August
1, 2010
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23; Colossians 3:1-5. 9-11;
Luke 12:13-21
Reflection by Alice Uhl, OP
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been like a mirror that reflects the images of greed spoken about by Jesus in today’s Gospel. Our addiction to oil both as a people and as individuals is the underlying cause of the spill. The ecological, financial, societal consequences of the spill will be felt for generations to come. The Gospel parable of the rich man building bigger and better barns is such an appropriate, timely and sobering reflection.
As our nation’s leaders grapple with the political and moral issue of energy and peak oil in the light of the Gulf disaster, we too must ask, “How will I respond to the crisis and in what way must my lifestyle change?” Perhaps the energy crisis can challenge me to consider my use of personal energy. By looking over my calendar, what I have spent my time and energy on can become pretty clear.
- How often do I use my car when “walking energy” is a viable option?
- How much of my “study & reading energy” is devoted to understanding the peak oil crisis or the dire consequences of global warming?
- In the past year has my “reflection energy” helped me to make small or big lifestyle changes or lessen my addiction to oil?
Jesus confronts his listeners ( & me) with: “...one’s life does not consist of possessions.” And “…rich in what matters to God.” As a citizen of the United States, the biggest energy ( & greediest?) consuming nation on Earth, how do Jesus’ words touch my “heart energy”?
August 1, 2010
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reflection by Brigid Brady, OP
What a starkly negative accounting of much that engages humanity from day to day, we find in the words of Qoheleth, Paul, and even Jesus himself! Our passion for possessions drives us to pay an awesome price in relentless labor, perpetual anxiety, and the frustration of losing ultimate control over what little such cost has won. Other treasures lost in the bargain include integrity and justice, purity, serenity, honesty, and compassion and solidarity with others nearby and the world over. If this sounds harsh, consider the daily headlines. All is indeed vanity!
Against the dark abyss of this dismal ledger, the psalm rises on our behalf to our Heavenly Father: “Prosper the work of our hands for us; prosper the work of our hands.” What brazen irony is this? How can such a prayer be fitting and proper in this context?
But wait: Christ has died, Christ is risen—breaking the iron bars of death and bringing us with him. “In him we live, we move and have our being.” Our hands do his work, that which matters to the Father: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, ransoming the captive, tending to the needs of the sick and the dying. If we stand convicted of these deeds at the final judgment, then we may leave behind the verdict of Qoheleth, “All is Vanity!” and say instead with Paul, “Christ is All.”