|
|
|
|
Word To Life
|
Sunday Scripture Readings: Oct. 22, 2006
By Beverly Corzine
Catholic News Service
October 22, Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B Readings:
1) Isaiah 53:10-11
Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22
2) Hebrews 4:14-16
3) Gospel: Mark 10:35-45
For years my mother Elsie had grown fabulous vegetable gardens and shared her crops with friends and neighbors. In her last four years as an amputee, her longest trek outside was to visit the mailbox or to struggle to the edge of my father's grave. Many would have characterized her as a prime example of a pack rat, especially those left with the enormous task of sifting through her 30 years of living in the same house. We wondered why she saved her insulin bottles, bags of peach seeds or an enormous stock of canned goods.
My mother's empty house presented me with the haunting challenge of learning about her from the artifacts she left behind. Elsie's standard answer for saving things had been, "There might come a time when they might come in handy."
"Beverly, do you want this?"
"Mom, where did Grandma get this ring?"
"Mom, you have to look in this box; you won't believe it!"
I was the court of last resort, deciding what to save and what to toss.
One of the most extraordinary treasures we found during that sad week was every letter and card that our children or I had written to her and my dad over the 19 years I had been married. The scope of this correspondence covered our writing each other two or three times a week -- no free long distance back then! It was a chronicle that recorded births and deaths, joy and sadness, faith and hope. I had no idea I was writing an account of 19 years of ordinary time.
The readings for this weekend speak to us about suffering and redemption. In Mark's Gospel we hear James and John readily answer "We can" when Jesus asks them if they can drink the cup he will drink.
At times we may be tempted to wonder with a bit of superiority how they could possibly misunderstand the import of Jesus' question. Like James and John, we have vowed to drink the cup Jesus offers us without knowing where the journey will lead us, but knowing that what we leave behind may be a message of redemption.
QUESTIONS:
What have you left to others that someday may provide comfort or wisdom when they are in need? Who has left you keys to redemption?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"From the cup I drink of you shall drink" (Mark 10:39c).
END
Copyright © 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
|
|
|
|
