Thursday – St Frances Cabrini

Gospel – Luke 17:20-25

Right in Front of Your Nose

The Streets of Jerusalem

Ever have one of those days (weeks, months) when everything seems out of whack; it’s all a little off.  On top of it all, you keep losing things – eyeglasses, wallet, watch.  And that’s not the bad part; the bad part is, when you do find them, they were right there in front of you all the time.  Sheesh, how did I miss that?  All that time and effort and stress looking for them and they were right in plain sight.  We can get so distracted by the world around us that we miss what we were looking for in the first place.

The Pharisees are back in today’s Gospel asking more questions and this time Jesus is especially patient and doesn’t scold them.  They want to know when is the Kingdom coming?  Do we check the sky for a sign or is it here or there?  Jesus quite calmly explains – the Kingdom isn’t coming; it’s already here!  It’s right in front of you and you just don’t see it!

In fact, the Kingdom is not just something or some event that is out there waiting for us to find.   It isn’t something that we can just observe or point to!  The Kingdom just IS!!  Perhaps we spend too much time looking all over for it and we miss the point!   Perhaps instead of searching, we need to sometimes stop and leave ourselves open to receive the Gospel message, to accept that the Kingdom is right here, right now, if we only have the eyes of faith and the courage to live out the Gospel message.

We celebrate today the feast of Mother Cabrini, a pioneer in providing education and social services to the poor, the sick, the orphaned and the immigrant! Born in Milan, Italy, she was the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint.  Throughout her life, she labored to meet the human and physical needs of the poor and disadvantaged.  But she did so with a firm faith in God and a belief that He was directing her ministry.  She kept her feet firmly on the ground and her heart directed to the Father.

Perhaps that is our gentle reminder for the day.  Just like the Kingdom, the poor, the disenfranchised, the homeless, the immigrant, the lost, the forgotten and the oppressed – they are right here, right in front of our eyes!  How do we respond!

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