Laws Given in Love

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Original Image from Pixabay.

This Sunday, the second reading will be from James 1:17-18,21-22,27, but go ahead and read the intervening verses - you’ll lose nothing by it. Also, check out the other readings - it’s Lectionary # 125, if you’re reading from a hard copy.

I’m glad the Church doesn’t ask of us a lot of ritual religious customs in our regular everyday comings and goings. I mean, as customs go, abstaining from meat on Fridays and fasting two days a year really is not that bad! Not when you consider all the religious customs the Jews were required to observe every single day.

Unity Among Christians

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Ephesians 4:1-6.

In this passage in Ephesians, Paul urges the church in Ephesus to nurture and maintain their unity.

How sad it is that Christianity today is so deeply divided! Divided to the point that some Christians refuse to acknowledge one another as fellow laborers for Christ.

Opposition from Within

Original photo from Pixabay.

 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 2 Cor 12:7-10. I’d also strongly recommend the other readings.

God warns Ezekiel in the first reading of opposition in Israel, on account of the Israelites being a rebellious and obstinate people.

In the Gospel, Christ himself encounters resistance in his hometown, which hindered the propagation of the Gospel.

And Paul encounters problem people of his own. There are lots of valid interpretations on what this “thorn in the flesh” was. According to one of my footnotes, it is a similar expression to the English, “A thorn in my side”, which we often use to refer to obnoxious, persistent, and frustrating people.

Encyclical-Mania

Everybody is ready to take up their colored pen

and mark up where they think Laudato Si' needs corrections.

This is a wrong attitude.

Original image from Pixabay. Text Added by Shannon Ball

I’d love to know how all of those people who had a statement on Laudato Si’ on the day it was released managed to read and digest a 184-page document in the four and a half hours between the time it was officially released and the time the encyclical was actually posted for public consumption on the Vatican’s website.

There’s no way I could actually digest that amount of theological writing in that amount of time.

Publishing something definitive that quickly is for the people who had their minds made up already.

Growing in Humility

Lately, God has put it on my heart that I am not as humble as he wants me to be. I know it sounds like false humility to say it out loud (or in writing, as the case may be), but I really think it’s true.

I have been reflecting on it a lot lately. Perhaps it is wishful thinking on my part, but I think that because humility is a virtue, it can be learned and practiced until it becomes a part of who you are, and hard to remove.

It is often easier to recognize a fault in oneself than to discover what to do about it. I have been struggling somewhat to discover how to grow in humility.

Jesus our God: Model of Humility

Palm Sunday

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Philippians 2:6-11. I’d recommend starting at the beginning of the chapter to get some context.

My Bible notes that this was probably part of an early Christian hymn, and also that in this hymn, the Coming of the Messiah (not merely the historical Jesus, but the Incarnation as part of Salvation history) is being held up as a model for Christian imitation - in the virtue of humility.