This Lord’s Day Weekend we continue
our four week Message Series called “A Way Forward”. Any journey, long or short,
is just a series of steps which we take seeking to find a way forward. Faith,
as is often said, is a journey and it all comes down to simple steps moving us
in His direction. We think there are basically four steps that the Bible
teaches us to take toward greater maturity in our Catholic faith. To kick off the
2015-2016 year we’re offering an all-new series taking a fresh look at those
steps as we seek to discern A Way Forward. It’s all about
doing what disciples do and, in the process, finding our way to more successful
living
Last week we discerned that
we must be “of God”. That this is essential to our way forward. To know that we
belong to Him, that we accomplish what we do with His inspiration and that we
must be people who are firmly rooted not solely in our religious tradition, but also our
ability to relate to the person of Jesus.
This week our readings reflect the fact that often we tend to be much
more interested in who are the most
successful, the richest, the most
glamorous. In a culture rich in
examples of selfish ambition and jealousy, righteousness
is not a quality to be prized. While we expect people to be honest, we are more
apt to applaud the clever, those who know how to get ahead. Yet, we are
reminded today that righteousness is
a pillar of the reign of God, The righteous ones strive to be people of peace, to be willing to take the last place, to be servants
St. James, the author of our 2nd Readings, locates the center
of the conflict as being seated in our passions—the spirit of coveting, of envy and of aggression. The
fruits of righteousness, he tells us, can only be sown in peace. But to have
peace we have to deliberately cultivate it. Peace, James insists, is more than
the absence of war. Today's challenge highlighted in the readings is that we
have to actively wage peace, promote it, and base our critical
decisions on the common good as we make our Way Forward.
In this action, Jesus makes
the message even clearer on the Way Forward, not only is He saying, as He did
last week, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross,
and follow me.” But now also the element of service and humility arrive at our
pathway. Thus, for us the next step on the Way Forward is not only to Be Of God, but that we
must know who we are and therefore we will know what to do?
See the Disciples knew who
Christ was - “the Son of the Living God” - remember Peter last week! The
Disciples understood what He was to do - “die and rise again” - they got
that! They said to themselves - we will
accept this and Be of God, but they forget that had been commissioned - to do the
same in His name! They did not take the time to discern what it meant in
relation to their friendship with Christ - that can happen to us on our way
forward...we can say.... I am of God and I know He is important, His Son died
for me, the Holy Spirit guides me. But when it comes then to applying it to my
life and how I live day to day - I am of God - is that not enough? That attitude and question is what made the
Disciples argue about who was “the greatest”…who was “more of God”. Instead
they should have focussed on who was seeking to see their relationship “of God”
to being in the service of the least, the last and the lost. We are made for it
- we are co missioned for it, this is part of who we are. We are not who the
world say we are, we are commissioned by Christ to go forth in service – in His
name. The only way we know who we are is by who He is – and that comes through
service especially to the least, the last and the lost.