Twenty-eighth Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle C
10/08/2014
October 12, 2014.
This prophet spoke to God's Chosen People during their time in Jerusalem from 742 to 700BC. He spoke to them because they had forgotten God.They they had become a worldly people.
They were trying to find pleasure and happiness through materials things.
He told them that an age would come for all people, when there would be no more struggles.
Isaiah told them it would happen on the mountain.
In spite of what they were going through, God had not abandoned them.
It is necessary for all of us to go up the mountain of our lives in order to arrive at the eternal feast.
As a hiker, I never liked the trails that were filled with switchbacks, as a way up the mountain.
It was, at times, very difficult and very tiring.
The views were wonderful, but the trip.....well, I need say no more.
Life can be like a long hike up the mountain.
Yet, the promise, to us from God, is that going up the mountain of our lives, with all of it's difficulties, is how we will find what we are really searching for, the eternal banquet.
We can so easily give up, as did the Chosen People in the first reading, and turn to worldly pleasure as our temporary banquet, that will not last and will disappoint.
God has called us up the mountain to unending happiness, not a temporary pleasure that will end.
Paul wrote his letter to this Christian Community during a time in which he himself faced many life struggles and difficulties. The Philippians helped and supported him. He wrote, that in spite of all the struggles and difficulties, he trusted in God.
He understood that it was in going up the mountain, with all the struggles and difficulties, that he would be lead to the feast in eternal life.
He truly believe that God allowed all these things to happen to him as a journey to his salvation and for the spread of God's kingdom.
Perhaps a question to ask ourselves is...
...do we really trust God?
Do we have confidence in God, that, in all the events in our lives, He is leading us to that banquet that we heard about in the first reading?
In the Gospel, Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees, who found it so difficult to see their own faults and failures.
He was trying to show them that because of their unwillingness to look deeply and truthfully at themselves, they were about to forfeit the kingdom, the eternal banquet.
In our baptism we were each dressed in the white garment for our journey in life.
Perhaps the question, once again, for us is...
...are we willing to wear what that garment means today?
Are we willing to wear that garment of mercy?
Are we willing to wear that garment of compassion?
Are we willing to wear that garment of forgiveness?
Are we willing to wear that garment of patience?
Are we willing to wear that garment of love, even to the enemy?
?
If we fail at times, once again our God of mercy calls us to pray,
and
to pick up our garment, put it on, and start again.
Each day, through all the ups and downs in our lives, we are invited
...and don't forget
to wear that garment!!!
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