OT XXV [C] Readings:  Am 8:4-7; I Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-1

 A few years ago, a priest was giving a retreat to inmates in a federal prison in the South. One of the talks dealt with Jesus’ teaching on revenge. Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” To illustrate Jesus’ point, the priest told the story of Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play in the major leagues. When Branch Rickey signed Jackie to a Dodger contract in 1945, he told him, “You will have to take everything they dish out to you and never strike back.” Rickey was right. On the field, pitchers brushed Jackie back with blazing fastballs, and opposing fans and teams taunted him. Off the field, he was thrown out of hotels and restaurants where the rest of the team stayed and ate. Through it all, Jackie kept his cool. He turned the other cheek. And so did Dodgers’ General Manager Rickey, who was abused by people for signing Jackie. The priest ended the story by asking the prisoners this question: “Where do you think black athletes would be today had Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey not turned the other cheek?” After the talk, a prisoner said to the priest: “That’s a nice story, Father. But why didn’t you tell the whole story? Why didn’t you tell why Rickey and Robinson turned the other cheek? It wasn’t for love of God. It was for love of money. Rickey turned the other cheek because if he succeeded, he would make a fortune too.” The priest thought to himself for a minute: “If the prisoner’s right, then he’s just shot my nice little story right out of the water.” — But then the priest thought: “Hey! Wait a minute! If the prisoner’s right, then my story makes an even more important point!” It’s the same point Jesus makes in today’s Gospel. Jesus says: “The children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” 

‘The children of this world’ are the children of darkness who see and value only the things of this world.  They live for this world, concentrate their attention on it, invest everything in it, give the energies of mind and body fully to it, and find in it their entire purpose for living. 

 Christian believers, however, are ‘the children of light’ who see real, eternal, spiritual values as primary and regard temporal values as secondary. The children of this world regard themselves as owners, while true Christians regard themselves as mere stewards of God who view their resources as simply loaned to them by God. 

It sounds strange to hear Jesus praising the steward of this parable for being so sly. In saving our souls and spreading the Good News, our Lord wants us to apply the same ingenuity and effort that other people put into their worldly affairs or into their attempts to attain some human ideal.

Many of the great men and women of the world - the CEOs, the athletes, the movie stars, the political leaders - are exemplary in their tenacity, their determination, and their astuteness.  They set a goal and let nothing stop them from achieving it. They turn everything into an opportunity to advance their cause. Imagine how different the Church (and the world) would be if every Catholic pursued holiness that energetically.

The steward knew that his time of employment was coming to an end. Before his last day arrives, he uses his connections and position to prepare for the future. Jesus reprimands his followers for not applying that same astuteness to the more important project of preparing for eternity.

We are all like that steward. We know that our lives will come to an end, sooner or later. We know it for a fact. And yet, are we effectively utilizing our resources and opportunities to prepare for what will come next? This is the question he wants us to ask ourselves. Are we energetically building Christ's Kingdom now, so as to be able to enjoy it forever later?

Sometimes we are irresponsible stewards because we forget what's really at stake. We become seduced by day-to-day problems and pleasures and forget that this life is passing. It is only a warm-up for eternal life.

In the parable, the steward was in charge of his master's account books, so he exercised his smartness by rearranging the debts people owed. We don't have control over Christ's account books.  Instead, we have three commodities to be managed astutely.

The three commodities are time, talent, and treasure.

How much time do we give to Christ and his Kingdom?  We all give him some time - that's why we're here. But can we give more? Should we? It may be a matter of dedicating larger chunks of time to serving Christ and the Church, or it may be a matter of simply adding some prayers to our drive to work. We are called to be wise stewards of our time.

Second, talent. 

Our talents too are resources given by God. We are called to invest them in loving God and loving our neighbor. Maybe this area is where we can be better stewards.

Finally, treasure. 

It is a law of the Church that every Catholic should give financial support to the works of the Church, each one in accordance with their means. There is a longstanding tradition in Christianity of tithing. If we don't do that, we should ask ourselves why not.

The manager in Jesus’ story used all his resources to secure his future. We must be no less resourceful. We have the Holy Mass and the Seven Sacraments as sources of Divine grace, the Holy Bible as the word of God for daily meditation and practice, and the Spirit-guided Church to direct us. These are the best possible resources; we need to use them in such a way that it will be said of us, “And the master commended them because they acted so wisely.”

 

Today, in Holy Communion, Christ will give himself entirely to each one of us, holding nothing back.   When he does, let's ask him to teach us to use our resources for his glory and the propagation of his kingdom.

 

 

 

 

OT XXIV [C] Ex 32:7-11, 13-14; I Tm 1:12-17; Lk 15:1-32

Everyone has lost something at one time or another.  There is even a website complete with mobile app, http://www.lostandfound.com, that acts as a global ‘lost and found’ box. Users can report items missing and users can report items found. It is a good example of how technology can help people connect in a useful way. This is a gateway site for all of the physical things that can be retrieved and returned to their rightful owners. According to their statistics, about twice as many objects have been reported lost as have been reported found in the U.S. So, the site’s users are losing things at twice the rate they are finding them. — Haven’t we all had the experience of losing things that we know deep down we will never recover? Depending on the situation, we can feel disappointed, heartbroken, hopeless, or simply discouraged by our own inability to keep up with things. Some Catholics invoke St. Antony who is the patron for the lost things. Isn’t it a wonderful relief to know that we will never fall into the ‘Lost Forever’ category? Isn’t it reassuring to know that God will never give up on us?

All the 3 parables in Luke 15 show us vividly that God cares about each one of us: he will not rest if only one sheep is missing, or one coin is lost. They show us that He cares deeply enough to go out of His way to save us when we are lost: it was certainly an inconvenience to go bushwhacking after the foolish stray sheep, and to light the lamp and sweep the dirt-floored house trying to find the lost coin.

Finding of the lost objects in the parable shows that God rejoices when we return to him, as the shepherd rejoices upon retrieving his sheep, and as the woman rejoices upon recovering her coin - every sinner who returns to God causes a joyful celebration to break out in the halls of heaven and the heart of the Father.

The self-righteous and judgmental comments of the Pharisees, provided the occasion for these parables to be told by Jesus. If the Pharisees had possessed Christ's power and authority, they would have destroyed all "sinners." But Christ uses all his power and authority to bring sinners back into communion with God.

The Pharisees can't understand this, because they have painted their image of God in their own likeness. They enjoy condemning others for being less perfect than themselves, because it feeds their vanity, making them feel superior. God’s limitless and entirely selfless desire to save sinners was revealed most fully by Christ on the cross, but it is also the main theme behind every other episode in salvation history.

We just listened to one of those episodes from the OT.  While Moses had been up on the mountain in prayer, receiving the Law from God's own hands, the Israelites down in the valley had lost hope and abandoned their faith. Instead of continuing to trust in the God who had already done so many miracles to save them from slavery and lead them to safety, they gave up on God. They rebelled against him, turned their backs on him, and built an idol out of gold. From the Pharisees' perspective, God should have simply destroyed them. That's the natural view of things, which God seems to adopt in his conversation with Moses, when he says he is going to destroy these faithless, stiff-necked people. But God doesn't mean it. He is only testing Moses. And Moses passes the test.

It is sometimes hard for our fallen human nature to see God's mercy clearly. We tend to be judgmental, so we also tend to project that - wrongly - onto God. This wrong conception can be detrimental to our maturity and peace of mind. It puts a wall around our own hearts, so that God's love can't reach in and transform us.

Let us realize the truth that our brothers and sisters deserve and expect from us the same compassion, kindness and forgiveness which we receive from our merciful God. As forgiven prodigals, we must become forgiving people, for Jesus taught us to pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” 

Jesus is not asking us to be like either of the two brothers in the parable, because both were far from perfect.  Let us try and be like the father in the story. “Be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Be compassionate as the heavenly Father is.”

It is important to find out our own faults and sins and become aware of them so that we can humble ourselves before God and ask forgiveness. Before we go to bed at night, make it a habit to examine our conscience and confess to God our sins and failures of the day, asking His pardon and forgiveness. As the prodigal son came to his senses we also need to come to our senses and realize where we stand before God each day.

As we continue with the celebration of the Holy Mass, let us pray also for God’s Divine mercy on all of us who have fallen away from God’s grace.  Let us open our eyes to see and ears to hear that Jesus is welcoming us back home! And there will be a great rejoicing in heaven over our returning home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 OT XXIII- Wis 9:13-18b; Phlm 9-10, 12-17; Lk 14:25–33

 In his world-conquering march, Alexander the Great approached a highly fortified city and through a messenger demanded to see the king and set out his terms of surrender. The king laughed at him and said, “Why should I surrender to your emperor Alexander? You can’t do us any harm! We can endure any siege.” As the messenger returned Alexander ordered his men to line up in single file and to march towards the cliff within sight of the city walls. The city’s citizens watched with horrified fascination as one by one Alexander’s officers marched over the edge of that cliff and plunged to their death. After several men had obeyed his orders, he commanded them to halt. He then called his troops back to his side and stood silently facing the city. The effect on the citizens and the king was stunning. From spellbound silence they moved to absolute terror. They realized they had no walls thick enough and no defense strong enough to protect themselves against that kind of commitment and that kind of devotion. Spontaneously they rushed through the gates to surrender themselves to Alexander the Great. — That is the kind of surrender and sacrifice that Jesus is asking for. One thing you have to say about today’s terrorists is that they are willing to die for what they believe. The tragedy is that terrorists are more willing to pay a price and are more willing to die for a lie than Christians are to live for the truth.

Jesus said to the great crowds, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Is Christ telling us to hate the very people we should love the most? No.  In ancient Palestine, figures of speech were often vivid. The more important the point, the more vivid the image. For example when Christ says: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off,” he’s not saying that every person who’s ever stolen a cookie from the cookie jar should start amputating body parts. He is saying that we need to be radical in our fight against sin. If a certain situation or place or person is always leading us away from God, he wants us to have the courage to renounce that situation or place, and put healthy boundaries with that person.

Unless we love Jesus more than we love our families, we can’t really follow him. And if we value our own life and our own comfort more than we love Him, we’re not going to be able to experience the joy of a deep friendship with him. Christ gives us to key to loving him above all else: it means letting go of our possessive love.

 

Just as a tower builder needs to have enough in the budget for materials and as a general to win a war needs to have enough well-trained troops to defeat his opponents, so we, to be followers of Christ need to know the sufferings that keeping this commitment will demand.  Perhaps these parables also illustrate that discipleship is not a one-time decision and that the commitment involved needs to be an ongoing decision to persevere in the ministries that are integral to following Jesus.  When we first decide to follow Christ, we know simply that there will be a price to pay.  Only as life unfolds can we begin to assess the full cost. 

 

When Jesus says: “Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple”, he’s not saying that everyone should run off and sell their homes and cars right after Mass. We have a responsibility to others, and we need to use the gifts of God wisely. He is, however, calling us to give up our possessive, hoarding attitude towards material possessions and towards others. He’s inviting us to carry our crosses by renouncing our possessions for the infinite gain of loving him above all things

 

Jesus asserted in the Sermon on the Mount: “No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24).  He cannot stand halfway between both sides. He has to decide and show his commitment.

The four conditions of discipleship as outlined by Jesus in this gospel indicate a kind of total commitment that every follower of Christ should be prepared to live. The radical demands of Jesus call us to center our lives on the suffering and risen Christ.

Taking up our own cross does not mean seeking out suffering. Jesus did not seek out his cross; he took on himself, in obedience to the Father, what men put on his shoulders, and with his obedient love, he transformed it from an instrument of torture into a sign of redemption and glory. Jesus did not come to make human crosses heavier, but rather to give them meaning. It has been rightly said that “whoever looks for Jesus without the cross will find the cross without Jesus,” that is, he will certainly find the cross but not the strength to carry it. Though “bearing a cross” is often equated with welcoming chronic illness, painful physical conditions, or trying family relationships, it also includes what we do voluntarily, as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus Christ.  Further, it is the spirit in which we freely and deliberately accept and endure the pain, the difficulties, and even the ridicule involved with these choices, that transforms them into real cross-bearing. We need to be prepared to suffer out of love for Jesus.

 

Real discipleship demands true commitment to the duties entrusted to us by life, circumstances, the community, or directly by God Himself, and by loving acts of selfless, humble, sacrificial love offered to all God’s children around us.  Let us remember that all this is possible only if we rely on the power of prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Today Christ will come in Holy Communion to strengthen us once again, so that we can continue bearing our crosses with faith and hope. This week, let's share that strength with someone who needs it. Let's take a share of a neighbor's cross, just as Christ has taken a share of ours.