Just by way of background, liturgically speaking…
We have celebrated the great feasts of the birth of Jesus…then his Passion, Death and Resurrection, and awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit.
In the past two weeks the Liturgy, in a sense, reinforces the principle truths of our faith that stem from these celebrations
About God…a loving Trinity.
About Jesus…His divinity, Feast of Corpus Christi…His humanity, Feast of the Sacred Heart.
Now we are plunged back to Ordinary Time. Time when we are challenged to live out what we have heard.
We enter Ordinary Time with Luke’s Gospel this Sunday at a turning point in the life of Jesus, “Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem.”
We enter his journey with what might be described at a time when, as we say, “You can’t please all the people all the time.”
Some may see the incidents related as rather harsh. The image of the Good Shepherd stoically leaving the 99 to find the lost one is confronted by “Leave the dead to bury the dead” or “…they went off to another village.”
We need to pray these incidents with a full understanding of the serious nature of this journey. It is not a nice walk around the pleasant field of Galilee. He is off to Jerusalem. Confrontation, condemnation is heading his way because he has, and continues to proclaim the way of the Kingdom of God. The powers that be in Jerusalem do not wish to hear those words. After all, as he himself said when he wept over the city, “You who murder the prophets”. Yet he must off to Jerusalem. He must keep proclaiming the Kingdom.
So, there is anxiety in his voice and urgency in his actions.
Basically, he is saying, “Are you with me?”
So, for ourselves, it is a call to get on the road with Jesus, to recognise the importance of the call to be part of the Kingdom and to make sure that we put our shoulder to the plough and not turn back.
Let us not be like the Samaritans mentioned today.
Always be hospitable!
Mons Frank
