30th Sunday of the Year

The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland seems to have a connection with today’s gospel. Alice follows a rabbit down a hole and finds herself in a place where different values apply. She encounters animals with a superior air who treat her as inferior. The usual roles are reversed. Alice is trapped in her narrow, human way of viewing life and reality. It is a terrifying experience but her fear is unfounded as she moves from a narrow frame of reference to view reality and see the limitations of her assumptions, judgments and stereotypes about life and people.

29^th Sunday of the Year

Reflections on the readings…

In recent weeks, Jesus has taken us on a journey towards Jerusalem whilst instructing his disciples about what it means to follow him. Today, we face the difficult changes necessary to be an authentic follower of Jesus. Jesus turns human assumptions about what really matters on its head; ‘greatness’ is measured in God’s reign by ‘service.’ This is the message he embodied. In the upside-down (or right-side up) Reign of God, greatness is defined differently to the power, fame and fortune criteria most human systems use. In God’s reign, ‘greatness’ is found in the role of a ‘servant,’ as exemplified and embodied in Jesus: ‘For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve….’ Which, finally will cause him to ‘give his life as a ransom for many.’

Tosy is a young woman from the small Pacific Island nation of Kiribati.  She is in Australia temporarily and is very passionate about the issue of climate change. Tosy is concerned for her future and the future of young people across the Pacific and throughout the world. Kiribati is one of the world’s least developed countries and Kiribati’s contribution to climate change and global warming is very small.  Kiribati is very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and could well become uninhabitable by 2050. Where will Tosy and her people go?