{"id":822,"date":"2016-01-28T13:40:26","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T18:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=822"},"modified":"2016-02-04T13:43:13","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T18:43:13","slug":"them-that-has-gits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=822","title":{"rendered":"Them That Has Gits!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of 3rd<\/sup> Week in Ordinary Time<\/h3>\n

2 Sam 7: 18-19, 24-29; Mark 4: 21-25<\/h3>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h3>\n

So, \u201cTo the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.\u201d\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 That sounds so harsh, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s gospel, Jesus also talks about lamps hidden under the bed or being covered up.\u00a0 He says these lamps were intended to be out in the open to shed light.\u00a0 We are the lamps.\u00a0 We cannot afford to hide under a bed or run for cover in the stream of life.\u00a0 We are being told to shine the light of Christ for all of our brothers and sisters to see.\u00a0 And what is it we are to illuminate?\u00a0 The things hidden in the darkness- those things that are shrouded in secret. \u00a0Because light has not shone on them, they need to be exposed for what they are.\u00a0 Yes, those who are people of the light need to expose evil for what it is- no covering your lamp when you hear of corruption and dishonesty; no hiding under the bed when someone speaks against the law of God; and no turning the other way when Christian values are being compromised.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of folks today who do that, you know.\u00a0 They hide or cover their lights in the name of \u201cfreedom\u201d. \u00a0They say \u201cAfter all, who am I to judge\u201d; and \u201cEveryone should have the freedom to live according to their own standard; isn\u2019t that what freedom is all about?\u201d<\/p>\n

No, it is not.\u00a0 Rather, it is our responsibility to save those who are on the wrong track.\u00a0 It\u2019s part of our responsibility as Christians to evangelize; to shine our light in the darkness.\u00a0 And what is more, there are consequences if we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Now I suspect the people of the time didn\u2019t understand this parable either.\u00a0 So Jesus tells them that those who have ears need to listen.\u00a0 Jesus probably sensed a Deer in the Headlights response from the people after he said that.\u00a0 So he made the situation crystal clear.\u00a0 \u201cTo the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just what does that have to do with the whole matter?\u00a0 Well, grace is a free gift from God.\u00a0 All of us who were Baptized received the graces of Baptism.\u00a0 All of us who pray receive graces from God.\u00a0 All of us who do God\u2019s will, receive graces from God.\u00a0 There is a relationship between the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, and the graces that we receive.\u00a0 And to those who do these things, more graces are given, while to those who don\u2019t do these things, fewer graces are given.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all up to us, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 It depends on our Faith, our spirituality, our initial and follow-on response to God how much favor, or grace, we receive from God.\u00a0 And ultimately, if we don\u2019t act on our graces, what graces we have will be dissipated.\u00a0 We will lose favor with God.<\/p>\n

If I said to you\u00a0 \u201cThings will go smoothly for those who exercise good judgment; whereas things will go poorly for those who don\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 All of us could certainly see the logic and fairness to that.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Likewise, to those who make an effort in response to graces, more graces will be received. and to those who don\u2019t make an effort, little will be given, and in fact, they may lose the faith and graces they do have.\u00a0 And that is definitely fair.<\/p>\n

The great challenge in life is not just to believe in God and his work of salvation that saved all of us who believe but to act on that Faith by shining our light as Christians no matter what the world tries to do to us.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And in very clear unmistakable terms, for those who do that\u00a0 \u201cThem that has, gits\u201d.\u00a0 And that is as fair as fair can be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of 3rd Week in Ordinary Time 2 Sam 7: 18-19, 24-29; Mark 4: 21-25 Dc. Larry Brockman So, \u201cTo the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.\u201d\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 That sounds so harsh, doesn\u2019t it? In today\u2019s gospel, Jesus also talks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[389],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822"}],"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=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}