“The Man Who Would Be King” is a story by Rudyard Kipling. This is not that story, but today’s gospel. If this gospel sounds super familiar, it should be. This is the parable of the gold coins as told by St. Luke. Just this previous Sunday, the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, our gospel was the parallel in the Gospel of Mattew, the parable of the Talents. If you are so inclined, you can read my Sunday homily on the gospel. Continue reading
The other days while celebrating Mass, it was after Communion that I noticed a lady bug was traipsing across the altar. The bright red shellback stood out nicely on the white linen of the altar cloth. My first reaction was a warm, cozy reaction likely stemming from childhood books and memories. So I gently picked the sojourning bug off the altar and found a place for it among the plants. Continue reading
The gospel for today tells the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus from the Gospel of Luke. St. Luke is a pretty good story teller. Luke chapter 15 is a wonderful collection of parables about things lost and found: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. Different kinds of lost, but one kind of found. Continue reading
I am grateful for a day in which we, as a people, pause to give thanks. And who do we have to thank for this holiday? Your answer is likely “The Pilgrims.” You would not be wrong, but then not completely correct, either. Certainly, Thanksgiving and the religious response of giving thanks to God is as old as time. When one considers enduring cultures, one always finds men and women working out their relationship to God. There is almost always a fourfold purpose to our acts of worship: adoration, petition, atonement, thanksgiving. Such worship is part and parcel of life. And yet, there is still a very human need to specially celebrate and offer thanksgiving on key occasions and anniversaries. Since medieval times, we have very detailed records of celebrations marking the end of an epidemic, liberation from sure and certain doom, the signing of a peace treaty, and more. Continue reading
The good folks at Merriam-Webster posted a list of words whose original meaning has morphed into something else, leaving us with an allusion that is obsolete while the word itself is still in use. For example, the expression “hang up.” For eons our parents have told us to “hang up” our clothes/coats. Often that meant to hang the coat on a wall mounted hook. Continue reading
The first reading for today is from the Book of Wisdom (2:23-3:9), which provides a profound reflection on the contrast of world views between the foolish and the wise.
The foolish people are described as those who reject wisdom and live in a manner that is contrary to God’s ways. They mock and persecute the righteous of faith, seeing them as fools for basing their lives on the moral teachings of Scripture and the promise of eternal life. These are people who believe that life ends in death and that there is no purpose beyond the present moment. As a consequence there is a focus on worldly pleasures and material gain. There is no need, purpose, or possibility of biblical Hope. Their focus is on the present and this life. Continue reading
The first reading for today is taken from the opening of the Book of Wisdom. These simple verses set the tone for the entire book, urging readers to prioritize the search for wisdom, followed by righteousness and integrity in their actions and judgments: “Love righteousness, you who judge the earth; think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in integrity of heart.” 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.
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
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
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