Gospel Reflections for Challenging Times

  Saturday – 31 st Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 16:9-15 The Cost of Living Mahalo Coffee, TN I am holding at arms’ length a coffee cup filled with water.   Now don’t jump to conclusions!   This is not about the debate about half-empty or half-full.   Actually the amount of water doesn’t matter at all.   What matters is how long I hold it outstretched!   Full or empty, after a bit of time, it will become uncomfortable; later on it will be downright painful.   That’s what happens when you hang on to something and concentrate only on that one thing.   You lose focus; you lose perspective!   There is one phrase in today’s Gospel that really stands out for me:   “ You cannot serve God and mammon.”   Mammon is literally ‘wealth’ but it’s wealth taken to the extreme, to the point where money is all that matters.   And as life goes on, it can lead to selfishness, greed, envy, dishonesty and even violence.   In a...

  Friday – 31 st Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 16:1-8 A Full Plate Mabry-Hazen House, Dining Room, Knoxville     These were the dinner options on our menu a couple days ago: Thick double-cut pork chop with an Italian panko and parmesan romano crust and finely chopped seasoned and sauted spinach.   A thick tomatoey Italian marinara over durham wheat spaghetti pasta and dusted with fresh parmesan.   Both with warm ciabatta!   Finished off with fresh homemade vanilla ice cream topped with fresh pureed apples. Now granted, these were all leftovers from our meals from the last few days!   But the most difficult part of the meal was choosing which item!   As is always the case, neither of us wanted to choose first.   “I’ll take whatever you don’t want”!!!   You know how that goes!   It’s not as if any choice would be a bad one but still Ginger and I always seem to defer to the other.   In the end, choices do get ...

  Thursday – 31 st Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 15:1-10 Lost and Found Tennessee Sheep A few years ago, we were over at Jaime’s house in Elmhurst helping to rake up the autumn leaves into bags.   As the bags began to pile up, I suddenly noticed that my ring (my dad’s graduation ring) was missing from my finger.   I was frantic!   And so we began this massive search – scouring the grass and dumping out all the bags in a quest that I believed would be hopeless.   But then it happened, in spite of everything, we found the ring.   I can’t begin to tell me how excited, relieved, how joyful I was to place that ring back on my finger!   Needless to say, to this day, even though raking leaves is no longer one of my tasks,   I am much more careful with Dad’s ring! We hear of something else lost in today’s Gospel – a little sheep.   The parable speaks to us of what an amazing and unusual Shepherd God really is!   No true shepherd w...