All Things Are Possible

August 19, 2008

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

By your great wisdom applied to your trading you have heaped up your riches; your heart has grown haughty from your riches – therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have thought yourself to have the mind of a god, therefore I will bring against you foreigners, the most barbarous of nations. They shall draw their swords against your beauteous wisdom; they shall run them through your splendid apparel. Ezekiel 28:5-7

“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:24-26

Piety

Father, help us to oppose what is intrinsically evil and embrace and support everything that supports the common good. As we approach the Labor Day holiday that signals the end of the summer season, bring to us a renewed vigor as we seek to build together a society that cares for all of its own, reaches out to the poor and vulnerable, and offers true hope to all. Let us share justly and freely the goods of society and advance the good of every person and the common good of all. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/081908.shtml

Despite all of our best intentions and free will choices, the outlook for our lives is pretty bleak if you read today’s scriptures with the eye of a skeptic. We have grown haughty from our riches. We have thought ourselves to have the mind of a god. Our riches obstruct us from getting into heaven. Why not just throw up our hands in defeat?

If we listen carefully to Jesus, it is our job to give God a reason to save us. There may not be anything that we can do. Yet there is everything that God can do. “For God, all things are possible.” All things. Death. And Life!

We must be careful not to conclude as the enemies do in the Psalm, “Our own hand won the victory; the LORD had nothing to do with it.” In fact, the Lord has everything to do with our victory. “Learn then that I, I alone, am God, and there is no god besides me. It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them, and from my hand there is no rescue.” Deuteronomy 32:39

There are a lot of choices in the world. Last weekend, two political candidates squared off in separate interviews at Rick Warren’s church. Much was said about the pro-life stands of each candidate. In the end, Respect Life really means Respect God and Respect All God Makes. For God, All Things are Possible. It is up to us to “carry out carefully every word of this law.” Not to pick and choose among the words, but to follow them all.

Action

With our changing economy, the outlook for many workers this year also is pretty bleak. That is why you should take some time to read the Labor Day statement issued this week by the Most Reverend William F. Murphy, Bishop of Rockville Centre and chairman, USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

The Labor Day statement highlights the section of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship that addresses economic justice, work and workers’ rights. He said the bishops’ statement in outlining the key elements of what comprises a just economy, “makes both links and distinctions between the fundamental duty to oppose what is intrinsically evil (i.e., the destruction of unborn life) and the obligation to pursue the common good (i.e., defending rights of workers and pursuing greater economic justice).”

You can read the whole statement at the Justice, Peace, and Human Development website (www.usccb.org/sdwp).