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6th Sunday of the Year, A

Have you ever notice how people answer when they must give an account of something… negative that has happened. You will hear:

“The cup fell and got broken.”
“This thing got lost.”
“So-and-so made me do that…”

All these statements have one thing in common: they ‘free’ someone from the responsibility of having done something.
He did not break the cup, she did not lose something, and if they did something wrong, well… it was the fault of somebody else!

This reflection came to me as I read the very first line of the first reading of this Sunday (6th Sunday of Year A – Si.15:15-20):
“If you wish, you can keep the commandments,
To behave faithfully is in your power.”

Being free, yes, from having to look for excuses, free from feeling obliged to find a scapegoat.
Being able to say:

“I did it.”
“It is my mistake.”
“It is my fault, I am sorry.”

What a liberating experience!
And the way to… human and Christian maturity!

Source: Image: www.nikkenu.com

 

 

25th Sunday of the Year, C

None of us would like to be seen as … a slave – the only thought of it is shocking! We cherish and defend our liberty and we do not want it diminished in any way. And yet… in some rare moments of lucidity and honesty, perhaps… perhaps we would admit – only to ourselves, of course – that we may not be as free as we like to believe…

1080-plusToday may be such a moment. The gospel text of this Sunday (25th, Year C – Lk.16:1-13) gives us some food for thought when we hear Jesus say: “No servant can be the slave of two masters… you cannot be the slave both of God and of money.”

Here again, we may be tempted to protest and say: ‘A slave, me? Of course not!’ Yet… a small inner voice may rise gently and say something different.
MONEY, we need it, we save it, we spend it, we… give some of it, no? It is a ‘must’ of our daily life and activities. What can be done without money? What can be obtained without coins, and bills, and credit cards – all this ‘tainted’ currency? It is only ‘normal’ to acquire possessions, and riches of all kinds, if we can manage it!

We know well that the words of Jesus are the echo of the old saying: “Money is a good servant but a bad master.”
We strive to reach the proper balance between possessing and being possessed… no easy feat…

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 Some questions can help us look at our status of… slave or free person:
– Do I often complain that I do not have enough money?
– Do I use money properly or do I spend it on useless items?
– Do I sometimes cheat to be able to get things I would not otherwise be able to afford?
– Do I use most of the money I earn for my own purposes and little for my family?
– Do I give money to those in need, or… pretend that I need it myself?

Some are quick to defend themselves saying: ‘I am not rich, I really don’t have much!’ The danger lies not in how rich one is but how attached one is to the little he or she has.
So, perhaps today is THE day to start making friends with money – the kind of friends Jesus speaks about!…

Source: Images: 1080.plus    m.dailyhunt.in