Twenty – Sixth Sunday Ordinary Time
Numbers 11:25-29
James 5:1-6
Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47- 48
I will be at Priest Convocation until Thursday evening. My next post will be on Friday, October 2, 2015
Many of you have commented about not hearing the bells. We took a lightning strike about a month ago, and it blew the control panel. We have been waiting for the new parts, and they finally came in. We all have missed the chiming of the bells. We have an attachment to those bells, because they call our attention to something holy. Our readings speak to us strongly about renouncing any kind of attachments that take us away from what is holy and good in our life.
In our second reading, the writer of James has a very stern warning to anyone who has a false sense of attachment to money, but it doesn’t have to be money, it can be many things. The writer says, “Since you have put your trust in these material things, even your clothes have rotted away. You have condemned yourselves, and I offer no resistance to your eternal punishment.” We all can worry about money, we will always want for more but I try and not worry about money. My secret is good stewardship, prayer and trust in God. God never disappoints! One big thing we can be attached to is our phones? Do we always need it on our person? One of the saddest things, I witness is people who obviously know each other, sitting together sharing a meal, and they are both on their phones. Why is the person right in front of you not more important than your phone? If they are not more important just texted them next time and saved yourself the price of the meal!
In our gospel, Jesus says, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your foot causes you to sin cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin pluck it out.” Jesus never intended these words to be taken literally, but he did intend them to make us feel uncomfortable, because we all have something, we possess more than the Word of God. Jesus is pushing us to search every inch of our lives to see what needs to be changed.
My friend’s in Christ, the desire of the Lord is that we put him first in our lives, and that we become witnesses to him. May the Eucharist we share help us to give up something that we are attached to and to draw closer to God.