First Reading: Wisdom 9:13-18B

Reflection:

The Book of Wisdom was the last written text of the Old Testament, being composed in Alexandria, Egypt around 50 B.C. This Sunday’s first reading focuses on the transcendent nature of God. In other words, the main message is that God’s ways are above our ways. He is greater than we can comprehend. Whereas His plans are sure and His counsel is firm, “unsure are our plans.” We can easily become anxious about the future and our minds can become weighed down with “many concerns.” This is because the future is uncertain and we have difficulty understanding the ways even of this world. The author of Wisdom explains that if we have difficulty grasping what is on earth, how much more will things of heaven be beyond us? Thankfully, we’re not left entirely in the dark. At the end of the passage, the author, addressing God, gives us hope in saying, “Who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.” In other words, without God’s revelation to humanity of Himself we would be in the dark. We could not know Him if He did not make Himself known to us. The Holy Spirit (the Third Person of the Trinity) has been given to us so that our paths would be made straight. Although we cannot know the future, we can know that the future is in God’s hands. We do not, therefore, need to be anxious about not knowing what tomorrow brings, for we can entrust ourselves to the Lord who does know.

Second Reading: Philemon 9-10, 12-17

Reflection:

Philemon is a unique book in the Bible. It is very short, only consisting of one chapter. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter from prison (likely his imprisonment in Rome between 60 and 62 A.D.) to a leader of the Church in the area of Colossae (modern-day Turkey). Philemon, it appears, had been converted to Christianity by the Apostle Paul himself. Philemon owned a slave named Onesimus who ran away and stole some of Philemon’s belongings. This Onesimus eventually made his way to Paul (whether intentionally or not is unknown). While with Paul, Onesimus himself converted to Christianity. Although Onesimus was helpful to Paul in his imprisonment, Paul did not find it fair to Philemon to keep Onesimus with him. He decided, therefore, to send Onesimus back to Philemon. This was a risky venture for Onesimus because Roman law said that run-away slaves should be put to death. Regardless, Paul challenged Philemon to not follow Roman law but follow the law of Christ which is mercy. He asked Philemon to receive Onesimus back not as a slave but as a fellow Christian, “a brother.” Paul exhorted Philemon to have mercy on Onesimus, offer him forgiveness, and set him free from slavery. This message teaches us much about how Christians are to act differently than the world. Even though a society may espouse the view that some humans are less valuable than others, our Christian faith shows us that every human life is valuable. Every human being has equal dignity because everyone is made uniquely in the image and likeness of God. Like Paul, then, we are to advocate for the dignity of all human beings to be upheld, even if that message is counter-cultural, and even if that message contradicts the laws of our society. Whether the issue is slavery, poverty, racism, abortion, euthanasia, or some other life issue, we are called to treat all life as precious and work to protect it. Let us, therefore, follow the Apostle Paul in recognizing and upholding the dignity of every human life.

Gospel Reading: Luke 14:25-33

Reflection:

In this Sunday’s gospel reading, is Jesus telling us to hate our family members? By no means! Jesus clearly teaches elsewhere in the gospels that we are to love all people, even our enemies. In fact, the second greatest commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself.” The word “hate” here does not mean the opposite of love, as we most commonly understand that word. Rather, in its original context and language, the word simply means “to love less.” The point of this Sunday’s gospel reading is that we should love God above all else. God wants us to love our families, but even the love we have for those who are closest to us should pale in comparison to the love we have for God. The same goes for our possessions. Our attachment to them should never exceed the love we have for God. Having material possessions is not bad, but if we are so attached to them that we could not give them up if God asked us to, then our priorities are in the wrong place. Recall the story of the Rich Young Ruler in Luke 18. This wealthy man came to Jesus and asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life. At the end of the dialogue, Jesus said, “Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But in that case the Rich Young Ruler left sad because he had great wealth and was unwilling to give it up. If you were in the Rich Young Ruler’s shoes, what would you have done? Jesus does not call everyone to literally give up all possessions in order to follow Him, but He calls us to be detached enough from our possessions that if He did, we would give it all of it up for Him at a moment’s notice. God wants our entire hearts. But if we make our possessions or our family members more important than God, then we have made them into an idol and our hearts become more attached to them than to God. We can have and enjoy possessions and we should love our families, but we must love God first and foremost.

Application:

  • Prayerfully discern what you can do to more proactively promote the upholding of the dignity of human life. Are you willing to be counter-cultural, like St. Paul was with Philemon and Onesimus, in order to treat everyone as having innate human dignity.
  • Is God your first and greatest love? What do you tend to love more than God (possessions, money, success, reputation, sports, friends, family, etc.)? How might you healthily become more detached from those things of this world and more attached to your relationship with God?