Faith was not easy at the beginning of the Church and isn’t easy now the martyrs throughout history right up to our present time bear witness to this.

 If we stop and look around us even now there are people who are prepared to give everything they have including their lives for the faith. Following  Jesus is not easy and we have to work at it for anything that is worth doing or being part off will never be easy.  Today we are called to follow were God leads us in faith and he will do the rest for nothing is impossible to the Father who journeys along with us in the good and bad times of our lives.  

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