25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - September 24, 2023

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

September 24, 2023 – 5pm 

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

Two Lessons 

 

One thing that probably all of us dislike is a lack of fairness.

 

We want everyone to be treated fairly. We want fair pay, fair games, fair trials, and on it goes.

 

So, we may agree with the guys in the gospel story who have worked all day long. They are upset when the landowner pays a full-day’s pay to those who have worked just one hour or a few hours.  

 

In truth, the landowner is being fair because he gives the full-day workers exactly what they agreed upon and that was the going rate-of-pay. He simply chooses to be generous with those who have worked fewer hours.

 

Now, we have to say that Jesus is not giving a lesson here on good management or compensation practices – that’s definitely not the point!  Instead, he is teaching us lessons first about God and then about ourselves.

 

Lesson 1: About God 

 

We can summarize Jesus’ lesson about God with the word: “generous.”

 

To those who have worked all day and are complaining about what he has paid the others, the landowner says: “Are you envious because I am generous?” Jesus is presenting the landowner as an image of God. 

 

The idea is that God is absolutely generous in his love for us. In another passage of Scripture, Saint John says this so beautifully: “Love consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us.”

 

So, God first loves us, each of us, personally. God takes the initiative in loving.

 

God’s love is purely and simply a gift. We don’t merit it or earn it.

 

To us, this is counter cultural. Our experience is that we have to merit or earn practically everything.

 

But this isn’t true when it comes to the love of God. One of our Catholic writers puts it this way.

 

“We don’t change [or try to grow] to earn God’s love; instead, we change because of God’s love.” The idea is that it is God’s love or grace within us that moves us to grow and change.  

 

So maybe we come to God or come back to God later in life. But amazingly, God treats us as the landowner treats the late workers. 

 

It’s hard for me and maybe all of us to understand this. So, we just have to accept this as part of the mystery of God because God is ultimately mystery to us.

 

We just have to remember that God is “generous” – that’s the key word. God gives his love as a gift, and we don’t earn it or merit it.  

 

Lesson 2: About Us 

 

The second lesson really flows from the first.

 

It is also summed up in one word, the word: “envious.” The landowner says to the all-day workers: “Are you envious because I am generous?”

 

I and probably each of you, we human beings can be envious. Envy is the sin of being upset at someone else’s good fortune.

 

Maybe a fellow employee gets a promotion; maybe a family member gets named in an inheritance; maybe someone gets publicly recognized for doing some charitable work – these are the kinds of things that can make us feel envious – resentful, begrudging, even hateful. 

 

Notice in the gospel what leads to envy. The day-long workers compare themselves with the part-day workers and their pay.  

 

It’s the comparing that leads to the envy. So, Jesus wants us to stop comparing ourselves to others in this way.

 

Instead, he wants us to focus on God’s generous love for us. He wants us to be aware of the gifts God has given us – like our school, our job, our family, our friends, our home, our health, our health care, and on it goes.

 

Jesus doesn’t want us to compare ourselves to others who seem to have something we don’t have and then become envious. Instead, he wants us to look at ourselves and what we do have and be thankful to God for that.

 

And that’s the key point. Being thankful is the opposite of being envious.  

 

Conclusion

 

So, two words: “generous” and “envious.”

 

God is amazingly generous to each one of us. If we remember this and are thankful, we will not become envious.   

24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - September 17, 2023

 24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Cycle A

September 17, 2023 – 8:30 and 11am 

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

Forgive

 

This morning, it would be difficult to talk about any topic other than forgiveness.

 

This is front and center in both the first reading and the gospel. The first thing I want to say is that forgiveness can be very difficult. 

 

I must admit that I find it hard at times. For me, I have to work at forgiving when someone treats me unfairly or unjustly.

 

Maybe that’s not an issue for you, but it is for me. I think that forgiving can be a challenge at one time or another for many of us.

 

This morning, I am not going to give a pious exhortation about forgiving. Instead, I want to look at this in a grittier, more practical way.

 

First, I want to look at some things that forgiveness is not. And then, I will offer three steps that I think are involved in the process of forgiving.   

 

Forgiving Is Not…

 

First, forgiving does not mean that we deny our feelings or pretend that we weren’t offended.

 

In fact, part of healthy forgiving demands that we own or admit our feelings. We do this so that we can eventually work through the hurt.

 

Then, contrary to the popular saying, forgiving does not mean forgetting.

 

It’s almost impossible to forget what has happened, even if we want to. We cannot expect ourselves or others to do this.

 

Next, forgiving is not weakness.

 

In fact, forgiving requires great inner strength. It is a sign of a strong person who can bring themselves to forgive another who has offended them.

 

And finally, this may sound surprising, but forgiving may not mean reconciling.

 

Reconciling may be unwise in some situations, like domestic violence or sexual abuse. We may forgive but not restore the relationship to what it was before.    

 

Forgiving Is

 

Okay, they are some things that forgiveness is not; now I want to look at three steps or actions that are involved in forgiving. 

 

1.    Review 

 

First, we need to review what happened.

 

Review in your mind what the other person did. And as you do this, get in touch with your feelings. 

 

How did you feel as it happened and right after it happened? And how do you feel about him or her right now?

 

And, as part of this review, sometimes we also need to look at ourselves. To paraphrase an old saying, “It often takes two to tango.”

 

So, is there some way, maybe something minor or subtle, but still some way that I contributed to the problem? Could it have been how I said something or when I did something? 

 

2.    Humanize

 

So, 1) review what happened, and then, 2) humanize the offender.

 

Try to separate the hurtful word or action from the person who did it. And then, try to walk in that person’s shoes for a bit.

 

What might she have been experiencing within herself? What kind of day or week might she have had?

 

Or what kind of home life did he have when he was a child? What woundedness might he be carrying around inside?

 

This can be a very challenging part of the process that we may not want to do. But still, step back from the hurt for a moment and look at the offender as another human being. 

 

3.    Choose

 

And then the third step is to choose to forgive.

 

We may feel resentful, angry, or vengeful. But even with that, we can still choose to let go of it – and yes, forgiving is a choice.  

 

Not to let go hurts us as much or even more than the other person. The Buddhists have a saying about this.  

 

They say that holding on to resentment is like picking up a hot coal in our hand with the intention of throwing it at the person who offended us. Just imagine that: the hot coal makes it clear that holding on especially to vengeful feelings is as harmful for us as it is for the other person. 

 

Choosing to let go is important. And then, eventually, if, if this is possible, try to talk with the other person because that makes forgiveness very real.

 

Conclusion

 

So, hurts can happen with anyone – a parent, a spouse, a son or daughter, a sibling, a friend, a neighbor, an employer, a priest, anyone.  

 

I hope that these three steps or actions – 1) Review, 2) Humanize, and 3) Choose – I hope that they will help us respond to Jesu

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - September 3, 2023

 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Cycle A

September 3, 2023 – 5pm, 8:30 and 11am

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

Becoming More

 

A few years ago, I came across a fable that was written to help us appreciate Jesus’ main point in today’s gospel. The fable goes like this.

 

“Once upon a time, a dandelion whispered to the nutrients in its soil: ‘How would you like to become a dandelion? You need only allow yourself to be dissolved in the earth’s water, and I will draw you up through my roots.

 

‘Afterward you will be able to grow and flower and brighten the world.’ The nutrients said: ‘Okay!’ and they became a dandelion.

 

“The next morning, a rabbit hopped by and, feeling generous, said to the dandelion: ‘How would you like to become a rabbit? You would have to let me chew you up and swallow you, and you would lose your pretty petals. 

 

‘It would hurt at first, but afterward you would be able to hop around and wiggle your ears.’ Not being rooted in just one place sounded good, so the dandelion said ‘Okay!’ and it became a rabbit.

 

“The next day, a hunter spotted the rabbit, and being in a friendly mood, asked: ‘How would you like to become a human? Of course, you must let yourself be shot, skinned, stewed, and eaten.

 

‘That would be rather painful but think of what you’d gain. You’d be able to think, laugh, cry, get 50 credit cards and watch football on a wide flat-screen TV.’ 

 

“The rabbit was scared, but who could pass this up? So, he also said ‘Okay!’ and became a human.

 

“Years later, God noticed this human going about the everyday human way. Feeling very fatherly, God said: ‘Hey! How would you like to become a super-human?’”

 

Becoming Divine

 

And that, my friends, is the question God asks each human being.

 

And, in case we don’t know what’s involved in this, God’s Son, Jesus, spells it out: “You have to lose your life to find it.” Sports coaches and athletes say: “No pain; no gain.”

 

Psychologists say: “Lose your false self to find your true self.” Spiritual writers say: “The dark night comes before the dawn.”

 

So, what is it that we must lose and what do we gain? Well, the good news is that we don’t lose anything essential to our humanity.

 

And we don’t lose anything that is good. All we really lose is our inhumanity, our false self.

 

What Do We Lose?

 

For example, we would lose our self-absorption, which ends up making us very alone. We would lose our prejudice, which blinds us to the truth.

 

We would lose our lust, which distorts our love. We would lose our insecurity, which blocks our sense of self-worth. 

 

We would lose our obsession with money, which prevents us from being generous. And we would lose our fear, which strangles our hope.  

 

What Do We Gain?

 

To the degree that we do this losing, we gain. Our humanity is enhanced. 

 

Now, we don’t have to get there all at once. We can do it step by step.

 

And we don’t have to advance in every dimension of life. In truth, even most of the saints are imperfect and unfinished in some way.

 

The best part is that by fulfilling our humanity in this way, we become more and more divine. We live more and more in the divine life. 

 

We are in communion with God and start thinking and living in a Godly way. And here is the really best part. 

 

In losing our lives in God, unlike the nutrients in the soil and the dandelion and the rabbit in the fable, unlike them, we don’t really lose at all. Instead, we retain our own self and grow bigger.

 

We feel connected with others. We feel more secure in ourselves.

 

We feel closer to God. And we feel a sense of purpose and hope. 

 

But we have to remember this. Only with Jesus and only in going through this process of losing can we gain and become our fullest self.