The Catholic Calendar for Sunday, August 29, 2004
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Sirach 3:17-18,20,28-29
Psalm 68:4-7,10-11
Hebrews 12:18-19,22-24
Luke 14:1,7-14

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

In today's Gospel we have another of Jesus' paradoxical statements. At first you might be inclined to accept it at face value and that might be well and good. However often there is more meaning to what Jesus is saying than just the first impression of the words He speaks. For me, that is the way of today's statement about the exalted being humbled and the humble being exalted.

It is easy to repeat Jesus's words and to even think we understand them and how we should apply them in our lives, but we must remember that because of our broken nature we have a tendency not to see ourselves and other realities as they actually are, but to paint them as we want them to be -- often slanting things for our worldly advantage.

Without God's help we might never arrive at any semblance of the truth, but spend our lives in self deception. This can be demonstrated in today's statement about being humble. If we won't let God help us, we might think we're being humble, but instead engaging in false humility; and if at appropriate times we won't allow ourselves to be legitimately exalted by God and others, we renounce the goodness that is meant to be bestowed. Neither is what God desires

Let us then not be always fearful that we are being confused or deceived, but realize that the possibility exists and rely not on our own wisdom, but the wisdom of God to lead us to right judgment in all things.

- Donna Raye Nelson, ocds
(drn3rd at hotmail dot com)

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posted by joachim at 4:29 AM