32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. 1 Kings 17: 10-16
   
2. Psalms 146: 7, 8-9, 9-10
3. Hebrews 9: 24-28
4. Mark 12: 38-44
   

• Taking you down with me
  
• None of us goes through life entirely alone.  There are always other people who count on us, rely on us in one way or another.  It might be something as direct as family members that we support, or as indirect as people that we don't even know who look to us as an example of godly living.  When we fail in our spiritual life, we don't just fail ourselves, we fail them too.
• Have you ever made a decision that, in some way, hurt someone else that you loved?
• In spite of that, do you think that might have been in God's plan anyway?
• When you try to discern God's will in your life, who are the other people that you are likely to talk to about that?
• How has that worked out for you?
  

• Freeing the captives
• Most all of us have a pretty distinct notion of what we mean by justice, how to achieve that, how to mete it out.  We all probably feel that justice is hard to achieve in real life, that there are complications, and that improvements to the justice system we find ourselves in are needed, but effective solutions are in short supply.
• What are some injustices that have happened in your life?
• How did that make you feel about yourself, the person or group that caused that injustice, about God?
• What would have been a better process?
• What would have been a better outcome?
• Do you personally feel any sort of a call to address any of the issues that you encountered in all of that?
  

• Sanctuaries made with human hands
  
• It is easy to loose track of what a symbol points to, and concentrate on the more accessible, and tangible symbol.  Those "disordered attachments" as Ignatius terms them, can be rather insidious.
• What is a devotion, habit, pattern, person, place, ... that you value and use in your spiritual life?
• How did you get started with that?
• Can you imagine God ever offering you something even better in exchange for that?
• How would you know that was happening?
• How can you be sure that you are free enough to appreciate such an "upgrade" in your life?
  

• Finding trust
  
• One thing about trusting God that we don't often talk about is trusting our understanding of God's will in our lives.  Trusting God to be there for us when we intend to follow His will is a different matter from trusting God when we are right where He wants us, when He wants us there.
• How do you go about deciding what to invest yourself into and what to say "no" to?
• Has that process changed through the years?
• Do you think that you are getting any better at it?
• What do you think are some of the obstacles to finding God's will in our lives?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Am I open to God's revelation, no matter how it comes to me?
  
• Do I truly worship a God of justice?
  
• How might God be calling me to greater freedom in my life?
  
• Where might God be calling me to obedience that will stretch me?

Bottom of the Jar

I don't mind the thought of death.

Starvation is not the worst way to go.

After a point, the hunger pangs grind to a steady ache.

Limbs gradually go slack for want of nourishment.

Eyes grow dim from hope bleeding out.

But my son, my son.

So many years still ahead of him.

If only I could find food for him.

I would gladly offer him my all.

If only I could spare him this famine.

Today a reputed holy man asked me for bread.

If God is so good, why doesn't He feed his prophet?

Why come begging at my door?

Why ask me to risk everything?

On a whim, I call my son to me.

I show him our jug of oil, the jar of flour.

The bottom of the jar visible through the scattering of flour.

A barely hidden pit of want.

Waiting to yawn open and consume us,

As soon as we empty out our last measure of wheat.

My son looks into that jar, and knows despair.

He looks at me and asks "what difference will one day make?

If we share with the man of God,

And our God is unfaithful, we run out of food today.

If we don't share what little we have, we run out of food tomorrow."

 

I think back over all of the days of our lives together.

The love between his father and me, and then us three.

I discover that God has been kind in all of those years.

Holding my hand through the good and the bad.

Speaking to me even now, in the voice of my son.

 

And I know that all of my days,

Good and bad,

Have been in the palm of God's hand.

And I know that I cannot deny Him today or tomorrow.

Come my son.  Let's bake the holy man a loaf of bread.

 

Shalom!