|
|
|
|
Word To Life
|
Sunday Scripture Readings: Sept. 23, 2007
By Jeff Hensley
Catholic News Service
September 23, Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Cycle C. Readings:
1) Amos 8:4-7
Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8
2) 1 Timothy 2:1-8
3) Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
When Jesuit Father Rick Thomas picked up the phone in El Paso where I had reached him to ask if I might come out and interview him for a magazine article, I asked how he was.
"Fine as wine," he replied, stretching the words in a countrified way. Dealing with Father Rick was always memorable.
What was to carry me to El Paso and Vado, New Mexico, to witness and write about the works of charity and evangelism of his Catholic charismatic community had all resulted from an act of obedience to God's word. Father Rick and his prayer group went to the Juarez, Mexico, dump on Christmas Day a few years before my visit in response to one of Jesus' commands: When you give a party, be sure you invite the lowly and those who cannot repay you.
Father Rick and his group must have asked themselves when they could carry out that simple request. And so they went to the dump with ham, tortillas, beans and all the fixings they could gather to set a holiday table before the poor, who made their living scavenging recyclable materials from the leavings of Mexican society.
If you'd like to read about the miracles that followed this act of obedience, they are documented in Father Renee Laurentin's book-length treatment, "Miracles in El Paso."
In today's Scriptures, the psalm praises the Lord's majesty, goodness and kindness to the poor: "He raises up the lowly from the dust, from the dunghill he lifts up the poor to seat them with princes, with princes of his own people." This contrasts greatly with the scorn the prophet Amos has for the unjust who "trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land."
Today the poor are still with us. Many are immigrants seeking a better life. Many are those limited by horrible family situations and generations of poverty existing inside U.S. borders. God still calls us to their care, if we will only be obedient and seek ways to respond to that call.
QUESTION:
Is there something simple you might do to benefit the poor?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"Make friends for yourselves through your use of this world's goods" (Luke 16:9b).
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 The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in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.
|
|
|
|
