26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Amos 6: 1a, 4-7
2. Psalms 146: 7, 8-9, 9-10
3. 1 Timothy 6: 11-16
4. Luke 16: 19-31

• How do you know when you care enough?
• Bill and Melinda Gates chair the world's largest private charitable foundation.  Looking up Mrs. Gates online, I see that she's Catholic.  More than the money that they have given away is their time.  These two individuals could do anything that they wanted to with their talents, and yet they chose to give themselves away.
• The rest of us have to earn a steady paycheck to stay alive, but we can all support the poor in some capacity or another.  How are you doing that support?
• We can always give more.  How do you balance your own needs, those of your family, your parish, this planet?
• Do you ever take time to look back over those decisions to see if they still reflect God's will in your life?

• Who is my neighbor?
• With our global economy, I could easily be wearing a shirt made in a sweatshop in Indonesia, shoes manufactured in unsafe working conditions in Malaysia, and a wedding band made with gold mined by slaves in Tunisia.  I was feeling pretty good about myself until just now!
• If God loves the just, He must have some plan for how His children can be just.  What do you think that plan might be?
• Does it include studying the supply chain of every good/service that we consume?
• Does it include electing politicians who support sustainable trade?
• Does it include trade sanctions against countries that have human rights violations?
• Are we as a nation in a place to tell anyone else what is moral and what is not?

• Name calling
• We each have a name given us by our parents.  What we make of that name is up to us.
• Have you ever tried to advise someone based on who they are, their fundamental nature?
• Remaining faithful to who God has called us to be, allowing His creation within us to emerge is the work of a lifetime.  None of us can really do it alone.  How have you helped other participate in their own creation?
• How would you like others to do that for you?

• Smelling like sheep
• A friend of mine has worked at the Long Beach Mission several times a week for years.  Once he was there, organizing some of the supplies.  It was hot work, and he was dressed accordingly.  Someone came in to make a donation and mistook him for one of the homeless clients, and treated him poorly.  My friend suddenly found a deep mystical connection with those he had been serving for so long.
• It's easy to pretend that you don't see the homeless guy at the freeway off ramp with his cardboard sign.  There's a chasm between you and him.  You work hard for a living, he stands in the hot sun with no shelter and a cardboard sign.
• You hear of corrupt governments that oppress their innocent citizens and you quietly thank God that you live in a democracy.  Another chasm: between a government of the people, by the people for the people, and a government that merely serves the ambitions of a few privileged despots.
• You hear that a percentage of the homeless lining our streets are mentally ill.  Another chasm: your mental health is superb, and they languish, unable to meet the challenges that life throws at them day in, day out.
• Do you think God expects us to bridge any of those chasms?
• What are some other chasms that divide us from those in need?
• What is God asking of us?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What of myself am I giving away?
2. How can I contribute toward greater justice in the world around me?
3. Is there anyone in my life that I care about enough that I would challenge them to be more faithful to their identity in God?
4. How can I be a bridge?

Table Prayer

Blessed are you Lord
God of all creation
For through your goodness we have received
The bread and wine on this table
Fruit of the earth, and the work of human hands.

Bless those hands who have labored over this fare.
Let us never forget them and their toil.
Let us always treat them with dignity
And treat them fairly.

Let this meal remind us of all of creation
And our humble place within it.
Show us how to steward the earth gratefully,
That we and this world sustain each other.

Let this meal remind us of those in need.
The forgotten, the oppressed, the marginalized.
All of us are your children, You love each of us.
Let us build a world based on that love.

Let this time and food that we share at this table
Nourish us in heart and body.
Take our stories, our lives as we share them here, now.
And show us how they fit into Your story, creation's emerging.

Shalom!