Daily HOMILY for September 30, 2014: Tuesday of the 26th Week of Ordinary Time

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Tuesday 26^th Week OT

St. Luke’s Institute

September 30, 2014

PICKING OUT A CROSS ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Occasionally 1 gets impression we select a Cross in our life same way we stop at a jewelry store at the mall and pick one out to wear around our neck

Ø  But Cross in R life doesn’t have 2B sought out

Ø  The cross we will wear, or more accurately wear, will present itself as an inevitable part of our life

OUR LIFE QUESTIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Sometime or other each of us, with no one excluded, will come close to feeling like Job

Ø  Why was I born? Why should I live?

Ø  Our happiness, our hopes, are dashed to the ground by an accident that harms a family member, by a killing disease that hits us, or b desertion by a dear friend

Ø  These things make us cry out like the Lord himself, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”

OUR TRUE CROSSES ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  These are the true Crosses

Ø  Nothing we choose could ever equal the ones given to us by life and our situation

Ø  The suffering and death of Jesus came about not because he wanted them but because his life and teaching had aroused hatred and ill will in others

Ø  Even w/o R ex or words, we can B hated or persecuted irrationally, as is case in today’s Gospel

Ø  The Samaritans simply hated any Jew

Ø  Jesus included

Ø  We all faced people and circumstances as children either at home or at school that were beyond our control and worked their evil on us

Ø  So let’s not look for extraordinary things to do

Ø  Instead let’s look ourselves squarely in the eye, note the pain

Ø  And surrender to God’s point of view, God’s horizon to my pain and suffering

Ø  That, sisters and brothers, may be the most heroic thing we can do

CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  What Cross is more free of my ego than that which comes to me from the unchangeable conditions and people of my life, than what faithfulness to our responsibilities asks from us?

Ø  Perhaps in this category lie the unresolved pains of the past, the inconveniences and boredom of today

Ø  We find the Lord in these places, above all!

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