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.

 

 

 

 

 

OT 22 [C]: Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a; Lk 14:1, 7-14

An old story is told about someone searching for the meaning of life who wanders into the hut of a holy hermit in a forest. The hermit offers his guest tea and keeps pouring tea into the cup until it is overflowing. The guest watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. “Stop! The cup is full. No more will go in.” And then the hermit replied, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions, preconceptions, and ideas. How can I teach you unless you first empty your cup?” — That is a wonderful story about humility, which is esteemed by many religious traditions. Dante in ‘The Divine Comedy’ thought of humility as the most important virtue. Humility is radical dependence upon and trust in God. 

One of the most important laws in Christ's Kingdom is the law of humility. This law says that "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted". In other words, greatness in his Kingdom comes not from outdoing other people, outperforming them, and out-distancing them. Greatness in Christ's eyes comes from serving other people, from elevating them, helping them advance, and keeping oneself in the background.

In his very first sermon, Jesus had taught the same law with different words: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." It's the same law stated so directly in today's First Reading: "conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved.. Humble yourself... and you will find favor with God." This law goes directly against everything this fallen world teaches us. It's extremely hard for us to swallow, which is why Jesus explained it by using this unambiguous parable.

This law is so fundamental, that Jesus also taught it to us by living it out in an extreme way: through his passion and death. Jesus, the Lord of heaven, came to earth and purposefully took the lowest place possible - that of a condemned criminal. He freely took on the most humiliating form of death - crucifixion. He allowed himself to be stripped of every honor.

In the parable, we heard Jesus talking about where the guests should sit at the table when invited somewhere. As a general rule in a fixed system, the most distinguished guest sits at the right hand of the host where he receives the highest honour. The second most important guest sits at the left side of the host, and so on. He used this example of good manners at the table to draw attention to how honour is accredited in the Kingdom of God.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is a great example that Jesus has given. This parable explains the power of humility as seen in our prayers. In the parable, Jesus talks about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 

The Pharisee began thanking God for “not being like other people”. He thanked God for not being one of the sinners and even added that he fasts twice a week and gave tenths of everything he receives. Now, the tax collector stood far away. He could not even look to heaven as he beat his breast and asked the Lord to have mercy on him, a sinner. The parable then ends with Jesus saying that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

It is important to stay humble because having humility not only helps us develop a more kind approach to interacting with others but it also influences how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. Humility helps one extend more compassion and empathy to others.  Humility offers the opportunity to become less self-involved and more attuned with the feelings of others.

It is relatively easy to be humble when we are at the bottom of the tree, as it were: new in a job, or very junior. The more senior we get, the more likely that we become proud. 

A key quality of humility is to value others and enable them to be heard. Spending time listening to others, and drawing out their feelings and values, enabling them to express themselves, is a very powerful way to start to understand this.

Secondly, be grateful for what we have. In other words, take the time to ‘count your blessings’, and be thankful for them. It is easy to get sucked into a negative spiral of wanting more. Taking time to stop, and remember what we have to be grateful for, is a good way to cultivate a more humble and positive frame of mind.

The Proverb says that the Lord detests everyone with a proud heart and that they will be punished. Pride is very offensive in the Eyes of God. With humility, we learn that this is the truth and that we should put ourselves before Him. Not being humble is basically like declaring that we are no longer in need of God’s guidance, and that is offensive to the Lord.

In washing the feet of His disciples Jesus set the greatest example of humility. Jesus set the bar for being humble. Our aim is to be like Jesus. So, if Jesus set the standard for humility, we should lower our level of pride to attain this. The Grace of God is like a waterfall; the water never flows upward to the skies. Instead, it flows and hits the ground in a downward motion. Therefore, those who are blessed are those who are humble.

As we prepare to receive the gift of gifts, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we ask him to give us the joy seeing ourselves as he sees us, and to make us truly humble of heart. Jesus meek and humble of heart make my heart like yours.

 XXI-O.T. Is. 66:18-21; Heb. 12:5-7, 11-13; Lk. 13:22-30

As he continues his fateful journey to Jerusalem, Jesus answers the question as to how many will be saved by answering how to enter into salvation and how urgent it is to strive now, before the Master closes the door. Jesus also admonishes his followers to concentrate on their own salvation instead of worrying about the salvation of others.

We don't know who the questioner was. It was someone who believed in eternal life. He was wondering if it was as hard to attain it as the prevailing view was. In our culture, the prevailing view is just the opposite.  It says that most people are nice guys, so most people will get to heaven. But what does Jesus say? He doesn't give a direct answer. He doesn't say, "Only a few will be saved," as the Pharisees taught. Neither does he say, "Many will be saved," as today's popular culture teaches. Instead, he changes the focus from general statistics to the individual. He looks at his questioner and says, "Strive to enter by the narrow gate." Then he tells a parable that reinforces this emphasis on individual responsibility (as opposed to general appearances) by showing that on Judgment Day there will be a lot of surprises - the first will be last, and the last will be first. We cannot take our friendship with Christ for granted. We have to consciously and continually strive to enter by the narrow gate.

Jesus is inviting us to break out of our comfort zones and start striving to follow him more closely. It's a real relationship that needs attention and effort. He invites us to strive more intelligently or energetically. Daily prayer and frequent confession are essential aspects of striving to enter through the narrow gate.

We cannot strive with all our strength to follow Christ if we do not know Christ.  It is not enough to have a superficial knowledge of Christ - like the people who said, "We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets." Rather, we have to have a living, lasting, growing friendship with Christ. That is what we were created for, and that is what will lead us to true life.

And since friendship always involves effort, self-sacrifice, and the investment of time and energy, the same thing goes for our friendship with Christ. Salvation comes from actually following him, from striving to know him better and live out his teaching. This is what Jesus means by "the narrow gate" that leads to salvation. To get through a narrow gate you have to leave behind all your excess baggage - you have to go through it on purpose.

It is possible to be labeled a Christian on the outside without really making an effort to follow the Christian way in our hearts. It is possible to come to Mass, to be involved with parish activities, and still never really enter into a committed, life-changing, personal relationship with Christ. Jesus knows that going through the motions isn't enough; we need to let his grace change our lives.

 

A few ways to start striving to know Christ better are: weekly Eucharistic adoration, joining Bible studies, renewing your prayer life, reading a good book on Christ, meditating on the mysteries of the rosaries etc... Jesus is eager to help us through the narrow gate, but he can't do his part unless we also strive to do our part.

The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us: "do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines..." In other words, every trial and tribulation that comes our way in life is either sent or permitted by God for our benefit. Nothing is outside of his wise and loving plan. And the main focus of that plan is to restore us to the fullness of life that sin has disrupted.

 

When God sends or permits trials, we often react by rebelling. In the spiritual life, we are like children who don't appreciate the value of discipline. So when following Christ's path becomes uncomfortable, when his gate becomes too narrow, we start looking around for shortcuts. We think to ourselves, “Jesus promises lasting happiness, but it seems so far away!" And then we think about the people around us, and the people on television and in the movies. They seem to be enjoying themselves so much. They don't follow Christ's teaching, but they seem to be doing just fine. And that's when we start to compromise in our moral lives. We cut corners on Church teaching in little ways that no one will notice. We make little exceptions. After all, we tell ourselves, everyone else is doing it. And so we step off the straight path traced out by the Ten Commandments and the Catechism - that sure and dependable path that our conscience always points too. We prefer the winding "shortcut".

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Until it suddenly stopped making any progress and looked like it was stuck.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man didn’t think anything of it and sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body.

Our struggles in life develop our strengths. Without struggles, we never grow and never get stronger, so it’s important for us to tackle challenges on our own, and not be relying on help from others. When we accept these challenges and grow we will be able to say with Robert Frost,

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OT XX [C] Jer 38:4-6, 8-10; Heb 12:1-4; Lk 12: 49-53 

Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

There is a story that took place in Russia in 1905 and the plot centers around a man named Tevye, the father of a poor Jewish family. He has five daughters but no son. His eldest daughter marries a tailor who was not chosen for her by the traditional matchmaker. After a struggle with his conscience Teyve accepts the marriage. His next daughter marries a college student who has broken with many Jewish traditions. After another struggle with his conscience, Teyve accepts this marriage too. Finally, his third daughter, Chava, marries a non-Jew, a young Russian soldier. When Golde, Teyve’s wife breaks the news to him, Teyve, says, “Chava is dead to us! We must forget her.” Alone, Teyve, sings a beautiful song called “Chavalah”. In it he pours out his heart to God. He can’t understand why Chava did what she did. At that moment Chava appears and pleads with Teyve to accept her and her husband. Teyve looks up to heaven and says: “How can I accept them? Can I deny everything I believe in? On the other hand, can I deny my own child? (But if I deny everything I believe in, if I try to bend that far, I will break). No Chava!”  — When Jesus invited people to follow him, he realized what he was asking.

At least 75% of the Christian families, I believe, going through this kind of situations, torn between love and faith. What will you choose? Can you strike a balance without losing both? Both the first reading and the gospel speak with such situations.

Jeremiah in the first reading lived at a tumultuous time in Israel's history, right around 600 BC. The northern half of Israel had recently been conquered by Assyria, but the small, southern part of the country, Judah, where Jerusalem was located and where Jeremiah lived, was still free when Jeremiah was born. But it was located right between two powerful empires that were trying to conquer the whole area: Egypt in the south and Babylon in the north. Jeremiah's mission in life was to be a prophet, to constantly remind the people and rulers of Judah to trust in God.

If they obeyed God's commandments and instructions, God would protect them. Unfortunately, neither the leaders nor the people wanted to hear that. Instead, they wanted to take matters into their own hands, fight their own battles, and arrange their own peace treaties. The one thing they didn't want to do was to depend on and obey God.

Every time the King of Judah asked Jeremiah for guidance, Jeremiah would pray, receive instructions, and inform the King - and then the King would do the exact opposite. And then God would ask Jeremiah to issue warnings, calling the people to repentance. But they wouldn't repent. So, eventually Judah was conquered by Babylon, Jerusalem was obliterated, and the Jews were taken into exile. Through it all, Jeremiah was the despised scapegoat. They spread lies about him, mocked him, burned his writings, and finally put him in prison. When even that didn't silence him, they threw him down a well so he would starve to death. Why? Simply because he was being faithful to what God was asking of him.

Yes, choosing to follow Christ in a fallen world has consequences, and God wants us to be ready for them. Being a Christ's friend means more than simply praying and receiving the sacraments - although those are essential. It also means FOLLOWING him. It means daily listening for his call and obeying it when it comes. That's the tough part. Because, obeying Christ means, going against the grain of this fallen world. It brings us into conflict with social trends, other people's desires, and even of our own sin-struck nature. Even though Christ did come to establish peace between God and man, that peace causes a division between those who accept it and those who reject it. In this way he becomes a sign of contradiction.

The division which Jesus speaks of here has several features. History has borne testimony to the fact that the gospel divides men and women, husbands and wives, parents and children, for faith in Christ requires ultimate allegiance to Him. Not even family ties should hold us back from following him.

The loyalty to Christ has to take precedence over the dearest loyalties of this earth. Belief in Jesus and commitment to him cause fires of arguments to erupt between believers and non-believers in the same family or community, resulting in the division of families and conflict in society.  Standing up for what is right and working for justice and truth are higher aims than unity, and working for those aims will sometimes cause division.  Hence, Christians today may cause division and rouse opposition because they share, through their Baptism, the prophetic charism of speaking God’s word, no matter how unpopular, and of giving a voice to those who have no one to speak for them.  C.S. Lewis once said that the Gospel was concerned to create “new people” not just “nice people.” If our individual and communal living of the Good News casts no fire and causes no division, then perhaps we are practicing “inoffensive Christianity.”

The polarization that began from the time of Jesus has been continued throughout the centuries. It will never end. Jesus’ words speak of the inevitable consequence of his message. Divisions are foreseen, and divisions and conflicts have been a constant reality because the Christian gospel makes great demands. The challenge is to continue to speak the truth with love in spite of opposition.

Jesus has come to “bring fire to the earth” because some things that exist in our world have to be destroyed in order for something new, beautiful, and life-giving to emerge. And that is the mission of the church and each one of us, to keep the fire of Christ burning alive to burn down the sin of the world and in ourselves and create a new world loyal to Christ, the truth.  

 

 

 

 

OT XIX [C] Wis 18:6-9; Heb 11:1-2, 8-19; Lk 12: 32-48

The Gospel today invites us to trust God and cast out all fear. Jesus said to his disciples, Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

A person’s heart is tied to what he values most in life. People will inevitably reveal what they value most by their actions. Some people may value money more than anything and will go to great lengths to secure and gain more riches. For many people, their success or family is the most valued treasure of their lives, which is revealed in how they spend their time and energy. Therefore, Jesus’ statement that “where your treasure is there your heart is also” means that what a person values and loves the most in life will influence how they live.

Someone said, if I looked at your spending for five minutes, I could tell where your priorities lie because people go to where their time and money go. For example, health-conscious people spend time and money on being healthy. Fashionable people spend time and money researching the latest fashion trends and shopping. The most fascinating thing is that many of us are misaligned in our priorities and where we allocate our money.

A person with a heart set on worldly pleasures and riches will live in pursuit of earthly treasure while the person who values Christ above all else will stay focused on eternity and store up treasures in Heaven.

COVID has taught us that life can change within the blink of an eye. Those things that we have devoted endless hours into building and attaining can be stripped away from us within an instant. We can do everything we can to create a type of security in life, but the truth is, everything in this life is temporary. 

We work endless hours in an attempt to build financial security. We expect our relationships to fulfill our deepest longings for love and adoration. These things are certainly not wrong in themselves. But it’s healthy, every now and then, to stop and reflect on our motives. 

Our outlook on life changes when we realize the true mission in life and, that will determine how we use our time. In the business world, people say "time is money", because they know that time is a limited resource. We don't have an unlimited amount of time in which we can fulfill the mission God has given us.

For us, then, "time is Kingdom". One thing that will help us to use our time well, to be responsible and not lazy servants of our King, is budgeting the amount of time we spend entertaining ourselves. We need a certain amount of relaxation and recreation in order to keep balance in life. They are a means to an end. But our society tends to treat pleasure, fun, and entertainment not as means, but as the goal of life. That attitude opens the door to over-indulgence in entertainment - to wasting this precious resource of time. Since we live in this society, we are vulnerable to that temptation. We can keep the proper balance by having  enough self-discipline to budget how much time we spend on entertainment. Whether it's TV, cell phones, music, video games, movies, web surfing, jogging, or whatever - we all need to find a healthy way to relax. But as Christians, our mission comes first. It's up to us to be responsible stewards of our time, and plan ahead.

Living our mission and being responsible stewards of the many gifts we have received from God has  practical repercussions. It means that being a Christian affects our life decisions. Knowing that we are members of Christ's household, and that our first priority in life is to follow him, sheds light on every significant decision we have to make.

For example, when young Catholics are deciding where to go to college, the Catholic presence on campus should be a factor - not the only factor, but if our primary mission in life is to be faithful followers of Christ, it should at least be a factor. This is also why the Church constantly encourages her children to marry someone who shares the same faith. 

Marriage is a sacrament. It is meant to bring the spouses and children closer to Christ as it brings them closer to each other. When the husband and wife don't share the same faith, it makes that mission much harder to fulfill.

Career decisions can also be enlightened by this criterion. If we know that in God's eyes what matters most is that we are faithful to him and to our mission in the Church, our criteria for career success will be different than society's generic criteria.

Staying aware of our identity and mission even helps us decide where to go on vacation: we will do our best to choose a place where we can at least get to Sunday Mass.

As we continue with this Mass, let's ask ourselves what decisions we are facing or will be facing this week. And as Christ comes to us once again in Holy Communion, let's speak with him about them, and ask him to give us the light and strength we need to be faithful and prudent stewards of his gifts.

 

 

 

 

OT XVIII [C] Eccl 1:2; 2:21-23; Col 3:1-5, 9-11; Lk 12:13-21

Charles Dickens in his play “The Christmas Carol” gives the picture of a selfish man, Mr Scrooge, whose sole aim in life was acquiring as much wealth as possible at any cost. He considered Christmas celebrations as humbug, and hated charity. He weighed human relationship against material wealth.  He never bothered to care for his nephew or his employees. 

One night, he saw an unusual figure in his bed room. It was a ghost in chains. The ghost introduced himself as the ghost of his deceased partner Marley. He came to warn Mr Scrooge about the futility of the life that he was leading. He told him that some spirits would come to him and he should listen to their message, to avoid the fate that Marley was suffering. 

First came the ghost of the past. He took Mr Scrooge to his past. He was presented as a young man who did not heed to the voice of his parents; who abandoned the love of a beautiful maiden to amass wealth. The second ghost, the ghost of the present, took him to the church where Christmas celebrations were being held; and to the house of one of his employees. There he witnessed what others thought of him. Everyone hated him due to his over attachment to wealth. The third ghost took him to the future. He was taken to a house where a dead body lay unattended and unlamented by any one. He was curious to see the dead man. The ghost allowed him to see the corpse. Mr Scrooge was shocked, it was his own death scene. 

 Mr Scrooge learned a great lesson that his frantic chase for wealth was meaningless. It would only lead him to eternal misery.  This is the message of today’s readings. 

The author of the book of Ecclesiastes, from which the first reading is taken, was evidently a man of wealth and education. Like every Hebrew of his time he too shared the view that material prosperity was one of the chief signs of God’s blessing and approval. Yet he questioned the assumptions of his society. He declares the truth that “a man who labors wisely, skillfully and successfully, must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. So he asks himself, “What profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?”

 The man in the story of Jesus too is like this. He exhorted himself, “eat heartily, drink well, and enjoy yourself.” He gave no consideration to his end. But God said to him: “fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?  

We are all familiar with the famous eruption of Mt Vesuvius in ancient times, which buried the city of Pompeii in lava in a matter of minutes. The lava and ash came quickly and in huge quantities, preserving a snapshot of life in that ancient city, as if freezing a moment from the past. When archeologists uncovered the lava-caked city, they found entire families gathered around a meal - buried in lava before they even knew the volcano had erupted; they found beasts of burden standing in their stables; they also found some people who had seen or heard the eruption and were trying, in vain, to run away when the eruption caught up with them.

But according to some records, the very first human remains that the archeologists found were the skeletons of a man and a woman, preserved in their lava shell. When they broke through that shell, they found the skeletons' bony fingers clutching handfuls of gold coins.

The temptation to trust too much in money is an old one - as old as money itself. Today Jesus is encouraging us once again not to fall into it.

St Paul advises us, “Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth.” 

One very practical way to keep our thoughts on heavenly things and keep money in its place is to sponsor an evangelization project as a family. If the whole family is involved in saving and sacrificing in order to reach a goal of this kind, it constantly reminds everyone in the family that money is meant to be a means to a higher end, not an end itself. For example, a family could commit to save enough money each year to sponsor a missionary priest, or a child in an orphanage run by missionaries, or feeding orphans in an orphanage for one week. Find out early how much it would cost and collect that amount; or sponsor a seminarian during his years of formation, or a certain number of Masses for the souls in purgatory. Or anything like that you can do it directly that your incentive to help the disadvantaged or the church will keep growing.  Together, as a family, you decide your goal, and then make a plan on how you will be able to meet it. You make a poster with a chart on it, so you can track your progress during the year.

And at the end of the year, when you make your goal, you celebrate with a ceremony in which the money is given to its destination.

Another way to do it is to set a more challenging goal and join forces with another family or two in order to achieve it. It also contributes to family unity and growth in faith.

Jesus doesn't want us to spend our lives building barns that we will never use. He wants us to spend our lives building his everlasting kingdom in our hearts and in the world.

There is a wise saying in India: 

Rivers do not drink their water. Trees do not consume their fruits themselves. Clouds do not rain for them. Thus, the wealth of the noble men is to be used for others. 

May the Lord open our ears and minds to understand his words: What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul.

 XVII-OT-C:Gen. 18:20-32; Col. 2:12-14; Lk. 11:1-13

Today's Reading from the Gospel of Luke reminds us of the necessity to persevere in our prayer. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, Jesus taught them the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father. The prayer our Father is not just a personal prayer. It is also a community prayer. We do not pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “give ME this day what I want.” We pray, “Give US this day our daily bread.” We are created for community. Our prayer-focus should not be just God and me, but God and US.

 To emphasize the importance of persevering in prayer, Jesus gave the story of a friend who arrived at midnight and the necessity to go next door to one's neighbour to borrow three loaves of bread. Under normal circumstances, it is expected that the neighbour will complain because of the hour during which the request is made. It must be realized that in those days, to open the door meant to remove a very large wooden or iron bar from the door that was shut. To do so was tiresome and noisy. Furthermore, the entire family slept on a mat in the peasant house that was single-roomed. To open the door meant to disturb the entire family from its sleep. However, because of the visitor’s persistent knocking or importuning he would get up because his family would be woken up by that any way. Jesus concluded His teaching by saying that if you ask, it will be given to you; if you search, you will find; and if you knock, the door will be opened to you.

God honors persistence throughout the bible. Abraham in the first reading was persistently praying for the good people of Sodom. He was concerned that God would destroy Sodom if fifty righteous souls were not found within the city. On behalf of a lesser number of righteous soul, even ten, Abraham obtained God's unconditional promise that He would not destroy the city. Even Jesus was persistent in prayer. At the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus left his disciples and prayed three times. Sometimes we feel like our prayers are never answered. We wonder if God actually hears our prayers.  

The parable of the persistent widow offers us some answers. The judge in the parable was a man who didn’t fear God or respect anyone. He was in it himself, for the money and the power. So when the widow asked for a judgment, there was nothing in it for him. So, he was unwilling to help. The widow, however, was persistent, approaching him multiple times until he finally gave in and rendered a just judgment. Unlike the judge, God wants to intervene on our behalf. We are His chosen people, His beloved children. He wants to answer our prayers. What God simply need from us is our faith.

There is a story of the Sea Captain, who in a terrible storm feared the loss of all lives.  He asked if anyone knew how to pray.  No one volunteered.  So the captain, prepared to do a captain’s duty, agreed to pray.  His opening words were, “God, I’ve never bothered you before, and if you help us through this storm, I’ll never bother you again.”  That is hardly what God desires from any of us. Even persistent prayer is not bothering God, but manifesting our trust in him.

When we come to God with our request we often come very casually.  We ask and then leave.  When we do not get an immediate answer we return with the request but more urgently.  The longer we do without what we need, the more we are aware of its importance to us, until like ancient Jacob we say “I will not let you go until you bless me.”  If we really need something from God, we will find ourselves returning again and again.

St Augustine understood Christian prayer better than almost anyone. He had learned all about it from his mother, St Monica, who spent almost twenty years begging God with daily tears to convert her heretical and pleasure-loving son. This experience helped him understand why God doesn't always give us what we ask for right away. It's because he wants to give us more than what we ask for. By inviting us to be persistent, God is stretching our hearts, making them able to receive more grace, the way you stretch out a burlap sack so you can fill it to the brim.

Here's how Augustine explained it: "Suppose you want to fill some sort of bag, and you know the bulk of what you will be given, you stretch the bag or the sack or the skin or whatever it is.  You know how big the object that you want to put in and you see that the bag is narrow so you increase its capacity by stretching it.  In the same way by delaying the fulfillment of desire God stretches it, by making us expand the soul, and by this expansion he increases its capacity."

God never ignores our prayers.  If we keep on asking with sincerity and confidence in God's goodness, we are guaranteed to receive, and it will probably be much more than we could have imagined. When we do not understand why answers to our prayers are delayed, put our hand into God’s hand.  And continue to pray for those things we know to be his will.

Today, in response to Christ's reminder about the nature of Christian prayer, let's renew our commitment to taking time every day to be alone with God, to reboot our souls every morning and evening; so that our lives can run more smoothly, the way God designed them to run.