Ordinary Time Cycle A

Twenty-Sixth Sunday Cycle B

September 30, 2012

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A great question to think about is...

Are you ready if necessary to give up what is dearest and nearest to our nature?

 

In the the first reading Moses has led the people out of the slavery in Egypt.  It is becoming more and more difficult for Moses as the people complain and turn away from God and so Moses calls out to God.

 

 

 

 

 

God speaks to Moses and instructs him to select 70 to help him.  God sends His Spirit upon them.

Who does God select today as prophets?

For sure, the leaders of the Church.  But who else?

At our Baptism you and I were anointed with chrism to be prophet, priest, and king.  You and I are to make God present in the world by the way we live our lives.  We are chosen to do this by our love for the other, even the enemy, by our patience, by our compassion, and all the other traits that Christ made present in our world.

 

 For sure at times that is difficult.  When we make this discovery of how difficult it is for us at times,  that is when we need to pray to be able to convert a little and have mercy on the other, even the one who is difficult and so seemingly misled.

 

 

 

 

 

In the Gospel, Jesus speaks to his disciples and tells them they are not to lead the "little ones" into sin.  The "little ones", are the people that we struggle with.  Our baptismal anointing calls us  to go out of our way to lead them to God.  This is done more by our actions than by our words.  In fact Jesus says that if things get in the way of doing this, we should get rid of them.

When we discover that in a particular situation that our mind set is that of the world, "Me first", we need to really pray for ourselves that God will convert us and help us fulfill what our anointing as prophet at Baptism is all about.

 

In the part of the letter we hear today, St. James warns that some in the community are turning to the ways of the world.  He tells them that that is not why God called them.  That same message is for us.  In today's life it is so easy to want all the comforts and wealth that is all around us, telling us that this is eternal life right now.  As it was to that primitive Christian community that St. James was addressing, so it is also true at moments for each of us, we listen and follow the ways of the world.

 

 

These Sunday readings can be of great help to discover spiritually who we are.

Do we really trust God in all situations?

What roll does my desire for possessions and money come before God.  

 

Am I willing to look at ...

 

 

Am I ready, if necessary to give up what is dearest and nearest to my nature?

My ideas, my solutions, my lifestyle, my way of doing things, etc.

 

Don't get discouraged when you see things in yourself that you don't like.

God is total mercy and has called you.

Part of the gift God gives us is to see ourselves as we are, so that we, like each of the Apostles, pray for mercy and forgiveness and grow spiritually

 

Go for it Holy Prophet

 

Twenty-fifth Sunday Cycle B

 

 

September 23, 2012

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Listen to Sunday's Readings

 

 

 

Are you willing to become the Servant to All

Are you willing to be Last?

 

 

 

 

This book was probably written by a Jew in Egypt at a time when many of the Jews had given up on God.  This part of the book was an attempt to call back those who had abandoned God and gone the way of the rest of the Egyptians.  It tells how those who remained faithful are persecuted.  It is important, as we listen to these readings, not to become defensive, and think that they do not refer to us.  But they do.  They are as true to us as they were to the Jews, back when they were written.  It is do easy to make judgement on others.  At moments, we have all gone by the standards of today's world, and to see this in ourselves is a great blessing from God.  To see ourselves as we are at the moment, and to pray for the grace to convert and return to the ways of God, and not today's world, is a blessing.

 

In the second reading, James is addressing the newly converted Jews to the Christian faith.  He makes it very clear to them .what are the ways of the world that are not Christian values.  The worldly ways had begun to take place in yjis new Christian Community.  

 

Jealousy and selfishness were now in the Community that St. James was addressing.

 

Basically, they were being called to pray for the gift to be servant to each other.  That is the same message that we have all been called to through our Baptism; it is the way to eternal life which the world rejects.

 

 

 

 Today it is so easy to become defensive when confronted with these readings.  

Thoughts such as

"I won't be servant to anyone"

or

"I have to take care of myself and put me first most of the time", etc.  

Remember that one of the purposes of the scripture is to call each of us to conversion; that is to see where we are spiritually in the face of what we are called to do.  

There is no escape.  This world is not the paradise we have been promised, and we have to be careful not to think that we have to make this world our paradise.  Perhaps, this was why the Apostles had such are a time in accepting that Christ had to suffer and die. They were sure He was to be a Messiah of this world.

We, too, can think that we are here to make this world a paradise for ourselves, just as did the Apostles in the Gospel of this Sunday.  This world is our opportunity to journey to the eternal kingdom.  This world gives us the opportunity to discover if we are willing to be last, or to be servant to all.  Many times we will discover that we are not, and that is the moment to pray for our own conversion.

 

 

Remember that in the time of Jesus, children had no rights, they were considered the last, the least.  We too will be confronted with the least in our lives.  To go out of our way for the least that we meet everyday of our lives, is to have a meeting with Christ.

 

I am sure that, in the week ahead, we will discover that at times we are not the servant, and further more, we don't want to be the servant, but want to be served.  That is a great revelation, because we then know what to pray for as we journey toward the real paradise, eternal life.

 

St. Gregory the Great

Feast Day
September 3rd

St. Gregory the Great was born in Rome in 540 A.D. Raised among saints, his father was a regionarius, an official in the Church, and his mother and two aunts were extremely devote, later becoming canonized.

The family was aristocratic, famous for owning vast estates and participating in Roman government. As such, St. Gregory’s education was steeped in law, religion, grammar, rhetoric, and overall, affairs of the republic.

By age 30, he held one of the most important offices for a young man, a Roman prefect, yet gave it up to become a monk.

After his father’s death, he bequeathed the family’s estates, creating seven monasteries, and retreated to religious life. Within four years, though, the pope commissioned him to Constantinople as deacon and ambassador.

Within a decade, he returned to Rome and resumed running the monasteries as abbot.

But after the death of Pope Pelagius II, St. Gregory was elected his successor. At this time, church and state were at the epoch of their medieval power.

St. Gregory took his place to rule over the ecclesiastical sphere, a lofty task. His skills in government, estate management, finance, and staff leadership shined.

St. Gregory leveraged his papal authority, forming relations with the churches in Spain, Gaul, Africa, Britain, as well as the Eastern Churches.

Also, he developed a code of life for bishops and began a rigorous preaching routine. His homilies drew massive crowds as they used rich anecdotes and practical metaphors. Diligent until the end, he wrote extensively on spiritual works; penning thousands of letters, sermons, and commentaries.

As such, he is honored as one of the Four Great Doctors of the Church along with St’s Augustine, Ambrose and Jerome.