22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Jeremiah 20: 7-9
2. Psalms 63: 2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
3. Romans 12: 1-2
4. Matthew 16: 21-27

• If this is the way that you treat your friends ...
• Jeremiah never had good news for the people of Israel during his time.  The truth can often be inconvenient.  We express truth in our actions as well as our words.  For instance, reaching out to a forgotten member of the family when everyone else has given up on them, giving someone a second chance when everyone else says they don't deserve it challenge those around us.
• Who are some folks in your life who have impressed you with their courage?
• What do you think made it difficult for them to act/speak that way?
• If the outcome of those actions/words don't work out well, does that mean that they were wrong to do/say those things?
• How can we become more courageous?

• Gazing toward God
• We've all known devoted people.  They are the ones who never miss a First Friday, make daily Mass, they somehow find out when someone's in the hospital and they go visit them, they are the Eucharistic ministers to the sick...  You may look at those folks and think "maybe when I retire, I'll have that sort of time."
• Do you think that someone can spend too much time at Church, too much time in God's service to the exclusion of essentials like meal preparation, even earning a living?
• Is there an essential difference between someone who does parish work for a living, and, say, a doctor, or an auto mechanic if they are doing exactly what God wants of them?
• Can it be a service to God for us to take adequate care of ourselves in the midst of all of the other demands on our time?

• Transformation can be hard to do ...
• Transformation essentially takes something and radically changes it.  But there are still elements of the original left in the final result.  Limestone gets transformed into marble, plant matter gets transformed into crude oil.
• If we let him, God is transforming each of us this very minute.  When that transformation process is complete, what of the old you do you think will be left?
• When we hear that God loves us, what do you think that encompasses?  I'm hoping God's rather taken with my sense of humor.  I'd hate to come to life in the resurrection and find that was one of the things about me that had no place in heaven.
• Do you think that we might be surprised at what remains when we get to heaven?
• Do you think that it matters whether or not we know what those parts are now?

• Generosity is its own reward
• No one likes a self-determined martyr.  Oddly, this individual turns their giving around so that their giving to someone else, some group becomes all about them, rather than those who they are supporting.
• Think of someone in your life who is genuinely generous, who takes no thought for recognition, who takes honest joy in their giving?
• How do they manage that?
• What do they get out of such service?
• Where does their energy come from?
• What can the rest of us learn from such an example?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I being faithful to all that God has given me?  Am I letting my light shine?
2. What is my deepest desire, my deepest need?  Where is God in that desire?
3. Are the sacrifices that I'm making truly for others/for God?
4. How can I learn to think more and more as God does?

You'll find Jesus in room 137b

Mother Theresa always made a point of looking for the person of Jesus in the forgotten ones.
She lovingly served those with no resources, no support structure, destitute.

But what of those who have good care, who need constant attention, what of them?
Can they be somehow forgotten even in the midst of a vast armada of specialists?

Is it possible for someone to be visited by the hospitalist, the lead nurse, the physical therapist,
The dietitian, the phlebotomist, and who knows who else (all before lunch) be forgotten in some way?

And how do the rest of us reach places where the professional never seems to venture?
Reassuring the patient that they are loved, cherished, and not just cared for, but cared about.

Listening to the mumbled responses from them even though we're pretty sure
That once we piece together what they said, it still won't make any sense.

And buried in the midst of all of that need, and neediness, how to find Jesus?
Maybe the Jesus of Gethsemane, broken, exhausted, challenged -

Maybe that's the Jesus that I'm called to serve here,
Maybe that's the Jesus who I'm asked to be for them.

Shalom!