{"id":4222,"date":"2013-09-07T11:28:12","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T10:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4222"},"modified":"2013-09-07T11:30:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-07T10:30:00","slug":"22nd-sunday-of-ordinary-time-01-09-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4222","title":{"rendered":"22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (01.09.13) ( OK given) Who\u2019s sitting where?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (01.09.13)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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( OK given)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Who\u2019s sitting where?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Table planning can be a headache for organisers as well as a heartache for guests. Some put a lot of store by observing the pecking order or hierarchy of status. It was so among the social and religious elite of Jesus\u2019 day too, as Luke\u2019s Gospel (14:1,7-14)) for the 22nd Sunday of the Year illustrates. St. Luke, of all the evangelists, most often portrays Jesus teaching while eating, be it at a banquet or a small group.<\/p>\n

Author Frederick Collins once said: \u201cThere are two types of people in this world … those who enter a room and say, \u201cWell, here I am!\u201d and those who enter and say, \u201cAh, there you are!\u201d No prizes for guessing into which group Jesus and Pope Francis fit. God\u2019s Word is always challenging. This weekend we could ask ourself which of the above types more nearly represents us?<\/p>\n

In his first address to the people of Brazil in July, Pope Francis said, \u201cIn his loving providence, God wished that the first international trip of my pontificate should take me back to my beloved Latin America, specifically to Brazil \u2026 I have learned that, to gain access to the Brazilian people, it is necessary to pass through its great heart; so let me knock gently at this door. I ask permission to come in and spend this week with you. I have neither silver nor gold, but I bring with me the most precious thing given to me: Jesus Christ! I have come in his name, to feed the flame of fraternal love that burns in every heart; and I wish my greeting to reach one and all: The peace of Christ be with you!\u201d<\/p>\n

A cynic might say the Bishop of Rome has very clever speech writers. I would say Papa Francis spoke from his heart. His words authentically represent him, not just now as Pope but as he has been all his life as a Catholic man, priest, bishop and now true Vicar of Christ.<\/p>\n

The ultimate guarantor of \u2018authenticity\u2019 is Truth. The Truth that is God is authenticity\u2019s irrefutable provenance. This is why Jesus personifies authenticity. We sense it in his every word, gesture, look and movement as well as in his silence, stillness and tears. Through His Word-made-Flesh, Jesus, God\u00a0 challenges us to examine our daily life for any signs of infiltration by the \u2018master of deceit and falsehood\u2019, Satan. Such corruption may have small, almost insignificant, beginnings. Who would suspect an apple! Little by little minor corruptions can cease to trouble the conscience becoming an accepted part of life. The rot, having taken root, grows.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s Word lights up the rot of falsehood and invites us to remove it. His word here and now, just as it did when Jesus walked upon the earth, has the power to heal us of whatever is false in our life, if we believe in him. This is true whether His word is read aloud to us or by us on our own,\u00a0 The healing power of God\u2019s Word is love. When we genuinely accept God\u2019s unconditional love, we allow his Truth to begin to heal the malformation of falsehood that, like a cancer, has grown where it shouldn\u2019t be within us.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s invitation is gentle embodying the lines from this Sunday\u2019s First Reading from the Book of Ecclesiasticus (3:17-20,28-29)\u00a0 \u201cMy child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favour with God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The companion of gentleness is humility. Humility is not a false modesty. It is the true, honest recognition of our abilities, as well as our limitations, in the universe. Humility is not a passive quality. As with faith, the virtue of humility requires the continuous application of our willpower along with a positive trust in God.<\/p>\n

Guest lists can reveal as much about hosts as about the invitees. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart once said: \u201cIt is unhealthy to marinate in your own press reviews.\u201d Cartoonist Frank Tyger advised: \u201cSwallow your pride. It\u2019s non-fattening.\u201d So, this weekend, allow God\u2019s Word to speak to your heart. You know He will be gentle with you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (01.09.13) ( OK given)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who\u2019s sitting where? Table planning can be a headache for organisers as well as a heartache for guests. Some put a lot of store by observing the pecking order or hierarchy of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archdiocese-of-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4224,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4222\/revisions\/4224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}