The Mustard Seed

The Scripture readings for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary time can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/100216.cfmhttp://usccb.org/bible/readings/100216.cfm



We hear in our readings today about faith and fidelity, the power of faith and the power of fidelity which is faith put into action. These readings for today fit into our world today with all the violence we face on a regular basis.

How many of us can relate to Habakkuk in today's first reading? "How long, O LORD? I cry for help
but you do not listen! I cry out to you, 'Violence!'" (Habakkuk 1:2) With all this violence here in the United States and around the world, how many times do we ask the Lord, "When will it end?" We certainly can understand and relate to Habakkuk. It is the prayer of each Sunday. The Lord says three things to Habakkuk. First, the vision, the Kingdom, still has its time. If it delays wait for it. It will surely will come. Second, write it down for all to read. Third, the just man because of his faith in that vision, in the Kingdom, will be saved.

Then in today's Gospel from St. Luke, we hear Jesus teach about faith and service to God. The context is a continuing dialog between Jesus and His followers about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. The two sayings of Jesus in today's Gospel make us wonder about the other side of the story. When the apostles ask, "Lord, increase our faith," are they secretly quite satisfied with their record of faithfulness? Jesus tells them that if they really have faith they can tell a tree what to do, and it will do it! The story about the faithful servant tells us that Jesus' disciples should be grateful to God. We have, after all, done no more than "what we were obliged to do."

Being a disciple of Jesus requires faith, and the apostles were discovering that.  They have been impressed by the assurance that Jesus had, by the way he spoke to God as Father, with conviction and an intimacy that they had not me before.

The disciples wanted to have the same conviction and intimacy; they wanted to see things the way Jesus did and share his outlook. Understandably, they realized that they had a long way to go before hey could know the Father as Jesus did. The disciples  realized that their faith was still week and fumbling. In asking the Lord to increase their faith, the disciples realized that total trust in God can achieve amazing and seemingly impossible things. It's not the quantity of faith, but the kind of faith that matters.

In the second part of the Gospel Luke talks about "What we are obliged to do." We hear of the dutiful servant who is expected to go about ordinary tasks in a responsible, devoted, and self-giving way. The bottom line in this parable is obedience, which is not a means to some reward. You can't expect a reward if all you are doing is your duty.

Luke often uses this role of master and servant/slave to talk about discipleship, faith and faithfulness. It is simply what being an apostle and a disciple are about: faithfulness.

Christ in the Gospel, reminds his followers that they are "the faithful servants of God" and that their humble submission is necessary to grow in faith.

It is easy to say that we have faith in Jesus when everything is going fine. But when there are big problems, crises, calamities, well, things start possibly to change for us and our faith. But Jesus wants us to have faith in Him, even and especially in moments of crisis so that we can triumph over them. The message in the Gospel for today is an invitation to many of us who have found life to be unbearable because God seemed to have abandoned us or God seemed to be silent. Let us humbly pray  to God and say, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Increase my faith!" This is the good news today!

The Rich Man and Lazarus

Scripture readings for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary time can be found at  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/092516.cfm

We have a powerful parable from Jesus today that speaks about death, about life, and about our spiritual life.

It is primarily about death and the fact that eventually we all will face death. Whether we're rich or poor, just or unjust, famous or unknown. We all know the saying, "There are two sure things: death and taxes." Death is a fact of life that we all must face. We don't know where, don't know when, but it will come. There's no way to stop it. In the invocation of the saints, there's a phrase that says, "From sudden and unexpected death, deliver us, O Lord." Death can come suddenly and unexpectedly, as with people killed in terrorist attacks, accidents, hurricanes or other natural disasters. We don't know when or where the Lord will call us. But we need to ask ourselves: are we ready?

There are some practical things that we should consider. Do we have a will so that our property will pass to the people  or institutions in the way we want? Have we provided for someone to make medical decisions for us in the event we are unable to do so?  Have we decided  where our final resting place will be? Most priest, deacons or those in ministry will tell you about stories of how sudden and expected death can throw a family into chaos. To make these preparations is not morbid, but practical. It is an act of consideration for the family  to make these preparations and then get on with life. I'm sure there are people that think that delaying these preparations will delay dying. But it doesn't. Death is a fact of life we all need to face.

A second point of the parable  is about life and how we live it. We go through life but once. We get only one chance! Abraham says to the rich man in today's parable that there is no going back to his brothers. There is no reincarnation, no rerun, no second chance.  The Letter to the Hebrews says that it is appointed for every person to die once. The days or years we waste do not come back. Are we using the time that God gave us to know, love and serve Him in this world and be happy with Him forever in the next?

Then there's the central point to the parable, our spiritual life. What did the Wealthy Man do wrong? Jesus is not condemning him because he is rich. The wealthy man did not make Lazarus poor. The parable does not indicate that he gained his wealth in any immoral or illegal way. The problem with the rich man  is that he did nothing! He was indifferent to the needs at his front door. He didn't harm Lazarus. He just didn't care about him and treated Lazarus as if he didn't exist.

This parable is about the good that we fail to do. This is called the sin of omission. So often we examine our conscience and think, "I didn't kill anyone. I didn't steal, I didn't commit adultery. I can't think of anything  wrong that I've done." But what about the good we fail to do to those around us?

In our first reading from Amos, we hear, "Woe to those who are complacent in Zion." (Amos 6:1)
 He describes them as lounging on their couches, listening to music, while their fellow Jews in the tribe of Joseph are going through a terrible crisis. The rich man's vice was not wealth but indifference. This parable teaches us and calls us to look at our sins of omission, the good we fail to do.

We are called in our following of Christ not to focus only on avoiding sin, but also in doing good for others. We are called to bring more light, more strength, more truth in this world and in people's lives by being Christian. Are we promoting righteousness and justice, the things St. Paul describes in the second reading? If our spiritual life seems to be on hold, maybe we should go beyond examining the sins we've avoided and start looking at the good we are doing by  projecting, proclaiming, introducing something of the Kingdom of God into our part of the world.

The key to doing that is how we treat the Lazaruses at our door. The parable tells us that Lazarus was poor. In our time there are all kinds of poverty, not only poverty of the body but poverty of spirit, poverty of soul. How do we deal  with the Lazarus at our door?

This parable asks us some questions that can profoundly enlarge our Christian life. What are are sins of omission? Do we even notice the good we fail to do for others? We are called to not only to avoid doing evil, but to do good for those in our life. The judgement against the rich man in the parable is based not on what he did, but what he didn't do. He lost forever his chance for doing good. But, like his brothers in the parable, we still have our chance to do good to others.

As we approach Holy Communion this week, let us remember to bring the Jesus we are receiving in Holy Communion to those in our lives, those who may be the Lazaruses in our lives, and then we can truly call ourselves Christian.

The Prodical Son

The readings for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/091116.cfm.

In all our readings for today we see the love and forgiveness of God the Father for all of us. Jesus very skillfully shows in the Gospel how God is always reaching out to us when we turn away from Him. We are always on His mind and in His heart.

In the Gospel we hear the beautiful parable of the Prodigal Son. This parable can also be called "The Loving Father" or "The Judgemental Brother". Who do you relate to in this story?

I can imagine the hurt the father must have felt when the Prodigal Son asked him for his inheritance. The son is pretty much saying, "I can't wait for you to die. Give me my inheritance now!!" The father, though, looks lovingly at his son and gives him what he asks. I imagine that as he's giving his son what he asks for, he was also praying for him to come to his senses. That's the love the father has for his son. Are we like "The Loving Father" praying for those in our lives, even when we know they are doing something they shouldn't be doing?

The son eventually learns the hard way (as we all do) from the mistakes he makes with wasting the money on a lifestyle that is not appropriate. God expects us to use our resources wisely and for the good of all people around us. Rather, the Prodigal Son was very self-centered and selfish with the gift he received from his father. It was only when he became desperate that he realized that he should turn back towards his father and seek forgiveness. Though he was experiencing physical hunger ("... he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any..." Luke 15:16), he was also experiencing the hunger of the love of his father towards him, and he comes to his senses and went home to his father.

Then there's "The Judgemental Brother." How many of us good Catholics and Christians can relate to this son & brother saying, "Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders" (Luke 15:29)? We do the "right thing" every week. We go to confession, we attend Sunday (and even daily) Mass. We're the "goody two shoes" always doing what we think God expects of us in our lives. We may have family members that are away from the church and we may feel they don't deserve the love and generosity of God because of the kind of life they may have lived. What God is telling us is that, though all the things we do are good (going to confession and to mass), we also must be all embracing with those in our family or friends that may be living in a way that may not measure up to what we think God is expecting of them. It is through our way of life, and our love not only towards to God, but towards them, that will bring them into closer relationship with God. Instead of saying, like the Pharisees and scribes, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15:2), we can, like the father, say "...we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found." (Luke 15:32)

As we approach our Lord in Holy Communion this week, or in the Sacrament of Confession, let us pray for those in our lives that may have turned away from God and His love. And let us pray for ourselves that we can be like the father, there waiting for them when they return to relationship with God.