• Wisdom 9:13-18. If we can scarcely guess about earthly things, how can we ever know heavenly secrets? God sends the Holy Spirit to make known our paths on earth.
• Philemon 9-10, 12-17. In returning the runaway slave Onesimus to his owner Philemon, Paul asks the latter to receive the slave as a beloved brother.
• Luke 14: 25-33. We are to renounce all our possessions to be a disciple of Christ, even our father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes our very self.

Thoughts for Your Reflection: by John Gonzalez

This week Scripture challenges us to rethink our relationships. The Gospel passage is one of the most challenging verses we hear from Jesus. If we take them literally then we are forced to turn against the very fabric of our social nature. What culture has not accepted the primacy of the family unit? And yet here we have Jesus debasing that very unit as he offers his steep terms for discipleship.

This passage is not meant to be taken literally. In other passages Jesus defends the commandment to honor father and mother [Mark 7:10-13] and if we are expected to apply his great commandment to love one another then the act of hating father, mother, wife and children would severely compromise this principal mandate. What Jesus does here though is to give us a powerful impression of the great cost and sacrifice that is discipleship and the effects this will have on all our relationships. The object of our hate is not our family or any other member of the human community. Instead it is our own pride, our own passions and desires; our own self-interest becomes the object of our contempt. We are called to carry the Cross and to sacrifice our own will towards a Divine Will that will redefine us completely. This was the path of “mystical death” that was prescribed by St. Paul of the Cross, The Passionist founder. Our journey is to embrace the death of our will and passions and to accept a “divine rebirth” into a holy life whereby all that we do and all that we are to one another is redefined for a great and common good that is not our own. 

For St. Paul of the Cross this mystical process was a journey of a lifetime. We slowly shed a layer of our own will and passions one at a time and become reborn through phases. Jesus is also suggesting that this radical call to discipleship is one that should not happen in an instant. In the Gospel Jesus offers to examples of how the call to discipleship ought to be done with deliberative assessment, using the image of deliberate planning that goes into constructing a tower or conducting a military operation. Thus the first reading reminds us of the place of Wisdom within this spiritual process. We are reminded again about the virtue of humility as we accept a greater Wisdom that again is not our own.

The author of the book of Wisdom reminds us that we are limited and corrupted through our humanity so if we are to seek the things that are in heaven we must give ourselves over the Creator through whom authentic wisdom is granted. We are called to be contemplative. We have access to this Wisdom but we do not always discern it well since our self-interest and desires can get in the way. So we must constantly discern the true wisdom that is different from the “wisdom of the world.”

In discerning the Wisdom of God Paul sees his own human relationships in a different light. Since we are all children of God then we must begin to see each other with the sacred dignity that we all share. Paul urges Philemon to reevaluate his relationship with the slave Onesimus and to see him “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but more so to you, as a man and in the Lord.” In social matters such as with the institution of slavery Paul is telling Philemon that some social relationships are unacceptable because they contradict the essence of relationship that comes from true Wisdom. But Paul also knows that he cannot impose this on Philemon since he also respects the dignity and freedom that Philemon enjoys. So he requests that Philemon reevaluate his relationship with Onesimus not by giving him a command but by urging him to freely alter this relationship. “I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.” Following the Wisdom of the most high will alter all our social relationships and institutions but if we, like St. Paul, are encouraged to bring people towards this new form of relationship freely then we must be patient with this process. Forcing people to change will not bring an authentic conversion.   

Wisdom, humility and patience are three virtues that are impressed on us this weekend. As we review the political rhetoric regarding the social issues we face we need to see how they reflect a Wisdom that captures the vision for the common good, a humility of not promoting a self-interested agenda, and a patience for gently bringing the community towards this vision. Here are the steps for an authentic process for just and lasting change.

1. Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29.  A humble person finds favor with God and will be endowed with wisdom and the love of loyal friends.
2. Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24. You have drawn near the heavenly Jerusalem, to the assembly of the firstborn, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.
3. Luke 14:1, 7-14. By means of a parable about seats of honor at a banquet Jesus shows that those who exalt themselves shall be humbled and those who humble themselves shall be exalted.

Thoughts for your Consideration: By Fr. Phil Paxton, CP

In today’s Gospel reading from Luke, Jesus observes people choosing where they would sit at a banquet, and uses the opportunity to teach them about humility: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” I believe that if we looked at our own lives, we could testify to the truth of Jesus’ statement from our own experience.

And our own experience tells us that it is God who does the exalting, and it is God who does the humbling. Sometimes we try to be in charge of the process. There are times when we may calculate that if we humble ourselves we will be exalted. But if we try to do that, we are still trying to exalt ourselves. Sometimes there are others who want to do the humbling, but that is usually done out of malice or envy, and it does not work, either.

What can help us come to an attitude of true humility? Turning to Jesus. Jesus says to the host who invited Him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” If we were to consider these words in terms of the heavenly banquet, or in the context of the Mass, could we not see that Jesus practices what He preaches? Has not Jesus invited us, even when we have been poor, or crippled by anxiety or fear, or made lame by grief and sorrow, or even blinded by resentment or selfishness? Has not Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, without any expectation, or even possibility, of repayment? Does not Jesus constantly call us, even when we are in sin, to Himself?

When we reflect on how Jesus humbled Himself out of love for us, our only response can be humility. There can be no pretending to be better than or more important than someone else. We are all in need of God’s grace and love in Jesus Christ! As we are humble before the love of God, so are we to be humble with each other. An attitude of humility doesn’t allow for prejudice or discrimination. No person or group of persons can set themselves up as being superior or more deserving of life’s benefits than others. We cannot withhold opportunities from others based simply on the fact that they are different from us!

What if we were to take Jesus’ statement to His host into all aspects of our life, not just as individuals, but as a society? What if “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” were invited to the table where decisions were made? I remember seeing a special on LBJ’s “Great Society” programs of the late sixties. One intriguing aspect of the War on Poverty was the principle of “maximum possible participation of the poor.” Even when we are committed to working for social justice, we can be patronizing if we do not listen to the people for whom we’re trying to advocate. Being humble often leads us into different ways of doing things and relating to others!    I have found that humility is one of the best antidotes to prejudice. If I am humble enough to recognize that I can learn from those who are different, whatever might have been the basis for my prejudice falls away.

May God continue to bless us all, and may we be humble before Him.

• Isaiah 6:1-8. The prophet’s inaugural vision and call to ministry.
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Paul transmits the creed preached in the early church about the resurrection of Jesus. “I handed on to you what I myself received.”
• Luke 5:1-11. A miraculous catch of fishes. Peter’s protestations of unworthiness; Jesus’ call of Peter, James and John to be fishers of men and women for the kingdom of God.

Thoughts for your consideration: by John Gonzalez

This week’s reading shares the sense of unworthiness that Isaiah, Paul and Peter had as they were all called to serve God. These three each identified themselves as sinners and humbled themselves before God and Christ before accepting their new mission to be a prophet or preacher for the kingdom of God.  It is interesting for me to see the different professional areas that are covered between them. Peter is a simple fisherman and a hardworking common man. Paul is a theological academic who was trained as a Pharisee. Isaiah is a politician in the service of the royal court of King Uzziah. These are three very different people with three very different professions. In each case they all experienced a significant change in their life that seems to have rocked the very foundations of their relatively stable lives. In each case they realized how unworthy and sinful they all were before reluctantly accepting their new divine mission.

The role of humility cannot be understated in what took place with these three people. At the moment that they humbled themselves before God and Christ they became open to another way of thinking. They were able to accept a major paradigm shift that had gone against the social reality they were used to. Isaiah was quite skilled with his “unclean lips” that dominated the political atmosphere of the royal court. Paul was zealous for protecting the traditional Pharisaic doctrine that he had studied under. Peter was used to a certain style of fishing and was obviously in charge of his own fishing crew. And yet, after suffering some form of setback, they all allowed themselves to be open to a new way of seeing their world and of serving something beyond their own social profession.

The three readings revolve around God or Christ calling each of them to a new life and ministry and after they all humble themselves to God they accept their new calling. The Book of Jonah would be interesting for us to examine in relationship to this theme. In this case Jonah already exists as a prophet of the Lord and he seems to have quite a reputation in this field. God calls on him again to fulfill another mission within his prophetic ministry but Jonah, in his professional arrogance, reluctantly accepted the mission but was greatly disappointed with God for being merciful to a people Jonah wanted to condemn. In the end Jonah was “angry enough to die.”

The distinction here is how Peter, Paul and Isaiah were humble and submissive to God’s ways while Jonah allowed himself to be filled with arrogance and pride. The issue in our own world is not that God is no longer calling people to Him but that many of us chose to see the world only from the perspective of our own opinions and desires and thus reject opportunities to serve God and His church because they do not meet our expectations. In my experience with parishes and retreats I have come across a number of people with good intentions who are ready to offer social criticisms against society and the church based on personal experience or political platforms and when they are challenged on some of the church’s social issues that do not fit their own opinions they can become defensive and sometime dismissive to the entire social teachings of the church rather than allowing themselves to being open to a broader social vision.

Just like Peter, Paul and Isaiah we too are called to serve God through our own baptism into the church. Vatican II reminds us of this in their document to the laity: “The laity derive the right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the head; incorporated into Christ’s Mystical Body through Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord Himself.” Through the church and religious communities like our own opportunities exist for people to take part in promoting a greater social vision based on divine principles that make up the Church’s social teachings. These include such principles as the common good, solidarity, human dignity, preferential option for the poor and care for the integrity of creation. If we allow ourselves to be open to the possibilities of service then we will become aware of these opportunities that we are given to be at the service of God and His divine mission.

• Jeremiah 31: 7-9. Jeremiah announces the return of the northern tribes, exiled in their pitiable condition by the Assyrians.
• Hebrew 5: 1-6. Priests should deal patiently with erring sinners for they themselves are beset by weakness and must make sin offerings for themselves.
• Mark 10:2-16. Jesus cures the blind man Bartimaeus, declaring “Your faith has healed you.”

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

The readings this week call us to be humble and compassionate. In the first reading Jeremiah is reminding Israel that the Northern tribes will eventually return. God’s people have been humbled after the Assyrian exile of the northern tribes of Israel and Jeremiah prophesizes that in the end the God of mercy will “bring them back from the land of the north.” Jeremiah goes on to describe the great compassion that God will have for his exiled people. Famed Passionist scripture scholar Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller’s suggests that this prophesy is specifically informing the southern tribes of Judah that the northern tribes of Ephraim will return since the Assyrian empire is collapsing at the hands of the Babylonians. But what happens historically is the northern tribes of Israel never returned and they are lost to history.

The old Kingdom of Israel in not restored in its original form. The Jewish people have two choices; they can either dismiss their faith in God altogether, or they can allow themselves to be open to a new way of understanding God’s promise to them. Perhaps God desire to “gather them from the ends of the world with the blind and the lame in their midst” meant something greater than the return of the Northern tribe. Here is where the Gospel reading comes in. Now, through Jesus Christ, Jeremiah’s prophesy can be fulfilled. The compassion that Jesus has on Bartimaeus is reflective of God’s compassion to the lost tribes of Israel.

With humility comes compassion. The message in the second reading is that if we are truly humble then we will be aware of our own limitations and weaknesses. When we do that then we can appreciate the weaknesses and limitations of others. That is when we will be serving our own human community in a way that is compassionate and pastoral versus indifferent and judgmental.   

Humility is a valuable virtue that seems lost in our own society. Opinionated pundits are governing our own way of life and the message seems to be that nothing else should matter, not even the truth, outside of your own opinion. Facts and data are only useful insofar as they can back up your opinion. Principles and morality are also generally irrelevant unless they are the basis for your own opinion. It is fed to us by the media where the opinionated pundits are taking over all forms of journalism. But then it is played out in social networks and blogs. Now it is finding its way in social places like café’s and bars. There is no respect for dialogue and any kind of objective approach. This does not only hold true for politics but also for aspects of the faith. It does not matter what theologians, bishops or popes say or think. So long it fits our own opinion and it represents our own self interest then it may have some value. I have heard this type of public talk for some time now, especially with regards to immigration and the environment. Because there is no humility there is no compassion. Those of us who charge in with our own opinions are indifferent to the opinions and experiences of the other. Our own self-interest becomes our only good. Self-interest is not a value of our faith. We must humble ourselves before our God and before each other so that we can be open to God presence and wisdom within each one of us.

If we don’t learn to be humble make no mistake God will humble us, after all, He’s done it before.