Daily Archives: September 5, 2022

Pride’s Shadow

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The first reading is from Paul’s “1st Letter to the Corinthians.” The entirety of the Letter is an admonition to the community. As described in Acts 8, Paul had been with the Corinth community for 18 months, had moved on to establish Christian communities in other places, but had begun to receive letters about problems with the Corinth community. Chapters 1-4 addressed divisions within the community and was part of our readings from last week’s daily Masses. Within that part of his letter, Paul provides a framework by which he advises Corinth to address their internal problems: the division of the world between the Holy and the profane. That which is holy builds and sustains the relationships between God and the community, between the members of the community, and serves as a beacon of light and wisdom to the world. Continue reading →

Honoring those who serve

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Jesus was a master of the story form known as parables.  One of the most memorable parables can be found in Luke: the story of Lazarus and the Rich man (Luke 16:19-31).  The parable starts simply enough: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.  And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores.”  Very quickly in the parable the two men die.  The unnamed rich man goes to a fiery afterlife of torment while Lazarus rests in the arms of Abraham, awaiting the day when Jesus will open the gates of Heaven for the faithful. Continue reading →

Commonality among the parables

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This is a post that continues the thought in an earlier post today about our Sunday gospel on the parables of the Lost.

The gospel text of Luke 15 immediately follows the section highlighting the reversals in the Reign of God (13:10-14:35).  Luke presents three parables that have a common theme: the joy of finding what was lost or recovering one who was estranged (the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son). These parables follow easily upon the extended section on the reversals of the kingdom because they respond to the Pharisees’ grumbling over Jesus’ practice of eating with outcasts. Continue reading →

The Parables of Luke 15

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This coming weekend is the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Lectionary Cycle C during which we take the majority of our gospels from the Gospel of Luke. This coming weekend the gospel has a “long” option and a “short” option. Both readings are taken from Luke 15 which contains the well-known parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. The longer option includes all three parables. The shorter option considers only the Prodigal Son. This is my way of giving you a “heads up” that the posts this week will be on the longish side. Continue reading →