8th Sunday of Ordinary Time Reflection

By Rev. Fr. Bob Johnnene OFD

Mission Saints Sergius & Bacchus/ Franciscans of Divine Mercy/ Divine Mercy Parish, Franklin, MA

North American Old Catholic Church

www.missionstsergius.org

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Matthew 6:23-25) These words from the Gospel for this Sunday are a stark reminder of where our priorities should be.

The Gospel reminds us, also, that God provides for the birds of the air and clothes the fields with garments more splendid than king's robes.

So I guess the question we need to ask ourselves is do we choose to serve those human gods of Greed, power, domination, discrimination, materialism and self-effacement or do we choose to follow the way of the son of god, Jesus Christ.

Should we be worrying about what we should have for dinner, or what shirt or dress we should wear or what movie we should go to or should we be worrying about how we will be judged by God?

Are we going to choose to live our lives according to the way Jesus taught by being forgiving, compassionate, kind and generous to all God's children most especially those in need or do we allow then to suffer needlessly?

God, told us to listen to what Jesus was telling us; "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him" (Mark 9:8), To listen to the words and teachings of Jesus Christ, not some mere human man, but Jesus the son of Almighty God.

When we read the teachings of Christ, we find clear concise guidelines as to how we are expected to live our lives. These are found in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, and in the GREAT COMMANDMENT "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-30)

Could Christ's teachings be any clearer, we are called to LOVE our neighbor and every person on earth is our neighbor and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We can dislike the way another person acts, we can reject their choices as not acceptable, we have the freedom to choose not to associate with some people because they seem to be breaking the commandments of God by lying, cheating, stealing, killing or some other action that hurts one of God's children.

But when we decide to discriminate against someone because of their race, nationality, gender or the way that they worship God and we choose to chase after power, money, prestige, fame, greed or sexual gratification we are not serving God.

In the past few weeks we have seen people raising their voices and speaking out against oppression and injustice in nations where the rulers have held people in a grip oppression.

We have seen people willing to fight for justice and equality even here in this country where one governor want to eliminate bargaining rights for workers which would set our nation back to a time when laborers were not paid fair wages for the work they did and working conditions were often deplorable.

If we are to really live in accord with the teachings of Christ then we MUST stop dwelling on how to obtain great wealth, power or prestige and begin to find way to help those who are less off than we are. We need to worry more on how God views us and not on how society views us.

Paul's letter to the Corinthians reminds us that; "God will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God". The first reading from Isaiah compares God with a loving and caring mother and asks the question; "Can a woman forget her suckling child, or not have compassion on the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I, God, will never forget you"

God is a God of love, The first encyclical of Pope Benedict was entitled Deus Caritas Est which means God is Love and is based on 1 John 4 where we read these words; "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Therein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." The only way we can be holy and God like is to stop caring about material things and care about our own spiritual growth and needs and ask God to help us achieve them. When we can do that we will be serving God and also be default serving ALL God's children.