33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Malachi 3: 19-20a
2. Psalms 98: 5-6, 7-8, 9
3. 2 Thessalonians 3: 7-12
4. Luke 21: 5-19

• Apocalypse now, or at least soon please
• Scripture is awash in promises of justice, where those who have lived off of others will finally face justice.
• And deep down, at least some of us look forward to that prospect with a certain malice towards those who we feel have unjustly benefited from various calamities.
• What do you think God feels towards those people?
• How do you think God feels toward us for thinking the way that we all to readily do, of vengeance and recompense?

• Living the life
• I dare say that most of us have never been oppressed for long, been shut out of opportunities that we deserved, or shunted aside as people for very long.
• How then are we to identify with, and really touch the lives of those who are marginalized, pushed to the perimeter, and who have been that way for generations?
• I remember Fr. Al used to have friends that had recently been released from prison, and he would work with them to reintroduce them back into society.  You could always tell who they were, they just didn't fit in with the Cyprian crowd.  Maybe it was their taste in tattoos.
• How can we overcome the cultural divide between us and the needy?

• If you knew when the 2nd coming was going to be ...
• In what sense are you barely surviving, making it from one week to the next, never quite sure how you're going to make it through the next?
• If you knew that it was all going to end in 10 years, 5 years, 1 year, one month, how would that change the way that you lived?
• Since we have to live the the long haul, how can we also live with an eye towards Jesus' second coming?
• Is it a case that the daily life has to be set aside from time to time to make room for eternity to rudely shoulder its way into our lives on occasion, or can the here and the now illuminate Eternity, and vice versa?

• Letting go is the hardest ...
• To the 1st century Jews, the temple was their tangible manifestation of God among them, not only then, but through their long history.
• What are some things in your life that you cannot think of going without?  Your home, your job, your good name, ...?
• How much do you think that any of that matters in the long run?
• What then in your life really does matter in the long run?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What am I doing to bring about more justice in the world around me?
2. What am I doing to bring about God's rule in my family, my parish community?
3. How can I transform the ordinary every day into an on ramp to Eternity?
4. Am I willing to find out what really matters?

Hello Goodbye

The problem with being a pilgrim is the other pilgrims.
You exchange the secret handshake to be sure who they are
You exchange small talk of home and what you miss about it.

And slowly, without hardly noticing it happening
You realize that you're not alone on this journey.
That this miraculous other, is there alongside you.

And then, just as suddenly and unaccountably,
They are gone.  Left you to pursue other trails, other horizons.
And there you are, alone again.

Wondering how to proceed without them, how to honor their parting
And making room for the world to come in and fill the void,
While you wonder softly why you bothered to open your heart at all.

Wallowing in the sense of abandonment and just beginning to wonder
How Jesus managed, when His friends all left him, and His beloved,
Peter walking out on Him for the sake of a fire to warm his hands.

And somehow, you are able to join Jesus in that lonely garden,
Link your arm in His, and tell Him you're not going anywhere,
Reaching across time and space, you touch that loneliness,

And you know, you know that He's touched your loneliness with His,
And you know that your heart is more open that it ever has been,
And you know that you can and will open your heart again, and again.

Shalom!