August 8, 2010
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes. For when you punished our adversaries, in this you glorified us whom you had summoned. Wisdom 18:7-8
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Because of it the ancients were well attested. Hebrews 11:1-2
Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. Luke 12:32-34
Piety
“Ready or not, here I come!” A game from my childhood had that refrain. We were playing “Hide and go Seek.” The games of childhood give way to the game of life. We quickly learn to be ready for the challenges of life if we are going to be successful. Still, there are all too many things we need to do that we put off to the last minute. A foreseen deadline of life gets good preparation. Trivial things can be put off to the last minute because it does not matter whether we are ready or not. There are deadlines in exams that we have to face when time runs out on us before we have finished. There is a deadline in life we all have. We do not know the day or the hour when the Lord will call for us. Some deadlines require all of life to be prepared for. The death bed meditation is a powerful meditation of the first week of the Spiritual Exercises because it asks us to look at what we are doing with our responsibilities of life to see whether what we would do knowing out life is over is what we have done with our lives. Piety is the being ready to meet our maker with the job of life done as best we can. What would I wish to change when I look back at my behavior with the light of the last judgment? Such a searching look frees us to store up in heaven inexhaustible treasures.
Study
The kingdom of heaven belongs to our generosity with others. Our parable is about the responsibilities of life and how we behave. The invitation is to sell what we have and to give alms. Thus we prepare for ourselves the inexhaustible treasure of God’s gratitude for what we do in the name of Christ. On earth, gratitude is a mixed bag. It can be stolen. Moths can get at our garments. Thieves can take what we value. Children can break our expensive toys of life. Everything and anything can go wrong. There is no sure thing for us short of heaven. Where our treasure is, there our hearts are. Our best study is an examination of conscience where we look with the eyes of faith at what we are about in our lives and where we have our treasures stored.
Action
Heaven is our goal. Our good actions can bring us to a better homeland. Homeland Security is what Faith makes possible for us. Faith is “the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” It is our faith in a God who is true to his promises that gives us the wherewithal in our hearts to do what needs to be done to make heaven our true homeland. The architect and maker of our bank in heaven is God. We call upon God by calling his name during our day. If I call the name of God ten times during the day, a good action would be to make it a hundred times. If I drink the chalice of salvation once a week on Sunday, I can make the time to do it during the week. Psalm 86 talks about the return we shall make to the Lord for all the good things he has done for us. The best return we can make to the God of our salvation is to give our lives more fully to his Son. Jesus is “the Way, The Truth and the Light” of our journey home to God. The more Christ we have in our lives, the readier we will be for the hour we do not know when the Son of Man will come to call us home.
