32^nd Sunday of the Year

Widows figure prominently in today’s readings as pictures of poverty and powerlessness – people exploited not just by Israel’s religious institutions but by institutions through to the present.  Jesus' concern was for vulnerable people – people who suffer at the hands of international money markets, global agribusiness and corporate monopolies. The extremes of poverty, oppression, violence, inequality and the Covid-19 pandemic all bear a female face – women often being its victims as evident in places of conflict, war, famine and wholesale illness.

31^st Sunday of the Year

The two themes that merge in the readings are the commandment to love God and neighbour. We see that concretely expressed in Ruth’s love for, and commitment to, Naomi in the non-Catholic selection for today’s liturgy, whereas in Deuteronomy, Moses instructs the people to wholeheartedly love God and by implication, one’s neighbour by obeying the commandments.

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.’

28^th Sunday of the Year

‘Our revolution comes about through tenderness,

through the joy which always becomes

closeness and compassion,

and leads us to get involved in

and to serve the life of others.’     Pope Francis

To the question of the young man, ‘Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus does the unexpected. Rather than give the usual response that he should repent and establish a personal relationship with Jesus, the young man is told to keep the commandments which includes selling his possessions and distributing them to the poor. It is too high a price to pay!!