{"id":435,"date":"2013-09-29T15:49:04","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T20:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=435"},"modified":"2013-10-29T15:50:45","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T20:50:45","slug":"focusing-on-the-right-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=435","title":{"rendered":"Focusing on the Right Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

26th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/h2>\n

Amos 6: 1a, 4-7; 1 Tim 6: 11-16; Luke 16: 19-31<\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sometimes we are focused on the wrong thing.\u00a0 For most of us, we focus on avoiding things.\u00a0 For example, we avoid things that we think are sinful.\u00a0 After all, the commandments say thou shalt not kill or lie or steal or covet or a lot of other things.\u00a0 And so, we try to avoid doing those things that might lead to temptation or sin.\u00a0 But that sometimes means we avoid action altogether, reasoning that if I just don\u2019t do anything, perhaps I won\u2019t get in trouble.\u00a0 We think \u201ceverything will be OK if I just don\u2019t do something stupid.\u201d\u00a0 And so we settle into a comfortable impasse in our lives especially when we get a little older and begin to slow down.\u00a0 I think the Church is trying to tell us today that we need to be careful of that.\u00a0 We are always called to be proactive in some way.<\/p>\n

Take the first reading for example.\u00a0 There, the people of Israel are basking in relative comfort.\u00a0 Their prophets are warning them of dangers to come, but they just don\u2019t listen- they are comfortable, they don\u2019t want to be bothered.\u00a0 And what happens to them?\u00a0 Well, in a thunder of activity they are invaded and forced into exile.\u00a0 They lose everything.\u00a0 They could have prepared themselves, but they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

We have a similar scene in the Gospel.\u00a0 The rich man enjoys the comforts of life.\u00a0 Let\u2019s give him the benefit of the doubt.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say he has worked hard for what he has; and so, he is now basking in the fruits of his labor in the relative comfort of retirement.\u00a0 It is not so much that he was mean to Lazarus as it was that he just ignored Lazarus.\u00a0 It was inaction, complacency, a reluctance to get involved, a preoccupation with self, perhaps even, he just never got around to it- helping Lazarus.\u00a0 But when he dies, he learns that there is another life beyond our earthly life, and our comfort in that next life is determined by a different criteria than just looking out for ourselves in this life and avoiding doing things that can get us in trouble.\u00a0 Rather, Abraham makes it clear that there is such a thing as a sin of omission.\u00a0 We all required to share the gifts that God has given us in this world.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t do that, then we are guilty of the sin of omission.<\/p>\n

But you know something.\u00a0 Most of us cannot see ourselves in the rich man\u2019s shoes.\u00a0 Certainly, none of us here are in that category, are we.\u00a0 Many of us feel like Lazarus, we are the folks suffering in the background.\u00a0 So, is there a message here for us?\u00a0 What gifts are we called upon to share?<\/p>\n

I heard an interesting story that helped me understand what we may have to offer.\u00a0 It seems there was a young girl, I will call her Marcella, who decided to dedicate her life to Christ.\u00a0 And so she became a full time lay missionary.\u00a0 But not long after embarking on this mission they discovered that she had Multiple Sclerosis, or MS.\u00a0 Here she was, willing to devote her whole life to serving others, and she was hampered by a painful, debilitating disease that required painful shots for treatment, and which was slowly sapping all the life out of her so that others had to care for her.\u00a0 She was angry with God because there was no reason for it.\u00a0 She could not do for others as she had dreamed of doing.\u00a0 She had no \u201cgifts\u201d or wealth to share with others.\u00a0 The only \u201cgift\u201d she had, it seemed, was the gift of suffering.\u00a0 That was what her life was all about.<\/p>\n

In her anger, she prayed to God for an explanation; a reason; why is this happening to me?\u00a0 And what purpose or good could come out of such suffering?\u00a0 And then it came to her, a message from God.\u00a0 Just as Jesus suffered and died for us, so she could offer her suffering up for others.\u00a0 And so, she did just that.\u00a0 She would observe how someone else was troubled or suffering- someone struggling with a vocation; someone dying of cancer; someone who had turned away from God.\u00a0 Then she would offer up her suffering to God on behalf of that other person.<\/p>\n

All of us, no matter what our station in life young or old, rich or poor, handicapped or healthy, has something special to offer, to share with others.\u00a0 Even someone whose life is full of misery has something to offer.\u00a0 What is important is that we are focused on God\u2019s Kingdom.\u00a0 It is a Kingdom of many, not just of our own internal making.\u00a0 Even if all we have is time or prayer; we can offer that up to Christ for someone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Amos 6: 1a, 4-7; 1 Tim 6: 11-16; Luke 16: 19-31 Dc. Larry Brockman   Sometimes we are focused on the wrong thing.\u00a0 For most of us, we focus on avoiding things.\u00a0 For example, we avoid things that we think are sinful.\u00a0 After all, the commandments say thou shalt not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[250],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}