Precious & Invaluable

Catholic Liturgy for the 24^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 15, 2019. Gospel of Luke 15:1-32. Theme: Precious & Invaluable

Today’s gospel present us with three beautiful parables aimed at trying to help us better understand and live our relationship with God. Each one is so full of meaning within itself that it should be its own Sunday Gospel.  But, be that as it may, they do have a united message in that they each speak to us about something that is lost but then is found; someone who seems to dead to life but then becomes alive again. Each of these parables show us how precious and valuable we are as individuals in God’s eyes.

Like the one lost sheep, God goes seeking after us, so to speak, and continues the quest until he has found us. And when he finds us he scoops us up in his arms, presses us to his heart, and carries us home over his shoulders. This image reveals to us how precious we are to God. It reminds us that the individual is important to God; that we are not just one person lost in a crowd of a billion faces to him.

Like the one lost coin, God can see and find us even amidst all the messiness in life. The coin that Jesus is talking about was actually a very expensive piece of currency, but it was extremely tiny. It was very easy for it to get lost in the straw and dirt floors of the homes in his day. And so, the lady of the house turned the entire place upside down until she found her treasure. This shows us that even if we feel like we are nearly invisible in life, small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, we are nonetheless extremely valuable in God’s sight. No matter what we do or what mess we may have made with the gift of life, God does not give up the quest to set things right with us again.

Like the father of the prodigal son, God is on the lookout for us to return home to him. And as soon as he sees the tiniest bit of remorse or sorrow within us, his joy over our change of heart causes him to run out and embrace us. And not only does he welcome us home, he goes above and beyond, dressing us in the finest clothes and jewelry, symbols of the many graces and blessing she showers down upon us.

Jesus is giving us in these parables deeply personal and touching examples of what we call reconciliation: being restored to a personal intimate relationship with God after we have chosen to ignore or destroy it by sin.  Each of these parables show us how messed up our understanding and thinking can be when it comes to our relationship with God. You see, we tend to think that when we commit sin, God is angry with us, wants nothing to do with us, stops loving us.

What Jesus is trying to get into our thick heads through these parables is that none of that is true! When we sin, we are actually the ones who have strayed from the flock, become lost in some corner of life, or walked away from our relationship with God. But he is rich in mercy and doesn’t hold that against us.  There is no such thing as God holding a grudge! He is always reaching out to us and hoping for our return.  God is the one who takes the initiative, the first steps in reconciliation. All we need to do is humbly accept it.

This is why Jesus gave us the Sacraments of Confession. It enables us to accept the gift of reconciliation and personally encounter the Risen Living Lord through the ministry of his priest. In this Sacrament of Reconciliation, we express our sorrow for having hurt the ones we love and we seek to make things right again.  We come to God with an awareness and sorrow like the prodigal son had once he came to his senses and could properly evaluate his life.  And like the father in that parable, God runs out to meet us when he sees us approaching the sacrament, and before we can even kneel down to confess he is wrapping his arms around us and showering us with his grace.

The truth that Jesus teaches us in today’s gospel is something that each one of us should memorize and treasure in the depth of our hearts.  When we awake in the morning and when we go to bed at night, and even often throughout the day, we would do well to repeat it to ourselves as a short on-going prayer: “I am precious to God and invaluable in his sight.”

Informed Consent

23^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 8, 2019.  Gospel of Luke 14:25-43. Theme:  Informed Consent

(No Audio Version, only Written Format)

When someone has a serious medical condition that requires intervention to restore health, remove pain or even save life, it is required that they be properly and fully informed about what they will undergo. This enables them to make a good solid decision as to if they wish to go forward with the treatment.  They are made aware of all the basic details, of the potential suffering involved and the benefit to be gained. That way a patient cannot say “I had no idea of what I was getting myself into!”

Well today’s Gospel is very much the same in regards to our spiritual health and life. It is like Jesus seeking our informed consent about embracing Christianity, about what it means to keep our baptismal commitment to live as his disciples.  He is pointing out to us very clearly the demanding and challenging conditions for following him. And he is informing us that the benefit to be gained is the gift of eternal life.

I do not think that any of us are in the dark as to the conditions for discipleship that Jesus is laying down before us. Using exaggerated language common for his day, he is informing us that we must give our love and allegiance to him over that of our families, our possessions and even our very lives. He is not saying that we are not to love ourselves, or our families but that we are to love him more.  Following Jesus with his cross means suffering with him, bearing the potential pain of persecution, and sharing the ridicule of rejection by those who prefer a materialistic self-centered life.

Jesus uses the example of the tower and the troops in today’s Gospel to inform us that we need to honestly assess our readiness and determination to follow him. A contractor should not set out to build a tower unless he knows he has the funds to complete it. A government should not send troops into a battle that it knows will be disastrous. In the same way, a person should not say “yes” to following Jesus if he or she is not ready and willing to take on the personal commitment and sacrifice required.

In laying out these conditions of discipleship Jesus is actually reminding us that he is God.  For no one but God can ask for, deserve and expect such a drastic re-prioritization of our lives. And it is only because he is indeed God that he can promise us with certainty the gift of eternal life as a reward for having done so.  So, having been fully informed we need to each ask ourselves: are we still willing to proceed with living this way of life called Christianity? Are we ready and willing to keep Jesus as the center of our lives at any cost?

If our reply is yes, then we need to understand and embrace what Jesus means by the word, disciple, which he uses and repeats quite often in today’s gospel. “Disciple” literally means student, but it’s not exactly the way we think of being a student today. For us 21^st century Americans a student is someone who attends school to accumulate information that will enable him or her to lead a successful life. It is very self-focused, self-oriented.

To be a disciple in the Christian sense of the word means to be God-focused and neighbor-oriented.   A disciple is someone who commits to follow a Teacher, who memorizes the Master’s lessons about God, life and relationships. The disciple observes his Teacher’s actions, tries to integrate it into his own behavior. The disciple gives the Master both respect and a place of honor in his life.

So, to be a Christian means to think and act like Jesus.  It means to enthrone him as Lord, Master and King of our hearts and lives. It means that we take on a Jesus-way of thinking, a Jesus-way of behaving, a Jesus-way of looking at God, life and relationships. And then, after a lifetime of carrying the cross and renouncing ourselves for the sake of love, we can receive the reward of everlasting life. And that’s a benefit worth living and even dying for!

You're Invited to a Party!

The Catholic Liturgy for the 22^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 1, 2019. Gospel of Luke 14:1-14. Theme: Invited to a Party!

What an interesting and revealing opening line we have in today’s gospel! “On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully.” Actually, in the original Greek of this gospel, the words “observe carefully” carry the meaning of “to watch closely and not miss a thing” with an eye to catching someone in a violation of Jewish law.

You see, the Pharisees were a branch of Judaism that put great emphasis upon the external rituals and actions of religion. If you did the right thing and obeyed the rules, then you were all good with God. Where your heart was, was of secondary importance to many of them. They were also very politically active social leaders in Israel.  The top guns among them, such as the host of this dinner party, rubbed shoulders with the movers and shakers of the day and were pretty influential themselves.

The Pharisees were hoping that violation of the laws – along with its punishment -could be applied to this wandering preacher and purported miracle-worker, Jesus of Nazareth. They had well heard how he seemed to downplay God’s law by saying that the human person was of more importance than the rules. They saw how he ignored the Jewish rituals of remaining pure by not touching or associating with those regarded as public sinners and disease-ridden outcasts. They were insulted that this he would claim to be sent by God while at the same time exposing the hypocrisy of the Jewish leadership, jeopardizing their social and political status and power. And they were furious that so many of the common people listened to him.

But Jesus, knowing full well their real intentions, accepts their invite. He wants these people to experience a real change of heart, and begin living a new way of life with a new way of thinking.  He wants them to receive the gift of salvation that brings deep inner joy that no one can take from them.  He puts himself at risk of ridicule and prosecution because he is more concerned about them than he is for himself.

And that is something that St. Luke wants us to learn through today’s Gospel story.  Jesus’ parable of the dinner party and about the invitation to the poor and lame to come as guests, is really all about how we must see ourselves and how we must relate to others if we hope to enter God’s kingdom.

In the first part of the parable Jesus deals with how the Pharisees – and by extension us - see themselves.  He warns them and us not to build our lives on seeking honor and prestige because these are fake attitudes that fool us into thinking we are more important that we really are. People with this fake perception of themselves believe that they are totally self-sufficient, not needing anyone’s help to get by in life and to do well, not even God’s. An overblown proud view of oneself does warrant an invitation to the Kingdom of God.

But the humble person, on the other hand, is someone who realizes that he or she is not the indispensable center of the universe. Humility recognizes one’s strengths and abilities but equally and readily acknowledges our sins and weaknesses. Humility is not putting oneself down, but is instead, an honest self-assessment that strives to see oneself with God’s eyes, so to speak.   The humble person easily and often falls on their knees before the Lord, either thanking him for the blessings in their life or repenting of the wrong they have done.

Jesus closes up his teaching – and Luke closes up his story about it – by pointing out that humility also changes our attitude towards others and not about just ourselves. It enables us to stop seeing people in the light of what they can do for us, and start looking for what we can do for them.  Jesus’ host invited the powerful and wealthy to his dinner party, not because he necessarily liked them, but for the sake of climbing the social ladder.

Instead, Jesus calls us to think of others in the light of service and mercy. He lists things that most of us would see as curses: destitute poverty, crippling health conditions, and lack of social influence, and calls these things invitations to sit in the highest seats at a party to be held in the Kingdom of Heaven!  What he wants us to know and take away from this parable is that, through the attitude and lifestyle of humility, we can see ourselves more clearly, follow him more faithfully, and love others more deeply until we reach the ultimate and everlasting dinner party of Heaven.