24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Sirach 27: 30-28:7
2. Psalms 103: 1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
3. Romans 14: 7-9
4. Matthew 18: 21-35

• The power of giving it away
• Injustice suffered has a way of making the oppressed feel powerless.  Certainly restorative justice repairs the harm done by the perpetrator, but the oppressed has a power that no one can take away from them, no one else can exercise: to forgive.
• What calls for more strength, to forgive, or to hold a grudge?
• What calls for more courage, to forgive, or to hold a grudge?
• What gives you more power, to forgive, or to hold a grudge?
• Why?

• Kindness and mercy chillin' together
• Oftentimes, inspiration comes to us from unexpected places.  Someone who seems to have nothing in this life, is still able to be kind to someone less fortunate.  Or someone who has suffered a great wrong is still able to show mercy.
• Can you be kind without mercy?
• Can you be merciful, without being kind?
• Have you ever consciously shown someone mercy?
• What prompted you to do that?

• What are you living for?
• A preacher with an unfortunate turn of phrase once said "I get paid to be good, the rest of you have to be good for nothing" yet retirement often feels that way.  The retiree's efforts no longer get weighed in the balance, valued, and paid for, so does that work still have value?
• Who finally establishes the worth of what it is that we do?
• How do you find out that ultimate valuation?
• If you knew just what the value of your labor was, and what was most valuable about it, how would that change you?

• Gratitude changes everything
• Often we miss the chance to be godly because we don't pay close enough attention to God's example of godly behavior in our own lives.  We miss the generosity, the abundance, the awe inspiring courage and incredible sense of timing that God exhibits.
• What of God's blessings in your life are you most grateful for?
• When was the last time that you thought about those blessings?
• What do they tell you about God?
• What is the best way that you can show your gratitude for those blessings?

• Preparation for Reconciliation

1. Where can I find greater freedom in life by forgiving?
2. Where is God inviting me to celebrate His kindness in another's life?
3. In the final analysis, what is my life good for?
4. Where is God calling me to be generous?

Footprints in Hearts

Sometimes, the best results of our lives

Are largely unnoticed

Often not celebrated.

That doesn't make them less worthy

Or smaller in importance,

Just less visible.

The kindness of a moment can live forever,

In the heart of someone who really needed it.

The bridge to hope from an act of mercy,

Can last for an eternity.

Look for the collateral beauty

The chance to show kindness and mercy.

Look for it in the unexpected, the brief, the fleeting.

And so savor the moments of life as they pass through your fingers,

Like the sand at the beach.

Shalom!