NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[cappie]

Today we hear "wake up parables" – a short one about a thief’s break in and a longer one about responsible stewardship. They stir up questions. Each of us is unique and has some particular area of responsibility, besides our jobs and household work, but some "stewardship." We have been put in charge and will be called to account someday. The parables are not meant to frighten us, or make us feel guilty. But they do occasion reflection for each of us. 

There’s a bumper sticker that says ‘Jesus is coming. Look busy!’ It is funny, for sure, but it also points to the heresy of believing that as long as we’re being nice people doing nice things, then we are good Christians, or more accurately, nice Christians. 

To be a follower of Jesus—to be a disciple—requires so much more. A transformed life means that you can never go back to simply being nice. It implies that the church has a deeper quest than humanitarian groups and clubs. Those are good things and we should be part of them, but that is not why the Christian church exists.

William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during World War II, is quoted as saying, “The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members.” Think about that. We exist to benefit non-members. The people who are not us.

According to the Catechism, ‘Our assurance as Christians is that nothing, not even death, shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ This assurance gives us the faith to share this promise with those who are outside our walls – those who are the reason we exist. Our Baptism reinforces this as it asks us to persevere in resisting evil, repent and return to the Lord, proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, seek and serve Christ in all persons, and especially strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. This is a tall order, but we don’t have to strive alone: we have God and we have each other.

We may wonder how we can join in God’s work outside our church walls when we feel that what we are already doing so much within. Perhaps looking outside is overwhelming and we do not know where to begin. Most of all, it is sometimes difficult to find or interpret the messages that we are receiving. In his book “Seek God Everywhere”, the Indian Jesuit priest  Anthony de Mello suggests: “In all actions, in all conversations, St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus felt the presence of God and contemplated the presence of God.”

As people of faith we seek an encounter with God, and we look for places, moments, and experiences when we might have such a personal encounter with the Divine.

To find God, to see God in all things, or to be a contemplative in action means much more than doing God’s will in everything. To feel and contemplate his presence is the experience of devotion, peace, quiet, and consolation… How do we attain this grace of finding God in all things? In all the documents I have read there is a key word: solely, only, or entirely. That is the key word — doing it only for God.

When we become quiet, when we become still, we are finally able to listen to God. Only then can we act. We hear the crunch of the master’s sandals on the road and begin to light the lamps. 

In Paul Showers’ children’s book, The Listening Walk, a young girl enjoys taking walks with her father and their old dog, Major, who does not walk very fast. “On a Listening Walk I do not talk,” she says. “I listen to all the different sounds. I hear many different sounds when I do not talk.” At the end she tells us, “You do not even have to take a walk to hear sounds. There are sounds everywhere all the time. All you have to do is keep still and listen to them.”

The key is to learn to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.  God’s promise to Abraham is the starting point: the liberation of the Hebrew tribes is a step along the way: the Incarnation is the final step in God’s process of calling us. What remains is for us to bring that consciousness of God into the community of humanity and to all creation. Can we listen: can we come to see God present: can we work at becoming aware of God’s continual intervention in our lives: can we become conscious of God present in relationships with people we encounter?

All we have to do is be still and listen to God, to listen to Love. God will take care of the rest.
 

[<3 PopeFrancis]

I hope you have a homily every Holy Mass.  I will try and get a hold or a look at that reading.