GOD’S WORD

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH

4

WITH EYES WIDE OPEN

We all know the importance of good planning. If you’re doing an exam and have to answer five questions in two hours, you need to calculate how much time to give to each question.

If you’re going somewhere by car, you need to ensure you have enough petrol, especially when travelling in the countryside at night.

It happened to me a few years ago. I headed west late one evening with the petrol tank less than half full. I told myself there was enough to reach my destination. But then, as the clock wound past midnight and forecourts closed for the night, the gauge on my dashboard kept creeping towards empty. I began to fret. I worried that the car would grind to a halt in the middle of nowhere, and I’d be stuck like an idiot in a crisis of my own making. All I had needed to do was top up the tank before I left, but I’d been too lazy. I

SEPTEMBER had taken a risk. I crawled to my destination with the amber light flashing insistently. Good planning is essential if we don’t want to miscalculate and mess up. Good planning is what Jesus is talking about in 23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME today’s Gospel. If you’re going to follow him, he says, you need to calculate precisely what that means. You need to be clear as to what it entails. You need to know what you’re committing yourself to because it won’t be easy. Being his follower will involve making tough decisions and hard choices. It will mean taking up your cross every day. It may even include laying down your life. Jesus uses an extreme example to make his point. Choosing him, he says, means putting him before your nearest and dearest, even your own family. It means putting him first in everything, whatever the consequences. Like someone building a tower or a king going out to war, we must calculate what we are getting ourselves into. We must approach it with eyes wide open.

TODAY’S READINGS

Wis 9:13-18; Ps 89; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Lk 14:25-33

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH

LOST AND FOUND

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells three parables about things lost and found – a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost child. The reason Jesus tells them is that the professional religious people were aghast that a man who claimed to be speaking in God’s name was welcoming all sorts of people without demanding that they first perform the religious rites needed to bring them back into good standing in the community. The parables are Jesus’ response to the exclusive nature of the religion of the Pharisees.

Each parable speaks of a God whose love and concern for his people goes way beyond what we would regard as rational or normal behaviour. Why would a shepherd risk losing 99 sheep to look for a stray that wanders off? Why would a woman spend the entire day turning her house upside down searching for the equivalent of a single penny and then invite her neighbours to celebrate with her over finding it? Her neighbours would think she was mad. Why would a parent throw a party for a renegade son who had treated him so badly and squandered his inheritance?

SEPTEMBER No wonder the elder son is indignant. And yet, Jesus says that this is what God 11 is like – a God who loves us like mad, who forgives us unconditionally, who includes rather than excludes. And that’s the model 24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME for how we should behave, also.

TODAY’S READINGS

Ex 32:7-11.13-14; Ps 50; 1 Tim 1:12-17; Lk 15:1-32

SEPTEMBER THE QUALITY OF MERCY

In today’s Gospel, Jesus 18 uses a parable about a steward’s sharp practice to make a point about 25TH SUNDAY IN

ORDINARY TIME our relationship with God.

The steward has been accused of wasting his master’s property. He knows he’s about to lose his job and end up with nothing. Back in Jesus’ time, losing one’s job meant becoming destitute unless you had friends or family to help you out.

Realising he’s not able for physical work and too proud to go begging, the steward does some quick thinking. He needs to act, and fast. So he hatches a plan that might provide him with some friends and security in the future.

He calls his master’s debtors one by one and cancels or reduces the amount of money they owe his master. He calculates they will be grateful and look out for him when he is jobless. It is an unethical and desperate plan, but it works.

When the master discovers what the steward has done, he is impressed. He praises the steward for being clever enough to know what to do in this desperate situation.

In telling this parable, Jesus isn’t condoning improper behaviour. Rather, he uses it to stress the importance of taking decisive action when decisive action is needed. The steward hadn’t been doing his job properly and so faced the sack. But when his future security was on the line, he acted quickly. He didn’t hesitate. He saw that he needed to act – and he did.

It must be the same with our spiritual life. Our relationship with God is paramount, but we can neglect it and drift along or get distracted by other things. If we neglect our relationship with God, we need to act as quickly and decisively as that astute steward.

We need to be as clever in safeguarding our spiritual future – and the salvation of our souls – as the smart people of this world are when their financial future is in peril.

TODAY’S READINGS

Am 8:4-7; Ps 112; 1 Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13

SEPTEMBER TO SEE LAZARUS AT THE GATE In Tacloban city in the Philippines stands a mansion, 25 cut off from the public, that once belonged to the family of Imelda Marcos, wife of dictator President 26TH SUNDAY IN Ferdinand Marcos.

ORDINARY TIME After Marcos was overthrown in 1986, the new government opened the house up as a tourist attraction. I visited it soon afterwards. Surrounded by high walls, it was lavishly decorated, with fine furnishings, shimmering swimming pool, and every imaginable luxury.

Several things about it were unsettling. First, it was located on a city street surrounded by ordinary houses and people struggling to survive. The contrast was stark.

Second was the pristine hill that stood behind the house. It had once been full of ramshackle dwellings, but Imelda’s family had them bulldozed so they wouldn’t spoil the view from the mansion. They didn’t want to see the shacks of the poor. Out of sight, out of mind.

It wasn’t quite like that with the rich man and Lazarus. After all, Imelda’s family physically removed the poor from their line of vision. But the rich man did nothing like that. He didn’t have Lazarus physically removed from his gate so he wouldn’t have to see him. He didn’t inflict the sores on Lazarus’ body. He didn’t harm Lazarus in any way. Yet the rich man is condemned.

Then the reason becomes clear. The rich man is condemned not for what he did but for what he didn’t do. He ignored the poor man at his gate. He didn’t think Lazarus was his responsibility. He saw his suffering and did nothing about it. He was guilty not of the sin of commission but omission.

Every time we pray the Confiteor at Mass, we ask forgiveness for “what I have done and what I have failed to do.” We ask forgiveness for our sins of omission as well as commission. We must always be aware of both.

TODAY’S READINGS

Am 6:1.4-7; Ps 145; 1 Tim 6:11-16; Lk 16:19-31

THE REALITY CROSSWORD

NUMBER 7 SEPTEMBER ����

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 5 Across: 1. Samson 5. Panama 10. Offered 11. Twister 12. Hubs 12. Peter 15. Thin 17. Den 19. Avenue 21. Yahweh 22. Dresden 23. Zigzag 25. Naiads 28. Job 30. Pine 31. Benin 32. Roam 35. Eponyms 36. Gabriel 37. Cathay 38. Reeked. Down: 2. Affable 3. Sort 4. Nudged 5. Poteen 6. Nail 7. Matthew 8. Joshua 9. Branch 14. Tension 16. Sudan 18. Banal 20. Erg 21. Yen 23. Zipper 24. Gondola 26. Agonise 27. Sample 28. Jersey 29. Bigger 33. Myth 34. Oboe. Winner of Crossword No. 5 Marie Mc Mahon, Claremorris, Co. Mayo

ACROSS

1. Cite me a substance that causes vomiting. (6) 5. He played Rick Blaine in ‘Casablanca.’ (6) 10. A high plain. (7) 11. Somebody of rank in the armed forces or business. (7) 12. The Eternal City. (4) 13. The only son of Abraham and Sarah. (5) 15. Heavy industrial area of Germany. (4) 17. The movement of the tide out to sea. (3) 19. This gray picture aged but he didn’t. (6) 21. Cut into two equal parts. (6) 22. Arthurian knight visited by Joseph of

Arimathea. (7) 23. Take someone away illegally by force. (6) 25. Alloy of tin and copper. (6) 28. Night creature. (3) 30. Mark an item for attention or treatment. (4) 31. Imitate someone to entertain or ridicule. (5) 32. The stake put up by a player in poker. (4) 35. Does this make the heart grown fonder? (7) 36. Eve rose to supervise a person at work. (7) 37. Hard ring-shaped roll characteristic of

Jewish baking. (6) 38. Economical with food or money. (6)

DOWN

2. The official name of Burma. (7) 3. A long arduous journey. (4) 4. Route followed by a river. (6) 5. The bottle, upside-down and monkey bread tree. (6) 6. Beware the Greek bearing this. (4) 7. A person who lives a solitary live. (7) 8. Refrained from harming or destroying. (6) 9. Is Noah’s Ark mounted here? (6) 14. The founding father of the Israelites. (7) 16. Rover bordering Antrim and Down. (5) 18. Keeps animal skins out of sight. (5) 20. A short sleep during the day. (3) 21. A small roll of soft bread. (3) 23. A woman’s long loose dress. (6) 24. Add ease to these salty scrolls. (4,3) 26. The smallest country in North Africa. (7) 27. Staggered from the Irish dance. (6) 28. Motorcyclists. (6) 29. Give inside information. (3-3) 33. Joint between the thigh and the lower leg. (4) 34. Restaurant list. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.7, September 2022

Name:

Address:

Telephone:

All entries must reach us by Friday September 30, 2022

One €35 prize is offered for the first correct solutions opened. The Editor’s decision on all matters concerning this competition will be final. Do not include correspondence on any other subject with your entry which should be addressed to:

Reality Crossword No.7, Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph's Monastery, Dundalk, County Louth A91 F3FC 47