|
Wisdom 9:13-18b
Main Theme: The gift of God's WISDOM makes our paths on earth straight.
This passage from King Solomon's prayer for wisdom begins with a question persuading his audience and us to acknowledge that no human being can really know God's counsel or what the Lord God intends for us. The understanding of us mere mortals is extremely feeble and subject to our physical weakness. Our earthly, human plans and deliberations have no certainty. Our earthly, corruptible bodies burden our minds with many and varied concerns. If we can barely get a handle on what is happening in our lives on earth, how can we ever hope to grasp the far superior plans of God in heaven?
The only way we mere mortals on earth can hope to know what are God's plans for us is if God himself graciously grants us the wisdom and sends us the holy spirit from heaven to enlighten our earthly understanding. But that is precisely what God has done for us! We are the fortunate recipients of God's great gift of wisdom. We no longer are doomed to walk in the crooked paths of our earthly and human way of thinking. We can now walk in the straight paths of God's counsel for us with our minds enlightened by the gift of divine wisdom. © 2004, OCP. All rights reserved. 
Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
Psalm 90 is a communal lament which describes in general terms the major distress of the community. Briefly stated, this distress comes from the experience of life's shortness and its meaninglessness. This appears all the more overwhelming when considered in comparison with God's eternity.
The content of this psalm's lament echoes very clearly the frustration articulated in the liturgy's first reading from Wisdom 9:13-18. Even though God has a plan for the world and for us, we cannot figure out what it is or how it works. Both Psalm 90 and the reading from Wisdom emphasize that our only clues will be revealed in wisdom which comes from God. While the lament remains, it does not end in despair.
Psalm 90 also serves as a good introduction to the very challenging gospel reading from Luke 14:25-33. The psalmist implores God: "Teach us to number our days aright…" That is precisely what the gospel passage emphasizes with regard to discipleship. Psalm 90 laments how short life is and how quickly everything seems to pass. That also rings true with regard to discipleship. There is no time to waste. One must get focused quickly and remain focused throughout. For the Psalmist, for Wisdom, and for Luke, the object of this focus must always be God and not oneself or one's possessions. Whenever that focus is lost, life appears as cruel as it is determined. When our vision is clear, however, we can share the hope of the psalmist-"…prosper the work of our hands for us!"© 2004, OCP. All rights reserved.
Philemon 9-10, 12-17
This passage represents the body of this very short letter in which Paul intercedes for Onesimus, the slave, with Philemon, his master, from whose household the man had fled. (In order to understand the allusions, Paul frequently resorts to a play on words as "Onesimus" means "useful" or "helpful.") Rather than employ his own authority as an apostle, Paul is counting on the charity that Philemon has already demonstrated in the past.
Onesimus is dear to Paul due to the fact that, during their imprisonment together, he converted the man to Christianity and, thus, thanks to Paul's efforts, the former slave was granted life in prison. Therefore, Paul is sending Onesimus back to his former employer as someone who is as dear to the Apostle as the most intimate part of himself despite the fact that he could have been of further use to Paul in prison as he is suffering there.
Paul goes on to suggest reasons why Onesimus should be welcomed home with kindness as Philemon would be receiving someone who is now far more than merely a slave as Onesimus, as a convert, is a brother. Hence, he will prove to be far more dear to Philemon by means of the human condition that places him nearby as a servant and a brother in Christ through the community of faith. Paul concludes with an appeal to his own participation in the faith and apostolate of Philemon and, so, asks that Onesimus be welcomed as Paul would be.© 2004, OCP. All rights reserved.
Luke 14:25-33
This is a very difficult passage in St. Luke. What are we to make of turning one's back on father and mother, on wife and children, on brothers and sisters, on one's very self, in order to be Jesus' disciple? It goes against both the grain of nature and the love of others which our Lord commends elsewhere. It seems to be hyperbole on our Lord's part in order to shock us into recognition of the cost of discipleship. That emerges especially in the last sentence: "None of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his possessions." In other words, nothing should be permitted to get in the way of our awareness of and response to God. And "nothing" sometimes includes "no one"! The Scottish New Testament scholar, F. F. Bruce, puts it well when says: "A man or woman might be so bound up by family ties as to have no time or interest for matters of even greater moment, and there could be no matter of greater moment than the kingdom of God." I cannot be a disciple of Jesus if I show no interest in Jesus, and I cannot show interest in Jesus without spending time with Jesus. In spending time with Jesus, becoming his disciple truly, I will bring to him the names of those who are inscribed on my heart --- father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters.© 2004, OCP. All rights reserved.
|
