Ordinary Time Cycle A

Eighteenth Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle A

August 2,  2020

Review the Readings

Listen to the Readings

 

 

 

 

 

In the first reading we hear a message from the prophet who lived among the people in Exile in Babylon. 

 

God, who has always loved and cared for them, had allowed this tragedy, this exile, to take place in hopes that His People will return to Him.

The prophet told them that God loved them and in their depression, gave them hope for the future, called them to come to a banquet. 

 

 Sometime, we may find ourselves in a kind of "Exile in Babylon".  For sure, during our struggles, we need to hear these words that God will never abandon us,

 

In spite of all of our sins, like the Jews in Babylon, God calls us to come to the feast, to the banquet. 

A feast where our sins and failures are only a way for us to come closer to our loving and forgiving God. 

Remember that those in Babylon  were finally set free.

 

Saint Paul writes to his Roman converts to Christianity.  He encouraged them.  They may, like us, see their sins and failures.  But these could not separate them from God and cannot separate us from God. 

He calls us again and again to the banquet, to drink, to eat. 

Our only difficulty may be in not seeing our sins, or in seeing them and refusing to accept that God can love us, forgive us, and call us, sinners, again and again.

 

 

 

In the Gospel we hear of the miracle that Jesus did.  He did what would seemed impossible.  He fed the people.  He was concerned for some 5000 plus, just as certain as He has concern for each of us today.

 

 

 

 

No matter how hard your life may seem today, no matter how down we may be today, we are invited to a banquet.  We are invited to be forgiven, to be refreshed, to be fed, to be given new hope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will you come to the banquet? 

 

 

Will you partake in the banquet of God's Word? 

 

 

Will you partake in the banquet of His presence

in the people of God? 

 

Will you partake in the banquet of His Body and Blood?

 

Will you partake in the Banquet of His forgiveness

 

Will  you partake in the banquet of His calling you

back to Himself?

 

 

Will you come???

 

 

 

 
 

 

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Fifteenth Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle A

July 12, 2020

Review the Readings

Listen to the Readings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isaiah is calling the unfaithful people of his time back to God,  just as God is calling each of us back, week after week. 

When we hear His Word proclaimed, it calls each of us back, Sunday after Sunday. 

The real question is, are we willing to listen? 

 

 God does not give up on us. 

Are we at times, like the Hebrew people the prophet Isaiah was addressing, giving up on God when He does not work as we think He should?

 

 

 

St. Paul, in his letter, understands that in our baptism we are each called by God.  Paul too, understands that in his journey and our own, there will be times of doubt, fear, failure, etc. 

 

But Paul is also aware of God's love and  is willing to endure anything as he journeys toward the eternal life that God has promised him and each of the us in our baptism.  

What about us???

 

 

Everyday that seed, planted in us at our Baptism, is given the opportunity to grow and develop.  In every situation we have the opportunity to allow that seed to grow.  

Are we willing to go out of our way for someone that comes un-expectantly into our lives,  even to the enemy or the one who is difficult? 

 

The gospel reading about the sower is encouragement for us. 

 

God will sow his Word in each of us as we hear or read it. 

Again the seed is sown. 

Again, we are given the opportunity to have it land on good soil and to grow to give compassion, mercy, and love to all, even to the enemy. 

In other words, we too, are to make Christ present in the world.  Will you allow that seed to grow again and again?

The Word of God will not return empty.

 

 

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