BIBLE STUDY #153
TWENTY SEVENTH
SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
October 6, 2013
How long, O
LORD? I cry for help
but you do not listen!
I cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
but you do not listen!
I cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
The Word of the Lord
Responsorial Psalm
R. (8) If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Beloved:
I remind you, to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me,
in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit
that dwells within us.
I remind you, to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me,
in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit
that dwells within us.
The Word of the Lord
Gospel
The apostles
said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
The Lord replied,
"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
"Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
'Come here immediately and take your place at table'?
Would he not rather say to him,
'Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished'?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, 'We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'"
The Lord replied,
"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
"Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
'Come here immediately and take your place at table'?
Would he not rather say to him,
'Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished'?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, 'We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'"
The Gospel of the lord
Reflection
We need to take today’s
gospel in context of what happened in previous passages. Jesus is on his long journey
to Jerusalem
If we are to be true
disciples, Jesus is telling us that there are demands on our lives. It is more
then following rules or being entertained. Our faith needs to affect every
aspect of our lives; in other words, we need a catholic philosophy of life.
Over the course of time,
the Apostles are becoming more aware of the demands of discipleship, and are
finding it more difficult to follow Jesus. That’s why they ask him to increase
their faith, because the demands of discipleship are too difficult without the
grace of God. Without God’s grace, who can always forgive? Who can use the
things of the world wisely? Or who can take up their cross and follow Jesus?
The answer is we can’t without God’s help.
Be aware, though, that we
never know where God will lead us. As we try to become good and faithful
disciples, we may be led to places that we never expected. Jesus said, "If you
have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be
uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Imagine what could
happen if we ever gave ourselves totally over to God. God takes our gifts and
multiplies them to build up the kingdom. God has a plan for all of us, and we
all have our role in salvation history. God could be calling us to do great
things. How much poorer would the world be if people like Mother Theresa or
Blessed Pope John Paul II decided on a different course for their lives?
We may not be called to
that kind of greatness, but we are all called to serve the Lord in the building
up of the kingdom. The greatness of the kingdom comes not only from the light
of the shining stars, but also the light generated by all the little candles of
faith. That’s why I always encourage people to come to Mass, especially our
children. The more that come to Church, the brighter the light of faith that
shines to the world. That’s why I call the children the young church, not the
future church. To me, future church sounds like “come back when you have a job and
an envelope.” Young church just refers to their young age.
The second paragraph of
the gospel refers to our attitude about our faith accomplishments. We should
not be looking for fame or credit for anything that we do. When we accomplish
God’s will for us in our lives, “we have only done what we were obliged to do”.
We shouldn’t expect credit for doing what was expected of us.
It’s easy for us priests
to fall into the trap of thinking that we have a better parish (and, therefore,
we are better priests) because we have a higher collection, more baptisms, more
marriages, more committees, etc., than other parishes. If we are lucky enough to be a part of a good
parish, we should realize that it is God who should get the credit because it
is by God’s grace that all these things happen. I think that’s good advice for
everyone. No matter what we accomplish, give God the credit because we couldn’t
do it without Him
The Apostles ask Jesus to
increase their faith. What do they mean by that? What do we mean by that? For
some people, being a person of faith means following the rules. For some
others, it is cultural: they have the statues, pictures, rosaries, and they may
even go to Mass every once in a while, at least on major holidays, anyway. For
still others, it may mean another event to be scheduled in a busy life, and if
they get too busy, church gets dropped. And then, there are some who expect to
be entertained when they come to Church. They sit back, don’t actively listen
or participate, and complain that Mass is boring. They expect to be
entertained, as if I was a performer and we were on Broadway. To me, faith is a
relationship with Jesus Christ. That relationship was begun at baptism and
continues throughout our lives. How do we increase that faith? How do we
increase any relationship? The best example I can come up with is marriage. For
a marriage to be successful, the partners need to spend time together, talk
with each other, share their lives, forgive each other, sacrifice for each
other, and become friends. When both partners are committed in these ways to
each other, they develop a bond that no one or no thing can separate. It is
more than a surface happiness; you can love the other but not like them. It is
a lot of work but the benefits outweigh the cost. It is the same way with our
faith. We need to pray, actively participate in mass, share our goods with
those in need, and use our time and talent to build up the kingdom. When we do
this, we will develop a bond with Jesus that can never be broken. It is a lot
of work, there is no easy substitute, but the benefits of peace and happiness
in this life and eternal life in the next outweigh the costs.
Fr. Phil
We talk about living in the mansions of the saints, but we need to
send up enough building material to construct our heavenly mansion. There has
to be transformation on this side of the grave if we expect to be purified on
the other side.
I want to emphasize again this week that we don’t have to give
everything away and be destitute in order to be a disciple. Jesus never says
earthly things are good or bad, he says people are good or bad. There does seem
to be some incompatibility between the accumulation and retention of riches and
our serving God.
When one serves riches, one becomes like the rich man in the
parable. He had these fine parties, splendid clothes, ate sumptuously, and I’d
bet he had a fine mansion. These things would all be important to him over and
above anything God asked of him. He seems to have ignored God’ plea to help the
poor. Lazarus was at his door and would have “gladly eaten his fill of the
scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” The scraps from his table would be
the leftovers he would throw away, that is, his garbage. Did the rich man share
his scraps or did Lazarus have to look in the garbage for them? The rich man
couldn’t solve the problem of poverty in his world, but he could have made all
the difference in the world to Lazarus, and I’d bet it would barely have put a
dent in his bankroll.
If we follow God, I think that we are more willing to share with
those in need, because that is part of being a Christian. God calls us to be
aware of those needy in our midst and to do something to help them. There is a
bumper sticker I like that says, “Think Globally, but Act Locally.” Even though
we can’t solve problems globally, we can certainly make a difference locally.
Thinking this way helps us to avoid despair and giving up because the problems
are too big to solve. Like the young man who is walking along the beach
throwing back the starfish that were washed up in the storm. Another man,
walking the other way, stops when he gets to the young man, and says, “Look at
all the starfish on the beach. What possible difference can you make?” The young man picks up a starfish, flings it
back into the sea, and says, “To that one, a lot.”
The following questions should arise in our minds: Am I doing
enough to help those in need? Am I doing anything to help those in need?
I can’t tell you how much is enough. That is between you and God. When you have
young children, a mortgage, car payments, etc., or if you are unemployed or
underemployed, you may not be able to afford much. Don’t feel guilty about
that, just do what you can. However, I must say, that my experience in previous
parishes is that I find poor, struggling, and/or low-income people to be some
of the most generous people I have ever met. Not in terms of the amount, but
that, many times, they give from their need and not from their excess. When our
disposable income rises, we need to rethink the amount of money we donate.
Rethink is a bad term – it leaves us an out. Increase is a better word.
Like the rich man and his brothers, we know what we are supposed
to do and how we are to live, because we have scripture. We can look in the
bible, read it, pray over it, and live as the Lord would want us to live. Or,
we can ignore what it says and do our own thing. This is called free will. God
gave it to us and respects it in our lives. We are never forced to love God or
to live as disciples. Love that is forced or coerced isn’t love. God spells out
for us the way to happiness and peace in this life, and to eternal life in the
next. He gives us the opportunity to choose. We can choose life, or we can
choose death. Our choices in this life determine the quality of this life and
where we will spend eternal life.
The rich man and his brothers were all versed in scripture and
what God is asking of them. They just chose to ignore it or ‘reinterpret’ it in
their own way. We too know what God wants of us, even if it is only in a
general way. We can’t use ignorance as an excuse. Someone has risen from the dead
and calls us to follow his example. We tend to reinterpret what we hear and
read to exclude ourselves from changing. It’s always someone else who sins,
never us. We believe imperfectly and we live imperfectly. Once we close our
minds to this, we are condemning ourselves, as surely as the rich man in the
parable.
The image of the Easter Vigil comes to mind. Here at St. Joseph
We are not the Paschal Candle; that is Jesus job. He is
the light of the world. We are like that little candle. Our flame of faith is
lit from the Paschal Candle, and we keep it lit through living the Christian
life. Just as we pass along the flame from the Paschal Candle to one another in
church, we should pass along the flame of faith to those we meet.
By ourselves, we are not expected to lighten up a darkened church
or a darkened world. Together, however, we can be the light of warmth,
friendship, comfort, love and faith.
When we aid those in need, we are bringing light into the world,
making it a better place. We may not be solving the worlds or even one person’s
problems, but we are making a difference in someone’s life. And all of us
together can make a big difference. The Second Coming will transform the world.
In the meantime, we do what we can. I think that’s all Jesus asks.
Fr. Phil
As much as we are called
to be like the younger son, that is just the start. After we turn our lives
around, where do we go? We need to strive to be like the father. Forgiving,
loving, nonjudgmental, caring, compassionate, generous, understanding, he is
the epitome of a virtuous disciple. He has become what we all strive to be:
holy. He is virtuous not just for himself, but to share it with others. No
matter how his sons act, he treats them with love and respect. He forgives them
and wants to share everything he has with them.
From the September 2013 issue of Connections, a homily resource: “In our
"sophisticated" and complex lives, the idea that God loves us is
difficult to grasp. But the most important lesson Jesus taught, the
central theme of his Gospel, is that God loves us completely and
unconditionally. We are never beyond his reach; we are never lost to
him. Such a realization of the possibilities for such love in our lives
is grace. Sometimes we experience grace in the support and love of
generous family and friends - and sometimes we are the agents of such grace,
giving and doing whatever is necessary for the good of another, refusing to
give up our search to find the lost and bring back those from whom we have been
separated. Grace is the joy and fulfillment experienced by the
shepherd who finds the lost lamb, the woman who recovers the missing coin, and
the father who welcomes home his wayward son - and the realization of the love
that led us to be found.”
God is like that with us.
He loves us when we don’t deserve it, he forgives us when we ask, he
understands our needs, and gives us what we need to make it through this life
in his grace and peace, and to be around the eternal banquet table in the next
life. I pray that we all strive to be like the “Prodigal Father” and share
God’s love with those in our lives. May we be Christ for each other, and see
Christ in each other.
Fr. Phil
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