Cycle C

19th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C

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Today’s Gospel ends with a warning, but it doesn’t begin with one. Our Lord is inviting us today to be magnanimous in our service, not miserly and calculating. Our Lord encourages us today by reminding us that the Kingdom is ours: he describes the moment when the master actually waits on the servants because they’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty and he is so pleased with them. Our Lord wants to give us all we need and more. The key is to be a faithful and prudent servant. We have to remember that we’re not the owner; we’re stewards entrusted with something that doesn’t belong to us, and we have to account for our stewardship.

We can never forget that we’re servants and stewards. We don’t control it all: flat tires, food poisoning, bad weather remind us that not everything is under our sway. We don’t own it all: even when we have the latest iPod there’s always a better model on the way, a newer car, but also a new and unpaid bill. Our Lord teaches us today that true freedom comes from letting go. The Kingdom is true freedom, if we seek it first, everything else will work out, because our treasure, the treasure for ourselves and those we love, is in Heaven.

Let’s resolve to be faithful and happy servants today, because Our Lord’s servants become his friends, and he promises those friends a joy that no one will take from them. Ask Our Lord today to help you see where your heart lies so that you can keep it fixed on the treasure that never fades.

Readings: Wisdom 18:6–9; Psalm 33:1, 12, 18–19, 20–22; Hebrews 11:1–2, 8–19; Luke 12:32–48. See also 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Transfiguration of the Lord, Cycle C

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In today’s Second Reading Peter reminds the first generations of Christians (and us) that the Transfiguration was not a myth, but, rather, an event. It was an event to which he was an eye-witness as well as a participant. In the ancient world myths were attempts to articulate religious beliefs and sentiments. In the case of the Greeks, they themselves eventually stopping believing in those myths as real events when they came under rational and philosophical scrutiny. In the language of today myth means invented.

Christianity is not a myth. Jesus Christ was born, lived in Palestine two thousand years ago, and died. Even if you don’t believe in him as the Christ history testified to his earthly life. However, he also rose from the dead and ascended into glory, and a “cloud of witnesses” testify to that fact (see Hebrews 12:1). Some have accused us of embellishing historical events to give them mythic proportions, and tales of the Transfiguration and Resurrection seem to them to be myths, but a myth never transformed history as much or as profoundly as Christianity and its founder. There’s nothing “clever” about testifying to the Risen and Glorified Christ to the point of martyrdom, as St. Peter did, if it was all invented or embellished.

Christianity is an event, even today, that spans eternity and history, just as the Transfiguration did. Inspired by Our Lord’s history as well as his glory let’s not be shy about testifying to the events of salvation history.

Readings: Daniel 7:9–10, 13–14; Psalm 97:1–2, 5–6, 9; 2 Peter 1:16–19; Luke 9:28b–36. See also 2nd Sunday of Lent, Cycle C and Transfiguration of the Lord, Cycle B.

18th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C

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In today’s First Reading the meaning is questioned of striving to accumulate property when, in the end, all the time, effort, and worry that he invests in it will not keep it in his possession forever. Ecclesiastes asked the question, but Paul in today’s Second Reading gives us an answer: to set our sights and work for what is truly important: Heaven. The things for which we strive here below, including our own health, are not going to last. Wealth here below is gone the minute we’re six feet underground.

Our Lord explains today in the parable of the rich man deciding to start early retirement what is the flaw in that logic: the only treasure we truly have, and we don’t know how much, is time. Some live long lives, some lives are tragically cut short, but every life is an opportunity to invest in the treasure that truly lasts: love for God. Love is the only thing that matters to God, not our net worth according to the balance sheets of this world.

Ask Our Lord to help you do an “audit” today of what you are working for in order to invest in the future that truly matters.

Readings: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21–23; Psalm 90:3–6, 12–13; Colossians 3:1–5, 9–11; Luke 12:13–21. See also 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

16th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C

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Today’s readings remind us that contemplation and hospitality are like love and service: they go hand in hand and they enrich one another. In today’s readings it seems one person might be getting the brunt of the grunt work (Sarah and Martha), but when it is understood from the perspective of communion, a perspective Paul reminds us of in today’s Second Reading, we know that whether we are in a moment of contemplation or hospitality, love or service, we are benefiting the whole Mystical Body of Christ.

Abraham in today’s First Reading had a special encounter with the Lord. He’d been told to wander to new lands as a nomad with the promise of a land and children of his own. Sarah had been there every step of the way for years. Now the Lord, in the three mysterious visitors, promises that Sarah will bear a son. Sarah receives the blessing, a blessing for her and her husband, that both had been striving for in different ways. Mary in today’s Gospel seems to have left her sister Martha in the lurch, sitting at Our Lord’s feet, and Martha is not shy about bringing that up to Our Lord. Our Lord reminds her that everyone has a part to play, be it love and contemplation or hospitality and service. In the end, both Mary and Martha would be blessed when Our Lord raises their brother Lazarus from the dead thanks to their love and faith.

We all are tempted from time to time of being envious of what others are doing when our part seems burdensome or unfair. Paul in today’s Second Reading speaks of making up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his Body, the Church. Some always have the tougher part; be consoled by knowing that doing your part, easy or hard, will result in blessings for you and for the entire Body.

Readings: Genesis 18:1–10a; Psalm 15:2–5; Colossians 1:24–28; Luke 10:38–42. See also St. Martha and 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

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15th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C

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In today’s First Reading Moses, as part of his parting words to the Israelites, encourages them to see that what the Lord expects of them is not hard to know or achieve: it is turning to God with all their heart and soul. The Lord has made this even easier by sending us his Son, the image of the invisible God, as Paul describes in today’s Second Reading. Through the Son we are aided in turning to God with all our heart and soul; he not only leads by example, but empowers our charity through his act of love on the Cross.

In today’s Gospel the scribe shows wisdom in seeing that love for God and for neighbor are the path to fulfillment in life. He just wants to know one point of fine print: who should we consider our neighbor? The answer is not hard: everyone is our neighbor, as the parable of the Good Samaritan demonstrates. The man waylaid on the way to Jericho was heading from a “good part of town” to a “bad one” (Jericho often symbolized turning your back on Jerusalem and heading into sin); anyone could have rationalized that when you head to a bad part of town you deserve what you get. The Samaritan was overcome with compassion at the sight of his neighbor bleeding and half dead alongside the road.

In Luke’s Gospel the scribe asks in the context of asking what he needs to do in order to inherit eternal life. That Samaritan’s goodness and compassion, by extension, despite all the bad blood between Jews and Samaritans, won him eternal life. It’s not complicated. We make it complicated. Strive to love God and every neighbor and you will accomplish something in life and achieve everything truly worthwhile.

Readings: Deuteronomy 30:10–14; Psalm 69:14, 17, 30–31, 33–34, 36, 37; Colossians 1:15–20; Luke 10:25–37. See also 3rd Week of Lent,Friday,  9th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday and 20th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, and 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.