July C – Season of Journey Living Seasons of Change with Monsignor David LeSieur and Patti Brunner travel the liturgical weeks of 13th to 17th Sundays of Ordinary Time in Season of Journey. They look at following Jesus on the trip, hospitality to fellow travelers, and how we can find joy even when the road is bumpy. Audio: July Year C Season of Journey.
Continue reading for the script of the radio show originally aired July 2007 for Year C, for the outline directed by the Lord for this episode and for liturgical references.
Season of Journey Script:
Patti Brunner: Welcome to Living Seasons of Change. I’m Patti Brunner. Today, Monsignor David LeSieur and I will travel the liturgical Season of Journey. We’ll look at following Jesus on the trip, hospitality to fellow travelers, and how we can find joy even when we hit a pot-hole! Our listeners can find this season’s readings and the references from our show today at PatriarchMinistries.com. Welcome Monsignor!
Msgr. David LeSieur: Hi, Patti, it’s good to be here with you. By the 13th Sunday we have transitioned from the difficulty of the cross—that was the valley–then celebrating Easter, which starts a mountaintop, then saying goodbye to the Lord’s physical presence on earth, the Ascension, then Pentecost, and now we come back down the mountain, and we get on with every day life. And everyday life is just following the Lord. The 13th to 17th weeks of Ordinary Time prepare us for our faith journey. They lead us deeper into the Kingdom of God.
Patti Brunner: Right, they come during a time of year when a lot of people are traveling with summer vacations and centering their lives on having fun. God invites us to allow his joy to enter our lives as we enter the fullness of his kingdom, to discover that joy consumes all defeat. We endure drudgery of packing and driving or perhaps setting up a campsite because we enjoy our family vacations. In fact, we can face a lot when we have joy in our hearts.
Msgr. David LeSieur: We sacrifice a little in taking the journey, but it’s worth it.
Patti Brunner: In the Gospel of the 13th Sunday[i] of Ordinary Time, as Jesus invites us to travel with him, to follow him, he reminds us that when we say “no” to avoid specific hardships we can miss out on something spectacular. Jesus invites us to think in a different way and thus act in a different way. The joy of the Lord’s journey is not always obvious—especially when sacrifice is required.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Yes, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 9, Jesus shows us how some respond rather negatively to his invitation to “Follow Me”. One says, “Lord, let me go bury my father first.” Jesus responded, “Let the dead bury their dead”. “Another said I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” It’s almost as if they were saying, I’ll follow you, “but”, or I’ll follow you “if”.
Patti Brunner: At one point it was easy. Immediately after the Pentecost they were so Spirit-filled[ii] it was easy. I have noticed is that God blesses “beginners”. We hear how he sent out 72 disciples,[iii] two by two, 36 teams, to preach the Good News. These guys were still “wet behind the ears” but they were able to heal the sick, and they rejoiced that even the demons were subject to them because of the name of Jesus. As they returned full of joy, Jesus has their attention in the power of the kingdom and continues to teach them of the underlying purpose of that power—to accept the Good News even in the midst of suffering. The reading from 1 Kings a week earlier explained that when Elisha chose to burn his plow to follow Elijah, [iv] he had seen the great works of God and didn’t want to be a “quitter” in case it took a while for God to use him. He was ready to move from “on the job training” to the full time job of a prophet of God. He had maturity, however, to know that it might get rough.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Yes, when you burn your plow, you burn your livelihood; But Elisha didn’t put his hand to the plow and look back; he burned his plow. There is certain recklessness in following the Lord that certainly the apostles had, to an extent at least. They left their nets on the seashore in Matthew[v] and Mark. In Luke, Jesus gets in the boat with Peter and they catch this big bunch of fish and then, Peter says “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Jesus says, don’t worry, from now on you will be catching men. We follow him on his terms not on our own.
Patti Brunner: As his call matures us, we’re going to have to start sacrificing a little bit. Giving up, maybe, the way we’ve done things before. When Jesus sent the 72 out without supplies, they had a great experience. However, after the Last Supper Jesus tells them the next time to take a bag, a purse and a sword[vi]. After Jesus sets the example of obedience despite hardship, the disciples begin to mature in their role. Still full of joy, they encounter hardship after hardship. Everyone wants to be healed; but not everyone wants to change their daily lives to be obedient to God’s commands.
Jesus told them on the first trip that if they were not welcomed to shake the dust from their feet of that town, to wipe it off in protest.[vii]
Msgr. David LeSieur: Because, sometimes, what they say will not be accepted. And then you just cut your losses and go on to the next town. Even Jesus is a realist because he has been rejected many times. And he is sending his disciples into the same situation that he himself had been sent into.
Patti Brunner: When the seventy-two returned, they were all excited; everything was wonderful.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Yes, they had some early success. As you sometimes do when you start something new, things go well, people like what you said, you are young and eager.
Patti Brunner: You’ve got that expectant faith. You haven’t failed yet and so you are confident, you are sure you can move that mountain[viii]. You’ve got that faith, you can do it.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Right
Patti Brunner: Until somewhere you run up against a brick wall, and you do that a couple times and then all of a sudden it’s like “Well…”
Msgr. David LeSieur: “This is not as easy as I thought it was going to be”
Patti Brunner: It’s a little harder to get out there and keep punching at it.
Msgr. David LeSieur: And then you want to look back. You want to have your hand to the plow and look back a little bit and say, “I wonder if this is what I really want to do. Couples, who have made their vows before the altar, sometimes just have to say, “You know I said I’d stay for better or worse and this is the worse. But I’m going to stick it out and at least we’re going to try. We are not automatically giving up.” And priests enter the same thing. When everybody in the parish is mad at them or they are having a hard time. You just have to be faithful if not successful. You see these 72 were successful right off, but as you said there’d be a time when they were not successful.
Patti Brunner: The 72 started with their “honeymoon experience”. Ordinary time set in when they started being stoned and sent to prison for preaching. On the 14th Sunday in Isaiah 66 [ix], God promises “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” That is just so precious; it’s also peaceful for the mom. Think of the peace you have, when you crawl up in your mother’s lap, it just closes the world off.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Right, you’re safe.
Patti Brunner: You’re safe, you have that peace. So I think that no matter what is going on around us, we can always pull into that moment of peace with the Lord. The problem is pulling away and seeking the Lord’s peace, instead of getting caught up in the wildness, the difficulty, the stress.
Msgr. David LeSieur: But there will be times when you have been faithful to the Lord, when he will seem to withdraw. It’s like Job. Job didn’t do anything wrong[x]. He just lost everything. And he got sick. And he kept saying, “I didn’t do anything.”
Patti Brunner: And he did keep finding peace, though, in his relationship with the Lord, even though things around him were crazy.
Msgr. David LeSieur: God told him, “You know, you don’t have any reason to complain, I’m in charge here.” It’s a nice thing to know that God is in charge. So that when the wheels come off, you can still find the peace– as long as you’re not the one who caused the wheels to come off in the first place. If it is your fault then you need to seek peace through reconciliation.
Patti Brunner: Prayer is the real key to get through stressful times. Whether it’s your fault or not, prayer is the consistent way of regaining your peace; finding your joy in the midst of all of it. And on the 17th Sunday, Jesus gives us the Our Father[xi], it also relates to following Jesus and finding Jesus…
Msgr. David LeSieur: …in the midst of the everyday joys and pains and sorrows, yeah, because they come every day. In Luke’s version “The disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. He said, “when you pray, say ‘Father, hallowed be your name and your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread and forgive our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”
Patti Brunner: So he starts off, first things first; giving God honor. “hallowed by thy name” It’s easy for me to say “God is in control” to back up and recognize it especially during difficulties and in ministry.
Msgr. David LeSieur: It’s easy for you to say that?
Patti Brunner: It is, it is, it’s very comforting; very comforting for me when I finally back up and say that!
Msgr. David LeSieur: Yeah, and say “I don’t have to solve this all by myself, or I don’t have to save the world, you know, I don’t even have to save myself for that matter.” But just to trust that God will do it.
If you keep looking back, you’re not fit for the kingdom and the kingdom is God’s presence in the world, it’s God’s agenda so to speak, it’s what God wants to do.
Patti Brunner: We want God’s kingdom to come because we want his influence and his peace and everything he stands for, to be in the world. If we’re not trusting Him, if we say we’ll follow the Lord yet keep looking back at something else that distracts us from it, we’re not really in the kingdom because we’re not trusting God fully yet.
Msgr. David LeSieur: To be in the kingdom is to be like the little child who trusts that his parents will do anything for him; he doesn’t have to worry about anything, he sleeps well at night, he knows he’s safe, now that’s a good example of being in the kingdom of God, we simply trust. We don’t have to worry about anything, really, if we trust him and can say that he’s in charge.
Patti Brunner: Have you ever met anyone like that?
Msgr. David LeSieur: No… I can’t say that I’m that way either all the time,
Patti Brunner: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were?
Msgr. David LeSieur: Jesus said it because he lived it himself. He knew exactly what he was talking about because he was like that. He trusted his Father completely. Even in his darkest moments, you know. So, we are talking generally about day to day living, day to day following the Lord. And we follow the Lord best, I think, when we leave him in charge of things. You know Peter, in the 5th chapter of Luke[xii], when he was called to follow the Lord, Peter said to the Lord “depart from me I am a sinful man.” He had seen this vast catch of fish, and Peter knelt down at his feet and said “depart from me.” Its almost like Peter was saying “I don’t want to have anything to do with you because there is something special here and I am just a fisherman, I’m nothing, I’m a sinner” and “you know I don’t think I can handle you or being with you”, and Jesus says “well, don’t fear”. That was it, he was afraid. Maybe afraid of what Jesus might ask of him or afraid of a man with much power. “I’m just a guy, just an ordinary guy and I don’t think I could hang around you.” But Jesus assured him, “if you can catch fish you can catch men!” And that’s what he did.
==Radio Break===
Patti Brunner: Welcome back, this is Living Seasons of Change. I’m Patti Brunner and I’m speaking with Msgr. David LeSieur, a priest of the Diocese of Little Rock. In the Gospel of the 17th Sunday, Jesus teaches us how to pray and then he tells us to be persistent.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Yes, the man asking for the loaves from the neighbor late at night, if the neighbor does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of friendship he will get up to give it to him because of his persistence. So, persistence even trumps friendship.
Patti Brunner: And when it seems like you’re not getting the answer, you have to keep praying, keep seeking, and keep asking. As we look at his word going forth as seed, in the Our Father, it helps us to keep asking whether we see the immediate results or not. You know the harvester is not always the one who does the planting. We will get what we ask for. The door will be opened. That is a tremendous promise, that what you ask for you will receive.
Msgr. David LeSieur: That’s right.
Patti Brunner: Tremendous
Msgr. David LeSieur: Do we believe it?
Patti Brunner: Well, when we were one of the 72 who went out we did! So why don’t we now? Why don’t we continue to believe it?
Msgr. David LeSieur: Exactly! Jesus says you have to keep asking though, and it’s almost like you have to talk God into granting your prayer. At least that’s the way it appears in that parable. “He didn’t give it to him because of friendship but because of his persistence. I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” No father would give his son a snake if he asked for a fish; or a scorpion in place of an egg, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” On the human angle, the persistent friend keeps asking and finally gets the bread, then “how much more so will your heavenly father give if you ask him.” I don’t know if he’s saying to ask until you receive it or just ask and you will receive it.
Patti Brunner: Personally, I think it’s “ask until you trust me enough and belief that I’m going to give it to you”.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Yes, that makes sense. Keep asking until you believe your own prayer. That’s a good way to look at it. You don’t have to talk God into helping you.
Patti Brunner: No! and I think that this part about “you don’t give a snake when someone ask for a fish” is because God knows what is good and best for us. So when we ask for stuff and that is not good for us or the timing is not good because we are not where we need to be to receive it; God will delay it.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Which to us reads, “Oh, he didn’t hear my prayer!”
Patti Brunner: Right! And then we lose our trust in him and then it could negate our prayer.
Msgr. David LeSieur: But he is very patient with us, too, and he will keep teaching us the lesson until we get it right.
Patti Brunner: And I think we have all had moments in prayer where we knew it, we just knew that God was going to answer this prayer, we just knew it. Have you ever felt that way?
Msgr. David LeSieur: Uh huh.
Patti Brunner: There is no doubt; you just know. When you start speaking scripture truths, I think you change your own belief window, you keep speaking “the Lord said he would do this” and then eventually [energetically] “Yeah! The Lord is going to do this!”
Msgr. David LeSieur: That probably gives him space to work, too, when we believe what he says. Otherwise, we are just going through the motions. Well, there is a little faith in that. And maybe God has enough room to move and act, but I bet if we come to him with full faith he’d say “Now you’re talking! Let’s do this because I know you trust me. I can work so much easier if you trust me.”
Patti Brunner: Exactly, we can restrict God‘s grace. Our lack of trust is a big rock on the path. God’s constantly giving the grace we need but if we are not receiving it’s probably restricted on our end.
Msgr. David LeSieur: We’re blocking it up. The grace is certainly flowing but we’re not receiving because we’ve blocked it.
Patti Brunner: Again, prayer is key. Especially as we go beyond that initial conversion experience. Living our faith brings us maturity. Persistence becomes the norm, trusting the answer of God’s grace.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Jesus gives us the wonderful prayer that lays all our needs on the table, and in doing so gives us a guide for living a kingdom life: to honor God; to trust God for our daily bread, our daily sustenance; to repent for our own sins and to forgive others. This is followed by an example of how to be persistent in asking God for all we need. The Our Father gives us that persistent prayer of asking whether we see immediate results or not.
Patti Brunner: As we begin to trust, God’s grace will work everything out. As the inner joy awakens in us, the student evangelizer, we don’t have to have the outer successes to stay focused. As we pray the Lord’s Prayer– his word goes forth as seed; if we plant his seed, sooner or later there will be a harvest. God planted his word into Abraham. And he became our father in faith.
Msgr. David LeSieur: That’s right. When Abraham was 75 years old, God called him to go on a journey of faith[xiii] to the land of Canaan. God planted the promise that Abram would be a great nation. For the next 25 years, Abraham and Sarah still had no children. But they had God’s seed planted.
Patti Brunner: On the 16th Sunday we hear of the visit to Abraham[xiv] by the three visitors. Again God’s word of promise is a seed into Abraham. [xv] The Lord reminds Abraham that he is to become a great and populous nation. The harvest of that word came a year later when Isaac was born.[xvi] 25 years after the journey began, when Abraham was 100 years old, the first fruit is harvested!
Msgr. David LeSieur: Abraham had persistent faith. Do we have the patience to wait 25 years for an answer to prayer? Or longer? The nation formed from the multitude of Abraham’s descendents didn’t happen until the descendents of his grandson Jacob formed the Israel nation at the time of Moses.
Patti Brunner: A lot of prayers are not answered instantly. We don’t know where we are in the prayer cycle, whether we are planters or used for the cultivating or the weeding or the harvesting. What matters is that we are in God’s purposes and in God’s grace and are part of God’s plan. Like Abraham, we are called to follow Him, we are following Him each step of the way in our journey of faith. The Church has had a rich harvest due to the sacrifice of the early martyrs who gave their life for Christ.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Tertullian[xvii], an ecclesiastical writer of the third century, said the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians, which caused the Church to grow.
Patti Brunner: This cycle appears often; the blood of the martyrs—who could not see the fruit of their suffering—brought tremendous harvests after their lifetime. So when the harvest is plentiful, we need to recognize those people of God, who toiled without seeing the harvest yet trusted God. We can all find joy in our part of the journey and in the toil, in the struggle, as long as we don’t lose site of the harvest because we know we are doing what God has called us to do.
Msgr. David LeSieur: If you believe you are doing what God calls you to do, then there is a lot of peace and you can accomplish it.
Patti Brunner: And that brings us to Martha. “Make her help me, Lord!”…
Msgr. David LeSieur: “Martha, Martha!”
Patti Brunner: The story in Luke’s Gospel on the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time of Martha and Mary[xviii] reminds us not to lose focus by concentrating only on the toil. Instead, realize that the presence of God is with us each step of the Way.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Martha was cooking, she was setting the table. She was doing her part, but Mary was doing her part too. They didn’t both want to leave Jesus in the living room by himself while they fixed the meal. He needed someone to be with him. So, Mary sat at his feet and listened. There’s a balance between action and contemplation. We need both.
Patti Brunner: That’s right. Martha was doing what God called her to do. She was preparing, but she had no peace in it because of jealousy and wanting things to be different.
Msgr. David LeSieur: We need to do for the Lord, and we need to listen to the Lord. But for some reason He said “Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Now Martha’s mind was somewhere else.
Patti Brunner: She was so concentrated on the toil, on the job, that she forgot God’s purpose for her work.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Right
Patti Brunner: And I see that happening in our lives. Like we said earlier, whatever we do, every step of the way, we can find our purpose, God’s call, even in the small things. If Martha had found joy in doing the work she was doing for the Lord, it would have been different. But she was focusing on the amount of work and that she was doing it while Mary was taking it easy.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Scripture says Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus[xix]. You know, we are talking about Ordinary Time, and Martha, in a way, represents ordinary time, the day to day. But as you said, we can get so focused on that, on getting things done, that we have blinders on. We get so involved in whatever, soccer practice, going here and there, and yet if you see somebody who’s sitting quietly under a tree, praying or meditating, you want to say to yourself “they need to help me here”. You know? But the temptation of ordinary time, I think, is that we get so focused, the way Martha was, on doing the day to day chores that we don’t back it up with prayer the way Mary was. I’m sure that Mary most of the time was in the kitchen with Martha, helping her, but on this particular occasion, she chose to be with Jesus. And Martha was probably harried and late with the supper and was bothered.
Patti Brunner: She was too stressed to be blessed!
Msgr. David LeSieur: That’s exactly right! Too stressed to be blessed! That would make a good sermon title.
Patti Brunner: God calls us to turn it around. “Too blessed to be stressed!”
Msgr. David LeSieur: We mentioned earlier, “kingdom culture”. Mary represents the kingdom culture. Sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to the Lord, but that isn’t all of it. Kingdom culture is not just contemplation, it is also action. So in a way they both represent the kingdom culture. You have to have both sisters, Ordinary Time, ordinary life is stressful. And if you don’t have that “picked a better portion” with Mary from time to time, you’re going to be stressed, too stressed to be blessed. If you go to the adoration chapel for your hour a week or a few minutes a day or whatever, you’re picking Mary’s better portion.
Patti Brunner: The reading from Deuteronomy on the 15th Sunday reminds us that the commands voiced by God are already in our mouths and in our hearts.[xx] Being still in adoration helps us to hear that voice and so find peace. Peace to be in the world but not of the world. The Way of the Lord uses culture; the Way of the Lord also seeks to change and transform our modern culture into the kingdom culture.
Msgr. David LeSieur: When it doesn’t happen, God gives us another chance, like the reading from the 18th chapter of Genesis[xxi] on the 17th Sunday where God allows Abraham to negotiate to save Sodom. It boils down to if Abraham can find 10 good men in Sodom.
Patti: The Lord sought to change Sodom’s culture into the kingdom culture with Lot and his family. In this case, there wasn’t enough material left to work with so it had to be destroyed. There weren’t even ten good men to be found! In the 15th week as we hear about the Good Samaritan[xxii], we’re thinking about kingdom culture, identifying good men and our neighbor. It is calling us to look at people the way God looks at people, instead of being judgmental.
Msgr. David: I was talking to someone years ago, when I was in Texarkana, there were two parishes, was on the Texas side and I was on the Arkansas side. I knew a lady on the Texas side and she told me, “we had a lector the other day and he read about Abraham and God as if he were a Jewish merchant, arguing back and forth with God, the way he read it. I knew this man, and I would love to hear him do that passage. Not long after that we had a lector’s workshop and there was my friend, and we were conducting it together and we asked him, this man, if he would read that passage and interpret it the way of a Jewish merchant, but he said he wouldn’t do it, he was just too shy. But she said he did a great job with doing that. You know, just two Jewish people arguing, haggling over this price. And Abraham, arguing with God, trying to get the price down.
Patti Brunner: God knew he could lower the price and it wasn’t going to matter.
Msgr. David LeSieur: It was too high! It was too high! “You find me 10 good men and I’ll think about it.”
Patti: As we look at people, as we identify the least among us as our neighbor, we change the thinking of our time. Ask the Lord to see others the way He does. As you love as he does; as you welcome others as you welcome the Lord, truly the kingdom shall be on earth as it is in heaven.
Msgr. David LeSieur: The Good Samaritan is an example of what it meant to live in the kingdom, it didn’t matter who was sick on the side of the road, he helped them anyway, it just happened to be a Samaritan helping a Jew. I heard an interpretation of the Good Samaritan, years ago, by my seminary professor, New Testament professor, and he said that when you tell a parable, as you listen to it, or as you tell it, you start to associate with the characters. The teacher said that as the Jews heard Jesus tell this parable, they would have associated themselves not with the robbers, of course, who had beaten up the guy, they would have associated themselves, probably, with the Jew who was beaten up, not by his own fault. He got robbed, beaten up, left for dead. And then here comes this hero. The guy with the donkey and he’s gonna help. And then they would want to associate themselves with the hero of the story, but the trouble is, he’s a Samaritan! So they are trapped! If they associate themselves with the hero, then they have to say “Well, I’m like a Samaritan.” Well that won’t work, but if they associate themselves with the man in the ditch, then they would have to be helped by a Samaritan. They don’t know where to go! Who would you, if you were a Jew? They hated Samaritans. Who would you associate yourself or identify yourself with in that parable? Who am I in the parable? Am I the poor guy who got beat up? But if I am, then I have to let a Samaritan help me. And pick me up out of a ditch and dress my wounds. Or if I want to be the one who is helping, then I have to be the Samaritan.
Patti Brunner: What about the one who passed on by? Who didn’t want to be ritually impure?
Msgr. David LeSieur: Oh they would never want to associate themselves with someone who was not a good guy, but the true hero of course is the Samaritan who was hated, an “anti-hero”. If you really want to get into the story, it forces you to say, who am I in the story? Am I the guy in the ditch (?) because Jesus is really the Good Samaritan, and I need to be picked up out of the ditch? How about the priest or the Levite? Who doesn’t want to get involved? And if we’re not the Good Samaritan who helps somebody, then, well, how are we associating ourselves with Christ? But we have to ask ourselves, how many times do I do that really?
Patti Brunner: Abraham acted like the Good Samaritan. Abraham welcomed the stranger. Of course, hospitality to travelers was cultural for him, and by welcoming the three strangers he entertained angels and perhaps the presence of God himself.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Of course, he made Sarah prepare everything.
Patti Brunner: God is calling us to bring that sense of hospitality back into culture, to bring that transformation.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Well, it’s one of the pillars of stewardship. It’s the first pillar, welcoming people.
Patti Brunner: The thread of hospitality is in the story of Mary and Martha. They each saw hospitality in a different way. Our area is brimming with newcomers so we have a lot of opportunity to reach out to others.
Msgr. David LeSieur: I had lunch recently with a friend of mine; I’ve known him for many years, he lives up in this area and I grew up with him in Pine Bluff, our families knew each other. I asked him, how did you and your wife meet? They both work for Wal-Mart and he said “Wal-Mart had a canoe trip back in 1989 and we were both on that and we were both single. She was the only woman on the canoe trip and she was the most negative person I had ever met.” And I said, “What do you mean?” Because I know her a little bit now, I have become acquainted with her and she is not a negative person now at all. And he said, “Oh, she didn’t like Arkansas, she had come here from somewhere else, and she didn’t like Wal-Mart, she didn’t like this and that, and he finally said to her “You need a life!” You need to get out with some people and have a little fun. So he began to invite her to things.” And eventually they got married.
Patti Brunner: He changed her negative culture to kingdom culture through his hospitality to her. And his harvest was a loving wife! The liturgical readings during this Season of Journey encourage us to apply the gift of hospitality, to follow Jesus, to share the Good News, and to pray even when the road is hard.
Msgr. David LeSieur: As you said, take joy in what you do, Take joy because God is in the small things. He is in Ordinary Time. I think that is why ordinary time is like 34 weeks, because most of time is ordinary. It’s just everyday life just plugging along. But God is in all of that. God is in the details of everyday life. And that is where you find the kingdom.
Patti Brunner: Monsignor LeSieur, will you close our show with a blessing?
Msgr. David LeSieur: [blessing]
Patti: Thank you Monsignor. This concludes our program, Living Seasons of Change. I’m Patti Brunner and I invite you to visit the website PatriarchMinistries.com for references used in our discussion.
Of The Lord Guidance
My joy consumes all defeat; my joy allows the glory of the Lord to rest upon the people that are his.—continue to praise the Lord in dance and in song. The miracle of life and death rests in the balance, within the balance. Continue to work on sending the Gospel message to those who would hear. You may use this outline for your program. (July Year C)
- The joy of the Lord is not always evident—sacrifice is required.
- The Lord provides consolations to the ‘new’ as encouragement, to witness the glory of God. Note: The success of the 72.
- The mature teaching of the evangelizer opens the eyes to the difficulties as the toil is tedious due to its repetitive nature and the rejection by listeners
- Prayer is key. As the inner joy awakens in the student evangelizer the outer successes are not required to stay focused. Persistence becomes the norm, trusting the answer of God’s grace; his word goes forth as seed; the harvester is not always the one who plants. This cycle shall appear often; the blood of the martyrs—who could not see the fruit of their suffering—brought tremendous harvests after their lifetime. When the harvest is plentiful recognize those who toiled without seeing the harvest yet trusted God.
- Whether we personally are those who prepare ground, plant, cultivate or get to participate in the fruit of the harvest, we can all find joy in the toil as we labor. Do not lose site of the harvest; enjoy it always. Martha and Mary remind us not to lose focus by concentrating only on the toil. The presence of God is with us each step of the Way.
- The Way of the Lord uses culture; the Way of the Lord seeks to ‘change’/transform culture into the kingdom culture. As you identify your neighbor as the least among you, you ‘change’ the ‘thinking’ of your time. What ‘seems’ to be so may not be. Ask the Lord to see others the way He does. As you love as he does; as you welcome others as you welcome the Lord, truly the kingdom shall be on earth as it is in heaven. Note: Abraham welcomed the stranger—and his “return” was a child; a miracle child the fruit—the toil was hospitality. Both gave Glory to God.
Liturgical Readings’ Guide
13th Sunday in Ordinary
1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21 Elisha slaughtered the oxen and burned the plow and followed Elijah
Galatians 5:1, 13-18 freedom vs slavery; guided by the Spirit not law
Luke 9:51-62 various responses to “follow me”
14th Sunday in Ordinary
Isaiah 66:10-14c “as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you”
Galatians 6:14-18 “may I never boast except in the cross”
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 “72 others…sent ahead of him in pairs” “Peace” “shake the dust from your feet”
15th Sunday in Ordinary
Deuteronomy 30:10-14 command voiced by God “already in your mouths and in your hearts”
Colossians 1:15-20 “all things were created through him and for him”
Luke 10:25-37 “love God…love neighbor” Good Samaritan
16th Sunday in Ordinary
Genesis 18:1-10a God [3 men] visits Abraham; “Sarah will have a son”
Colossians 1:24-28 “lacking in the afflictions of Christ” “everyone perfect in Christ”
Luke 10:38-42 “Martha, Martha”
17th Sunday in Ordinary
Genesis 18:20-32 Abraham negotiates w/God: 10 good men in Sodom?
Colossians 2:12-14 God raised us to new life in company with Christ, obliterating the legal bond
Luke 11:1-13 Our Father; midnight request for bread; ask, seek find; father give good gifts to your children
Reference Notes in Script
[i] Gospel of 13th Sunday: Luke 9:51-62 various responses to “follow me”.
[ii] Acts of the Apostles 2: 43 Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.
And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
[iii] 14th Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 “72 others…sent ahead of him in pairs” “Peace” “shake the dust from your feet” the success of the 72)
[iv] 13th1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21 Elisha slaughtered the oxen and burned the plow and followed Elijah
[v] Matthew 4: 19 He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. Mark 1: 6 As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and
his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. 17 Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 18 Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
[vi] Luke 22:35-36 Purse, bag and sword
[vii] Luke 10:1011 shake the dust off
[viii] Matthew 17: 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
- [ix] 14th Isaiah 66:10-14c “as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you”
[x] Job 1,2 Job is innocent but tested
[xi] 17th Luke 11:1-13 Our Father; midnight request for bread; ask, seek find; father give good gifts to your children
[xii] Luke 5:8 Peter’s reaction
[xiii] Exodus 12: 1 The LORD said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. 2 “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” 4 Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
[xiv] 16th Genesis 18:1-10a God [3 men] visits Abraham; “Sarah will have a son”
[xv] 18 now that he is to become a great and populous nation, and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him? 19 Indeed, I have singled him out that he may direct his sons and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD may carry into effect for Abraham the promises he made about him.”
[xvi] Genesis 12: 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
[xvii] TERTULLIAN, an ecclesiastical writer of the third century died after 225 (probably in 240), perhaps a presbyter in Carthage.
[xviii] 16th Luke 10:38-42 “Martha, Martha”
[xix] John 11: 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
[xx] 15th Sunday Deuteronomy 30:10-14 command voiced by God “already in your mouths and in your hearts”
[xxi] 17th Genesis 18:20-32 Abraham negotiates w/God: 10 good men in Sodom?
[xxii] 15th Luke 10:25-37 “love God…love neighbor” Good Samaritan
