TLT's Small Christian Community; Mass readings for Sunday October 30th

[tadoflamb]

Same drill. Read the Gospel and interpret it for yourself!

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 153

Reading 1 WIS 11:22-12:2
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.
For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O LORD and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,
warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,
that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!

Reading 2 2 THES 1:11-2:2
Brothers and sisters:
We always pray for you,
that our God may make you worthy of his calling
and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose
and every effort of faith,
that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you,
and you in him,
in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.

We ask you, brothers and sisters,
with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our assembling with him,
not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed
either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement,
or by a letter allegedly from us
to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.

GospelLK 19:1-10
At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.”
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying,
“He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
“Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over.”
And Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.
For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what was lost.”

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Repentant tax collectors again? A short guy too. Interesting how the crowd get it wrong sounding like judgemental hypocrites. As we are all sinners.

 

[Fish and Bread]

For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

I think within the scripture itself, there is a good argument against hell and for universal salvation. We even see in this broad quotes talking about repentance and the implicit price of not repenting, the seeds of logic that make hell immoral.

God created us all. Because he is all knowing, he knew what we would become. Because he is all powerful, he could create us any way he wanted. Therefore, to be good, he can not condemn any of his children to eternal torment- a good God with these attributes would not create people for the purpose of being eternally tormented.

It's all right there if you go beyond the literal readings and understand the concepts and how they add up.

A God worth knowing and loving, who has all these powers we ascribe to him, must universally reconcile creation to himself, or otherwise provide for those who can not be reconciled with reasonable alternative accommodations other than eternal flames. The Catholic Church itself has evolved to the point where it is against torture on this earth. How can it be justified in the afterlife?

That last question is rhetorical, I'm not actually looking for a bunch of posts trying to justify it. I mean, I'm not saying people can't post what they like, I'm just saying that's not why I asked the question specifically. It was to make a point with a question ala Socrates.

 

[tadoflamb]

Here's my private interpretations.

I love the first reading, once again out of the seven books the rest of those guys don't read. I especially liked this.

For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;

A reminder that God made us and saw that we were very good. I believe most people I know are good people.

We ask you, brothers and sisters,
with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our assembling with him,
not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed
either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement,
or by a letter allegedly from us
to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.

It's interesting that this verse comes up. I've been shaken out of mind and alarmed by a "spirit". The solution is in the passage where it talks of our 'assembling with Him'. I take that to mean going to mass, and indeed that's where I've found Catholicism to be at it's most pure. It's easy to get buffeted by the winds of current thought, but when I go to mass, especially daily mass, I find 20 minutes of sanctuary. I'm thinking I need to really get back into the practice of going to daily mass.

And finally this,

When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying,
“He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”

Maybe this is why I like hanging out with the liberals. As ugly as a word liberal is these days, this is the place where I want to be.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

this is why I like hanging out with the liberals.

because we are naturally good sinners?

 

[tadoflamb]

because we are naturally good sinners?

Aren't we all?

In my efforts to keep up appearances, (being the poster boy for the Catholic faith, and all) I got my haircut yesterday. The woman who cuts my hair is the daughter of a Baptist preacher. She told me she can't think of anything good when she hears the word 'liberal'.

Which reminded me of this:

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46)

She then went on to ask about what I thought of Pope Francis and how she's hearing that he's the anti-Christ.

"I don't run in those circles", I replied.

At any rate, liberals are the 21st century tax collectors. We've gained the derision of religion and yet, among the liberals is where I feel the closest to God.

I'm not sure how that works, to me, it's still a 'great mystery'.

 

[tadoflamb]

There's a saying I like to repeat in regard to the Catholic Church and that's, "If it's not from Heaven, let it fall."

In the first reading the Book of Wisdom asks:

And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

And that, brothers and sisters, is why I love and am committed to the Catholic Church. It truly is divine.

 

[Fantine]

I loved the Wisdom reading this weekend, an expression of God's unconditional love. If God is the animating energy that infuses every living creature, then do we not all share the same animating energy? And then are we not each individually responsible to use our own share of God's animating energy to infuse the world with positivity and love?

One thing I found interesting about Zaccheus' story is that there is no specific mention that Jesus told Zaccheus he should give half his possessions to the poor or repay people he'd cheated four times over. Zaccheus instead was inspired by Jesus' witness and persona and made his own decision to amend his life.

I am reminded of Pope Francis and how his witness is inspiring and changing so many. Several bishops, including mine, have sold their bishops' mansions to move into smaller quarters and be more available to the people--although no directive was given. People make decisions to be kinder and more generous.

When I compare this to the negative, condemning bishops in our Church (whom I won't mention by name--you know who thy are) I see that Ghandi's words--as exemplified by Pope Francis--are best:

"Be the change you want to see in the world." That's what Jesus did.