Weekly Readings Reflections: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

Say you meet a young woman. She's working at a minimum wage dead-end job. She's living with her boyfriend who roughs her up, but generally only when he's drunk. He doesn't mean anything by it. She only stays with him because his disability check helps to pay the rent. She tells you that she wants to become Catholic. You know that there is a lot of work that this young lady has ahead of her before she's going to be truly happy.
Where would you start?
Would you hook her up with your parish RCIA group and hope for the best?
Do you think that you would tell her that her first priority is to stop living in sin with her boyfriend?
Why are so many of our parishes so ill-prepared to help people like this?

Wisdom seems to be in short supply of late. Noah ben Shea, a Jewish rabbi, has a series of books that starts with Jacob the Baker. In the story line (which is much like a rambling parable), Jacob sees himself as a simple baker whom no one will leave alone because they all want to ask him for wisdom to treat their various concerns.
How are you becoming wiser?
What do you do when confronted with a particularly troubling decision in your life?
If you had a better way to make decisions, decisions that would bring you closer to God, would you use it?
Even if the answers scared you?

I apologize to those of you who feel that Hollywood has gone completely overboard with the superhero movies of late, I like them. The latest, Spiderman, No Way Home has a wonderful scene where three Spidermen (each from a different universe, it's a long story) are trying to work out a game plan, but only one of them has ever had to collaborate with anyone else. See the movie, you'll learn something about teamwork.
Think of a ministry, or experience in a ministry where you were part of a really functional team.
Was the team successful? Did you make the world a better place to live by your work together?
Did you help each other mature as God's children in the course of your work together?
Was it fun?
Why do you think that team worked well?

The way that Luke frames this homecoming of Jesus' it almost sounds as though Jesus showed up at Nazareth because his day planner told him that Nazareth was the next stop on the itinerary. But I imagine that it had to be more than that for Jesus.
Have you ever tried to share your faith with family?
You know that you want what's best for them, so it would seem clear that the best thing that you can share with them is that which is most precious and holy to you.
Why is that so hard?
How would you need to live in order to make that sort of sharing easier?

Welcome Home

Hey, Jesus ben Joseph, welcome home. Long time no see.

Where have you been? Your father Joseph, he's getting on in years.

I saw him the other day at the market. Looked like he had a limp going on there.

When are you going to settle down, find a nice girl, do right by your parents?

Your mother, she worries about you brother.

She's proud that you mean so much to so many people,

Don't get me wrong. She talks about you all the time.

But when she hears about the crowds, she worries.

Crowds, they can be so fickle. You never know.

What they are going to do next. What if they carry you off,

Do something wild and crazy like try to slap a crown on your head.

Believe me, the Romans will have something to say about that.

Your cousin John was a preacher, the mightiest in a long time.

Look where it got him.

I don't think the family could take another loss like that.

You don't want to do that to your mother.

Why don't you come over to Jacob's with us for some drinks.

There will be quite a few of us there, you can see all your old friends.

And the best part of all,

With you there, we know we'll never run out of booze.

Shalom!

Weekly Readings Reflections