Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time [C] September 9, 2007

Readings:
Wisdom 9:13-18b
Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Luke 14:25-33

Calendar:
September 8: Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary
September 11: Anniversary of the Terrorist Attacks of 2001
September 12: at sunset, the start of Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year

Quotes:
The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the State and the marketplace. At times it seems as though the individual exists only as a producer and consumer of goods, or as an object of State administration. People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the State as its final purpose.
--John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 49

The rush and pressure of modern life are a form of its innate violence. To allow myself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything...is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of the activist...destroys the fruitfulness of one's own work because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.
--Thomas Merton

The affluent society or the consumer society … seeks to defeat Marxism on the level of pure materialism by showing how a free-market society can achieve a greater satisfaction of material human needs than Communism, while equally excluding spiritual values. In reality, while on the one hand it is true that this social model shows the failure of Marxism to contribute to a humane and better society, on the other hand, insofar as it denies an autonomous existence and value to morality, law, culture and religion, it agrees with Marxism, in the sense that it totally reduces the human person to the sphere of economics and the satisfaction of material needs.
--John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 19

Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. … Once we are able to life simply and happily, we are better able to help others.
--Being Peace, Thich Nhat Hanh, 92-3

It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards "having" rather than "being", and which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself. It is therefore necessary to create life-styles in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments.
--John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 36

Thoughts for your consideration:

• Jesus seems to be saying that if you do not know your limits, you end up doing "stupid things." You end up building a house which you cannot finish. You end up fighting a war that you cannot win. You end up attaching excessive value to your possessions.

• The first reading also reminds us of our limits. The world is more than the material. Material things are not the most important.

• Jesus goes so far as to say that we should renounce our possessions. It seems that so many people spend their life and all their energy getting, protecting and worrying about more and more material things. Jesus invites us to a freedom from all that. In other words, we are called to renounce materialism and keep our values in perspective. We might even hear a call to adopt a simpler style of life and move away from the "consumerism" that dominates our culture.

• Jesus goes so far as to say that we should even renounce members of our family. One way to think of this strange command is to see it an invitation to freedom -- as an invitation or radical challenge not to see any person as a possession -- as a person that we "own." Unless parents "let go" of their children, there can be no healthy adult relationship. Unless we treat each other as adults, filled with the dignity and freedom that comes from God, we cannot really be Christian brothers and sisters.

• Catholic Social Teaching is based on the dignity of the human person. No person can be the "possession" of another. No person's value is found in what they own or control or possess. No one is to be a slave to things. Rather we are all called to be free. Maybe that is what Paul is trying to talk about in the second reading when he talks about treating Onesimus as a brother and no longer as a slave.

Questions for Reflection in your Faith Sharing Group:

• What things have you given up or let go of?
• When have you realized your limits and given up something you wanted?
• Did it result in any sense of freedom or new life?

Actions -- Links:

Labor Day Statement http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/Labor%20Day%202007.pdf
Labor Day 2007: A Time to Remember, A Time to Recommit
Although Labor Day has passed, you might want to read this statement from Bishop DiMarzio as he reviews Catholic Social Teaching on labor and also reviews the immigration debate in the United States.

Cancel Debt Fast, a rolling 40-day fast for debt cancellation that will take place from September 6 to October 15, 2007 organized by Jubilee USA. http://www.jubileeusa.org/canceldebtfast.html
The hope is to pass the 2007 Jubilee Act (HR 2634) which would provide expanded debt cancellation for many countries that need debt cancellation to address extreme poverty.

Prayers of Intercession:

Response: We have been blessed. God, help us to use your gifts well.

For our planet earth, that we may treat it with respect and care, we pray….

For our planet earth, that we may discern new ways to live without changing the climate by our excessive consumption, we

pray….

For all the people of our planet, especially the poor, that all will have a fair share of the resources they need, we pray….

For all the people of our planet, especially those caught up war and violence, we pray….

For all the living creatures of our planet, especially those creatures on the verge of extinction, we pray….

Prayer -- Meditation:

I thank God for most this
amazing
day; for the leaping greenly
spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;
and for everything
which is natural, which is
infinite, which is yes.

e. e. cummings

--Lectionary Reflection by John Bucki, S.J.