28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

28 ^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
 
I was in Lourdes recently with the parish tour. In Lourdes you see a lot of sick people. It is a humble sight. Very quickly we appreciate our good health and that God has blessed us in many ways. I overheard a lady talking to her daughter about this. She said to her, “O, we are so blessed. God has been good to us.” Then she turned her head distracted, and said, “O look, rings!” Then she disappeared into the jewelry store. The pursuit of wisdom is a wonderful thing. Seemingly it is the pearly of great price. But it is hard to hold onto wisdom because when I see rings of silver and gold I want to go into the shop. I forget about wisdom and pursue the butterfly. That is what we are like. We are one big appetite. We are always searching for the elusive thing. We are satisfied with whatever is in front of our eyes. Let someone else pursue wisdom. Don’t care about that. Isn’t that how we are? I do dwell on the line in the second lesson from Hebrews. “The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two edged sword penetrating between soul and spirit.” People criticize my preaching and tell me that I challenge too hard. I attack. I don’t believe that my preaching is effective if I spend my days sending out platitudes telling people how marvelous they are. My purpose is to hold up a mirror for all of us to look into. We are in the business of becoming saints. We are striving for holiness. We are trying to become Christ like. I don’t think I am doing my job as the preacher if I only deliver platitudes. Being a Christian is a serious business conducted by serious people. I don’t like the man in the gospel. He is one of many who have nothing better to do but ask unnecessary questions. I actually think he asked Jesus his question just to interact with the famous Rabbi. He had no intention of changing his ways. The thing is that this man knew the answer to his own question already. He knew exactly the conclusion. You know all about the Law. Now do it!! Go, sell what you have and give it to the poor! Lots of us are like this man. We know all about the faith. We know our catechism. We just don’t want to do what it tells us. Nobody likes change yada yada yada… Heard it all before. The reason why you have not grown in your holiness is that you stop at the line and refuse to go further. Your refrigerator is full of stored jars of grace for a rainy day. You spend your days gathering God’s grace. You have no intention of going further. What about that then?
With love, Fr. Pat