Today at Holy Mass St Paul states something that at the time was revolutionary…And still is revolutionary to this day for that matter……..”For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”……..Jesus Christ is the common denominator…..Societies have always divided people…By education, economic status, race, etc…However Jesus Christ and through our common Baptism unites us all…All of us are equal in the eyes of God and all of us have something to do….So the question we should ask ourself is this…Do we see and treat all people as equals?
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise”
I have often thought about when Jesus returns again to the earth as he stated he would…When he does return, Jesus has said very clearly…”Many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first”….Think about that for a moment!…….Its very human to view the world from the lens in which we have been brought up and from the places we live…I have been blessed to have traveled all over the world….And people live very differently then we do here in America as you can only imagine but I have seen this first hand…In fact, many of those people are very poor and some are very close to God…When Jesus returns, the power structures of the world as we know them will be flipped…What we consider as important will mean nothing…Mother Teresa wrote about this and this is what she said…..“At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”…God deals with a very different “currency”…There is a famous book writen by Viktor Frankl entitled Man’s Search for Meaning…..Viktor Frankl was a famous and rich man who got thrown into a concentration camp during the Nazi occupation in Germany…In the camp he encountered another prisoner who was a scientist. This man was also very successful and rich before he got placed in prison. And when this scientist met Viktor Frankl, who had been in the prison camp for some time, he showed him how he smuggled into the camp his research papers, which to him were the most important thing in his life…I always remember in the book what Viktor Frankl said to this man…”In here, those papers do not mean anything! - Only bread is important”….This scientist viewed a certain “currency” as important, only to have that currency devalued and mean nothing in the blink of an eye….When Christ returns to the earth…All the class structures we value and live by will disappear in an instant because in the eyes of God we are all equal….The only “currency” that will matter will be the “currency” of the Gospel
”When I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”
The Gospel today from Mass is from St Luke…Jesus tells a woman something very important…He tells us that same thing too 2000 years later….”He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it”…Do we deal in the “currency” of the world or do we deal in the “currency” of God?…..One must be realistic when addressing that question…As Catholics we are called to live in the world but not be of the world…That means we have to work and take care of our familles and that requires money…….With that said…..Do we value status?…Do we lord over people our wealth?…..Do we wear our success on our sleeves?…......Or…… Do we treat people as equals?……Do we share from our resources considering everything we have as gifts from God?…..Are we citizens of heaven and live like it or do we “build” our “kingdom” here on earth only to lord it over others?…These are the questions we need to ask ourself…..Jesus very clearly tells this woman in the gospel today......…”I am not interested in "lip service" - I am interested in putting the word of God into action!”…….Is this our priority too?…..Because when Christ returns…Our “money” has no value….God conducts “his business” with a different kind of “currency”
“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
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