Season of Sharing 4th-7th Weeks of Ordinary Time Year C. With Patti Brunner and Monsignor David LeSieur. God is very generous in giving for all of our needs, yet He wants us to imitate him, to reflect him, so he gives us the opportunity to satisfy the needs of others rather than doing it all himself. In this way, we grow in the understanding of God’s love, compassion and we fulfill God’s plan of salvation. Season of Sharing considers the various talents and gifts working together to prepare us to share our faith. Originally broadcast on KDUA Catholic Radio and Padua Media. Continue reading for script, liturgical readings and other notes. Audio Link: Season of Sharing
LSC FEB-C Season of Sharing Script
Patti: Welcome to Living Seasons of Change! I’m Patti Brunner and my co-host today is Monsignor David LeSieur. Continuing our series based on the liturgical calendar of the Church, today we jump into the “Ordinary Time” of the church calendar. These next few weeks before we start the season of Lent are called ordinary, not because they are plain, but because they contain the Gospel messages that are needed for our daily lives. Rather than call attention to specific activities of the Lord, such as his birth or death, these weeks contain his teachings of living a Christian life.
Monsignor David: Patti, I think we are meant to take the ordinary of life and maybe look at it in an extraordinary way. At the Easter Vigil, we bless the huge Easter candle with the year on it. As the priest blesses the candle he says “Christ, the Alpha[i] and the Omega, the beginning and the end, He is the first and the last. All things belong to him; all times and seasons belong to him.” So, even ordinary time belongs to God. He blesses time. Bells at our church ring at noon and at 6 p.m. for the Angelus.[ii] The bell blesses time as it rings at certain times every day.
Patti: Yes, I’ve heard them ring.
Monsignor David: We have a special prayer called Liturgy of the Hours[iii] and in that way any Christian who prays those prayers, morning, noon, evening and night, are praising God at the various hours of the day. That’s blessing ordinary time. There is a passage from Ecclesiastes[iv] “there is time and a place for everything”. As we Catholics enter this ordinary time, we are invited us to look at how we use time, what time means to us, and how we bless God with our use of time. God manifests himself in ordinary ways and great ways as well. Thirty four weeks of the year are designed as ordinary time in the church calendar, which is good.
Patti: The first topic addressed in this first set of ordinary time is the important issue of sharing. God is very generous in giving for all of our needs, yet He wants us to imitate him, to reflect him, so he gives us the opportunity to satisfy the needs of others rather than doing it all himself. In this way, we grow in the understanding of God’s love, compassion and we fulfill God’s plan of salvation.
Monsignor David: Each of the first five Sundays of Ordinary time gives us the example of being called to evangelize as we hear the calls of Ezra, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Peter the “fisher of men” and the reminder of Elisha & Elijah’s call to minister to foreigners. This points to the importance of sharing God’s word with others. When we think of sharing we think of what we have. We might share the last piece of cake with someone. We ask children to share their toys. Everyone is called to share. Patti & I are here today because we want to share our knowledge of God.
Patti: We share what we are given. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, Paul tells us to be aware of spiritual gifts from God[v]. He lists the expressions of wisdom and of knowledge according to the Spirit; faith and gifts of healing, mighty deeds, prophecy; discernment of spirits; varieties of tongues; interpretation of tongues. He tells us the one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.
Monsignor David: When God created us God created us intentionally. Not one of us is here that God did not want to be here. He had a specific intention, a desire when each one of us was created. And so he gave each one of us gifts, talents and abilities. Some are better at one thing or another. And some develop them more and so those are gifts from God to be used for others.
Patti: There is a prayer in the Mass that goes something like this: “The gifts you have given to us, Lord, we now return to you; the bread and wine, the fruit of the earth you have given to us, we now return to you as our sacrifice of praise.” A lot of people offer their gifts and talents at our parish.
Monsignor David: Yes, not only the church staff but the talents of people who volunteer. Servers, people who train the servers, lectors and so on, these are the liturgical but you also get the people who volunteer to stuff bulletins, like the kids that are out there today. It is not a great talent, but they have given their time to do that. They could be playing. In simple acts of volunteerism you see people making sacrifices for the good of someone else, if they didn’t stuff the bulletins someone else will have to. That is, if we are going to have a bulletin that is stuffed. And those are just little acts that people do to make it work better.
Patti: How does knowledge or education come in?
Monsignor David: Any gift we offer to God really comes from him originally. And we take that gift and use it. Maybe the gift is in raw form; maybe it is the gift of being able to have an ear for music. When you develop the talent by taking music lessons, painting lessons or whatever, you develop the talent God is giving you, that you give back to him several times more, fourfold or whatever. Like the talent in the parable that some invested theirs and one buried his. The one who buried his talent without developing it was the one who’s kicked out. I think God wants us to develop the talents he gives us. We have a great Catholic school. We have a great Parish School of Religion and adult education too.
Patti: A lot of people are using their gifts and talents to help us grow in our understanding of God’s plan for our lives. In the Gospel of John Chapter 14 Jesus promised[vi] to send us the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things and remind us of everything Jesus said. As we hear the words of scripture our liturgy is also a gift of education to us.
Monsignor David: We can ask the Holy Spirit to teach us. The more attention we pay to the readings the more we will learn.
Patti: In our Sunday liturgy of the Word, the first reading and the Gospel go together according to their subject. Then the 2nd reading on Sunday is part of a continuous reading for several weeks. In Liturgical Year C, the first eight Sundays of ordinary time have readings from First Corinthians. Msgr., why do you think that the Church fathers chose First Corinthians to be the first continuous book read this year? What do you think is the significance of hearing Paul’s letter to the Church at Corinth?
Monsignor David: From what I know, Corinth was a big port city. It had a lot of people in it. It was kind of like New Orleans with its mix of people and cultures, ports and melting pot.
Patti: Were they good Christians there?
Monsignor David: They were probably struggling with their faith and their practices[vii]. In First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Paul gets after them. Their Eucharist celebrations are complete meals and they are sitting down and eating before the poor arrive and they are drunk by the time the poor get there. The poor have nothing to eat and so are excluded. Paul says this to shame them.
Patti: There’s a lot of teaching in Corinthians about the spiritual gifts, the One Body of Christ and about sharing with others.
Monsignor David: It also talks about the resurrection. There is a tremendous amount of teaching and, evidently, they just need to be straightened up. They were losing their focus.
Patti: In my limited study of Church documents, it seems like any time there’s a problem in the Church that is when we get our best documents about the teachings of the Church!
Monsignor David: Yes, it brings us around
Patti: Perhaps the “thorn in Paul’ flesh”[viii] was Corinth, because he founded their church community and they kept messing up so bad. Yet God’s power is made perfect in their weakness. God has worked the bad to good, because we have such wonderful, beautiful teachings, where Paul is trying to straighten them out. If all the early churches had been perfect, then the letters that Paul wrote would just be letters praising them instead of spelling out the issues. So this is good. Some of our greatest documents of the church are when the church has had to set people straight about the truths of the church; truths revealed from the very beginning but not documented until they were challenged.
Monsignor David: That’s why we have creeds, too. The creeds were correcting heresy about our understanding of Jesus, the Spirit, and so on.
Patti: Romans has a lot of teaching; Hebrews has a lot of teaching. Maybe the Church chose First Corinthians, to begin year C, to show us that we’re all sinners. We all need help!
Monsignor David: First Corinthians is a very important letter. The introductions[ix] in the New American Bible are worthy of being read. The introduction tells you a lot of background about why he wrote and when, to whom, where, and all that.
Patti: What about financial blessings as gifts? In Luke’s Gospel on our 6th Sunday, Jesus seems to portray the opposite. He says “Blessed are the poor” and “Woe to the rich”. Yet there are so many places in scripture where God promises us abundance.
Monsignor David: On the 6th Ordinary Sunday, in the Sermon on the Plain[x], Luke seems to invert the beatitudes with the blessings and the woes. In Luke it says “Blessed are the poor”, it doesn’t say “blessed are the poor in spirit”. It’s interesting that Luke specifically says it was as on a stretch of level ground as Matthew says Jesus went out on a high mountain. “Woe to you who are rich, you have already received your consolation.” Woe to you who are filled, you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh, you will grieve and weep, woe to you when they all speak well of you, your ancestors treated the false prophets in just this way.’ The false prophets just told them what they wanted to hear instead of speaking God’s word to them.
Patti: All those woes are attached to things we want: prosperity; we want to laugh; we want to be spoken of well. How do receive the blessings yet avoid the woes?
Msgr. David: If you look further in at Chapter 16, you have the story of the rich man and Lazarus[xi]. The Rich Man breaks a couple of these: He was rich. He was filled. People spoke well of him. It’s almost as though this list was written for him. If only he had paid attention to Lazarus! He didn’t have to give up all of his wealth. Also in Luke is the story of the guy who tore down his barns and built bigger barns. He was rich unto himself. Luke says this is what happens when a man grows rich for himself instead growing rich in the sight of God. So those parables help interpret this.
Patti: O yes, because the next few verses that we hear the 7th Sunday are the ones about loving your enemies. Stop judging, and then, to give the good measure. So is that the “out” of the woes? To give the “good measure” by sharing what you have?
Msgr. David: I think so. Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The remedy for the woes? Yeah.
Patti: That’s good. God provides our time, talent and treasure. Basically, everything we have to share, God has given us. And all God’s gifts to us are good. It is our choice to use God’s gifts to honor him by sharing them with others.
Monsignor David: Right; stewardship of time, talent and treasure. I guess it really summarizes it when you say it that way. Those three prongs; people giving willingly of their gifts for others.
Patti: How do we use our gifts to fulfill the Gospel message of the 7th Ordinary Sunday? To “give to everyone who asks of you[xii]”?
Monsignor David: Every parish is blessed with gifts. First of all you have gifts of the Spirit that inhabit any group of Christians. And when Christians are together in a parish, the gifts of the Spirit are always there.
Patti: As we use our gifts in the “safe” environment of our churches we are educated in them, then God could send us out to share them in particular ministry with others. How can we share them?
Monsignor David: We have a healing ministry here in our parish; we have prayer groups, not to mention the liturgy that happens all the time. We have the works of service over at the St. Vincent DePaul Society pantry-and that’s just the gifts of the Spirit at work right there. Those are divine gifts. Sometimes God wants us to step outside the box into a calling. We see that in the 5th Sunday’s Gospel. Luke records the calling of Peter to be a “fisher of men”.
Patti: God gives an assortment of gifts and talents to various people. We’re not all fisherman and it is likely that God will not call all of us to a single task.
Patti: The 1 Corinthians, Chapter 12[xiii] reading of the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary time helps us to see that our differences work together for good. The ministries of “apostles, prophets, teachers, then mighty deeds, gifts of healing, assistance, administration and varieties of tongues” are needed for a successful church community.
Monsignor David: The concept of the ‘five-fold ministry’ is repeated in Ephesians 4:11, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.” Ephesians 4:12-13[xiv] tells us that the purpose of the ‘five-fold ministry’ is, “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Patti: Just like the different body parts work together, so do the time, talent and treasures of people. You know, everyone has the same 24 hours. When someone says “I don’t have time for that” it really means “I haven’t focused my time to do that”. How we focus or spend our time points out our differences. Monsignor, you spend your time taking care of the church but that doesn’t mean you climb on top of the church to fix the roof. We know that some people would rather be out there fixing the roof instead of doing your job. Maybe the PSR teacher can’t understand why the choir members don’t take a turn teaching. At the same time, guy out working in the garden looks at the people that are praying in the adoration chapel say, “If only those people praying would get out here and pull weeds!” Of course I think if he would just be in here kneeling down, praying, all our problems would be solved! The bible class thinks those helping at the picnic should spend their time reading the bible instead of forming committees for social activities. We all see the ministry of the church through our own set of glasses. We see wherever our own focus is and perhaps see that as the best way, but you as our pastor, you see how it all works together.
Monsignor David: The Scriptures help us to understand that all these various ministries are important and each works for the good of all.
Patti: They may not be our main ministry, but certainly we are all called to participate. Like our church’s “Sharing Sunday”; we bring our bags of food to share with the poor. We may not be over there working in the pantry handing stuff out on a regular basis like the people called to that Ministry. But we bring our food on sharing Sunday.
Monsignor David: That gives them something to distribute.
Patti: Exactly! We may not be called to work in the flower garden, but if we see litter, and go ahead and pick that up, we do our little part to keep the grounds looking beautiful, even though that’s not our Ministry. We may not be called to an hour of Adoration at 3 in the morning, but we all are called to pray. In the same way, I think of financial support. We are all called to tithe but God has prospered some to be “mega” givers to the church as a ministry of support. The same is true in supporting education. Even if we are not called to be teachers, we better get ourselves in the chair and learn, and take advantage of it, and get our children to the classes.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Because we’re all teaching one another, whether we know it or not, we are teaching by example.
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Patti: Growing up I had a children’s envelope for the Sunday collection, and I know that gave me the basis now for supporting the church, even though I didn’t really understand why. Why is important. As a child and a young adult I didn’t understand the Biblical principles of sowing and reaping or the tithing scriptures[xv] “38 Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.” I did not understand the blessings of that until my boss told me a little story shortly after we moved here over 20 years ago. He probably heard the story at his church; he wasn’t Catholic. I am glad God inspired him to share it with me.
It was about a farmer in eastern Arkansas, that side of the state where I grew up so I understood what he was talking about with crops, land values, and rich farmers. Anyhow, this fellow inherited his daddy’s farm. It was a lot of land but the ground was poor and didn’t produce much. But he started tithing on his produce and the more he tithed the better his crop got and pretty soon he was the wealthiest farmer in the area. He changed his seed and his crops flourished. The weather was always good for him raining at just the right time. He had tremendous harvests, and he kept tithing, and he just kept getting more and more prosperous. Over the period of time he was ready to retire. And here’s the kick, when he retired, he didn’t have anything invested in the land but the land values had just gone through the roof! And so he was extremely wealthy. And when he sold out, he invested all of that, didn’t think to tithe on it, he just invested it. But whatever he invested in fell through the floor; I mean he lost everything.
Msgr. David: O my gosh.
Patti: So he went to the Lord and he said “Lord! I’ve been faithful to you all these years! I’ve tithed on everything I have produced. Why now, in the golden years of my life, did you take everything away from me?” And the Lord answered him and said, “Well, did you tithe on your capital gains? They too were a gift from me.” And the farmer said, “No. I kept it for myself. I had to have something to live on, since I wasn’t going to be producing anything anymore.” The Lord said, “How can I bless you if you don’t trust me?” That little story got me to thinking, and I went home and I figured out how much we were tithing on our income. We were tithing 1%, and I thought we’re going to increase it to 3 %. It was a hard decision at first for us to let go of the money that we felt we needed to save. We were just starting a new job in a new location and Rick had taken a cut in pay to come here. But we did it, we increased to 3%, and Rick got raises, I got raises. And very soon we bumped it up to 5% and then we bumped it up, and up and up. It’s true! You cannot out give God! So now we have become prosperous. We have abundant savings and no debt, and we always tithe on our capital gains! God has prospered us well beyond anything of our own capabilities, and it came from that little story, that little seed planted in my heart to test God. Some said we can’t test God, it’s against the rules. But if you look at Malachi Chapter 3 verse 10[xvi] “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me in this, says the LORD of hosts: Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven, to pour down blessing upon you without measure?”
Msgr. David: And sure enough, Malachi was right
Patti: Malachi was right! The Lord was right! How we teach financial stewardship?
Msgr. David: Maybe just testimonies like that. Have you heard the little parable of the sack of grain? The farmer was on his way to market to sell his few grains and try to get top dollar. Well on the way he met a beggar. And he gave the beggar five grains, and someone else came along and he gave this next guy one grain. It was pretty chintzy with it. When he got to the place of sale he poured it out and there were six grains of gold in that sack! He realized that if he had given it all away he would have had a sack full of gold. Somehow the gold replaces what you give up.
Patti: It’s a real act of trust, and I think that all of our gifts. When we give them away, it is an act of trust in God. The financial gift is one that you can see, because our pocketbook. But sometimes our emotions limit the sharing of our gifts. God calls us to trust him and lay down our time, our talents and our treasure for the benefit of others. What do you think our duty is to the next generation?
Msgr. David: What I would say first of all is to be faithful to what we’re called to be: Disciples, followers of Christ, and if we are faithful to that, and teach the next generation to be faithful in their way, I think we will have handed them a great gift. But when we drop the ball and are not good examples … We either teach explicitly or implicitly; some are teachers that stand in front of a group and teach, but all of us are implicit teachers by what we do, what we say, and how we say it. People watch us all the time, especially children, children will imitate what they see.
Patti: You ought to see my granddaughter Emily pretend to say mass! She’s six years old and knows to break off the little piece of bread and put it in the cup!
Msgr. David: They pick up the smallest things. Things no one else notices they will notice and they will repeat. But I think that one of primary responsibilities to the next generation is certainly to be faithful to our call, and in that sense hand on that fidelity. I think that is a primary gift.
Patti: It is so important to share our faith when our children are small because working on your family is harder than strangers when they are adults. I speak from experience! I have a tremendous faith relationship with my youngest daughter because we have shared deep religious experiences since she was nine. When my oldest daughter was nine, we barely went to church together on Sunday. Even though I easily evangelize young people every week at the Juvenile Detention Center, I still struggle with my 30-something adult daughter!
Msgr. David: Relevant Radio says the new evangelization connects between life and faith. John Paul II certainly called for a new evangelization. And the Catholic Bishop’s 1999 statement “Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us”[xvii] provides a pastoral plan for adult faith formation to re-evangelize Catholics.
Patti: My experience with people is that they feel inadequate to share their faith. They don’t know enough; they’re afraid they’ll say something wrong or that they’ll be challenged. I think most of us feel unworthy or unprepared to evangelize. The church wants us to know we are not alone in feeling that way. Look at the 4th Sunday of ordinary time’s reading from Jeremiah Chapter 1, young Jeremiah is told to persist despite the difficulties he will have; on the 5th Sunday, Isaiah protests his unclean lips and they are touched by an ember. The Lord calls the educated and the non-educated, the young and the elder, and one thing they seem to have in common is that they didn’t feel worthy! And they didn’t approach their assignment with confidence in their own ability.
Msgr. David: It was the same for Moses because Moses said, “I can’t speak very plainly.”[xviii] And so God said, “Aaron will speak for you.” but God kept saying “I’ll be with you. I’ll be with you” and Moses finally trusted that, as did Jeremiah and Isaiah. You can’t do it unless you trust God to do it with you or for you.
Patti: When we see their ultimate success we are reminded to trust in God and to rely on his power.
Msgr. David: People may be a little hesitant, but I think it’s easier to bring up your faith, to speak of your faith in Jesus, when you are in a context that allows it. At the office is difficult, unless you just know the person, but if a person at the office happens to say over lunch, “You know, I’m just having a hard time in my life right now.” And if we say, “Let’s pray about that.” You might not know they’re Christians; they might not be Christian. When you have the context like a prayer group, when you meet together for a specific purpose of sharing your faith, it’s much easier then. And that might give you the courage to take that into the world. But you have to have a base of support; from either your family or your church or your prayer group or whatever. But you know, if we don’t take chances, things don’t get done!
Patti: That’s right! Step out of the box! I think it was “Why Catholic?” that said you should have a three minute witness. Not long details, but a three minute witness of something the Lord has done you, that made a difference in your life, so you can share it when you have that opportunity. What else can we do to be an evangelizer?
Msgr. David: I think first of all you have to be evangelized yourself. That means listening to preaching. It means reading the scriptures, not just reading them but listening to the scriptures deeply and become familiar with Jesus himself.
Patti: I have studied a lot, I have retained a little. Our Church is so rich there is so much to study! I also rely on telling personal experiences. But just as we go to school and college to train to earn money for the necessities of life, we must prepare for the necessities of eternal life. Thank you for being with me today, Monsignor LeSieur. Will you give us a blessing?
Monsignor David: [blessing]
Patti: Thank you Monsignor. To get a copy of the references in today’s show or to read the Liturgical readings please check the website patriarchMinistries.com
Notes from liturgy[xix] Scripture
[i] Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet signifying that Christ contains all.
[ii] Angelus prayer contains a Hail Mary and is said at morning, noon, and evening at the sound of a bell.
[iii] Liturgy of the Hours , AKA Divine Office includes Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Office of Reading and Night Prayer.
[iv] Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 There is a time for everything
[v] 1 Corinthians 12: “8 To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; 10 to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.”
[vi] John 14: 26 The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name–he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you. [RSV 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.]
[vii] 1 Cor 11:20-34 Correction concerning the Eucharistic celebration
[viii] II Cor 12: 7 because of the abundance of the revelations. Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. 8 Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, 9 but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
[ix] Introductions to the books of the Bible are available in the New American Bible version of sacred scripture.
[x] Luke 6:17, 20-26 Sermon on the plain
[xi] Story of the Lazarus and the Rich Man: Luke 16: 19 “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. 20 And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. 22 When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and from the netherworld, * where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ 25 Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. 26 Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ 27 He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ 30 He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'”
[xii] Luke 6:27-28 Give
[xiii] 1 Cor 12:28 The ministries of the Church
[xiv] Eph 4:12-13 Five-fold ministry
[xv] Luke 6: 38 Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
[xvi] Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, That there may be food in my house,
and try me in this, says the LORD of hosts: Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven,
to pour down blessing upon you without measure?
[xvii] http://www.usccb.org/education/ourhearts.htm
[xviii] Exodus 4:10-16 Moses speaking ability; Aaron’s help
[xix] Scripture readings highlights:
5th Sunday:
Isaiah 6:8 Spiritual experience; the call of Isaiah Here I am send me! [after the unclean lips were purged eager to serve.] Consider spiritual gifts you are given
1 Corinth 15:1-11 teach Resurrection: appeared to Apostle, appeared to Paul. Grace calls us to evangelize even the sinner; reminding you received gospel, I am handing on the Gospel I received: creed. Also Paul’s change from persecutor to apostle. We preach so you believe. “toil harder”: duty Evangelizing the next generation
Luke 5:1-11 call of Peter the fisher; “depart from me a sinner” “do not be afraid”. it didn’t work before but joint effort brings success: Jesus told them to put into deep and lower their nets again. Now they will catch men. [Sometimes our talents are to be put to use in ‘outside the box’ ways] 5 fold ministry, Explanation by example: “If only those people praying would get out here and pull weeds…etc
6th Sunday
Jeremiah 17:5-8 Don’t trust in flesh; Cursed if trusts in human beings; blessed who trusts the Lord; even in drought bears fruit bear fruit in hard times. You cannot out give God
1 Cor 15:12, 16-20 hoping in Christ raised; resurrection from the dead; Jesus is first fruits Returning what is already His is an act of trust
Luke 6:17, 20-26 sermon on the “plain”; inverting the norm economic & social: blessings & woes; 26 “woe to you when all speak well of you, for your ancestors trusted false prophets this way”; beatitudes; Blessed are. Today’s riches and fame is not necessarily the blessings for eternity. The poor, the weeping shall receive reward. [Jesus turned their way of thinking upside down.] Various talents and gifts working together
7th Sunday
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9. 12-13. 22-23 David had the chance to kill Saul while he was sleeping but since Saul was anointed by God he spared him. God will reward each man for justice and faithfulness. Returning what is already His is an act of trust.
1 Corinthians 15:45-49 comparison of Adam & Christ; we bear image of both; Adam: 1st living being; “last Adam”[Jesus] life giving spirit, from heaven. We bear the image of the human Adam & shall bear image of heavenly one. Consider spiritual gifts you are given.
Luke 6:27-38. Bless those who curse you; love your enemy, give to everyone who asks, if they take your cloak give also your tunic. Do you lend expecting repayment? Sinners do the same to get back the same amount. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Love enemies & do good to them, lend expecting nothing back and your reward will be great. Stop judging. Forgive and be forgiven. “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
8th Sunday
Sirach 27:4-7 When we speak our faults appear/we are tested; as a furnace tests what we have molded.
1 Corinthians 15:54-58 mortal, corruptible clothed with immortality and incorruptibility. “Where, Death, is your sting?” the sting of death is sin, power of sin is law. Be “devoted to the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Luke 6:39-45 Blind lead blind, splinter in brothers eye vs your beam; good tree does not bear rotten fruit, every tree known by its own fruit, “from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”
