Twenty Sixth Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle C

September 25, 2022

 

Review the Readings

Listen to the Readings

 

 

Once again, this Sunday we hear from the Prophet Amos.

He has been sent by God to tell the leaders of Judah that they are more concerned about their own luxurious living style than about their concern for the people they are ruling who are in poverty and in need.

It seems that, again and again,  the Chosen People want to be complacent, forgetting all that God has given them, and so they turn to gathering wealth and power, so that they can be comfortable and complacent, not having anything to worry about.  

 Amos was sent to warn them against this.  They have been called to show concern for the poor and needy and not to just have a selfish attitude about their own comfortable lifestyle.

Perhaps this Sunday is a time for each of us to look at our concern for the needy and the poor, and to see if we have a high priority for Christian charity.

 

Where is the concern for others on our list of priorities today?

 Is it more toward the bottom of our list?

 

 God will always put a less fortunate person into our lives.

 

How do we react when we have an encounter with someone who is in need, whether that be a friend or a person standing on the street corner with a sign.

 

Do we simply ignore the situation because it make us uncomfortable, and then we become complacent and go on with our own lifestyle, or do we go out of our way to help that person?  

These Sunday reading are  a wake up call for all of us.

It is so easy to become complacent; to want to be able to sit back and relax and enjoy life, but we are called to go out of our way for others, and not to become complacent as did the Chosen People in the Jewish scriptures that Amos was addressing.

St. Paul's letter to Timothy addresses him as, man of God, encouraging him with things that he needs to reflect upon. We can listen carefully because we too, are a people of God through our baptism.

We, like Timothy, have been called by name and we were anointed to make God present in the world for others, not only by what we say, but also by our actions, by what we do.

St. Paul tells Timothy and us to pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.

 

The Gospel reading from Luke encourages us to become aware of the needy, and go out of our way for the less fortunate.  And not surprisingly, God will always put the less fortunate into each of our lives, giving us a chance to respond in love, patience, charity etc.

 

We hear the story of the rich man and the poor beggar, Lazarus, which we all know very well.  Now the task is to apply it to our lives today.

Let us pray that during this week we may be watchful for the Lazarus that God will put into our lives.

That may be persons in need of having someone to just listen to them, or having someone to be patient with them, or perhaps a person who is in need of mercy or compassion and forgiveness for them.

All of us will encounter Lazarus during the week.

Will we recognize that person or simply give some excuse and ignore the situation?

Will we simply not pay any attention and be complacent with our own life, or will we hear this call from God to fulfill our baptism to make God present for others in the world?

This can be a good week to make some important spiritual discoveries about ourselves.

 

What will you discover???

 

 

 

 

 

 

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