This coming Sunday is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our gospel is the Parable of the Talents. Over the years I have added additional background materials. As a result, this week there will be days with more than one post – such as today! I hope you find it interesting and not too arcane. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle A. Our gospel is the Parable of the Talents. The gospel readings for the 29th through 31st Sundays in Lectionary Cycle A all describe a series of confrontations between Jesus and religious authorities of Jerusalem, namely the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 22 and 23). While not a part of Ordinary Time readings, Chapter 24 continues this theme of imminent destruction and coming tribulation (Mt 24:1-28). It is at this point that we turn the page to Matthew 25. It is here in Matthew 25 that we will finish the final three Sundays of this cycle of Ordinary Time: Continue reading
In response to my homily, part of which made a distinction between knowledge and wisdom, a parishioner have me a great phrase which will undoubtedly appear in a future homily: “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting a tomato in a fruit salad.” Nice.
A world of information, expert advice, and knowledge all sit at our fingertips. With all that available to us via a simple query or the use of artificial intelligence such as Chat GPT, we should have plenty of answers to our questions. But will the answers carry wisdom? I can find a world of knowledge about bees and bee stings with a few keystrokes. Wisdom lies much deeper than our quick keystroke answers. Knowledge understands bee stings, but wisdom does not disturb the hive. Continue reading
Today the nation celebrates Veteran’s Day, honoring all those who served in the armed forces. Thank you all Veterans!
While Memorial Day is the day in which we remember those who gave their life while serving in the armed forces, today I came across a story by Joe Nocera is a columnist for The Free Press:
The Tribute to a Little-Known Soldier. Continue reading
Today is Veterans Day as well as the anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the solemn landmark at Arlington National Cemetery honoring military personnel killed in action who have never been identified. Since 1999, a vacant crypt on the grounds has honored missing service members from the Vietnam War. The quiz below, from the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University in Ohio, provides an opportunity for you to test your knowledge of Veterans Day and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Our gospel is the parable of the Ten Virgins. 11 Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ 12 But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’
Such is the plaintive cry of those who thought they ought to be included. With the emphatic formula, “Amen, Amen” the following words have the force of a judicial verdict. “”I do not know you.” This dramatic verse carries a profound and symbolic meaning within the context of the parable and possibly underscores several important spiritual concepts: Continue reading
The gospel for today is the story of the “Dishonest Steward” (Luke 16:1-8). These verses are the parable itself but it is good to note that the application of the parable continues in vv.9-13. The additional verses are:
I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Our reading (plus the extra verses) can be divided into four sayings:
Our reading brings about many different perspectives, including but not limited to:
A longer, detailed commentary is needed to unpack all those thoughts. But I will leave you with Craddock’s (Luke, Interpretation Commentaries) concludes his comments with:
The life of a disciple is one of faithful attention to the frequent and familiar tasks of each day, however small and insignificant they may seem. The one faithful in today’s nickels and dimes is the one to be trusted with the big account, but it is easy to be indifferent toward small obligations while quite sincerely believing oneself fully trustworthy in major matters. The realism of these sayings is simply that life consists of a series of seemingly small opportunities. Most of us will not this week christen a ship, write a book, end a war, appoint a cabinet, dine with the queen, convert a nation, or be burned at the stake. More likely the week will present no more than chance to give a cup of water, write a note, visit a nursing home, vote for a county commissioner, teach a Sunday school class, share a meal, tell a child a story, go to choir practice, and feed the neighbor’s cat. [pp. 191-192]
The steward should have been attentive to the small things. Later in this same chapter, a similar lesson is found in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Man surely should have paid more attention to the “small things” like Lazarus.
Perhaps today’s gospel message can be as simple as “Keep in mind the big picture and work on the small things.”
Image Credit: Parable of the Unjust Steward(A.N. Mironov), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This coming Sunday is the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Our gospel is the parable of the Ten Virgins. At the center of the parable are the “ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise” Matthew has already used this doublet in the Sermon on the Mount. At the opening of the Sermon, Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” The expression loses its taste, literally “becomes foolish.” Continue reading
While we celebrate the dedication of the “mother church” of Western Christianity today, I think the image of the prophet Ezekiel goes to the heart of the matter. An Angel of the Lord comes to Ezekiel and describes to the prophet a temple from which rivers of living waters flow to all the corners of the earth. Everywhere the river flows there is not just life, but abundant life – urbis et orbis – to all the cities and into the world. The living waters turn saltwater to fresh, gives all living creatures the chance to thrive and multiply, and all manner of game, fish, and produce are plentiful. Continue reading
friarmusings 