26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Eighteenth Chapter of Ezekiel is about personal responsibility. Using the example of a man with two sons, God, speaking through Ezekiel, draws comparisons between the sins of the father and the sins of the sons. He assures us that the father’s sins are not the responsibility of the sons and that the sins of the sons are not the responsibility of the father. In verse 20 he says, “Only the one who sins shall die. The son shall not be charged with the guilt of his father, nor shall the father be charged with the guilt of his son. Justice belongs to the just, and wickedness to the wicked.” God goes on to remind us of his compassion and mercy saying “But if the wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die! None of the crimes he has committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the justice he has shown” (EZ 18:21-22).

This brings us to today’s first reading from Ezekiel 18:25-28. Here God responds to human accusations that “"The LORD's way is not fair!” God asks, “Is it my way that is unfair? Are not your ways unfair?” There is no sense blaming someone else for our individual sins. In verses 30 and 31, God makes clear that, “I will judge you, house of Israel, all of you according to your ways…. Turn, turn back from all your crimes, that they may not be a cause of sin for you ever again. Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”

In today’s Gospel from Matthew 21:28-32, we hear another story about a father and his two sons. Both the sons disappoint their father. The first son humiliates his father by refusing a request but later has a change of heart and complies. The second son lies to his father by agreeing to the request but fails to fulfil his obligation. Jesus asked the Chief Priests and Elders “Which of the two did his father's will?" Their answer was that the first son did his father’s will. Jesus used this answer as a teaching moment reminding the priests and elders that sinful people who experience a change of heart will enter the kingdom of God before the apparent “Godly” people who pay lip service to God but fail to meet God’s obligations.

Although the sinners in this story do get into the kingdom of God, they are not shining examples for us as Christians. Our role model is Jesus. In today’s second reading from the 2nd Chapter of Philippians, St. Paul tells us to “have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” We are to “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others” (PHIL 2:3–4).

Father in heaven,

Form in us the likeness of your Son

And deepen his life within us.

Send us as witnesses of gospel joy

Into a world of fragile peace and broken promises.

Touch the hearts of all people with your love

That they in turn may love one another.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

Young Bride

A young bride was extremely anxious on the day before her wedding. The priest realized she was nervous, and he asked her about it.

"I'm going to make a mess of the whole thing," she said. "There are just so many people looking at me!"

The priest broke the ceremony down into small parts. "Hey," he said. "This is your church, your family's church. You know everything about this church. So, as your dad takes you by the arm, concentrate on the aisle. Just focus on the aisle."

"OK," she said.

"Then, as you turn the corner, you'll see the altar. It's the same altar that's been here for years, and you're familiar with it. Focus on the aisle, and then the altar."

"OK," she said.

"And then," said the priest, "you'll see your groom! Just focus on him, and you're there! Focus on the aisle first, altar second, and him third!"

So, just as she'd been promised, she zoned in on the three simple steps. But imagine her Dad's feelings when he heard her saying it over and over and over, as they got closer and closer and closer . . . "Aisle, altar, him. Aisle-altar-him. Aisle-alter him!"

An Autumn Prayer

 

Give Me a Few Friends

Dear Lord,

Give me a few friends
who will love me for what I am,
and keep ever burning
before my vagrant steps
the kindly light of hope.

And though I come not within sight
of the castle of my dreams,
teach me to be thankful for life,
and for time's olden memories
that are good and sweet.
And may the evening's twilight
find me gentle still.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading, Isaiah 55:6-9, God, speaking through Isaiah tells us “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.” Then, in the gospel, Matthew 20: 1 – 16a, Jesus, demonstrates just how true Isaiah’s words are through the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.

he Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard was challenging to all the people who heard it, Pharisees and Disciples alike, and it is challenging to us today. It clashes with our human sense of justice. The landowner’s generosity to all his workers does not seem fair. This is another parable we should consider in context. Jesus tells this parable in response to a question Peter poses in Matthew 19:27, “what will there be for us?” Jesus’ answer is “everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” He then proceeds to tell the parable.

It can be difficult for us to grasp that God loves all of us the same. All people are precious in the sight of God. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the tax collector and the priest, the day laborer and the most skilled worker, the beggar and the richest person, the most devout Pharisee and the outcast are all welcome. In fact, the tax collectors, day laborers, beggars and outcasts may get into the Kingdom of Heaven before the priests, the skilled workers, the rich people and the Pharisees. Thankfully, for us, God’s goodness, compassion, mercy and grace surpass our very limited human notions of time, justice and logic.

Almighty Father,

the love you offer always exceeds

the furthest expression of our human longing,

for you are greater than the human heart.

Direct each thought, each effort of our lives,

so that the limits of our faults and weaknesses

may not obscure the vision of your glory 

or keep us from the peace you have promised.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

The Great Attraction

This is the great attraction today:

to reach the highest contemplation
while sharing in the life of every person,
being one among many.

I would say more:
to merge oneself with the crowd
so as to allow the divine
to penetrate it,
like wine
penetrates a piece of bread.

I would even say more:
as sharers in God’s plans for humanity,
to place points of light within the crowd,
sharing shame, hunger, troubles,
and brief joys with our neighbour.

The attraction today,
as in all times,
is Jesus and Mary.

The highest conceivable expression
of the human and the divine.
The Word of God, a carpenter’s son;
the Seat of Wisdom, a mother at home.​

Chiara Lubich, Meditations, New City, London, 2005, p. 14-15

September 15 - Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows commemorates the seven great sorrows which Mary lived in relation to Her Son, as they are recorded in the Gospels or through Tradition. Today we are invited to reflect on Mary's deep suffering:

1. At the prophecy of Simeon: "You yourself shall be pierced with a sword - so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare." (Luke 2:35).

2. At the flight into Egypt; "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt." (Mt 2:13).

3. Having lost the Holy Child at Jerusalem; "You see that your father and I have been searching for you in sorrow." (Luke 2:48).

4. Meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary;

5. Standing at the foot of the Cross; "Near the cross of Jesus there stood His mother." (John 19:25).

6. Jesus being taken from the Cross;

7. At the burial of Christ.

Prior to the Second Vatican Council, there were two feasts devoted to the sorrows of Mary. The first feast was instituted in Cologne in 1413 as an expiation for the sins of the iconoclast Hussites.  The second is attributed to the Servite order whose principal devotion are the Seven Sorrows.  It was instituted in 1668, though the devotion had been in existence since 1239 - five years after the founding of the order.